Motivation Monday

Happy Monday y'all!

What a day, what a day. I'm struggling with some things in the workplace right now and I'm really trying to keep my head up about things. The good thing is that a workout is a great way to focus my energy around something more positive and better for my well being. 

So this week I am going to try to remove all that needless stress as best I can. Obviously it's easier said than done. I think that keeping my head wrapped around the things that I can control are what are most important for me to focus on this week.

Super Sunday

I think non-healthy foods go hand in hand with the Super Bowl. At least they do in my my house! This year we decided to go pretty low key for the game and only have one friend over and not make a huge spread. Which is a good compromise for my waistline. 

Except the mini spread we have is taco dip, beer dip, and pizza. I don't even care because they tasted phenomenal. ;-)

The good news is that we got to the Y at 10:30 this morning to do our workout. We promptly found out 3 things. 

1) They don't open the actual workout spaces until 11 am.
2) Sunday mornings are way too crowded on their track. 
3) People on the track can act like big time assholes. 

#3 is the main reason that as we were leaving we said, never again at this time. There is a clear sign by the stairs when you get up there that slower traffic should stay to the inside. This was only read by maybe 1/4 of the people up there. There was even a woman with a baby jogger up there walking slow on the outside and every time we got to her of course there was also a walker on the right. Bobbing and weaving takes so much energy for runners. It's so frustrating. I finally nicely asked her if she could move to the inside. She replied, "I'm fine, I'll stay on the outside." I turned back and said, "the sign says slower traffic on the INside. It's so the runners don't have to weave in and out." She mumbled something like "oh guess I didn't see that." Which is fine, I asked her nicely in the beginning. But don't give me attitude when you can't take the time to read the rules... She then commenced to bitch about K and me to her husband when he came back up to check in with them. 

Like I care. Just let the fat kid get her run in, mmmkay?

In other news, today marks 8 weeks until my 8k! Eeek! I struggled a bit on my run today. It was due in some small part to all the lane traffic that messed with my pacing but I'm not sure that was the whole reason. I followed the Hal Higdon training schedule almost perfectly, only switching my rest day to Saturday instead of Friday. I think I ended up slightly short of running the entire 2 miles today. I know if I add in the walking laps I hit it but I was a bit disappointed that I didn't run it as I had done on Tuesday and Thursday. I was just not in good shape today and I can't really pinpoint why. I was wearing new socks that have the arch support band on them and my toes and feet did go slightly numb so I had to loosen my laces midway through. I'm still not sure that was enough to mess me up as much as I was. Oh well. I know everyone has off days. As the saying goes, "A bad run is better than no run." So I will just move on from it and do my best on Tuesday.

My training schedule for this week will look like this:

Monday: stretch and strength
Tuesday: 2 mile run
Wednesday: 30 Day Shred (level 1)
Thursday: 2 mile run + strength
Friday: water fitness (60 min)
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 2.5 mile run

Well...that's all for me tonight! Have a great week y'all!

Friday Funday

I really like the noon hour long water fitness class I've been taking on Fridays. The instructor is fun and it's a pretty nice group of regulars. I think I may be about half the average age of those folks but...who really cares, you know? 

One of my coworkers made a comment about how when she goes to swim her laps she sees all the "old people" there and it doesn't look like they are doing anything at all.To me, comments like those are just "exercising shaming" even though in my case, I know she was just trying to be funny. Here's the thing. At least people are out there doing it. It doesn't matter your age or your athletic ability. Water is very forgiving and it's a great work out if you put the effort into it. 

I happen to love being in the water whenever possible. I love swimming and splashing around in the pool but I'm not a lap swimmer. I blame it on the fact that I have terrible eye sight (like blind as a bat) and always wore glasses until high school. So I never was able to see well enough to do actual competitive swimming. But I still love to be in the water. This gives me a chance to. And I make it a great workout. 

