*Post Not Fitness Related In the Least Warning*
About two weeks ago I posted a YouTube video that I made in this space. The video was created out of frustration with the lack of respect Hawaii's teachers are being shown by Gov. Abercrombie. The short short version is we have been teaching without a contract for a year and a half, he continues to offer us deal which are regressive at best. The problem is because he is making offers it looks like teachers are being greedy when we turn them down and when mediation breaks down, when in fact we are saying no to offers any sane group would laugh at.
Still, public opinion has swung hard against us recently and I wanted to try and inform people of the teachers' side through an open letter to the governor. So I spent a few days drafting one and then put it out there. As of today that video is sitting at 1,800 views. Which is crazy, since I was hoping for about 1,700 less than that and had decided after it started getting popular that I'd be happy with 1,000.
A big part of why the video continues to spread is social media. I tweeted and Facebooked that thing at every single person I could think of, including local news media in all forms. Well, KHNL Hawaii News Now picked it up. I talked a few times with a producer there who loved the story and pushed in the newsroom for some coverage. I made it very clear this was not about announcing a strike but announcing my willingness to strike and giving clear, thought out reasons why. If it comes to that public support will be paramount, and this seemed like a great way to start building that. Also, some teachers are feeling the same way I am but not willing to make the sacrifice a strike would call for, so I wanted to try and help them understand this isn't going to be a want, it is going to be a need.
I thought the story came out well and this is my space, so here it is.
Teachers question Governor over lack of contract - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL
Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL
Friday, November 2, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Looking For Motivation
Swim
1 x 200- warm-up
5 x 100- 1, 2, 3, swim
5 x 50- 25 fly/25 free
1 x 100- cool down
Single leg squats
4 x 10
Stability ball curls
3 x 12
Plank
2 x 1:00
Your friendly neighborhood Dirtbag needs an event to think about. I'm so wanting to do something stupid I even looked at registering for the Honolulu Marathon in December. $140! So that ain't happening. There is the biathlon series coming up starting in December, and individual registrations for those are $25 or all three for $60. So that is probably where I'm going to put some money next.
I also need my knees to cooperate. After yesterday's workout there for for sure soreness around the left knee. I'm not sure yet if it's the muscles responding to the squats and curls or is there is still an injury being worked out. But it is tight. I think I need to keep foam rollering it too. I've got single leg squat goals. I want to be able to do pistols, unsupported squats, so that's what I'm working towards. It's all about strengthening around the knee and stabilizing the hips. Eventually I stop supporting my foot back behind me and start kicking it out in front and sitting onto a bench.
 |
| Not me. Yet. |
Monday, October 29, 2012
15 Things A Beginning Cyclist Should Do
I have a new piece for active.com online now. You have actually already read it, it's the Things a New Cyclist Should Do blog I wrote a few weeks ago. I liked it so I sent it to my editor, who also liked it and put it online. So even though you've already put it into your eyeholes and brain matter I'd appreciate if you clicked on the link anyway so active knows people read my stuff. Someday I will be famous. Then they'll see! You'll all see! Bwaahahahahahah!!!!
Seriously, click the link. This one here. Thanks.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Continutes for the Rehabs!
Swim
1 x 200- Warm-up
Ladder
100
200
300
400
500
3 x 10- Stability ball curls
4 x 12- Supported Single Leg Squats
2 x 1:00- Plank (one on Bosu ball)
My swim motivation is still really screwy, and I don't have a good reason why aside from there is nothing to train for right now. Also, my focus is more on getting my legs strong and stable so that injuries become a thing of the past. So I'm swimming for maintenance and that sucks sometimes. Hopefully as my fitness comes back my intensity will too.
The squats and whatnot went well. I'm feeling the soreness, which is a welcome thing. Nothing is better than doing a workout and then the next day your muscles reminding you about it. My knees still wobble and my hips drop during the squats, but this is only the second time through. That'll improve.
1 x 200- Warm-up
Ladder
100
200
300
400
500
3 x 10- Stability ball curls
4 x 12- Supported Single Leg Squats
2 x 1:00- Plank (one on Bosu ball)
My swim motivation is still really screwy, and I don't have a good reason why aside from there is nothing to train for right now. Also, my focus is more on getting my legs strong and stable so that injuries become a thing of the past. So I'm swimming for maintenance and that sucks sometimes. Hopefully as my fitness comes back my intensity will too.
