To the Gym Rats of the World

An Open Letter to the Gym Rats of the World (Whom I Would Very Much Like to Emulate):

I joined the throngs of new and returning gym goers tonight after work. Love that my gym was still not overcrowded. 

I read somewhere that only like 8% of them (us) stay consistent throughout the rest of the year. I once again strive to be part of that 8%.

I had a challenging bike ride and 30 minutes of strength training (back, biceps, core) and The Hubs made a super healthy dinner for us. 

So, gym rats of the world, relax! You'll have your space back soon. Meanwhile, throw some encouraging words at the newbies and (me) those who are recommitting, and hope to attain Gym Rat status by this time next year. 

Fear is Fear

Well, my little Self-Pep-Talk did the trick yesterday.  And the shopping, that helped too.  :-)  I changed clothes in the comfy bathroom at work and sneaked out a little before 5pm.  I was one of the first to arrive at the meetup spot for our group run, but I didn't want to give myself any chance of bailing out on my plans.  I knew what the weather had been like this winter when I signed up and paid my registration, and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste a single week of this training program!  There may be weeks when work keeps me away on Wednesday nights, but that wasn't this week.  Still, there was always a chance I'd sneak home, right up until I walked in the doors at the meeting place!  I would have felt SO LOUSY if I'd skipped it, and I knew it.  Sometimes I just have to remind myself of the consequences of my choices.

This was my plan.  Thanks for the inspiration, Distant Runners!

A quick rundown on the workout:  Many people did, in fact, stay home last night due to the extreme temperatures, so my group consisted of two leaders, Georgeanne and Kay, both of whom I ran with last year, myself, and a new (to me) runner named Susan.  The plan was for a three-mile interval run.  The way this played out was a one-mile warm up run, followed by three rounds of "6 minutes at goal pace / 2 minutes recovery."  In my current condition, the two minutes of recovery means walking, but it's intended to be a fast run broken up by short periods of slow jog.  This is something I practiced on the treadmill a few weeks ago and I'm working on it.  I'm used to taking those walk breaks and would like to phase them out.  Mentally, I am not sure it's really good for me.  Physically, there's nothing wrong with it, but I go to them too easily and I need to break that habit, walk only when it's absolutely necessary.

Aaaanyway, my calves were really tight during the first mile, which is typical for me, but they usually loosen up after about 8 minutes.  Last night we finished the first mile in about 13 minutes or so and they were still really tight.  I'm attributing that to the extreme cold.  I was wearing two pairs of pants, but I wasn't exactly toasty.  I walked a few minutes before we started the intervals, and kept up as best I could with our planned pace of 11:30 during the intervals.  I think George ran us at 5 minutes instead of 6.  She mentioned that seemed like a really long 5 minute interval!  Once we finished the intervals we had about a mile left to go and did a slow jog back.  All told, 42 minutes and we did 3.12 miles.  Just what I had in mind, not fast, just fabulous, as they say.

There wasn't much ice on the trail, but once the sun was down, even with my flashlight, I found myself feeling really fearful of slipping on the ice.  By then we were on the return, so we pretty well knew where the ice patches were, but I was having a real mental battle over this ice thing.  At once point I started thinking this was my brain's new version of "I can't do this!" - like that sabotaging part of my mind had found a new way to do its thing and trip me up - psychologically speaking - and hold me back.  Perhaps for the moment it realized that "I can't do this" wasn't going to work, not tonight anyway, and it chose another way.  

Ah, RunnersWorld, sometimes you really knock it outta the park.

Surely my own brain doesn't work that hard to screw up its own plans... does it?  I'm an accountant; not a psychiatrist so what the hell do I know.  

Fear is fear, I guess.  Fear of change, fear of pain, fear of falling, fear of failing, fear of the unknown (to me, that's the ice for sure! Ice is tricksy.)  Perhaps I'm just beginning to recognize what fearful thoughts I have.  That'll be the first step in learning to combat them.

Found this on the Hunting Happiness Project Facebook page.

Tonight I have a group fitness class scheduled with my weight loss challenge group, but it doesn't start until 7:15pm, which is awfully late for me.  I'll have to find a way to combat the urge to bail on that one as well, but for more practical reasons.  When does one EAT when you have a class that late?  Usually I have dinner at 6:30 or so, which is entirely too close to the start time for the class.  So I can't do that, but I can't show up hungry either - that's a recipe for disaster.  And I hate the idea of eating dinner so late - it'll be close to 9pm by the time I get home.  Then again, the class has a pretty good name - Body Attack! - with an exclamation point.  I'm intrigued... I'll probably find a way to make it work.  

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.

I Hate Sit-Ups. (Do This Instead)

I'm getting my calves reoriented to running! Last Thursday I managed a 4.37 run/walk using 2/1 intervals. It took a full hour, which COULD be discouraging, but after about a half-hour, my calves FINALLY started to feel loose and NORMAL again! Perhaps I should have pushed harder and longer when I tried it on Wednesday.

Sit-ups have always been rough on my back (being a bit top-heavy, I can never seem to keep my low back flat to the floor), so when my husband told me about this article he read last week, I had to go find it for myself. 

Five Reasons to Never Do Sit-Ups / Crunches again. (BONUS: it's VERY short.)

