The light of day

For a while now I have been waking up pretty early during the week - it's been tough to get out of bed when it is still very much pitch black outside. Now that we've switched back from daylight savings time, I actually get to wake up to the light... makes it a little easier to get out of bed in the morning anyway. I can't believe we are moving into November this week. I absolutely love the holiday season, and I think this one is going to be a great one!

So I had another fantastic weekend. Cullen teaches alongside this guy Jim that he always is talking about, and I got to meet this famous Jim for drinks Friday night. He is truly a character, he'll be fun to hang out with in the future if the teachers decide to make their Friday get together a more frequent occurrence.

Saturday I got to meet some of Cullen's students; we went to go watch the Madison Elementary football team play in the playoffs... The kids were really cute too- they had special cheerleader and football player t shirts and were going around with paint pens having people sign them. I think *I* signed about 10 t-shirts myself, seems I am now famous with Cullen's class =) heehee.

So Madison won their first game and advanced to the 'superbowl' - they had to play a team that beat them earlier in the season, but they came back to win that game too. It was exciting, the school had never won the championship before, so the kids (and the teachers/parents/etc) were all pretty excited. Too bad the Broncos didn't come out with a victory this weekend too.

Since I talk about Cullen so much I thought it would be a good time to post a picture for my fan base. So below is a shot of the two of us. Of course I am biased, but I think we look pretty darn cute together.

I'm just average.... for now!

Well I got the results of my VO2 max test. I scored a 38.5 - that was at the high end of "average" for my age and gender. If I can get to 39.5 then I jump up into the lower end of "above average". I am disappointed in that performance because I stopped a little prematurely due to a cramped up shoulder. Why did my shoulder cramp? Because the hand rail I was holding had an emergency stop button attached to it at the area that was comfortable for me to hold, so I was forced to grip higher up on the rail and that messed me up (I know what you are thinking - excuses...excuses....) You're right. But had I known I was so close I would have pushed for a little longer. Why even hold the hand rail? Well because I was at an incline of 18 at a speed of 5.0 - that my friends is no easy task without some support from the rails. And yes, when calculating VO2 max, hand rails were factored in.

I am going to put myself through the torture of being re-tested at the end of the semester. I am determined to jump up into above average... hopefully boost my score into the 40s.

Darting around Denver

Well I got an excellent driving tour of Denver this past Saturday. Got to see some of the parks - Washington Park, Cheesman Park... and of course I got to see Cullen's old stomping grounds. We had lunch right down the road from the Molly Brown house (remember the unsinkable Molly Brown from the Titanic?) Apparently she was a Denverite. I'll post a pic of the house for your viewing pleasure. After lunch I got to see some more of Denver, the neighborhood was really nice, it reminded me a lot of NY. I am so used to all the new homes and developments up here in Northern Colorado, but down in Denver they have nice tree lined streets with older homes, some with Tudor and Colonial type architecture. Then we headed to the Denver Zoo. This is now the fourth zoo I have been to (Bronx, St Louis, Memphis, and now Denver). I have to say this zoo was much bigger than I thought it would be, pretty impressive. I got some cute pics of some of the animals. Below I'll share one of a polar bear.
When Dan and Lynne came to visit we THOUGHT we took pics of the US Mint, but we were wrong. Dan if you are reading this, the building across from the Capitol was NOT the mint... so now you'll have to plan a return trip so you can see that.

I have my VO2 max test this morning, should be interesting.... I'll let y'all know how I do later.

Fitness Assessment - Day 1

OK so we have 2-3 days of fitness assessments to get through before my student trainer, Travis, can actually begin training me. Today I did max out tests for upper and lower body strength (chest press for upper body and leg press for lower body). I did a crunch test for abdominal strength/endurance, a spirometry test for lung capacity, a grip test for hand grip strength, and got measured for waist/hip ratio and skin fold testing on the thigh, lovehandle, and tricept.

I have to say I was pretty pleased with my results, I'll find out on Monday where I place with respect to other people my age/gender. I maxed out the crunch test, so that was pretty fun. Taking into account my age and weight, I did 126% on the spirometry, meaning I surprassed what the machine felt I was maximally capable of by 26%. Guess the extra jogging I've done is starting to pay off! I felt like my grip was pretty weak, but my chest press was 125lbs and my leg press was a wopping 435lbs. That's almost 2.5 times my body weight! Looks like all those years of soccer and martial arts have paid off too...

