Good Swim!

No fins. No falling behind. No (well almost no) pain. This is progress.  And that was 3 swims in 4 days. Nice. I feel very positive. And I was making the intervals of the next lane up. So encouraging. And it was a consistent 18 strokes now. Not sometimes. Coming along. Coming along. Even got some praise from Lisa. So all in all, an excellent swim!

Twelve hours into this day and I haven't had anything bad to eat yet. Let's see if I can get through the next three....no wine, no sugar....no wine, no sugar....no wine, no sugar....

One last run for good luck!

My buddy Mindy has her hip surgery on Thursday, so today was our last run together for a while. It will be lonely in the morning without her. And harder to get up at 5:00 without her to meet. But the most important thing is for her to get better and we will be back at it again! Good luck Mindy!!!!!

Sea World, Here I Come!

Ohhhh, my flip turns are improving!!! Had some really stellar-feeling ones today. No telling what they looked like from the deck, but they sure felt great, and I popped up past the flags. Before you know it I'll be flipping like Shamoo!

We worked with a new coach this morning. At least for me he was new. And there were only 3 of us in the lane, with only 2 of us working on these turns. So we spent some quality time on it. And God bless the coach, he must have been soaked by the end. He was down on the deck demonstrating, fully clothed, hanging over the edge telling us exactly where and how to place our feet.

We also learned some new tricks on our stream-lining that worked like a charm. Happy to report using this technique, and my wider arms, my stroke count went down a few strokes! I have no idea what a good stroke count is for 25 yards, but I'm down from 22 to 18. That must be a good thing I'm thinking. Less effort to cover the same distance.

Yesterday I kept on smacking the lane lines trying to keep my arms wide...today, that was not an issue. Which is good since my fingers are still a little red from yesterday's abuse. So even that is an improvement. 

And the last piece of good news is that my shoulder feels OK, even after TWO consecutive days of swimming. Life is good. I now believe I will be able to get a steady chlorine fix 3-4 times a week. This makes me so very happy!

Lane Twoooooooo!

Need I say more?

It was a big kick to get invited to lane two today. Of course, Joe was in lane three. And leading. While I was at the back of the bus in lane two. So clearly there is work to be done to keep up with my hubby. A year ago, I was ahead of him. Grrrrr.

Challenging workout. Hung in there till my shoulder got too painful. But still worked hard. Hope it was hard enough to have deserved the piece of chocolate cake I just had.... :)

Planning to swim again tomorrow. This will be my first time trying two days in a row...we'll see how it goes. Particularly after a late night with the Oscars and popcorn.

I swear, tomorrow is the day I get discipline....

One month to go...

The Flushing Meadows 13.1 is exactly one month from today. I've got some work to do to attain my goal. Dana and I met this morning and got most of our miles in before the rain. I stayed a bit longer and did 12. By the time I finished, the mist was getting heavier, but it had not actually started raining, for that I am grateful. As well as for Dana's company!!

So my time today was not where I wanted it to be, but it wasn't horrible either. With some diligence and some restraint, I may still be able to pull this off and reach my goal. I'll consider it a success today since I was concerned about finishing 12 after last week's debacle. Not only did I finish, but I finished strong. And I even got laundry done and entertained all afternoon. Last year at this time the long runs would finish me for the day. I was good for nothing. I'm so glad that I am stronger now...that is a success in and of itself.

I've taken off two of the three Vegas pounds. But I can do better....every pound that is not hitting the pavement for 13.1 miles is less wear and tear on the feet and ankles. So here's my resolution....for the next month, no wine...can't afford those calories. (I'll still have chocolate...can't afford to give that up during final yearbook deadline season...I'd go out of my mind for sure...one must have a vice for yearbook final deadlines...at least one vice!)

How I came to be a "Happy Highlighter."

Well, today was scheduled as my rest day. For which I was supremely grateful when the alarm when off at 6:18 instead of 5:50!

Since I have no special workout stories to report, and not planning any new meals to try out and report on, it seemed like a good time to define my blog title.

Two years ago, I bought a neon apple green jacket to run in. I got it when I started RunSmart and wore it to the first training day. (It was 7 degrees that day. I wondered what I had gotten myself into.) On the second training day, it was a wee bit warmer, but not much. So I had on my jacket again. And lo and behold, there was a woman wearing the same one.  It was either that day or the next week that we met Lauren, wearing a neon orange jacket. We fell into step together and have been running buddies ever since. To quote Lauren, "We look like a package of highlighters running together!"

