Swing Dancing

Thursday in class, after showing off our lovely masterpieces, we swing danced. I wouldn't say "lessons" are too good for conditioning, but I'm sure once you master the skills (flips etc) it could become pretty intense. Adam was nice enough not to drop me on my head when we did all the stunts, but I definitely would need some practice if doing it in public public. I'm guessing my heart rate got to 140 a times.

Speaking of heart rate, my heart rate monitor has yet to be returned to me. I better not have wasted 40 bucks....

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great summer! Hopefully we'll have some classes together in the future.

P.S. Whatever happened to the blog awards!?!

It's been fun...

So everything is winding down. Well, almost. I still have to find a place to live this summer... Everyone should come work out at the wellness center because I'll be there for most of the summer and it's going to be BORING.

Anyway, Tuesday's football activity, although enthralling... didn't get my heart rate going too much. Tom's field was more intense though. I prefer flag football or two hand touch or something.

Not too much for physical activity for me though... to much homework and work.

Excuses excuses, right?

Volleyball activity

I was going to blog about our volleyball activity earlier in the week, but then I started thinking if I post it here, then what will I say in that "assessment" part of our final? Therefore, I'll be brief.

I thought it went alright. Volleyball is a much more aerobic sport if you actually KNOW how to play it - position switching, cover, spike approach, etc. And if you're on an athletic team... it's much more intense. Otherwise, I am aware that it can amount to a lot of standing around if you don't get into it.

I also played sand volleyball yesterday for about an hour. It is definitely less aerobic than court vball just because you can really run very well in sand, and at least not very fast.

More later.

HR Monitor

So it's been quite some time since I sent in my heart rate monitor to be fixed/or replaced. I wonder if they'll even send something back or if I just wasted $40 of my life savings? Anyway...

If I HAD had my heart rate monitor on Friday... when I checked out some apartments, it would have skyrocketed when I checked some efficiencies out downtown. I tell you, some of those places a 350 bodybuilder wouldn't even want to live in. Have you ever seen an apartment that was 300 square feet? I have... and not including the bathroom, it's smaller than a dorm room.

So the point of the story is... I still have no place to live this summer and it's not looking good.

Until later.

Is it raining at your house?

I completely forgot about blogging this week. Probably because I haven't done much for activity. On Friday night I went for a run about 7:25ish thinking I was just going to do a nice 2 mile jog since I have been giving my injured leg a break. I set out in a sprinkle, but then about 3miles later I realized that I was already 3miles away from campus, so I might as well just make this my long run of the week.... so I did about 10miles. 7:25-9:05... after the 8th mile my leg was killing me but I know I can't accomplish anything if I skip the long runs. I'm thinking about going down to meritcare sports medicine to see if there's anything I can do for my leg. Anyway, it was wet, cold, and dark... AND the worms were out. I guess we just can't get into spring over a week, but I hope it's nice soon.

As for now, I've got to write a "750 palabra composicion argumentativo sobre "Deben las mujeres correr?"" Thanks for the topic Chuck (Should women run?) Too bad it's due tomorrow... otherwise I could have actually learned something. That's the problem with school... everything is on such a tight schedule that I don't actually LEARN... you just research, write it down, and don't even have time to think about it. Maybe it's just me.

HPF

So I'm in this psychology class "Research Methods" and the point of the whole class is to write a research proposal. My hypothesis is that mental training sessions will elevate athletic performance while decreasing levels of anxiety. I've done some research on the topic - biofeedback, mental techniques to improve performance, etc. - and I'd encourage anyone to look into this stuff. In my design I'm using biofeedback to monitor heart rate and using techniques to help learn to control it (that's the dumbed down version). Anyway, I'm signed up for the "Optimal Performance" seminar next semester so I hope it's something worthwhile.

OH! Chuck... I need to actually apply for the Human Performance major, and I need a professional "non-faculty" reference. Does faculty include everyone that works at NDSU or who would be good for this?

Kickboxing and Taebo

So Tuesday we did Taebo... I'm gonna have to say it didn't get my heart rate going too high. The "double time" did a little, but I don't think I would use it as regular workout.

Today we did Kickboxing with the lovely Kristin McCabe. It was a little better, took more coordination, and the jab-jacks did get the HR up a little bit and I was sweating, but my recovery rate was much faster than if I was doing a more intense workout.

Or maybe I'm just in better shape than I used to be.

Yesterday I had a 5M run to do and since I'm tired of the Wellness Center I made plans to go up to the BSA during open gym... Turns out varsity sports (like baseball...uggh I hate the sport, sorry Chuck) get to practice whenever they want, so I couldn't run on the track. You'd think they would change the schedule for open gym hours or something! So I did a stadium stairs workout. Kinda hard to explain, but I did that for about 55 minutes. I would venture to say my heart rate was around the 160s going up the stairs, and recovered during the straights and downs, so you could say it was an easy interval workout I guess.

Sorry... no interesting stories other than I got a tour of the new expansion of the Wellness Center. It is going to be sweet! And huge! If anyone is interested, next week Monday, Tuesday, and the following Monday we're having a "recruiting" session for new staff to do wall climbing duty, floor staff, fitness specialists, etc. It's a great facility and it'll be great experience if you personal train, lead group exercise classes, etc. Just thought I'd plug it here.