I officially registered for my next Half Marathon tonight.
This one is in Columbus, Ohio on May 7, 2010. I'm hoping my sister can run with me.
I'm excited and ready to train so that I can hopefully meet my goal of running 13 minutes faster than my last half marathon time. Ths means I need to run this race in 2 hours 12 minutes or less.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
It's launch week at the gym. That means that we (Les Mills Class instructors) are presenting all new music and choreography. I have to learn 34 new songs from three different classes: Body Pump, Body Attack, and Body Step. It is a bit stressful because I am a bit of a perfectionist when I teach. I don't like making any mistakes. I mean, really, people are paying for me to help them get a good workout and the least I can do is present the most perfectly executed class that I can. I probably obsess about this and spend too much time practicing.
One of the things I have learned is the necessity to know my limits. I teach a minimum of 5 classes at week with a maximum of 8. Any more than 8 and I am risking getting injured. I already get out of bed with creaky joints. Of course that might just be my age rather than my activity level. My goal in all of this is to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
One of the things I have learned is the necessity to know my limits. I teach a minimum of 5 classes at week with a maximum of 8. Any more than 8 and I am risking getting injured. I already get out of bed with creaky joints. Of course that might just be my age rather than my activity level. My goal in all of this is to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Races and some random weight loss stuff.
Over the weekend my family and I did another running race. Read about it herehttp://lewisnclark.blogspot.com/2010/10/muddy-monster-in-cedar-rapids-iowa.html
This race was different from anything I had ever been in. It was an off road race. It had Mud, rocks, broken up trails, huge tire ruts, MUD, sand, holes, grass, slippery spots, puddles, MUD.
Ok so I mentioned the mud. Fortunately I tried to avoid mud and puddles as much as possible and only hit a couple spots that made my shoes dirty. This was a hard race for me because
1. Not knowing what to expect, up to this point I have only ran on streets, flat grass or sidewalks, so running off road in all those conditions mentioned above were hard.
2. It hadn't rained in 4 weeks, but the night before this race rained super hard several times so there was mud and puddles everywhere.
3. I was in a costume and had never run in such a thing before. I had some running tights on below the costume, but that made me very hot and during the race I became over heated many times and had to slow down or walk fast.
As a result of all this my time was slower than my last race. I had a time of 31:02 and only placed 6th in my age group. Had I ran a usual time, like 28:02 or better like my last race, then I would have placed 3rd in my age group. Oh well I guess, so great that I finished.
I haven't run much since my half marathon, in fact maybe only twice a week I have found time to run about 3 miles each time. Running is super hard for me. I find it so great to finish, but so hard to do. I am dying each time on the inside with breathing and all the aches and pains that go with running. There are times I feel just awesome when I run, but most times it's just plain hard. I have come a long way with running because I only started running in March and back then it was only a 1/2 mile and then I was done. I slowly worked up to 3.1 miles within 2 months and from there increased it. I have a long way to go before I like running, but it's getting better each week. I just need to remember that getting good at something takes practice like everything else.
Recently I began teaching more Zumba classes. I now teach up to 8 per week. There have been weeks where I have taught 9 but no more of that hopefully. I love Zumba because it is Latin Dance and it's aerobics. You have both mixed. Some songs are all dance and some songs are just aerobic moves and some are a mix, ok most are a mix. Zumba is where I can be creative and if I want to teach an American Hip Hop song, or a country line dance I can, or I can stick to the Latin stuff the entire class. Seems like most classes I have requests for one of the hip hop songs I have taught in the past.
When I started teaching more in September and October I began some bad habits of eating. I started eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and while you would think that with all this exercise that it would be okay to have cake, ice cream, candy and other high calorie food, well it's not okay all the time and that's exactly what I've been doing.
As a result I have put on 9 pounds. OUCH. This is never a good thing and that has to change.
I always have a wake up call when the scale says 145 or higher because I don't ever want to go back to 220 and with the gaining of 2 pounds a week that's where I'll be in a year if I don't stop.
Ok, so now I've written this OUTLOUD for the world to see, so it's time to do something about it.
