Arnold Sports Festival - Part 1

Sorry for the long delay in posting!  For the past week, Internet Explorer 8 would not load my Blogger dashboard page, so I finally decided to try a different browser, and...voila!  I'm back.


This weekend, the hubby and I had the opportunity to attend the Arnold SportsFestival in Columbus, OH.  This is the largest multi-sport event in the US.  Forty-five different sports – body building, fitness, dance, cheer leading, fencing, boxing, martial arts, and more – hold competitions, and 700 product and equipment vendors show off their stuff at a huge expo.  What a fascinating event! 

One of the hubby’s clients was a vendor and sponsor at the show, and they gave us 3^rd row tickets for the women’s Ms. International, Fitness International, and Figure International Finals competition on Friday night.   (Thanks, Twinlab!)  The women body builders were impressive.  The figure competitors were gorgeous.  But my favorite part was the fitness competition.  These women have it all.  They are strong, flexible, and beautiful.  Each competitor performed a routine designed to show off their strength, flexibility, acrobatics, and overall badassness.  The music was exciting, the costumes were sometimes hilarious, and the flips, pushups, and feats of balance were amazing to watch.

We spent the entire day Saturday walking around the expo.  It was so packed that we were shoulder to shoulder pretty much constantly.  Most of the product samples were for body building supplements that I have little interest in, but we did get some good stuff like protein bars, energy shots, and t-shirts.  It was fascinating to learn about some of the sports nutrition and equipment products that are coming out into the market.

The expo also gave us the chance to meet some of the competitors from the show the night before and to indulge in a little star gazing.  We saw a number of athletes and actors such as Arnold (of course), Lou Ferrigno (maybe best known for playing the Incredible Hulk on the old 80’s TV show), Mario Lopez, and famous models like Christina Halkiopoulos.  I got a few autographs and had my picture taken with a series of booth babes.

Over the next week or so, I’ll work on posting many of my pictures.  I’ll do my best to identify everyone shown, though I know I’ll miss a few.  And while I have some pictures that will no doubt please the lovers of the female form, I have some treats for the opposite persuasion as well.  So, come back to check them out!

Skye Taylor for Champion Nutrition

"Melissa, Stay dedicated & determined! <3 Skye"

Last week:

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Run 2 miles, 5x1:00 AI’s on the trails in Ken-O-Sha Park, 2 miles – untimed

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Run 4 miles, 4 strides – Total time for 4 mile run 36:29, Avg mile 9:07

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Long run 8.35 miles – Total time 1:18:19, Avg mile 9:22

Good Weekend

It was a nice, relaxed weekend at the Hansen home.  Spent some time with friends.  Ate some good food.  Hooked up the old Nintendo and played some Dr. Mario, Gemfire, and Thunder and Lightning.  Read a good book.

I also got a couple great runs in.  I fell behind a little bit this week on my training plan, but I'm actually fine with it.  I think my body needed a little more rest this week, because I finally feel like my cold is going away, and my runs this weekend felt good for the first time all week! 

I forced myself to have a nice easy long run on Saturday by not timing the effort.  I find that when I have the stopwatch going, I want to push myself.  Partly to see what I can do, and partly so I don't feel bad when my pace looks slow.  But long runs are supposed to build endurance not speed.  I'm still building base miles right now.  I'll do plenty of speed work later.  Anyway, I really enjoyed my run on Saturday out on one of our sunny Michigan winter days.  I don't know where all these sunny days are coming from or how they will affect the summer, but I'm loving it right now!

Also exciting is the fact that the hubby is allowed to exercise again (he's far enough along in his tonsillectomy recovery that he can get his heart rate up without the bleeding risk).  He played in our one an only winning dodge ball match on Thursday and then did the first 1.5 miles of my runs with me on Saturday and Sunday.  It was an absolute pleasure to have him at my side running again!  He's also looking GOOD right now!  Not being able to eat much over the past 3 weeks has thinned him up.  To see him running in his tight black thermal base layers...nice!  ;)


Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Walk with the hubby - 0.9 miles

Wednesday, February 22, 2012
3.1 mile run - total time 28:25, mile pace 9:10.  Felt terrible, but at least I ran.