Since then, I have added lots of bright exercise clothes to my wardrobe, and have had fun selecting some of the brightest items I can find. (Although, nothing beats Lauren's current running shoes!) And I have lost 30 pounds. Both very positive outcomes of that first January day with Debbie Blair and company. For those of you who do not live close and have never seen what a spectacle I am first thing in the morning, Joe has taken a photo of me in my pink/purple/green/yellow winter outfit. This should provide you with at least a smile, if not a chuckle, for the day.

As for the "Happy" in The Happy Highlighter...I am one lucky person to have found so many good people to share my fitness journey with. I am happy to be on the journey, to be setting a good example for Natasha, to be feeling good, to be enjoying life!!

Yippee.

A new day today. A nice run with Mindy. (At a brisk 26 degrees...that part wasn't so nice) And the fastest mile was the last mile. None of them were blazing of course...but that wasn't the goal for the day. The goal was simply to run an even pace for 3 miles and a faster 4th. Goal met. Check for the day.

And for a change, not a lot hurts today. Which is surprising since the shoulder kept me awake and tossing and turning for much of the night.

Special swim clinic tonight. So that is a bonus for the day!

Better attitude. I guess both Mindy and Barbara are right. There are good days and bad days. I'm glad today is one of the good ones! I will try to be more patient the next time a bad day comes around. Hopefully not for a while!

Wishing all my friends a good day today as well!!!

Great Expectations

OK, well, a meteor did not strike in the night. Today was a new day. I arrived at the pool armed with my oatmeal and a determination not to use fins at all, unless we did kicking, which we do not usually do on a Wednesday. I expected to have a great swim. It was not meant to be. :(

The workout was interesting. Working on flip turns. Excellent, I need all the help I can get with those. Then working on bilateral breathing with  9 x 75s, incorporating flips at the walls. Ugh. My head was pointed down nearly every time. What was I doing wrong?????? I'm getting close enough, I'm connecting with both feet. I'm shoving with all my might. It must be I'm opening up too early is my guess. Maybe I'll try to get there early next week and work on those by myself. I get so nervous I'm going to bang into someone when in the lane with others.

Then we did 800s. The plan was to do two. I left after the first. I guess maybe I expect too much of myself, I don't know. But I wasn't keeping up. I expected to get lapped. I wasn't wearing fins like our leader. And then there was one of the coaches in our lane (what was that about?) so clearly he would be much faster. And then there is another guy that is definitely faster. So I expected it. I was OK with it, given the company I was in. But I did not expect them to finish and not let me turn at the wall. Man, I was polite and tried to make it easy for them to pass me, thereby falling further behind, I think the least they could have done was let me use the wall for my final couple of turns. With two laps to go for me, they took off for the next one. I did not even know there was an interval we were trying to make. I heard the coach say we were to take our time and concentrate on our form, which is what I was doing.

Maybe I just can't do this. Maybe I started this too late in life. Maybe I need private lessons. Maybe I'll always be slow. Maybe I'm just PMSing.

I got out, in tears, nuff said.

No Pain, No Gain

All right, the scale was kinder to me today. Rejoice. Rejoice. However, not for long...Natasha and I went to Pizza Hut tonight. I think I'll skip the scale altogether tomorrow. :(

Evidently, that monster swim with racing at the end yesterday tuckered me out. I was struggling through my intervals today...but I did manage to finish strong.

Then I got on the situp bench to do my damn situps. Holy smokes, they were hard. Oh. Duh. I had it inclined too much. Maybe that's why I was so sore from the sets on Sunday. Once I put it down a notch, I was able to get through them. Everything hurts. This fitness stuff is wearing me out...I'm ready for my foam roller, my ice pack and bed and it is not even 9:00 yet. I'd take a bubble bath first, but I'd just fall asleep and drown, I'm sure of it.

Clearly not one of my more hearty, optimistic days on the fitness front. But, provided no meteors hit my house during the night, I can try again tomorrow. :)

Back in the Game

So, a tremendous 90 minutes of swimming (2700 yards) today and better discipline with my food, we'll see if the scale is kinder to me tomorrow than it was yesterday!

It was a great workout and we finished up a few minutes early...Lisa said we could do whatever we wanted for the remaining time, so clearly, I wanted to race! There is something very satisfying about a really strong finish to a workout. Even if it means I will go to sleep with an ice pack on my shoulder shortly.

Thanks to Mary Elizabeth for always being ready to race...she is kind to humor me all the time. First race was with fins. A win for me. Yay. Next two were without fins. Two wins for her. But close. Still Yay.

For dinner tonight, we made Lentil Tacos for the first time. There were outstanding. Thanks to Dana for sharing the recipe. Here's the link if you are interested: http://www.runnersworld.com/recipes/lentil-tacos. 

They may be especially welcome on Fridays the next few weeks. LENTil Tacos. Lent, get it? OK, time for bed.

Home Sweet Home!

