Listening to my body... for once.

So here's the deal. I have been busting my ass for months. I hit a plateau. It happens. Just when I was starting to accept the plateau for what it really is and shake things up, my body has decided to hate me.

My blood sugar has been 'crashing.' Usually this happens about once a month at the gym when I haven't eaten anything with sugar (either naturally occuring or fake) all day. I don't like sugar. So... in the past week, it has happened twice. Both times it was when I wasn't working out. Yesterday it happened while I was driving to get my bosses their lunch. I was standing in the line at Subway and my vision started to go. FYI: Subway used to have raisins, but apparently I was the only one who ever got them so they no longer sell them. I decided to do the stupid thing and wait until I got back to work to have sugar. Bad LeeAnn. By the time I got back to work, my vision was really fuzzy. I downed a packet of raw sugar and waited. Once the sugar hit me, my vision went back to normal, but I was left with a headache for the rest of the day. Beyond that, I have been really thirsty lately and easily drinking over a gallon of water a day on top of my morning coffee and afternoon iced tea. There are some other fun things going on with my body as well that are making me crazy. I've been sleeping terribly. I wake up multiple times a night and even began having nightmares. Really irrational nightmares, which for me is just out of the ordinary. I never had them when I was younger and really, I could have gone my whole life without dreaming of being attacked by spiders with talking doll heads. This morning I woke up with a swollen eye. It looks like someone punched me in the night. The skin around my eye is red and itchy. Seriously? This is getting out of control.

I sent my pcp an email this morning and hopefully she responds quickly. I am crossing my fingers and toes that it's not what I think it is. I'm going to take it easy this week. I have a Girl Scout meeting for Amaya tonight and tomorrow we are going to Kindergarten orientation and then to Akimi and Deb's for dinner and the Blazer game.

The old switcheroo.

I haven't blogged for a few days because I haven't really had much to say. My frustration at this stupid plateau I have hit is mounting and it's all I think about. I think about how much I hate it. I think about how much I want to break it. I look at different workout plans and weight training plans and cardio plans. I have been hunting for a personal trainer or something that will get me over the hump. I am pushing myself harder than before and seeing little result. Ok, no result except sore muscles and a sore knee. Yep. Now my knee is bothering me. Funny that now my hip seems to be doing ok though. I've been icing it every night. I've been taking the anti-inflammatory supplement that the naturopath gave me. Argh. I hate it.

So, here's where I have begun to shake things up a bit. First, I am taking 2 weeks off from spinning. It's hard and it sucks and I hate not spinning, but my body is so used to it that I now burn about 1/2 the calories I did a few months ago. I'm not complaining, it just means that I am now more efficient at it, but I think if I do something different for a few weeks and then go back I'll be able to get the caloric burn that I want/need again. Second, I am lifting weights 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I lift with Brandon (my mock trainer), sometimes with my friend Debbie (who I conned into joining the gym... hahaha) and sometimes with my sister. On the other days I do cardio for at least an hour. In the weightlifting book I bought, it mentions that you should do cardio for 20 minutes... step away for 5 minutes and then repeat. Last night I did 30 minutes on the Precor and then when my mp3 player died I went to my locker, grabbed my other one and then did 30 more minutes. I burned more calories (according to my trusty bodybugg) in that hour than I have for weeks. Perhaps this is what I need to do. Mix it up more. Make cardio more interval based. And yes, I admit that I am completely obsessed with my training and breaking my plateau. Third, I ordered a log to keep track of all of my workouts and food intake. I'd like to keep better track of what I am taking in and also what my workouts are so that if this happens again (which I know it will), I'll be able to see (or show a 'expert' so they can see) where I need to change things up.

I'm over this plateau. Over it dot com. dot edu. dot net. dot whatev. Done.

It's a head game.

If the eating part of being healthy were as easy for me as the fitness part, I'd be a size nothing. There I said it. I'd be on the hot tamale train all the time. Right now I am struggling with the food. I have such a love/hate. It's just too easy to make bad choices. I workout so much, but then make terrible food choices. And this, my dear friends, is why I am the same size. Why, for the last few months, I have bounced between the same stupid 10 lbs. I'm over it.

I brought my friend Debbie with me to the gym last night. She signed up after walking in the door. Haha. Apparently, I'm a good influence on my peeps! We lifted arm weights and did some abs... then we took spinning. It was her first time and she made me so proud! We made another gym date for Thursday! It will be for some legs, abs and cardio. I think she might rethink things afterwards though. My leg workouts are always way harder than my arm workouts. She and I also are planning on meeting each other twice a week in the mornings. Yay for doubles! I have a feeling if I step up my workouts a little bit, the food choices will be much better.

The hubby also told me that he'd like to buy me something because he's been working so much. On his paycheck today, he had 48 hours of overtime in 2 weeks. Sheesh. I've been thinking about what I want... and what I want is personal training. With a real, honest to goodness trainer. One that makes my muscles shake and makes me want to cry for my mommy. I am going to talk to the guys at the gym tonight and find out if it's actually doable. Crossing fingers. I WANT!!

On an entirely other note, I've skipped a whole slew of days this month working towards the 1000 minute goal. I know, SLACKER!! But, I added up my minutes and am happy to report that I am at 430 for the month. Not so many to go... keep on truckin.

Getting it done.

I haven't blogged for a few days because I have been busy working, working out, eating healthfully and brainstorming gift ideas for a new baby boy. It's a little crazy, but some sort of recessed crafting gene has risen in me and all I want to do is create things. I have a whole binder full of tutorials now. A brain chock full of ideas, especially now that the weather is nicer and I can create things for the outside spaces too! Yay!

