Just so that no one has to wonder whether or not I'll bite at Mark's challenge to do the xcountry race... don't wait for a race report. I'm not good and I don't need anyone else to prove that to me :) We'll see one I've got more miles under my belt.

I'll just leave it at that for now. Have a good day!

Back again... not very timely, but at least I haven't gone a week without blogging!

Again, not too much to blog about... Friday morning was the am spin class which went well and was incredibly packed. Even turning away people! That was kind of fun, but I'm sure it's the time slot, not my teaching. Nevertheless, it was fun. The big plan for the weekend was an overnight Xcountry ski trip. The initial plan got kinda botched, but we did make it out on Sunday which was so much fun. A great day. The good snow and trails were about 2 hours north of Madison so we got out early and arrived at the park in the late am and skied for about 3+ hours. It was tough. I think we went about 7 miles and my shoulders were cashed. Like I said though, a blast and so pretty! Granted I got lapped by a few people like 3 times, but hey, it was only my second time on skis ever! It made a big difference having poles this time! That leads me to Friday night which revolved around the need for poles. Great investment I must say.

The other big deal of the weekend... I bought a car! I can't afford it, but it's nice to have. A 2003 red, 4dr Alero. It was program car so it only has 25,800 miles on it and looks like new. I got it for $11,000 (or something close) so it was a really good deal. Unfortunately, I might be the worst decision maker EVER (especially with big ticket items) so that whole process screwed up the plans to go skiing in the afternoon on Sat. It was really really cold Sat. though so I didn't feel too bad not going. Hopefully I'll get off work this weekend and an overnight trip can be in the works for this weekend.

Sunday night when we got back we jumped in the pool for about 600 yds. All bilateral breathing. Just wanted to get a few minutes in as the next swim class is starting in a month and I really don't want to get yelled at for losing all my progress that I made. Not saying it was much!

Monday I went to the am cycling class and then went back after work for bodypump. Not yet sure what I'm going to do today but it might be cycling again. I kind of twisted my knee on Sunday and I'm not yet sure of what it's capable of. It feels kind of weak. Tomorrow is yoga and hopefully body pump again. Again, not sure of the cardio plug for tomorrow, but we'll see. Maybe a easy run or a swim.

Back to work! What a horrible phrase! Congrats on the job Danielle!

Wow, two days in a row... is it a new record yet? So all that talk about really picking up the workout effort... I think I succeeded last night. I went straight to the club after work with the plan of going to body pump at 7:10 and squeezing in a run before that. Well, both happened which is good- but for some reason I really payed for it. I ran 4.5 at a somewhat reasonably pace... at some points maybe a little fast for the way I was feeling but by the end it felt good. As time allowed, I pretty much finished up and went straight to body pump. Needless to say, I had nothing left whatsoever. My legs were cashed and then I bumped up the weight on my chest track early on in the hour which pretty much cashed my arms for the rest to follow. As badly as it hurt... it really felt good to know I was working that hard. Maybe that was my turnaround.

Followed it all by chinese and the remainder of the WI/MI basketball game. Then I pretty much fell asleep as usual. I'm not sure what I can do to stay awake, but if anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly accept them! I know the easiest and most blatently obvious one is to get more sleep, but with me that doesn't seem to work. Actually I usually have more energy the less sleep that I get. Lately I've been getting about 7 or 8 hrs a night (well adding in all the premature napping I'm doing while I'm supposed to be doing something else) and I can't seem to keep my eyes open. It must really suck for anyone that tries to do stuff with me after 10pm. I'm assuming that eventually my body will adjust to the changes, but in the meantime, it's somewhat frustrating. Too many things to do, too little time!

Tonight is volleyball night. This is 2 of 2 that I have to work so again, although I don't want to be there, I'm getting paid to play volleyball. Actually, tonight I'm going to sneak in a swim during one of the hours. That way I won't have to rush there right after work. I'm not yet sure what workout I'm going to do, but I'm going to aim for at least 2200 yds. Depending on how I feel after last night, that maybe be reasonable or might be a dream. I guess we'll find out.

I guess that's it for now. Happy Thursday... just 2 days left. I actually have the weekend off for once! I can't even begin to explain how excited I am!

Did I mention that it's -6 degrees out right now with a windchill of -20, or something ridiculous like that. I think it's almost too warm for me, I'm thinking about moving North. Or maybe East. At least they don't have to leave their house! I told the guys I was going to call in frozen today. They laughed, but I could tell they were wishing the same thing. Maybe I could make it an organized event!

Happy training!

Happy Wednesday. I'm half way there right? The days don't drag on too bad, but I have been tired and unmotivated for the past two weeks. Hopefully the weekend will rebuild my energy. Just have to make it there!!

