Blades of Glory

We watched that movie last night and I think I laughed more in 93 minutes than I have laughed all year. It was probably also one of the dumbest movies ever, but funny balanced dumb. It was truly mind bottling.
I also think it's a glorious day when I can still scare Caleb or any of you. (Read Caleb's Facebook entry.)
I've done 1/2 hour on the treadmill today and my nails are beautiful. I am anxious for good weather again so we can get on our bikes.

A bit lazy

Hello family,
I have been pretty darn lazy this week, I blame the economy and my sinuses. I cannot seem to stay healthy for more than 4 weeks, it is mildly annoying. School also started this week, so no worries I have been keeping myself very busy with studying and using my calculator. I have also been reading lots of short stories, I cannot wait to get the book because then I can workout and read in one fell swoop, I must be a woman because I can multi-task. I realize Ben Sather and Caleb are both rolling their eyes at that comment.
I hope you guys are doing better than me with the workouts. Talk soon. Besos.
Hannibal

Getting There

I am feeling great about my workouts this week.  I have actually stayed on my running schedule and it finally paid off.  Yesterday morning, I weighted in and discovered that I have 5lbs. to go before I reach my ideal weight.  At least this was the ideal weight that my personal trainer told me we were going to work at achieving 3 years ago.  

Well, I am getting there.  And even if it has taken me 3 years, I am glad that I am almost there.  

woot!

Last night, I ran the furthest and for the longest amount of time, that I have ever done! I ran over 2 miles and for 26 minutes! I know I was taking it nice and slow, but that was good. And, b/c I took it so slow, I could've kept running. I wasn't dying! That was awesome. And now, the actual motivation I have been waiting for has hit me. The runs I've done before last night were still kind of discouraging. But last night - I felt really good!

Then, Evey woke up at 4:30 this morning, and my zest for life is not quite as zesty. Love you guys!

Of Greek and Fashion

Well, I'm sitting here in the library with some time to kill before my Greek class starts.  So far things have gone well this semester.  I'm trying to handle the suddenly overflowing classroom: enrollment is up 50% this semester, from 2 students to 3.  What can I say?  Word got around about how awesome our class was, what a monster teacher I am, etc.  Today we will be covering deponent, 2nd aorist, and liquid verbs: should be a doozy!  We may also cover some pronouns and work on translating sentences of such linguistic depth and theological import as "Jesus was a man, and Jesus is the lord of men."

My other highlight of the day was that a complete stranger in the library said he liked the color combination of my outfit.  It sounds suspiciously like a backhanded compliment but I'm still taking it, especially since, as I said, this was a complete stranger and I feel like backhanded compliments are more likely to come from so-called "friends."

Anywho, that's my blog o' the day.  No run today, although yesterday was a good workout and Wednesdays are our biggest run of the week beside Saturdays.  So I don't feel so bad about it.  I think you have to cut yourself a little slack from time to time.  No point running a marathon if it doesn't improve the way you treat yourself.

Training!

Hello family!
I just got back from a righteous run on the treadmill because it is too bloody cold outside to do anything. Kristin would probably disagree because she is extremely hardcore, so hardcore that she made Thea and I do training every day in Vegas. I credit her with the fact that I ran 4 miles. She rules.
School starts tomorrow, so I am extremely busy mourning my last day of freedom for a few months, but alas, I think I shall survive.
How is everyone else doing? Did anyone order the coats that the Obama girls wore to the Inauguration? Apparently, quite a few people did.
Love.

Reason #1 to get in shape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy4ny7SJ2FM

Moods

This morning Jaime woke up on the wrong side of the bed. But I suppose, to be technical, she woke up on the same side of the bed she always wakes up on, only this time it was earlier and she wasn't happy about it. She spent the morning not laughing at my attempts to cheer her up, and was highly offended when I made some quips about the stupidity of fashion (Michelle Obama's dress yesterday apparently signaled hope, change, courage and optimism all by the color yellow...amazing!).

But despite her funk, I was and still am in a great mood today! We have a new president running the country that I am incredibly happy about, one who I think will govern the country with reason and cooperation. Yesterday I actually increased the enrollment in my Greek class (we have a booming 3 students this semester! I may need to ask for a bigger classroom). Lost premieres tonight, and there will be 3 full hours of it! I'm going to master the German language by 5 o'clock today, and hopefully test on it Friday. And I went for a nice 6ish mile run this morning and topped it off with a Dave Griffin workout.

It's a great day! Hopefully I can convince Jaime of that, at least by the time Lost starts tonight.

Blood!