Of course, this does NOT mean I get to skip my core work: planks, side planks, side planks with pulse, Russian Twists, nearly anything with a Bosu Ball... Especially with all I've learned from my physical therapy sessions the past few weeks, I absolutely need to work that core for a healthier, stronger body!!

Here are some of my favorite options (and some I want to start using):

Basic Plank (classic; I do this all the time, always challenging

 

Side Plank (I also like to do this one with a "pulse" - point your arm to the ceiling and :pulse: your hips to the side (up toward the ceiling) 

Lunge with Rotation (This looks difficult to me; haven't tried it yet, but it incorporates a lot of what my PT is wanting me to work on.)

 

 

 



Bosu Ball Forearm Plank

http://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/workouts/bosu-ball-exercises

Bosu Ab Twist

Here's one on the Stability Ball:  Back Extension Rear Leg Raise

Check this out for other options!  25 Variations on the Plank

In my hunt for pics / video I found this terrific list of Bosu exercises:  41 Exercises to Do on a Bosu Ball.

I also referenced these articles:
Best Ab Workouts for Women
8 Killer Ab Exercises (Active.com) - looks like you may need at least the free Active.com membership to read this article.

It's HARD to Recap Two Weeks at Once

I haven't written a proper post in quite a while, which is a shame... it's been a pretty eventful couple of weeks.  I'll give you a short recap and then move on.

First, the bad news:  after Easter, there was leftover pie.  A lot of it.  And I like my pie.  So the following week's weigh-in I was up 2 lbs.  Last weekend's weight was up another 0.5 lbs, and today another 1.0.  Ugh.

Contributing factors:  I've given this a lot of thought and I don't want to over-analyze it, but there are a few things going on besides food and exercise.  The past two weeks have been really stressful at work - I've been working to meet a couple of nasty deadlines, and preparing a presentation - I'll be teaching a 90-minute course later this week and I'm preparing it from scratch.  This is a whole new thing for me, and I'm trying not to freak out about it too much.  The deadlines I'm under on my other projects are helping to keep me distracted!  So the past two weeks have involved quite a few late nights, travel days, skipped workouts, and junk food.  (Plus, there was that pie.)  I also started taking a new medication recently, which is really wreaking havoc with my appetite.  I'll be nauseated and really hungry simultaneously - leaves me feeling really confused and never sure what I can eat that will leave me feeling better, rather than worse. Just another week on the meds and I'll be able to get back to normal (I hope).

6-workout roundup:  Yes, in the past two weeks I have had only six workouts.

9-miler - Two weeks ago, I was excited to head out on my longest-ever distance workout!  I've GOT to give you a little rundown on that one.  I laid out my route a few days ahead of time (this works as a great motivator taking that first step out the door - I highly recommend it!) and reviewed it daily to remember where the turns were.  My plan was to run in intervals of 2.5 miles, broken by short walk breaks.  That worked REALLY well.  The weather was extraordinary - warm but not hot - but it was REALLY windy - upwards of 20 mph throughout.  I did have to take a couple of longer breaks when we got near the creek along the route, because it was warmer than I anticipated, and I didn't have a spare water bottle for Coty.  i took a couple of pics during one of these stops.  I got one of the turns wrong after all, so ran a total of 9.12 miles and finished in under 2 hours.  I kept the pace really easy - the whole idea was base-building and getting that distance in, not speed - and came in with an average moving pace of about 12:30/mile.  (Stats here.)

The Monday following this little excursion, I headed out for a 3-mile training run.  It was supposed to be an "Easy Recovery Run," but this is what I wrote in my training journal:  "Shitty run.  3.10 in 43:42."  I believe my body was simply not ready for another run after Saturday's long, long-run.

That Tuesday, Jason surprised me be being home from work early and we took a lovely walk together with Coty.  It's so nice now that the weather is improving and we can get outside together more.

Wednesday, of course, the weather turned on us.  We had quite a nasty thunderstorm, and my Ride The Wave group run was canceled.  We were to run the full race route for the Lake Run - something I've been looking forward to since the program started eight weeks earlier - so I was really disappointed by the cancellation.  I lucked out, though, and a number of members decided to meet at the Lake the following night and run it together.  I had a great time running with Kathy and getting to know her that evening!  Coty met up with this lonely stuffed animal (see below) on one of the bridges, and she had her first-ever encounter with real-live cattle!  Being a cattle-dog, she was fascinated and completely entranced, and nagged at one of the cows until he moved off toward the rest of the group!

Sadly, I didn't stop to take pics of her with the cows... perhaps another time.  Anyway, I had my first run of the full 7.47 mile outer loop.  (Stats here.)  I'll have one more chance to run it before the race (two weeks from now), so I'll have an opportunity to evaluate it again, but I think I'll shoot for something between 1:25 and 1:30 for race time.

Again, two days after this longer run, I attempted an "Easy Run" and it didn't go well:  training journal states "Lousy run, Nice walk."  4.17 miles in 1:12.  Yeah, there wasn't much running going on that day, but it was a lovely day for a walk.

That Sunday (this is a week ago now), I tried again, and WOW was that better!  5.52 in 1:20 - now THAT's what I'm talking about.  There's a BIG smiley-face in my training journal for that day!!

