Looking Forward

Stop the train, I want to get off!  I'm on the sick train and it's not fun.  But I'm getting better.  Last week was horrible, I missed a bunch of work and I hobbled through life.  Friday I only managed to get in a half-day at work.  The rest of the day was spent lying around watching the kids play while Miguel put his newly beloved backyard shed together.  I still had a painful cough but the body aches were gone, thank goodness.

Saturday we hosted a neighborhood party at our house.  Besides all the fun socializing mostly what I remember were the chips.  It seems like everybody who came brought a bag.  There were even Doritos!  Oh my goodness, it was the beginning of the end of my poor eating choices for the weekend.  Another neighbor brought two boxes of mini drumstick ice cream cones.  I had one or two of those.

Sunday I'd hoped to go to the gym.  I hadn't exercised since the Friday before when I did my big hill bike ride.  I was still coughing a lot but I could have gone.  But instead I chose to garden.  Between the gophers and the deer about 10 of our plants were eaten since I planted in the spring.  So I hit up the garden store and got lantana, penstimons, and other low water, deer "resistant" plants.  I spent all morning digging and planting.  It was definitely work and I was tired and sun-drained when I finished so I decided Monday was going to be my back-to-gym day.

But before that...the mini drumsticks and I had a run-in.  The kids were down for their naps and Miguel was at his soccer game.  Me, alone with a freezer full of drumsticks - not good.  Not good at all.  I probably ate 5 or 6 of them when all was said and done.  And I finished off some of the chips.  And I felt like crap afterward.  Mostly physically but also mentally.  I haven't gone much into my whole peri-menopause stuff but I hadn't had a period since June until TTOTM started earlier last week.  So I decided to blame that.  That and being sick, feeling sorry for myself...just generally being low on mental energy in the face of all of the above.  I'm purposefully not using words like "weak" or "no willpower" because I've really come to believe they are negative and moralistic in their use and that really it's not about that.  It's about mental energy and how much of it I have on any given day, at any given moment.  And about how events, feelings, situations, etc come together to inform my decision making.  Blah, blah, blah I ate a ton of drumsticks and chips.  Life goes on.  I focus on making a better decision at my next meal.  And I put all the remaining drumsticks down the garbage disposal (on Monday, when I was thinking more clearly).

Speaking of Monday, it was a better day to be sure.  I went to the gym after work, despite continuing to cough, cough, cough.  I didn't care, I just wanted to exercise.  I debated the bike vs. treadmill but in the end a run sounded better than anything.  I hopped on the treadmill and after warming up I started running at 5.5mph.  It felt slow so after a minute I increased to 6.0mph.  I was feeling pretty good so I went ahead and did 7.0 for one minute at every 5 minute interval.  By the 15 minute mark I was feeling challenged so I decided to go for 20 minutes and call it a day.  Normally I do 25 so this was a very good first-day-back effort.  I did legs/shoulders/core for strength training.  I followed my recovery week routine, which is to do the same stuff, just fewer sets.  It felt very good to be exercising and I was very pleased to see that my body still works.  I had a healthy dinner (thank you Foreman Grill) and all was right in the world.  But later, after the kids were in bed, I started snacking on some cashews and chocolate chips.  Yum.  I ate too many of those.  But now they're gone.  And with that, the drumsticks being eviscerated, and my house being back in its general "clean" food state, I'm feeling like things are returning to normal.  Oh, the funny thing was I ate the nuts and chips while watching a running movie, "Running Brave" about Billy Mills, the first (and only) US runner to win Olympic Gold in the 10k. 

Ok, enough about this past week...I have some exciting stuff on the horizon.  In early September I'll be hiking in Yosemite.  I'm going with a group of women on a backpacking trip into the wild!  I think we're hiking something like 7 miles (6? 10?, I can't remember) in.  We'll be camping for two nights and then hiking out.  I've never been on one of these trips where you carry all your stuff with you, toilet paper and all, but I'm super excited!  I just hope I'm fit enough that the trek isn't painful.

Next up will be the Grape Stomp Half-Marathon in Livermore on October 21st.  That's only 10 weeks from now!  So I made up a training plan for myself loosely based on Hal Higdon's Intermediate plan.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
1 (8/27 – 9/2)	Bike + strength	4 m AM run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	8 m run
2 (9/3 – 9/9)	Bike + strength	4 m AM run	Rest	Yosemite	Yosemite	Yosemite	6 m run
3 (9/10 – 9/16)	Bike + strength	4.5 m AM run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	9 m run
4 (9/17-9/23)	Bike + strength	4.5 m AM run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	10 m run
5 (9/24 – 9/30)	Bike + strength	5 m AM run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	9 m run
6 (10/1-10/7)	Bike + strength	5 m AM run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	11 m run (?)
7 (10/8-10/14)	Bike + strength	5 m AM run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	12 m run
8 (10/15-10/21)	Bike + strength	4 m AM run	Rest	2 m run	Bike + strength	Rest	Half Marathon

How's that look?  Reasonable, yes?  Other than those Tuesday morning runs.  I'll have to hit the pavement by 5:30am to get the miles in.  That should be interesting. I'm doing this half-marathon with a few other mom friends so that makes it even more fun.

Then, in November and only 2 weeks after the half-marathon I've got the Marin Triathlon where I'll be tackling the Olympic distance for the first time.  Wowza!

So I'm thinking I might want to do one smaller event before the half-marathon and I'm eyeing the Run in the Park at Tilden in Berkeley in September.  It's a trail run and I'd do the 5k.  It's only $28 and it's on a Saturday so Miguel and the kids can come.  Maybe this will be the first time they see me cross a finish line.

Bottom line, there's lots to look forward to, and that's what I'm doing...looking forward.  My house is clean, my body is healing and my attitude is, well, let's call it pretty good.