I'm back!!!! Exhaustion Test and Restart of Challenge

So, with the insanity that is our daily life and the activities occurring due to the holiday season (and just my general laziness…) I have not been keeping on track with my push ups, dips, and crunches (or my regular gym schedule). In looking at my calendar and activities from November 21 until December 4 I see that I had nine days (November 21, 22, 25, 26 and 29 and December 1, 2, 3 and 4) where I did no extra activities of any sort. (Some of the days I did very little activity the entire day!) I did have a few decent days – 11/23 Bam and I did a mile practice for a turkey day 5K and then I did an additional 45 minutes on the elliptical; 11/24 I did a 5K Turkey Trek, 2 additional miles of walking, and 2 hours of rollerblading (as well as prepping Thanksgiving Dinner for 6 with some assistance); 11/27 I did a 1.75 mile walk and 30 minutes on the elliptical; and 11/28 and 11/30 I did 1 mile on the treadmill before doing BodyFlow. But no push ups, dips, or crunches to be seen! L Given my lack of follow-through with these activities, I’ve decided to redo my exhaustion tests to see where I need to pick up in the challenge for each area. I’m hoping I’ll still be able to complete either Week 5 or Week 6 for each activity, but we’ll have to see how the tests go!

I made it to the gym tonight where I did 3 miles on the treadmill. Then came the push ups, dips, and crunches! Here is how my exhaustion tests went:

	#	Next Week
Crunches	93	Week 6, Column 2
Dips	60	Week 6, Column 1
Push ups	34	Week 5, Column 1

I’ve really lost it on the dips and push ups while I’ve managed to hold my own with crunches. I’m hoping to stay on track this time…we’ll see how I do!

Exhaustion Test for Week 4

I decided to do my exhaustion test for all three exercises tonight instead of taking a day off to rest. I did each one separately with a break in between. I was able to do enough of each to move onto Week 6 for all three of them…just barely for push ups but I made it!

	#	Next Week
Crunches	99	Week 6, Column 2
Dips	75	Week 6, Column 2
Push ups	46	Week 6, Column 1

Week 4, Day 2 and Day 3 AND Annapolis Half Marathon

From Thursday:

Even though I haven’t been training that well for my upcoming half marathon (which is in two days!) I am currently in my taper week which meant I had a thirty minute easy run on tap for tonight. I skipped last night’s 30 minute easy run, which probably wasn’t the best idea but I’ll be okay! The circuit felt good tonight!

Dips: 24, 24, 28, 28, 23, 23, 28, Max

Crunches: 30, 30, 36, 36, 27, 27, 33, Max

My max sets were as follows: Crunches – 75, Dips – 60, and Push ups – 25

Today:

The family went to Annapolis tonight in preparation for the Annapolis Half tomorrow morning. We decided that it would be fun for the boys (all three of them) if we went to a Naval Academy hockey game since they had a home game scheduled. We left home around 5:00 and got to the arena just before the game started. It was fun to watch the boys (B and R in particular) enjoy the game…A was a little distracted, but what else is new!

This morning was the half marathon. The race start was scheduled for 7:00 which is an early morning! We had alarms set for around 5:00 so I could get a shower in (I know, silly before a big run but it gets me going for the day) and then we could either walk to the stadium (about a mile) or drive over. I had an alarm clock in my purse from the last run we went to which was set for 5:10 before the time change. That being said, the first alarm went off in our room at 4:10 this morning! Both R and I were afraid we would fall back asleep and oversleep the real alarms so we were basically awake then even though we didn’t get out of bed. It was pretty chilly this morning so instead of walking to the stadium all of us drove over. The run started at 7:15 instead of 7:00 and I clocked a time of 2:12:18 which isn’t too bad. B and A did a kids run around the stadium and they got their own medals for completing it. Even with the chilly temperatures and the wait time it was a great event!

