March Review And A Switch To Weekly Goals

   I've decided for April (and probably the next few months) I'm not going to make goals for the month, instead I am going to do weekly goals.  

My reasons for this are:

1) I'm not sure how my knee is going to be feeling and exactly what is up with it so I don't want to make any mileage/  time goals for a month at a time, I'd rather take it week by week.  

     I ran 4 miles w/ my sis yesterday (she just signed up for the LI half with me! :D)  and once again right at mile 1 I started getting knee pain.  The positive is that when I got home I iced, stretched, and popped an anti-inflam and felt rocking the rest of the day.  The fact that I have had a lot less pain on a daily basis has me optimistic :) And I think hamstring stretching will help.

2)  With monthly goals there is a tendency to start with a bang and slowly taper off through out the month.  I still think I should be achieving more (in all areas) and I think setting new goals and evaluating my progress each week will help me stay on the ball.

       I'll be posting my goals for the week at the bottom of Monday posts and evaluating on Saturday/Sunday  (depending on when I write a post)

March Goal Review

 Goals directly from here.  How I did in bold italics.

 ~ 5k on  March 12th.  1st goal: Sub 21:52  2nd goal: Sub 21  21:00, I'll take it!

~ Increase my mileage by at least 10 over February's total of 67 I'm not even sure of my total mileage, but keeping healthy took precedent.  I had a rocking 8 miler though :D

~ Get on my bike!!!  Yes, I did!  I made it a mile and didn't  flop over onto the pavement, SUCCESS!!  I would have got on a bit more but the weather still stunk : /

~ Get in the pool more! No, not driving makes this one kind of hard.  I'm not worried though, my swim last month has me confident that I can still swim a decent distance and once work starts I will be swimming almost daily.

~ Keep studying for the ACE, I kinda slacked on this in Feb.   Mmhhmm I rocked this one.  Working more actually helped me with this one since I brought it with me and read on all my off periods. 

~ Still going for 30 push-ups  27.  Restarting the 100 push-up program soon.

~118 or bust   I'm right there, around 120, I lost a few lbs in the first 2 weeks of March and then maintained.  I think for my size this is a good way to do it, lose a little and then maintain before going for a few more.  

~Just all around Kick-Ass in everything :D This is very subjective, but Imma say yes, March was a good month for me.  

And I plan to keep my Daily Workout page updated, yell at me if I slack off!! :D  Ummm no I did not do this and you also did not yell at me!!  This week I'm on it!

Goals for the week 4/4- 4/10

  ~ Attempt a 9 mile run

  ~ 4 mile race on Sunday Goal: Sub 28 (sub 7 pace)

  ~ Schedule ACE test for May

  ~ Prepare for Disney in 2 weeks :)

  ~  Nighttime Abs & Arms at least 5 nights 

  ~ Track my workouts on DW page

  Thank you for all your nice comments on my BBM 8 video :)  I'm going to try and do a little intro on all my future BBM vids.  

     Matty O- I totally agree with hopping on the bar throughout the day and I usually do (some weeks I'm better than others).  As far as negatives go though, I've read they cause more micro tears than regular pull-ups;  therefore you should have a rest day in between for muscle recovery, thoughts?  

And since this post needs a pic:

Long summer days are approaching :D

Ryders Sunnies Winner :)

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:63
Comment #63 was from Allison at Just Tri and Finish!

Technical difficulties, but I want to get it up so it stays.  Also it was out of 169 when I random.orged it, but apparently when you copy and paste it, it goes back to 100.

  Congrats Allison :D   E-mail me at Nolan1009@gmail.com with the style you want (40$ range)  and your shipping address.

  The one thing I dislike about giveaways is that I want everyone to win, but thank you all for your kind comments :)  You may have just been sucking up ;), but I'm gonna take them as sincere anyway :D

   Knee report: I've taken 3 days off since my 2 mile run on Wednesday and I'm gonna give it a go tomorrow. 

  I wanted to write an actual post here as well, but I'm not feeling it right now and I need to get back to the intense Mets/Marlins game. 

Bikini Body Move #8~ Negative Pull-Ups

 Today I did something that I never thought I would work up the courage to do :D
    
       I talked on camera and I'm showing it to the world!!
   
     I don't think I can accurately describe how monumental this is in my little world.  I cringe at the thought of hearing my own voice, let alone taping myself talk and then listening back.  But I've wanted to add some intros and descriptions to these video so I've been taping myself every once in while to get used to hearing myself and get over my fear.  It worked :D  Let's Celebrate!! Blogging has truly been a huge boost to my confidence.

  Okay onto the actual move, let's see the video first: 

  That lovely pile behind me (I mostly cropped it out) is all the coats/ sweatshirts I pulled off the rack in order to get a clear shot of the pull-up bar.  Can't those go away yet :/

    As described in the video:
    ~Get to the top position of a pull-up (or chin-up as I'm doing) anyway you need to.  If you are just beginning you can use a chair to get to flexed arm hang position, or if you can get up there with a jump you can do it that way.
  