So what's new in the workout world? I've been holding fairly steady at level: slacker. Yesterday was my first opportunity for a double dose, having taught cycling in the morning- but fell a sleep when I should have been swimming. Oops. I have high hopes from now on though. I pulled myself out of bed to attend the early yoga class this morning. That really takes a lot more effort then I had ever imagined. Pretty tough actually (I was talking about the yoga, but the waking up thing applies too). That was my 3rd 5:30 class this week! Hopefully I'll start to get used to it and my energy level will go back up soon. The plan of attack for tonight includes a run and body pump. I'm excited to start getting back into the routine again. Not sure what's planned for tomorrow, but I should swim and then Friday is early cycling again. I would love to ski this weekend, but it looks like it's going to be frigid both days so I'm not sure if the opportunity will arise or not. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

For now, I guess that's about it. Back to work. I hope the day is going well for everyone! Happy blogging!

Another great day in the life of me. I realize that I've gone into a funk. I'm having a hard time finding motivation to do just about anything... including workouts which used to be my saving grace. I really try hard to be positive, but I'm not really any good at that anymore either. This is coming off more harsh than it really is... nothing to worry about for sure. It's just frustrating. One second I'll be having a blast, the next I'll be really down. I think I'm letting what others say get to be more than is wise. I think I'm going to have to start building the shell back up and start focusing on what's ahead, whether it be completely by myself or not. Everyday I still get that mocking tone that I work out too much, and this is less than I was doing before. I can't wait to see what life will be like come spring. Anyway, enough of that... I just had to vent... thanks for the space.

Workouts have been pretty lame lately. I've done my usual spin classes and then a few others that I subbed for. I've gotten in the pool a couple of times, but haven't been greatly impressed with my performance. I really need to do something about that. I signed up for the masters class again this morning. Hopefully it helps me out. At least I know I'll be in the pool for an hour each week until the beginning of May. I've done a couple of runs as well. Yesterday I ran on the treadmill for 5 miles while watching the movie "Forces of Nature." I was lucky that was on because I think I would have otherwise quit much earlier on. It wasn't fast, but I logged the miles so I guess that's at least a start.

Otherwise, I've been working a lot between Trek and the club. The club was an absolute zoo this weekend. A zoo from hell and I'll leave it at that. Some people have issues and they should let them go- that's all I have to say about that.

I teach the 5:30am class tomorrow and then again on Friday. I hope to get in another swim and run for the week, but pushing that hope a little further, I'll try to get in more than that since it is only Monday. I'm setting my goals too low... maybe that's what's bringing me down. I need higher aspirations! I'll keep you informed on how that goes.

With that, I think I have brought enough darkness to the daily blog so I will stop and come back tomorrow with happier thoughts. Hope everyone's training is going well. Chris, sorry to hear your race didn't go as well as you would have liked... still sounds like you did great!

It's Thursday. Luckily, the week has gone by fast and I've decided to hold my breath until I receive my first paycheck tomorrow. I'm pretty lucky there too, as I'm scraping the very bottom... now I just have to save!! Not one of my stronger abilities :)

Today I taught the 5:30am cycling class. It went well- lots of smiles and surprisingly, quite a few groans. Definitely not as strong as my Friday bunch. I'll have to tell their instructor to work them harder. Anyway, the class was fun and my workout was done for the day. I then headed to work which actually went by fairly quick, which was nice. I was supposed to make it home to have dinner with my sister and parents, but actually got out of work late so I missed my opportunity and had to instead go straight to the club so I could get the volleyball leagues going. I was pretty annoyed that I had to go there, but I guess I got paid for an extremely easy 3 hours. I have to do it next week as well. I'll definitely have to plan better cause I never really fit dinner into the schedule, but by now it's too late to eat.

I was the only instructor to answer a plea for help for tomorrow, so my class got switched to 5:30pm instead of am. That isn't ideal as I like getting the workout in at the beginning of the day, aside from the fact that I have to leave work early now, but I know what it's like to need a sub and not have anyone answer. I'm not sure what's up with everyone, but no one has been offering to help out at all lately. I had to beg for a sub and it turned out that Tim was finally the only one to offer-(a friend of mine). It's just frustrating as I have been subbing like crazy for everyone else but no one else can step up to the plate. Pretty weak. I know I shouldn't be the one to give in all the time, but the program is really going to suffer if no one ever takes the initiative and I just fall into the same habit. Hope the cyclists like me...

I think I'm crabby. It was a long day, starting pretty damn early and having to end with volleyball. The game used to be really fun but for some reason I now dread it. It just takes everything out of me and I don't have fun. Actually, this time I didn't even sign up... I was just put on a team so now I'm going to have to go to the trouble of taking myself off and finding a sub because I refuse to give up my training nights to play a game that I don't feel like playing.