Wow. I am again amazed at how many people are following my fitness journey. While I was in Vegas for our annual meeting, many people commented on the blog and some asked about the lack of posts while away from home. Really. For folks who have known me since before my 40th birthday, this is nothing short of miraculous...that I would be so into getting fit and leading a healthy lifestyle. To be thought of as inspirational in this regard a decade ago would have been laughable. But the best is that you all inspire me to keep at it!!! To make better decisions. To stay true to the goals I have set.

There were no posts while I was away simply because the internet in my room was so flaky. I did in fact make time to exercise 4 times. Although I have to admit that it was with a lesser intensity. The night I arrived in Vegas, I had a small scare. Poor Joe, I even called him in the middle of the night. I was convinced that I had a blood clot from flying on the plane. (OCD anyone???) After a long night of being afraid to fall asleep, I got up the next day feeling pretty normal. Crisis averted. Whew.

The gym at the hotel was actually pretty nice for a hotel gym. However, it was easily 1,000 degrees in there, which made it less than desirable to go all out as well. I got in two run days and two elliptical days. (The pool was closed for the season. How dare they??) Did some core work. Did my shoulder exercises. All of this was good.

All of the eating and drinking was bad. Very bad.

I managed to make good choices for breakfast each day. So I started out with the best intentions...oatmeal, oatmeal, and more oatmeal. With a smattering of eggs for protein. And lunch was relatively controlled as well. Dinner on the other hand. Wine, wine, and more wine. What was so much fun while away was a nightmare when I got home and faced the scale. Just imagine if I had not stuck to my oatmeal for breakfast!!!

And then I set out for the long run yesterday. Planning on 12 miles. Yeah. Right. Did 8.4 and threw in the towel. So upset with myself. Three pounds heavier. Didn't work hard enough. One week and all my recent progress feels like it was flushed down the toilet. I could honestly weep. (I wonder how many calories that would burn??? Perhaps I should give in to the urge!)

So, therefore, today we start again. If at first you don't succeed and all that....

Up and on the elliptical. Kept the strides per minute at 180. No backing off. No way. No how. Situps on an incline. All the other routine weight stuff and shoulder stuff. Protein drink for breakfast. Toast with hummus for a snack. Salad for lunch. Planning soup for dinner. 24 oz of water down the hatch and the day is still young.

Only 5 weeks till the Flushing 13.1. Goal is to reduce time by over 3 minutes. I must, I must, I must stay focused. What's done is done. There are no do-overs. I'm done beating myself up. Today is day one, all over again. So far, so good.

Music to my ears!

Second swim day this week. The first time I go only two days apart. I was a little apprehensive, but since I'm going away tomorrow, it seemed better to attend practice than not to. When I arrived, the women in the locker room all agreed it was a bit of a monster workout. Great. OK, well, let's see what I can handle.

After 250 yards warm up, I got out to stretch the shoulder a bit. That was a good move. It felt better when I jumped back in. The workout started with 12 50s. Getting progressively faster. Managed to make all the intervals, no fins. Pretty pleased. Shoulder felt stressed but not painful. OK. What's next?

Drills you say? Fine with me. We did some of those, probably about 200 yards worth. Now what?

400s. Oh really? Isn't that special? On 8:30? Really? OK, here we go. It seemed like I missed the first interval somehow. Which I don't understand since I passed two people who were wearing fins. But to be safe, I put on the bloody fins for the next two. Of course, then I had too much rest time. Oh well. OK, Amy. We're ready for whatever is next on the damn sheet. More speed work? Dear God.

8 25s, 4 50s, 6 25s, 3 50s, 4 25s, 2 50s, 2 25s, 1 50. Thank you sweet Jesus I have to get out early for an appointment!!! I'll see how many of them I can do before I have to leave. And we're off.

Then it happened. What I've been waiting for and aspiring to all this time. It doesn't matter that it was simple logistics to even out the lanes. It doesn't matter that they were swimming the same intervals at that point. I heard her say it. Coach Amy said it. She even repeated it. "Jacqui, why don't you go to lane 2?" I damn near tap danced on top of the water from lane one to lane two!! That made my day for sure, maybe even my week.

So now I must work hard to be worthy of being with the faster folks. I'm one lane further away from her, so maybe she won't notice if I don't breathe to both sides, I'll go faster just to the right. Yeah, right. That was a pipe dream. The rest of the workout sounded like this:

Jacqui, kick the feet. Big splash the whole length of the lap.

Jacqui, breathe both sides.

(Damn, she doesn't miss a thing)

Jacqui, kick up and down, you're separating when you breathe.

Jacqui, finish the stroke.

(Damn, doesn't anyone make any mistakes???)

