Friday, October 29, 2010

Holly is running Boston 2011 for Camp Erin!

This is Holly, my good friend and training partner in Rochester.



Several months after running the Boston marathon this year (where the above picture was taken), she began toying with the idea of running not just for herself but also for others. Shortly thereafter, she found out about Camp Erin, which is a bereavement camp for children and teenagers. The camp is a safe place where children can go to learn how to grieve, and to feel some relief from the weight of overwhelming sadness that comes with the loss of a loved one. The idea really hit home for Holly because her father passed away three years ago when she was 26 and her little sister was just 12.

Holly has committed to run the 2011 Boston marathon for Camp Erin. Her goal is to raise $5,000 and to get a new PR (under 3:15) I know she'll be successful, because not only is she a great runner, but she has a real connection to this cause. Please visit Holly's page to learn more.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

How to write a history paper that's due tomorrow that you had an entire month to write

Step 1: make coffee. the caffeinated kind.
Step 2: clean room entirely. you wouldn't want to work in a messy room, right?
3: oops, forgot the laundry in the dryer. get that and bring it upstairs. fold it and put it away.
4: put away all the amazing "new" clothes mickle sent you in the mail!
5: try on my wetsuit. it doesn't fit as well as it did when i was 14, darn.
6. lament
7. Maybe it's time to clean out my "mail and papers" box on my desk. it's getting sort of unruly.
8. Turn on christmas lights.
9. open window for a nice draft
10. light candles
11. write this list

....to be continued

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Three years on the interwebs

Three years ago today, I started this blog! Since then, I've written 393 posts: an average of 1 post every 3.7 days.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Another adirondack weekend



This weekend, I headed for the mountains with Nicole and the Schlimmers in tow.


On Saturday morning at Jon's house, we woke up to snow on the ground.
We set out to do Algonquin, Wright, and possibly some others nearby.




The higher we climbed= the more snow there was= the happier I became! At the summit the wind was fierce, and I got so cold that I started doing push-ups to stay warm.



We summited Wright Peak, and probably would have done Algonquin as well if it weren't for the icy conditions and our lack of crampons. It was very slippery.


How sweet is it that I stood on top of a mountain that is named after me?

Friday, October 22, 2010

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Dear People in Rochester who complain about this weekend's forecasted snow,

Stop it. Move to Florida so we can excitedly anticipate the coming winter without listening to your bitching!

Sincerely,
Fem

Monday, October 18, 2010

Autumn Chores Workout



Here's tonight's autumn chores medley:

10 minutes wood-splitting
10 minutes agressive leaf-raking
10 minutes turning over garden (with a shovel)

Repeat until chores are done.



This morning at breakfast I was flipping through the cookbook, trying to decide what to throw in the crockpot.

"Hey," I said to my little brother, "What do you want for dinner tonight?"

"Bacon," he said, without missing a beat.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Dad's home!

After more than a year of commuting home only on the weekends, my dad's company (Orthogonal) has moved their lab from Ithaca, NY to Rochester... which means he is home to stay! My mom and I made this poster, which has been hanging on the fridge for the past month.




On the last day, she counted down the hours and texted them to me periodically while I was at school. Aw.

Monday, October 11, 2010

New lifting shoes!

These are the vibram no-fingers, which powered me to a new deadlift PR this morning.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Think you suck at kayaking? You're not alone.

Thanks to Sam for this one!

"Do you have any advice for people who want to suck at kayaking?"
"Man, paddle less. The more you paddle the better you get, so you should definitely just stay off the water."

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

I need a computer wizard

I have a dream... and it is of the Greatest Spreadsheet/Computer Program Training Log of All Time.

Can someone help me!?

Here's my vision: The log is daily. It has different codes for exercises, and you input the codes, total time, heart rate, feelings, workout notes, etc. Anything that can be computed would be computed.

It would be organized by time of day, and synced up with a food journal. That I can say I woke up at 5:30, ate a banana and 1c of soymilk, and then at 6am lifted for 1 hr. Everything is shown on the same interface so I can see how it all ties together. The food part would have optional inputs for calories and other nutritional values. There would also be input for daily body weight, hours of sleep, morning resting heart rate, etc.

It would also have an input for my goal training hours, goal calories, goal sleep hours, etc.--- and it could tell me on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis how far off I am from my goal.

And then it would compute.... BY ITSELF!! So at the end of each day, week, and macrocycle, I could see dozens of pieces of information, including:

total training time
total time spent in various heart rate zones
total calories
total grams protein
hours of sleep
etc.

Then I'd have conversations with myself like these:

"Wow, this week ended up being really heavy on zone 4 work and not much aerobic work. I'm glad my awesome self-computing training log can tell me this useful information!"

"Wow it says here that last week I only got 60 hours of sleep total. Let's go back to the daily breakdown. Oh yeah, I see that for 3 nights in a row I only got 6 hours of sleep. What a useful tool you are, training log!"

"My workouts have been totally sucking this week. Let's consult the training log program. Hmm... WOW, I see here that I've been consuming over 600 grams of fat per day! That probably has something to do with it. THANKS, TRAINING LOG!!!!"

I realize there are generic programs out there that kind of do what I want, but that is exactly why I've been using a pen and steno pad for 7 years.

It's time to go HIGH PERFORMANCE-- a program designed by Fem and for Fem, made by someone who is way smarter than Fem!!

Anyone interested?

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Post- workout conversation today at the Forge

"Ever seen those 100-calorie packs? With like 8 tiny cookie crumbs in them? What a joke. I'd like to see a 600-calorie pack, at least." -Matt

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Speaking of out-of control seasonal joy....

Thanks to Jordan..."It's decorative gourd season, mother f*#%ers!"

Dear mom,
This contains foul language and you probably won't like it.
Love,
Em

Soups and pies and apples, oh my!

Perhaps it was the chill in the air, the thermometer reading of 40 degrees, or the fact that I could see my breath while walking to get the newspaper. But as soon as I finished the morning's training session, I was suddenly propelled by a strange primal urge to stock up the cellar for the long winter ahead... butcher the hog, hang dried herbs from the ceiling, and make vast quantities of apple and cinnamon-containing baked goods.

And my more 21st- century self wanted to make a bunch of food to freeze so I can 'nuke at night when I get home from workouts.

Problem solved. I made Margot Mickle's famous taco soup, cream cheese chicken, my grandmother's delicious apple coffee cake, a few apple pies [to further my practice at world pie-making domination], and applesauce. I did manage to make a dent in the 41 pounds of last weekend's apple orchard fun.



PS fair warning: my excessive autumnal joy is only going to grow with each passing day!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Pictures from a random training session



I brought my camera to practice today, because the semi- brightness outside seemed such a novel and welcome change from the grey rain we've been having. Thanks to Jim for taking the shots!


We arrived to practice dressed like this. Ten points to whomever can guess which feet belong to whom!


Nicole and me, dressed to the nines on a crisp fall day.


Paddling downhill

Post- training we exude nonchalance