Still the ‘hangover,’ still tired. Not as bad as yesterday, but I had no energy on the bike this morning.
Food:
Meal 1: chicken soup, 3 pieces bacon
Meal 2: chicken soup, 1 small sweet potato with cinnamon
Meal 3: I forgot…that’s what happens when I don’t write it the same day. UGH.
Exercise:
AM: 30min Peloton ride. This was at a very easy pace, but just a nice spin. BUT, I got a high five from the instructor! Whooo hooo! This has never happened to me before.
I was tired and had a headache this afternoon. Felt lethargic, but it’s normal for the program.
Food:
Spicy Tuna Cakes with arugula x 2 meals.
Dinner: Spicy tuna cakes, arugula, a couple tiny potatoes (trying to see if that helped the headache. It did not.)
Exercise: walked 30min on the treadmill. I injured my foot this weekend so this was very uncomfortable.
Very uneventful day and I’m definitely feeling the ‘hangover’ part of this.
Wow, it’s been so long. I’m glad I’ve still paid the small fee to see have access to my site, because here I am. The years of catch-up are too much, so we’ll skip that for now.
Whole30 is doing an official “Whole30 At Home” during this COVID crisis and I need a big slap in the face reality check, so I’m doing it. And using this site as my food log, personal journal, and exercise log! I don’t care if no one reads it, it’s for me. I do better writing it all down and this works for me.
I may as well restart the 365 days of exercise again as well! I need more than 30 days to roll this big body to the right side of the tracks so a combo food/exercise is where I’m going again.
Some days will be done in IF (intermittent fasting) format, as I don’t alway like to eat a traditional breakfast, nor do I eat my dinner late. Thus, I just number my meals.
Day 1:
(1000) Meal 1: coconut milk chia seed ‘mix’ (pudding?) with berries. Not pictured, side of bacon that I burned, but ate anyway. No waste! Handful of grapes.
Meal 2: stir fry veggies (no pic)
Meal 3: chicken soup with tons of veggies, sparkling water (finished eating at 1745)
EXERCISE:
AM: 40 minutes on the Peloton bike. I did Robin’s 30min Hamilton ride and a cool down.
PM: 20 minutes on the Peloton. I felt this one. I didn’t eat enough yesterday and feel it today
Successful first day! Overall thoughts: I will need more filling food tomorrow. Maybe some tuna, big salad, sausage, etc. I didn’t eat enough today for not eating enough yesterday.
Half the time I feel like I should let this blog die. I mean, was it really alive? Maybe in 2013. Then I vacillate back to that it provides me with motivation & self-accountability. Plus, It can be nice to use it as a journal. So, today there is a post.
My friend Alex has been CRUSHING his runs and is super motivated. See, we joke that we “suck at this” when we run marathons together. He’s a great middle/back-of-the-pack, party buddy. He’s got an ambitious race schedule this year and I can’t be the only one sucking in the back anymore! I love that his motivation is getting me motivated! Not to the point of wanting to do 8mi weekday training runs, BUT, some stuff. And that stuff is usually a little ass-kicking in other ways.
The excitement of seeing my goal of 50 states getting close (hopefully next year!) is another motivator. Of course I don’t like “easy”, big road races. Some of the ones I’ve picked are difficult…*ahem* AZ and NV. Hard! (race reports coming soon)
Finally, Pikes Peak marathon registration is this weekend. The race that was the hardest race I’ve done besides the 100. Harder than 50mi, even the one in the blizzard. Far harder. I said last year that I wouldn’t do it again. No way. Too hard. Took me over a week to feel functional and recovered. (It would help if I had trained) Naturally, this means I’m planning on registering for the Double. Because once up the mountain isn’t enough. Lets do it twice. Half Saturday (all the way to the top), full Sunday (up and down). It’s going to kill me.
The only way it won’t kill me? The only way I can have a CHANCE finishing the full? Training. Hopefully this motivation sticks around. Hopefully it rubs off and I’ll want to keep logging my workouts here.