     ~Once in flexed hang position, slowly lower yourself back to dead hang.  Keep it as controlled as possible and try to keep it that like that all the way to dead hang.  The end is tough and I'm working on not dropping out in the bottom position.

Why this move rocks!
  Since the beginning of this blog I've been working towards getting the elusive *first* pull-up and it is not coming easy.  It is putting up a big fight, but I'm knocking it down little by little and victory will be mine :D

    In researching and asking those who CAN do a pull-up, "How do I do it!?!?,"   the negative pull-up has always been at the top of the list.  So if a pull-up/chin-up is one of your goals this exercise is for you!  And even if you don't necessarily have the desire to do a pull-up, this move will help strengthen your arms in the same manner pull-ups do.

  You can work these in by adding 3-4 negatives, 2-3 days a week and working up to a few more reps as you get stronger.  Try for a 5 second count on the lower, if you can't get that yet just work towards it.  Make sure to take a rest day in between to recover.  


    Gahh here goes publish, please don't make fun of my awkwardness ;)  In Serious though, people have made fun of my voice before :(, but also a 3rd grader told me it was cool a few weeks ago :D

ETA: YAYYYY METS TONIGHT!!!

Three Things Thursday

1) Thank you all greatly for taking the time to respond to my plea for advice :)  It was very helpful and I'm feeling optimistic about being back to pain free soon :D  I actually felt no pain at anytime today (so far, hopefully I didn't jinx myself)

  From your comments and some research I did, here is a list of possible causes for my knee pain:
~ I have extremely high arches
~  Although I'd like to think I have decent quad muscles, I also think my hamstrings/glutes are a lot stronger and could be causing an imbalance
~ I'm not big on stretching nor am I terribly flexible, so tightness could be a factor.
~ Or as Nelly pointed out, I ran that first mile (in which the pain first surfaced immediately after) too damn fast without warming up and strained something.

   All of the above have pretty straight forward solutions which I will be incorporating into my training.  And will hopefully keep me running.

2) Necessity is the mother of invention. 
  Necessity~ I have not a drop of wine in the house right now.
  Invention~ I've decided there is a great need for a company that delivers wine/beer/alcohol in the same fashion as Pizza and Chinese delivery.  Who wants to jump on the opportunity to get in on this at ground level with me :)

If you live in Toronto, you're in luck.

3) Nolan gladly took over the position of Ryders sunglass model since Matt refused:

DefCon Camo

He's gonna be trouble in a few years. 

(Kidding :), despite the punky faces he's the bestest :D)

Also, I think he stole SkinnyRunner's sunglass pose

Last chance to enter for your own pair here, giveaway ends tomorrow night.

A) These were spotted throughout the MS I subbed in today:

This one was a HUGE post-it in the teacher's lounge.

They were also all over the bathrooms.

You may remember I did my own here.

BlogMD

    I was hoping to report back after a few days rest with no knee pain and lots of sunshine and roses.  No such luck :(  I really don't have the luxury of going to a sport's doctor right now so I'm gonna go the inadvisable route of posting the specifics of my injury here and asking for suggestions.  Obviously no one here is a doctor (that I know of), but maybe one or some of you have had the same issue before and can lead me in the right direction.

Here is what I did last week and how it affected my knee:
- First felt pain 1 mile into my easy/medium 3 mile run last Tuesday, I ran the first mile a little too fast in 6:13 and hadn't warmed up at all.  (I ran a 6:13 bc I tried to start out at a cruise pace, looked at my garmin 1/2 mile in and saw 3:06. I then thought, "well, lets see what time I can finish this mile in."  As soon as I started mile 2 (way slower), knee pain :/
- Wednesday I took off
- Thursday I ran stairs for 25 minutes and felt no pain.
- Friday I ran on the treadmill, felt pain 1 mile in and stopped at 2
- Saturday 4-miler same thing, right at the 1 mile mark inner knee pain came back. I finished the 4, but haven't run since Sat.


  The pain is on inner-topish part and it does seem to swell out a bit, it is definitely more lumpy than the right side (after running)


   During the 3 days I took off from running I felt scattered knee pain.  The worst times were when I sat in the car (passenger) for 15-20 minutes and walking after that was painful for a while.  A lot of the time though I was fine.  I've been icing daily.  I haven't even been doing my planks (I've been afraid of the rigid straight position of the leg, but It'll probably be fine)  or other ab/arm exercises because most of them still involve the knee to some degree.


Nighttime Abs/Arms have been replaced with:

Wine is probably not the best recovery drink, but it makes me feel better temporarily ;)

  I'm getting back to abs/arms tonight, there are plenty of moves I can still do.  I've just been using my knee as an excuse to be lazy.  3 days off though and I'm feeling very soft so no more excuses.

    Someone suggested that it could possibly be Plica Syndrome.  I've looked into this and it is a definite possibility.  Has anyone here had experience with Plica?


