Lest You Think Me A Gypsy...

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Work 8p-8a--158#

...I'm actually a pirate in training.

The hubby and our buddy TL built this little gem for me today while I was sleeping before work. Since we're living in the RV indefinitely, I didn't have a good place for pullups. Since one of my goals is to be able to do pullups, that put a significant kinker in my plans. All I had to do, though, was ask, and this wonderful setup was granted me. :) One side is for my pullups, the other to dry scuba gear. I didn't try it out today because I wanted the dirt and stuff to settle some, but no worries, I'll be out there soon!

Here's a pic of the hacienda...We've downsized to it fairly effectively. The next step will be downsizing to a sailboat. That will be a little bit more of a challenge, and I've still not figured out the pullup issue there...
WORKOUT: Double 16kg C&P/Bent row--3 4-rung ladders
Double 16kg squat 3 3-rung ladders
30 sec b/w rungs, 2 min b/w ladders.

I had to do push-presses on the last rep of the last two C&P ladders, but I am okay with that. Tension really does make all the difference in this exercise. I can definitely feel myself getting stronger, can see measurable results. When I first started working with David Whitley, I had finished the ETK and ROP program about 2 months before. At the time, I had found them very productive but insanely boring. As we were covering my expectations, I mentioned my being bored with those programs. His comment was, "Simple is effective." Like a good young Padawan, I have revisited simplicity and found it more complex than ever.

16kg snatches 30 sec L/30sec R/30 sec rest for 6 rounds.

Monday, February 23, 2009
Off--158.5# (I finally dug out the scale, and honestly, the damage wasn't nearly as bad as I'd anticipated.)

Here's a pic from my going away party...That would be Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Steele (& Melissa's 12 weeks pregnant with Baby Steele), Brandi, Jamie, me, Candace, Wendy, Brittani, Jessica (due to pop any second), and Nikki who had a beautiful baby girl about 2 weeks ago. And, no, I don't drink the water there. It seems to make everyone pregnant!
We had a great time at Los Portales and completely monopolized the back room for a couple of hours. We missed a few folks who weren't able to make it, but many of them I said my good-byes to elsewhere. These folks are family to me. I love them (and miss them) dearly. They've been checking up on me regularly since I left, and for that I am most thankful. I really am the luckiest girl in the world.

On a different note, the hubby and I went with a couple of friends down a local river. We rocked two-man kayaks and had a great time. Honestly, I was ready for a workout, but the current was brisk enough that all we really had to do was steer. Cranes, egrets, cormorants, ducks and some birds I didn't recognize were out in full force. TL and Jeff even saw a river otter, but the hubby and I missed it. We'll have to catch it next time. :)

WORKOUT: 20kg TGU 1/1 until I was smoked which turned out to be 7 per side over about 14 minutes.

Then I decided to mess around with the 20kg a little more, so I decided to do some high pulls. They felt so good, I decided to try a snatch. I ended up doing one on each side then doing it again--except I got five in a row on each side!!! I was quite excited.

Then I decided to do the squat-thrust/swing descention/ascention workout with the 20 kg. I think it took me 24'45" (I'm to lazy to get up and look at my book).

All-in-all a fantastic workout.

A Floridian

Friday, February 20, 2009
Work 6:30p-8a--weight unknown as the scale is still packed away.

After what seems like forever away from internet access, I am finding my way back to the blogosphere. My final shift at my previous job was last Saturday, and the following 3 days were filled with intermittent and frequent tears and constant fear. I am guilt-ridden anyway as a matter of my personality, so leaving behind people who are as precious to me as my family and friends in Tennessee are was not at all an easy thing to do. Seeing my mom and dad cry just about killed me. Just the thought of it now brings tears to my eyes, and rips at my heart.
Finding my way to the hubby's arms went a long way toward making me feel better, though, and I am slowly adjusting to the idea of being here long-term. Were it not for the people left behind, the transition would have been seamless, and I would have been overjoyed to make the change. As it is, I am happy to be here and look forward to our life in the months to come, but knowing that I am 12 hours from my parents, family and friends should they need us just kills me. I feel as if I have abandoned them.

Tonight has been my first shift at my new job, and thus far things are going well. It has been an uncharacteristically good night from a volume standpoint, and the people are proving to be kind and helpful. We'll keep rolling with the punches.

NUTRITION UPDATE: FUBAR for the last week or 10 days. I have had no rhyme or reason to my nutritional madness for a while--mostly due to going away parties and nerves and complete disruption of my routine. I'll have this back under control by next week.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: 5 Rounds of the following:
15 20kg swings
50 yard sprint
5 burpees
50 yard jog
15 20kg swings
rest 90sec

9.5 min run (unknown distance--but to the power pole and back to the end of the road). I'm working on my 9 minute mile goal now that I have a good place to do it. Above are my new running shoes, the Under Armour Chimera trail shoes. I'm running on FL sand, and these are AWESOME!

