Workout & bewbies

Last night's workout:

• 20 double-handed, 20 left hand, 20 right hand swings with the 12kg kettlebells.
• 15 times on the BOSU ball - lean back on the ball and then stand up without using your arms, keeping your legs straight, inch forward with your hands and do a push-up, inch back with your hands and stand up, repeat.
• 15 times on the BOSU ball with bouncy side down - start with hands on the sides of the BOSU and legs crouched, jump your feet back and do a push-up, jump your feet forward and stand, lifting the BOSU against your chest, repeat.
• 15 times on each side - lunges with the forward foot stepping on a mini-BOSU (I think it was about 12 inches in diameter)
• 20 roll-outs on the ab wheel

Over the weekend, I FINALLY got of my butt and went to the Wizard of Bras. It's a bra store in Monrovia that the ladies at my knitting group have mentioned. I've been wanting to go because I've never been properly fitted (I've learned that Victoria's Secret does NOT count). I found out that I am in fact not a 36C, which I had suspected because my bras did not seem to fit like they should. I'm actually a 36D. WHOOO-BOY.

So...I know bra-fitting didn't actually make my boobs bigger, but they sure feel bigger in my mind now. The bras I bought are also now properly supportive. The band in the back is actually supposed to sit a lot lower than I realized. The lady helping me out also said that it's the band that supports, not the straps.

Yay for teh bewbies!

Star Trek

All the drooling on the Nerdy Knitters forum on Ravelry over the Star Trek characters is hilarious. I admit, I loved Karl Urban as McCoy. I'd love to put together a montage of those super hot photos posted on the forum.

The Boiling Crab

Ate at The Boiling Crab last night. It was an interesting experience. They give you the food fresh and piping hot in these plastic bags, and you just eat them out of the bag and leave the shells on the table. We got 1lb of crawfish and a crab, both medium spicy with all of the seasonings (cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter). It was actually pretty awesome eating the crab whole because the body meat stayed in large chunks that we could easily pull out. The way they cut up the body pieces at Chinese restaurants, the meat gets split up and you've got these compartments that can be difficult to get the meat out of.

Prop 8

California Supreme Court decision = :(

sucky Monday

I think my whacked up sleeping/eating schedule and relative laziness this weekend cause me to have a sucky workout on Monday. I felt tired and nauseous when I really shouldn't have. I took longer breaks than I usually would.

Cable exercises, 15 on each side (the last four with arm extended as straight as possible):
- straight on, step into a lunge with arm extended, step back up raising the knee and pulling the arm in
- sideways with the opposite arm bringing the cable across the body
- sideways with the same side arm bringing the cable across the body
- straight on with arm extended up, bringing the cable down
- facing away with arm extended down, bringing the cable up

Kettlebells (12kg)
- 30 two-handed swings
- 30 single-handed swings on each side
- 15 suitcase squats

Kale Chips

I don't remember where, but I saw these mentioned on a site somewhere. They're really easy to make. Get a bunch of kale and cut the leafy part away from the stem. Break the leaves into bite size chunks and mix with a bit of olive oil and whatever seasonings you like. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes (I've heard anywhere between 15-25). They come out these crispy dried leaves that remind me of dry seasoned seaweed. Too bad Lawrence hates kale.

Sprint schedule

Here's the 5 day sprint training schedule Melody wrote up for me (before I lose the paper)...

1) Sprint Intervals - Start with: 4 minutes basic run, 1 minute sprint. Repeat until unable to continue (4-5 times). As this gets easier, adjust the ratio to 3:30 running/1:30 sprinting, 3:00 running/2:00 sprinting, etc.

2) Farlek Drill - 1 minute running forward, 1 minute running backward, 1 minute side shuttle, 1 minute carioca (a sideways step alternating one foot stepping in front and and then behind the other food), 1 minute skipping, 1 minute sprinting

3) 1 Minute Sprints - repeat 10 times, taking brief breaks in between

4) Rollerblade (she said this was a low impact alternative to running and I mentioned I wanted to pick it up again)

5) Sprint Intervals - on the elliptical/bike/stairs

movies

I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine last week and I liked it! However, there were some elements that were visually disturbing to me and I had to wuss out and not look. If I wanted to see grotesque surgical modifications then i would watch horror movies.

I really want to see the Star Trek movie. Maybe tomorrow night! Lawrence wants to go see it on the IMAX.

Other movies we want to watch...Up, Angels & Demons, Night at the Museum, Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince.

VO2 Max Exercising

So today's exercise included VO2 max training.

I started off with some easy warm-ups with a 12kg kettlebell.

30 two-handed swings
20 one-handed swings on each side
10 reps of a kettlebell sequence: clean the kb, do a squat, stand up and press the kb, then swing up into a snatch

Next was a 5 minute sequence of snatches
1 minute on each arm of snatches every 7 seconds
1 minute on each arm of snatches every 5 seconds
30 seconds on each arm of as many snatches as possible (14 each)
4 reps of 7 snatches (15 seconds a rep with 10 seconds of rest in between) one arm at a time

My arms are going to be killinggggg me. According to Melody, my abs and back will be sore too. I was surprised but on my walk back home I actually felt some nausea. I wasn't gasping for breadth or totally wiped out like other workouts, but I did feel slightly nauseous.

I want to go get a pair of rollerblades this weekend.

