I am a WARRIOR. maybe?

After completing the half marathon, we have been trying to decide what is next on our fitness/athletic agenda. We know that eventually our goal is an adventure trip to the Galapagos, where we snorkel, hike, scuba, kayak, ride horses, etc. We think that trip is likely a few years away (it is super pricey), and we have some intermediate goals in between...one of which was the half marathon. (check. and that still feels awesome, by the way.) And another is the Rome marathon in 2012. (yikes, that is less than 2 years away. SCARY.)

Anyway, Mr. P mentioned the other night seeing that one of his Facebook friends was doing this kind of adventure type race, where there is running and mud bogs, and other obstacles that you have to do and he was thinking that sounded pretty damn cool. Then last night the College Kid posted a link to that exact race on my wall (on Facebook) and with that, begins our adventure with more adventurous racing. Warrior racing, as you were.

So, knowing that I have NO upper body strength to speak of and there are a plethora of things to get over in those type races, I googled the best way to gain upper body strength. Any guesses? Fancy equipment? Personal trainer? no and no. Good, old fashioned push-ups. YUCK.

So today I started the push-up workout recommended. Today 3 sets of 10 push-ups. Rest 48 hours. Then 3 sets of 11 push-ups. Rest 48 hours. Repeat adding one rep each time. After two weeks, rest goes to 24 hours. Repeat infinity. I was actually able to do a total of about 14 "real" push ups and I did the rest girly girl style. Then I did some planks. For good measure. Dude, core/arm stuff is HARD. I would way rather run. So, not to forget good, old-fashioned cardio, I am heading to the park for a run in my new running shoes and cool Nike top.

OH, did I mention our first venture into these races? NEXT Saturday, after we do a regular old 5K. I am both excited to try and scared that I will fail, be too fat to get over some obstacle, and/or look like a giant loser out there with all the fit young things.

That just means I have to try, right?

sigh of RELIEF

Today I gave my last lecture of this semester. We have next week off for Thanksgiving, then I gave them a week off to make up for evening exams and the last day of class the students will present their final projects. shew. I am even, for just this second, caught up on grading. SHAZAM.

Now I have THREE researchy things due on December 1. One grant proposal, one conference submission (yes, I want to go to San Fransisco in August for freebie), and one paper has to get back to a journal. Once I get through those deadlines and get the final projects graded I am free as a bird until we start back in January. This will be the first real break I have taken in 10 years. No research. No class prep. Only gingerbread house making, craft doings, movie watching, and other fun stuff for a month. I am PSYCHED!!!

In regular news, I am a tad bit under the weather and every day that goes by that I don't run I am worried when I start back it will be like day one of the Couch to 5K (I ran 3 miles on Monday)...do any of you ever feel like that? I have been good on the food journaling front, and decent with water (but that will be a fail this week too, because yesterday I thought that homemade Diet Cherry Limeades would make me feel so much better than water. I was right.).

And apparently my mom dyed her hair BLACK today. Yikes. However, I think it might be better because I was telling Penny that I think she looks really weird sometimes because her hair is the same color as her face (kind of an orangey tan look?).

(I have been very parenthetical on this post.)

Challenge Extended...

Challenge Accepted...and none to soon it would seem.


I was perusing the blogosphere yesterday afternoon and while catching up with Lynne, I read about a challenge she was going to undertake over the holidays, The Holiday Health Nuts Challenge hosted by Ginesa at Destination: Athlete.


First, the name was a funny coincidence. Mr. P and I were doing our weekly shopping and I was browsing the cereal aisle and he said, "UM, isn't your cereal in the health nut section?" That made me giggle that any.thing about me might be considered 'health nut'. But alas, he was correct, my Kashi is, in fact, in the health nut section.


Second, even after my triumph of last week's journaling and subsequent 2 lb loss, this week was not stellar. I gained 4.6 lbs. I am not convinced it is due to an excess of 16,100 calories in over calories out (3500*4.6) but the scale displayed what it displayed. TECHNICALLY, I probably didn't go too far over in points, however, more days than not had one giant meal and then a few snacks...veggies? HA. fruit? I scoff at thee. Water? Only in the form of beer and soda.


But back to the challenge...this Health Nut challenge is more than weight-loss. I did set a weight-loss goal to get my Fat Test to 80% by December 28 which is the last day of the challenge and my one year anniversary of Healthy, Healthy, Healthy. This morning I was at 84.89%. I don't normally like to set poundage goals because, well, let's face it, human bodies are weird and controlled by human brains, even weirder. But, that is part of it. The other part is choosing two other goals such as 80oz of water intake, journalling EVERY.bite, exercising, etc. At first I was going to choose two I already do fairly consistently and well, but then realized that really isn't the point. So I chose:



80 oz of WATER per day.

Journalling EVERY.bite.



And away we go....