Crowded for a weekday afternoon!
Tuesday 3/8: Up the Incline, up a little ways past the Incline to where it connects to Barr trail, then down the trail. I usually just go straight down after I finish, but I want to keep doing more miles up (hitting Barr Camp at mile 6) as time permits.
First of many Barr Trail runs. Barr, you will be my friend!
See that dark figure? That was a guy in a wool coat, work slacks, and brand new trail shoes. I suspect that he is in town for work, picked up some shoes are REI, then went to the Incline–to say he did. Typical tourists. Oh, and no water. They never carry water.
3/9: Crossfit. Hour of snatches. Form work, then 20 min of set building, then 3 reps every 30 seconds of power snatch (60lbs). It felt like Tabata snatches and it got hard. I felt very uncoordinated and my form was very off. Oh well, I lifted weight and put it down for most of an hour.
3/10: I wanted to do the Incline again, but I was too busy.
AM: dog park walk, 40min.
mid-day: Tabata run: got my pace down to 7 and some upper 6’s at the end of the sets. And I didn’t feel like I was going to die. Progress!
Tabata Kettlebells: 36lbs. 12 swings per set.
Friday won’t be much of anything. We’re busy all day. This weekend though…I’ll need to find some other dirt to hit since I don’t go anywhere near the Pikes Peak/Incline trails on the weekend. Ciao!
Well, I procrastinated. I’ll condense each day to save the reader from boredom. To really write about my workouts (for myself), I need to not have more than 5 days in a post.
Jan 1!: EPSCAR (El Paso County Search & Rescue) 5k: “rain, snow, or 20 below.”
Huge fans of the search & rescue, saving people from Pikes Peak, the Incline and other areas of the county. And feel sorry for them when saving ill-prepared tourists from tackling our outdoor attractions.
I didn’t feel great about my pace, but then I looked at the elevation profile from my watch.
2: 30min walk at dog park. Kettlebell: 50 swings, v-ups, presses.
3 & 4: Forgot! Can’t recall, but I *know* I did workout. This is why I need to log…It’s really bothering me that I can’t remember.
Tuesday, Jan 5: CrossFit: 8 rounds: 100m row, 10 squats (w/35lb kb)
Jan 6th : 2mi walk-Garden of the Gods.
Same spot: 1 day difference! Wed walk, Thurs walk.
Jan 7th:1.5mi walk-GoG
Jan 8: Skiing. 3hr. (UGH. Terrible drive through a storm and was really tired. Good snow and no people though.)
9: Yoga: 1hr “active recovery”. It was not as yin as it usually is. Felt hard.
10: 30min walk, dog park. Kettlebell: 50 swings, 20 presses, v-ups, Russian twists.
11: Warmup: airdyne. Workout: Weightlifting (pushpress, front squat), prowler (40kg+heavyassprowler), 20lbs. slamballs.
Push press warmup. It’s hard to get lifting pics when there isn’t anyone to take one!
FOOD! I’m doing Whole30, and I’m not caught up enough to log each thing I eat per day. I’d like to get back to that, but not right now. The first couple days weren’t as hard as I thought, thankfully. Guess I’m used to doing these.
Some notes, new things, & recommendations:
I made my own ghee! It’s not perfect, but my first batch was pretty good. I thought I burned it, but when it cooled, it was a nice buttery color.
1. ghee, 2. furikake (delicious so far), 3. addicting mayo, 4. Grapefruit season!
NomNom Paleo’s spicy tuna cakes are really good-and really easy! I ate on them for 2 days.
Primal Kitchen (from Marks Daily Apple) chipotle lime mayo is better than I expected. I like it better than the regular mayo. (Found at Whole Foods)
1. Eggs w/veggies & tomatillo salsa, 2. spicy tuna cakes w/brussels, kale & spinach, 3. Big tuna salad, 4. carrot & short rib stew
I had seafood 4 days this week. I’ve been craving it lately.
I leave you with this!