JACQUI, BOTH SIDES!!!

(Damn, I'm going to change my name)

Don't get me wrong, I love it when Amy coaches. And I love all the corrective measures. I'm determined to get faster and this is how to do it. All the same, I was happy when the guy behind me mentioned the time and I realized it was time for me to go.

Final calculation for the morning was 2500 yards. Nice.

Up, Up and Away!!!

Yes, the treadmill was on an incline today. So was the situp bench. I wonder just how bad I'll be hurting tomorrow because of it. It is amazing to me how a .5% incline could make a difference at all. But it most certainly did. It's been long overdue, so I'm glad I did it.

Shoulder feels OK after a pretty steady workout in the pool yesterday. So much so, that I even forgot to ice it. That must be a good sign. :)

Fell off the healthy eating wagon the last couple of days. Between the superbowl (which just begs for junk food) and the death of one of Joe's friends (which just begged for a bottle of red wine and gourmet cheese, then chocolates at 10 PM) I'm feeling kind of guilty. Tried to get back on it today. Have been marginally successful. Joe made us a fabulous dinner tonight that counts as healthy and it was so yummy.

 http://greatist.com/health/quinoa-breakfast-bake-healthy-recipe/

Staying focused. The night of the blue dress is one week from tonight.  And I can assure you one and all that I do not want to have to wear one of those spanks thingys under it!!! I didn't pack one, so I'll be in trouble if I indulge every whim. Give me strength!!!

Zumba with Natasha and Phoebe

If we weren't taking turns, this could actually be a quality exercise! And fabulous entertainment...for them, watching me. Good grief I am such a klutz. But it was fun, and I did burn a couple hundred calories. There's something to be said for hanging out with the teens, it makes you try pretty hard to not look like an old fool.

Since my last posting, I had a nice run with Mindy on Thursday. Nothing stellar to comment on. Just good exercise, good companionship.

Then on Friday was a swim day. Felt good, kept up for a long while with no fins. Then, when we got ready to do some speed work, I did put them on. By then the shoulder was tired and I'm trying hard to heed the warning signs. So, even though it feels like cheating, I donned the fins. Coach Brian said the magic word, "race." And made my day. He pitted me against Mary Elizabeth in lane two. Mary Elizabeth is like Michael Phelps to my Ryan Lochte. She is the one I always want to beat. And for the love of God, she is 15 years older than me, so really, really, I should be able to. With fins, sometimes I can. Without fins, she kicks my butt. I am determined to catch her though.

So, it was me and her. Yup. I'm ready. We both have fins on. Watching the clock. Good push off. Three strokes before the first breath. Where is she. Dead even. OK great. Here comes the first wall. Turning is harder with these damn fins. Off the wall with an OK shove. Shit, now I have to breathe to my left to check on her. That will slow me down, I'll not risk it now. What is this? Someone's in my way? How is that possible? I'm leading. Must be someone from the last 100 not finished. Good God, move over and let me pass! Ok, by her. Here comes the next turn. Holy crap. Is that someone resting? In the middle of the wall? This is not good. Weak push since I was at a bad angle. Now I can look for her, breathing to my right. Where is she? Where is she? Too many people going the other way. Can't find her yellow cap. Last turn coming up. Make it good. OK, not bad. Now drive for home. Breathe every five and I'll be able to check on her. Except. Ow. A foot in the face. Someone is actually doing a breast stroke kick in a hard 100...what the?????? Last few feet to touch the wall. Pop my head up, a breath, look to my left. She has certainly been finished a while. Damn it. I want a rematch!!! In an empty lane. But nope, I'm being told to get my shoulder out of the water. Grrrrrr.

Got in 11 miles yesterday, kept a nice pace for a lot of it. Very pleased. For starting out without a plan, it worked out pretty well. First I ran to the school where Natasha and Brittany were waiting for the bus to leave for the county bowling tournament. Popped onto the bus to wish them luck. Then I made my way to Eisenhower where I was just a couple minutes late of joining the Runsmart group. But I circled in the opposite direction to catch them. Then I found someone running the pace I was at. His name is Mark and I'll look for him in two weeks. Mindy gave me a ride part of the way home and I finished with a strong 2.5 miles. Felt great. Kept going all day. It used to be that 11 miles would do me in and I was good for nothing afterwards. So happy that is no longer the case.

Bowling tournament was postponed since there was no electricity at the place. So we didn't have to stand around on tired legs all day. That was good. But it is rescheduled for Thursday, during school. Crazy. And I will be on my way to Vegas for work, so I'll end up missing it. Boo.

The challenge for the next few days is to have real good quality workouts since I will be away for a whole week and who knows what I'll get in for exercise...not to mention the tempting bad eating!