I might be ready for the swim team.

Saturday afternoon, the kid read a a book while I swam. For one hour straight, not including her telling me her name was in the book she was reading, which interrupted me for about 10 seconds or her telling me her stomach hurt, which interrupted me for about 40 more seconds (apparently it was not that bad) a few minutes later.

I don't know exactly how many laps I did, somewhere between 45 and just under 60, I would guess. I was going at a pretty good pace for most of it. But for once it was not about quantity and keeping track of laps. I just knew I wanted to swim for an hour if possible. And it was.

I am certain I could have swum for longer, at least another 15 to 20 minutes. In fact, when I was done swimming, I did some leg and arm exercises as well as a little jogging. Still I find it amazing that kids on the swim team often swim for two hours at a time. When I went back to the pool the next day, I did not have it in me to swim too many laps. Instead I jogged, tread water, raced my kid a few times, and just moved around the pool before ending with a couple of laps. I was definitely tired from the day before.

Not sure when I will do that again. But it is nice to know that I can do it.

What I did this week

There was no way I could keep up last week's pace, so I did not even try. Here is what I did instead:

Monday: The kid and I took a walk, probably about 30 minutes, maybe 25.
Tuesday: I did Zumba
Wednesday: I did lunch duty (two hours of standing and walking around) and then we went swimming. I did about 30 laps plus some jogging around.
Thursday: I did lunch duty again. Other than walking about four minutes one way to pick up some kids for an after-school program, that was it.
Friday: Swimming again, with another 25 laps plus jogging around.

I am happy with the amount of activity, though I wish I had gotten a run in. I hope to next week, as I am planning to sign up for the Race for Pace, which is two weeks away. Not sure how I will do in that as I have not run over two miles in quite awhile, but we shall see.

Continuing to blame it on the heat

This afternoon, I finally tackled my "usual" two-mile round trip school run. I had well over an hour to get it in, so I figured even if I had to crawl the last mile, I should be able to make it back in time for pickup.

Most of the run was without pain, so there is that. I do recall feeling some ankle pain (I forget which foot) early on, but it subsided quickly. Or, the constant panting took over, "drowning" out any other suffering.

The temps were around 80-couple degrees, but, once again, the humidity was pretty high, or so it felt to me. But I was determined not to let the heat, my age, and my inconsistent/rare running keep me from doing what I set out to do. Part of me really wanted to get a longer run in since I had the time, but wanting to know where I stood time-wise for my usual run won out.

Here are the stats:

Mile 1: 10:43
Mile 2: 9:00

Looking back at previous posts, this is definitely one of my worst runs, and I fought to get the first mile under 11 minutes! But between the heat and my running so little this year (probably six to eight times the first eight months of the year), I won't beat myself up about it too much. Besides, once I got my almost 20 minutes in, I jogged around the outside of the gym and up the outside steps over a half dozen times, for about eight or nine minutes. On top of that, my heart rate gets up pretty high when I am running uphill or up steps (between 160 and 180 bpm), which I know is not good, so I feel a little limited.

I also swam about 25 laps on Sunday and 30 laps yesterday, with some pool jogging and leg and arm work thrown in for good measure. If I can round the week out with Zumba and another swim, then yee-haw for me!

Some pool running

I am, once again, coming up on a month since I have last gone running. Real running, that is.

I have been keeping up with swimming (two to three times per week), during which I make it a point to jog around the pool or in place, or just tread water each time. I know it is not the same as regular running, but it is better than not running at all, I suppose.

Yesterday, I had a really good swim, no doubt inspired by the Olympics. I have no idea how many laps I swam; I just kept going for the better part of an hour. I managed to do three fast laps at the end of my laps so I could further convince myself that I could be in the Olympics. On top of that, I managed to tread water for about 10 to 15 minutes and jog for 10 minutes, then for another 5. I also did some arm and leg exercises.

The day before, I had a good Zumba workout, and the day before that, I swam about 15 or 20 laps, with some jogging and water treading thrown in.

Last week, I hit the pool a few times and went to Zumba twice. During one of those pool trips, I was treading water for about 45 minutes, with only a couple of breaks.

I am overall pretty happy with the amount of physical activity I have had as of late. And I feel as if my fitness level is close to where I want it to be (my ab muscles, on the other hand, need some work). But there is always room for improvement.

I just hope, but I won't be the farm on it, that I can get another run in before school starts in 3.5 weeks.

