Life, it Happens

Ups and downs, downs and ups.  It's the nature of the journey.  Last week was good.  This week was crazy.  I'll take normal for next week please.  I got all my exercise in last week, including a feel-good run on Sunday.  But I'll back up just a bit.  Friday I hit the gym and did a 3 mile run on the treadmill.  I ran at 6.4mph with 7.4mph intervals.  I had to push myself but I got 'er done, as they say.  After the treadmill I powered through strength training, happy to be "back" after the post-pneumonia rebuild.

The weekend was filled with social gatherings.  We went to a pizza birthday party on Saturday for some sweet and zany 4 year old twins we've known since they were still wet behind the ears.   To avoid pizza I brought my own food - a salad with tuna and healthy dressing.  I view this as strong-arm tactics but I just needed to draw the line on the junk food.  I had two bites of cake - one from Marek's and one from Myra's.  So good.  Saturday evening was dinner out and I made the healthiest choice I could - grilled chicken breast, veggies and a salad.  Flan might have also made it into my mouth.  I had one beer.  Better than several.

Pinkastic (can you tell we're all runners?)

Sunday was another birthday party - a Pinko de Mayo fiesta for a gorgeous 2 year old friend.  They served fiesta food so I was able to make healthy choices (grilled chicken, salsa, beans).  Here I am with the birthday girls' mom and another momma friend.  Love these ladies!  I skipped all the enticing adult beverages at the party because of my planned run later.  It's always nice to surround yourself with people who understand and support your goals, who when they offer you a drink and you say, "no thanks, I'm running later" they get it.  My shorts look white in this pic but they were actually a pale pink.  It wasn't called Pinko de Mayo for nothin'!  I bet you can tell by the hot bodies these two ladies are sporting that they're runners too :)

The desert table was crazy and I might have done a full-body tackle of said table.  Cookies, cupcakes, wafers - you name it, I ate it.  But I justified it with my planned run and moved on.

Speaking of... I left the party and met Miguel at his post-soccer gathering at a local taqueria.  We did the kid swap and I changed (in my car - always fun) into my running clothes.  I hit the road, wearing my Garmin for the first time in quite a while.  I didn't have a goal pace in mind, I was mainly curious how fast my comfortable pace is.  I initially thought I'd run for an hour but then decided to go for 7 miles, considering I have a half-marathon in a little less than a month.  Here are my splits, and full Garmin stats if you are interested.

After about a half-mile I decided to shoot for a sub-10 minute mile pace.  I was happy with my pace, including pushing myself up some slight inclines during mile 5.  Except for the overpass there were no hills to speak of.  I came home and plotted out a plan to train for the See Jane Run half coming up on June 8th.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
1 (5/5 – 5/11)	Bike + strength	4 m run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	8 m run
2 (5/12 - 5/18	Bike + strength	4 m run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	9 m run
3 (5/19 – 5/25)	Bike + strength	4.5 m run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	10 m run
4 (5/26 – 6/1)	Bike + strength	4.5 m run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Bike + strength	Rest	11 m run
5 (6/2 - 6/8)	Bike + strength	3 m run	Rest	3 m run + strength	Rest	Rest	Half-marathon

 
It starts this coming Sunday with an 8 mile run.  As you can see I don't get past 11 miles but given this is my third half this year I think I'll be fine.  I also might continue to do strength training on Tuesdays if I have time.  I don't really want to cut back strength training to 3x a week. 

As far as food, I'm continuing to make improvements in my evening snacking.  There might have been an evening with me, a spoon and a jar of peanut butter - but other than that, I'm getting better.  And then came Monday.

I got a call from one of my closest friends that her husband had died.  He'd not been well for some time but it was still a surprise.  I spent the afternoon and evening with her and our other friends and took yesterday (Tuesday) off to spend with her.  Comforting and doing what I could to help was my focus.  All concerns about calories and whatnot went out the window and I ate crackers, cheese, chips, cookies and plenty of chocolate.  When tragedy strikes, eat.  I remember thinking, "I can worry about food tomorrow."  I didn't exercise on Monday and totally could have yesterday but instead opted to go shopping.  I needed a little retail therapy.  Really, exercise would have been better therapy but I'm not perfect.

And today is my day home with the kids. We're headed over to a friend's house in a bit for lunch and then tonight we're headed out to a big party to celebrate motherhood.  Food, wine, deserts - all of it.  I don't really have a game plan for this event, I just expect to do more socializing than eating.  Remember those blue dresses I posted on FB?  Well, I didn't end up deciding to wear either of those.  Instead I'm wearing a black dress that is quite fitted with spaghetti straps.  I'm sure I'll have pictures in my next post.  Maybe the dress and skin exposure will inspire me to keep my eating and drinking in line. 

Anyway, that means I'll only get in three days of exercise this week instead of five.  Life, it happens.  Until it doesn't.  Grateful to have the rest of this week and all of next week (and hopefully years to come) to make better choices.