Body Healing

Today's Running Distance: 3 miles
Time: 35:02 (11:40 miles)
Brandy and I met this morning, on a beautiful fall day, to try and run three miles fast. I haven't tried to beat any times since that race last month (four weeks ago). For the last few weeks we have been practicing getting distance miles (four) in. So we figured that it was time to see if I could go any faster. Turns out, I am even slower. I had to walk for just a bit half way trough. It just doesn't seem to get any easier. I need to make sure to get in more than one run a week.

I took the last two day off from working out. But my body needed time to heal after that Wednesday workout. My arms were so sore from punching. My abs were so sore from that class. I was just a wreck. But we're planning on going back again next Wednesday. I think that it could do some good. And I have eaten pretty well the last few days. And plan to keep that up for the weekend. I need to see a weight loss on Monday. It has to get me through the holiday week.

Boxing

Yowza! I had a half day today so I went to the gym 30 minutes early (even though I wanted to stay home and finish my book) to take the abs class. It wasn't too bad. The teacher, Mike, wasn't real excited about doing abs and the class was really small. So it was more like we did some abs and then sat around a bit. I did hurt myself when I fell off the ball (really I "casually rolled" off the ball) onto a weight I had stacked next to it. I already have a bruise on my shin/knee. I'm sure I will feel it tomorrow though. Another 20 minutes of abs is bound to effect something. Then Brandy joined me for the class, which I am simply going to refer to as: Boxing. It was good. First we warmed up in the gym by running laps and other things such as high knees and side shuffles (groan!). Then we did some sort of interval training where we did some boxing moves (jab, cross, hook, uppercut, front kick, roundhouse) in between one minute of jumping a rope. Jumping rope is a lot harder than it used to be as a fifth grader during recess. I seem to remember it being fun. But not so much. We were dripping with sweat after just 20 minutes. I never thought I would make it through and at one point Brandy claimed to be too delirious to know what was going on. Mike, the teacher, is a tad annoying in the sense that he doesn't actually do the moves. He just walks around and makes sure that we are doing them right. But he did whip out the punching pads (which he wears on his hands and we punch and kick them). It was amazing how much stronger you are when you are actually punching against something other than air. But my delicate hands turned red immediately and I even broke a blood vessel and have a little red mark. Good thing I am no longer on "hand-preservation-mode" for the wedding. Brandy thinks we might have to get wraps if we're going to continue with this. Overall though, it reminded me how much easier Spinning is than Kickboxing. I haven't been that tired in a long time. Even running doesn't exhaust me to the same degree. Probably because I can't push myself as hard as an instructor could. I wonder how fast I could run if I took a running class. I'll go again, but I am scared to go without a friend. What if I pass out?

Back to Intervals

Generally I allow myself to take Tuesdays off from working out since I work eleven hour days. But since I am trying to increase my workout time each week I made myself go to the gym. Besides, I didn't have anything else planned, and if I allowed myself to think up a social activity it would have involved Tuesday-night Margaritas and Mazatlan! But enough unhealthy talk. Instead I drug (dragged?) my behind to the gym to watch the last hour of The Biggest Loser. It inspires me to workout harder. I decided that I needed to get back to running intervals if I was ever going to speed up my running routine. Even though I have nothing to train for I am wanting to run three times a week. At least once with Brandy, once as intervals and one long run by myself. So I did ten walk/run intervals for twenty minutes. I kept it up at 6.0 the entire run-time which is a difficult speed for me to maintain, but one I would love to be able to do for 30 minutes one day.

Then I came home and had some chocolate fondue.

Perfected Something

It turns out I pretty much have perfected maintaining this weight. For the last two weeks I have eaten everything under the sun and worked out an average of 5 or 6 hours and I have stayed precisely at 15 pounds. I guess it's motivating to know that if I could be happy with this weight I seem to have found the right habits to keep it here. Upsettingly, I am not happy at this weight and therefore I must change something (or lots of somethings) if I do want to see a change. First and foremost I need to watch what I am eating. I have been saying that for the last week and you're probably getting tired of reading about it. I did pretty well today. I did let myself have a little bit of chocolate, but other than that, I kept my meals small and healthy. How good for you are Graham Crackers? Secondly, I need to get back to working out seven or eight hours a week. I hate to commit to that much time at the gym because it really gets in the way of having a social life. But the truth is: I don't have a social life, and if I continue to run with Brandy once a week I am combining exercise and socializing. Either way, I need to commit to this.

