Workout Recap
Hey Everyone!
I’m back with another “workout recap”!
Woot woot! I knew you’d be so excited!
I don’t have much to report, but here’s the dealio:
Saturday morning - pickup soccer / practice. I met up with some teammates to practice at Griffith Park. There’s always a pickup game there on Saturday mornings, so we like to go sometimes. But this weekend, the game was obscenely large. It was hard to get a touch on the ball.
Instead, we set up our own nets and played small sided - 3 v 3 (there were only six of us. Clearly). After scrimmaging for a bit, we transitioned to a 2 v 2 tournament. One team was always off, and if you scored, you stayed on. The first team to ten goals won.
(that was my team, justthoughyoushouldknow).
THEN, I had a game on Sunday.
This is a new league I’m playing in. I put myself on a free agents list, sort of accidentally but on purpose. The league is Santa Monica based so allllllll the way across town. While I’m always up for playing, I am NOT always up for LA traffic.
So I wasn’t really pumped when I got the invite to play this weekend.
But I also really can’t help myself when it comes to soccer.
So on Sunday I drove out there to play.
It was supposed to be a guest player situation but I think I’m on the team now.
It was actually a pretty fun game - coed, pretty tiny fields but a lot of movement. There’s no keepers, and the nets are field hockey sized nets. But it’s not easy to score, since teams use a defender to function as a “keeper” to stand in front of the goal and block shots. There always has to be two women on the field, and there were only two ladies on our team Sunday, so we both played the whole game.
We also won 5-1 even though we only scored 3 goals.
I know, right?
Apparently, if a woman scores, the goal counts twice.
Because it’s so hard for frail creatures like us to score goals and whatnot.
Anyways, the other female and I both scored. So that’s how we got two goals.
My goal came when the last defender played a poor ball. I intercepted the pass, and pretty much had all day to square up and shoot, while he stood quivering in the net.
I blasted the ball as hard as I could, and netted it lower right corner.
He didn’t have a chance.
When I told my mom about the game, she said she’d rather be treated as an equal than get double points for scoring.
And to be honest, that’s how I felt too.
At first.
When I scored and it counted twice, I changed my mind.
Besides, when the ball was at my feet, I was treated like an equal.
Best believe.
Wednesday’s Workout 11.10.10
Hey kiddos! Just dropping in to chit chat about last night’s spontaneous workout.
A couple of my teammates and I have an unspoken agreement to sort of workout every Wednesday. Whether that means a small team practice, soccer tennis, or even just a run around the park - we always try to get something in.
That said, last night’s workout almost didn’t happen.
Kelly dropped out, leaving myself and Catherine as the last two women standing. Secretly, we both wanted to bail and eventually, the destiny of our run was left in the hands of a few open ended text messages.
The final message, from Catherine to myself: “I’m good either way. I don’t feel like running but I know I’ll be happy if I run.”
The decision was in my hands.
It took me a few minutes to respond.
I could think of a million excuses to not run ——
- It was windy and I hadn’t brought a sweatshirt.
- Real Housewives was on (was it?).
- I was tired.
- I would run in the morning……
(No. No I wouldn’t).
Who did I think I was kidding? Surely, not myself. I’m too clever for that.
And that’s when I texted her back.
“Let’s run…….can I borrow a sweatshirt?”
And so we ran.
And I did borrow a sweatshirt.
(And I still have it).
We decided to run 2.2 miles around the Silverlake Reservoir, and roped our pal Anouk into coming with us (Anouk didn’t have a choice. She is a dog).
In the course of our run, we learned that Anouk runs at an approximate 10.15 min/mile pace. Catherine says Anouk is just out of shape (actually we just blamed our leisurely pace on the dog since she couldn’t protest).
We (the humans) were both happy with our pace anyways.
Considering we almost didn’t run.
After our trip around the reservoir, we decided to engage in a series of muscle toning activities, like pushups, dips and such. Here’s a (sort of) breakdown of what went on:
- Pushups (3 x 10)
- Chair dips (3 x 10….minus the 30th which I collapsed halfway through)
- Planks (2 x 60 seconds)
- Single arm/leg extensions for back (2 x 24)
- Bicep curls w/resistance bands (3 x 30)
- Side Planks (1 x 60, each side)
- Deadbug Ab Exercise (1 x 30)
- Miscellaneous other ab excercises (did not record)
- Lunges (1 x 24 then strained my hammy so I stopped)
We partook in these exercises in a leisurely fashion while talking soccer and watching Top Chef: Just Desserts.