I don't know how Olympians swim that many laps

When I went swimming on Thursday (which, by the way, was only my second day of exercise for the week), I felt pretty good doing laps. I did about 25 total, broken into 15 and then two smaller sets. A number of my laps came at a good speed. In fact, for about three or four laps I felt challenged by a boy swimming next to me who appeared to be about 10. I was not about to let that kid swim faster than I could, so I swam pretty quickly.

When I went swimming again today, the laps did not come as easily. I felt slow and sluggish almost the entire time. I started off with 15 again, then did a few smaller sets, eventually ending up with 30. I also jogged in the water a few times, probably for about 20 minutes total. And I did some lunges, squats, push-ups, and dips while in the water. I definitely had a good workout, but I was just not "feeling it." I pushed myself to swim fast a few times, but it was a struggle. I could barely do two fast laps in a row.

I am blaming this on the four to five pounds I have gained the past three weeks, which is related to my poor eating, which probably hinders me even more. Hopefully I can get on the right track soon...

Getting back into the swing of things

I cannot believe that I last wrote a post at the end of April. I ended that post hoping I would get in at least one swim that following week. Unfortunately, I don't think I did that. And if I did, that was my last swim for over a month. Work gets in the way, sometimes!

But the last week in May, I did get in two Zumba classes. The next week I did Zumba and swam once each. This week, I swam on Sunday and today. I am planning to do Zumba on Thursday and then another day of swimming. On a positive note, after swimming every other day for the past five days, I actually feel close to my "swimming shape." I did almost 30 laps, (12, 14, and 6), and I could have easily done more.

Running seems to be a distant memory at this point, but I am not giving up hope that I will jog-run a mile in the not-too-distant future.

Here's hoping!

Slow and steady finished the run

After over a month of not really running, I finally laced up my shoes this morning, two counties over. As I first set out in the cloudy, 55-degree morning, I decided I would try to run for about 20 minutes. But the more I ran (and by ran, I really mean jogged), I figured I might as well keep up my slower pace and go for 30 minutes.

About three minutes into the run (jog), I noticed a slight pain in my left foot and calf, but nothing unmanageable. Soon after, I realized I should have gone with a short-sleeved tee and shorts, rather than my long sleeves and yoga pants, but there was not much I could do at that point. I also ran with a bottle of water, something I do whenever I am at my mom's, probably because she uses bottled water and it helps. For whatever reason, I noticed I prefer to keep the bottle in my left hand and would often switch it back to that hand without realizing it. As my mind wandered, I tried to make a connection between my left-hand preference and my left foot hurting.

About 20 or so minutes into the run, I noticed my right foot and calf hurting, but they could have hurt before that and I just never noticed. Fortunately, the pain was minor.

All in all, I call it a good run (jog). I am glad I got out there and can still do it, even if doing it means doing it slowish.

Swimming and the knee

Other than a brisk 15-minute walk both Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, I had not done anything in the way of exercise since Zumba last Thursday. But because, for whatever reason, my left knee hurt Sunday evening and most of Monday, I was considering skipping my planned swimming yesterday. Fortunately, I thought better.

I ended up swimming, at a pretty good pace, 25 laps in about 30 minutes. I followed that up with about 15 minutes of jogging in the pool and some arm and leg water exercises. I did not notice the discomfort, which can best be likened to having twisted my knee, at all during my 55 minutes in the pool. It came back once I was home, but I will take what I can get. I hardly notice it now.

I have really been slacking off swimming lately, only one day last week, so I was glad to get in that workout at the beginning of the week. Most likely we will swim again on Wednesday unless the predicted 60-degree weather beckons us to the park. I do hope to either run my two-mile jaunt or hit the steps on Wednesday unless it rains. I think I will give my knee the day off today.

Until next time.

Slacking off

Because I subbed three days the week before and all five days last week, I have been a little lax with my exercise. I cannot even recall what I did the week before last; I know I did Zumba, but I have no idea how many times I went swimming. Since I subbed for gym that week, I guess I can count the many laps I did that day!

Last week, I did Zumba on Monday and then swam on Wednesday. And that was it for the week. I'd like to think my dancing around with the kids in various music classes also counted for something, but that was only a few minutes per class and I was hardly moving. But at least it was most days.

Today, despite my sore throat, I headed to the pool. I started off jogging for 15 minutes and eventually did 15 laps. It was not an intense workout, but at least I got there.

Here's hoping that the temps will warm up enough to melt the snow so I can get a run in again. It has been too long.

Nothing much new

I have not run since I last posted about it. I had things to do this week, including three days of subbing, finishing up my taxes, and attending a volunteer service, which prevented me from getting a run in. Fortunately, I did sub one day for gym class, and I ended up doing some laps with most of the classes.

