Signs of Spring on Constitution Trail

It's happening, Spring is REALLY coming after this long loooong winter.

 

It's nearly Saturday again but I have a few photos to share from last weekend's running adventures.  I had a group run planned, combined with a shoe demonstration at my local running / cycling store - they have a Mizuno rep and some shoes you can sample to wear during the run.  I'm been having some significant issues with pain in my feet so I thought this would be a great opportunity to test out the theory that it's my shoes.  (Though I think it's my calves, same problem that I had last year that sent me to physical therapy... but new shoes are cheaper than 8 weeks of PT, so we'll test this out first.)  Aaaanyway, I grabbed Coty first thing Saturday morning and headed to the store... where I found an empty parking lot.  The group run / demo is actually THIS weekend, not last.  Ah well, Coty and I hit the trail for a 4-mile run/walk and tested out how far we could get before my foot pain kicked in.

 

Along the way, I spotted signs of spring:

Can't quite make it out?  See the close-up below:

 

YES!  Hostas?  Tulips?  Daffodils?  Hell I don't know but it doesn't really matter.  The temps are above 30, the sun is out, and I'm wearing just one pair of fleece-lined tights and a thin windbreaker and having a lovely morning jog with my 8-year-old "pup".

Oh yeah, here are my super-cool new winter running tights!  And my oh-so-sore feet.

And said puppy.

Saturday night was full of all sorts of debauchery - we headed to Peoria to see my friends' band play, had a light dinner and drank way too much beer, listened to some fabulous music and didn't get to bed until about 3am!  The dogs wouldn't let me sleep past 9, so there was a lot of coffee and bad television and lounging about on Sunday, but I did manage to pry myself off the couch for some exercise in the late afternoon.  I wanted to try a longer run and put on my old shoes on to see if that helped with the foot pain.  Coty and I headed to Lake Bloomington. 

 

I tried to talk myself into the 7.5-mile route but in the end I was worried abou finding myself stuck on the far side of the lake, in screaming pain and with no one to give me a ride back to the car, so we did the shorter 4.37-mile loop.  I made it about 3.5 miles before the pain kicked in, even with quite a bit of walking.  The walking seems to ease the pain significantly, so for the time being, frequent walk breaks are part of the plan.  It's either that or stop running altogether.  (Yeah.  It's THAT bad.)

 

Along the way, we found this:

Oh, and I had my weigh-in on Sunday:  185.3, down 0.9 lbs.

Rundown on the rest of the week: 

I had a pretty great week at work, Monday was my only day out of town and I packed my lunch, so no major meltdowns on the road. 

 

Tuesday I skipped breakfast and then had a gyro for lunch, sans sauce.  There was a bit of a breakdown at dinner time - Jason put me in charge of picking up dinner after my group run (4 miles with the CTW group).  I briefly entertained the idea of stopping at  Popeye's but thought better of it.  Nothing really sounded good and I ended up at Taco Bell, just up the road from home.  Not a great choice, but ... I think it was probably more reasonable than fried chicken.  I had the Cantina Burrito.

 

Wednesday... well, not a great start.  I had a fast-food breakfast, but followed it up with a light lunch, a 3-mile run with Coty and my RTW group, and Jason made us pasta for dinner.  LoseIt says I ended up under my calorie goal for the day... but I'm suspicious of that.

 

Yesterday, Thursday... I had a lunch meeting planned to meet my new boss and go over... everything about my job, I guess... and I ended up just having coffee for breakfast.  I'm normally not one to skip breakfast, but I wasn't that hungry and I didn't know where we'd be for lunch.  I did have some trail mix that I found in my desk, around 11am when I really did get hungry.  Lunch turned out to be at one of my favorite dinner-date spots and I had a flat-bread pizza, "Thai Style Pork Pizza" - it was spicy and delicious and I at 5/8 of it.  I'll be polishing that off for lunch today.  The meeting with my new boss continued back at the office for the rest of the day.  Dinner turned out to be another splurgy thing.  When I got home from work, Jason let me know the dogs still needed their walk, so I made a Mister Rogers-Style wardrobe change (off with my blazer, on with a cardigan... off with my heels, on with the sneakers!) - made for an outfit that verged on the ridiculous, but we got the dogs taken care of ASAP that way, without a lot of fuss.  After dinner, we fussed around with a bunch of different things until we realized we were both starving and neither of us wanted to cook.  I ended up running a couple of errands and picking up spaghetti and garlic bread from a place around the corner.  Guess I was carb-loading yesterday!

So ridiculous I just had to snap a photo.  Yes, I left the house like this.

Today - so far, just a yogurt for breakfast and I'll have that leftover Pork Pizza for lunch.  No idea what dinner will be.  But the fun thing is that, for the first time since I started working here in February 2013... we're having a JEANS DAY at work!  Yay!  I made The Kid take a photo to commemorate the first-ever jeans day at this office (that I know of).

What happened with my posture in this pic?  Doesn't do it justice - I'm feeling pretty good about my look today!

 This weekend is going to be C-R-A-Z-Y crazy!  Tomorrow kicks off with the group run / shoe demo I mentioned - Coty will go with me for that.  Then I need to walk Louie, because that's the only chance I'll have to give him some exercise.  From 11am-1pm I'm volunteering to answer phones for the Spring Fund Drive for our local public radio station (have I mentioned I'm a public radio addict?).  After that, I'm headed to Peoria again, this time for the Annual Peoria Jaycees International Beer Fest.  Meeting some friends there, then Jason will join me when he gets off work and we have a date with two of our besties - Heather and Chuck. 

 

And I'm not done yet.... Sunday (after my weigh-in where we'll just have to see if my exercise this week outpaced my food failures) I'm volunteering for another 2-hour shift on the phones, and then we'll need to walk the dogs before the Annual Easter Bonnet Parade Party at our friend Barbie's house.  (Yes, I have a friend named Barbie.)  There will be food, Easter Bonnets (I've been working on mine for a couple of days now), yes, a parade, and plenty of adult beverages.  I look forward to this party every year, can't wait!

 

That's it for me, I'm off to the races.

 

PS did you notice I didn't mention any weight lifting for this week?  Just to make myself Not A Liar, I'm going to grab those dumbbells at home tonight and spend a little time with them, maybe do some pushups and squats too.  I should be able to do that after I walk the dogs and before Jason gets home from work.  As long as I leave work on time.  WIll keep you posted. 

 

Have a great weekend!