September 6, 2008

Fall is on the Way

It feels like fall outside. It's windy and cool and I was just looking up results from college cross country meets. O has been watching/listening to college football all day. (PSU won big - GO Lions) And school is definitely back in for just about everyone. All signs of fall!

This morning though - not so fall like. It wasn't hot but very humid. Still, I had a good 3:30 brick. And then a good swim. My pool water still tastes funny but it was most excellent not spending an hour driving today to swim!

In honor of fall cross country season - my next old school picture is of me running in college. I believe this is the NCAA Mid Atlantic Regional at Lehigh University in 1999.

Good luck to all those Wisconsin IMers tomorrow!

Posted by beth at 7:07 PM | Comments (0)

September 5, 2008

Chicken Arms

While I was looking at today's picture selection I finally figured out why I'm not a good swimmer.

I'm the 2nd from the left. Now look at those chicken arms! No muscle whatsoever! This is a picture from my high school senior year track season. (by the way - we had theme days at practice and this was apparently "wife beater" day as we usually did not wear this type of thing!) And this, my friends, is what I started with when I began swimming about 3 years ago. :)

Seriously, no excuses. And I know I'm not a bad swimmer either. But you have to admit, I had some work to do in the arm/back strength area before I could actually go about pulling some water to actually move forward!

Yesterday at masters practice we did 22x100 on various intervals with an all-out 100 at the end. The faster guys group in the lane above me essentially had 5x100 on 1:30, 5x100 on 1:25, 5x100 on 1:20 and 5x100 on 1:15 (not in that order but those were the totals when it was all over). I thought briefly of the possibility of trying to jump in with one of them. Can I do 100s on 1:15? Well, not exactly. But that might be because I never try. Or because I think in my head that I can't.

So I opted for the safe route, doing the workout by myself on slower intervals.

Stupid, stupid Beth.

Now why in the world would I have done that? Other than the fact that I was afraid of failing. But who the heck cares right? Who cares if I don't make the interval? Nobody!

I could have kicked myself. Not that my workout wasn't still challenging but why not aim a little higher? And who knows - maybe on their feet I could have swam 1:14s with 1 second rest.

When I got out of the pool I was angry with myself and disappointed in myself. And then Coach Jen told me "time to move up with those guys". Really? "Yep, you need to try and swim on their feet if you want to get faster". UGH!!!

I've been wanting to try to move up lanes for a bit now but for some reason I keep getting in the same lane every time I go to practice. It's not a big deal I know, but for some reason I am making it a much bigger thing than it is! I'm not sure what I'm waiting for. A hand delivered invitation? Someone to walk me over and introduce me to the guys that swim in those lanes? I don't think so!!

So I made a promise to myself to swim with those guys the next time I go to masters (Monday) and every time there after. No excuses. My coach wrote to me in an email the other day "Beth - you are a good swimmer and you better start believing that." Yes Coach, must start to believe...

So that's my swimming saga as it continues. :) I did have a great bike ride yesterday evening. It was hot but good training for my upcoming races! Not surprisingly I thought a lot about swimming while I was riding. I'm not really a big thinker and I don't over analyze things ever. But swimming has been on my mind lately. Or shall I say - always!

This morning, more swimming! Just an easy, short workout. And this evening some lifting. Working on those chicken arms of course... :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:01 PM | Comments (2)

September 3, 2008

Installment #2

Today's pictures are from the high school era. I actually think both of these are from the fall of 1995 which would have been my junior year in high school. I'm not positive though.

Anyway, that year was sort of a rough one for me. Or, more accurately, it started off roughly. I was injured ALL STINKING SUMMER long with IT band issues. I could look back in my running logs to be certain but I'm pretty sure I didn't run from early June until about mid to late August. But wouldn't you know I ended up having a great cross country season! By late October/early November I had raced myself into some pretty good shape and I was still really fresh mentally and physically because of the forced rest over the summer. That summer taught me a couple things. One being that the benefit of stretching well after each and every workout is major. That injury in and of itself got me started on my stretching routine that I still do to this day. After each and every workout.

And I also learned that injury, as frustrating and evil as it may seem, is sometimes a blessing in disguise. And that rest, forced or otherwise, might be more important than working hard for some people.