Ok, I'm done venting. I apologize for the negative attitude. Tomorrow will be better. Hope everyone is having a good week and training is going well.

Check it out! Two days in a row! Not saying that I have a lot to blog about, but thought I'd better log in just in case I didn't have time later.

Got up early to go to yoga this morning. I must have woken up in one of the deep stages of sleep because for the first time in ages I was completely disoriented when I woke up. No idea what was going on and just felt like a huge sandbag. But no time for slacking- there was yoga to be done! Today was tough too... I'm not sure if that was because I'm pretty worn out and fairly tight, or if it was a slight alteration in teaching style. Either way... I decided to be nice to myself and the rest of the day qualifies as a day off. The guys at work tried to pursuade me into a trail run at noon, but it's windy and cold and like I said, was trying to take it easy so I declined and instead went up and ate. Somewhat funny I thought.

Otherwise, not much is new here. I teach the 5:30 am cycling class tomorrow and Friday. I'm not sure if I'll add something else in there or not. Maybe a short run in there somewhere... we'll see. I feel as though I should be really starting to get motivated or at least focused on training for September... but I'm still clueless. I suppose now is the time I should be working on building my run. If nothing else, I feel as though that has gone downhill as well. I've been having a lot of back pain lately and that worries me that it's already happening. Need to focus on sitting and riding with a straight back... apparently, I have conditioned my spine to be aerodynamic. That's just great. Anyway...

With that, I will head out- maybe going back to work. Ha Ha!

Wow, this work thing is killing me! No time for anything! I deeply apologize for my slacking in the blogging world. Like I said last time (and probably the time before that...) I will try to find more time to update. The good news though - I haven't done that much to blog about so I'm not too far behind. The job is going well... the people are very cool- in fact the holiday party was just this past Sat night. We showed up late but didn't end up leaving until around 1:30. It was a good time and the house was amazing! Unfortunately, word got out that Ironman 2004 is in scope and I think I'll be in big trouble from here on out. Actually, I'm sure it will be fun as some of the employees at TREK actually organize big rides and stuff all the time. Stay tuned for more info on the "Big Ride." Should be interesting to say the least.

As for workouts... what is working out? Am I still supposed to be doing that? Just kidding... I've gotten in enough cycling classes and even a few swims and body pumps to keep me going. Yesterday I accompanied two others on a 5 mile run. The weather was pretty mild so that was nice, but the pace was a little fast for the diet Mt. Dew I had consumed right before leaving. Actually, I held up nicely (better than I thought I was going too) with the only problem being soreness in my knees from the cold. We actually pushed a pretty hilly route. After that I hit body pump and cashed myself of any energy I had left, leaving work.

Today I subbed for the 5:45pm cycling class. I was somewhat disappointed to find only about 10 participants, as the class is usually full. I think that is from Jen telling everyone that she wasn't going to be there and that at the time she didn't know who was going to be teaching. It's not nearly as motivating with such few people. Especially after getting used to my awesome Friday am crowd.

With that, I end with plans for tomorrow. Early yoga, then work then nothing. My legs are pretty dead as of right now so tomorrow might be a day off. I have my running gear just in case, but I believe it's supposed to be cold again and I'm sticking with the fact that I'm a wuss.

Alright, I guess that's enough for me for about the next month. Stay tuned for February's blog. Ok, I'll try harder. Hope everyone is well and training is fun. Late.

Wow, it's Thursday already and I have been slacking! Weak. Yeah... this new job thing really screws things up! I don't get to check email, update blogs, workout... ok, I still get to workout, just not until late when I have no energy! As soon as it gets a little warmer, I plan on trying to get some sort of exercise into my lunch hour which won't make the surge at the end of the night so crucial and long. Work is going well... the office is torn apart right now as we're remodeling, but I hope to have my own desk and workspace by the time I leave tonight. In the meantime, a bunch of us are working in a conference room which has proved to be quite fun, but pretty unproductive. Meeting people fast though.

Workouts? Monday I taught cycling for Tom (5:30am class), Tuesday I went to another cycling class at 5:45pm and worked my but off... Wednesday I went to the early yoga class, then went back at 6:15, swam for 40 minutes and then attended Body pump. Today I am pretty tired and extremely tight, not to mention unmotivated so I hope to get an outdoor run in sometime while I'm still at work and will probably call it a day. If I don't make it out, I did bring my cycling stuff so I could hit our sister club on the way home for an RPM class or maybe a quick run.

I guess for now, that's about it. Heiser, I'll think about your list and get back to you. Also, does anyone/everyone have a hard time reading my blog? I can see it easily from my computer at home, but I just checked it on my work computer and it's really light. Just wondering! I'll fix it if it's a problem...

Hope everyone's having a good day and are training better than I am! I better start locking it down soon!