Hey all!  I just wanted to write a quick blog to say that I am so happy that everyone is setting new fitness goals for 2009.  I am really excited to see there is some new life on the blog because I was beginning to wonder...

Since this is the first blog of the new year, I am refocussing and recommitting myself to my workouts.  

Saturday's run kicked my butt.  And I think it started with me not getting out of bed at 6am to make the training group for our long run.  I chose to sleep in instead.  Caleb and I didn't start our run until 9:30 at which time the temperature was out of my comfortable running window.  (I have a very small window of about 50-65 degrees.)  Given the distance, time, temperature, etc., I struggled to run 8.5 miles instead of the 10 miles that the champ Caleb ran.  I ran the 8.5 and called it quits and sat on a shaded grassy knoll and sipped my last few ounces of water that I had on my belt and waited for Caleb to come and pick me up and take me home in the air conditioned car.

I was disappointed in myself, because I could have made it.  What is 1.5 miles?

Anyway, as I sat waiting for Caleb and the car, I needed to refocus.  I decided that the way I was feeling was motivation enough to wake up at 6am on Saturday mornings until the race and train with our pace group.  Additionally, I am going to begin changing up my routes to get in a better workout with some hills, long inclines, distances, etc.  Also, I am going to schedule a appointment with a sports physician.  I am experiencing pain in my hips, primarily in my right hip.  I have tried to work through the pain, but its not going away.  I figure if I am only have way through training, miles 14-26 won't make my hips feel any better.  

"My hips don't lie."  

So with this recommitment, I went for a 60 minute run this morning.  And on my run, I managed to kick my right ankle with my left shoe, drawing blood.    

I guess running a marathon is a lot of "Blood, sweat, and tears."

These fitness challenges that we put before ourselves are not going to be easy, but I am proud of where we are and where we are going in 2009.  Keep rockin'. 

MLK Day

Happy MLK day everyone! It's a pretty exciting week. Holiday today, inauguration tomorrow, Lost season premiere Wednesday...

My goal for today is to run/workout, do some work for my RA job, get ready for my Greek class that starts tomorrow, get some groceries, and, most importantly, study German. It's 10 a.m. already and the only productive thing I've done is take out the trash. Come on motivation, start kicking in!

Hope everyone has a great, productive holiday!

Corre! Corre! (Run! Run!)

Hola familia,
I must admit I am highly intimidated by the intense technology upgrade that we have undergone, is anyone else?
Kristin and I have been training daily for the upcoming competition. I'm not sure if you realize how incredibly competitive I am, but I blame P. Diddy. I mean, he went, he ran, he conquered, just as we are about to do as well. Missoula is very intimidated by our mad skills. We managed to run, do lunges, and jump rope without slipping on the ice. Our lungs were singing our praises, our hearts were bursting with joy, and Missoula sat in awe. We are leaving in the morning to conquer Las Vegas and I truly believe if we have it in us to train there we can do a million inverted push ups with our eyes closed and one arm. Take that, Dave.
Continue on the path to righteousness, do some yoga, drink a lot of water, and be healthy damnit.
Shout out to KJ52 (Mom), the spanish command Run, corre, is for you.

Greetings!

Hello Websters Etc.! (Yay! I get to be a part of the ETC...)

So Caleb and Jaime had spoken to me about running the marathon a while ago and it peaked my interest at the time.
After much talking about getting in shape, joining a gym, and sharing about how I need to get in shape right now, all I need now is some accountability and some encouragement.

As they say in Korean, "Fighting!!!"
Bring it!

Good friends

Right now we're waiting for Jody to get here so we can hang out with him tonight. Since I have been down in California the last four and a half years, Jody has been one of my most faithful friends. He always drives out to see us, often (like today) facing rush hour traffic to do so. He drove down to Austin's funeral, mostly out of support for me, though he had met Austin at Jaime's and my wedding. I asked him to be an usher at that wedding and, in turn, he has asked me to be a groomsman at his wedding this May. He's just a great friend to me. We've been through a lot together, including the loss of both of our Dad's.

And, I think he deserves special recognition on this blog for really being the person to inspire Jaime and I to run the marathon. When he trained for and ran his marathon last spring it gave me the confidence that I could do it, and watching his body transform over the course of his training was really inspiring.

Anyway, just wanted to gush a little bit about him because I think it is important for us to recognize the loved ones for whom we are putting our bodies through all this work - the people who inspire us, who uplift us, etc. And Jody has definitely been a solid, inspirational friend to me. Thanks Jody!

i tried it - running

Last night Ben, Evey, and I went over to Mom and Doug's and did our first "training"/running on the treadmill. It went well. I ran for 20 minutes and felt really, pretty good. I was tired when I was done, and today I'm a little sore. (Dave, if you're reading this, you might be thinking "add some inverted pushups girl, and I bet you'll be running for hours before you know it.") And, 20 minutes is the most I've ever ran. I think, EVER.