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT:
5 3-rung ladders of double 16kg C&P with 30 sec b/w rungs and 2 min b/w ladders.
*this is the one place I actually feel like I'm making progress. I completed this ladder both of the last two times without having to do a pushpress in any rung.

5 2-rung ladders of double 16kg squat completed during the 2 min rest of the previous ladders.

6 sets of 16kg snatches 30 sec R/30 sec L/30 sec rest.

No workout since getting off of work Sunday a.m. before yesterday.

Perspective

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Work 6p-8a

Brandi, Candace, me and Kim at the end of our shift tonight. Kim is due to have her first baby girl in June. :)I am at the end of my second 14 hour shift, looking ahead at three more. They are my final shifts at my current job. Usually, five shifts in a row would fill me full of dread, the idea sitting like lead in my gut until the end, when the dread is replaced by relief. This run, though, I am savoring the minutes which seem to be flying by. I am looking at my workplace, my friends, the patients I've seen time and again with new eyes and feeling a new appreciation for what I have had here. I have never taken for granted the caliber of people with whom I work, nor have I taken for granted the facility or the community, but as i prepare to leave them, I find myself noticing the minutiae a little more. And the minutiae are what make a place a notch above. I am going to dearly miss this place and these people who I have grown to love.

WORKOUT: None today. I took it off.

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT: Squat thrust/swing time challenge 20"20'= 10 sec faster than last time.

MONDAY'S WORKOUT: 4 5-rung ladders of green-band assisted pull-ups/pushups
5 2-rung ladders of assisted pistols. The pullups/pushups were especially hard this time around.

20kg TGU 1/1 x 5

20kg tabata swings.

NO WORKOUT: Saturday and Sunday. Being sick coupled with moving just sucked.

Not A Flying Flip

Friday, February 6, 2009
Work 6p-8a--157#
WARNING: This is yet another gloomy post. If you've had enough of that, skip on down to the pictures.
I promise the posts will become brighter and happier soon, but that honestly might take a little while. Getting settled in at my new job and home and ridding myself of that anxiety will take a couple of weeks, and likely until that happens, the gloom and dispair may continue. I've reached the threshold of things that I can worry about and not in some way decompensate, and the decompensation has begun. For the last 2-3 nights I've eaten junk, junk and more junk, and even came home with a belly ache this morning from it. Thus far, I 've been able to nip the nutritional damage in the bud tonight, and I continue to take each minute as it comes.

I woke up a couple of days ago with yet another round of the crud. The nice side effect of this is that I have a reason to take Nyquil before bed which puts me into a coma for at least 6 hours, and I've finally been able to get some sleep. Awakening with my lungs burning and hacking coupled with just dreading another day made me feel sorry enough for myself that I took the last couple of days off from working out, though. So in addition to eating crap, I've not been working any of it off. This morning, though, I made myself get up in time for at least a 20 minute workout. My lungs burned like crazy--especially at first--and I coughed up my right lung, but I made it through and felt better emotionally for it.

I spend a lot of time wondering how it is that those people who have figured out how not to worry about anybody else actually do it. Life would be so much better if I could just cruise through not giving a flying flip about anyone or anything else but myself. 95% of my angst is self-induced by worrying about things out of my control, or trying to control things that are at the mercy of others. If someone won't take my advice or do what they know to be the right thing for themselves, I cannot force them to do so. Slowly, I am also beginning to understand that I, therefore, have no obligation to continue to worry about them and their choices--and the repercussions of those choices. Understanding that I have no obligation to worry and actually stopping the worrying are two ideas lying with a chasm between them. That chasm is making my reconciling the two very difficult. Sometimes I think life would be easier in isolation. Though there would be no one to love and no one with whom to interact, there also would be no one to worry about.

I took this pic the last time I was at Mom and Dad's. These first ones are taken with my new 24mm lens with which I was playing.

Yes, this cat is this evil.

These next pics are with the 85mm.

WORKOUT: Squat-thrust/Swings

20/5

18/10

16/15

And so on down to 2/50 for time which was 20min, 30 sec.

Moping

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
work 6p-8a--156.5#

I so totally have to get my head out of my ass. I'm moping around here like somebody kicked my puppy. This transition stage where I'm phasing out my life here is seriously wearing me down. I'm ready to move on with it and be done with the move--not ready to leave my friends behind, but ready to be past the dread of it. I can't sleep, I'm constantly cruising the kitchen in search of something to nibble on, and man, am I IRRITABLE. Despite not wanting to ruin what time I have left here with these friends, I'm pouting like a four-year-old. We're almost completely finished with the packing. I think 2 more hours will round it out nicely for me, and Marc has a few other things to do, but really, it's all minor stuff. The apartment is a disaster zone, though, and I've run into a new glitch. Because the couch had to be moved before we left with the TV and the rest of our things, we moved the bed into the living room. That way we would have somewhere to hang out and watch movies on my off nights, and the hubby would have a place to sit and chill while I am gone to work. The problem that I didn't think about was that since we're sleeping in the living room, my working out first thing in the day while he's still sleeping is going to take some maneuvering. Unfortunately, I didn't think of that until my alarm went off today, and it was too late to do the necessary maneuvering. I'll make the changes in the morning, though, and should be good to go for tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some pics of the baby girl that I took the other day when Sadie was at the house, and I was playing with my new lenses. And, yes, she hates to have her picture made.

