Day 69--Registration

I just signed up for my first 5K. I've now spent the money, so I will show up for the run.

Date:	Saturday, April 10, 2010
Time:	9 a.m. start
Location:	Grant Park (Upper Hutchinson Field @ Columbus & Balbo) | Chicago
Beneficiary:	Voices for Illinois Children & Prevent Child Abuse America

If anyone knows of other people who might be at this race, please let me know. I would love to see a friendly face or two at the start line. Even if this isn't for me, the worst case is that I just bought a slightly overpriced Dri-Fit shirt.

Day 68--Back at It.

I'm not feeling 100% yet, but I did get back to the workouts. I didn't really have much change in my weight over the week at all, but I do weigh a pound or two more than at the beginning of February. I missed all of last week, and I'll probably miss tomorrow, so I didn't want to wait until Wednesday. Today was the first day of upper body work since I bought the 8 pound weights. They're heavy and it was a bit difficult on my triceps. The rows weren't easy, but not as bad as the tricep kick-backs. It's been a while since I've really felt my muscles straining in that painful, yet kinda enjoyable way. Today's workout also included 6 "laps" of running, which ended up being a threat to my life. My dog decided that my running up and down the hallway was an invitation to play with Bearly. It's a gutted fleece stuffed bear that she wanted to play tug of war. It led to me jumping over her on a few of my laps. Luckily, I've improved my balance with the Wii fit yoga and balance games and didn't fall on my head. I only have one work out left on 30 Day Challenge and then I will move on to the 6 week challenge on the More Workouts.

Day 66 & 67---illness

I'm still feeling craptacular (it's a word, I swear) so I have not worked out at all. It totally sucks that I can't work out, but I can barely get upright, so exercise is out of the question. On the bright side, the illness is stopping me from eating much of anything, either, so I probably won't gain weight with the lack of exercise. I'm hoping to be back at it tomorrow.

Day 65--nothingness

I was not feeling well yesterday, so I didn't do anything after work but crawl under a blanket and stayed there until crawling into bed a few hours later. If I didn't have deadline work on my desk, I would still be in bed right now. I'm not expecting to get a workout in tonight either, even though I have an off week from bowling. I'm hoping that I feel better tomorrow so I can catch up on the missed days and take advantage of the spring/summer weather we're supposed to have this weekend.

Day 64--Trophies

EA Active awards trophies for milestones reached in their game. I have every trophy but 3. I don't have the two for journal entries, because I never enter my food into their journal. I also don't have the 10,000 calorie trophy. I really, really want that trophy, but there's no way of knowing how close I am to it. There's no running balance on the game to let you know how close you are to any of the trophies. The only running total that the game does have is percent of goal reached. The game allows you to set 3 goals: number of workouts, calories burned and time worked out. These can be reset at any time, though. I really like reaching goals, so not getting the calorie trophy when I've been awarded every other trophy is kind of frustrating. I feel like I should do nothing but work out on EA Active until I hit that point. (No, they don't give out the Heisman, but I've already used a standard trophy picture for a previous post. )

Day 64--guilt

I didn't get a work-out in yesterday. I went to a beer tasting instead. I did walk the 5 blocks to the bar, but that's not nearly enough to make up for the missed workout. If I'm ever going to look like Jillian Michaels, I'm going to have to do more than walk a few blocks and drink beer. I will do better tonight.

I found a great motivational idea on The Accidental Wisconsite. She's challenged herself to run a 5K a month for a year. I am going to steal her idea. Not only will I be keeping myself in shape, I'll be helping out the various charities. I think my first race will be the Wrigley Start Early run on April 10, 2010. It raises money to fight child abuse. That gives me a month to work up to it and freak out about it. I haven't run in a race since 8th grade. That was 20 years ago.

Day 62--More workouts

I tried part of the EA Active new workouts. I really think I'm going to enjoy them. There's jumping rope, which I was finding technically difficult, but not physically hard. There were new types of squats and single-arm rows. I did up my weight to 8 ponders. Not as much as Dexter Jackson over here, but more than the 5 I was using. I only tried it for a little bit, though because I still have a week on my 30 day challenge. Today was a rest day, though and I don't like doing nothing. I did the plank challenge and held it for 99 seconds, which is one second shy of my all-time record. I get bored doing the plank, though. I think I need to grab a magazine next time. I also ran in place for about 15 minutes today. I still can't get over how much I enjoy running. I tried to run with my dogs a couple of times this weekend, but Willie kept getting too excited and would try to bite the leashes, or just use that as her method of killing me. I can't be too sure. I may have to try running with them individually.