Anouk did not participate in the muscle-toning activities.
We did, however, manage to tire her out just from the run alone:
Workout Recap
I’ve been a little under the weather since I last logged on, so I don’t have much to report.
You will be happy to learn, however, that I am feeling much better!
Jay Leno chin + Chesire Cat Smile = Healthy!
You heard it here.
Last Friday I had a soccer game with my coed team. I played the whole game, but kept the running to a minimum since I felt like I might hurl at any moment. I managed to play well, considering that I wasn’t moving much. Luckily I still had a good touch on the ball.
No running or working out on Saturday and Sunday since I was still recovering.
And YESTERDAY I drove up to Northridge with some of my teammates to check out this new fustal facility. It was awesome!!!
We played for nearly 90 straight minutes and it was a fairly intense workout - lots of running and LOTS of touches on the ball. It’s definitely a very good game to improve your passing, off ball movement and touch on the ball. It was fun - we will most likely enter a team into a league up there so we can play weekly.
That’s all I’ve got people!
Be back soon!
Workout Recap
You’ll be ashamed to know I actually had to visit the blog homepage to help me remember the last time I blogged workout.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. About 9 days ago.
You’ll be proud to hear that I have multiple workouts to recall during that nine day time period.
Not as many as you’d hope. But still - it’s something.
So here’s a quick recap so you all know what I’ve been up to.
Why?
Because it’s exciting.
yes I look like a hobo at work today. don’t judge.
Here’s some things I did last week, in the sports vein and beyond:
Wednesday, Oct. 27th: Soccer practice. Only 5 people showed up, so we did soccer tennis for 90 minutes. Not a lot of running around, but it’s a good game for ball skills and such.
Thursday, Oct. 28th: Got on a plane immediately after work. Flew overnight to Rochester, NY.
Friday, Oct. 29th: arrived in Rochester for my couin’s wedding. Relaxed with groom-to-be and family. Shopped for Halloween costume. Church for rehearsal. Bar for rehearsal dinner (in costume). Drank (did not workout).
Saturday, Oct. 30th: attended wedding. Took lots of photos. Watched ND game at local bar. Drank. Went to reception. Drank. Went back to hotel. Drank. (did not workout).
Sunday, Oct. 31st: woke up for brunch. Ate. Don’t remember meal. Was still drunk. Went back to sleep. Showered. Barely remember shower. Bickered with everyone about packing. Went to aunt and uncle’s house. Turned down champagne. Watched the newly married couple open presents. Ate again. Drove to airport. Flew back to LA. (again, did not workout).
Monday, November 1st: Pickup soccer. We played 7v7, winner stays one (rotating three teams through). This is my favorite, because you get more touches on the ball and the sprints are shorter but you sprint more often. It was fun and I played well, despite being a member of “Team Dribble” (ie: no one on my team ever wanted to pass)
Tuesday, November 2nd: off
Wednesday, November 3rd: soccer practice, but only three of us showed up. So we ran a mile. Then we stretched. Then we ran another mile. For the second mile, I used my imapmyrun app on my iphone. It worked like a charm, tracking our mileage (technically we ran a distance of 1.12 miles and our time was 10ish minutes and our splits were 8:37). I don’t know why I can’t remember the exact time, but have the splits and mileage down pat. I was really impressed that the app. worked so well, since we weren’t running on streets. We were inside a park. Awesome. So we ran two miles, but I only have the time for the second mile. The first was definitely under 9 minutes, but not as fast as the second. We also used the weight lifting machines at the park and I did some dips on a bench.
Tonight I’ll be off since I have some shopping and prepping to do for the weekend! But game tomorrow night!
Workout 10-25-10
Last night’s workout was the best kind of workout: pickup soccer!
We played straight for about 90 minutes. It was fun!
FYI - my legs are still sore from Sunday’s mini but intense workout, and my dinky arms and back are sore from the measly 45 pushups I did on Sunday.