The squats and whatnot went well. I'm feeling the soreness, which is a welcome thing. Nothing is better than doing a workout and then the next day your muscles reminding you about it. My knees still wobble and my hips drop during the squats, but this is only the second time through. That'll improve.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Let the Rehabs Begin! (Finally)
Swim
1 x 200- warm-up
5 x 100- increasing intensity by 25
Single Leg Squats
4 x 10/per leg
Stability Ball Curls
3 x 10
Planks
2 x 1:00
Rode the bike up the hill to the gym and got a short swim in. 700 yards is barely a warm-up as far as I'm concerned but I was more interested in getting some of the rehab workouts in. I don't see many intense training days in my near future. I'm going to try and use this off season to get strong and stable so that when the next season comes around I can be fast and injury free.
I started the rehab workouts with single leg supported squats. I put one foot up on a box jump box (?) and then tried to execute slow, stable squats, keeping my knee tracking straight forward without too much side-to-side wiggle. This was harder than it should be. Especially the right leg, which had all kinds of wobble wobble. My hips also liked to drop to one side. Ah, all the little running issues explained in one short exercise. I'm going to need to do a lot of these.
The next piece of the puzzle is strengthening the hamstring and tendons behind the knee, again to strengthen and support. Laid on my back, feet up on a stability ball, raise my hips to the sky, and roll that ball to my butt, touch, and back out again, all nice and slow and smooth. It hurts my ego some to say that I felt both of these exercises. I'm a young, strong, tough Dirtbag. Couple of squats and curls shouldn't be a thing. But they were. This might be a long, slow road, but the end of it has Health and Strength and Speed waiting, so it's worth it.
And, because a strong core will mean better swimming, biking, running, and overall health, I brought in the planks.
Now all I have to do is keep this up on a regular basis. Like always, the hardest part of working out it making it a habit, especially when you have to break the couch habit to do it.
1 x 200- warm-up
5 x 100- increasing intensity by 25
Single Leg Squats
4 x 10/per leg
Stability Ball Curls
3 x 10
Planks
2 x 1:00
Rode the bike up the hill to the gym and got a short swim in. 700 yards is barely a warm-up as far as I'm concerned but I was more interested in getting some of the rehab workouts in. I don't see many intense training days in my near future. I'm going to try and use this off season to get strong and stable so that when the next season comes around I can be fast and injury free.
I started the rehab workouts with single leg supported squats. I put one foot up on a box jump box (?) and then tried to execute slow, stable squats, keeping my knee tracking straight forward without too much side-to-side wiggle. This was harder than it should be. Especially the right leg, which had all kinds of wobble wobble. My hips also liked to drop to one side. Ah, all the little running issues explained in one short exercise. I'm going to need to do a lot of these.
 |
| Get him a body bag! |
And, because a strong core will mean better swimming, biking, running, and overall health, I brought in the planks.
Now all I have to do is keep this up on a regular basis. Like always, the hardest part of working out it making it a habit, especially when you have to break the couch habit to do it.
Monday, October 22, 2012
An Open Letter To Hawaii Gov. Abercrombie From a Teacher
The direct-to-YouTube link is here.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Two Crappy Choices
**Warning- A lot of this post is me still trying to convince myself I made the right choice**
Today, in about two and a half hours, I'm supposed to be waking up and heading across the island for a fun Splash and Dash. It's a 500m swim/5k on the Marine Corps base I signed up for a few weeks ago to have something to look forward to. Military events are always well priced and Super Awesome Wife and I enjoyed doing it as a relay last year.
Thursday evening I went for an easy run. Planned three and a half miles or so. Every once in a while for the first mile and a half I'd get a sharp twinge on the inside of my right knee. By the time I was breaking two miles that twinge was pretty constant and getting sharper. At 2.25mi I couldn't run anymore. I cut my course short and walked home. Frustrated. Grumpy. Muttering to myself about being lazy and not doing the rehab like I should have been. A few times on the walk home, as you do, I tried running. Maybe it was a phantom pain. Maybe it was one of those sharp knee pains that goes away after a few minutes, like magic.
Or maybe it would be right there, waiting to pull me up short.
Yeah, take door number two.
So now I have all of Friday, which I spend popping ibprofen, wearing my compression brace, stretching, foam rolling, and oscillating back and forth between "I don't think I can run a 5k, and I don't want to walk it" and "Stop being a pussy, you'll be fine." And I mean hard swings back and forth. The mind argues, "It won't be any fun and you'll probably be stupid and try to run through the pain, which will probably just make it worse in the long run." "Shut up, wuss. You did a 70.3 and you're worried about three freaking miles?"
