Howdy - I'm Back

I finally have some things to write about. Sorry those of you following my fitness write ups - there hasn't been much to say since I am stuck at home with my young dog during his post-surgery recovery. I have gotten out to run twice - need to record that in my fitness log. It was stinking hot on Friday when I ran. I felt like I was running through pea soup.

I have not been on the bike for weeks and my IT Band feels fantastic! So I do think that my cycling days are over and I will probably be selling my bikes for extra cash. Anyone interested? I have a gorgeous RED Specialized Allez with carbon forks, seatstays, with ZERT inserts. The bike is amazing - love it. It was my racing bike. I might keep my trainer bike though - just in case. I can't seem to totally give up on cycling. Have to admit, running is much easier. Only gear required are the sneaks and the Ipod.

Agility is going ok. My ONLY competition dog is dropping bars. I'm a bit frutrated by this; I carried him out yesterday for dropping bars and he decided to keep all the bars up in Grand Prix. I need this Q, it was the last Q to get him qualified for Nationals. YAY! He is totally Qd now. I am really not in the mood to drive all over creation, waste gas and entry fees to carry him out for dropping bars. Oh well, this year will be a year of getting his head straight. He is a super fast, super athletic boy so it will be worth it in the long term.

What a Beautiful Day!

Went for a run and remembered to take my IPod and Nike Plus equipment so I could track my results. I love that little piece of gear. It talks to me and I definitely push a bit more when I wear it.

I twisted my ankle on Saturday at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and could barely run my dog at this trial on Sunday. I iced it, elevated it, wrapped it and by Monday morning, it felt great so I thought I would try it out today. I wrapped it and went. Felt great. My left hamstring, however, was very tight so I will be doing lots of stretching today.

Tonight is our first outdoor LAX practice. This should be interesting. I have no idea what I am doing and am sure I am of no help at this point but Devin loves that I am out there with him. I guess that is important for now.

Robbie, my young Border Collie, has his xray appt on Thursday. We are checking for OCD or any other issues in his shoulders and elbows. He seems off in the front end after exercising so I need to check this out further. He has already been seen by a PT and a Chiro Vet. After his adjustment on Wednesday, he is showing improvement but I also have not done any agility training with him and will not until after the xray results are done. I hate waiting but I need to rule out any issues with his joints.

The weather is beautiful today - the perfect Spring weather to get outside and shake off the Winter blahs!

General Update - Post Weekend

I have hives today - not sure why but in order to not scratch the entire top layer of my skin off, I have to take Benadryl which leaves me "out of it". I probably won't be up to working out. I may reconsider later. I truly NEED sprint work.

I've been working terribly hard to develop some endurance that my sprinting is suffering. Why do I need sprint speeds - I'm certainly not going to try out for the Olympic team any time soon. BUT I need to have good off the line speeds for agility. I ran Gusto on sprint turf yesterday and he kicked my ass. I couldn't keep up with him - not that I can run as fast but I can cut lines to catch him and I couldn't even do that yesterday! My legs felt unresponsive to the quick burst request coming from my brain.

I'm thinking if my hives improve, I'll do some sprint work today. I'll do it on the treadhell though because I am feeling a tad off balance from the Benadryl.

I will be uploading some pictures later after I am done charging my cam batt - it died. Rosanne took some shots of Boochie (one of Robbie's nicknames) and I got some cute shots of my favorite girls - Pearl and her daughter, Seri.

Keep On

Keeping on. What a great saying. That's my motto right now.

I'm glad I have been tracking my workouts. I went back over the past several weeks and looked at them and realized that I am making progress. YAY!

Someone once told me that everyone needs a theme song for their life. It should be a song that picks you up when you are down or makes you smile. I need to ponder this one and see if I can come up with a great song. I am not sure I will actually post the results of my pondering though - it might be embarrassing.