Anyway, I present to you the gals of Greensburg Salem High School in their mesh, basketball shorts. Yes, we won a state championship wearing those very shorts. :) I'm #35. In the second picture my friend and teammate Rachel and I are racing up the hill on our home cross country course. In the background you can see 2 girls dressed in the blue of our huge rival school Hempfield. It just so happens that O is a Hempfield alum. I still can't believe I married the enemy... :)

Anyway, speaking of running - I did some this morning. Hard running that is. Long interval fartlek. In the dark, cool morning which I think is my favorite! Running in the dark is kind of sketchy but I think it always gives you the sensation of running faster than you really are, which isn't such a bad thing! Regardless, the workout went well. When I was done I was pooped!

Then I went to work. One of the trauma patients I saw today wrecked his car into a tree because he started choking on something he was trying to eat while he was driving. Mental note, no more eating when I'm driving. Seriously, two hands on the wheel and eyes facing forward at all times! That is my PSA for the day! :)

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 6:50 PM | Comments (4)

September 2, 2008

Scanner Happy

Today, after 5 long weeks of being a pool hopper, MY POOL FINALLY OPENED AGAIN!!!!! Oh joyous day!!!!! All is well with the universe again. Life is good. I am one happy girl.

In other news, I got my hands on a scanner. This could be trouble. O's aunt and uncle have one and when we were at their house last night for part II of Labor Day Family Celebrations I put that thing to work! I wanted to have digital copies of some of my pictures from back in the day when things like film existed and digital cameras did not. Weird.

So I thought I would put some of these "old" pictures on my blog also. But because they have absolutely no order to them (I was picking very random pics from a span of about 20 years) and because I don't want to overload either you or my blog, I'll just post one a day.

Installment #1: (a *really* old one)

Very few might know that I grew up riding horses. And I loved it! Both my sister and I showed horses for many years before running took over. This is me on my (not really mine - we didn't own him) pony Soup. Don't ask about the name because I don't have any idea whatsoever. I don't know for sure how old I am here (any ideas Becky or mom?) but I'm going to guess 7 or 8? I look kind of small. Anyway, Soup and I were quite a combo and did well together. He was a good little guy!

What a blast from the past!

Anyway, back in the present, training has been going well. Yesterday I had an evil bike workout that consisted of really hard bike intervals on the trainer with very little rest. That is about the hardest combination I can think of. But it went well and I only lost about 5 lbs of sweat instead of the usual 10. :) I also ran yesterday - a nice 6.5 miler with O.

This morning I was rearing to go to get back in my pool! (notice I call it "my" pool when indeed I have no ownership of it whatsoever; nevertheless, it's a hard habit to break) But first I had a PT appointment. New exercises at PT this morning that I will admit were rough! They involved balancing and a big Swiss ball and...well...I may or may not have ended up on the floor a time or two!

After PT I drove over to the YMCA and did a little jig as I entered the pool. It felt like a reunion! All my old peeps and the pool that looked...well...exactly like it looked about 5 weeks ago! I asked what they did to it to which the lifeguard told me they painted it. Oh. I would never notice something like that anyway, unless of course, they had painted polka-dots on the bottom. I was secretly hoping they had used the past 5 weeks to install a hot tub but this turned out not to be the case. Bummer. But still, no complaints here!

I started things off with a nice 4K swim. It was awesome! (well, as awesome as 800 repeats could be...) and I felt strong and fluid in the water. The water was tasting a little funky and left me smelling worse than usual when I went home, but again, no complaints here (unless I start growing another ear...)

After the swim I did my easy run in the water (30 minutes). I usually run 5 days/week but since my hamstring and feet are to the point in the season where they hate me and protest running like none other, one of these runs (the easy, short one) is now in the water. My hamstring is amazing me in that it's really hanging in there so I'm very, very pleased. About 3 weeks ago I thought I was in serious trouble with it as it was really hurting and running was making it much worse. But somewhere along the way it started to behave and now although I still feel some pain it's manageable, it's not getting worse and I haven't missed any running workouts at all. This makes me smile. Now of course it could all change tomorrow... :)

Next up after the water running was a weights session. And then finally, home sweet home for that chicken sandwich that I had been thinking of all morning!

