Damn It's Cold

Image via WikipediaThe title says it all. While I have gotten out to run once this week, and hope to do so again this afternoon, the icy rain, sub-freezing temps and general holy c40p it's cold type stuff, I am extremely happy that EA Sports Active II allows me to do all of my cross-training at home, in sweats, with heaters blasting.

So, for half marathon training, what does EA Sports Active II offer the lay (or lame) non-athlete like me? Well, it has kick butt work outs. It offers multiple yoga, core, upper body and crunch options. Also, thanks to their "create your own workout" area, you can put together your own favorite routines that can change as often as you want. That includes the length of those workouts and what your avatar wears. Pretty cool.

In between the stretching, sweating and crunching going on in front of one's TV, road work still

requires some attention. This calls for good cold weather running clothing. While I am a novice with this sort of thing, I already know that I'm looking for stuff that wicks my sweat away and - need I say it - keeps me WARM. I'm starting to doubt whether those things are really possible given the amount of sweat I'm producing and the low temperatures outside. My go-to brands right now are LuLuLemon, Under Armour and SportHill. The switch from barefoot running shoes to Nike Vomeros (+6) keeps my feet much toastier during the hard winter months. While sometimes, the temps only require two layers on top, on some runs I'm layering pieces from all of those brands and more.

What do you wear outside during the coldest months? Email me and let me know!

Goals

Targets are generally important in any endeavor. They help us sketch out in our mind’s eye where we are and where we want to go.

Some people like making generalized visions of themselves at a next stage. Examples of this are statements like I’d like to lose five pounds and I’d like to learn the piano.

Others have date related goals they’re meeting. Examples of this are statements like I’d like to lose five pounds by Cindy’s wedding and I’d like to learn the piano before Christmas.

For me to accomplish things, I look at an action, like running a half marathon or doing all the laundry in the house. My generalized vision is being someone who runs a half marathon or has no dirty laundry. Please note that these two goals are probably self exclusive. The date related to such goals are the date of the half marathon or the date I’d like to have the laundry totally done.

I’m relatively compulsive once I’ve fixed on a project. I read the blogs, I peruse the free sites, I sometimes read magazines, I query friends and strangers who know more than me, and I always read far too many books on the topic. Dear Husband still jokes that my pregnancy prep resembled my prep for the bar exam. Honestly, some friends of mine (CBS & ML come to mind) who will probably read as many or EVEN MORE books than me on that topic. They’re compulsive lawyers too. J

So here I am in week one of half marathon training. On the cheap. Recognizing that I am a novice. And I’m loving it.

Today, day three, I worked out with EA Sports Active II. I didn’t use their 21 day or 9 week programs, both of which I love. Oh NO. I went hard core and clicked right to the Crunch & Core workout. Welcome back mountainclimbers! Hello again plank position!

Because here’s a lovely secret about well thought out exergames like EA Sports Active II – they take many different fitness plans into account and offer you options. So I’m able to do my half marathon cross training by using their OTHER fitness workouts, filed away in the “My Workouts” Box on the upper right hand corner of my home screen. Crazy right?!?!?

Well, I’m lovin’ it…and that’s all that matters as I look ahead to tomorrow when I go on a nice 4.1 mile run in the mountains in 40 degree temps….oh, and there might even be rain. Yippee. Bring it ON!

I'm Back Up!

So, my friends, directly after claiming that I would be recommitting to blogging I go MIA for a couple of weeks – what the heck, right?!?!

Well, we had a pretty major storm – another one – which knocked out our power AND internet for a week. That was sandwiched between two hugely popular party weekends of back to back family activities AND I was feeling a bit run down (wonder why?). SO, without further ado, I’m back!

Yesterday was really my first day back in action and there was quite a bit of catching up to do, so today I hit the local mountain dirt roads with T, who was back from running a 10K in MAINE in like 30 degree weather. She did awesome with a pace of just over 10 minutes a mile. Maybe she was running to a warm cup of cocoa at the finish line…in any case – T, YOU ROCK! But back to today. It was perfect weather. 65 and sunny. The dust had been washed away by last week’s storm and clean up, so the road was just nice packed dirt. We finished our 4.15 route in a pace of about 10.5 minutes a mile while chattering away, catching up and clearing out our heads.

Tomorrow is a Zumba Fitness day. It’s been a couple of weeks, so my presumption is that it will be a sweat fest. I’m thinking soon I want to do another 21 day challenge on EA Sports Active II just to change things up a bit. If anyone knows when EASAIII is going to be released please PM me, as I can’t wait to try it!

The couple of weeks forced exercise lay off served well to give me a period to re-examine what I was doing, why, and where I’m going.

I decided that a January half marathon is insane for me – not because of the distance, but because it’s routinely 15 degrees.  Rather, some friends and I are going to try to register for the More half marathon in April, when it’s routinely 50+ degrees. I’m also signing up for NY Road Runners in January, which will be the subject of another post.

I also have a hard weight loss challenge deadline not affixed to end of year, but rather to an event that routinely happens in late March/early April. I’m hoping to be down another 20 pounds by then. We’ll see. Regardless, we have a lot of forward positive momentum. More soon!