So I still decided to do my three activities tonight because I want to try to stay on schedule since I’ve already had to repeat a week when I stopped doing my work! Here’s what it looked like:

Dips: 26, 26, 31, 31, 26, 26, 28, Max

Crunches: 30, 30, 36, 36, 30, 30, 40, Max

My max sets were as follows: Crunches – 80, Dips – 70, and Push ups – 30

Week 4, Day 1.1 and 1.2

Back on it again! After work I went to the gym to do treadmill intervals – 5 minute warm up, 10 intervals of 1 minute hard then 2 minutes easy, 5 minute cool down. Felt good…even if I did want to give up after 6 intervals! I pushed through and was almost late getting B to soccer practice tonight. After both boys were in bed I did all three activities tonight – it hurt after my short break last week! Just shows how quickly the pain sets back in, eh? Here’s how it went down:

Dips: 46, 52, 39, 31, Max

Crunches: 54, 60, 45, 36, Max

Push ups: 17, 19, 15, 15, Max

My max sets were as follows: Crunches – 70, Dips – 60, and Push ups – 25

How do you spell lazy?!?

I spell it C - A - R - L - A ... this weekend at least! I didn't do my easy run on Friday night because B had soccer (we had to be there at 5:45 for a posted 6:00 game which was actually a 6:30 game) which threw the night off and Saturday was a rest day or a gym morning with yoga and kickboxing but I didn't get moving early enough for either class. Today I was supposed to do either a 65 minute run or 8-10 miles. We went out for lunch today (I ate too much and consumed some vino!) then we headed over to my parents house. After we were there for a while I asked if anyone wanted to walk to the store with me to get a drink - round trip it is just over a mile. My 5-year-old (A) decided he wanted to join me! We eventually talked everyone into going with us for part of the walk. Chinese food for dinner, then home to get the boys into the shower/bath. After 9:00 I decided to get on the elliptical to do 65 minutes since I didn't get a run in. We had a mishap with clothes in the washing machine - dark brown stains from an unknown source - which put me back another 10 minutes. When I was finally done on the elliptical I didn't have it in me to do my crunches, dips, and push ups (which I didn't do either Friday or Saturday, either). Given that I've only completed two of the three days worth of activities for this week, I have decided to start the week over again tomorrow by doing the same sets again. We'll see how it goes, since I have the half marathon on Saturday morning!

Week 3, Day 21. and 2.2

I took yesterday off due to pure laziness...there isn't anything else to say about that!

I didn’t do my run at the gym tonight because 1) I wanted to get my chocolate blobs made for the church fall festival, 2) I was lazy, and 3) Rob didn’t force me out the door. (Which he shouldn’t have to do!) After the boys went to bed I did do all three of my activities for eight sets…it felt good to be doing shorter sets! J

Dips: 24, 24, 28, 28, 23, 23, 28, Max

Crunches: 30, 30, 36, 36, 27, 27, 33, Max

Push ups: 10, 10, 13, 13, 10, 10, 9, Max

My max set was as follows: Dips – 63, Crunches – 75, and Push ups – 28

Week 3, Day 1.1 and 1.2

We had group last night and I didn’t get anything done. Given my lack of activity yesterday I had to do my regular routine - double up the circuit by doing all three activities!

Tonight I did 7 intervals of 3 minutes hard running and 1 minute easy running with a 2.5 minute warm up and a 5 minute cool down. I was “scheduled” to do 10 intervals but a collection of events required me cut my time short in order to get B home in time to eat some dinner before heading out to soccer practice. But at least I got a partial run in! I finished up with all three of my challenge activities tonight after we got home from B’s practice. Tonight was the last night of 5 sets of each activity so I REALLY need to start doing crunches and dips one day and push ups the next or it’s going to take a LONG time to get through it! Still feeling good about my progress – but we’ll see how I do the rest of the week with 8 sets! J

Dips: 46, 52, 39, 31, Max

Crunches: 54, 60, 45, 36, Max

Push ups: 17, 19, 15, 15, Max

My max set was as follows: Dips – 60, Crunches – 70, and Push ups – 23

Week 2, Day 3.1 and 3.2 and Week 3 Exhaustion Test

Saturday:

I took a quiet day off yesterday to spend with my boys (well, 2 of them at least) and I decided to take a break from my workouts as well. But today I was back on track! My schedule had Saturday as a rest day, but I decided to do the 30 minute easy run from the day before since I had missed it. Overall, I did 35 minutes on the treadmill before I did my circuit. It was a good day!

