Sadie vs. Elliptical Trainer - Episode 4

Episode 4: People watching - Full house

I made it to the gym today, prepared to do 1:40 on the elliptical to replace a 10 mile run. I figured it would be crowded because it was 5:15pm on a Monday afternoon, and boy was I right. I managed to hop on the last available elliptical, the one that is on the end where everyone has to walk past you to get anywhere. It kind of sticks out past all of the bikes and there is a small walkway for people to come down the row of treadmills and elliptical machines. I felt very weird with nothing in front of me to look at, and I found myself watching everyone as they came up the stairs. So, I made up a game of the situation.

Whenever someone would reach the top of the stairs, they had 2 options. Option 1 - turn right to go to the group exercise room. Option 2 - turn left and enter the land of treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes and rowing machines. If a person chose option 2 and turned left (which was just about everyone) I watched them until they looked at me. It never took long because I remind you that I was on the weird elliptical machine on the end, the one with nothing in front of me to block their view, and as soon as each one turned left and looked up from the stairs, I was right in their line of sight.

Of course, there is no prize to the people watching game, but I would say that I had a 95% success rate with the people who turned left. The other 5% must have been really into avoiding eye contact.

In addition to making eye contact with people, I saw about 15 different variations of push-ups off of the Bosu Ball and other medicine balls. One guy did all sorts of fancy stretches and calisthenics, but what was really weird was that he was younger than me...aren't those kinds of stretches reserved for men over the age of 55? There were some definite downsides to my spot at the gym, too. I saw one poor woman with a white singlet and white spandex shorts. I am sorry to report that she was also wearing a black bra (not the sports bra type) and turquoise bikini briefs and had worked up a good sweat during her workout to allow me to know that much about her.

So, it continues to be interesting at the gym. Someday very soon I'm sure the entertainment will get old. Another workout down...1:40.

Flugtag

Flugtag - German for 'flight day', also an event sponsored by Red Bull USA where man-powered crafts are launched off of a 30ft platform into the water.

Austin hosted the Flugtag this Saturday at Auditorium Shores, and Chad and I went down to watch with an estimated 85,000 people. It was crazy crowded. After walking around for about an hour, we settled on the west sidewalk of the 1st street bridge.

We actually had a pretty good view for the first 3 launches until the police forced everyone off of the sidewalk. It was a bummer because you couldn't blame them for needing an emergency route. Once we were cleared there were virtually no places left to view the festivities because other 85,000 people had already settled into the places where you could see.

Once the crafts actually began launching, it was hilarious to watch the build up of each one and then the ultimate 30 foot plunge into the water. I wish we had been able to see better after we were moved, because I would have loved to stay to watch more. It was just too crowded and hot to find a spot where we could see.

Next time they have the Flugtag in Austin, we will pack a cooler with more than the recommended 'water only' and sit on the north side of the river where they were not inspecting the coolers. We will get there early enough to find a good viewing spot and park there for the afternoon.

Sadie vs. Elliptical Trainer - Episode 3

Episode 3: God's Grace

So, in my life I don't tend to talk about religion, and though people have often called me 'positive' or 'empathetic', hardly anyone would say that I am a very spiritual person because I don't often express my spirituality. There have been times in my life where I have gone to church regularly, while other times I have missed years of church and doubted my faith. I say all of this to emphasize how important my experience was this morning.

I was supposed to run 18 miles this morning. It was supposed to be challenging, as 12 miles were supposed to be at marathon goal pace, a sort of 'practice run' for our race. Now that I am not running, this meant 3 hours on the elliptical trainer at 24hour fitness. Up until this week, I had never even done more than 30 minutes straight on an elliptical machine. I was doubting that I could have the patience to do it.

I started at 6:30 (with only 12 other people at the club including the desk guy), and the plan was to distract myself until about 7:45. Melissa said there was a chance that she might join me after 8:00, so around that time I started watching folks as they came in. Melissa, if you are reading this, sorry you couldn't join me, but just the thought that you might come in entertained me for an hour. Around 8am, I started to feel overwhelmed with gratefulness as I watched people come in the gym. Call it God's grace, or just endorphins if you need to, I started to reflect on why I was there.

A few weeks ago, the message in church was about prayer and our relationship with God. I found myself on the elliptical starting to pray a silent prayer of gratitude. I was so grateful to be given the abilities that I have physically that allowed me to be in the gym. I thought of the disabilities and struggles that others go through that impaired their ability to be active people. I thanked God for patience and perserverance not only on the machine, but for allowing me to believe in myself no matter what in life. I became overwhelmed with a sense of grace that made me reflect on how my problems and issues are so minor compared with others go through, and I found myself praying for those with problems worse than my own. There were other things that went through my mind that I am going to continue to keep to myself, but that time on the elliptical was very moving and uplifting.