This past week was when things at work just blew up on me.  I worked late on Monday and Tuesday and RTW got rained out again (speed work was the plan for this week, bummer) due to another ill-timed thunderstorm.  Thursday and Friday I was travelling for work, so on the whole, NO EXERCISE this week...

But I stuck with my plan for another LONG, long-run this weekend.  There was a group fun run planned by the Lake Run Club, benefiting a local children's advocacy and foster care / adoption organization.  They had routes of 3, 6 and 9 miles marked out, and the start was just 3/4-mile from my place, so I brought Coty and walked there and back, and in-between we ran / walked the whole 9 miles.  All-in-all we got in a total of 10.5 miles for the day!

I got to run the first 3 miles with my friend Cheryl who is recovering from a back injury, so we did a tightly-structured 2/1 run walk interval workout for that portion.  It was a great way to keep me from diving in too quickly after having a full week off - I was excited and happy to be back on the trail!  The rest of the run it was just me and Coty, and we sort of had a blast.  Miles 4-6 I lost all structure and ran / walked whenever I felt like it.  To get to the half-way point, we had to head out north of town, past Northtown Road and past the end of the Trail, onto the highway for about a quarter-mile, then on a country road for another 3/4 mile before turning around.  Miles 7-9 I tried to refocus and run for longer stretches - I repeated "Shut up and run!" in my head whenever I got distracted and felt temped to slow or walk.  These long runs teach so much about the mental side of this sport:

The truth is, my legs will keep going until I tell them to stop.  The only thing that remains to be trained at this point is my mind.

Lessons Learned the past two weeks:
1) After a long run, I need more than 2 days of recovery before I am ready for another good one.  (Another reason to go to the gym & get that cross-training in)
2) I can NOT eat leftover pie for days after Easter.  Neither can I eat pizza... I saw a great image on Facebook one day this week:  "I am not dieting to lose weight.  I am eating according to my goals."
3) These stressful times and those times when my eating is "untamed" or when I'm not able to get my workouts in, it's more important to spend this time thinking and writing about the process.  This is when it's MOST important and must be prioritized, even if it's shorter posts because time is short.
4) It's hard to recap two weeks of whatever-it-is-I-write-about in a single post.  I'll try not to put myself in such a position again.
5)  #5 I already mentioned.  But I like it and I'm happy to repeat it here:

The only thing that remains to be trained at this point is my mind.

Two Great Workouts

I have two workout rundowns for you today - both a bit overdue.

Last week's group run was a Speed Workout - an entirely new experience!  First, a weather report, because it's Illinois, so the weather is ALWAYS a factor.  Yeah, it was FREEZING, and WINDY!  Temps were in the 20s, I'm not sure the exact number, but it was freakin' miserable out there!  But sunny... it was the first workout after the time change, so that was a big plus.

We met at a local high school track, and once we finished bitching about the cold, we got started just a quickly as possible.  Here's the plan we followed:

• 1-mile easy jog to warm up
• 400m (once around the track) FAST, 400m recovery jog - do this 4 times
• 200m recovery walk/ jog
• 200m FASTER (you're only going half-way around the track, MOVE IT!), 200m recovery jog (try really hard not to walk now... but that's tough)
• Cool down walk / slight jog, 800m.

It was really great - I think if not for the cold I might have actually enjoyed it!  Total mileage was about 4 miles, and we were at it for about an hour.  Hard to tell about the time; I think I stopped and forgot to restart my Garmin during one of the intervals.  The best part is that it was a true "group run".  Normally, we in the "Relaxed Runners" group have such disparate paces that we spread out quite a bit during our weekly runs, end up running in even smaller groups - sets of 2 or 3, or on my own - which is fine, I still get the motivation and accountability of being with the group, and I enjoy running on my own as much as anything, but with this set schedule, we stuck in a tighter unit.  I got to know several of the other women a bit better.  It's funny how the conversation flows during the "recovery" intervals - we were working hard, getting tired, and at least for myself, getting honest.  I find myself talking about things I don't normally think about, much less talk about.  Funny how everything is so interconnected.  Diet, fitness, health - it's all mental, it's all physical, it's all the same.  I'm turning into a freakin' Zen runner?

Okay, whatevs... I have another run I want to share, and this one has pictures!

There was a big snowstorm coming this weekend, scheduled to start Saturday night, so I planned my long run for Saturday.  (Good thing, too, since the storm was worse than I expected - good god, we got over 8 inches!  Started Saturday night as planned, didn't stop until Monday morning!)  But Saturday.  Saturday was perfect.  I took Coty to the vet for her checkup, then out for a run to work off her anxiety.  It was warmish - in the 40s, no wind, sunny skies.  Cool enough to run comfortably without a ton of gear and layers on!

I wanted to do between 7.5 and 8 miles, so we headed out from the house and then north to the very end of the trail, and then a bit further, until my Garmin beeped 4 miles.  I was so glad I remembered to bring my phone - I took some pics along the way!  Right at the start, Coty had a little run-in with a cat.

"Wait!  Come back!"

I wasn't quite quick enough on the draw with my phone, but it was pretty entertaining! This was during our warm-up walk anyway, not an interruption.  Once that little distraction was past, it was time to start running. My goal for the day was to run by and large the entire route, with a short break every two miles.  Due to various factors, some dog-related stops, ran into a couple of people I knew, etc., it ended up more like a short break every mile.  The only two miles I ran solid were #s 5 and 6, but man, it was a great time, I don't regret that one bit.