The Dawn of a New Day

I woke up with a sore back which actually started the night before. Wasn't sure how much I could do on my "run" day. I taught my agility class and worked my 2 boy dogs and found that moving around loosened up my tight muscles. I felt much better after I worked my dogs. PLUS they were FABULOUS today. I could list all the things they did well but it might be a bit boring so I will just end the dog training note on a "wow". Picked up my spirits from my whining mood yesterday.

The bike behaved itself today. I was even in the same room with it and I listened to it calling for me to get on and go but I emphatically said NO - I will not cave to your ramblings, you evil beautiful red bike. I behaved myself and just did a light day on the treadmill. Mostly a brisk walk with a few short jog sessions just to test the legs. My lungs feel good - it's the body that feels sort of abused.

The mind is willing so the body will eventually follow - with care.

Warning - I'm Whining, Just a TAD

I've been doing combination of walk/run/walk/run now for about 1 month. My goal is to be able to run 3 miles continuously without stopping. Not a strenuous goal, not even a large goal. But I confess it is much harder than I thought. I've been very dedicated to this goal - not skipping a running day at all and I do some light cycling on my "off" days to maintain my fitness level.

I now remember precisely why I stopped running back in 2004. IT HURTS! Yes, I'm whining - just a little bit. Running is not easy or everybody would do it. I am definitely feeling that "why can't I cycle" emotion right now. My darn IT Band gets inflamed from any serious cycling which doesn't seem to be the case with running. But because of my tendency towards IT Band issues, I am going very cautiously at building my running program.

I went online to do some research on the best way to build my training program. It is a bit discouraging to know that I am behind the recommendations to date. I'm using my body as a guide though so I have been reluctant to follow a real plan YET. I am going to park the "follow a stinking plan" idea for a few more weeks while I continue to build and allow my body to adapt to the pounding that running requires.

I haven't sold my racing bike yet - I just can't seem to give up that dream. I realize that I will probably never ride it again but I still have hope. I confess, every time I go into the room, the race bike calls my name. No, it is not an inanimate object. It used to talk to me on my rides - we were like one.

Maybe I should move it to the basement in an effort to quiet the voice. No - I will not be selling it; not any time soon, maybe never. While I try to quiet the sound, I will keep running, crawling, walking, pounding ever on to my new goal. And remind myself that this is a fresh start, brand new and one that doesn't require the threat of broken bones to get my blood pumping. It only requires the right attitude and the same perseverance that race training required.

I can do this! Failure is not an option.

No Snot Sickles

The highs are only supposed to be around 32 degrees and after spending the morning in my unheated training building teaching and working my own dogs, my hands do not want to work.

Since I have no desire to learn how to blow snot sickles; I will get on the dreaded, evil treadmill.

Wish me luck - I hate that thing, it wants to dump me off the back whenever it feels like it. It is like a bucking bronco and I am not like a cowgirl. I'll just have to strap myself on and go for a ride.

Motivation

I was on Marcy's blog today and her post rings so true. Find ways to keep motivated through the Winters in the Northeast. They can be pretty brutal.

One of my biggest motivators is ESCAPE. Escape from my crazy house.

One of my second biggest motivators is the workout log. I know - I sound like a geek. I need to see the numbers climb.

My third biggest motivator is fitting in to my jeans.

My motivator for working my dogs - the insanity in my house. I have peace right now because I worked 2 of them up at my training building. This peace will be short lived though - Devin gets home from school in a few hours and the racous begins anew. Living with him is like living with Troy Polamalu. If you don't know who he is watch this video clip....he is the one with the long hair and in Black and Gold at the end - he plays for the Steelers:

I Ran, Sort Of

I finally stopped procrastinating and got outside for a run....sort of. It was more of a lift foot a little bit, drag the other forward, lift a bit, drag and keep repeating. Legs felt like lead. I kept thinking of that New Balance commercial that shows the love/hate relationship with running. I was NOT feeling the love today.

On a dog note - Robbie had his herding lesson yesterday. He was magnificant. I got to watch from the side as my instructor worked him. I really do not want to mess up his foundation. She moved him to the next largest field she has and he did a natural wide outrun. He is calm and keeps his sheep under control. It really is a beautiful thing to watch because he just knows what to do, no fighting him, no arguing, just poetry in motion. Truly beautiful. I need to get some short video clips so I can post them.