My goal will be like in the past when I was loosing weight. I will write down what I eat and see where it is that I cheat. I'm pretty sure it's during the middle of the day and later at night, so right now it's later at night and I wanted ice cream badly, but instead I drank a bunch of water and then put a piece of sugarless gum in my mouth. That helps, but the ice cream is still calling me.
Makes me wonder: If I ate right for an entire month and did all this exercise, what weight would I be? And how much better would I feel?
I have been feeling like a slug for 4 weeks and I know it's all about the bad eating. Sugar just brings you down. There is a natural high at first that makes you feel good, but then later you feel like garbage and are down on yourself for two reasons, the weight gain and how you feel.
So it starts now. I'm 145.6 on the home scale as of this morning. I will weigh myself next Sunday in the morning and see what it tells me.
Meanwhile in addition to writing down my food for the week I will make sure I get in 8 miles of running. 5 miles on Monday is the goal and 3 miles on Friday. The reason I picked those days is because both of those days I don't teach Zumba so I have the extra energy to run.
I just signed up for what I'm thinking is my last race this year. A Turkey Trot. It is on November 13th in Marion, Iowa. It is a 5 mile race.
This race was different from anything I had ever been in. It was an off road race. It had Mud, rocks, broken up trails, huge tire ruts, MUD, sand, holes, grass, slippery spots, puddles, MUD.
Ok so I mentioned the mud. Fortunately I tried to avoid mud and puddles as much as possible and only hit a couple spots that made my shoes dirty. This was a hard race for me because
1. Not knowing what to expect, up to this point I have only ran on streets, flat grass or sidewalks, so running off road in all those conditions mentioned above were hard.
2. It hadn't rained in 4 weeks, but the night before this race rained super hard several times so there was mud and puddles everywhere.
3. I was in a costume and had never run in such a thing before. I had some running tights on below the costume, but that made me very hot and during the race I became over heated many times and had to slow down or walk fast.
As a result of all this my time was slower than my last race. I had a time of 31:02 and only placed 6th in my age group. Had I ran a usual time, like 28:02 or better like my last race, then I would have placed 3rd in my age group. Oh well I guess, so great that I finished.
I haven't run much since my half marathon, in fact maybe only twice a week I have found time to run about 3 miles each time. Running is super hard for me. I find it so great to finish, but so hard to do. I am dying each time on the inside with breathing and all the aches and pains that go with running. There are times I feel just awesome when I run, but most times it's just plain hard. I have come a long way with running because I only started running in March and back then it was only a 1/2 mile and then I was done. I slowly worked up to 3.1 miles within 2 months and from there increased it. I have a long way to go before I like running, but it's getting better each week. I just need to remember that getting good at something takes practice like everything else.
Recently I began teaching more Zumba classes. I now teach up to 8 per week. There have been weeks where I have taught 9 but no more of that hopefully. I love Zumba because it is Latin Dance and it's aerobics. You have both mixed. Some songs are all dance and some songs are just aerobic moves and some are a mix, ok most are a mix. Zumba is where I can be creative and if I want to teach an American Hip Hop song, or a country line dance I can, or I can stick to the Latin stuff the entire class. Seems like most classes I have requests for one of the hip hop songs I have taught in the past.
When I started teaching more in September and October I began some bad habits of eating. I started eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and while you would think that with all this exercise that it would be okay to have cake, ice cream, candy and other high calorie food, well it's not okay all the time and that's exactly what I've been doing.
As a result I have put on 9 pounds. OUCH. This is never a good thing and that has to change.
I always have a wake up call when the scale says 145 or higher because I don't ever want to go back to 220 and with the gaining of 2 pounds a week that's where I'll be in a year if I don't stop.
Ok, so now I've written this OUTLOUD for the world to see, so it's time to do something about it.
My goal will be like in the past when I was loosing weight. I will write down what I eat and see where it is that I cheat. I'm pretty sure it's during the middle of the day and later at night, so right now it's later at night and I wanted ice cream badly, but instead I drank a bunch of water and then put a piece of sugarless gum in my mouth. That helps, but the ice cream is still calling me.
Makes me wonder: If I ate right for an entire month and did all this exercise, what weight would I be? And how much better would I feel?
