Healthy Twists

Thanks for all your sweet words about my engagement. It’s still kinda crazy to think that what happened last week really happened, but I’ve always seen how “life events” and really show you the type of people you have in your life, and I know I’m really lucky to have the support system around me that I do. Seeing how truly happy people are for Mitch and me is just so great.

A few things on my mind since last Tuesday:

1. This ring I have now. How do I take care of it and keep it sparkly? Should I take it off in the shower/going to sleep/working out/doing dishes/cooking? So far it’s been yes/yes/no/yes/no.
2. My ring is a bloat-barometer. Normally, it’s a little loose, but after a salty meal it’s a lot tighter on my finger. The next time I get Mexican food should be a hoot.
3. Surfing wedding blogs and websites was fun when it was all hypothetical. Now, they induce panic attacks. So I stopped that, and quick.
4. I’m trying to “enjoy being engaged” for a little bit and not jump full-force into planning mode, but that’s not my style so it’s hard. I’m a anal-retentive planner. But I told Mitch to tell me to “SHUT UP” when I start getting all wedding-y and keep me in check.

And there we go.

Here were my workouts this week. Per the advice of some of you folks, I took the week off from running because I was worried that I was showing the starting signs of plantar fasciitis.

Monday: According to the LoseIt application on my iPod touch (yea, as of a few weeks ago, I’m counting calories to try to get back to a “happier size”…does it make me obsessive? Not any more than I am anyway, and it’s shown to be a useful took thus far) I did ten min of stretching and ten min of yoga. So, a rest day.

Tuesday: Before my big night, I went to the gym for some cross-training. I did ten min on the Stairmaster to warm up, then about 45-50 minutes of weight training and finished with 30 min on the elliptical. Holy DOMS! Squats and lunges (and I did like, one set of lunges since I hate them so) will do that to me every time.

Wednesday: Remember what I said about DOMS and drinking a lot of wine on Tuesday night? Umm…today was a rest day. 100%. It was also a “empty carb” day, but that’s neither here nor there.

Thursday: I took Nina out for almost an hour of hilly walking. I love love LOVE taking my dog for walks. It’s good exercise for both of us, and since I’m not hating my life like I often do when I run, I can actually enjoy the ocean views and my ring in the sunshine.

Friday: Another walk, although this time I tried to include some running intervals to test out my foot so it took about 42 min. I also did ten min of ab work.

Saturday: Another XT day! I think this is the first time the gym saw my swipe card twice in one week in a LONG time. I once again did my version of Susan’s upper-body interval workout . I think it ended up being 25 min (total) cardio and 55 minutes of weight lifting. Then Mitch and I went to Costco and Vons, so it was a fairly active day (more on that in a bit).

Sunday: Long run…hello, double digits! Jenny and I ran 10 miles today. We did two loops around the lake where we did our 10k (part of the race was getting to and from the lake so the lake itself is 5 miles). I was dragging and hitting “the wall” towards the end so I told J to go ahead of me. I ended up finishing in 2:00:25, and that includes a 1-2 minute “stretch/eat Sports Beans" break halfway through. So my running pace was ~11:50/mile? I can’t decide if that little break helped me or not, but I wanted to see how it felt.

I have spent the rest of the day being hungry lazy. I’m also trying to drink a lot of water and I’m going to ice/stretch again before bed.

Reflections:

I definitely liked the little rest from running this week. I think I really needed it, and I still got some decent workouts in, even with some top-notch celebrating. And I did, as promised, focus on stretching which is always fun in that “I <3 Torture” kinda way.

Today’s run was HARD.  My heart/lungs were ok for the most part, but my legs felt like jelly after 3 miles and I was having trouble with the distance mentally. I think last week’s 9 miles felt easier, even though I didn’t have the foot pain at the end I did last time (whoo!).

Summer has finally decided to grace San Diego with it’s presence, so the heat was part of it. And I think my legs were more fresh last Sunday since I laid around and did NOTHING last Saturday.

I’m trying to stay positive and be happy about my accomplishments, but as I mentioned last week it’s been a bit of a struggle as of late. I don’t think the long-distance thing gives me the joy it gives others (e.g., my fiancé), and I don’t think I need to devote hours of my spare time to something that makes me more grumpy than happy. But I don’t know. Maybe four weeks from today (AHHH) I’ll look back and it’ll all be worth it and I’ll be signing up for the Carlsbad Half. The way I feel now, though…I doubt it.

Bummertown feelings aside…I ran TEN MILES today, and there’s lots of people who will never be able to say that, so overall I’m proud of myself. I remember clearly when I would get side cramps after running for 5 minutes, so the fact that I ran for 2 hours today is pretty darn cool, no matter what.

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