Yikes to that.
Mary’s Weekend Workouts. 10/23 and 10/24
Last weekend my soccer team played in our league semifinal match.
We only had 11 players show up to the game, so every player remained on the field for all 90 minutes….a definite workout!
We ended up winning the game 1-0, knocking the number 1 team out of playoff contention. It was a pretty amazing win, as the team we beat only has two losses on the season, and both losses were to my team.
Now, we’re going to the finals!!!
It’s an amazing comeback, since we almost didn’t make it to playoffs to begin with.
In fact, we had to win our last game of the season (and another team had to lose) in order for us to make the playoffs….and we were playing the number one team in the league. So now we’ve beat the same team two weekends in a row. I’ve been calling our team the Mighty Ducks as a result. Because our comeback has been THAT awesome.
I also was the one to make the game-winning goal, so that was cool.
After that, I rested all Saturday, but then got back to work on Sunday (sort of).
By back to work I mean that I drank one of these:
….while doing this:
miniworkout:
Wall Squats: 3 x 90 seconds
Single Leg Calf Raise: 3 x 20 (per leg)
Forward Lunges 2 x 15 (per leg)
Pushups 3 x 15
Side Planks 3 x 45 seconds (each side)
It wasn’t much, but it was better than doing nothing.
And also something to keep me occupied while watching Real Housewives of Atlanta and drinking a pumpkin spiced ale.
Yes, that REALLY is what I did with my autumn Sunday evening. Even when I had two perfectly good pumpkins waiting to be carved.
I mean, hey, that pumpkin ale doesn’t drink itself, right?
Besides, it’s totally not safe to carve pumpkins while doing wall squats.
I stand by my actions.
Workout 10-19-10
Last night I went to the gym between the end of work and the start of soccer practice.
I only had 20 minutes, but I knew in advance which exercises I wanted to do. Since I worked out the legs extensively on Monday, on Tuesday night I wanted to quickly blast my arms with a few quick but hard reps.
First I alternated assisted dips with assisted pullups. With the machine assisting 60 lbs of weight, I did three sets of each - 12 reps for the dips and 10 reps for the pullups.
Next I alternated DB shoulder presses with DB shrugs. For both exercises I used 15 lb dumbbells, and did 3 x 10.
Finally I did three sets of DB kickbacks, alternating right and left arms, executing 3 sets of 12 reps for each, and finished the night with three quick sets of DB wrist curls on each side, still using the 15 lb weights, and doing 15 reps per set.
I finished just in time to rush over to the soccer field, where I parked my car and subsequently saw three consecutive flashes of lightning.
We waited in our cars for about thirty minutes, but continued to see lightning, so we cancelled practice and went home.
Today I will be off from lifting. My body is sore all over, and could use an off day to recuperate. Also, I have a concert to attend tonight, so it all works out.
Mary’s Workout: 10/18/10
I was browsing the archives of the marathon project, and was immediately flooded with memories of how exciting everything was. Signing up and beginning training now feel like a whirlwind - what I remember mostly about last year was a spring full of on and off injury, and not being able to run when the date of the actual marathon rolled around.
Now that mid-fall has rolled around again, it’s once again time to start thinking seriously about my training regimen for this year’s marathon. I should be starting official training in a couple months, but now’s the time to prepare my body for that training.
I’m now a year older, hopefully a bit wiser, and just as serious about getting finishing this marathon.
The year delay has done nothing but increase my desire to finish a marathon.
During the time I’ve been absent from blogging over these past 6 months or so, I HAVE been continuing to workout. Sometimes I’ve been running, sometimes I’ve been playing soccer…..no matter what I’ve always stayed very active, whether I’ve written about it or not.
Proof?
After an hour of lifting last night, I run two miles on the treadmill.
I finished two miles in under 16 minutes, with absolute ease.
I know what it’s like to be out of shape….to slack off a bit and try to come back hard. And I know how things would have felt if I’d not been in shape while attempting a two mile run at an 8 min/mile pace.
So I’m glad to see that I still have some semblance of a solid base to work from.
Seeing those old entries reminded me that I WANT to be better with this blog. So I’m making a commitment now. No popping in once a week (or once a month) to “recap” my workouts by attempting to recall what I’ve done.
