Achilles the worst greek legend ever

Oh man I hate my Achilles right now, it is hurting when I walk and definitely nixed the running after just a couple minutes today.  So I say booooooooo to it.  Why couldn't he have died from a splinter in the thumb or something, I could have handled a sore thumb today.

But what I am doing is planning to use the couch to 5 k timings to work on the stationary bike for the rest of this week and hopefully get that achilles back in order.  I figure since biking I find exceedingly hard it could always use some work.  Will also set my self some core work to follow each one.  Seems like a good fill in to me.

Wish me luck on recovering my achilles so I can go back to being surprised that I am a "runner".

Muscle aches, and sweaty TRX

Yesterday I did my last week 7 run.  I picked up the pace and have paid the price a little bit. My calves don't enjoy the increased pace and my achilles area on my one leg is a little sore.  So I will be taking the pace back down for next week and keeping a close eye on it (might actually do some running/walking ones instead of the full 28 minutes of running that is on the slate for next week). But I will see how it goes.

Today's TRX class was sure a sweaty one. 7, 17, felt like 70 varieties of squats were certainly part of the sweat building process.  I find it very strange that I actually don't mind squats in TRX but I just despise them any other time.  Guess it is just about how the straps even if you are holding them lightly (my goal although the grip tightens up for some of the squat types for sure) just help you to do squats the way a person should do them.

We also did this killer bit of hamstring work that ended with me with an actual pool of sweat in that dip spot at the collar bone.  Man that was some of the best/worst hamstring stuff I have done in a long time.  They were definitely crying for mercy.

And in the pantheon of sweat makers let us not forget the wonderful plank on the partial arc.  Oh as if the first one wasn't hard enough with one foot out then the other.  The second round we were rotating our hips and then did one leg (not me though the rotating was entirely enough for me, so my plank finished up with both feet on the ground).  Oh except I forgot we kind of pushed back and forth heels back then forward.

Anyway it was a great TRX class and boy it sure seemed to build a sense of community with all of us because it was great chatting with people afterwards – just an extra dose of the always friendly environment.

More C25K

I was just taking a look at the couch to 5K plan I am following and I am up to week 7 now.  Warm up walk followed by 25 minutes of running (jogging).  The plan indicates 25 minutes or 2.5 miles which works out to 4K.  Well here I thought I was doing good just managing the 25 minutes and having increased the speed a small amount over the first day of doing it.

But my distance leaves a LOT of room for improvement.  Right now including the 5 minute warm up walk and the 25 minute run I am only hitting about 3.6 K.  So I definitely still have a bit of work to do on getting my running speed up.

I do know I am not really pushing myself in a cardio sense for the runs.  I can still sing pretty much at any point of the run right now.  So I know I can keep working on stepping up the speed.  Tomorrow is the last day of the week for running and my goal is to increase my running speed for the duration of the 25 minute run to 7.4 with at least a little bit of it at 7.8 (usually at the end I feel a desire to speed it up a bit).  That should get me to around 3.1 or so for the run portion.

It is a little disheartening to me that my pace is so far below what I would need to hit 4K in 25 minutes.  Just was doing a bit of math on it and it looks like I have to move it up by a full 2.1K/hour to hit that (so my 7.4 will need to increase to 9.5).  That is definitely going to take some time!  I think my intermediate goal will be to get to 8.5 for a pace.  That would be amazing as far as I am concerned (if I did the math right it would mean about a 35 minute 5K).  But even with my current pace I would be happy.  Will just keep on rolling and see where this lands me!

Saturday Morning TRX

My morning starts with the insane cats demanding breakfast "alarm" going off, a full hour before the real alarm was set.  More sleep please, my bleary eyes demanded.  Alas it was not to be, so up I got.  I grabbed my giant mug of water and chug a lugged.  I like kicking the day off with a nice big drink of water, it sets the tone for the day.