On a related note...Thank you to those of you who read my blog and to those that don't, but are part of my life. I appreciate your friendship and feel blessed to be able to share my thoughts with you. I am grateful for your kindness, and when I need it, for the kicks in the butt that I deserve.

So, I got through the 3 hours. I was a soaking wet mess when I finished in my puddle of sweat. I carefully cleaned my machine with spray while trying to ignore a few stares to my clinging clothes and obviously exhausted body. Oh, and the playlist on my iPod was a winner! The last song ended just as the elliptical counted down 3, 2, 1...

Elliptical Playlist

My playlist is really long. It has 46 songs and lasts 2.9 hours. I guess it will get me through the pseudo 18-miler that I am supposed to mimic on the machine. Ugh!

Note: many of the songs do not necessarily fit my musical tastes, but rather are good songs to keep me motivated.

Sadie vs. Elliptical Trainer - Episode 2

Episode 2: My friend Todd

So, today I visited the William Cannon 24hour fitness for my second elliptical session. I was excited today because Todd was all charged up, and I knew I could finish an hour because I did it on Wednesday. What a great surprise it was to find that over half of the ellipticals at William Cannon have their own TVs! I found an empty machine and spent the first 5 minutes pedaling finding a channel and getting my setup just perfect. I figured if I got bored with the TV, then I could just switch to Todd and be all set.

Lemme tell you that '10 years younger' on TLC is not a good elliptical show. Especially if you have already seen tons of that program and are familiar with the format. I was bored after the first commercial. So, I unplugged my headphones and started up the toddPod.

The workout went by pretty fast. I was supposed to mimic the 20/20/20 tempo run that everyone did yesterday. I did 20 minutes pretty easy with a 5 resistance, then bumped it up to 12 resistance for 20 minutes, and then back to 5 for the last 20. I also had set it to one of the crosstraining workouts to get some variety in the elevation.

I never realized how many songs out there are no good for running, but excellent for the elliptical. The idea of getting to make a brand new playlist is very exciting and I will probably spend the remainder of the afternoon working on it.

I'll post the playlist once it is finalized.

Sadie vs. Elliptical Trainer - Episode 1

Episode 1 - toddPod sabotage

I set out to conquer my first workout on the elliptical this evening. I am a member of 24 hour fitness, so I prepared myself with towel, ID card, and toddPod(my iPod). The workout that I had planned to simulate tonight was 6 miles easy. The plan was for 60 minutes on the elliptical. I found an elliptical machine that worked and tried to turn on the Todd to hear my music.

Todd did not have any charge left in his battery! He has been very faithful to me over the past year, getting me through many a tough, lonely run. Today I think he was giving me his own personal protest against the gym and the elliptical workout. He was trying to sabotage my workout. The nerve!

Faced with the problem of doing a 60 minute elliptical workout without any music, I panicked slightly. If you have ever worked out at the Arboretum 24 hour, you know the TVs there require an FM radio to hear the audio, which meant that I was only going to have the hum of the machines and the clinks of the weights in the background to entertain me during the workout.

I did it, though. I completed the time.

Luckily, the TV closest to me had captioning and the show 'Power of 10' was on. It is not a great show to watch in general, but if you analyze my situation, you will realize it is the perfect show to watch. It is a very visual show in terms of the graphs and displaying the questions. It was so easy to figure out what the contestants were being asked and what level of money they were on. There wasn't really a story line to have to follow like in most other shows.

There were many other interesting things that were going on in the gym as well, and being an excellent observer and people watcher was to my advantage today.

Todd...you better work next time. I'm charging you up.

Sidelined - hopefully just temporary

I can't run.
It hurts.
Bad.
Like I can't run more than 10 steps without excruciating pain bad.

My glute area has hurt since last Tuesday, and I have been resting to try to get it to subside. No such luck.

I went to see Dr. Spears today. He suspects I have sacroiliac joint dysfunction. This means physical therapy on Monday and me becoming good friends with the elliptical machine at the gym.

I have already had several pouty moments and one where I cried a little.

Chicago - August 2007

This weekend, Chad and I visited my friends Erin and Mike in Chicago. What a great city! Erin was my closest friend in high school and college and I have known her husband, Mike, since I was 11. It was great to get to introduce Chad to them and let them get to know him before the wedding.