Here are some photos I took along the way:

Before - all keyed up!

Coty, before her Running Rehab.

We came across some geese who landed just beside the trail where we were running.  Coty couldn't resist!

The End of the Road (but we went just a bit farther)

 

Looking to the north-east at the turn-around point.

The view south-west from the turn-around point.

Looking back the way we came.

The road ahead, at the turn-around point.

 

Coty, half-way through!

This one is my favorite!

We've done this before.  Back in August, when I failed to blog for a couple of months, I went on this same route twice.  Once to see if I could go 8 miles (it's still the longest long run I've ever done), and again because I didn't have a camera the first time.  But I never did write about it, and I always wanted to.  Now I have.

Have a good week - I intend to.  After two great workouts like these, what could go wrong?

Planking it

Random thought of the day: 

There are few things worse than a gym-bag full of frozen athletic wear.

This was my thought as I headed to the gym on Tuesday this week.  It was snowing (AGAIN!) and my gym bag had been in the trunk of the car all day!

Highlights of this week's Cross-Training:  20 minutes on the bike, interval training, level 5 (still hard but getting easier) = 5.5 miles, max heart-rate 150.  Weight training:  arms, shoulders, core.

Core work was where it got interesting.  Here is what the iPersonalTrainer had in mind this week:

Swiss Ball Plank Rotation - harder than it looks!  Three sets of this, 5 rotations in each direction.




Swiss Ball Plank - Feet on Bench - difficult to get in position; VERY difficult to STAY in position for 30 seconds... three times.

Only a Flesh Wound

Duly noted:  a little adult language ahead.

I'm happy to report my ice-related-injury of Saturday is healing quickly and I believe I'll be able to run in the Miller Park Zoo Stampede 5k this weekend!

Saturday night was a blast!  We had a great time celebrating our friend John's birthday:

Our dear friends Barbie and Tony

Me, John, and hubby Jason

Seems I can't take a picture with my eyes open, but aren't we cute?  :-)

I love that in these pics you can't see the mark on my chin.  (you know, because lucky me, my face broke my fall on Saturday.)  I do have a little mark on my chin where it hit the curb, but that didn't really become visible until Sunday morning, and actually it's not too obvious - looks a bit like a shadow and not really road rash.  I WISH I had a photo that included my legs - I had these super-fantastic-sparkly-patterned tights on, and the most awesome multi-colored blue/black/turquoise 4-inch heels!  Had a little too much to drink and stayed up past my bedtime, but we got to hang out with some great friends that we don't see too often.  SO much fun!

Sunday morning I woke up early (isn't that just the way when you have all day to sleep in??) and headed downstairs for my weigh-in.  Boo.  I was up 0.4 lbs for the week- which I take as no change - I mean, we're talking less than 8 ounces... up OR down, who cares, it's a zero sum game.  Disappointing after the really good week I'd had.  Frustrating.  I think it's time to do some research and figure out what's going on.  Pretty sure this is a food issue, rather than an exercise issue; feel like I'm doing great on the exercise side of this equation.  Time for a trip to the library.

I was in a lot of pain on Sunday.  A lot.  Mostly due to my leg, but it may have been exacerbated by a mild hangover.  But after some serious couching and limping heavily whenever I got up, I braced myself to take the dog for her walk.  Jason offered to go with me... partly just to hang out and jokingly to be there "in case you fall down again."  With the ice / snow situation on the sidewalks in our neighborhood, we decided to drive to a local park where we could pick up the Trail.  I was limping pretty badly at the start, but we walked at what I'm going to call a very leisurely pace for a little over an hour and covered just under 3 miles.  After about 30 minutes, I was walking almost normally.  Almost.

Found this here on Facebook and could NOT stop laughing.

When we got home from our walk, I was about ready for a nap.  Seriously, it really took it out of me.  It seems silly - it was just a one-hour walk, for crying out loud! - but I was ready for a break. Jason had another idea though.  He had some errands to run and talked me into joining him for a trip to the grocery store and The Dreaded Menards.  Menards always seems to take FOREVER - Jason loves wandering around and investigating new toys and tools to play with... but he was right, it was good to keep moving and keep that leg loose and warmed up for as long as possible.  And he promised to keep the wandering to a minimum!  So I got about another hour, hour and a half of walking in... I don't really count that as "exercise" but it was good for my leg.

Today was hard but much easier than yesterday.  The pain is localized in that muscle on my thigh - my knee and ankles feel pretty close to normal but that thigh muscle is tight and sore as hell.  It feels like someone PUNCHED me really hard on my leg. I was still limping, especially in the morning, but knowing how much the exercise helped yesterday, I made a point of getting up every hour or so at work and wandering around the building, either going to the bathroom, walking to the kitchen for more water, whatever I could think of.  At one point I was doing some research and just got up and paced around my desk and flexed my legs while reading reports.

After work, I took Coty for another 3-mile walk.  My leg was feeling much better and after about 15 minutes I was able to do the rest of the route without limping.  I didn't try any running but think I'll give that a shot tomorrow!

