Planks, Pushups and Squats

It is almost July.  July!  Can you believe it??  June in Maine really shouldn't even be considered a part of summer because it is always such a shitty month weather-wise.  It rains and rains and rains and can be quite cold. 

I had a brilliant idea that school should go through June and the kids have September off instead!  We would solve the problem of losing student workers to school when we still have the really busy fall tourist season and September is such a beautiful summer month that the kids would still get to enjoy. 

Anyway, with July right around the corner I saw this challenge on twitter:

I guess I don't have to put the link there because you can clearly see it!  The challenge is to do either plank, pushups or squats each day.  Do as many as you can without stopping or plank for as long as you can.  Then the next time you do that activity, you try to do more or plank longer than you did last time.  The challenge will be to make improvements and do it at least 5 times a week.  Here is a really handy chart to record your progress.

Join us in this challenge!  I know I don't do enough pushups, planks or squats so this will be a good one for me.  Click HERE and sign up!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from Manimal's jiu-jitsu win.  Still so proud. :)

Yah, you're big.  So what.  My look of death will take you down.

Winner!

And a new belt for his efforts!

 

David vs. Goliath and Proud Moments

This weekend, yesterday in particular, was one of the best moments I have ever had as a parent.  There is nothing like seeing your child go from the underdog to the winner and working hard and earning it.

Every. Single. Step.

And he's only 6. 

I was up at the ass crack of dawn yesterday to head to a race.  I was supposed to race a 1/2 Marathon, but at the last minute I decided to switch to the 5K so I wouldn't miss any of Manimal's jiu-jitsu tournament.  And I am so glad I did.


I arrived at the dojo all sweaty and stinky--I was going to shower at the Y after the race, but it was closed on Sunday--so instead I zipped over to Rite Aid and got some wipes and did a whore's bath in the parking lot.  <so much class>

This was the first time Manimal was going to be competing for real against kids he doesn't train with.  It was a 'real' fight with medals and a podium for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  Big stuff, you know.

It took awhile to get everyone divided into groups based on ability, age and weight.  Manimal's group was the biggest with 9-10 kids.  He was not only the youngest in his group, but also the smallest at 6 years old and 47 lbs.  The other kids were 7-8 years old and larger. 


He was the third match and he won that one easily.  Even though there were no submission holds allowed, the kid tapped out after about 40 seconds.  I'm not sure why, but whatever.  The next match was against a kid a little bigger than him, but he was a yellow belt with 3 stripes and Manimal is a white belt with 3 stripes.  (Basically, it means the kid had about a year more experience than him.) 


He lost that match 6-4. 


I thought he was done at that point, being in the loser's bracket, and maybe would play another match for third place.  He did have another match and beat that kid--another yellow belt with 3 stripes.  So I thought he had third and was pretty darn happy with that.  But no!  They called him up again for the final match against a kid who was twice as big, and hadn't lost yet.  This kid was 8 years old and 100 lbs against Manimal, 6 years old and 47 lbs. 


My sister-in-law turned around to me a that point and said "They can't make him fight that kid, can they?!!?"  I said if he wants to win, he has to!  I knew Manimal would be fine, but I wasn't sure he would win.  No one had even taken the kid down yet. 



If you watch the video above, Manimal is in the white gi and the giant is in the blue gi.  The referee is actually Manimal's professor or teacher.  He is not able to coach him even though the other kid's coach is right there on the floor telling him exactly what to do.  I guess it didn't matter much.


So freakin' proud of that kid.  I was shaking from excitement and cheering for him--it was unbelievable. 


Here he is on the winner's podium.  You can see just how much bigger this kid was than Manimal.

They also had another round of fighting without the gi.  It was less serious and no holds at all were allowed.  He won that one too.

As a side note, I finished my 5K in 24:03, two seconds slower than my PR.  Crap.  Four seconds away from where I wanted to be.  But I really didn't care.  Oh, and I got to meet up with some awesome Tough Chiks before the race!

Jill (not a tough chik, but still damn tough), Carrie, Me and Jen

We are like a walking advertisement for Tough Chik and Running Skirts!

All of them rocked the 1/2 Marathon!  And I got 3rd in my age group, 7th woman and 31st overall. 


What an excellent day yesterday was!  So proud of my little man. 


So. Freakin. Proud.

Thursday's Three Things

1.  This shouldn't be such a big deal but since it took so long for it to happen, it is a big deal.  Princess finally learned how to ride a two-wheel bike.  At nine years old.  Yes, I should get a big fat fail next to my name on the parenting grade sheet. 

