Friday, November 28, 2008

Rowing is good

My plan for black Friday was to ignore the shopping world and go into work for a few hours to clear some things out before Monday. However, since I was both super sick and locked myself out of my timesheet, I'm on vacation today on the books. Since I'm on my own time I think I'm going to try to sleep off the rest of my fever.
Worst cold in recent history turned into sinus infection and now eye infection. Yum!

My non-Turkey day was spent watching a James Bond marathon and eating lime taco chips and mint ice cream. It was the only thing that even remotely sounded appetizing. Even living on Theraflu and yogurt for three days I managed to gain weight. Not fair.

Thank goodness for the Winter Holiday Rowing Challenge.

The Details
Row 100,000 meters or 200,000 meters between November 27 (Thanksgiving) and midnight December 24.

The best part! I picked the Nature Conservancy.
Support a Good Cause with Meters Rowed
Besides helping you maintain your fitness and fend off holiday weight gain and stress, we’re giving you the option of supporting a good cause with your meters rowed. Consider it a holiday gift to the planet.
For every person that rows at least 100k during the challenge, and chooses to donate, Concept2 will gift $.02 for every kilometer (1000 meters) you row to your choice of the following organizations: The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International or the Alliance for Climate Protection. And once you get beyond 100k, we’ll donate $.04 per kilometer rowed. Our goal through this group effort is to raise a total $50,000 to support these causes.

In recent years, we have had around 5000 people participate in the Holiday Challenge! We are hoping that this new incentive will bring in even more people and encourage past participants to row more meters than ever to help us reach our goal. Please invite your friends to join us. Our strength is in our numbers. It’s like rowing an eight: when you all work together in synchrony, you become greater than the sum of the parts.

200K meters is kind of a lofty goal for me. I've tried to be competitive in past years. This time I'm going to take it easy since the rebuilt shoulder isn't rebuilt in the awesome Jaime Sommers kind of way.

Much like awesomeness and attractiveness, the rowing challenge is free.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Xena was in Pharoah's land ...

I hate sick.
I hate snool.
I hate sore throats.
I hate finally being ready to work out and not being able to.
All only slightly more than I hate going to the doctor.

So I either have some montrous cold, or I have a sinus infection. Awesome.

Now I have a cold/sinus infection and a prescription.

What can I do that won't make me sicker?

Also I set up an appointment for a physical for January since I got trashed and signed up for IMFL. Seems like a good idea to get a baseline before I liquidate all my organs.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Sick of being sick.

Now I have some sort of sore throat thing.
I've gone through two bottles of Theraflu and a box of tissues. May I recommend Puffs with Vick's Vaporub. Should not be legal.


Despite being miserable I gutted out a 5K on the treadmill this weekend while watching Air Force One. This will probably prolong my illness another week.


And waking up at 4 am with a sore throat, since I couldn't sleep, seemed like a perfectly reasonable time to start on a deep dish apple pie.

I peeled and sliced 7 big arse granny smith apples at 4am with no problem. I try to grate cheese during the day for mac and cheese and nearly take my thumb off. Go figure.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Puppies, pools, and promises

I'm housesitting for a couple days for fellow Zer and blogger J.
She has a very stubborn pit/ bulldog mix, who is also completely adorable. You have to love a dog who brings you a toy every time you come in.
Puppy number two is some kind of a pointer mix, but she looks like a Weimaraner but less creepy. She's smoky gray, very delicate, and super snuggly. We watched Dodgeball last night on the sofa together.
And the kitty, who sounds like a Siamese when he meows and could stand to put a call in to Jenny Craig.

While at J's house checking on the assorted pets, I saw her swimsuit hanging on the bathroom dooknob. Hey, that kind of looks like a pirate. Hey, that's the Jolly Roger in pink! And it says "Arrrrrrrgh" on the butt! Awesome! Where on earth does one buy such a ridiculously awesome swimsuit? I check the tag and the answer is Splish. The best. swimsuit website. EVER!

My personal favorites:
The Pirate:
Perfect for swabbing the pool deck in.
http://www.splish.com/store/product18.html

The keystone cop:
Do you know how fast you were swimming?
http://www.splish.com/store/product576.html

The tuxedo, which is also available in Dumb and Dumber varieties:
http://www.splish.com/store/product14.html

Pink Elephant. As in ignoring the giant pink elephant in the room- that I can't swim to save my life.
http://www.splish.com/store/product1.html

Danger tape:
Truth in advertising
http://www.splish.com/store/product21.html

Da Bomb:
http://www.splish.com/store/product495.html

I'm a winner:
I don't know why but I cannot stop giggling over this.
http://www.splish.com/store/product513.html

Starry night:
Insert heavenly body joke here.
http://www.splish.com/store/product102.html

Poison:
Never trust a big butt and a smile.
http://www.splish.com/store/product447.html

Best part, they also have awesome swim caps. And t-shirts. The only tricky part is a lot of the super awesome suits have spaghetti straps, not sure I can get away with that.