So screw the scale:  I'm still moving forward, weight-loss or no.  There's hope for participating - maybe even running! - in this weekend's 5k after all!

Becoming Calloused

Well with the new job I'm struggling a little with making some time for blogging but I'm still doing my thing over here.  It was a great week at work - I'm totally loving the new job.  SO glad I decided to make this change!  So... workout rundown for the week:

Monday:  pouring down rain.  Of course, it was clear but cold all day, right up until I got off work and headed home for a 3-mile run!  It started pouring down while I was getting changed into running clothes.  I actually had to talk Coty into going for a walk.  That's how bad it was.  Completely insane.  Do you have any idea what it takes to make that dog LAY DOWN when you suggest going for a walk???  So we did get in one mile... one very fast mile and got completely soaked through in under 15 minutes.  :-D

Tuesday was a long day - I had to go out of town for work, so up at 5am, on the road at 6:15am, worked 8am - 5pm at a client, then the 1 1/2-hour drive home.  No workout for me.  I call that a "rest day."

Wednesday was the first night for Ride the Wave!  I've been so excited for this, and made sure to eat "clean" all day - a really healthy lunch (one i was so pleased with, I took a picture!) and hefty afternoon snack to fuel up, and left work early so I could change clothes and be there right on time, at 5:15pm.  There was some socializing and introductions, some discussion of what the program is about, etc. and then a 2-mile assessment run. We had an opportunity to warm up with about a 1-mile jaunt to the "starting line" so I did an easy 2-minute walk / 2-minute jog to warm up on that distance.   I was hoping to run the entire 2 miles and average about a 11:30-min pace.  It was dark, so although I had my Garmin on, I didn't have much opportunity to monitor my pace, and the point is to run at a "comfortable" speed, and as I said, a speed I can maintain for the full 2-mile run.  As expected, I was one of the last to complete the assessment (compared to the 50-odd other participants, I'm definitely one of the slowest!) but I'm happy to report I came in at 22:54 - RIGHT ON PACE with my goal.  Awesome.

Full Garmin details here

Thursday was a gym day and I started with 20 minutes of interval training on the stationary bike on Level 5.  That one is still pretty tough but it may be time to consider trying Level 6.  Got in 5 miles before the timer went off. Then I did a "full-body" strength training workout - three sets each of 11 different exercises, hitting all muscle groups.  Highlights:  I bumped up my barbell curls from 20 lbs / 10 reps to 30 lbs / 6 reps.  That was tougher than I expected.  Will have to work on that.  Another new Bosu Ball Exercise:  squats on that wobbly thing!  Pretty self-explanatory, but I found a video for you anyway.   That was challenging - think I worked on balance more than glutes with those squats - but MUCH easier than the side-to-side lunges from two weeks ago!  Another new exercise:  "Fireflies" - this is awkward and I don't like to think what it looks like if you're a fellow gym-goer and have to watch me do this, but it feels good, works practically the whole body, and it's difficult!  Check out the video below.  Oh and this will be relevant later on... we had a snowstorm Thursday night.  Started around 4pm and it was fun looking out the gym windows and seeing all that snow dumping out of the sky!  (Didn't hurt that the weather kept the gym attendance low that night!!)

Friday I was a bit sore (the good kind) from the gym workout but feeling fantastic.  As always, Friday is a rest day so after work, just chilled out till Jason got home and we headed out for an evening together.  Burger baskets, beer, and oh yeah, something in the basement of the bar CAUGHT FIRE.  That pretty much cleared the joint out, but of course, we finished our beer and made sure to settle our tab before we headed home.  In all honesty, it was really more of a smolder than a fire but it's more fun to say the place was in flames, don'tcha think??  The fire department never even showed up but they located the source of the smoke and took care of it inside of maybe 20 minutes or so.  All's well that ends well - Jason had to work today anyway so we had planned to make an early night of it.

So today I planned a 3-4 mile group run.  The roads were relatively clear of all that snow but there are still patches of ice and packed snow here & there.  Well, wouldn't you know it, I found the ice!  About 4 minutes into our run, my left foot hit a bit of (what appeared to be) wet pavement (but which was in fact, wet ice) and went sliding at freaky-fast speed directly to my right.  I went sprawling.  UGH when will I learn not to fall down all the damn time?!?!?!  I landed HARD on the outside of  my left knee and the outside of my thigh, tweaked my ankle just a bit, and my face hit the curb.  (I had a nightmarish flash-forward of how I was about to lose my teeth.  Thank goodness I just hit my chin on the curb.  My teeth remain intact.)  I'm SO GLAD Meg was running with me, she encouraged me to stay still, evaluate my condition and then we walked for several minutes, tried some more running, and finished the run.  We just took care, took our time, ran some, walked some, and chatted.  Got about 3 miles in after all, just slowly - about 54 minutes (including my time on the ground).  There was a stretching demo set for after the run so I stuck around for that and gave my very unhappy leg/knee/thigh muscle some solid stretching.  Once my body began to cool off, it REALLY started to tighten up.  I'm taking it easy for the rest of the day, RICE (Meg taught me this great acronym) Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate.

So now I'm limping.  I took a bunch of Advil & I'm RICEing it.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow.  I don't think I have a serious injury.  Just some bruising and, apparently, some balance issues!