Who caught that Packer game?! What a good game! Anyway, back on track... I went after the work out today as I feel like I've been slacking lately. I was supposed to work the 12-4 shift at the club today... (long story short, someone else wanted the shift so after a brutal twist of my arm, I went and had lunch and watched the Packer game :) ... so I went to the 8:45 cycling class and stayed for half of the second one. I then jumped into the pool for 45 minutes swimming around 2400 m. It wasn't a great swim, but good to be in there. My lower back was giving me trouble so that didn't help the situation but overall, not horrible. I went back at 4 for the body pump class and to teach a youngster how to use the cardio equipment so people won't hassle her. Fun stuff!

Oh yeah! We have snow!! Naturally, now that the weekend is over and it is time to trek to work. Look like I'm just not meant to ski. Hopefully soon. Otherwise, not much is new. I am covering the 5:30 am cycling class tomorrow and I'm guessing that will be my only workout since the temperature is supposed to drop pretty low as of tomorrow. Who am I kidding? It's incredibly cold out now! Still not a cold person. My little fingers go numb and turn white and I look like a freak. Again, fun stuff.

Everyone have a fun week! Try not to work too hard, we have to ease back into the "full" work week! Don't want to hurt ourselves!

Just a quick post for right now... First off... LOTR marathon yesterday was AWESOME! I actually stayed awake for all three too! (This is a nearly impossible task for me as I am usually lucky if I see the first 5 minutes once I turn a movie on.) Great day off :)

I'm on my way to work now. Just got in a quick 4.5 (or so) mile run outdoors. The weather is actually great- I think around 32 degrees. I am starting to realize that I really like running in cooler weather (anything below 20 might be questionable). I picked a route with a lot of long hills in it and I'm not yet sure if that was a good idea since I have to go sit around for 4 1/2 hours but I'll let you know. I'm also going to try out this new ab belt that my friend gave me for Christmas. She's getting her masters and for her thesis or experiment or something she and a partner tested out one of those belts that stimulates your abdominal muscles. Anyway, it's called slendertone and she claims it works so I thought why not. I don't think it will actually affect your weight at all, but she said it's good for strengthening the core so that's always beneficial. Again, I'll let you know how it goes.

With that, I'm off to the shower and then work at the club. I'm bringing my swim stuff with the hopes of having motivation to get in the pool afterwards. I don't want the run to be my only workout because I didn't have enough time to make it as long as I would have liked. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Ok, I've had my time to slack... but the new year has officially begun and so I must return to the blog.

I'm sure lots of interesting stuff has happened since I last blogged (and even before my 3 liner on Monday) but I'm not going to even try to gather those thoughts so I'll start with yesterday and move on from there.

Ok, quick mention of my new working lifestyle though... I'M NOT MEANT TO WORK! :) Ok, I know everyone thinks that way, but apparently everyone else deals and accepts it much better than I do. I guess I was just spoiled for too long. As a plug for TREK though, it seems like it'll be a lot of fun so far. My coworkers are very cool and very enthusiastic about working out and of course cycling. Actually, they were excited to hear that I'm a cycling instructor because they now have big plans for me to lead a class during lunch and just have everyone bring in their trainers. Could be cool - a means of working out and I'm still getting paid (even better, not to work!) To summarize: even though I hate to work, I think that this job will at least be pretty cool.

Ok, back to yesterday. Ah... the New Year. Whoopee! Not a big fan of the holiday as I tend to life more or less, day to day... a n d... all the good holidays are over until next October!!! By the way- CHRISTMAS IS NOT OVER! Shame on anyone who says it is. :) I'm just going to keep holding on as long as I can. Anyway. Yesterday was my first viewing of the Ironman bike course. Wish I would have checked it out PRIOR to signing up! Oops. I think it'll be a long year. Last night we hit the pool. I must say that I normally absolute hate swimming, but for some reason I kind of enjoyed it last night. I was having fun and was pretty tired when I left so that must be a good sign. I think that grand total was about 1550 yards, which is kind of light, but I give great credit to the fact that we were in there swimming when there was football to be watched! We're still working on drills and technique so that seems to be much more tiring than just swimming for some reason.

Today started off with an intense 5:30 am cycling class. I have the day off so it was kinda disappointing to have to get up at the crack of dawn for just an hour, but it was fun and I got a good workout in so that's good. I think I'll get used to the early hours soon and then it won't be a struggle to workout before heading to work. I guess that means I'll be aiming for an earlier bed time as well. I've never been good at getting the correct amount of sleep. Tonight I'm going to go see the LOTR-Return of the King so in preparation, I'm having a little LOTR DVD marathon so I'm all caught up. Should be a productive day! I now value my days off much more!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and new year celebration! Excited to get caught up with everyone! Here's to a great year of athletics - healthy, strong and fun!