   I ran 2 miles today to test things out; the first mile I felt very mild pain, the second mile it hurt more, but I noticed if I landed lightly on my toe and pushed off quickly I had little to no pain.  This of course means I am running at a much faster clip. After the run my knee had irritation and side of my left knee was significantly bigger than my right.   I've taken an anti-inflammatory and iced since finishing my run.


 This is totally bumming me out right now 'cause the temps are just starting to warm up, racing season is here and I am ready to crush some PRs


    Any insight on what could be causing my knee pain is appreciated :)


 On a happy/funny note: One of the search terms to my blog was "pics of 3k run pros" which led to my Self Indulgent Pre Race Pics.  Sure I'll consider myself a 3k pro, why not? :)


    And if you haven't entered my Ryders Sunnies Giveaway yet you have till Midnight Friday :D  I'm loving checking out all the awesome styles you guys like.  There seems to be a high preference for Hot Pink, I'm a fan :)  I'm just sad that I can only pick one winner : /

Ryders Sunglasses Review and Giveaway!

    I know I talk about the fact that I'm an Ocean Lifeguard on here a lot, I can't help it. . . it's what a live for.  The other 9 months of the year are just a countdown till beach season.  Okay not quite, I cherish everyday with my boys, but I cherish them even more when we're at the beach :D


     So of course when I was in contact with Devon from OutsidePR about reviewing Ryders Sunnies I was super beyond psyched :D

 The last decent sunglasses I invested in now look like this:

Two summers ago I came home from a night out, my parents had been babysitting Nolster, and found my Hobies in 3 pieces on top of my backpack.  I didn't even ask questions, I didn't want to sound ungrateful after they volunteered to watch him.

    Since the I've been wearing a variety of $5 sunglasses that are probably not doing any favors for my precious eyes.  My faves last year were gas station Wayfarer knockoffs with neon orange arms (as seen here).   They were cool for like a day and then I started hearing, "you're really gonna keep rocking those everyday, hunhh."   

    Enter Ryders to save me from the ridicule of my coworkers this summer!!

(Ok let's face it they will probably find a way to make fun of me anyway)

  I picked out 2 pairs of sunglasses, one for me and one for Matt (I had to convince him that there is some benefit to me posting bikini pics online ;)  And I was also sent another pair straight from Chris at Ryders for leaving a comment on their FB wall, what nice people over at Ryders!!  I still had a hard time narrowing down which ones I wanted, they have so many cute styles.

First Pair I chose:

Duchess Gloss Black, Polarized

I love me some huge movie star sunglasses

Plus they make me look about 70x cooler than I really am:

 Matt refuses to model for my blog so I will just say he looks crazy hot in these:

Camo Defcons

. . . and I think this color will look even sweeter (than they already do) on him once he's rocking a summer tan :D

Last Pair:

Grindhouse Blue Fade

I LOVE the Blue and White (and black speckles!) aspect of these, so much fun!

Note to Ryders: I am available for modeling :)

  Things I love about these glasses

~ The curve in the arm (is that what it's called?)  so they fit nicely to your head.  (It's really embarrassing when you look down and your sunglasses fall off your face. . . and off the stand. . . 8 feet down into the sand.  Not that I've ever had to say, "excuse me sir over there, could you please hand me my sunglasses.")

~ All the awesome colors; the blue fades are so vibrant :D

~ Great price for the quality

~ Some styles come with polarized lens (Makes watching the water a lot easier)

~ Variety of styles to suit everyone's tastes and needs (performance, fun, saving lives, lookin' good :D)  My next pair will be these:

Solace Tortiose

    My one suggestion to Ryders: Maybe more pics of the glasses, or someone modeling them (hint, hint ;).  It can be hard to pick out glasses online without seeing them in person/trying them on, more pics would help :)

Giveaway

    I am giving away one pair of Ryders Sunglasses.  Any style you like in the $40 range (which is any style with essential lenses).

   You do not need to follow to enter.  If you like what I post follow; if you don't,  you're not obligated :)

 

What you can do:

~ Leave a comment saying you want in (and how great I am ;) [or not])  +1

~ Check out Ryders site and tell me what you want to rock this summer! +1

~ Like Ryders on FB and tell them I sent you :) +1 for each (They do giveaways on FB sometimes, so definitely a good page to like)

~ Blog, FB, Tweet it  +1 for each

  7 ways to enter, leave a separate comment for each.  Make sure to leave an Email Addy if not in your profile.  Ends Friday 4/1 at Midnight.

Quickie

 Just stopping in to say that today we did this:

Not pics from today; today it was freezing  and we were all bundled up.

Nol has had a cough, but it is allergy related, the doc said he was good to go :)

   So no 4 mile race for me.  I most likely would not have run it anyway since I've been experiencing  inner knee pain on my last few runs (and even felt some today with no running :( )  I've never had a problem with this area so I'm really not sure what it could be, but I'm resting for a few days and getting my icing on. 

 I'll keep you posted.  

Fun Giveaway tomorrow, make sure to stop by :D