Well. I don’t know where to start, it’s been so long.
2015: moved to CO. Bought a house less than a month later (originally unplanned). Did Pikes Peak marathon. Started school a couple weeks later. Fall semester KICKED MY ASS. Didn’t work out. Got fat (ok, how do I strike through here? Oh! Found it.) unhealthy.
Last January I blogged my 2015 “goals”. I didn’t even come close to 365 days of working out. I don’t even know when I quit that, but it was pretty early. Then:
Other goals:
knit at least 5 projects (making my way through my neglected project box)
read 10 books
3-5 new marathon states (Booked: South Dakota, the rest…up in the air)
Reality:
Knitting: 2 projects. I call that pretty decent considering I hadn’t knitted anything since Dec. 14.
Books: more than 17! I have 17 saved on my Goodreads acct, and I know I forgot to put in several. Between driving across the country (Texas) several times to/from CO, I listened to some great audio books as well.
Marathons: 3 (all new states). Whew, just under the wire here. I had planned on 2 more, but new house/K’s work travel cancelled those. I couldn’t leave in the middle of the move (that I mostly did on my own). That’s ok, life things that are more important than races and I’m totally fine with it.
Food/weight/fitness. I fit all the food in my mouth. Gained a bunch of weight. (UGH. Mad at myself but really trying hard to not beat myself up) I know how to fix it. The fall semester was horrible for these things as well. Workouts were very sporadic, until Dec break, I hadn’t been to a CF class since Oct/early Nov. NOT GOOD for my physical and mental being. I was not a happy person. That’s ok….again, other things were more important, but I really suffered.
I did get a 4.0. Whoo! Whew. That will really help later.
So, what else? 2016? This is a HUGE question mark. I’ve feel like I’ve been treading water/flailing for 2 years now. Since the end of 2013 (end of my first 365), I had “finished” losing weight, and finished the 100miler. I don’t do well without goals, purpose, or vision. Being unstable in where we were going to move, not having fitness goals…just doesn’t work for me. So, I guess the good news is I have something to work towards: getting healthy. Again. (Ugh. Why is this a pattern?)
Health/weight: 365 days of doing something active! 2 Whole30’s. ‘Easy’ to tackle with my routine. Just takes time. I hope I can do this no matter what. I’d love to do 4 again this year, but I don’t know if that is feasible, (more on that below) so, 2 is a reasonable expectation.
Running: not too sure. Depends on the year. If things don’t change, I’ll get a couple more states this year. Not sure which ones. If they do, I suspect I’ll actually get more running in.
Challenges: There are several big unknowns/events on the horizon that may or may not happen. If they do, it’ll be big changes. If they don’t, then things continue on mostly the same, which is good too. Routine is good for me and I know I can focus on getting my ass into shape, no matter what happens. This possible change would be huge, and amazing, but I’d really be denying myself if I didn’t enjoy the full experience. We’ll see.
Others:
House projects. We have a 3 page running list and have stalled on some things as they snowball. For example: “lets redo the floors!” Great. No problem. Well, now I hate the fireplace (with a PASSION) and it’s not staying. (Fireplace Dr. appt next week! One step.) So, can’t redo the floor before we do the fireplace. Need a new storage cabinet/island in the kitchen, but should get a new stove first…And on. And on. This will also be easier when I’m working again. So, maybe 1 big project and a couple smaller ones are a reasonable goal.
Reading: I exceeded my goal and don’t anticipate this falling to the wayside. Our library is EXCELLENT and it’s much easier now that it used to be. (LA libraries & education system are awful) So, no set reading goal.
Knitting: 2-3 projects. I feel this is more reasonable.
BLOGGING. I need to keep this blog up. 1 post per week, minimum. Should be reasonable as well. I do well holding myself accountable when I write it down, and it’s “out there” for the world. If my life changes happen, I suspect this will be far more frequent to keep it documented.