Thursday, February 23, 2012
Dodge ball league - last match of season 1 and our first win!

Saturday, February 24, 2012
7.25 mile long run - untimed.  Felt great and really enjoyed it.  The hubby ran the first 1.5 miles with me.

Sunday, February 25, 2012
4 mile easy run - untimed.  Also felt good and was tickled to have the hubby join me again for the first part of the run.

This is winter? Wait! Don't jinx it!

Like it has been for many in the U.S. this year, winter has been unusually mild here in Michigan.  We've had some snow, but it has consitently melted quickly.  Temps have hovered in the mid- to upper-30's F more often than not.  All this has led to zero snowshoeing, but I've been out running way more than I usually would this time of year!

Last week I jumped back into my training plan after a whole week off.  It felt hard.  Tired.  That makes sense, since I had just come off a minor illness.  Sleep was less than normal due to the hubby's tonsillectomy recovery.  And it was a pretty big jump in miles.  But by this weekend, my long run felt relaxed and fun.  It was a good mental reminder that the bad days happen, but the good days do return.

I wish I would have started training earlier.  I'd love to get some runs in that are longer than 13 miles before the race in April, but I don't think that is going to happen.  Oh well.  I'll just have to make the most of my time and hope for a good day on the trail!

I went to a triathlon club social with my new athletic buddy last night.  I met some interesting people including a woman who coaches for Team in Training.  Cool!  My new friend unfortunately broke her arm a couple weeks ago, so she won't be able to run or bike for a little while.  But when spring comes around, she'll be back in the game.  I'm so excited to have another friend to train with!  Thank you, Craigslist!

This week:

Sunday, February 12, 2012
Run 5 miles - this was a slow slog in the snow, but it was good to get out there again!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Pushups - 20

Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Run 4 miles - Total time 38:05, mile pace 9:31 - this was a hilly route around my office.  Tough!
Pushups - 48 total (5 sets)

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Run 2.15 with 8x1:00 Aerobic Intervals (AI's) - Total time 18:40, mile pace 8:40
Dodge ball league

Friday, February, 17, 2012
Pushups - 53 total (5 sets)

Saturday, February 18, 2012
Run 4 miles - untimed

Sunday, February 19, 2012
Run 6 miles - total time 54:22, mile pace 9:03

The Zombie Dash comes to GR

The local adventure racing organization is putting on The Zombie Dash in Grand Rapids!  It will take place on the evening of April 28, 2012 at Robinette's orchard.  This fun event involves racing a 5k through the woods while hitting safe houses for supplies and avoiding the brain-hungry undead along the way. 

The hubby and I have been wanting to do one of these races since we first started hearing about them, and so we're super excited that a zombie race is taking place in our city!

It's the same day as the trail half marathon that I'm running that morning, but how can I resist this?  I'm considering signing up to be a zombie, but the hubby wants to run as an attempting-to-survive human, so I'll likely eek whatever energy is left out of my legs and do it with him.

I wonder if Nerf guns are allowed?

;)

The misery of sitting at my desk

After a week of almost no running (I did get out for a 5 miler in the snow on Sunday), I am so antsy to get out and do my runs this week!  I'm looking out my office window into the snow-covered, grey-skied, winter cold yuck that is the outdoors right now, but I don't care.  Getting bundled up and slipping on my running shoes still sounds infinitely better than feeling my butt flatten into the shape of my desk chair.

At least my co-worker decided to get our push up club going again.  I did my pre-test today: 20 push ups.  I probably could have done 2 or 3 more with suffering form.  That makes me happy because that's about where I left off the last time we did push up club.  I've still got it, baby!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Walk 0.9 miles with the hubby

Thursday, February 9, 2012
Walk 1.2 miles with the hubby
Dodge ball double header

Sunday, February 12, 2012
Run - easy 5 miles on snowy sidewalks (untimed)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Push ups: 20

Sometimes the plan gets...um...changed

The hubby is in week 2 of 3 of his tonsillectomy recovery and is still in a lot of pain, but yesterday was the first day that he didn't feel worse.  Yah!  Of course, that could be because he started taking a stronger pain med.  Either way...small victories!

