I have to start by thanking everyone for the positive comments about my progress pictures. I will admit, I've been looking at them a lot. I was actually taken aback by how I look. I didn't realize I'm looking so trim. And the muscles...I love the muscles. So thank you for taking a moment to cheer me on.
So I got some much needed rest on Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn't exercise, though I was active enough - playing with the kids and doing some work in our yard on Wednesday. The sore throat that was threatening me never turned into anything. I returned to the gym on Thursday, looking forward to a great workout. Instead, it was a bit of a dud. One thing is that I was in a big hurry and could only do a 20 minute run. Almost the whole run felt hard. If I'd run a bit longer things might have gone better eventually. I usually do at least 25 minutes, which is a nicer time, though 30-40 I think is ideal in terms of that great running feeling.
During the run I noticed I was having a lot of negative thoughts - why is this run so hard? this is not fun, I feel so heavy, ugh, etc. I wondered if I'd had enough food to fuel my workout. I'd eaten a good lunch but for my afternoon snack I just had 1/2 a banana. That paltry snack, with a workout 4+ hours after lunch, was probably not enough food. My weight training was fine, but also not revitalizing like it normally is. I did legs, shoulders and core work and a lot of it just felt hard. So I (again) made a plan to eat an AccelGel 15-20 minutes before my workout. They are 3 points so I can use part of my APs I earn from the workout. There is little worse than slogging my way through a workout when I should be powering through it!
I forgot to mention that on Wednesday evening I went out for a glass of wine with a friend. She's getting ready to move out of our neighborhood (boo! - we will miss you Karen!!) so we're hoping to squeeze in lots of visits before she leaves. I planned to only have one glass of wine and I stuck to that. Then on Thursday evening my mother's club had a night out at Chevy's. I wasn't planning to go but Miguel gave the green light so I went right around the kids bedtime. I wasn't planning on drinking but the margarita smell did me in. I ended up having two "skinny" margaritas (at nearly $10 EACH!). They were made with organic tequila (organic, really?), agave nectar and lime juice. Woo-hoo! I've got some fun mommy friends (Hi Sara, Monique, Alison, Jackie, Erica, Laura...and on and on!). Love you ladies!!
So I wasn't sure how all this drinking would affect the scale this morning. But I hopped on with hope of at least not having a gain (I'd been teetering around 166 the past few days) when lo-and-behold - 164.4 pounds. Yes ma'am! That's why I re-joined Weight Watchers, I knew it would help and it is, that's a 2.4 pound loss over last week. Moving in the right direction. It was a gorgeous day here today and I really wanted to wear capri pants. All the ones I have now are size 8's from before getting pregnant with Marek. I put a pair on, and while they were a bit snug, I wore them. Yes! Oh boy, I'm feeling good today.
I remembered to eat my AccelGel and then went to the gym after work and started into my usual 25 minutes on the bike. Then I remembered this is supposed to be a recovery week so I cut back to 20 minutes. I don't exactly know what I should be doing in this recovery week, is 20 still too much? What about weight training? Should I cut that back too? If I do 3 sets normally but should I cut back to 2? 1? I like this idea of a recovery week every 4th week though, sounds so logical and also a nice "easy" week every once in a while sounds good. After the bike I did chest/triceps/core. I'm still on a cloud when it comes to pushups, I can't believe I do real pushups!!
The other thing I did today was make a dinner plan for the week. I hate that, "what's for dinner" thing at 5:30pm. So this week we're having homemade pizza, salsa chicken, spaghetti and meatballs...I'm looking forward to having a plan. Tonight I did the salsa chicken - shredded chicken, black beans, salsa verde, served with rice, veggies and a bit of avocado on the side. It was pretty good, even more so because I was hungry and I knew it was healthy as heck.
Tomorrow is a rest day. I'm taking the kids to do a community park clean-up and then to their playgroup. I should probably take a sandwich and some veggies and an apple, sounds like we might be out at lunchtime. No idea what's on tap for the afternoon and evening. But the weather forecast is for more gorgeous sun - hey, I bet that's why I'm feeling so good. The promise of summer. I'm loving it!
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Hi Michelle, When I was doing endruance tri's I'd make every 4th week the same as my first week of that cycle of 4 weeks, occasionally backing it off to the very first week I started training when I felt I needed more. It was also the week where I allowed myself to let other "life things" take over if they were there, just for a bit of balance (and because it was a recovery week I didn't feel guilty). As training got more intense I'd basically make it a 50-60% volume and intensity week of whatever my 3rd (peak) week was...and yes, like you, I am loving anticipating Summer, the Spring colours and sunshine are beautiful at the moment!
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