On Thursday I did a really high impact version of Zumba. I really felt it (and pain in my stupid right knee when I did some knee bends), but it was a good workout. I am getting better and better at it, though I still can't follow all the moves or completely master the hip shaking.

I went to the pool two other days, and I swam about 20 laps one day and 30 yesterday. I also got in some jogging at the pool as well as some arm and leg things.

This week that is just ending had two really nice days (one in the upper 50s and the other about 60 degrees), as well as some sun on one or two of the other chilly days. Most of the days would have been great for a run. Oh, well.

Since I am subbing every day next week, running is out. I may only get to swim two days as well. But come the following week, I am determined to get back on track.

Back on the treadmill

Last week, after who knows how many months, I got back on the treadmill. My timing to run outside has been off, and I cannot bring myself to run in the rain or the cold, both of which we have seen in the past two weeks, so I figured I needed to do something.

As usual, I was reminded how much I hate the treadmill. For the first few minutes, I jogged about 6.0 miles per hour, to the best of my recollection, although it could have been a little slower. I will never understand why running a 10 mph pace on the treadmill is rather difficult when that is how long it takes me to run up that awful hill. Shouldn't it be easier on the treadmill? I had the hill set rather low.

After a couple minutes of that and feeling convinced I would never be able to complete a mile, I decided to alternate running with jogging. So for 20-some minutes, I would run for about a minute, each time increasing my speed 1/10th of a mile until I got to around 8 mph. In between each run, I would jog about a minute at anywhere from 5 to 5.5 mph.

Despite the challenge and how out of breath I was, I think I could have run longer than the 25 or so minutes I did. Unfortunately, the treadmill is a little temperamental, and the last time I switched from about 8 mph to 5-something, the treadmill stopped. After a couple of minutes of unplugging and replugging, I just gave up. Ugh!

Anyway, I considered the run a success because I did run over about 2.5 miles and I do not recall feeling any pain. I would like to go through that routine again to see if I can do it for 30 minutes. Hopefully the treadmill will cooperate next time.

I swear, I have been exercising!

Between Christmas-related stuff and subbing, I have been pretty busy. Too busy to post about my exercising, but fortunately not too busy to do said exercising.

For the past few weeks, I have consistently managed to swim three times a week. Unfortunately, other than a run on the treadmill, which I will blog about next, I have done nothing other than swim, unless you count running around Christmas shopping, which, when you think about it, is really kind of a sport.

I don't know if it is my age or the repetition, but I have noticed some leg pain lately when I have been swimming. It is almost starting to feel like running!

Yesterday was my most productive swim of the past two weeks. I manged to swim 40 laps (20 + 20) and jog about 30 minutes (20 + 10). It was a bit of a struggle for the first 20 laps as my left hamstring was bothering me. But I refused to stop, not so much because I am being dumb (at least I hope not), but because my leg pain pretty much always goes away when I am done swimming, so I reason it can't be serious. When I did my second set of 20 laps, I did not notice the leg pain as much or maybe at all. But I was swimming fast as there was a guy in the pool, and I am all about looking as if I am athletic!

I still contend that swimming is great exercise, and I am going to try to keep with it. Maybe I just need to switch it up a bit. We'll see.

My legs hurt

After a great stretch of exercising, I kind of slacked off. I had that really good swim last Thursday, and then I did nothing until yesterday (Tuesday), other than walking the streets of Indiana for their Light-Up Night last Friday.

It has rained the past few days, and because I prefer to run in no more than a light drizzle, running has been pretty much out for me. So yesterday, I headed back to the pool, determined to get a solid, strenuous workout in.

This time around, I swam 20 laps, which took me around 23 minutes. Then I jogged in the pool for about 30 minutes, a new record for me. I followed that up with another 20 laps, though for some reason that set took me about 30 minutes. I finished up with almost 30 more minutes of jogging in the pool, before I did some leg and arm exercises for about 10 minutes.

It was definitely a good workout, if not a slightly annoying one during my second set of laps. For some reason a woman at the pool does her laps around the perimeter, and she does not really pay attention to where she is going. I don't mind when I am swimming a front stroke; I can move out of my lane/her way. But it becomes rather bothersome when I am on a backstroke, and I have to stop and turn around to make sure I don't hit her. Not a big deal, though.

My legs are hurting a little today, so I am definitely going to take it easy. I would love to get up and run on Thanksgiving, taking my Indiana County route, but not sure if that will happen. We'll see.

One thing I am pretty sure that I will be running towards is the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pies tomorrow!