I think it's very important for anyone trying to stay fit and active to find a combination of exercises that they enjoy and have fun while doing them. It reminds me of the episode of Friends when Phoebe wants to run with Rachel but when they go running Rachel is embarrassed by the way Pheebs runs. In the end, Phoebe convinces Rachel to just have fun and let loose and to not let what others think about her matter. Same thought applies here. Don't let others hold you back from doing what makes you happy. 

 

Weigh In Wednesday

Woo hoo - the bitch is on her way out so I'm seeing some movement on the scale! Yee haw!!!

Today I weighed in at 227.2! That's 27 pounds lost so far!

I'm really hoping that I will be at 220 lbs in two weeks. That is my super short term goal.I can do this!

Second Run Booked

This past weekend I was busy surfing through the bookmarked links of runs I want to do and I happened to see that one of the fun run 5ks, the Glo Run in Chicago, was open for registration and 40% off! I text my SIL and asked her if she wanted in because I was going to sign up regardless. She said sure why not...even if it's only two weeks prior to her wedding. Oh dear Lord please let her not sprain an ankle or something. I would never hear the end of it! ;-)

The run is on May 3rd and is a night race. The video promo looks fun and I figured, "hey, why not?!" It will keep me on track with my running schedule since I didn't have another race lined up right after the Shamrock Shuffle. Plus, it will just be a fun time with my sister and some friends that plan on running it too. I even found out one of my old coworkers up here in WI is going down with one of her friends to run it so now I'll have even more running buddies. Works for me. 

Just in case you feel like signing up in a city near you, here is the info:

Locations/Registration

Motivation Monday

Wow. After having a bit of a holiday lull after my 5k in November, I finally put in my first full week of exercising and training again. Damn it feels good to be a gangster. 

For my dose of motivation this week, I need to remember that this isn't a quick fix. K and I are revamping our entire lives. My heart is slightly broken over the fact that this year will be year 7 of trying to have a baby and we will most likely not accomplish that task. But in the end it will be ok because no matter what happens, I will have made myself into the best I possibly could. I'm doing this for me and for the rest of my life. I want to be happy about who I am and how I look. 

Having a raging bitch of a period also dampened my spirits a bit this week because I wasn't seeing the results of my hard work of diet and exercise on the scale. Which is completely stupid because I full well know the reasons for this. I may be fat but I'm still a former athlete. I know how this shit works. But it's funny that even with that knowledge, the gratification and exuberance that I feel when I see a lower number pop up is remarkable. So I will keep on keeping on. It will budge again soon, I know it.

Weather Vents

You know, I enjoy all things weather related from the science stand point. I had a major highlight about two weeks ago when the Weather Channel rolled up into my small WI town. I normally chat with a lot of the on air meteorologists via twitter or email. So when I heard that they were in town, I contacted the reporter and he told me to come on down and say hi. So I did. Which is awesome - even if it was a bunch of snow that we were experiencing right on the heels of the nasty polar vortex that saw us hitting -25 without windchills (-50 with). 

Since then we haven't warmed up at all. There is no letting up in the forecast either. In a couple of days we will be back to struggling to hit -5 as our high. 

It's times like this that I can't stop daydreaming about moving south so that my life doesn't feel like it's on hold during these bitter cold months. I hate dealing with the cold and ice and snow. I want to be able to come home and head out for a run. I know that there are some runners out there that are quite fine going for runs in 20-30*F. Yeah, I'm not there. I don't know if I ever will be either. Not to mention that I live a couple miles off of one of the state highways and our little country road doesn't get plowed much. It's hilly, there are open fields and a lake so the drifts get bad and ice forms all the time. I'm basically screwed for a nice running surface until maybe March. Wah wah wah.

So until then I'm stuck running on the track above the basketball courts at the Y. Better than nothing I know. 

Yeah, there was no real need or point for this post except to bitch about the weather. Unless you care to share how you are able to run outside in the winter...even if you are in Florida and you think cold is 50.