I have been feeling like a slug for 4 weeks and I know it's all about the bad eating. Sugar just brings you down. There is a natural high at first that makes you feel good, but then later you feel like garbage and are down on yourself for two reasons, the weight gain and how you feel.
So it starts now. I'm 145.6 on the home scale as of this morning. I will weigh myself next Sunday in the morning and see what it tells me.
Meanwhile in addition to writing down my food for the week I will make sure I get in 8 miles of running. 5 miles on Monday is the goal and 3 miles on Friday. The reason I picked those days is because both of those days I don't teach Zumba so I have the extra energy to run.
I just signed up for what I'm thinking is my last race this year. A Turkey Trot. It is on November 13th in Marion, Iowa. It is a 5 mile race.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
2010 Ponseti 5K Race--Iowa City, IA
Today was a local race right here in Iowa City at the University of Iowa campus. It is called Ponseti Race. This race was to raise money for those who have club feet.http://www.uiortho.com/races/This race was chip timed so the results are super accurate and there was food at the end of the race (always a plus)!
The picture on the left is me right after I arrived home from the race.
The weather was gorgeous today, started in the mid 60's and was around the mid 70's during the race. Beautiful weather for October and perfect for running.
I felt wonderful the entire race and only had a few moments where I had to talk myself into continuing to run. There were a couple bad hills near the end of the race, one of which was so steep that I walked fast up it.
Even though I felt great I had no idea that I was running faster than usual. My ending time was a new personal best. It was 28:02 I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the time clock at the end of the race and then printed my results and it said the same thing. And to think if I hadn't walked up that last hill I could have had a 27 minute time. In shock still. Training is really paying off.
This next picture is me later in the day at the apple orchard wearing my race shirt. My son Jared took this picture.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Busy Zumba week
This week has been pretty busy and I'm glad it's almost over since I need my Sunday rest day!
On Wednesday I started teaching Zumba for the VA hospital. It starts at 4:10p.m. for a 45 minute class and then right after that there is a 5 minute break only to follow with another 45 minute class.
I thought that maybe only about 10-15 would show up for Zumba at the hospital. I thought this because the Healthy Living Director (who is also a Nutritionist) said that about 8-10 come in for the yoga and strength classes.
I show up early and begin my introduction to my class about Zumba. I usually say something like this:
Zumba is Latin Dance Aerobics. It is for anyone of any age, any aerobic capability and any gender. It takes about 4-6 classes to catch on if you aren't coordinated, but after that you will get it and love it and it will end up being such a healthy addiction that you will want to Zumba every day!
So I start the class with about 15 in the room. Then people just kept on coming in, so much in fact that the Director of the Healthy Living program had to move tables out of the conference room and make more room for us. It was crazy packed in there. We must have had at least 25-30 people in there. They seemed to love it. Many of them took my Zumba business card and e-mailed me the next day saying they loved it and couldn't wait till next Wednesday. Well I can't wait either cause I love teaching Zumba the most. In fact I cut one of my Sculpt classes so I could teach Zumba. I was teaching Sculpt 3 times a week and now it's only two and I got rid of a Step class as well so I could teach another Zumba another time. The only days I don't teach Zumba is Saturday and Sunday.
This week so far I have taught Zumba 9 times and still have one tonight. I just hope my legs don't give out cause they are super tired this morning, in fact I'm laying here with ice packs on the knees and then the ice packs will move to the shins and then to the soleus muscles (mine are always tight my doctor says) and then the ankles. You get the idea. I'm tired, but ready to do it all again in just 8 hours!
On Wednesday I started teaching Zumba for the VA hospital. It starts at 4:10p.m. for a 45 minute class and then right after that there is a 5 minute break only to follow with another 45 minute class.
I thought that maybe only about 10-15 would show up for Zumba at the hospital. I thought this because the Healthy Living Director (who is also a Nutritionist) said that about 8-10 come in for the yoga and strength classes.
I show up early and begin my introduction to my class about Zumba. I usually say something like this:
Zumba is Latin Dance Aerobics. It is for anyone of any age, any aerobic capability and any gender. It takes about 4-6 classes to catch on if you aren't coordinated, but after that you will get it and love it and it will end up being such a healthy addiction that you will want to Zumba every day!
