Blood, Sweat and Tears

I admit, that title is a little dramatic, but it popped into my head tonight when I was suffering on the treadmill so it has some legitimacy. I was definitely sweating at least. This is my second trip to the gym this week, the last time I went was Sunday. If I can squeeze in one more trip that will make three. Three gym trips a week would make me very happy.

Anyway, tonight, by the time I was able to leave the house, I made it to the gym at around 8:10pm. That gave me 45 minutes to do whatever I could. I decided to try c25k Week 1 with the idea that if I couldn't do it I would at least have an idea where I stood. Week 1 looks like this:

5 minute brisk warm-up walk
Eight intervals of 60 second run and 90 second walk
5 minute cool down walk

The warm-up walk went pretty well (hee-hee) and I was handling the runs okay too, though they were not easy. By the mid-point, during the runs, my legs would start hurting and I even felt a slight twinge or two in one of my knees. I reminded myself that I am carrying almost 45 pounds of extra weight and that idea somehow made me feel better about the whole thing. I pictured myself running with a huge military backpack on my back and agreed with myself that running with that on probably should be hard. Another good reason to lose this weight. I wore my heart rate monitor and was surprised that my heart rate didn't go too crazy and I recovered fairly well (I'll spare you all the detailed history on my heart rate). By the time I got to the 6th interval I knew I would be able to finish, that's always a good feeling. It wasn't easy but I did it and I was darned pleased with myself about it. I don't know how many weeks I'll have to repeat Week 1 but I really don't care. I just want to make progress.

After the treadmill I had about 15 minutes to do some weight training. I did two sets of 8 squats. Let's hope I won't be as sore in the next few days as I was last time. Then I did stationary lunges (so much better than walking lunges!) but couldn't get down very far. Those muscles are probably as weak as my ab muscles. Then I did a couple shoulder exercises, front and lateral raises. I mixed in some ab work, bent knee raises and...the plank! I was able to hold the plank twice for 30 seconds each time. I might be crazy but it already seems a tad easier. I had about 2 minutes to do a tiny bit of stretching. Bad, I know, but I did what I could and hit the road feeling very good that I'd gone.

So I was chatting with some mom friends today and somehow we ended up talking about doing a sprint tri in September. Well, I thought it was in September. I figured by then I might be in fair enough shape to at least finish without a near death experience. I came home and looked it up and it's actually in the third week of August. Hmmm, we'll just have to see. That reminds me...yesterday after work we went with the kids to the local pool and I swam a few laps just to see how it felt. Well, I'll tell you how it felt. Hard. Whew! I was breathing hard and trying for the life of me to remember all the stuff I learned in those swim classes I took. My endurance is not the greatest these days but again, I can't say that I'm all that upset about it. I haven't exactly sat on my butt for the past 2+ years but close enough so what should I expect?

Food...what can I say about that? I've been sort of just paying attention. No tracking or major cutbacks or anything but just by being more aware, making better choices when I can and skipping the check-out line candy bar I'm feeling pretty good about things. A perfect example is that we got take-out Chinese food and I didn't order anything fried. A colleague with whom I was discussing my foray back into exercising tried to sell me on an app that would count my calories. Nope, not ready for all that yet. Last thing I want to do right now is pile too much on and collapse a month from now in failure. That reminds me, someone left a half-bag of peanut butter filled pretzels (from Trader Joes) in my possession recently and I sat down with the bag and ate more than I probably should have. Afterward I took the bag straight to the garbage disposal. It's much easier to eat healthy when you don't have any major temptations around.

So Miguel, my husband, has very suddenly decided to do the sprint tri that's this weekend! No, he's done almost no training for it but he's gained way less than I did during this baby making period and is generally in better shape, he still plays soccer every once in a while and will walk a golf course now and then. I'm excited to see how it goes for him! I don't know yet if I'm going to get the kids up at the crack of dawn to watch him but if I do I'll definitely snap a few pictures.

Alright, that's it for me, I'm tired. I've realized since I'm exercising now sleep is even more important. I know you've probably also seen a million times like I have that researchers found people who don't get enough sleep tend to be overweight, or that sleep helps with weight loss, or something like that. Either way, I'm going to get some sleep right now. Night all!