Side note: so many people are against resolutions. Sure, it sucks when you fail, but making a conscious effort to change, or work on something, usually leads to good things. “Losing weight” “eat healthy”, those things don’t usually get people anywhere. Specific goals, usually do.
What am I doing to keep up my goals?
1. this blog
2. getting strict with my food again. I know I”m not a moderation person, I shouldn’t try to be.
3. Fitness/goal journal. This is new, but I hope that seeing it on my table every day will keep me accountable. I can ignore the computer and this blog. Harder to ignore the physical book.
Update (post day): I wrote this 5 days ago and never hit ‘publish.’ Oops.
I doubt anyone read all of this, but if you did, I leave you with this.
Apparently, one can’t leave boxes, and boxes, of LaCroix and Pelligrino in the garage when living in Colorado. I pretty much blame my Yankee husband for this as he pointed out we have tons of shelving storage in there AND he should have known that they would have turned into frozen projectiles, as he is from the frozen tundra of Ohio and I am from the south (and have never lived somewhere this cold). Thankfully only the garage lights were broken, and not the windows in my car. Whooops. That was a terrible mess to clean up!
Nothing like trying to clean frozen, exploded, water.
Super sad face.
I still have a TON of life things to do (and I’m writing this instead of weed-eating or mowing or cleaning the chicken coop), but I made myself a priority this week. Unpacking and cleaning can wait a couple hours a day. Whew. So. Exhausted.
6/23: back to CrossFit! I hadn’t been in about a month. And what a month it was. I still did things. A lot of things. But they weren’t at the CF gym.
WOD:
(Can’t get the bold off. Stupid formatting. Whatever.)
THEN:
RUN: midday. Ran an errand. Literally. Ran 2mi to the shop, then walk/jog back. Lots of stop signs & several lights. Fun, but hot. I love functional runs.
4mi 40:14
Of course my Garmin died .2mi from my front door, thankfully I had started the stopwatch on my phone.
Out: 18:13
Back: 22:01
6/24: CrossFit
This one was tough. Don’t feel like writing too much about it
Every 6min, for 30min (5rds)
400m Run
12 OHS (45lbs)
12 Chest to bar pullups
12 box overs.
Pretty much scaled it all except the run and box jumps.
6/25: Attack Pack trail run!
4.85mi: 1:02, 6,xxxft-8,000ish ft. (asked a guy at the turnaround and he said “8”. Don’t know the start exactly)
I found this group on FB. They run 2 days a week, sometimes 3. I’m SO glad one of the members replied to a totally different post about hiking and 50k’s…and I saw it. So, it was my first run with this group and it was TOUGH. I’m definitely the slowest by far (and the biggest, but whatever). I can’t hang with their posted paces, but I emailed with the organizer and since I’m ok being last, he’s ok with me joining. My mentality is that I won’t get better if I don’t go and push myself. And they are officially a no-drop, friendly group, so we’re going to make it work. They’ve had members be the slowest and over time, they become strong enough that they run pack pace.
This run was an “up and down” up a mountain fire road. It used to be a dirt road people could drive on, but the floods last month washed a lot of it out. So now, it’s pedestrian only.
The run was officially 1-on-1-off, up up up the mountain. After a couple minutes I was down to 30-30, then, 30 and walk a lot of minutes. But, I kept going up. The Pack came back a couple times on their “1 off” to check on me, but I told them to keep going up. I wasn’t going to get lost on this road, doing an out-and-back. IT. KICKED. MY. BUTT. Fabulous.
After 40min it was time to go back down, and we bombed down the hill at a pace of 7:30’s-9min/mi. I was able to keep up then! At least I can run safely downhill. Small victories.
So, I am going back on Tuesday. I haven’t been so excited to be the worst at something in a long time. When they run trails (not this kind of out-and-back hill training), they wait at intersections for the stragglers (will be me), and the ones who don’t want to wait run back and run the last people in, adding mileage for themselves. I will feel really bad about that, but I need to get over it. That’s part of running in a group. Hopefully I’ll make some new friends too. Seems promising.
