This week saw in a change in daily moves from 44 to 45. What’s one more rep of anything?!
Sunday 9/14 – 44 heel raises while doing a wall sit and holding up a 20 pound kettle bell.
readylift the heels
Not gonna lie – my quads were burning by the time I finished these!!
Monday 9/15 – 44 super burpee (had to have something big for my last Daily 44.)
To do the move: jump back into plank – push-up – jump legs in and right – jump back to plank – jump legs in and left – jump back to plank – jump feet in to hands – jump back to plank – plank jack – jump up to standing – do 8 fast feet. Hooray – 1 rep is done!!!
10 of these would have been OK but 44 was tough!!!
And I’m finally back to normal workouts!!! I started a new program – PIYO – Align the Fundamentals. Not sure how much I’m going to like it but I will give it a try!!!
Tuesday 9/16 – 45 minutes of running (to see how far I could get).
I did 7.43 miles in 45 minutes (7:23, 6:17, 5:51, 5:34, 5:39, 5:54, 5:50 and 6:01 to finish the 8th mile)
I haven’t run hard like this in awhile so I paid the price for this run for the rest of the week – stairs were rough until yesterday and my shins were very tight!!!
Wednesday 9/17 – 45 crunches while on a BOSU with a stability ball between the ankles.
upextend
You can see in the pictures that I had to keep my hands on the side of the BOSU – I didn’t hold the entire time but I sure did have to hold a lot for balance!!!
I also did 2 more of the PIYO workouts – Define Lower Body and Define Upper Body.
Thursday 9/18 – 45 plie with hands touching the floor – spring up onto toes and reach hands up.
downup onto toes – reach hands up
This was another day of PIYO – Sweat. I looked ahead at the way the program is laid out and it just repeats the same workouts from this week over and over for a few weeks – not sure that I will do this program as it is written!!!
Friday 9/19 – 45 curtsey lunge with hop to opposite leg and another curtsey lunge – stay low the entire time. (right-left = 1 rep)
Then I did one of my favorite workouts – Turbo Fire!!! I did Fire 55EZ (not to be confused with easy!!). Fun way to start the day.
Saturday 9/20 – 45 mountain climbers in low plank.
I let Hunter do the demo since he is the one who told me about this lovely move!!! It was hard but I liked it!!!
So, this wasn’t a super hard week of workouts but it was nice to be back in the routine!!!
I can’t even begin to say how happy I am that it is Friday!!! This week has been LONG!!!!
But, today my world will be right side up again because Chris will be home!!!I’m always happy when Chris is back home with us – life is just better all around.
And, he is bringing home my birthday present –
German wine – nice and sweet just like I like it!!!
So many reasons to be happy today!!!
I have 2 whole days before I have to iron tablecloths again – definitely happy dance worthy!!!
Friday also means Friday night football and marching band!!!
Jordan is on the close end (trumpet)
This weekend the weather is supposed to be awesome – in the 80s!!! I’m not quite ready for the cool weather that we had last week!!!
Ha Ha – I like Hi-jacking Kim’s blog – especially to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Although out of country on her special day – (I hear booing in the background), I am bringing her a present back.
Might last a bit.
Yum! Boxes of wine from a vineyard in Germany – I have visited this same place for nearly 15 years and Kim sort of LOVES this stuff!
Anyone that reads this blog regularly understands that Kim likes to make Birthdays special. She possesses a passion and desire to ensure that every single Birthday for us three boys – leaves us happy and feeling loved. She intuitively plans a special breakfast and dinner of choice while somehow remembering to get us something we mentioned months ago. (How she does this remains a mystery). She likes to decorate with ribbons on the ceiling and getting/making our favorite dessert. But that is Kim – her selfless heart-warming actions always makes our day the best!
Our Birthdays!
Recently – she did a post for my Birthday – so I thought it would be fitting to commandeer her blog to list some appropriate adjectives to describe my beautiful wife!
KIM IS THE BEST
K – Knowledgeable – holy smokes, over 4.0 graduating high school? Chemistry/Biology undergrad, Sport Medicine masters work, tutors high school kids in Calculus, Chemistry. Wow – she has a BRAIN! Kind of funny when I ask the boys to help them with their math & they roll their eyes & tell me they want GOOD help – so they go to MOM…
I – Independent. This girl rocks at doing things her way and not worrying about what others may think. She also can do just about anything on her own – which impresses me considerably!
M – Motivational. Awe-inspiring type motivation really – OK – so she has run her birthday age in miles for years, she works out & does something every day (with her age of course). Good grief – she wears this fitbit (now garmin) and logs something like 50,000 steps every day. She might be a bit competitive as well – but all that translates into such a positive role model for both the boys and me. I truly admire what she does and can’t help but brag about it.
This would be so easy for her…..
I – Interesting. Is it me – or does anyone else wonder “what’s she going to do today?” This sweet woman likes to do things differently which keeps us boys on our toes. As a creature of habit (aren’t most men?) – I don’t get the changing of shampoo, soap, scents, etc… But, what is truly remarkable is her ability to dig into those 30,000 cookbooks she has in the house to find a different recipe. She is unafraid to try new things! Impressive (oh, another “I” – credit for two on this one)….
Funny thing – although just a snapshot from internet – she probably has these on a shelf…
S – Sexy (I can hear the boys screaming gross and argh…)
Total Hottie!
T – Truthful. Kim corners the market on being truthful in life. Her ability to just be herself at all times gives her a leg up on most of us. When you meet Kim – you meet Kim, not someone fake – she is really real (totally wanted to say that, thankfully found the opportunity).