Dips: 37, 42, 37, 37, Max

Crunches: 45, 50, 45, 45, Max

Push ups: 23, 28, 23, 23, Max

My max sets were as follows: Dips – 55, Crunches – 70, and Push ups – 33

Sunday:

On the schedule today was either 120 minutes of running or 12 miles of running. I took the opportunity to sleep in as we only had one child in the house again. By the time I got moving it was time to get ready to go to Sunday lunch at Mom and Dad’s. After lunch A, Dad, and I went for a bike ride. A kept up until the clubhouse then we had him turn around so we could do the rest of the loop on our own at a decent speed. We went about 3.5 miles and it felt good! The rest of the afternoon and early evening were going to be crazy – B was supposed to have soccer at 3:00, scouts at 4:30, and baseball at 5:00 and possibly 6:30. We got an e-mail last night stating the baseball game was moved from 5:00 until 3:00 so B had to decide which game he wanted to play. He ADORES baseball so it was a no-brainer for him! If the team won at 3:00 they had to play again at 4:30. Guess what? They won! Which made for a long afternoon at the ball field that got progressively colder – good thing I was wearing two pairs of pants, two sweaters/jackets, and had a blanket with me! After the second game was over B and I ran the short distance to the scout hut so he could attend part of the meeting. While they were still meeting I ran home to finish up my workout for the day. Since I had done just over 20 minutes on the bike and about a mile running after ball I decided to do 90 minutes on the elliptical. I also did the exhaustion test tonight for all three – push ups, dips, and crunches. I was able to do 32 push ups, 60 dips, and 74 push ups in the exhaustion test. This will put me on Week 5 Column 1 for push ups and Week 5 Column 3 for dips and crunches for next week.

Week 2, Day 2.1 and 2.2

We had the “Fall Into Success” last night at A’s school which started at 5:15 and went until 7:15. AND B had his first night of soccer practice from 7:00 until 8:00. I was going to leave the school when Rob got there so I could go to the gym but A really seemed to appreciate the fact that we were both there at his school so I ended up staying. Then I wanted to meet B’s soccer coaches on the first night of practice so all three of us headed over to Crown to pick him up. We ended up chatting with another mother after practice and didn’t end up leaving Crown until 9:00. By the time we got home, got the boys into bed, and snuggled for a few minutes it was 9:45! There went any thought of my 30 minute easy run and my crunches and dips for the night.

Given that I didn't get anything done yesterday, I absolutely had to head to the gym tonight! B is playing Fall Ball and tonight was the “opening night” for the lights that were just installed. Then he had a game to play. He is spending the night at a friend’s house and Rob took A to JAM so I was good to go to the gym! My plan was to do 55 minutes total on the treadmill then my circuit. However, I only ended up doing 35 minutes total. (I have an excuse, but it’s pretty lame. I’ve been very cold in my office lately so I have been wearing tights – today it was orange and black striped witch’s tights. When I went to change for the gym I was still VERY cold so I [stupidly] left the tights on. Once I was moving on the treadmill I got toasty very quickly. Also, I hadn’t had much to eat and was getting pretty hungry. Lame, I know, but that’s my excuse!) I did manage to do the push ups and crunches part of my circuit. Where I was working in the gym I couldn’t seem to figure out how to do the dips, so I thought I could just do them later. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget to do them! I ate some dinner and finished up with the dips! Although I wimped out a bit on my run tonight I still feel pretty good! The boys are off school tomorrow (including Rob!) and I decided to use one of my few days to stay home with them. Who knows what fun we will get into tomorrow!

Here's how it went down tonight:

Dips: 32, 37, 32, 32, Max

Push ups: 20, 25, 20, 20, Max

Crunches: 38, 45, 38, 38, Max

My max sets were as follows: Dips – 50, Push ups – 28, and Crunches – 65

Week 2, Day 1.1 and 1.2

Dips: 27, 32, 27, 27, Max

Crunches: 32, 38, 32, 32, Max

Push ups: 18, 22, 16, 16, Max

My max sets were as follows: Dips – 45, Crunches – 60, and Push ups – 25

We had small group tonight, but after everyone left I headed to the gym to do intervals on the treadmill. Here’s what I did: 5 minute warm up, 10 intervals of 1 minute hard and 2 minutes easy, and 5 minute cool down. By the end my face was tomato red but I felt GOOD!!! Since the gym was getting ready to close I headed home to do the rest of my exercise. I didn’t get up this morning to do the crunches and dips, so I had to do all three tonight. It wasn’t too bad…but it’s starting to feel like a habit that I don’t want to keep!

