Getting Back on Track

A little fall colour in my garden.  A calendula plant that I'm hoping will re-seed itself in my garden and not all over my lawn!

I unofficially took the month of September off from intense workouts.  It wasn't really planned, but since I think I may have averaged one and a half trips to the gym a week, I'm saying it was a break.  (And I definitely haven't been running).  The break appears to have been good for me, and I'm really hoping that the muscle pull in my inner thigh is better because of it.  (Doesn't hurt to walk/run, but definitely notice it when doing weights/yoga).

October is definitely a good month to get back in to the routine of working out.
Here's the plan for this week:

• Today - 5K run on the roads around my parent's place (done, although it was a bit frosty, and there was a guy out hunting!)
• Tuesday - BodyPump
• Wednesday - RPM
• Thursday - BodyPump
• Friday - RPM
• Saturday - RPM
• Sunday - Rest and plan my own weight workouts for next week.

Usually I skip the BodyPump classes and do my own thing, but I think to get myself back in to the "wake up early, in the dark" routine I need to have something that starts at a specific time.  Next week I'm hoping that I can sub out one of the weight classes to do my own thing, but we'll see how the mornings are going.  I'm going to try building in a better cue, other than the alarm going off, as it doesn't really get me out of bed that fast.  I'm going to make sure the last thing I do before climbing in to bed to read at night is get out my workout gear.
I know in the past, this "cue" has worked for me, and of course I'll stick to my reward of amazing endorphins and feeling great for the rest of the day.  (Can you tell I'm reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg?  I'm only half way through, but I highly recommend it!)

Up Close and Personal

I've been looking back over the beginning of this blog and realized I've strayed from my original intention.  I had originally planned to blog about fitness, food, and photography.  I've definitely blogged about my running and my love of weights, but even that has been missing these past few weeks.

So I've decided - enough with my relationship woes - back to building a blog around three things I love!  (I'll keep the relationship stuff for my journal and discussions with my girl friends - I promise, from this day forward).

To start things off - a few photos.  Here are three from my trip to the Toronto Zoo at the beginning of June with  good friends, their spouses, and kids.

I love taking close up pictures, and really like seeing the details in the animals.

Their wrinkly, grey skin, and their wise looking eyes.











Their beautiful, colourful feathers.  My favourite shade of blue.

Their regal posture, and soft looking fur.

Muscle Soreness

I'm by no means an expert at working out, and this post is just going to reinforce this!

I haven't done any weight training in almost two months.  A combination of dating the indecisive guy, heat, and focusing on running my 5K didn't give me much time or desire to get in to the gym.  Lots of "reasons", but I have enjoyed the break and chance to do some different things with my time.

This week I got back to it, and while I only completed weights two times, my body is feeling it.  The biggest lesson I've learned this week - If you haven't done weights in almost two months, you will not be as strong as you were and if you decide to lift the same weight that you did before your break, it will be hard and you will be really, really sore!

This may be too much info, but the sorest muscles are my gluteus maximus (aka my bum).  Which is both good (if it lifts and rounds out my flat bum), and bad (I sit all day at work).

I decided to do a bit of research for some tips on reducing muscle soreness.  Here's what I've found (love Wikipedia!):

1. Muscle soreness should be gone within 72 hours
2. Increase blood flow to the muscles through low intensity work, massage (yes please!), hot baths, or sauna
3. Cool or icy water may help

I've always thought I felt better if I exercised again.  Apparently exercise increases your pain tolerance temporarily and suppresses the soreness.  This would definitely explain why I seem to be able to push through a second workout and then I'm super sore afterwards.

So, next time I'm super sore, I'll have to make sure I relax in the sauna for a bit, and maybe I can convince indecisive guy to give me a massage (maybe I should focus on my back muscles, rather than the gluteus maximus for that - Ha Ha).

Highland Yard 5K Recap

I finished the Highland Yard 5K on Sunday.  My goal was to run as much as possible and complete the race in under 30 minutes.  Drum roll.....I finished in 32:24.  So not under 30 minutes, but still a PR.
What did I learn from this race?

1. Some races have a lot of fast runners!  I was 12th out of 14 in my age/gender category.  People shot out of the starting and not many people took walking breaks.
2. I need to stick to my training plan, in spite of the ridiculous heat leading up to the race.  I'm sure my endurance would have been much better and I wouldn't have required so many walking breaks.
3. Eating and proper hydration the day before definitely helps with the side cramps.  I only had a minor one and I think that was more from pushing myself more than I was ready to be pushed.
4. You can't count on the weather!  No rain for weeks, and of course we have a major storm the night before the race.  Luckily the heavy rain stopped as we drove to the race.
5. Having my parent's there was great!  But my mom's photo skills need a bit of work (see the only picture of me actually racing below - but I love that she tried!)
6. Your spectators should really stop at Timmies pre-race start.  Dad drove to Timmies after I started running.  Not realizing that so would every other spectator!

I'm in the yellow top - and won't be wearing capris next time (too hot!)



Dad drove to Timmies after I started my run, but was back to see what a sweaty mess I was crossing the finish.





Race Day Prep

This week's post for Running & Reading Long is about what we need to do to prepare for race day.  Since my race is a 5K, it's not too complicated in terms of fueling.  However, I did learn a couple things from my first race that I need to keep in mind this time.