Alright I'll Run

The weather is bitterly cold. I think it is currently below 40 degrees. I need to motivate myself to get out and run. I REFUSE to run on a treadmill - would rather cut off my legs. I looked at my workout log and that is motivation - the mileage is embarrassing. I could hop on my indoor bike. I don't hate that like I do the treadmill.

It's supposed to flurry tomorrow. That's the kind of day I used to like to take the mountain bike out to a rail trail but confess that I do not feel like lifting the 35 lb monster onto the back of a vehicle. I also do not have a bike rack on my car - got a Mustang last year. No way am I gonna scratch up the Stang with the behemoth bike.

Alright - enough rambling and avoiding. I will sit and read my new book for a bit and wait for the temps to break 40 and then I am going out for a run.

Rain

Well the rain and drizzle and basic ugliness didn't deter me today. Today was a running day and I got out around 8:30 am. Went to a local park that has the trails marked in 1/4 mile increments. I still want a computer for tracking but this gave me some indicator on the distance. I think I ran approximately 1.25 miles with no stopping. Then I walked and stretched and ran again - at least .5 miles then walked then ran one more time. I probably did around 2 miles today. My legs felt super strong and I went at a pace that I could sustain. Not sure what that pace is, mind you, since I have no way of tracking it yet.

I did go out and buy some better running sneaks since mine were causing my foot to roll toward the outside which means the sneakers are weakening from all the training I put on them doing agility. The guy at the specialty running store told me to go to Wal Mart or similar place and get a GPS type running device. I plan to do that this weekend.

I have a need to know distance, speed, time, pace and whatever else I can track.

WOW!

I went to pick Devin up at his school and decided to drive my jogging route. Just to see how far I actually went both times that I ran in the last several days. I am shocked - it was over a mile. I thought for sure it would be some short little embarrassing distance. It isn't a marathon but then I'm not a distance runner. It was way longer than I thought AND it had hills.

I have a pedometer but it never worked right. I would like to get another one so I can track my runs. Distances, calories burned, time, speed. I had all those gadgets on my bike and I loved them and would like to be able to do the same thing for my runs.

My Winter project besides getting back into pre-injury shape is locating a photography class so I can learn how to use all the bells and whistles on my camera. I also want to get a zoom lense - for Christmas.

Feels Good

....to be home and doing normal non-agility things. I'm still playing with the dogs and exercising them and working Robbie on shadow-handling to help his outrun/herding behaviors. BUT the biggest thing that I am loving the most is regular non-agility exercise for ME.

I went for a run yesterday. My legs felt quite strong until I hit a hill. My new goal will be to make it up that hill in the next few weeks. Not sure how long I ran, I'm guessing less than 1.5 miles. I don't track that right now since I'm a sprinter and I need to build up endurance again. I will eventually want to work up to 5 miles. I've never actually been able to do it but that was prior to my cycling days.

I hopped on my indoor bike today and rode while watching an old Nancy Drew TV show. I went about 7 miles and stayed on for 45 minutes. Nothing too strenuous and nothing too fast - just pure calorie burning and easy pedaling.

Tomorrow is a day of rest. I need to plan out my weeks so I don't over do it but I have no agility shows planned until the end of December so I want to work out a schedule that allows me to fit all of this in and still have enough left in my legs to work the dogs.

I rode Barb's bike out in AZ. It is one of the folding types and not very stable so I couldn't ride fast. I borrowed Val's mountain bike and had a huge smile on my face. I think it was the highlight of my disastrous National experience. Next year, I plan to take more time off and do some sight-seeing. I do not want my whole trip to be about agility. You cannot control your experience, you cannot control your dog's excitement level so I need some fun stuff to make the trip worth the 2 weeks away from my family.

I am adjusting my goals for 2009. Not sure what they will be yet but I'm sure the answers will come after I run or ride. It clears my head.