Next Monday I have the dreaded VO2 max treadmill test, flexibility/range of motion (piece of cake for me), and pushups (probably my biggest weakness). Blah!

So did everyone see the weather report? We got our first snow yesterday. It was pretty this morning, waking up and seeing the sun rise over the white blanket. I tried to take a pic of a tree outside my window - red leaves covered in snow. It was an interesting site...

Stupid Injuries

Ok so I was enjoying a soak in the hot tub on Saturday night and start talking about some karate techniques that I've learned. I decided it would be fun to demonstrate my skills and picked a technique called "scraping hoof" which is how to get out of a full nelson. The technique involves a counter attack where you kick out the attacker's knee joint then scrape down their shin to eventually stomp your foot down on their instep and break their ankle. I did not expect the hot tub to be a dangerous place to do this, but apparently it was. As I go to slam my foot down on the imaginary person's ankle, my heel catches a plastic screw or bolt or something on the side of the tub. It wasn't sharp by any means, but with the force my foot was being sent down with, the plastic sliced open my heel pretty nicely. Thankfully I knew there was a first aid kit in the clubhouse and Cullen managed to go get it and doctor it up for me. It was kinda embarrassing, I know not to try any more karate techniques while in the hot tub again.

I am volunteering for a senior level course in the Sports and Exercise Sciences department here at the university. The students get practice in fitness assessment and training, so I am serving as a client for one of the students. I know the professor who teaches the class, so I asked her to put me with one of her best students. She joked with him today to work me really hard. I hope he does. He asked what my goals were and I told him I want to increase my upper body strength - so I can do better pushups. I also want to increase my running pace. Now that I am getting into better shape and I know I can run 3 miles I want to be able to do it faster. Right now my pace is probbaly about 11-12 minute miles. I timed myself on the treadmill and did 3.1 miles in 34 minutes. While I CAN run faster, it is difficult for me. I want him to help me lower my time to 10 minutes as a comfortable pace, then I can work on running that pace over a 5K distance. There is a big 5K race in Greeley July 4th... I hope to run in that next ear. Perhaps Cullen will run it too- that would be cake for him since he ran a marathon a few years ago.

So will I be successful in meeting the goals I've asked my trainer to work on? You'll have to check in with me at the end of the semester =)

Going the Distance

I have never really been a 'runner' but I have run off and on since college in attempt to keep in shape. For years I have toyed with the idea of running in a race, but have never really gotten myself to the point where I thought I could actually run one through to completion. I decided I need to start small, and wanted to try and train myself up to the point that I could run a 5 K. There is a loop near my condo that I have been running. I clocked it in my car to be just over 1.6 miles. I can run that distance with little difficulty (though I'm not exactly running at a fast pace). I could even run more than the 1.6 miles, but I have never really run more than about 2.5 miles without stopping before.... that is until this past Saturday. On Saturday I was feeling great, it was a warm sunny morning- so I decided to push myself, test my body to see if I could put 'mind over matter'. I ran the whole route, twice! I put that at about 3.3 miles, so I basically completed my first 5K this past weekend. I am going to see if I can be more consitent with that type of distance over the next few weeks. I'm so excited and proud that I did that. May not sound like much to most people, but it was a big deal to me =)

oh happy day

I had a great weekend, the best weekend I've had in a long time.

Why? Hmmm maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had someone special to spend it with. My one date on Friday turned into two more on Saturday and Sunday.

So I have to admit I am strongly interested in this guy I just started seeing. I learned through my 20s though to not get too overly excited too quickly, I used to easily let me emotions run away from me. So I will be patient and see what develops over time, but I am hopeful that this relationship has big potential.

We played tennis yesterday which was a total blast. I'm going to need a good tennis partner so I can go back to NY and hang with Joe and Amy. Not only does he play tennis, but he also pulled out his guitar- played and sang for me. I am total mush for a guy that can sing.

I'll see him next on Wednesday. He's going to come watch the LOST season premiere... too bad he hasn't gotten through the season 2 DVDs yet. I am kinda hoping they pull something random out for the opener which doesn't rely too much on Season 2 info, so that it isn't spoiled for him.

Oh yeah, his name? It's Cullen. I know it's an unusual name, it has a Gaelic origin that actually means handsome. I thought that was cool.

Anyway just wanted share my latest joys with the large reader fan base I have out there, figured y'all would be intrigued =) I hope to see others updating thier blogs too...