Early this last week, the sore throat that I had two weeks ago started coming back.  Exact same symptoms.  Oh, no you don't!  No tonsillectomy for me!  So I went to the doctor, and she tested me out.  It's just a virus.  Thank goodness.  And I'm feeling great now, but I took the whole week off from running between wanting to be sure I get better and taking care of the hubby.

A whole week of my training plan skipped.  Oh, well.  I'm going out for a run today.  I don't care that it's cold and the ground is icy.  I've got spikes for my shoes.  I'm going, darn it!  I need a run!

Into a new training plan

I'm finally getting into a new training plan as I work towards the trail half in April.  Back in 2002, I ran a road half marathon in something like 1:50, so my goal for the trail half is to finish in under 2 hours.  That means running approximately 9 minute miles on the trail, and therefore, faster miles on the road in training.  I'd also like to increase my mile pace so I can run with a new running buddy, Colleen, that I met recently.  We did our first run together on the Riverwalk downtown.  While I was killing myself, she seemed just fine...though she was gracious enough to slow down for me anyway!

So, I'm starting to build some mileage now and measuring where the upper end of my pace is.  What feels fast right now is a little under 9 minute miles, so I have some work to do, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be after running such a slow pace (11 minute miles) for the marathon in October.  Though I tell myself that I can take it easy right now, my body is really into the exercise and wants to push.  I guess I won't argue with that!

This week:

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012
Run - 2.5 miles

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012
Run with buddy - 3.5 miles

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012
Cross Training - Dodge ball league - 1 hour of cardio

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012
Hard/long run - 4.25 miles (total time 37:44, mile pace 8:51)
[Also a 0.9 mile walk with the hubby]

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012
Run - 3.1 miles (total time 27:42, mile pace 8:56)
[Also a 1.2 mile walk with the hubby]

Post-Op Pizza? No no no no no!

The hubby's tonsillectomy went really well yesterday!  No problems during the procedure.  He wasn't even groggy when he woke up.  He did thrash and bite his tongue due to a bad dream, but the nurses woke him up and he was fully coherent right away.  Kind of a bummer, since I was ready with the video camera to capture some post-operative gold.  ;)

His throat hurts, of course, and he had trouble sleeping last night due to mucus and saliva collecting in this throat and making him feel like he was choking.  But overall, he's doing well.  The worst part of recovery will be in about a week when the scabs come off the wounds.

And though his tonsils are now gone, his love of pizza is still intact, as you can see from this post-procedure video.  "Pizza" was his first word as a baby.  Some things never change!

Snowy Bacon Run

We got about 4-6 inches of snow this weekend, which produced beautiful snow covered trees and not-so-beautiful slush covered sidewalks.

My Back Yard

But Saturday breakfast called for bacon (which we did not have in the house), and the sun kept peaking out through the clouds, so I put on a small backpack and ran to Meijer.

The going wasn't bad at all.  Things were a little sloppy in the lower areas, but nothing I couldn't step through and avoid splashing road slop onto the tops of my shoes.  I hate that and try to avoid it as much as possible!  I always thought it was ironic - and by ironic I mean aggravating - that my socks could be otherwise dry and then get soaked by one splash of liquid onto the meshy top of my running shoes.  Arg!

So 2 miles to the store.  Picked up bacon and some bananas.  Then 2 miles back.  I got my run in and my shopping trip at the same time.  After being mildly sick this week, it felt good to get out there again.

Though I ran very few miles last week, I'm ready to pick it up over the next few days.  I'm actually eager to start doing some speed work.  I met a new running buddy who's pace is faster than mine, but I'm confident that I can catch up to her pace with a few weeks of effort.

Also, please send your healing vibes and well wishes the hubby's way at the end of this week.  He's getting his tonsils out on Thursday!

Dodge Ball Action Shots

My friend and teammate, Cat, wrote up an awesome report of our dodge ball experience so far.  You should seriously go check it out here!  She's awesome.

The amazing staff of the Grand Rapids Sport and Social Club also takes great pictures of the league as we play and then party together.  Thanks, Anna!

Me trying to survive on the court in week 2 with one good hand

The hubby in mad action

Grab those balls!

Cat and I (in the background) having fun with the gang after week 1's game