So here's what I've been doing as far as workouts. I took Monday off to rest my body after the Beaver Freezer. They weren't sore, but I knew they needed a few days off before I hit it hard at the gym. Tuesday had a kick ass hill- climb spin class. Wednesday had a brutal interval spin class. When I say brutal, I mean it. I was huffing and puffing and burned a LOT of calories. Last night I lifted arm weights and did cardio-intervals between sets. They went something like this:
Lift set 1: 10 reps heavy weight
30 seconds of jumping jacks
Lift set 2: 15 reps medium weight
30 seconds of toe taps on the bench
Lift set 3: 20 reps at light weight
Next set:
Lift set 1: 10 reps heavy weight
2 minute run at 5mph
Lift set 2: 15 reps medium weight
1 minute stair climb
Lift set 3: 20 reps at light weight
Let's just say that after an hour of that, I thought I might die. Luckily the gym was full of all sorts of hotties to keep me motivated. Thank you to Brandon for getting the Timbers to workout at my gym. Thank you to Brandon for filling the gym with boxers and ballers and shot-callers.

This weekend I may be a smidge overextended. Tomorrow Erin, Amaya and I are going to look at the tulips and have a picnic lunch. Then it's off to my mom's to utilize her sewing machine and craft like a mad person. Then I would like to bake a lovely something for the baby shower. Sometime I should see my husband who has kindly informed me that he'll be working all weekend anyway... ugh. Then Sunday is church and then baby shower time. Hopefully I'll be done with the gifts and can relax a smidge. Did you notice there aren't any workouts in there? I did. I am hoping that I can get an hour in Saturday, but I plan on hitting it super extra hard tonight just in case I don't make it.

Detox day 1.

I decided to do a little 9 day clean eating/detox type thing. Today is day one. No caffeine. No meat. No potatoes. Only fruits, veggies, beans, tofu, 4 eggs whites a day (if I even eat those) and limited brown rice and oatmeal. I promised my sister that if I felt weak or like crap that I would add some lean protein like chicken or fish. Other than that, no eating out. No chemicaly food products. Just me and the nature. Yum!

I am also now on day 5 of the fitness minutes challenge. So far I have 120 minutes done. I plan on meeting my 1000 minutes goal for the month and surpassing it too! Who's with me??

Beaver Freezer Race Report

I woke up at 4:30am. That is so early when you aren't really used to getting up at that time! I had set out everything the night before, checking and rechecking that I was not forgetting anything. So, race day morning I got up, took a quick wake-up shower, got dressed and hit the road. I got to Corvallis around 7am. It was wet. It was cold. I was ready! I still had an hour before my race start, so I picked up my race packet, got body marked (where they write your race number on your arms and legs in fun black magic marker) and then set up my transition area. I decided then that I should just head to the pool to stay warm and also see if I could hop in the pool to swim a few easy warm-up laps and relax. That was probably the smartest thing I could have done. I warmed up by swimming 200 meters and did a few bobs. They had a little 'pre-race' meeting with everyone in my race start. Then we got in our lanes to countdown the last 5 minutes before it was go time!

I lucked out and was placed as the 1st person in my lane (of 4 swimmers). As soon as it was 8:05am, I pushed off the wall and swam a steady pace pretty much the entire race. The girl behind me tapped my heels about halfway through, so I let her pass but then ended up smacking her heels the entire lap so she let me go ahead of her again. I finished strong and ended up about half a pool length in front of the next swimmer! Yay! Hopped out of the pool and then ran down the lovely turf to transition. I should tell you that I thought it was a little messed up that they put the women in the pool farthest from transition. The men literally had to just run out the door and there they were at transition, but we had about an 1/8th of a mile run around the building which would not have been a big deal, but it was cold. We were wet. Not such a good combo!

I got through transition at a snail's pace. My hands were frozen into little ice nuggets and I struggled getting my helmet clipped. Finally made it through transition and onto my bike headed towards the country.

It was cold and windy and wet on the bike. I pushed myself a little bit and still ended up with a much slower time on the bike than I expected. I did have to get off about halfway through and put the lousy chain back on my bike after I dropped it trying to pass some girl spinning like a crazy person on nice flat road. The entire ride I was thinking about making sure I was in the right gear, being a little more efficient with my spinning. The best things about the bike course... the hot army men directing traffic and passing about 12 people (even if I knew they would pass me on the run, it still felt amazing).

Back in transition I had little to worry about. Racked my bike, put my hemet down and put on a hat. Done and done!

The run. My nemesis. My hip is still not 100%, but I figured I would just feel it out and see how I did. 3 loops around campus. No big deal, right? The first loop I took it easy. Running for a few minutes, walking for a few minutes. The second lap I ran the entire way. I felt good. Comfortable. I had a couple guys pass me who gave me a few words of encouragement. By the time I was at the last lap, I was in the zone. I ran that 5k faster than I ran the one on New Years Eve!

Overall, I am pretty darn happy with the Freezer. I took 10 minutes off my sprint time from last year (and that was on a flatter course with no wind or rain and without me being injured). I feel stronger and more athletic now. I'm ready for the next challenge.

Oyster shucked.

challenge day 1.

And I started off this month doing nothing. 0 minutes. In my defense, I have a triathlon on the 3rd. I spent last night gathering all of my race gear. Making sure my clothes were washed. Changing the tire flat from hell. Yes, I said it. It took me almost 30 minutes to change my tire. This is unacceptable. So, as soon as I (finally) got it on and inflated, I deflated it and started over. I need the practice. Anything can happen on race day. I realized last night that the CO2 dispenser I use is broken. I need a new one immediately. I also tore the living daylights out of my fingers trying to get the last little bit of the tire back over the rim. Ugh. It happens. The thing is, I love the anticipation of race day. Checking and rechecking my gear. Visualizing race day. It's my thing.

I may not be the fastest... heck, I might very well be last, but I don't care. I love triathlons. I love racing.