It was a rainy weekend in Chicago, but we still were able to get out and see many parts of the city. We explored the neighborhoods of Forest Park, Oak Park and Bucktown. We went through Wrigleyville and part of Lincoln Park. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see Mike's office at EA, where he works. He works on the 'environments' in the games and was able to show us some of the things that he had done and what he is working on. I thought it was so cool getting to see the progress on the new Marvel game that is scheduled to come out. We had a great time in the EA building.


We saw the Magnificent Mile in the rain and shared some famous popcorn, though I can't remember the brand. Millenium Park was neat to see and we took lots of pictures at the 'Bean' and at the fountain with the faces on it. We ended our trip with a visit to the Shedd Aquarium. It was the first time that Chad had ever been to an aquarium, and I think he had a good time.

Our pictures are here, if you are interested.

Moonshine

Chad and I celebrated 2 years of dating on Friday, August 17th. On our first date we went to Moonshine, so it has now become a tradition to celebrate our anniversary there. As luck would have it, we were even given the same table as on our first date. We had a great dinner!

Dirty Girl pt.2

It's official...unfortunately I have set a new record. I just reached 46.5 hours without a shower. This is the second long stretch recently that I have admitted publically.

I am not ill. I have not lost any bets. It is just that sometimes I just don't want to get in the shower if it means I have to shampoo, scrub, shave, etc...the alternative funk is more appealing than having to take another damn shower. I guess it is just my personal protest for having to take 2 showers a day with all of the running that I do. Recovery week sometimes allows a little luxury.

The Dial is calling to me finally...off to shower now!

Insomnia

I am still awake...it is 3:45am on Tuesday morning.

I get insomnia from time to time. I don't know if a doctor would classify it as true insomnia, but I know that I have not had any caffeine and that I stopped my exercise before I normally do on the other days of the week. Even still, I am still not able to go to sleep.

I am going to try to go to sleep. It is going to be a long day tomorrow.

Who is out there? - Roll Call

Okay, who is out there reading my blog? When you read this post, post a comment or send me a message to let me know you are there. I know of a few of you who regularly read, but it will be more fun if everyone comments on this one!

Big Brother - my indulgence

I have another addiction besides running...watching Big Brother. I watched most of the previous seasons and officially got hooked a couple of summers ago.

This year I splurged and purchased a subscription to the online feed. I know that watching people on your computer is borderline weird, but I see it as a 24hr-a-day TV show. It is like getting to watch "The Office" or "Grey's Anatomy" all day long, but it is live. What a great purchase it has turned out to be. I love getting to hear the conversations between houseguests throughout the day. I just have to turn on my computer and listen to it while I work.

Yeah, in the morning it is boring because they are sleeping, and sometimes the talk is kind of boring to listen to because it has nothing to do with the game. Every once in a while (this week especially) I have gotten the scoop on some more strategic conversations. I have witnessed some confrontations live that were aired on the show later in the week. Very fun!

So, if you are into BB8, too, let me know. Even if you don't watch the live feeds, it is fun to talk about.

Dirty Girl

Not that you wanted to know this, but I have not bathed/showered in 40 hours.

My hair looks soooooo greasy. Ick!

Run from Hell

Finally, Saturday arrived. We ran my favorite Rogue route: The Run from Hell. The name sounds scary to most who have not tried it. This year our group was treated to an extra special version of the RFH. Instead of it being a 14 miler and doing 1 loop around the Westlake hills, we were told to do 2 loops...almost 19 miles.

Why do I like this run? Because I am smart and competitive and the route allows me to take advantage of both of those qualities. My strategy is to start conservatively and let everyone take off on the first hills of Stratford. After that, I let my climbing skills take over and pick off as many people as I can for the rest of the run. I love watching people 'break' on a hill when they get to that moment where they just cannot take it any more. I really enjoy passing these people with good form and plenty of energy on the same hill. It is really competitive of me and probably not something I should admit publically, but I can't help it.

I had a great run. I did not let anyone pass me and passed lots of folks on the way in. Our coach, Ruth, made a comment about how she could tell that I was having a great day because my face was clearly one of the most positive out there.

58.8

58.8 was last week's mileage. What I love about mileage like 58.8 is that it is high enough that everyone can appreciate the effort involved. Considering we run 6 days a week, it is an average of almost 10 miles a day.

So, I am tired. I am a little grumpy. I am hungry. My body chemicals start to get a little out of whack and it takes quite a bit of focus to maintain energy throughout the day.

I've gotta add a separate post about Saturday's run.