Sorry for the hiatus

We had a busy weekend and so I haven't posted in a few days. We got Calvin some new furniture from Ikea and spent the weekend putting it together and rearranging his room & Michelle's room, purging old toys, and giving everything a new home. It feels better. In this picture, he has his feet on the ceiling, because he has a new loft bed. He and Michelle both love it. Here are more pictures of his furniture.

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Update on exercise:

Saturday I gave the racewalking a rest, because last week I actually did 20 minutes more than my allotted 2 hr. I just couldn't resist, and because of that I decided to take it easy. Nothing is hurting, mind you, but still, I want to be cautious. So instead I did the video bike and the elliptical for a total of 1 hr 15 min.

Sunday I forgot the time change. I was all dressed in my RW gear and ready to walk out the door at 6:45 am, when I realized that it was actually 7:45 am. This was a problem, because I was scheduled to play ALL the service music for church this week. Church doesn't start until 10 am, but I wanted to practice alone from 8-9 and with Gordon (who played the piano; I played the organ) from 9-9:45. Oops. I did make it there by 8:30, despite everything, and enjoyed practicing. The service went reasonably well, and it felt so good to play again. I haven't played a service since Christmas Eve, and I do really enjoy it. In the movie "Chariots of Fire", Eric Liddell says that when he runs he feels God's pleasure. I feel that way when I play service music well - it just feels good to use one's gifts in a positive way.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. I ended up racewalking during nap time instead. Afternoon is NOT a good time for me to racewalk, in general. I just hit a lull, and it is hard to get out there. I tried to push it and get my heart rate in a reasonable range, but all I could muster was an average of 133. Despite that, I averaged a decent pace of 10:54/mile for 4.3 miles. It just didn't FEEL good. Sometimes it's just like that.

Monday morning I just could NOT get out of bed. The time change is messing with me! I did make it to weight training class, but didn't do anything before class. Weight training was good - we did a seriously hard upper body workout, and my chest is still sore today. The series of bench press x 2 (slow w/heavy weight, then fast w/lighter weight) + push-ups was quite difficult, especially when repeated 3x. After weight training I racewalked slowly...very slowly. I felt OK but only managed an 11:12 mile for a little under 3 miles. Later that morning, I had PT, which included 10 min on the stationary bike.

Today I still had trouble getting out of bed but did manage my physical therapy exercises before getting into the pool for the swimming workout. I did about 300 free to warm up, and then we did a drill-intensive workout, for which I was thankful. I thought if I had to do hard intervals I'd die. We did 4x(6x50 drill/swim (25 drill, 25 swim), 8x25 stroke: 2x (easy/fast, fast/easy, fast, easy)) in reverse IM order (free, breast, back, fly). I feel like my free and breast are reasonable now, but my backstroke is very slow and my fly, well, it's awful. The drills helped, though, and the coach was very encouraging. I need to get my head down and rear end up more during certain parts of the stroke to get the undulating motion for the fly. I'll keep working on it, and maybe someday I'll get it. I've improved, but not sure I'll ever be much of a swimmer. At least I can do it and get some good exercise, which is the main point for now.

Actually, I'm debating what to do re: swimming. My racewalking miles will be sufficient by the end of the month that I could probably drop the swimming. I might NEED to drop it in order to have enough time to train well for the 5K & 10K I plan to race in July at the USATF Nat'l Masters' Championships in Sacramento. I feel like I've made good progress, though, and am reluctant to drop it entirely. In addition, I enjoy having the gym facilities at my disposal, in case the weather is lousy or I need a change of pace. True, I own a treadmill, but I don't have an elliptical or bike, and those are sometimes handy. But it's hard to justify the cost. I'll keep thinking about it and will decide by the end of the month, I guess. Input is welcomed :).

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Update on my foot:

My foot has felt pretty darn good this week. It was a little achy Saturday (after I did the 4 miles on Friday), and it hurt some on Sunday after I played the organ (hmmmm...didn't think about how much I might use my foot for that!). It's felt fine since then, despite being on my feet a lot today at work. I definitely think the PT exercises are helping a lot - strengthening my intrinsic foot muscles seems to be easing up the burden on my inflamed tendon. Or something. It has felt much better overall the past few weeks, but maybe it was just going to get better anyway? In any case, I'm relieved that I seem to be on the mend.