Yeah, I am. The difference between the pain of muscle breakdown over the course of a hard race and the pain of working through an injury is vast. One you feel like a champion for breaking through. The other you just feel breaking.
But that isn't stopping me from being up at 3am feeling guilty. It actually woke me up at 2:30, because it's nearly all I've been thinking about today (well, that and this, which I would appreciate you taking eight minutes to watch). So 2:35am found me pacing my apartment, running in place, and doing squats, waiting to see when and if the pain would kick in. I would do something, no pain, then I would walk a little and there was the dull throb in the back, waiting, taunting me. Will I become a full on sharp stab like Thursday? Will I ruin your race? I know I should argue back that I don't care, it is a $25 fun event and no one will blame me for walking if I have to. But I will. I didn't sign up to walk, to half ass it. I signed up to go.
So my choices are go and almost for sure hurt with injury pain, which will make me frustrated that I went and that I'm hurt, or protect my knee and not go and try not to feel like a bitch for it. It seems like I keep missing workouts and events.
I turned off my alarm. I'm not going to risk it. I'm not going to go. I'm going to stay home and be grumpy that I stayed home. I'm going to question my choice about a hundred times in the next 24 hours, probably beat myself up a little, and try not to be too much of a grump to pregnant wife. As I type that I check in with my knee and right now- no pain. But I'm pretty sure that's a myth. And I've got to trust myself.
*grumble*
Today, in about two and a half hours, I'm supposed to be waking up and heading across the island for a fun Splash and Dash. It's a 500m swim/5k on the Marine Corps base I signed up for a few weeks ago to have something to look forward to. Military events are always well priced and Super Awesome Wife and I enjoyed doing it as a relay last year.
Thursday evening I went for an easy run. Planned three and a half miles or so. Every once in a while for the first mile and a half I'd get a sharp twinge on the inside of my right knee. By the time I was breaking two miles that twinge was pretty constant and getting sharper. At 2.25mi I couldn't run anymore. I cut my course short and walked home. Frustrated. Grumpy. Muttering to myself about being lazy and not doing the rehab like I should have been. A few times on the walk home, as you do, I tried running. Maybe it was a phantom pain. Maybe it was one of those sharp knee pains that goes away after a few minutes, like magic.
Or maybe it would be right there, waiting to pull me up short.
Yeah, take door number two.
So now I have all of Friday, which I spend popping ibprofen, wearing my compression brace, stretching, foam rolling, and oscillating back and forth between "I don't think I can run a 5k, and I don't want to walk it" and "Stop being a pussy, you'll be fine." And I mean hard swings back and forth. The mind argues, "It won't be any fun and you'll probably be stupid and try to run through the pain, which will probably just make it worse in the long run." "Shut up, wuss. You did a 70.3 and you're worried about three freaking miles?"
Yeah, I am. The difference between the pain of muscle breakdown over the course of a hard race and the pain of working through an injury is vast. One you feel like a champion for breaking through. The other you just feel breaking.
But that isn't stopping me from being up at 3am feeling guilty. It actually woke me up at 2:30, because it's nearly all I've been thinking about today (well, that and this, which I would appreciate you taking eight minutes to watch). So 2:35am found me pacing my apartment, running in place, and doing squats, waiting to see when and if the pain would kick in. I would do something, no pain, then I would walk a little and there was the dull throb in the back, waiting, taunting me. Will I become a full on sharp stab like Thursday? Will I ruin your race? I know I should argue back that I don't care, it is a $25 fun event and no one will blame me for walking if I have to. But I will. I didn't sign up to walk, to half ass it. I signed up to go.
So my choices are go and almost for sure hurt with injury pain, which will make me frustrated that I went and that I'm hurt, or protect my knee and not go and try not to feel like a bitch for it. It seems like I keep missing workouts and events.
I turned off my alarm. I'm not going to risk it. I'm not going to go. I'm going to stay home and be grumpy that I stayed home. I'm going to question my choice about a hundred times in the next 24 hours, probably beat myself up a little, and try not to be too much of a grump to pregnant wife. As I type that I check in with my knee and right now- no pain. But I'm pretty sure that's a myth. And I've got to trust myself.
*grumble*
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