This morning it seemed that breakfast required musical accompaniment so I hit up YouTube to find the song that was stuck in my brain from yesterday.  50 Ways to Say Goodbye by Train, this catchy song was one I had only heard a couple of times but enjoyed.  My enjoyment increased 10 fold as I almost shot cereal out my nose laughing over the actual lyrics of the song (and the video).  Breakfast done I hit play on the song another couple times so I could dance around the house like a lunatic.  Also a great way to kick off your day – dancing like crazy.

Getting ready to head out to TRX class included making up my post workout version of a chocolate malt/milk.  Most of a banana, a big old scoop of cocoa powder, a big heaping heaping tsp of natural (just peanuts) peanut butter, and a cup of whole milk.  Blend this up and you have one of the most delicious things I have ever drunk.  Plus it has all that great protein and some nice natural sugars from the banana to make your muscles say "Thanks!" after your workout.

So off I went to TRX, my morning started great despite the cat alarm and I was looking forward to more.  And I was not disappointed.  The workout with TRX and Restore is always a great one.  My legs feel the burn, my arms feel the burn, I work my core a tonne.  And then I get to stretch and restore too.  How can you beat that awesome combination!  Carly definitely gave me something to feel great about, and I did feel great afterwards.  I saw Jana greeting a new client and I just wanted to run over to her and tell her that the place can change your body and your life if you are ready for it.

After the workout I grabbed my super delicious smoothie and took a minute or two to enjoy every last drop (out of my Lead Pilates water/tea glass bottle).  Then the ever awesome Amy at the front gave me a list of the Sirius radio channels so someday I will hate that thing in my car less than I do now.  But, no matter what or how I feel about my radio faceplate, nothing could beat the fact that as I went to drive out of the parking lot today, I had to yield to the shiny red heart balloon that was floating down the street.  It apparently was meandering its way to a date with a tree on the other side of the intersection.  It really was quite amusing watching it float along and wondering where it was headed.

To wrap things up off I went to the farmers market to pick up some lovely carrots, beef, cheese, and various other excellent locally made/grown foods.  The carrots may or may not make it into the soup I am making today (butternut squash, yam, with a touch of curry, and homemade chicken soup stock).

A great day already and it is just noon!!!!!

A Little Disappointed

I ran again today - intending to do week 6 day 3 which is 22 minutes of straight running.  But I just couldn't make it.  Perhaps it is the cold at work but I broke it up and did 10 minutes with a 2 minute walk break and then 10 more minutes of running.  Even at that it was pretty hard to get through the 10 minute intervals.

On Friday I am going to give it another shot. Hopefully the cold will have cleared up some.  And I am planning to do it in the morning before work - I think that may help as well (today I ran at lunch time which is better than after work but not as good as the morning).

So if you are out there wide world, wish me a little bit of luck for Friday.

Out of Town Revelations

Well after 11 days away from home, in a really nice little place (St. Charles Missouri) I recognized a few things that I want to work on.

One, I have let my portion control edge it's way back up.  This is very evident when I find myself eating full restaurant meals (which we know are crazy oversized most of the time) and then following it up with dessert. This is something that I can and will be working on over the next little while - getting my portions back into reasonable amounts.

Next, that I need to get back to being more self aware, looking at my moods and the other things that influence my choices.  I certainly found my evenings alone while out of town to be a bit more solitary than I was happy with. I am not someone who needs or wants to be constantly surrounded by people, but it is a bit lonely 11 suppers by yourself.  I sure chose a lot more desserts than I needed to - although I will blame some of that on the awesome restaurants and the temptation of all the interesting desserts.

Great revelation - I really have fully habituated a few things.  Vegetables are an easy choice for me now, it is rare that I even look very longingly at the french fry option for a side (I won't deny I still consider them sometimes but I pretty much never choose them anymore).

The thought of white bread mostly grosses me out now.  Seeing it so prevalent there just kind of drove it home for me.  I still and probably will always love my mom's home made white bread (or better yet cinnamon buns) but mostly I just can't be bothered with the stuff - if I am going to have bread I want it to have some substance, some whole grains, some various mixed grains even better, a few seeds or something mixed it is even better.

All in all I guess I am feeling pretty good about my time out of town, helped me refocus and get myself back on track.  And great choices since then!  More to come.