And now, I am off to make dinner. Yes, I am actually going to MAKE something. I'm not much of a cook, that's for sure. And so O and I stick to really easy and often times quick (who has time to cook something when you are hungry NOW!!!) things. Stuff like spaghetti, grilled chicken, hamburgers, stir fry and lots of fruits and veggies. Of course let us not forget pizza night.

But every once in a while I get a hankering to try something new and different. And the one thing about being a dietitian is, I get LOADS of crap...er...useful information in the mail about cooking healthy and receipes, etc... I guess these companies think dietitians can cook or something... :) Anyway, I got a magazine the other day that had some good looking receipes that had very minimal ingredients and easy directions. That's one of my requirements. If the ingredient list is really long with weird stuff on it - no dice. And if there are complicated directions with words I don't know, again - no dice. So we'll give it a shot tonight. And if it doesn't turn out good, there's always pizza night one day early... :)

Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 4:01 PM | Comments (2)

August 31, 2008

Done, Done and DONE!

O and I have been on a tear today. If it needed done - we did it! Cleaning entire house? Check. Grocery shopping? Check. Yard work? Check. (okay, I wasn't much help on that front) Bathing, brushing teeth and giving medicine to dog (aka Roxy)? Check. Doing training? Check. Going to DQ when all was done to celebrate? Check. Watching IM Kentucky? Check. (seemed like quite a brutal day for all involved)

And now I'm pooped! But so glad it's all done so tomorrow we can enjoy our day. I have 2 workouts to complete in the morning and then we are off to see family (my grandfather and then O's entire family) for Labor Day celebrations!

And then on Tuesday...yes...this Tuesday coming up...MY POOL WILL BE OPEN AGAIN! Did I hear applause? When I was at my YMCA on Friday to lift weights I took a stroll by the pool and saw water in it. Yes, that's right. WATER IN THE POOOOOOLLLLL!!! My excitement cannot be contained.

In other news, today is my mom's birthday! Happy birthday mom!

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:49 PM | Comments (1)

August 30, 2008

Never Ending Pasta Bowl Strategy

College football is back! And, I must say, off to a very good start. Today Penn State won and Pitt lost. There is no better scenario. Despite what my mom thinks, Pitt is NOT it. And quite frankly I like it when they lose. I say this because Pitt fans are such talkers and I have to hear their yapping all the time about how they have a championship team. Um...no. Not even close.

So yes! Fall is certainly on it's way. But today's weather would give no indication of that. Why you ask? Well, because it was HOT today. And humid. O and I swam this morning and then I went for my 3:30 brick. I was quite a sweaty mess of salt by the time that was done! But it went well and I survived and when I got back I drank about 3 gallons of water!

In other news, O and I went to the Never Ending Pasta Bowl at the Olive Garden tonight. Now in the case that you don't know what this is, I'll fill you in. For $8.95 (at least that's what it costs around here...maybe it's more elsewhere?) you can have as much pasta as you can stomach. There are different pasta choices (penne, angel hair, whole wheat linguine, etc...) and different sauce choices (alfredo, meatsauce, five cheese marinara, etc...) and you can just mix and match and go to town. I suppose the name explains it all.

So of course my problem is, the initial bowl (which is regular size) is enough to do me in and I never get around to trying the other stuff! It should be noted that the "refill" bowls are much smaller. So today I went in with a plan. A Never Ending Pasta Bowl Strategy if you will. I was going to ask the waitress if it was possible that I started with the smaller bowl size so that I wouldn't get full with the intial dish (and the salad and breadsticks) and would then get to try different combos. And that's exactly what I did. But apparently they don't play that game. You have to start with the big size. Hmmm...strategy wrecked!

Oh well. I still had a good showing with one additional bowl of pasta. But O...WOW...he really brought his "A" game! He had THREE additional bowls of pasta after the initial big one. Now that is some serious eating! And he looked strong the whole way. Impressive if you ask me. We wanted to ask our waitress the record for number of bowls of pasta ordered but we chickened out because she really wasn't that friendly and didn't seem to be in the best of moods. And I think she already thought we were weird.

But either way, it was fun. And filling. My glycogen stores are definitely restocked!

Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:34 PM | Comments (4)