Stacks

This is my life now-for the next two weeks. Reality is setting in &
with it further anxiety. Maybe a little excitement. Two days ago they
moved out the couch, a bed & some of the other big stuff. I think
that's when it hit me we're really moving.

Sadie

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Off--157#

Amidst the chaos, I offered to keep Sadie, a friend's miniature dachshund, for a day so she could take a little trip. While I had her, I decided to play with my new lenses and make some photos as a gift for my friend. Here are a few of my favorites...



WORKOUT: 3 sets of the AOS Essentials test without the TGU--1st round through with the 16kg, last two with the 12kg. 2 min between sets.

Then...10 minutes of 4 swings/1 clean R, 4 swings/1 clean L at the top of the minute with the 20 kg. Half of the sets I did 2 of the above at the top of the minute.
TOTAL =36min

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT: 5 3-rung ladders of Double 16kg C&P/ Row. 30 sec b/w rungs, 2 min b/w ladders.
Then 5 2-rung ladders of double 16kg squats

Then...6 rounds of 30sec 16kg snatch R/30sec L/30sec rest.

Playlists and Progress Reports

Super Bowl Sunday, February 1, 2009
Off--157#

I've been wanting to make a mix for my VO2 max workout since ideally it would have a nice fast-paced group of songs, and I've gotten a little tired of the same ol' stuff, so I went on a search and came up with some stuff. Workout music is difficult for me to find because I don't listen to the radio much, and when I do, I try to listen to more mellow stuff to chill me out some. (I tend to be a little stressed all the time). Mostly, though, it's just my iPod and some of the couple thousand or so songs I've accumulated. So I Googled workout music and found some suggestions. Here's what I'm going to be working with. Keep in mind it's a work in progress. If anyone had ever told me I'd have Ashlee Simpson on my iPod, I think I would have smacked 'em. Never say never, I guess.

Lady Marmalade, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya & P!nk Moulin Rouge
Learn The Hard Way, Nickelback Daredevil The Album
Pump It, Danzel
Trouble, P!nk
Switch, Will Smith
Maggie's Farm, Silvertide
I Like to Move It, Madagascar 5
This Moment, Disturbed Transformers (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)
Paralyzer, Finger Eleven
So What, P!nk
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
Everybody Wants You. Billy Squier
T.N.T., AC/DC
La La, Ashlee Simpson
Pretty Vegas, INXS
Let's Get Loud, Jennifer Lopez
SOS, Rihanna

Now for the ugly part, the progress report. As I've said before, I guess I should just be happy that I'm not completely off the deep end given my current stressors. One good note is that my groove on the pull ups is getting better. Not so much the pushups, but definitely the pull ups. Might actually be able to do one by the time I'm eighty. :(
Weight 157# (up 2.5#)
Waist 30.5" (down .25" since January 1)
Belly Button 36.5" (up 1")
Hips 38.5" (up .75")

TGU's up to 5 sets of 1/1 with the 20kg.

VO2 Max is up to 25 sets of 7-8 reps with the 12kg.

For a baseline, I ran an 11.5 min mile a couple of weeks ago (no heckling allowed here). I post this here so it's easy for me to find in a month or so when I'm trying to see if the sprints are doing any good (they start when I get back to FL).

Now for some more fun stuff...

I can remember my grandmother having a 5 gallon bucket of Reelfoot lard in the floor in her kitchen. She cooked EVERYTHING with it. (And lived to be 94. Lived by herself until she was 87). They are tearing down the old meat-packing building, but this smoke stack always draws my eye. I'm fascinated by it for some reason, so I decided to get it in some of the daytime pictures of the ice storm.

I wish I could have captured the way the light hit the melting ice. It was dazzling. Here's one of my attempts anyway. If you even remotely like it, click on it to enlarge it and see the reflection of the light in the ice.

On the way to Mom and Dad's Friday, I took the above pictures and as I was driving south the ice went away. The sky stayed pretty spectacular, though, so I decided to try out my new 24mm lens. It's amazing how wide a view it gets. The pic below is in NO way doctored. That's how it looked in person.

WORKOUT: NONE-- Today was an off day.

There Were Going to Be Pictures...

Saturday, January 31, 2009
Off-157.5#

...but I kicked my husband's X-box game trying to upload them and got cussed in four languages. So no pics today. Tomorrow, though, we're in business.

WORKOUT: 5 5-rung ladders of pull-ups with green bands/pushups.
5 2-rung ladders of assisted pistols

Per a friendly challenge I did these instead of my usual Turkish get-ups and tabata swings: 2 sets of 3 and 1 set of 2 of manmakers with overhead lunges with double 12's.