As much as I have grown to love Spinning and the gals I have befriended in class, I am eager to try kickboxing again. I mentioned that Wednesdays were more of a boxing class now and Brandy and I are going to try it this week. But today I saw that the Monday teacher has changed as well. I have no idea what kind class she will teach. But I did hear her tell Mary that she taught at Gold's several years back (I don't remember her). I would love to be able to mix up my workout depending on what I felt like and how much my legs wanted to be exhausted versus my upperbody. Speaking of my upperbody: it's hard to keep using the Medium and Small weights during the shoulder track. Before I would just keep repeating: you must have great shoulders for Jennifer's wedding. Now that it's over, what do I shout at myself?

I Can't Stop Eating

There is too much junk food in my house. And I can't make myself throw it away. At least now it is all over a week old and I don't have to eat it anymore. Tomorrow I will throw away the left over fried chicken, the spinach dip, the chocolate fondue. I should also make myself go to the grocery store and buy some healthy fruit and vegetables. But all the martinis still need to be drunk (drank? drunken?), and there is way too many dollars of alcohol in there that I can not pour down the drain. Who will help me drink them? It's not like having a glass of wine with dinner. You don't sit down and drink martinis by yourself.

I was supposed to go running with Brandy this morning but she bailed on me. I can't blame her; she was up late celebrating her 30th birthday. Then I got a call and had to go into work. So I never got around to working out. It was so busy at work today, that I hardly sat down. And for that reason, it seems like I already burned enough calories. But I just came home and ate some chocolate and vanilla wafers. I need to have a good week now. Thanksgiving is just two weeks away, and we know that week will be shot to hell. What am I going to do? I need to stop eating!

Some Running

I haven't been doing much running lately. But I am at least keeping up a weekly routine of meeting Brandy. Last week we did four miles around Mahoney Park the morning after Jennifer's bachelorette party. I had only gotten three hours sleep and was completely dehydrated. This morning we met there again and did another four miles. It was perfect weather, although quite humid for a fall day. I had slept eight hours and was in perfect physical condition and it was harder! Last week we did it in: 45:54. This week it took 46:05. I guess we were probably running a little faster this week because I had to take two walk breaks -- and I still finished in almost the exact time. I would really like to get in the habit of doing two three mile runs and a four mile run each week. I am glad that Brandy likes getting out there with me because she is a great motivator and running partner. I hope that she has a great 30th birthday tomorrow. We are celebrating with Lazlo's fries and free dessert tonight.

I skipped Butts and Guts last night because I was exhausted from work. Someone called in sick, someone took a day of vacation, someone had a family emergency and someone had family in the volleyball tournament, and eventually it was just me left at work. Sure it was only for a few hours before someone else had to come and take over the "alone time" but it wares on a girl. Just because I am never sick, don't have family emergencies, or family in volleyball tournaments doesn't mean I have to get left with all the work! So I relaxed at home last night eating/drinking leftovers and watching some sappy chick-flick.

The Void

Remember how I said that I had a void in my life. I have spent so much time thinking about/planning/preparing for Jennifer's wedding and now it is over. She's on her honeymoon so she doesn't have to go on with her real life. But me, I have to move forward now. And the last two days I have filled that void with junk food. Imagine all the crap I have left over from the Bachelorette party, plus tons of left over food from the wedding, plus cake and mints. I should go to the grocery store to get some healthy options, but it's not like I don't have enough to eat. I just feel guilty throwing all that food away. I've already taken cupcakes to work. Tomorrow I might have to take something else... Fried Chicken???