It's not entirely my fault (ok, it is, but work with me) because we have lived in a not-so-nice area for biking.  The roads are narrow, hilly and people drive like jackasses.  Not the best environment for kids to learn to ride bikes.  Add to that the fact that Princess is, well, a Princess, and I have zero patience for whining and not trying and that equals a nine year old who can't ride a two wheeler. 

Tuesday was the day.  I told her it was high time that she learned to ride and that if she did, when we went up to Grammy's camp this summer, she would be able to ride her bike to the store to get candy.  Wait!  Did someone say candy??  Once the candy was mentioned, off she went to find a bike to ride.

It was not more than 3 tries, all by herself, and she was doing it.  Up the hill, down the hill.  Turning?  Not so much, but that will come. 

One summer goal completed! 

2.  With a new bike rider you also get the first time crash.  That happened yesterday.  I'm peacefully enjoying my dinner--that should have been my first clue that something was up.  There is nothing peaceful at my house....When all of a sudden there screaming like Voldemort is putting a death curse on her. 

I'm not sure why she thought this was a good idea, but she was biking around the house, on the lawn, lost control and barrelled her way down over the banking and crashed into a tree.  Right in the middle of all the blackberry bushes. 

One bruise on her ankle, a bruise on her hoo-hoo bone (as she calls it--aka pelvis) and multiple scratches.  All in all, not too bad. 

Let's see if I can get her back on the bike.....

3.  I hope to be able to run in the Kennebec Rail Trail 1/2 Marathon on Sunday.  Manimal has had an opportunity to sign up for a jiu-jitsu tournament the same day but at 10 a.m.  The race starts at 7:30 and based on my last 1/2, I should finish in about 2 hours.   The dojo is about 30 minutes from the race finish so I should be able to make it in time.  I don't want to miss it.  Any of it.  It's his first one and I really want to be there.  This race is not a huge priority, I signed up for it on a whim, so I won't be disappointed if I miss it.  I haven't even trained for it!

I'll probably decide Saturday night what I'm going to do.  I'll fill you in on Monday.

4.  Ok, more than three things, but whatever.  I have a $100 gift card to Athleta/Gap/Banana Republic.  Where would you spend it and what would you buy? 

80/20 Rule

My cousin had posted this article on her FB page yesterday and it really got me thinking.  Basically, what Mr. Nate (aka Mr. Muscles, Ninja, all-around bad-ass) has to say is that you have just so many chances to impact your body on a daily basis.  His example was, if you were to perform 5 cardio sessions and 4 weight training sessions per week, that is 9 chances to make a change to your body.  Now if you were to count how many times you eat--either 3 meals a day or 4-5 small snacks or meals, that equates to 21-35 chances to make a change to your body. 

So if we then convert that to percentages, that equals about 20% of your body composition is due to exercise and 80% is due to what we eat. 

If you want to look good, 80% of your results are determined by the food you eat.

That is a not-so-good revelation for me.  But it also explains why even though I am exercising almost every day, that little roll of fat around my waist doesn't seem to go anywhere.  You can't quite see my six-pack.  You know it's there, but it's just a bit hidden.  I suppose french fries, Mt. Dew and that delicious fried haddock sandwich are not helping me a whole lot.

I guess I'll go get me a bag of kale and a tin of blueberries.

What do you think about the 80/20 rule? 

Agree/Disagree?

Bath Y Sprint Tri and Weekend Recap

What a weekend this was!  Friday I had to bring my Princess cherub to the dentist to get one of her two cavities filled.  One tooth is almost ready to fall out so even though it is rotting away, the dentist said we didn't need to fill it.  The other is going to be around for another two years so that one needed to be done. 

sideways face from the novacaine

We laughed at her all afternoon!

Why this girl doesn't want to brush her teeth is beyond me.  But it is WWIII to get her to floss and brush.  And I'm not kidding when I say that.  I've held her down, bribed, punished, and pleaded to get this 9 year old to take care of her teeth.  I'm hopeful that the cavity filling will make her want to clean her teeth more.  Time will tell. 

Yesterday was the day of the Bath YMCA Sprint Tri.  Not the best reschedule day, since it was Father's Day, but the bike course was under 2 feet of water the day it was supposed to be held so I guess it was a good thing they rescheduled. 
It was a perfect day for racing--sunny and cool with a light breeze.  Perfection!  I was little worried that it was going to be cold after the swim to the bike, so I packed some warm shirts to wear just in case. 

I had no expectations for this race, other than to improve on last year.  I thought my swim had improved, I knew my bike had improved and the run should be similar.  Little did I realize how much missing my swim workout for 2.5 weeks would matter.....