I feel really good about getting focused on exercise again. This has already been a long winter, and being able to go to and move our butts felt really good. And, what a good example for Evey. Ben and I are making this a priority. Good stuff, people.

Day 2 workout

So I'm thinking that not being able to do the treacherous inverted push-up was a blessing in disguise. Because today I was able to do all of Dave's workout plan and it seriously kicked my ass!

Dave gave me 3 separate workouts, which I am alternating every MWF (every Monday I'll have the same workout, at least for a month at a time). Today's consisted of squat thrusts, which were a killer workout by themselves. Then I smoothly went into a wall-sit that was supposed to last 60 seconds. I don't think mini-micro machine speed talker John Moschitta could have gotten to 60 in the amount of time I sat there. I then did another speed 30 second plank position, where you basically hold a push-up position, only on your elbows. Topped that off with some elevated push-ups (better than inverteds, for sure), bicycle crunches, and push-up crawls (don't ask, they hurt). I was supposed to do some chair dips too, but couldn't find a proper set-up outside.

On a completely unrelated and probably antithetical note, I made grandma's peanut-butter cup bars last night for a dinner we had with some Korean friends. It was my first time making them and they didn't turn out as good as Grandma's (I had a problem with mixing up the peanut-butter stuff without a food processor), but still delicious and nostalgic all the same. And our friends like them, so that was the important part (besides me liking them, which really was the important part).

Family Photo

Does anyone know why the family photo disappeared?

The comedy of an inverted push-up

So part of Dave's workout plan called for me to do an 'inverted push-up.' When I first read the plan I pictured in my head an decline push-up, where I would have my feet up on a couch or something. This would have been nice but, alas, it was not the case. I was supposed to essentially get myself into a handstand position against a wall and push my entire body up vertically with my arms. I pictured Dave with his chiseled, 140 lb body looking like a yogi master, nearly levitating as he pushed himself up.

So, with this in mind, I found a nice bare wall upon which to flip myself upside down and promptly tried to decipher how I was going to accomplish this mighty task. First I put my arms out and tried to walk myself up the wall with my feet. After much struggling, I was able to accomplish this, but found myself at about a 45% angle to the wall, which I knew spelled trouble. There was no chance of me walking my arms back closer, so I abandoned this first pursuit.

Not wanting to completely abandon the work-out, I tried a different approach. This time I used the opposite wall in our small hallway-like approach to the bathroom. I put my hands in the proper position and then tried walking up the opposite wall, with the intention of pushing myself back into the right position. This endeavor nearly led to a broken neck, so once again I failed.

My final attempt was made last night when Jaime got home. I asked her to spot me, and help bring my legs into the proper position. This almost led to a concussion on Jaime's part and a broken spine on mine, so I believe the inverted push-up will have to wait until a day when I am either much stronger or much lighter, or possibly both!

Dave's fitness plan

Today I start using an exercise routine specially tailored for me by Dave G. I asked him to make up something for me that would complement my running, so he spent a week coming up with some exercises for me. So today I'm doing some squats, lunges, push-ups, crunches, torso raises, and leg raises. I'm dreading it.

It's a dangerous thing to ask friends help you with your fitness goals, because then you have someone to whom you are accountable.

Blog revamped for 2009

Hey family! So, about a year ago I started this blog as Webster Children Get Fit 2008. And I think we all accomplished some great things over the past year. Jaime and I started training for a marathon and I brought my triglycerides down. Mom and Doug spent a lot of time on their new treadmill and made some healthy changes to their diets, and both look great for it! Heather spent a whole year taking stairways up and down to her offices, and kept herself in good shape doing it. Ben S. stayed active exercising, walking Henry, and taking care of Evey. Hannah cut sugar out of her diet completely for nearly 2 months and felt great because of it! And Ben W. kept up his healthy lifestyle by participating in track and golf. Unfortunately, Evey showed very little commitment to the cause, and actually put on significant weight this past year. :)

Even with all of those accomplishments, I want to keep this blog going to remind us that fitness does not end with one achievement or the completion of a new year's resolution. And I know there are some exciting things on the horizon for all of us. Jaime and I are committed to running our first marathon May 31st in San Diego. I'm not committing anyone else right now, but I know some of you are thinking about coming down to run a half marathon at the same time.

Anyway, just wanted to alert you that this blog is not dead. Let's keep getting fit!