1. Have all the clothes out the night before, including water bottles and snacks for after the race.  This was really helpful the morning of my first race as I wasn't in my own home, and it will be the same this time.
2. Don't eat "junk food" the night before the race!  With my first race I went to the drive-in the night before and ate things I wouldn't normally eat like nachos and cheese.
3. Drink lots of water the day before the race.  Refer to #2, nachos and cheese plus other salty foods and not a lot of water the day before the race meant I ended up with a stitch in my side.  I'm guessing that this is what caused the stitch and that by following #2 and #3 I can avoid it (or at least minimize it) this time around
4. Take your heart rate monitor and watch.  I want to pace myself this time, as my goal is to complete the race in under 30 minutes.

I think those are the key things for me this time around.  Of course, I expect I'll learn something new this time and will just keep adding to my growing "running" knowledge.

My focus this week and next is running.  I've put my cross-training on hold, and I'm really trying to get out for my runs.  Which is a bit tough with dates and work getting in the way and/or making me very, very tired.  At least the heat is breaking a bit today, so that will help with my run tonight.  And with these runs I'm trying to extend the time spent running, and walking less frequently.  I think this will help build my endurance for August 5th!

This race is going to be fun, and I'm a bit nervous as I'm not 100% sure I'll make it in under 30 minutes and my Mom is planning on coming to watch too.

Vacations

I love being on vacation - getting away from work, and away from my normal surroundings.  Last week I was on vacation and had a fantastic week.
Started off on Saturday in Burlington at the Country, Blues and BBQ.  Not a fan of country music, so was a bit disappointed there weren't more Blues bands.  However, the company was great.  My good friend Elizabeth, her husband Keith and their daughter Daisy (10 months old and super sweet!).  And the boy joined us as well.  Yes, he is still around, and I'm feeling more certain and a little less uncertain as the weeks have been going by.
Sunday I packed up and headed to my parent's place.  Always enjoy my time there.  Swimming, kayaking, hiking, day trips to Peterborough and North Bay.  Saturday I went in to Peterborough to meet the boy and one of his friends for dinner/drinks, and a movie (Dark Knight Rising - which was good and I understood what was going on inspite of not seeing the two movies before it).  Sunday we met his friend for a very late breakfast (or in my case lunch as I had a burger and fries), and checked out the Peterborough zoo.

A zoo that's free!  Not huge, but they have a splash pad for the kids and regular play equipment, lots of park area to hang out in, plus animals of course.  We were there in lots of time to see the otter feeding which was fun, and inspite of the heat the animals were out.  I'd definitely recommend the zoo as a great outing for a family.  It's small enough that no one gets bored or too tired, and lots of space for kids to run around.

Back to work this week (boo!), but looking forward to an extra long, long weekend at the beginning of August.

A Life Changer

This week's post for Running and Reading Long, is about overcoming big challenges, life changing challenges.  I'm not sure what to write about.  I've had a couple major challenges in my life, or at least ones I felt were challenges, but I'm not 100% sure that I actually want to share either of them.
Big, deep, breath - here we go:

One of my biggest challenges came in the middle of high school.  I was overweight (by a lot), unhappy, and the people I thought were my friends really weren't.  I was so unhappy that I seriously considered what life would be like for my family if I just wasn't around anymore.  Luckily, I think a lot before I do anything and like to gather lots of information too.  And as a typical teenager I watched a lot of television.
One day I was unhappy, and bumming around on the couch watching talk shows.  I can't remember which talk show it was, but they were talking about "Choice Theory".  The basic premise of which is that everything is a choice, even if the circumstances are out of your control you can still choose how you react to them and deal with them (or not!).
From that moment on "Choice Theory" has played a huge role in my life.  I started being conscious of the choices I was making on a daily basis, big and small.  I started to try and make choices that I thought would make me happy.  Some were small, like choosing what to listen to or wear, to big things like telling my "friends" that if they didn't want me around I wasn't going to bother with them anymore.

Since that day, I've looked at everything as a choice, and I strongly believe that my choices should be things that make me happy, or at least make me less unhappy.  This has led to some incredible experiences like travelling to Manila, Philippines for work three times, weight training with an amazing trainer and loosing almost 100 lbs, going to lovely warm weather destinations with girl friends and having a blast.  Dating is a bit tougher, as I can choose which guys I want to date, but I don't have as much control there :)  But I do my best to control my reactions to what they decide to do/not do, and so far I've been relatively happy with those choices.
I can't think of any choice I've made since that fateful day that I've regretted.  It's amazing to live a life knowing that I'm capable of making choices that I won't regret, and that make my life that much better.  I still have those sad moments, and do give in to not great choices at those times (usually sugar/chocolate related), but they are few and far between.

We finished reading Matt Long's Long Run this week, and I would definitely recommend this book to everyone!  My favourite part matches my belief in choice theory, and I found it so inspiring.  The day he finally decided to stop moping around, and took control of how he was reacting to his injuries and recovery.  I felt so great for him when I read that section of the book.  He proved that how I live my life can be applied to even the most devastating/tough circumstances.

As for my running - the heat has finally broken, and I'm back on track to be able to run the 5K in under 30 minutes the first weekend in August.  Although I've come to the realization of the past three weeks that hot weather plus dating does not equal great nights of sleep.  And lack of sleep means I'm not willing to get up for the early morning workouts.  So this week my schedule has changes to after work workouts followed by a late and very light dinner.

Hope everyone else enjoyed Matt's book and the running is going really well!