Where's Dancing Nancy?

Hey Gang - we haven't heard from Michelle in a while. Should we send out a search party? She's either a) feeling so fabulous she's too busy dancing and cavorting to post; b) feeling so crappy she's hole-ing up in her apartment knitting a sweater out of cat hair; or c) somewhere in between. Personally, i'm hoping its a)....
love you michelle!! :')

Knee Injuries

I found the following article from SparkPeople.com a great read, especially for the strength and stretching exercise.

Enjoy.!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=363

Adding Links

Hey everyone,

Teresa brought it to my attention that you guys can't add links to the sidebars. It turns out that cause I'm the admin I can add links, but apparently y'all can't cause you're authors, but not admins, sooo..... if you want to add some links, let me know - Got good sites? Good vids? Let me know and I will put it up. :-)

I'm also working on getting it so that recent comments will show up on the front page, so we can track if an older post gets a comment in case people respond to each other.

I really appreciate all of your efforts on this. :-)

Love AMY

Still Sickie...

Hi Everybody -
I got the flu on sept 10th and then i got a cold after that. work's been really busy. i got a massage, because my knee was troubling me - turns out that my very tight adductors were pulling on my knee, so i've been studiously stretching those muscles after working out. trouble is, i wasn't working out. i flew to detroit on sunday - got in 2 hours before my meeting - so i worked out!! (i was proud of myself for packing my workout clothes). got on the treadmill and after a few minutes realized how ill i still was - my lungs really hurt and i got that sick feeling. totally sucks, but i thought i was well enough to get some exercise anyway, so i stopped after a mile and then walked for another 20 min. felt good, and i'm glad i did! late flight back yesterday so i'm really tired now, but <> i will walk for 20 minutes when i get home tonight. i think moving around is better than laying around for getting better at this point. the palo alto moonlight run is this friday - i signed up for the 5K. i'll just run until i think i shouldn't and then walk. does anyone know what remedy is working for this particular bug going around?
hope everyone is doing well.
take care!
Teresa

This Video Is Totally AWESOME

A little long, but so worth it. I love her and such a good point for all of us, obese or not. We are multi-dimensional and perfect!

Hello? Is There Anybody Out There?

I'm going to work now, but then I'm coming home and going to bed relatively early in preparation for our 6 mile run tomorrow - who's in? And what's going on with all y'all? Injuries do not put you out of the game people - lets get this board back on track. This week, Tom and I both did our runs (ok, yesterday I somewhat lamed out with only about 20 minutes of running and 12 of walking, but I was on a treadmill) and we are gonna take our measurements and whatnot this weekend and set short and medium term goals. What are YOU gonna do?


Follow up - WE DID 6 MILES YESTERDAY! AND.... it was raining so we went to the gym and did it on the treadmill!!! Wow. Very much a mental exercise as well as a physical one for me. I brought some fitness magazines to read, and switched the location of the treadmill that I used to one that didn't face a wall of tvs and it really helped. I can't stand being in front of the tvs in the morning with the news on of all the negative crap going on in the world. I'm very proud of myself for doing it. :-)

Recommitting to the Goal

Hello all,
First off, I have been lurking and reading posts, but this last week I was going through a tough time with my motivation and progress. I was feeling a bit lost and disconnected and I had to do some soul searching and reminding myself of why I got started on this to begin with. Tom and I both realized we needed to get back on track with the training program and get more consistent with our running workouts and get started again! So we went on a 5 mile run on Saturday and then (despite being hungover Sunday morning) went for a very strenuous 6+ mile hike Sunday. It felt really good to loosen those muscles up again and as it turns out, it was the perfect cure for a hangover.

Which reminds me - after taking a month off of drinking, I got buzzed on Friday and drunk on Saturday night - it doesn't take much especially after not drinking for a while, but I completely overdid it Saturday night. I'm ready however to go back on a low to no-drinking habit again as I could see the effects in my skin, my mood and my weight. Oy. So in the interests of achieving my bikini body by January goal and my 1/2 marathon by December goal, I'm back off the sauce I think until Halloween. Occasional social sips notwithstanding... ;-)

My goals for this week are to run twice during the week, do weights 3 times, and do a long run next Saturday. I will not drink any alcohol during the week, and I will eat cleanly during the week. I would like to lose 2 lbs this week. And I will check in with my progress on this blog several times this week and read and respond as appropriate to your blogs.

Also, I wanted to put an idea out there for all of us - Lisa is going to be coming up for a visit on Sunday September 30th in the morning (her flight gets in at around 9am) and I thought it would be cool if we all got together for our long run and possibly lunch after. I think it would be a good opportunity for us all to connect as a group and talk about what we're going through. And we can do an out-and-back route to make it so that we can all go at our own pace while still doing it as a group. If this seems like something you would be interested in doing, we can meet at Tom's and my house maybe at 10 on Sunday the 30th and go to the beginning of the Los Gatos Creek Trail near our house. No pressure on time or pace, just go out and have fun and run. Let me know if this sounds like something you'd like to do and we can make a plan of it.

Love you all, I look forward to reconnecting with you and with my training in the week to come. AMY

Long time, no check-in...

Hi everyone. Thought it was about time I checked in. Things are not going so well, but could be worse. My training was going great until 3 wks ago. Went out for a shorter run after two 5mi runs that week. Pain in my calf/lower leg. Thought it was torn calf muscle or just really, really tight. Gave it a couple weeks to heal, but kept moving and stretching as much as I could and also tried to rest it too. It feels better overall, but it's VERY slow going. I think it's time to see a sports doc. Not a big deal, I'll get back out there. I'm determined to keep running after seeing and feeling the results. But it came at the worst possible time, or at least it feels that way. Right before training officially started. I was running more than 3 miles at a time...ready to train. And now EVERYTHING in my life is changing and up in the air and it's very overwhelming and running was actually the one thing that was going really well and was a great way to relieve stress and get my energy out. So I'm bummed and discouraged about a lot of things, but I'm also trying my best to focus on the fact that it's not as bad as it could be. On a positive note, since I am so worried about losing my overall progress, I've been back in the gym doing weight training, and even stairmaster. 30 minutes on the stairmaster yesterday, injured......piece of cake compared to when I started. Managed to allow myself to feel good about that.

What do you all think about this?

Although, truthfully its not any more restrictive than what my goal calories are supposed to be anyways, but....

http://www.calorierestriction.org/Home

Las Vegas - Luxor

Hi all,

Just wanted to check in and see where y'all are staying during the our super cool half marathon.

Kevin and I booked a room at the Luxor (right next door to Mandalay Bay) for Saturday and Sunday night.

I'm getting excited!

How's the training?

Also, what is considered cross training? Does yoga count, or should I be doing something more like weight training or an alternate cardio activity, like biking or rowing.