20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 10 = exhaustion

When I swim laps, I have a hard time keeping track of which number I am on. I tend to swim four or five laps of the same stroke before switching to another, but my mind wanders so easily that I often lose count. Recently, I decided to swim only two laps per stroke before moving on to the next. That has helped immensely, though at least once today, I actually could not remember if I was on my first or second trip for that stroke. Crazy!

Anyway, this morning, to mix it up a bit, I decided to jog in the pool first. Since jogging for 15 minutes has been pretty easy for me, I decided to up my time to 20 minutes. In the interest of helping the balls of my feet and working some different muscles, I decided to jog backwards for the last five minutes. Then I swam about 20 laps (which takes me about 23 minutes). I next got in another 20 minutes of jogging, again including the backwards jogging for the final five minutes. I followed that up with 20 more laps (which may have been 19 or 21). Finally, I jogged backwards for about 10 more minutes before rounding out my workout with some push-ups and leg exercises in the water. And that is where my title comes from.

All told, it took me almost two hours to get everything in, and I was (and still am) pretty darn tired. But it is a fulfilling tired. Throughout my workout, I felt good. Admittedly, during some of the laps, I was not sure I could keep going. But always competing with myself and wanting to do what I set out to, I pressed on.

As I was, per usual, struggling with the butterfly stroke, I realized that it is a lot like that first killer hill when I run. In both cases, I keep doing it, yet the task almost never seems any easier.

The other thing I find interesting is that when I run, even though I typically complete only two miles, I think I have achieved this great workout. Yet when I swim, if I end up doing only 15 laps, which typically takes me about the same amount of time as it does to run two miles, then I feel as if I barely did anything. I guess a big part of it has to do with the intensity; I tend to run harder than I swim, which leaves me sweaty and out of breath; it just feels as if I have run for an hour, even though I never do.

Regardless, I am glad when I can get a really long swim in. I am quite certain, however, even if I jog super slow, I won't be running for an hour anytime soon. Or probably ever.

15 >> 45

The Race for Pace is just 11 days away. In the past four months, I have run about six times. In the past 30 days, I have managed about three runs. Sure, I have run up and down the steps a few times. I have also been swimming two or three times a week, but as for running at least two miles, on the road, well, that is just not going well.

As I was swimming today, I decided that if I don't run at least two times between now and next Saturday, I should probably skip the race. If I run three times, then I should be able to make it through, though undoubtedly with a time much higher than last year's (27:01).

On a positive note, today, I spent two hours at the pool. The title above refers to my workout there. I swam 15 laps, then I jogged around the pool for 15 minutes. I did that two more times, for a total of 45 laps and 45 minutes of jogging (it took me about 55 minutes to swim the 45 laps).

When I was barely into my second lap, I felt tired and unconvinced that I would accomplish much today. Not wanting to waste this alone time, I decided to break things up and alternate between swimming and running. Well, when you have the resistance of water fighting your arms especially, it is nothing close to running. But I am hopeful that makes the workout even better.

All in all, it was great exercise. It was probably not my fastest, but that I managed to get in the jogging and swimming along with some water exercises such as walking lunges, squats, and push ups, in a two-hour workout, I say bravo to me! (And let's just pretend that when I came home, I did not eat a brat, some cookies, a banana with PB, some tortilla chips and salsa, and a few gingersnaps.)

Hopefully, I will be able to write a post on Thursday or Friday, saying that I manged to get a run in on Thursday.

Stay tuned.

Swim, swim, swim

I may have to consider changing the name of my blog to "Swimming Around the Burgh." I just cannot seem to get myself motivated enough to run. That said, on Sunday, after I had swum about 10 laps, I actually wanted to call it quits for the afternoon. Typically, I try to swim about 20 laps. On a good day, I manage 25. On a slower day, I may complete only 15. I consider doing 10 laps a bad day. So why, even though I was not tired, did I find myself wanting to stop at 10? Did the monotony finally set in?

I took a break to play with my kid, and found myself renewed about 20 minutes later. Since there were about eight people at various parts in the shallow end of the pool, doing laps the entire length of the pool seemed too cumbersome. So I ended up doing laps the width of the pool. Because the pool is not very wide, that meant I could do between six and eight strides of each stroke, but it was enough to break it up for me and lessen the boredom.

I am guessing I did about 50 of those laps, during two different sets. I jogged in place and tread water a few times as well, so I ended up with a pretty good workout.

Hopefully, since the temps are cooler than the heat wave we had last week, I can manage to get a run in, but I won't hold my breath.

Running around the pool

Well, technically, I was running in the pool. And I was actually jogging. But since I have not gone running for almost three weeks now, and that was just on the dreaded treadmill, I figured I needed to do something running-related.