Halloween

Which means a very crazy night! After picking up the kids we came home and ate a quick dinner before changing into costumes. We trick-or-treated around the neighborhood, then at a trunk-or-treat at a church close to our house, then on the walk back home...LOTS of trick-or-treating going on! B reminded me on our last part of the trip that we needed to visit Aunt D and Uncle J like we do every year so all four of us loaded up in the car! By the time we got home it was well past bedtime! The boys went to bed pretty well, but we still had to get the house tidied up for small group tomorrow night which leads us to now...and a time that is too late for me to do my crunches and dips for the night without ruining my sleep (according to R who I do happen to share a bed with!). Given such, I will get up tomorrow morning to do the crunches and dips and I will do my push ups tomorrow evening on schedule. Then I'll be back on track!

Sunday, Lazy Sunday!

Today was a day off of the challenge - no push ups, crunches, or dips for me! On my calendar for today was either 105 minutes or 9 miles of running. However, today was a nice lazy Sunday for me! We had overnight guests and I didn't really want to leave R home alone with four boys 10 and under. Then it was time for lunch and quiet time for the adults in the family room while the boys played nicely together outside! IT WAS GREAT!!!! I didn't track any calories today (and ate a little more than I probably should have - I'll be glad when Halloween is over and the candy is out of the house!) and started to feel guilty after dinner. I didn't do my run today! I have less than three weeks until my next half marathon! What have I done to myself?!?!? Fear not...the elliptical is in the house! I decided I would do at least an hour and a half on the elliptical to make up for my lack of a run today. R took the boys upstairs for bed at 8:30 and on I hopped! Can I tell you how miserable the elliptical is for an extended length of time? After only 20 minutes or so I was SO BORED...even with decent shows on the television. But I persevered and even overpowered - I stayed on for the whole 105 minutes I was supposed to run today! By the end of the workout I felt fantastic! HOWEVER...it wasn't really "fun" like an outdoor run would have been today, so I'm going to try to remember this next time I want to be lazy! :)

Week 1, Day 3.1 and 3.2

Dips: 28, 39, 26, 26, Max

Crunches: 33, 42, 30, 30, Max

Push ups: 16, 21, 15, 15, Max

My max sets were as follows: Dips – 40, Crunches – 60, and Push ups – 21

Today was a strange kind of day…rainy and just plain yucky and I wasn’t in the mood to do much of anything! I got up this morning to take B to a Destination Imagination Mock Competition – we had to be there by 8:00. By the time we got home my workout plan for the morning was shot and the weather did not help the situation. B is making butterbeer for a school project so we worked on trying out a recipe this afternoon…we need some more work on that! Next was Scouts then dinner with my family as well as my brother and nephews. Once I got home I decided I really needed to do today’s push ups along with the dips and crunches I forgot to do yesterday so off I went! It felt like the old days when I did all three together – glad I’ve broken it up differently this time around! I still didn’t get a run or other workout in today, but at least I did something!

Week 1, Day 2.2

Push ups: 14, 19, 14, 14, Max

My max set was as follows: Push ups – 20

Tonight was baseball for B at 5:15 and JAM for B and A at 6:30. They FINALLY did “three strikes and you’re out” rather than 8 pitches which made the game length much more manageable – the game was over in plenty of time to get both boys to JAM for the Harvest Party. And as all three of my guys rode off to church I headed over to the gym to get a run in on the treadmill. (I would have run outside but it was starting to get darker and I’m a chicken – I’m not afraid to admit it!) Tonight was a 5-minute warm up, 45 minutes of hard (-ish) running, then a 5-minute cool down for a total of 55 minutes on the treadmill. I was going to do my push ups immediately afterward while at the gym, however I realized my running skirt was pretty short and it’s the kind with a brief in it instead of the boys shorts so I thought I would take the show home instead! I’m realizing that jumping into Week 3 of the challenge is HARD!!!! If I were a wimp I would jump back to Week 1 or Week 2 where the sets are a little shorter, but a wimp I am not! I will press on…even if it hurts my arms, abs, and chest! J