Tonight is our friend John's Big Fortieth Birthday so I'm planning to wear Extremely Un-Sensible Shoes, have dinner out, and party like a 40-year-old rock star later.  Hope my leg holds up to the abuse!  And as always, tomorrow will be another weigh-in day.  Have fun out there!

Last thought for the day:  found this on Facebook this week and I loved it.  I love the thought that "Your mind becomes calloused to effort."  We can train our minds the same way we train our bodies, and at the same time.
BTW, here is where I found it:  Not sure the source, it was on my friend's wall.

BOO-YAH!!

It's been a few days since my last post but luckily I've had a pretty mundane few days...  Wednesday was my last post so you know that was a Gym Day, but all running, no strength training.  Thursday was supposed to be another gym workout - all weight training - but it turns out that was also a holiday of some sort... what's it called?  Oh yeah, Valentine's Day.  So here's the thing... I came home to change clothes and got... um...  distracted by a nice dinner & movie night with my dear husband.  No Thursday night workout for me!  oops.

Friday was another rest day (this one planned - I really hate working out Fridays after work and then having to take another shower & get dressed to go out),  

So back to the routine on Saturday:  here's a hint:  my Facebook / LoseIt! updates yesterday afternoon looked like this:  

"AWESOME RUN TODAY! Walked 1/2 mi, ran 1.5 mile, then felt so good I decided to reset my timer and run a 5k to see what kind of time I might get - so another 3.1 miles followed by a 1-mile walk (the rest of the way home) - THAT'S RIGHT I set a NEW Personal Record for 5K today, just screwing around on my dog-walk!! And total mileage for the day 6.2.

BOO-YAH!! :-)"

Here's how it happened: (gotta share because it just felt kind of magical)

I headed out with a loosely-defined plan of running & walking 5-6 miles, heading to Constitution Trail from the house and going south.  I walked the first 1/2-mile, then combination walk / run (mostly run) another 1/2-mile to warm up.  Then I really felt ready to get going and ran a full mile. During that mile, I kept noticing my mind wandering and I would think - "Oh crap, I've slowed down!" and check my watch... only to find it was solidly between 11:00 and 11:30 each time, which is a fine pace for me.  "Easy run" for me is in the neighborhood of 12:00 - 12:30 and I wasn't looking to push for speed, just a basic endurance run.  But MAN, it felt so good and I felt really comfortable (Note to self:  this is what it feels like to have two days off before a long run.)  Then my mind got to wandering again and I started thinking about the upcoming race schedule.  I'm excited for this year's races, feel like it's going to be a very successful year for running.  Now I'm getting off on a tangent, but that's exactly what it was like.  The first 5k of the year is just two weeks away, and you know how goal-oriented I am... I began thinking What should I have as my goal pace for the MPZ Stampede?  My stated goal for the year is to run a 5k under 35 minutes... but man if I'm feeling comfortable right now at 11:20... what does that work out to?

Yes, I'm an accountant; I could totally do that math in my head, but who cares about the MATH??  I decided I wanted to know what I could do, like NOW.  So when I hit the 2-mile mark, I decided to walk a few minutes, reset my Garmin, and start the clock over.  I'll run a 5k today, in the middle of this long run, and see just how fast I can do it.  Simple plan, plus it had the added benefit of Immediate Gratification.  

I filled Coty in on the plan; she seemed to be on board, and off we went!  No walking, and I tried not to check the watch too often, just run as fast as I felt comfortable doing, and with the exception of a couple of emergency pee-breaks requested by the dog, kept moving as fast as possible until the 3.1-mile marker.  At the end of the run, the watch said 36:15!  My previous 5k record was 37:18 last October at the CISAR 5k Leg Lifter, so I shaved MORE THAN a FULL MINUTE off my previous PR!  And check out those stats!  I managed a negative split on mile three but that first mile (which was Mile 3 if you're keeping track from the start of the day's workout) was a SOLID 11:25.  Sweet!

That.  Was.  Awesome.  

Here's a photo of my tired, happy dog after what turned out to be a practice 10K run on Saturday.

Man, it's hard to capture her eyes - her face always comes out as a black blob.  Oh, and yeah, it's winter.  The yard looks like crap.

Today was a lazy day.  (As most Sundays are around here.)  It was also weigh-in day - I came in at exactly the same weight as last week (believe me, I stepped on the scale 5 times, damn thing never budged!) - so zero gain / loss this week.  I did head out for a 3-mile run / walk with Coty and attempted a Test Mile.  That was a bust, but only because Coty decided to be a jerk and behave in a menacing manner toward another runner on the track, interrupting BOTH our workouts.  I had to stop the watch, put her on her back and scold her, and keep her on a short leash for the rest of the run, including the second half of the Test Mile, as consequences (aka punishment) for her growling and barking at a stranger who was completely within his rights. Bad dog.  

Anyway, the test mile came in a 10:05 - still pretty great for me, but not a new record.  I can feel great about that time, but I'm disappointed in Coty's behavior.  

Well, I'm off to bed, gearing up for another great week at work! Oh and Ride the Wave starts this Wednesday so I'll have a new, structured training plan readying me for the Lake Run 12K the first weekend in May (and in the process, also for my 10K at the end of April!!)