And Jeanne I promise that if I don't die training for IMFL that I will still do relays with you and Supersnail with obnoxious names. I'm shooting for the long ball, but I promise not to become a Fasthole.

I will always be an 8th grade humor, snuggly, obnoxious Panda. Iron, tungsten, or aluminum.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Hibernating

The flu and other illnesses have prevented my starting the training plan for IMFL but today is the day. I am going to the gym and getting in my 45' Zone 2 run.

What I've been doing instead:

Cooking. A lot. Breakfast is my favorite meal and I've been making French toast, pancakes, rice pudding, bread pudding, Irish oatmeal, yummmmm.

Watching lots of TV - one of the stars of True Blood is a friend of a friend so I've been trying to help out the ratings. It's also a pretty awesome show.

And Dexter although this season has been kind of weak.

And the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. It is vapid, I know, but I LOVE this show.

Helping someone set up house.

A friend PCS'ed up here and I got dominion over the kitchen. I already own every kitchen appliance short of a KitchenAid, so it's fun to start again with someone else's house.

Writing Christmas cards! I send out about 150 every year. If you want one send me your mailing address.

Online Christmas shopping. Yay Amazon wish lists.

And I bit the bullet and signed up for crew winter conditioning. Sometime in January, you'll be able to wash your laundry on my abs. Heyo!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Free with ballot: Starbucks, ice cream, kittens ...

Just in case you've been living underground in the name of science or something. Today is election day!

Red, blue, or in my case pink you should go vote!

Then get your free Starbucks:
http://www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet/news.aspx

And your free Ben and Jerry's:
http://www.benandjerrys.com/features/i_voted/

Not to mention a buck off with your sticker at Cake Love.
http://www.cakelove.com/

And star spangled donuts!
http://www.krispykreme.com/images/hot_vote_now08_pop.jpg

Oh and you get democracy or something, but seriously, free stuff!
http://lifehacker.com/5075721/election-day-freebies-roundup

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Dog chasing a car

I got into Ironman Florida.
Holy crap.

Now what?

Best quote ever:
"Well you were saying you wished you were still training so you could eat more. Problem solved!"
Thanks R.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Cancer survival and exercise

I read about this in my Lifetime Fitness magazine instead of working out this morning, I'm allowed I gave blood Thursday, and I thought it was really cool.

I love when people give adversity the middle finger.

http://www.survivorstraining.org/

Survivors' Training™ is a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of Minnesota. Its affairs are governed by a top-notch Board of Directors whose expertise includes health communication, health care policy, oncology social work, and medical research on the benefits of exercise for cancer survivors. Survivors' Training™ is a member ofthe Minnesota Cancer Alliance. Read more about what the Alliance is doing to advance the Minnesota Cancer Plan here.

Who we are
Daughter, mother, wife, college professor: To this list of roles, Wendy added breast cancer survivor in 2006. Diagnosed with Stage I invasive ductal cancer and lobular carcinoma in situ, she underwent a bilateral mastectomy in November and began the process of reconstruction. While recovering from her surgery, she spent a lot of time reading medical journals and discovered the exciting new research on the benefits of exercise. To help her deal with the physical and psychological effects of her diagnosis and to improve the chances of surviving her cancer, she hired a personal trainer. But she realized that many cancer survivors were not in her fortunate situation. Possessing neither the knowledge about the effects of physical activity nor the means to pay for a supervised training program, many women were not receiving the post-treatment care they needed to improve their well-being, physical function, and their odds of surviving cancer. Wendy started Survivors' Training™ to close the gap between the research findings and everyday reality for women living with a cancer diagnosis.
Her blog: http://survivorstraining.blogspot.com/

Our Mission
The mission of Survivors' Training is to raise awareness of the importance of exercise for cancer survivorship and to promote regular physical activity as an essential therapy for those diagnosed with cancer.

Our Activities
Educating cancer survivors and their caregivers, healthcare professionals, and the general public about the importance of regular physical activity for the health, well-being, and longevity of cancer survivors. Facilitating physical activity through the development and provision of low-cost fitness training options to cancer survivors. Our one-of-a-kind fitness studio in White Bear Lake, MN, is our signature program. Advocating for the reimbursement of cancer survivorship fitness programs with policy makers and health insurers.