Week 1, Day 2.1

Dips: 26, 32, 19, 19, Max

Crunches: 30, 38, 23, 23, Max

My max sets were as follows: Dips – 32 and Crunches – 45

Another morning where I did not get out of bed! So I did my dips and crunches tonight before BodyFlow. I wanted to do 30 minutes on the TM but other circumstances kept me from getting to the gym on time to do so. But that’s okay…I did Flow for the first time in a few weeks and it felt good! My arms are pretty sore tonight from the push ups and dips. I’m SUPER thrilled to think about how they are going to feel tomorrow! (NOT!) The good news is that I’m sore in all the right places which leads me to believe I am doing good form push ups! The bad news is I’m sore. Oh well – you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life, the facts of life! J

Week 1, Day 1.2

Push ups: 12, 17, 13, 13, Max

My max set was as follows: Push ups – 17

I didn’t get up again this morning. I think my bed is just too comfy…and the snuggles with my boys don’t help me get up either! I wanted to go to Power Yoga at the gym tonight, however I wasn’t able to make it there in time as I had arranged to take B to meet with someone to do an interview for his social studies class. However, I did go to the gym and did intervals on the treadmill – 5 minute warm up then 8 intervals (3 minutes hard, 1 minute easy) then 5 minute cool down. Since it has been 12 days since my last run I didn’t make my “hard” intervals as hard as I probably should have. Regardless, I got a run in which is better than last week, right? I did my push ups right after the run when I was nice and warm and ready to rock! Day one done for all my activities – we’re off and running!

The beginning of my digital accountability...and re-starting my crazy challenge AKA Week 1, Day 1.1

Here is the deal...my name is Carla and I am doing this blog to keep me accountable in my fitness endeavors. Maybe if I put it out there in the cyber-world I will be more apt to actually DO what I say I am going to do! My friend and I started doing what I called my "Crazy Challenge" back in June. We blogged our progress, but once we both fell off the wagon (and stopped going to the gym at the same time) the challenge fell by the wayside. However I decided to get started again (about 4 months later!) and thought I would create my own accountability blog to track my progress.

So here it is...my Crunch/Dip/Push up Challenge – Attempt 2!

I started my challenge today. My plan for this challenge to get up in the morning to complete whatever was on tap (either crunches and dips or push ups). I WILL WORK VERY HARD TO GET UP EVERY MORNING TO COMPLETE MY CIRCUIT…regardless of how much I want to stay in bed! (This morning was a fail...but there's always tomorrow, right?) I feel bad that I gave up on this challenge the first time and would like a chance to redeem myself by trying again! Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be my dip and crunch days. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday will be my push up days. I will do my dip and crunch exhaustion tests on Sunday and my push up exhaustion test on Monday. I have a plan…now I need to put it into action!

Here are the results of my initial tests on 10/21/11:

Crunches	48	Week 3, Column 3
Dips	35	Week 3, Column 3
Push ups	21	Week 3, Column 2

Comparing my result to the initial test I did back in the middle of June, I have definitely made an improvement in all areas – push ups went from 7 to 21, crunches went from 35 to 48, and dips went from 19 to 35! (I probably could have done more than 48 crunches, but I was afraid someone was going to walk in on me!)

Here was today's action:

Dips: 18, 23, 18, 18, Max

Crunches: 21, 27, 21, 21, Max

My max sets were as follows: Dips – 30 and Crunches – 40

It felt good to get back on the challenge tonight. I didn’t get up this morning (somehow alarms either didn’t get set or got turned off) so I had to complete my crunch and dip sets tonight. Since I’m able to start on Week 3 for all three areas, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to complete the challenge in 5-6 weeks total, which would be great! Also, I only have 4 weeks before my next half marathon and I’ve basically taken the last three weeks off…not boding well for a decent time. This week I will also start doing better with my running. I spent some time last night researching runs to do next year…my “wish list” is getting longer and longer. If it were up to me I’d be doing about 9 halfs next year – wouldn’t that be cool?