For Realsies!
H – Humorous. I get a kick out of life with Kim. Somehow – she finds humor in just about everything and we spend time laughing. Of course, the boys and her might be picking on the easy target (me) – but hearing Kim laugh makes my day!
E – Efficient. Ummm, I wouldn’t say Kim is OCD, but she labels canisters in our pantry. Honestly, she exudes efficiency in her daily life – she takes normal tasks that a guy might do (throw boxes of junk in cabinet) and sorts, filters, names, etc… which improves the function in the house and keeps everything running smooth. She is so good at being efficient, we don’t have time to be in-efficient anymore!
Not our kitchen, but those are our exact canisters – and type of labels also!
B – Brave. Kim contains this internal strength that rarely anyone can match. She is unafraid of a challenge and finds the willpower to accomplish.
That’s Braveheart for those that haven’t seen the movie (this is a family… er… us boys favorite movies)
E – Energetic. Did I mention she tracks how many miles, steps, movements, etc. that she does every day? Lucky (?) for us boys, she keeps us active and moving. We take down time when needed, but she cracks me up when walking through the room and we might be sitting down for a bit watching some repeat movie on TV. Her term of endearment for us might be “SLUGS.”
Not around this house!
S – Selfless. Kim has such a big heart! When presented with situations she gladly helps others in need. On more than one occasion, Kim stepped way out of her lane to help friends struggling.
T – Tender. This might be surprising to those that just see her Iron Will and competitive nature. But Kim has this tender, nurturing, vulnerable side that she expresses which provides the foundation for our family!
I am no longer doing a Daily 44. I’m happy to say that I completed 365 Daily 44s.
Today I will do my first Daily 45. What’s one more rep?! Or one more year??
I’ve been playing around with making some changes to my daily moves but I keep thinking that I really love having this daily goal and knowing that every single day will include some sort of activity.
BTW – the past 3 years I’ve kicked off a new year by running my age on my birthday. I’m not running 45 miles today – too soon after my race and the fact that Chris is out of the country right now makes it hard for me to have a full day to run and recover. I will save that for another day and another 45.
Want to make my day really great? (it is my birthday you know!!!) Give me some new ideas for exercises!!! I’m still trying not to duplicate moves but I figure if I change it up in a small way it is OK.
I’m open to trying just about anything – sometimes I try a move several times before it actually counts as the daily move.
Feel free to leave links for exercises. When I do your suggestion I will make sure and link to you!!!
Sometimes there is a fine line between being stubborn and knowing when a goal or dream isn’t going to be a reality.
Many of you know that I have started a 50 mile race 2 different times and 2 different times I ended up not finishing.
(October 2013, May 2014)
This past week I tried a different approach to running a 50 mile race. I entered a timed race with the goal of running 50 miles in the time. (9 hours 11 minutes)
I loved the idea behind the race – it was all about remembering and honoring those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
I started this race full of big plans – 50 miles was definitely part of the plan!!!
The first 13-14 miles were great!! I think I came through the half marathon right around 1:46 or 1:47 and I felt good.
Ummm….I don’t think that was a good pace for running 9+ hours but it felt good. My legs were ready to run (I guess resting does that) and my breathing was great. I felt good running – smooth and easy the way running should be.
Around mile 14 I stopped for a minute to eat some grapes and let Chris use the stick to try and work a cramp out of my right hip. That ended up being a bad plan because it was only 55 degrees and cloudy (very cold in my world!!!) and stopping gave my muscles a chance to realize how cold it was.
still running
When I started back up there was a lot of running/walking going on. I still did OK through about mile 20 and then it went way downhill.
I took advantage of the free mini massages they were offering during mile 21 and didn’t know if I was going to be able to start running again.Thankfully Hunter did a couple slow laps with me (he skipped school to come be part of my crew with Chris and I loved having both of them there!!).
I made it through mile 25 but I was miserable. My hips did not want to keep turning over, my feet were cramping (I tried peanuts for salt but….), I was freezing and getting crankier by the minute!!!
Chris finally dragged my ass out of the tent we had and made me finish a couple more laps so that at least I finished marathon distance.
Chris asked me if I wanted to keep going and get to 30 (and then 40 and then….). All I wanted was to find a hot tub and get in it so that I could be warm.
I know Chris just wanted to make sure that I didn’t regret my decision (he’s been through this a couple times, too!!).
Here’s what I told him – my head says “YOU CAN RUN 50 MILES.” But my body say “NO!!!!”
Cardio-wise I don’t have any problems running and running and running. My joints and bones and muscles are a completely different story.
And, the biggest thing – I have attempted 50 miles in a race 3 times and not once have I loved the experience. In fact, it is usually the opposite – I hate it with almost every fiber of my being!!!
So, I don’t know that I will ever run a true 50 mile race and I’m completely OK with that. I just want to run and love it. I don’t like having to take over a week off to rest my legs before or after a race.
I just want to run when I want to for however long I feel like going and enjoy it!!!
That being said, I will do the race again next year but I will just sign up for the marathon. I loved the set-up, the support and the reason behind this race and will definitely go back and run again!!!
I think Kenny Rogers summed it up –
“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run…”
Have you ever had a dream/goal that you ultimately realized wasn’t going to happen and let it go? Were you OK with your decision?
A huge thanks to all y’all who tweeted, face booked and sent happy thoughts in other ways. Big shout out to Kristina (Blog about Running) for the hourly tweets of motivation all day Thursday!!!
