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.

Finally, Getting Around to Thanksgiving

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Off--156#

I've intended to post these for a while now, and with these few days off, I'm finally getting around to it. Tomorrow will bring Christmas pics to round out the year, and in a few days I'll start my Blurb book which will be an archival quality printout of my blog--pictures and all--for this year, my own personal yearbook.

Gracie spent a large portion of the evening drawing.

Kevin gives Mom a quick kiss on the forhead for making such a great dinner.

Perfect evidence that I get my attitude from my dad. :)

Mom and Dad's border collie mix, Gypsy, mooches a little love from Dave.

Definitely conspiratorial tweens--Sonora and Mandy share a laugh.

Abbie just can't believe she's not getting any more food than that!

Anneliese sits with her dad to take in a little TV...

...at least until the sleepies kick in.

Meanwhile Katy has stolen big sister's sweater and is having loads of fun buttoning and unbuttoning it at least a hundred times with a little bit of Grandmommy's help.

...Because perfect little hands aren't always perfect.

Katy, Jessica, Grace and Sean

Daddy's little girl.

Michael

Sno

Daddy had right carotid endarterectomy the week before Thanksgiving, and I got him these balloons while he was in the hospital. Noah spotted them tied to his bed, and came to get us, begging for a "boon." To keep things as fair as possible, Dad cut apart the balloons, giving one to each little one.

Noah was just enthralled.

My favorite pic of the night.

But this one and the next one come in pretty close seconds.

TODAY'S WORKOUT:
Double 16kg C&P ladders 5 3-rung--having to push-press that last rep on the third rung for now.
Double 16kg squats 4 2-rung ladders. (For whatever reason, my legs are feeling WIMPY)

16kg swings--Tracy Rif style (two R, two center, two L) for 2 min/rest 30 sec, then repeat for 4 rounds.

December 28, 2009
Off
When I was in Florida earlier this month, we went to the High Springs Christmas parade. It had been at least 6 or 7 years since the last time we had been to one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sitting in 60 degree weather to watch it didn't hurt either. :) One of the reasons I really wanted to go was to practice my low-light photography. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

These ladies were in group of all white horses, each lit like this with lights in the manes and around the saddles. I'd never seen anything like it. They were absolutely beautiful.

Here's another angle.

If you look, you can see the biplane on this float. It was for an organization for the developmentally handicapped in Gainesville.

Even the band members were lit up.

This was not only my favorite truck in the parade. It was the prettiest Christmas tree.

These ladies weren't all on white horses, but they all had on silver capes that were lit. They rode in a weaving pattern all the way through the parade.

These guys were the second funniest in the parade. See, they're in a dump bucket on a garbage truck.

These guys win the prize, though. Yes, those are Hari Krishnas in a Christmas parade. Apparently there's a temple in Gainesville. And, yes, they sang, "Hari, Hari Krishna" all the way through.

This was my favorite tractor--not because it was a John Deere, just because it was the prettiest and had the cutest little old guy on it. I'm an International kinda girl myself.

Cutest Mary and Joseph.

The U of Florida vs. Alabama SEC championship game was on during the parade. This fellow was intently listening. One float even had a TV playing the game.

This group gave out oranges and grapefruit instead of candy. I was quite impressed.

WORKOUTS: I've definitely not jumped into things as whole-heartedly as I should have. Life just kept getting in the way. I got in a total of 3 workouts for the week. They were all really good ones, though, in that I felt them afterward--not necessarily in terms of feeling good and strong during them.

THURS: 20kg TGU 1/1 x 2
3--5 rung ladders double 16kg C&P
3--3 rung ladders double 16kg squats
Finisher: 16kg 2 swings R, 2 snatches R, 1 swing R, switch, repeat on L--Repeat all for a total of 5
Rest 1 min. Repeat the whole thing 3 times.
This was a good workout. Not necessarily strong, but definitely good. I'll be building on this in the coming weeks. I'm gonna drop down to 3--4 rung ladders or maybe three rung, a fair number of those last presses were push presses. Then I'm gonna start building. I'll build on the existing squat ladder.

FRI: 16kg
20 squat thrusts--5 swings
18 ST--10 swings
on down to 2 ST and 50 swings
Done for time and made it in about 18.5 min.