6/26: CrossFit
Backsquat sets, to 1RM!
85,115, 135×3, 145×2, 155, 160, 165, 170!
Terrible pic and not great form. BUT, it was a max on tired legs. I’ll take it.
Not sure if this is a max or tie my max (since my last gym didn’t save my data in Wodify…effers), but it’s the top so. Either way…I’m happy with this. Last high weight was 145 in May!
WOD:
21-15-9 front squat + toes to bar
I did: 15-15-9. My legs were fried from the backsquats and the hill work on Thurs.
6/27: rest day. Took the dogs for a long walk.
Since this post is boring and doesn’t have interesting pics, I leave you with this:
So, while I haven’t run more than 2ish miles since I moved here, I’ve got some long races coming up. I really should be in some sort of shape resembling “fit” and not “round and flabby”.
I’ve had to rework my plan for the summer/year since we’re buying this house that needs a lot of our money time to fix up. So, gone are my Montana 50mi and my Wyoming Memorial weekend marathon since they’re too far and have serious time conflicts with K. We just can’t afford to be that far away for that amount of time right now with what needs (or will need) to be done at the house & the logistics of his work travel. (trying to ignore how overwhelming that is)
BUT! Not to worry. I’ve decided to take a whole different direction!
*drumroll*
TRAINING RUNS!
Hold up. Wait.
WHAT?!
Who is this person?
I think I’m lacking oxygen. Not thinking straight. Clearly.
So. I’ve found a couple half marathons that I think will be excellent training runs for Pikes Peak. I’m not in any reasonable shape for Deadwood Marathon in 2 weeks, but that’s ok. I’ll finish and I’m just thinking of it as a training run.
I’m signed up for a trail half next weekend, then considering Leadville Heavy Half in June. Add that to the 10miler in June (and the marathon), the 12k in July, plus Barr Trail 12miler…I should be in some sort of presentable shape at Pikes Peak in August. Whew.
Let’s make this easier to follow:
5/30 Big Mountain half R
6/7 Deadwood Mickelson marathon R
6/14 Garden of the Gods 10miler (Pikes Triple Crown Series) R
6/20 Leadville half (?)
7/4 HuHot half
7/12 Summer Roundup 12k (Pikes TCS) R
8/15 Pikes Peak Marathon R
Whew. Well. That’s something of a plan. And I think K about had a heart attack when I said, “I’m considering these half marathons because I don’t think the marathons at the altitude and terrain is a smart idea right now. The half distance is more conducive to building mileage without killing myself.”
Monday, 5/18
CrossFit
“You can’t spell legendary without leg day.” -coach Loree
I felt rushed during the squats, so I don’t feel I did my best. I could have gone heavier. But, the 6th set of 6, definitely hurt. So, I guess I ‘saved’ the set in the end.
WOD:
My hands. Ooof. I went pretty conservative during the WOD. More of a slow-and-steady pace. I want to workout with more volume this week, so I’m dialing back the intensity. We’ll see how it goes.
Tuesday 5/19
CrossFit
My plan to not go 100% yesterday didn’t really help. Sore as he**! My abs! Oh, we didn’t do abs yesterday, you say? Right. Heavy squats, pullups, pushups, some gymnastic mobility…no, none of that uses abs.
Anyway, today’s WOD:
The KB bench press wasn’t too difficult, but I went a little lighter since I’m sore. I think tomorrow is going to HURT.
The WOD was strict technique work and SHOCKER…was hard. I didn’t think that a minute of work, with a minute rest, for several minutes would hurt so much. But, it did. Welcome to CF. Our score was based on how many total pullups we did.
Last Friday I took one of K’s friends & old co-worker from Lake Placid (she was here for work) to the Incline. She lives at 3,000ft, hikes often and is training for IMLP. Oh, and she’s 23. Ooof. She did just fine. Despite taking time to chat, talk to other climbers, and take pictures, I finished 5min faster than the last 2 times! Whoo! I’m still REALLY slow, but I can see progress. I was faster this time and didn’t feel like I pushed it harder. I will feel more comfortable pushing it like a harder run once I get to the Dr. and get a new inhaler Rx. Until then, it’s a good strength day and time on the trails!
