Disclaimer: I went to regional competition for headline writing and that was all it took for me to ponder a career doing something like that. Hence, my propensity for writing dramatic headlines (see above).
I'm blaming/thanking Annie (www.annieology.com) for at least part of this. She sent me the invite for the #2011pushupchallenge and I decided to go for it. I'm going to be wearing a sleeveless dress in front of people in May, I sometimes have to lift people in the course of working (not as much as I used to; so not missing home PT), and I'd like to get rid of some jiggling; it made sense. I haven't been a part of a team in quite some time and must admit Annie makes an encouraging coach and Becca (http://ourcrazyboys.com/), the even, and opposing, team coach is also encouraging. Our team startegy is to add a pushup for each day and the odd team takes odd days and the even team takes, well, I'm guessing most people could figure it out. I started late, but since I don't want to let my coach(es) down, I'm up to 20. The ones that started at the beginning of the year are up to 37 so I still have a ways to catch up, but not bad for under a week. I'm trying to get in the habit of doing wall pushups on my off days just to keep the arms muscles working.
In addition, I've done 45 minute sessions of yoga/pilates two times over the past three days (we won't talk about the rest of the week). Included in those sessions, I did not only the regular, dreaded plank, but the side planks. I've been able to increase my time on the plank from 30ish seconds to about 45 seconds today (way up from my original, very fast 20 seconds). On the side plank, I have mostly just tried to hold my balance for a few seconds. Yesterday, I held for 10 seconds on each side; today I did 20 seconds on one side and ended up with 10 on the other. My time totally surprised me. In fact, I almost went ahead and went down to the floor even when I was still maintaining my balance. I also am doing downward facing dog, downward dog split, lunge, straight leg lunge, plie hold with and without heel raise, cat/cow, quadraped opposite arm/leg lift, and a few others, including some balance exercises.
Yesterday, I did something I've been thinking seriously about for months. I ran! Only for two minutes, but I ran. I researched and lit on a good technique. Run for a minute, walk for 6 and then weekly, increase the run minutes and reduce the walk minutes accordingly. I did the requisite warm up walk and then ran for a minute and the walked for a song or two (no watch presented a bit of a problem). Then I ran for another minute decided my ankle wasn't going to handle much more on the first day and walked back. Per the mapmyrun app on my Blackberry, I ran/walked 1.25 mi. Since the app is such a battery drainer, I have to delete it and add it each time. Not sure, I'll be anywhere near ready for Beach to Bay in May or the urban something rather 5K that involves obstacles (like running in mud), but may be ready for something in the fall if I can keep going.
The litany above is to keep me accountable, but also to refer to the title. Tater has sore muscles, arms and abs especially. I had almost forgotten what that felt like and my goal is to keep it up.
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