5k Days

Quick post... this week is going great so far.  All-day orientation for the new job on Monday, followed by interval-training run - 3 rounds of 6-minute intervals at "medium-hard" (which I defined as 11:00 to 11:30 pace) and 2-minute "easy" run (around 12:00-12:30).  Total time around 45 minutes with walk / run and got in a 5k!  

Tuesday was my first "real" day in the office, and more training (software I'll be using, company history, staff updates, etc.).  I stayed a little after 5pm and ended up home too late to make my Tuesday night running group (shoot!  That's 2 weeks in a row!) but took Coty out for another 5k in the neighborhood.  My training schedule called for a 30-40 minute "easy" run and that felt great.  Total time about 44 minutes, with some warm-up and cool-down walking thrown in there.

Today was cool - I got started actually doing some real work, reading some recently-issued financial statements & checking out workpapers & audit documentation.  There is a team in the field who had a question and I was able to help answer it for them, and I learned some interesting things about some of my new clients.  Man, all I could think about all day was, "why the hell did I ever leave public accounting???" I loved this job.  I'm excited to find I'm still enjoying it like I used to.

Okay.  Enough gushing about my new job.  It's going well and I'm happy I made the change.  I realize no one wants to hear how much fun it is being an anal auditor accounting freak.

But here's a photo of the name plate on my new office door!

And tonight was a gym night (Jason has the day off work and took care of the dog-walking duties).  My training schedule called for a Hill Workout so I hopped on the treadmill and hit that little button for "Rolling Hills" (a button which I have never before pressed) and set the timer for 40 minutes.  My calves were feeling SUPER tight so I did as much running as I was comfortable with and allowed myself some walk breaks.  The hills weren't really the hard part - challenging but not too hard - I think it was just that three days straight of running = tired legs & calves.  I got through it and ended up with - you guessed it - 3.1 miles in about 40 minutes!  (Theme for the week?)

Oh one last thing:  Jason went to the grocery store today & got himself all excited, wanting Rice Crispy Treats.  He bought all the ingredients (even READ the RECIPE) and begged me to make them.  So they are currently cooling in the kitchen, with Nestle Tollhouse peanut butter & milk chocolate morsels spread on top.  I'm going to try not to "help" too much in making them disappear.

Bosu Ball Bumbling

Yesterday was my last day at what will henceforth be referred to as My Old Job.

The new gig starts Monday and I'm hoping to make the most of my four days off between jobs. Today is mainly a spa day but I kicked it off with a trip to the gym. After a 20-minute warm-up on the stationary bike, I started a Circuit Training / Strength workout. I tried two new exercises this morning - Bosu Lying Glute Squeeze and Bosu Ball Alternating Side Lunges. I've done Glute squeezes in various forms before, so that was pretty straightforward, but this side lunge thing was a whole other matter.

Yes, I've done lunges before, but this involves keeping one foot on this completely unstable surface, doing your side lunge, then "hopping" across the ball to do the lunge on the other side. Seriously, this was more akin to a cardio workout than strength training. I was supposed to do ten of these (each side, of course). My first attempt essentially consisted of me repeatedly falling sideways into a vaguely lunge-like position. Completely unstable, uncontrolled movement. Not a purposeful motion. I became concerned that I might injure myself due to a complete lack of coordination! This is about the time I determined I needed a professional for some assistance.  Luckily, my gym has several personal trainers on hand and I was able to catch one of them and ask for some tips.

Here's his advice:

1. Set up one of those aerobic steps and do some alternating lunges using that.
2. Do NOT try to match the speed of this sample video.  Concentrate on making your movement smooooth and controlled.

I did both of those things and on my next set, I maybe did 5 properly.  (maybe not that many.)  My third set, I simplified it a bit more and did all of the actual lunges on the step and just practiced going across the ball in a smooth, controlled motion.  Guess I have a new project for the gym:  I have to make that Bosu Ball my bitch.

The remainder of the day was spent doing some shopping, mall-walking, mani-pedi, fresh hair cut and a trip to Sam's Club for provisions.  Tomorrow:  clean the house. And the car.  And put the laundry away.  (Won't be as much fun as today.)  Plus, a run!

Food Orgies & A Reckoning

Continuing my update on last week:  (warning this is a long post so if you're pressed for time... sorry.) Thursday and Friday both started off well but ended up as food orgies.  It was a little ugly.  Here's how it went down:

I headed to the office Thursday morning armed with my standard Greek-yogurt & granola for breakfast, and some leftover black beans & rice for lunch.  I was eating fairly light since we had the group dinner to look forward to after work and I figured it would be a sure calorie-blow-out, and of course I wouldn't have a chance to hit the gym.  Work went well and I got out of there by 5:30.  By the time we were seated, I was starving. (Have I mentioned how hungry I've been all week? It's the weirdest thing...)  I started off with a raspberry cosmopolitan and had a few bites of the various appetizers that went around the table.  I ordered a salad with honey-mustard dressing, the chorizo-stuffed pork tenderloin, about a 1/2-cup of Yukon gold mashed potatoes, and steamed green beans.  Somewhere in there, a second raspberry cosmo happened, and then there was dessert.  We ordered several for the table to share, and I had more than a few bites of them as well, though I must admit, none of them actually tasted as good as they looked, so it wasn't too hard to put down the spoon. There wasn't any nutritional info to go by, but my best-educated-guess is it ended up around 1,100 calories for the one meal.  So yes, a bit of a food orgy.  A great time was had by all, and yeah, I ate a ton of calories, but I didn't end the day feeling over-full or sick from high-fat fried foods... I was glad I ate conservatively during the day!