After the Incline we went and rode the Terror-dactyl, a super-touristy ride. It’s a slingshot type thing over a canyon. It was awesome.
This isn’t us (obviously), but we didn’t want to pay for the GoPro video that’s just a face shot. Stupid. Anyway, the canyon was fun!
I don’t really have any exciting workouts to report, (well, I do, but this post is long enough without talking about workouts…) but I really wanted to talk about my new sleeping bag! I’m very excited about it. Last month REI did 20% off one item per member rewards and everyone got their yearly dividend. We decided to wait since we couldn’t decide what we needed, and one of the associates told us there would be a big anniversary sale in May. Which is now.
We stopped by the Denver store yesterday on the way to the airport. We didn’t have anything in mind to get, but we knew we’d find something. With the (hopefully) new house and moving, I have no idea how much we’ll get to backpack and camp this summer, so we’re not in need of much. *sadface* Before leaving I wanted to go drool over my dream sleeping bag. I couldn’t find the bag anywhere! I was a little bummed, but said, “Oh well, the Springs store still has it and I can order online when I want it.” We started to leave and…there it was! On a special display for the sale. Whoa. So it was marked down from $330 to $250. BUT…BUT….they didn’t have anymore like the two display models (600 & 800 fill, 2 & 3 season). They had ONE women’s version left of the 3-season I had picked out. Well, it was marked at $380 and not ringing up on sale (I think the sale was only the ’14 models). The awesome lady said, “Well, the men’s version can’t be on sale and not the women’s. That’s not acceptable. How about a price adjustment?” So, she adjusted it down, “close enough” she said, and then with my dividend reward, brought the price down to well under $200. So, who scored this almost $400 bag for under $200? Me! SO excited.
So. This bag. Here’s a video!
The back story is that I’m a BAD sleeper. I wake up and can’t go back to sleep. I can fall asleep quickly when I’m tired (like when backpacking), but only sleep for 4-5 hours. I just can’t get comfortable, noises, etc. I have particular bedtime routines at home and HAVE to be covered in bed. It can be hot, but there better be a fan because I need to be covered. Has to be dark! Anyway, enough with my odd personality quirks & sleeping issues.
(display model, not the one I got)
When I saw this review of the Backcountry Bed last year, I knew I HAD to have it. I can roll around and pull the ‘comforter’ up and over me? Pockets for my hands?! YES, PLEASE! The unfortunate thing was that it wasn’t available last June before we started our section hike of the AT and I had to settle for one of K’s old bags.
Oh! Food! Can’t blog without something about food. K wanted thai as his “last meal” before a long travel week. I made curry Saturday and he wanted more yesterday. So, I found a place on Yelp and it was a dive. I wasn’t expecting that, but the reviews were great. And it was. I don’t know what kind of noodles they put in my curry (probably rice or sweet potato), but the menu had extensive gluten-free options and my HUUUUGE bowl was delicious. He got pad thai and this pic really doesn’t give the scale of how huge this bowl was.
So, if you’re into the outdoors…get to the REI sale! Some great deals. A 3-season down sleeping bag for that price? Awesome. K got a couple things he needed as well. He’s still into cycling and some other road sports, but I have really moved on.
Days like this I keep repeating, “I really need to sell my bikes.” They are just sitting in a room. I think I’ve ridding one of them twice in 2 years. I’d much rather get my pack or trail shoes and go out for 6 hours than ride my tri bike for any amount of time. Anyone want a Litespeed titanium tri bike that has less than 1,000 miles? I tried to sell it to one of K’s friends who is doing her first Ironman and will probably continue with the sport, but she lives in Lake Placid and wants to stick with a road bike for now.
Guess it’s time for Craigslist and/or Ebay.
haleycomet365 