So for about 20 minutes yesterday, I jogged in 3' to 4' of water. It was a decent workout; I certainly felt the water's resistance. And it was good to move pretty much nonstop for that length of time. The only snafu was my feet hurt a little, thanks to the not-so-smooth bottom. Not sure if running with water shoes would help, though.

I still have no idea when I am going to get back out there. I had an awful cold last week. Yesterday it was only about 20 degrees. And we are supposed to get some snow today. Maybe by the end of this week I can attempt at least a one mile run. I sure hope so.

In the meantime, I am going to try to keep up with the swimming. I still managed to get in about six laps (which I like to call 12, since I am going up and back) yesterday after my "jog," but as usual, they were not consecutive. At least I am moving!

Pushing it

Yesterday I completed my usual two miles in about 17:20, which was my Best. Time. Ever.

I actually finished my first, tough, mile at about 9:18, which pretty much blew away my previous best time, at around 9:45. I rounded out my second mile with a time of about 8:02, also my best.

When I was finished those two miles, I ran up the hill parallel to the killer hill (note that this neighboring hill is every bit as awful as my usual first hill). And by run, I really mean jogged slowly as I was almost out of gas. Once I got to the top, I managed to jog for a few minutes before alternating between fast runs (not quite all-out sprints, though once or twice I managed to do just that) and easy jogs. I am guessing I tacked on over a mile with that, based on the 12 minutes it took me.

I am going to try to get in a second run this week; I really want to keep up with my two-a-week runs. But if not, I am planning a couple of swims in there, to stay in shape.

I will be 39 in just over 1.5 weeks. I am planning to roar right into the end of this decade.

A pretty good workout week

I started my Labor Day with a run around Indiana County (particularly, my mom's neighborhood). I added an extra street or two, so I ended up running around 3.3 or 3.4 miles (my best guess, based on my time, which was around 35 minutes) at a fairly easy pace. I really like that run. The hills don't seem awful.

Wednesday, I ran around my neighborhood, visiting streets I had not been on since 2002, when we bought our house. One of the hills was an absolute killer, but it felt good to complete it, even slowly. I am guessing I ran about 4.5 miles, again based on my time, which was around 45 minutes. Mostly I am glad that no one ran me over; a couple of times cars came pretty close, which I found surprising since I was running up the street (barely a hill) for quite some time. It was not as if I were darting across the street out of nowhere. This is why I no longer run while listening to music.

Today, I ran up and down the steps near my kid's school 20 times, with a break halfway between. I did that in about 17:30, but not sure how that compares to previous attempts. I did not feel as if I was running (well, jogging) as fast as I normally do, but I blame that on yesterday's run. When I completed the steps, I ran around the upper lot for about 12 minutes, ending with a sprint for the last 30 seconds. I hope that I did not correctly count my bpm; if so, when I finished my sprint, I was at 200, which might have put me close to a heart attack. But within a couple of minutes, I was down around 100, so I am guessing not.

Tomorrow, I will be subbing for the gym teacher, so I should get some jogging in during the kids' warm ups. All in all, I call this a good week. I feel (and felt) pretty good overall and I "mixed" it up a little.

Another run around the track

Although I can now run my usual route near my kid's school, there was no way I was going to do it today when it was 90 degrees (or the next two days for that matter). So I decided to run in the morning instead, around the local track.

I ran the first three laps at about two minutes each, pushing myself because I had no hills to contend with. Unfortunately, during the fourth and final lap of my first mile, I could not keep up the pace, so I ended up finishing the mile in about 8:10 or 8:15. I guess I should be happy considering I typically run my second mile in my usual route (the one with the big downhill at the beginning and the end) at around 8:30. But I tend to focus more on what I can't do, or at least what I end up not doing well.

I spent the next a little over two miles alternating between sprinting (for me, anyway) and jogging about 110 yards each (the sprints were probably a little farther). I tended to do each one between 19 and 22 seconds. After the first few intervals, I generally felt overworked and tired during the sprints. Even though I did not seem to be running fast (and my form was surely not pretty), I could not muster up the stamina to run any faster. Yet when I did my recovery jog, I typically felt okay at the end. If I had jogged a greater distance in between each sprint, I might have done better overall. Who knows.

Regardless, I am glad I "mixed it up"; when you do the same thing over and over, your body gets used to it. Plus I recently read that a good way to increase your speed is to throw in some sprints. Tomorrow I hope to get a regular run in, though maybe for only two miles. If not, then I will plan to get in good run on Thursday. I gotsta have goals!