So I start the class with about 15 in the room. Then people just kept on coming in, so much in fact that the Director of the Healthy Living program had to move tables out of the conference room and make more room for us. It was crazy packed in there. We must have had at least 25-30 people in there. They seemed to love it. Many of them took my Zumba business card and e-mailed me the next day saying they loved it and couldn't wait till next Wednesday. Well I can't wait either cause I love teaching Zumba the most. In fact I cut one of my Sculpt classes so I could teach Zumba. I was teaching Sculpt 3 times a week and now it's only two and I got rid of a Step class as well so I could teach another Zumba another time. The only days I don't teach Zumba is Saturday and Sunday.
This week so far I have taught Zumba 9 times and still have one tonight. I just hope my legs don't give out cause they are super tired this morning, in fact I'm laying here with ice packs on the knees and then the ice packs will move to the shins and then to the soleus muscles (mine are always tight my doctor says) and then the ankles. You get the idea. I'm tired, but ready to do it all again in just 8 hours!
Friday, October 1, 2010
An Opportunity with LOADS of potential.
I had a couple new ladies in my Zumba class a month ago. After class they asked me for my e-mail because they said they had questions.
I received an e-mail a short time later asking me if I would consider teaching Zumba at their dance studio 25 minutes Northeast of my home. Now that's quite a travel time, so I was hesitant with my answer, but then replied this:
As long as I could receive $5.00 per student who signs up or drops in for class AND if there are less than 6 students, then still receive $25 an hour to teach.
They agreed and that started last week. I teach Tuesday late morning and Thursday later evening.
Tuesday morning's class was ok, there were 5 there and so I got the minimum.
Thursday night last week was a whole different story. There were 15 in attendance (13 of which signed up on the spot for a 6 week session) so I knew no matter what I'd be paid for 13 of them every Thursday night. I was just blown away that 15 showed up on the first night of Zumba, but glad also because that meant $75 for just that hour.
This week was different. Tuesday morning's class had 5 again (but 2 people were different than the week before because 2 others were out of town)
Then there is Thursday night, not only did the 13 that signed up actually come back, but the 2 others that hadn't signed up last week, did sign up and pay. AND then 3 more showed up and paid for the remaining 5 weeks.
So this means for last night I made $90 for that class.
I just can't believe that first my offer was even accepted to get paid at this rate and second that people are so excited and showing up and coming back.
I hope I can stay healthy and be able to teach Zumba for a very long time since it seems to be very profitable and I'll be able to replace my Pampered Chef income before long if this attendance keeps up!
Awesome thing is, the owner has a huge gym so we could possibly have up to 50 people in there if that many signed up! So here's hoping that this opportunity continues to become awesome so I can pay our student loan bills.
I received an e-mail a short time later asking me if I would consider teaching Zumba at their dance studio 25 minutes Northeast of my home. Now that's quite a travel time, so I was hesitant with my answer, but then replied this:
As long as I could receive $5.00 per student who signs up or drops in for class AND if there are less than 6 students, then still receive $25 an hour to teach.
They agreed and that started last week. I teach Tuesday late morning and Thursday later evening.
Tuesday morning's class was ok, there were 5 there and so I got the minimum.
Thursday night last week was a whole different story. There were 15 in attendance (13 of which signed up on the spot for a 6 week session) so I knew no matter what I'd be paid for 13 of them every Thursday night. I was just blown away that 15 showed up on the first night of Zumba, but glad also because that meant $75 for just that hour.
This week was different. Tuesday morning's class had 5 again (but 2 people were different than the week before because 2 others were out of town)
Then there is Thursday night, not only did the 13 that signed up actually come back, but the 2 others that hadn't signed up last week, did sign up and pay. AND then 3 more showed up and paid for the remaining 5 weeks.
So this means for last night I made $90 for that class.
I just can't believe that first my offer was even accepted to get paid at this rate and second that people are so excited and showing up and coming back.
I hope I can stay healthy and be able to teach Zumba for a very long time since it seems to be very profitable and I'll be able to replace my Pampered Chef income before long if this attendance keeps up!
Awesome thing is, the owner has a huge gym so we could possibly have up to 50 people in there if that many signed up! So here's hoping that this opportunity continues to become awesome so I can pay our student loan bills.
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