My wave started at 9 a.m.  I was with a couple of my friends from home and I ended up sharing a lane with a friend who I knew was pretty fast.  I was chatting away with him as the last guy from the previous wave exited the pool when all of a sudden everyone was swimming!  Somehow, between my yaking and my ear plugs, I never heard the whistle.  Excellent. 

I spent the first 10 lengths trying like hell to calm myself down from the late start and also to not drown from the crazy waves that my lane mate was making.  Good practice for ocean swimming, I suppose...  Of course, I was the last one out of the pool in my wave, 10:38,  ugh.  So much for an improvement on the swim part. 

me, trying not to drown.  Notice there is no one around me?

Indian name= Swims Like Manatee

Heading to T1, notice there is no one else in the transition area.  Oy.

Fortunately, I did much better on the bike.  I was at least 1-2 minutes behind everyone so I knew I had to kick butt catching up.  And I did.  I passed at least 6 people on the bike. 

Bike time 39:48 for 10 miles including transitions.  They didn't separate out the T1 and T2 times so I don't know how fast I was for those. 

Run was 26:00.  My legs felt so sluggish at first right off the bike.  I need to start doing some brick training to improve this.  I have never done a brick...  I still was able to pass a few people on the run as well. 

My daughter took this photo with her ipod!  Pretty good form, eh?

my most favorite picture from the day--manimal and I headed to the finish!

Finish time 1:16:51.  First overall woman!  Woot!  When I heard I was in first I thought they meant age group, not overall.  That was a big surprise to me.  This race had about 40 people drop out because of the date change so I'm sure that played a role in my taking first place.  (My time this year would have put me in 7th place last year so some fast women had other stuff to do today.)  Fine with me!  I ended up with a $50 gift card to a local restaurant for the win.  Thank you because I enjoy eating.

So that was likely my first and only overall win.  I know I need to do some more work in the pool to get my swim time to where it should be.  Especially if I'm going to try to swim in the ocean.  Thank you Cameron, for giving me a little taste of that in the pool.  A rude awakening it was.   I should mention here that Cameron, also from Boothbay Harbor and my wave-making lane partner, won for the men!  So it was a Boothbay Harbor sweep!  He was Speedy McSpeed with a finish time of 59:34.  Yah, whatever, you show off.   Seriously, though, he was super fast and did a great job!

Freakin' Fabulous Friday

Here's how my Friday is so fabulous:


1.  Having little slaves, er, I mean, kids at home during the summer is turning out to be a wonderful thing.  The last two days, I have come home to a clean home, dishes done, rooms picked up and laundry folded.  Wow.  Here is what my little servents did last night:

It's OCD neat.

Have you ever seen a cleaner cabinet?  I should have taken a before picture so that you could really appreciate the undertaking this was. 

Each day they will have a small job to do sometime before I get home.  This way basically, the whole house gets cleaned before Friday even arrives!  Brilliant!  I knew this three kid thing would work out for me eventually.....


2.  I've been waking up involuntarily at 5 ish (really, 5 a.m.??) all this week.  The sun is pretty much up at that time and my body sees it through the shades and says Wake the Hell Up!  So today, I figured since I was already awake and all, and certainly wasn't going to fall back asleep, I might as well get out on my bike.  So I did.  12 miles in 45 minutes.  Yay me.  I ran into 4 other wackos up at that hour, two on bikes and one runner and one dog walker. 

It really wasn't awful.  In fact, it was kinda nice.  I may even do it again.  As long as the sun is out.  If it's dark or raining, then forget it.

3.  I'm also going swimming today for the first time in two weeks!  Yay again!  I figured I ought to get one swim in before my sprint tri this weekend just to make sure that I could still make it up and down the pool. 

4.  One not-so-fabulous thing today--Princess is having a cavity filled.  Lord help me.  I might actually feel bad for her if she wasn't the kid who refuses to brush her teeth.  But she is.  So I don't. 

Maybe this will change her 'tude. 



Have an excellent weekend and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

You are Not Special--Very Few Words Wednesday

So probably most of you by now have heard about the graduation speech given by David McCullough at Wellesley High School just recently.  In case you haven't, you should really watch the link below.  Aside from the list of 10 Rules You Won't Learn in School, this is one of my favorite bits of real-life advice for kids, or anyone really.

Take home points:

1. You are not special.

2.  Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to mark it off your list.

3.  Climb the mountain, not to plant your flag, but to enjoy the view.

4.  Selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Kudos to you, Mr. McCullough.  Great speech.