I’m going to be posting it all here, one workout at a time, and posting with precision, accuracy and honesty.
That’s what you can expect to find, if you choose to stay tuned during these next 8 months. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be running 26.2 in Orange County in May 2011.
Here’s what I did last night:
I started off weight lifting with legs. I worked out my hamstrings, quads, hip adductors and abductors by cycling through four machines at the gym. I did three sets of each exercise, but varied the reps based on difficulty of the lift. Generally I shot for reps of ten, but if something was a bit too easy, I just added reps (up to 15) rather than upping the weight.
Next I did a quick cycle of torso exercises, working out my back and sides (sorry I don’t know the official name of the exercise I was doing).
After that I used the leg press (lying on my back and pushing 180 lbs of weight up with my legs). I did three sets of 10, and after each set I pumped out 15 calf extensions on the same machine. While using the leg press, I also did three sets of bench presses….with not much weight (10 lbs on either side of the bar, though I’m not sure how much the bar weighed).
Next I did reverse pushdowns for my triceps (20 lbs, 3 x8), alternated with bicep curls (12 lbs, 3x15)
Finally I did dumbell reverse flys (3 x 12 db’s) and lat raises (not sure if that’s the right term for what I was doing) (3 x 5).
Once I was through with all my lifting, I decided to go for a quick and easy run. So I hopped on the treadmill and ran 2 miles in 15:50.
And that was that.
Mary’s News 9/3 through 9/14
Hmmmm where have I left off and what do I need to catch ya’ll up on?
Unfortunately, I’ve missed the boat on logging my runs. I think it’s relatively fair to assume I got 1-2 runs in last week (definitely not more than that….I know I didn’t run on Labor Day).
I didn’t run Thursday since I had a flight that night (red eye to the Midwest).
While I was on vacation, I didn’t run but did get a good workout in canoeing for 4 hours Friday, and a (sort of?) workout in walking around Notre Dame’s campus all day Saturday (okay that doesn’t count).
Last night I met up with a friend for an afterwork run. We changed things up and decided to run a flat course near her apartment, so we went to a park we both knew about. It ended up being a really good run (unfortunately I don’t have mileage OR times because we were gabbing the whole time) but I could tell we were running at a solid pace without over-exerting ourselves (for various reasons we were both wanting to take it easy).
While running we noticed a pickup game that apparently starts up every Monday at 8 p.m. …. ummm SOLD! I know where I’ll be next Monday =)
Tomorrow night we’ve got soccer practice planned and I’ve vowed not to cancel, so it will be another day of working out (albeit a different kind of workout than long distance running).
Welp, that’s a sad amount of catching up for 11 day’s worth of activity, but I’m not concerned. I feel my fitness level is pretty solid for now, and I’m primarily concerned with maintaining, staying soccer fit, and healing my “injured” foot….or whatever it is…..so I can do awesome and excel next time marathon training time rolls around!
UPDATE: Ohh, annnnd I also need to mention that I’m starting to get sick. aka: was flying home on Sunday and ended up next to a super sick dude who was coughing, sneezing, blowing his nose and hacking up phlegm into tissues the whole ride. To his credit, he tried to keep things contained, but unfortunately planes are breeding grounds for germs. To thwart illness, I’ve been slamming back TONS of water, been taking airborne’s twice a day since stepping off the plane, and continued taking vitamins daily. I started feeling the sickness about two hours ago and it keeps coming. I will continue my airborne regimen for now, but I no longer have faith that it will keep me healthy.
Mary’s Switching It Up
Today I met with ladies G and C for a run in Silverlake. After busting out a solid three miles, we took it to the stairs.
Yep that’s right folks.
I ran 5 sets of stairs…and the stairs were not just any stairs. 100 steps per set. Yep.
I took minimal breaks in between, basically took a 30 second (or less) break at the top and then headed back down. For the stairs I hit every step on runs 1, 2, 4 and 5 and on the third run I hit every other step.
It was an awesome change of pace to do something OTHER than a plain distance run - you guys, I think I’m addicted. I’m already emailing the others about future workout plans.
Ahhhh I love running. And working out with friends. Yayyyyyy
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