Recovery Week (Yes!)

Friday turned out to be a hectic day at work.  I was going, going, going and come quitting time I just wanted a beer.  So I had one and ended up blowing off the gym.  Instead, I went out to dinner with my neighbor friend and her husband.  They're moving soon so it was a going away party for their SF friends and I joined in the fun.  We went to Shabu House for Japanese Fondue.  It was good stuff.  By the end of the night I'd had my dinner, a beer and a vodka soda and a scoop of ice cream.  It was all good and I didn't go overboard on the eating.

On Saturday we had a birthday party to attend (great party Jackie!).  I knew there'd be good ("bad") food so I packed my own sandwich and planned to eat little in the way of junk.  I know it was sort of lame bringing my own food but I wanted to save up for my mother's day brunch.  In the end I ate my sandwich, a few real potato chips, a handful of mini-pretzels and 3 bites of birthday cake.  I was very pleased with my choices.  I'm learning there's something magical about 3 bites - just seems like the perfect amount to enjoy something decadent. 

Skipping the gym on Friday meant a trip to the gym on Saturday, my normal day off.  After we put the kids down for their naps I headed off to burn some calories.  I rode the upright bike for 25 minutes and it was tough but I got through it.  After that I did chest/triceps/core.  My workout started out rough on the bike but something kicked in and I finished strong.  Maybe it was the cake.  As I was leaving, a guy at the gym asked me if I was training for something.  My husband doesn't read my blog so I feel safe in telling you this guy is super hot.  He's got this handsome but sweet (and yet still rugged somehow) face and is in great shape - slender but not skinny, muscular but not huge.  Juuuust right.  And he seems so nice and humble, as if he has no awareness of how hot he is.  Oh dear me, I'm getting off track.  Anyway, he asked if I was training for something, "because I see you in here working your ass off so I figured you probably are."  (Ack!) So I said I sort-of am and shared my upcoming events, and that I'm also just trying to lose weight and get in shape.  He tells me he can tell I've lost weight and that I'm looking great and to keep it up.  Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you view it) the interaction was in no way flirty, he was just acknowledging me, which felt really good.  Thank you super hot guy.  Needless to say, I left the gym feeling solid.

After the kids woke up we took them to Costco and ended up buying a ready-made chicken alfredo pasta dish for dinner.  I didn't want to eat that so I made myself a salad with chicken breast.  I threw in avocado and sunflower seeds to liven it up a bit.  It was great and I felt good not eating the cheesy pasta (though I did have a bite and tracked 1 point for it).  I had a trail run planned for the morning so I went to bed early.

Sunday morning - Happy Mother's Day to Me! - and to all the moms of the world.  I started out with some cuddling with the kids and a small breakfast before leaving to hit the trails.  A mom friend agreed to meet me for a trail run (Yay Deb!) at 8:30am.  I got there and the weather was just looking perfect, a bit overcast, no wind - perfect.  I have a slight chest cough and I was worried it would derail me but we got underway and things seemed to go fine.  I had to cough a few times but otherwise I felt pretty good.  I love running this trail, just the perfect amount of challenge and enjoyment.  It was fun running with someone else, really made the time go by faster.  I did three loops and ran for an hour total.  I was a bit slower than the past couple of weeks but I'm blaming the chest cough and moving forward.  After the run I stretched a bit before heading to the gym to do weights.

Recovery week, recovery week!  I'm so excited about this new concept.  Every 4th week I'm going to do scaled back workouts and I was looking forward to taking it easy.  I wasn't sure exactly what my recovery workouts would look like but not too long into weight training I developed a plan:  For cardio I'll do level 5 on the bike (instead of level 7) and I'll do slow run/walk intervals on running days.  For weights I'm going to still do 3 sets but I plan to lift lighter amounts so that it feels on the easy side.  For body-weight exercises (pushups, squats, etc), I'll just do less.  I'm so excited about this that I think I need a recovery week dance.

After the gym Miguel and I went to brunch with the kids and I ate heartily and with impunity.  I had an omelet with sausage, avocado, onion, mushroom and swiss cheese.  Home fries on the side.  Coffee with cream.  And a half-slice of french toast with syrup.  The meal was very good and I had a great time with the kids.  Oh!  I almost forgot to tell you about my mother's day gift...

Brooks Pure Grit

You already know I have my new Brooks Pure Flow running shoes - these are the trail version.  Yes, after doing two trail runs I now have trail running shoes.  Thanks guys!  Me, Michelle, wanted trail running shoes for mother's day.  Times, they have changed.  I ran with them today and they were great.  I forgot to mention that on my third loop I tripped over a tree root.  I started to take a dive but was able to recover.  The cool thing was how I felt the muscles in my core and hips tighten up to pull my body back from falling. 

So, a great weekend.  And the other good news is, after logging all my food and exercise I'm actually still in the black on points.  In fact, I feel sort of weird because for weeks I've decimated my points on the weekends and then had to scrape and skimp all week to recover.  No scraping and skimping this week.  And recovery week to boot!  It's already shaping up to be a good week.