Nausea

Lawrence woke up at 5am today saying he felt nauseous. He ran to the bathroom and retched a few times. Apparently nothing came out but he still wasn't feeling good and stayed up for a little bit. He also felt really cold and so jumped back into bed with his robe on. Suddenly he felt really nauseous again and this time threw up in toilet a few times.

He thought it might have been from eating some undercooked beef at Gyu-Kaku last night but I didn't have any issues and he eats semi-raw beef plenty of of times without trouble. I was wondering if the supplements he took were to blame, but he said those were taken in the morning and they would have been long out of his system by then. The only other thing I can think of is that he has been working out his body too hard and did not realize it. Even then, why would his body react all of a sudden in the middle of the night?

Oh, another potential source could have been from having too MUCH beef last night with little else. He didn't eat any of the ramen that Phillip ordered (I had a bowl) and only had a single bite of the salad I ordered (I ate pretty much all of it). We didn't order any other vegetables so everything he ate was just meat. That could have caused indigestion and excessive acid in his stomach, I think.

Monday night workout

Today was a day of body weight exercises - squats and push-ups.

15x each:
- basic squats
- basic push-ups
- hindu squats
- shoulder push-ups
- jump squats
- hindu push-ups
- lunges with hands touching the ground in front on the forward step
- scorpion push-ups
- lying on your back, lift yourself up as high as you can go on your hands and feet to stretch your chest
- lifting yourself up on your back with your hands, keeping your body and legs straight (resting on your heels), left one leg up while keeping the other straight and vice versa
- kneeling, put your hands on the back of your thighs, and bend your upper body backwards as far as you can go, and then bring yourself back up

I mentioned to my trainer that I ran 6.5 miles on the elliptical this weekend. She said that it was actually better for me to do it on the elliptical than on the treadmill. The elliptical is low impact on the joints, reducing injuries from running. However, because of that impact, the treadmill has the benefit of building more bone strength. Apparently, they both burn calories at comparable rates. The elliptical gives you the benefit of burning those calories with less perceived effort (from the lack of strain on your joints). Lawrence feels that there is still controversy over which is "better", but now I don't feel like I'm cheating for running my miles on the elliptical. :)

Continuing the IronWeasel

65 minutes
6.5 miles
835 calories
averaging 174 strides/minute

tonight's workout

Tonight's workout:

3 cable workouts using various weights (repeated 20 times on each side):
- Holding the cable with arm extended, step back and down into a lunge. Step up and bring the back knee up while pulling in the cable with the arm.
- Use a two-handed hold to pull the cable from down low on one side of the body to up high on the other side without twisting the torso.
- With arm extended down and side facing the machine, bend your torso sideways toward the machine until you feel the stretch in your side. Bring your hand with the cable up to your shoulder and bend sideways away from the machine, stretching the arm up and over your head until you feel the stretch in your side.

3 kettlebell workouts using the 26lb/12kg kettlebells (repeated 20 times):
- Two-handed swings.
- One-handed swings.
- With hands on the handles, jump feet back and do a push-up. Jump feet forward and stand up, lifting the kettlebells as you stand.

15 times - Rollouts on the rolling wheel of dooooooooom (aka ab wheel).

15 times on each leg - Step ups on a step-up box. With one leg on the box, step up and bring the back knee up.

Last one - Inchworm push-ups. Standing with legs straight, bend at the waist and inch forward with your hands on the ground to push-up position. Do a push-up, and inch back up with your hands. Repeat 15 times.

FAILZ

OMGZ, FAILLLLL. I took a nap yesterday afternoon at 5:50pm. I just laid down to rest a bit. I was all dressed & ready to go work out. I woke up and checked the clock every five minutes to make sure I'd get up and be out the door at 6:15pm so I could make it to the gym by 6:30pm. Until I woke up and found that it was 6:45pm already. :( :( :( Bad Nina! I called Melody and she said if I was that tired, it was probably best I didn't work out anyway. Agreed, but still...argh.

I also finished off the rest of the coffee flavored ice cream I had munching on all weekend. It was probably about half the pint. BUT STILL. I had been good and eating only a few thin spoonfulls at a time.

At least I did take time to make myself lunch. I made fried rice with egg, green onion, Trader Joes' mango chicken sausage, and bok choy.

Tonight is a knitting Cinco de Mayo party! w00t!

Making up for the weekend.

With Lawrence gone, it's really hard for me to get away from the computer and go exercise, especially after we picked up WoW again. This morning, however, I did go to the gym and run on the elliptical. I signed up for the IronWeasel and May started Friday without me making any progress. I did 4 miles in about 43 minutes today. The only way I could even make that time is because it was an elliptical and the cushiness greatly reduces fatigue.

If I divide the month between the 3 events, I get roughly 10 days to finish each event. 26.2 miles running/walking divided by 10 means to be on schedule I have to finish 2.62 miles a day. Today is the 4th so I should have had 10.48 miles done by today. I did 4, leaving 6.48 miles left. With 6 days left, if I do an addition 1.08 miles (for a total of 3.70 miles) each day, then I'll be on target. Wow, this is looking a lot harder than I initially thought. :o Maybe I'll just do half an IronWeasel...

lawls

Smutty shoujo mangas are awesome.

"Where's George?" Project

Where's George Project

This is an interesting project I saw mentioned in an article about simulating the spread of the Swine Flu virus. The project tracks the movement of bills and researchers used the data to simulate peoples' movements by tracking where people spend their money. From this, they can predict how quickly the virus can potentially spread.

I thought it interesting and immediately registered all the bills in my wallet. :)