Friday.  This is where, I have to admit, it all completely went off the rails.  Once again, it started out alright, but Friday was the first day of the month, a HUGE busy day for us cost accountants, and it was a tough one this month.  I had my yogurt & granola for breakfast but by the time lunch came around, I was 3 hours behind schedule, stressed, and not in a frame of mind for making healthy long-term-goal-affirming food choices.  We sent the take-out menu around for Famous Dave's, and someone went to pick it up for everyone.  I ordered the Devil's Spit burger, no cheese, with fries.  I did eat all of the burger and maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the fries.  I'm gonna call it about a 700-calorie lunch.  Recoverable... but that's not the frame of mind on this day.  By 6:30pm, everyone in the group was still working hard, with no end in sight, so the boss ordered some pizza.  There were 3 pizzas, one Veggie, one Supreme, and one Taco. I had one slice of each.  I know this was a poor choice, I mean literally, while I was taking that third slice, I asked myself... "If there were only two kinds of pizza here, would you really be having a third slice?"  The answer was definitely NO. But I ate it anyway.  I finished my long, long day just before 9pm and got home to find my loving husband hanging out, drinking some beer, and listening to all our favorite music.  I was exhausted and annoyed and really needed to decompress, so I busted out a bottle of Shiraz & joined him on the couch, enjoying a well-put-together medley of mid-to-late 70's hits and little-known gems.  I had three glasses of wine (which is to say, it turns out my wine glass is perhaps a bit large... I found when I poured the third glass, it emptied the bottle.  Yup, I topped off this insane food-orgy day by drinking an entire bottle of wine.)

I have no defense or rationalization for Friday's indulgence - no it's not indulgence - Thursday was an indulgence, Friday was just this side of a binge.  That was a real shit-show.  All I can do is move forward.  Saturday was all about reckoning.  I had a light breakfast and headed to work to finish up - spent about 3-4 hours at the office and my month-end Close was finally done.  I headed straight home from there and took Coty out to the Lake for a 4.37-mile run.

It was cold windy out there, we'd gotten about an inch of snow overnight.  But the roads were pretty clear.  Well, maybe not "clear" as there was snow on the road for about 2.5 miles of the route, but it was packed and not slippery so I was able to run about 3.5 miles of the loop.  That first mile felt a lot like punishment for my "sins" of the previous 48 hours or so, with the wind in my face and my body not yet warmed up, but I kept reminding myself that I'd be warm soon enough if I could just keep pushing until my heart rate got going.  Again in the last mile, I was away from the protection of the tree line and the wind was cutting in, while running up that nasty hill.  I literally talked myself through it.  I imagine it would sound pretty funny - I should tape my audible self-talk during a difficult portion of a workout!  Here's about how it went:  "Here we go - this is not a problem.  Hill? What hill?  This ain't no hill for a climber.  We love the wind, don't we Coty? Wind.  Thinks I'm gonna slow down?  We'll show that wind.  Nothing's going to slow this run down.  It's frickin' COLD out here, it'll only be colder if we slow down, I'm just gonna keep on jogging up this hill and once we turn that corner we'll be out of the wind and we can relax and ease on down to the finish line and get in that nice warm car."

 Now THAT. Felt. GREAT.

Last night I headed out with Jason for burger baskets and a few cocktails at our favorite watering hole.  We even ran into a dear old friend who we haven't seen in years!  It was a great way to cap off the week.

Our friend Pete.  Haven't seen him in years!

What a treat.

Bubba caught a good snap of me at some point.  Found it on my phone this morning, forgot he took it!

Today started with a great bowl of Cream of Wheat - made with milk, no salt, and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.  Wonderful, healthy-ish(?) and warm start for a very cold day.  I ran to the grocery store for avocados, which quickly devolved into a QUEST for ripe avocados (I was so distracted with work all week, I never thought to pick some up and let them ripen on top of the fridge.)  While I was out & about, Jason texted me that he "Needs 2 McDoubles".  And that The Teenager needed 2 McChickens as well.  I've been contemplating Friday's excesses and managed to exercise some control.  I got their sandwiches, and nothing else.  I had yogurt and granola for lunch!  I win!



And of course today is Superbowl Sunday!

As a Sunday, today's a weigh-in day.  I was up about 0.8 lbs over last week's low.  Not a shock considering the food intake of the past couple of days.  Could even be a normal water-weight swing too, so I'm not going to let myself get twisted up about it.  I should be able to work that off with one good on-plan week and be back on track.

On a lighter note, we are heading to a friend's house this afternoon to watch the game.  The guacamole is made and I can't wait to enjoy this annual tradition!!  The SuperBowl is my second-favorite holiday (behind Halloween, of course).  I just have to remember that I'm NOT there to eat a bunch of junk food.  I AM there to enjoy the company of our dear old friends and all the best that the U.S. has to offer:  spectacle, showmanship, marketing, and maybe, just maybe, even a little football.