On the Road Again...

Yes, I am traveling again this week.  First night in a hotel since mid-December!  But it's just for a couple of nights, and I have a plan to keep the food intake in line.

Ready for work today.  I'm not so good at these "mirror selfies" must work on that.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I must share that I managed to get a GREAT run in yesterday!  Last Wednesday, there was a group activity with the Ton of Fun weight loss challenge group that I'm doing, and one of the other members was in the Ride the Wave program with me last year, in my "slow" group.  I have been struggling so much lately with motivation - this weather has really got me off my game in that department, but I've been trying to find a balance between forcing myself to workout (and not enjoying it), and waiting for that motivation to come back, so that I just "feel like getting some exercise."  Anyway, Jenny and I got to talking, and she suggested we go for a run on Sunday.

I was SO excited about this, it's the first thing I told Jason when I got home:  "I have a date on Sunday!!"

WHY didn't I think of posting online for a running buddy??  WHY??

I had been on the fence about going to the meeting Wednesday night in the first place, and I was SO GLAD I did.  The presentation was informative and reminded me of several foods that are healthy, that I already know I like to eat, and gave me some new ways to prepare them.  Big win, all by itself.  Then the invite from Jenny for a Sunday runday... major bonus!  I spent the next few days looking forward to it (and also, of course, worrying that I would be too slow, too out of practice, or too whatever - or that the weather would shift again and we would be ice skating.)  Having a date with a running partner was just the motivational push I needed to get me out the door.  Without it, I may have decided that 20 degrees is still too cold to run (which it is NOT.  I figured that out last year, but with the recent cold snaps... it has become easy to tell myself that "it's too cold!")

Of course I brought Coty with me, so we got some "mommy and me" time as well.  The weather was basically perfect.  Sunny, no snow in the past 36 hours, the trail had been plowed and since we were meeting at 3pm, much of the remaining snow and ice-packed spots had had most of the day to melt in the sun.  Temp was between 20-25 degrees.  There were some patches of ice here and there, slushy messes to work around, but mostly we were able to run uninhibited.  Oh, and no falls.

We planned to run from the park where we met to The Triangle and back, figuring it would be about 3 miles.  Turns out, we got most of the way to the Triangle and we'd already hit the 2.0-mile marker, so we turned around early and got a 4-mile run.  Time:  a little over an hour.  We walked about 7 minutes to start / warm up, and we took a few minutes to walk at the half-way point.  All in all, I'd say we ran 3 of the 4 miles, perhaps a little more.  It felt really good to be outside getting my run on.

And now I feel much better about the start of my two running programs this week.  I'm not quite up to running 3 miles without stopping, but I'm close enough, and with a group, I always push myself more than when I'm alone.  It's much harder to tell your running partner, "hey, I want to walk for a couple of minutes" than it is to just decide you'll walk for a bit.  Coty never complains either way.

Jenny, thank you THANK YOU!!  I got MUCH more than an hour of exercise from this date.

After the run, I got cleaned up, finished packing and hit the "actual" road for a 3-hour drive.  I'm working at a client today and tomorrow.  DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

I had Taco Bell, of all things, for dinner last night.  But I packed Greek Yogurt, cottage cheese, an avocado, and two chicken breasts, which should make for plenty of food for breakfast / lunches.  I'd intended to take some bread from the hotel this morning (make a sandwich out of that avocado and chicken) but forgot it.  I'd also intended not to eat any of their breakfast, but I ended up with some fruit and half a bagel with cheese on it (sort of like a pizza-type thing, but small, and no meat).  So I had my cottage cheese and yogurt with the chicken / avocado, and I'm feeling like that was just the right amount of food.

Dinner will be out with my team tonight.  I asked them to decide where we'll go, and I'll research it to figure out what to order.  That's always tough in the moment but I can do it.  We also agreed, since we don't have to work late this week, we'll head back to the hotel around 5pm, I'll change and do some type of workout in the hotel gym, and THEN we'll eat.

It does work out well when I can have a plan, share it with my team members, and work their schedule around it.  OK, it sort of helps that I'm the boss and I get to make the schedule...

Last note:  I'm still on track with my 30-day Squat Challenge - got my 80 in last night in my hotel room.  The assignment for today is 50, I guess I'll work those in during my pre-dinner workout.

Anyway, my lunch is now over and I'll be getting back to work now.