I did go to Spinning and BodyPower tonight. I was so sore from taking a week off. I am never doing that again. But it felt good to go back tonight. And in everything but squats I was back up to my normal weight limits. We had a sub for Spinning tonight -- Jen the head aerobics teacher at Goodyear. She was really good and the class had me working really really hard. As I headed into the BodyPower class though a man was teaching it. According to the few participants, he is the new teacher and he does a bunch of boxing type exercises: punching, jumping rope, skipping, etc... I think I will try that out next Wednesday. That sounds much better than the jazzersize class they're still holding (often with nobody attending) on Monday.

I am considering going to Butts and Guts tomorrow night. I know that I will be sore this weekend, but I should try to get to that class more often. Brandy and I are planning on running on Friday morning (or afternoon) and I hope that we will do another 4 miles together. Friday night we're going to dinner for her 30th birthday. Maybe I can talk her into running on Sunday too!

Free Time

The wedding festivities are all over. The out of town guests have returned to their homes. I finally can get my life on track. Although honestly, I feel a huge void right now where I don't know what to do with myself. I felt like this when I had finished running that 10k in June. Everything I have been working toward for the last so many months is over and now I have no goals. So I need to work on getting some fitness goals again. My weight was up (a lot) this week due to crappy eating and a lot of alcohol drinking. My stomach has been upset since Thursday night's Bachelorette party. Still, I got up and ran 4 miles with Brandy on Friday, which was a really good choice. Saturday was so busy that I hardly ate anything and then spent 5 hours on the dance floor. But cake and left overs, and more drinking with out of town guests on Sunday. Plus cake for Grandma's birthday today... just needs to end. This morning I was (luckily) only at 15 pounds from my goal weight. I need to pick up the pace and get this over with. You know it was one of my 30 things goals -- to reach my goal weight by my 30th birthday. And now the holidays are coming. And I am still determined to get there.

I went spinning tonight and could tell that I had taken a week off. I am getting to the point where I know exactly how to turn the knob to make it harder and I made myself push as hard as I could. Still, I hadn't noticed all last week that my knee didn't hurt very much. And as soon as I got off that spinning bike that old familiar pain was back. I went to BodyPower but had to go light on several tracks. What a week off will do to you. The good news is, I know I can go higher again on Wednesday. I don't know that I have taken an entire week off from classes since they cancelled them on me over a year ago.

Anyway, here's to new goals!

Really Bad Idea

I didn't even want to post today. I am incredibly embarrassed by my weight gain this week. But even more I am in disbelief. I had a six pound weight gain this week. I don't even want to do the math to see how that is physically possible. How many thousand of extra calories I would have had to eaten in just seven days to see a gain like that. Instead I am blaming it on the salty Chinese food and some kind of water retention. But then to make matters even worse, I started feeling ill today. I have a sore throat and a runny nose. It could easily be that it was cold in the library today, and I wasn't wearing enough close. Plus I only got 5.5 hours of sleep last night. But either way, I skipped the gym this evening. I can't risk getting sick for real this week. To many super-important festivities. And because of those festivities I don't see my eating habits changing much. After this wedding is over, then my life can get back on track.

Bad Idea

So the zero-workout-plan works fine if you eat really well all week. If you can keep to 1200 calories per day, then the working out bit isn't as important. And as I mentioned before by not working out I don't need the extra calories. Still, I eat like crap. This week I ate Chinese food twice. I had fried food once. And at least ten pieces of Halloween chocolate. That mixed with no working out doesn't equal weight loss; in fact it equals weight gain.

Luckily I did end up working out six hours this week. Two classes on both Monday and Wednesday. A 35 minute run with Brandy on Saturday. And a 70 minute visit to the gym this evening where I did uphill walking and hard biking. Spinning class has really taught me how to push myself really hard on the gym bikes. I had my heart rate up to 165 and my legs were shaking.

I am not looking forward to weighing in tomorrow morning. And I am not anticipating a week of good eating. This week will be filled with parties, drinking and celebrating Jennifer's wedding. At least I plan to fill it with hours of workout. I think I am putting a hiatus on the zero-workout-plan. Although I'm not sure I ever really tried that plan, seeing as I got five and six hours of gym time in each week.