Walkin'

• Walked 18 blocks in 4" heels
• Did two real deal pushups with some contraption that involves rotating your wrists.

In other news, am looking forward to watching Rolling on PBS tonight. My sister uses a wheelchair when she has to walk more than a block, and my brother-in-law uses a wheelchair. Suddenly while blogging this I remember my older sister commenting that she needed to join a gym to lose some of the weight she's put on as a side effect of her medicine.
I remember feeling very protective of her in that moment. I didn't want the people in the gym to look at her and stare. (People always look and stare.)

I hate it when people look at her and stare. That's my sister, I think. Stop.

Hoops game

Basketball game tonight. We had 9 players on a court that was really small and didn't have a three point line, which sucks on a number of levels:

• My best game is a running game. I'm crazy quick on the court and it's the fast breaks and the full court press that differentiate me.
• Our team plays better when we're a little bit exhausted. Hard to get exhausted with a deep bench and a short court.
• We have a number of guards that can sink threes, but it's difficult to know where to stand without that line.

We should have gone full court man from the beginning of the game, which is what I suggested, but whatever.

Games like this make me wish for a good game of street ball with the boys.

We lost by one point.

Curiously, a guard for the other team was Yale '07. She, however, will not be attending Feb Club on Friday.

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Basketball game

Had a basketball game on Thursday night. We won!

We also had a ringer play with us, a friend of a friend. She was incredible on the court, very inspirational in her approach to the play. I recently read something in an article about the "dumb blonde" stereotype:

And if we think we’re surrounded by the not-so-intelligent . . . .”There’s a decrease in performance after an unobtrusive exposure to a stereotype about people who have the reputation to be cognitively impaired,”

I think this can also be said for sports (and Scrabulous). You slack off a bit when your opponent's not on your level. You do not play on the balls of your feet.

Well, this ringer, allegedly a woman who has seen NCAA Tournament Play time and plays ball 2x a week, encouraged us to keep up a quick game even though they had no bench and we were winning. And you know what? It felt good.

I also begged her for workout tips after the game because she's built the way I wish I were built. The genes I was dealt will certainly limit me, but she shared her approach:

As far as workout regimen – funny because I had been lifting more lately and I’ve had some guy friends tell me I was looking so much thicker…soooo, I stopped that. I work out a lot - I am a bit all over the place with what I do, but I like it that way. I usually play basketball 1-2 times/week, practice yoga 2 times per week, lift weights 2 times per week, and run on a treadmill 2 times per wk (not more than 20 minutes tho, as I’m prone to stress fractures). Obviously there is crossover there, where I usually lift/treadmill on same day.

Yoga is the thing that made me longer and leaner.

I definitely noticed the same shift in my body when I was actively doing yoga. Yet another reason to get back on the yoga kick.

I also spoke with a trainer last night about lifting, and he encouraged me to do at least 15 reps. Which would mean lowering my weight. So fine.

I wonder if I could stick with the high weight / low reps for my gluteus MAXXXXimus, though ...

Lifting day

I lifted today, satisfying my 2008 mission to lift once a week.

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1. Consider doing the 6:30 full body conditioning class but, upon putting on bright orange 3" shorts that were slightly see-through (eek!) and totally embarrassing (particularly with black ankle socks) (I hate black socks) (I need to do laundry), and since I'm dressed by 6:00, try to warm up on erg but some dude's already there. Stretch instead.
2. 1x8x80, 1x8x90, 1x8x80 lat pulldowns with 15 seconds of walking / arm stretches in between sets
3. 3x8x90 squats
4. 1x8x70, 1x7x70, 1x5x70 leg curls. This machine confuses me. I need to find my old workout notes because, well. I'm confused. I used to kill these. Maybe the squats made my butt sleepy.
   
5. 1x24x20 bicep curls, middle 8 on tip toes.
6. 3:00 on 1:58 split 35 spm, 2 off erg.
7. Stretch
8. Steam and shower. Sauna is worthless at the Soho NYSC.
9. 12 ounces of shake thing once I got home.
   

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Seeing this picture of me
in my crazy costume
at my 31st birthday party
gave me pause

Thoughts:

1. My body looks puffy, which is not my goal. I remember the med school team semi half coach for crew in undergrad. She had huge quads but also fat over them which really was not a hot look. I have no idea what she looked like when she was in shape but I must say, my quads and my arms are looking puffy and much like they did in college. This confuses me. Doesn't lifting make one lean? Maybe I need to mix the yoga back in more frequently.
2. All that said, my glutes look awesome. Nice and lifted which was one of the reasons I started lifting again, it was looking a tad pancakey.
3. I can't handle lactic acid like I used to. Need to figure out how to work on this.

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Future MILFs beat the Sharxxx

Basketball game tonight. In a stunning move, our entire roster showed up. We're used to playing with anywhere from 3 - 6 players (!) so oftentimes we don't give it our all when we're on the court.

From a game this past summer

Unfortunately tonight that's what we needed to do, but it took most of the first half to figure that out. The team we played against, the antagonistic Future MILFs (with whom there is definite historical beef-a-leef), is 4000% from the field, in great shape, has a killer passing game, and only had six players.

Once we switched to full court man, the game's intensity picked up and we started chipping away at their lead. Unfortunately it was 21-7 MILFs at the half, so ...

Sharxxx move to 1-3 for the Winter 2008 season, putting us in fifth place out of seven teams in our division. Eek.

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1. Walked a mile from my hair appointment back to my apartment
2. Played a basketball game (scored two points underneath off a rebound)
   

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I did sweat, though. Does that count?

I was in Miami last week for work, and I had planned to go to at least one of the $17 yoga sessions offered by my hotel, and go on at least two runs in the 80 degree weather.

I did nunnuv (none of the above).

I did, however, take advantage of most of the great amenities offered by my hotel:

• Red earth detoxifying mud bath
• Roman waterfall hot tub
• Arctic plunge
• Hamam
• Aroma steam room
• Cedar sauna
• Personal outdoor tub
  

I also took a nice swim late at night a couple of nights.

I am going to tell myself that this all qualifies as a, uh, taper week. Yeah, that's it! I'm on my taper!

Nevermind that there's no event for which I am tapering.

Do protein shakes matter?

After today's workout, which was tough to grit through, I suspect that protein shake thingies actually do make a difference. My muscles felt sluggish even though I was doing exactly the same thing that I'd done a couple of weeks ago. Only real variable was that I hadn't had a protein shake thingy today. (I may have also failed to have my iron pill.)

??? Is it all in my head, or is there some positivist A-B split science behind this ???

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1. Walked a mile to the gym
   
2. [1 minute on (35 spm / 1:55), 1 minute off] * 3 on erg, resistance = 4
3. Stretch
4. 3 x 8 @ 80 lat pulldowns, 30 second walk with arms above head in between sets
5. 1 x 8 @ 90 squats, 30 second walk to find a trainer to show me how to re-set it correctly
   
6. 3 x 8 @ 70 leg curls, 30 second walk with arms above head in between sets
7. 3 x 8 @ 20 bicep curls, no rest in between sets, stood on tiptoes for middle set
8. 3 minutes on (34 spm / 1:56), 2 minutes off on erg, resistance = 9
   
9. Back stretch on the stability ball thing
10. Rest of stretches
11. Sauna / steam / shower
12. Walked a mile home

I have decided that I am totally counting if I walk without sitting for at least a mile, because, well, baby steps. Right?

I'm also considering joining a second gym because my friends keep asking me if I'm a member of Equinox (I'm at NYSC right now due to its proximity to my former office). Is that totes crazy?

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Taken en route to the gym