Ailments

I woke up this morning feeling stiff and sore and achy from a killer workout.  Thing is, I didn't do a killer workout.  In fact, I didn't even make it to the gym last night (thanks again condo).

The past two mornings, I've woken up in pain.  It's primarily my legs/feet, but also my back.  There's no sugarcoating this, it sucks.

Maybe it's stress, or maybe it is due to skipping the gym.  But regardless, it needs to end.

I will be back at the gym tonight.  Thankfully teaching a class means that I have to be there, so no condo details can derail me.  I'm really hoping a good workout can get me back to normal.

So obviously my gym schedule is already a fail, but I had said that that was possible.  I'm going to try to get to the gym tomorrow morning, so we'll see how that goes.

What is hard for me in the morning is waking up to just do my own thing.  Waking up for a class is much easier, but unfortunately the gym closest to work doesn't have many morning classes besides spin.  Hopefully when Crunch opens it will help me by offering some good morning classes.  Speaking of which, I need to call them (again) and find out when they're opening  (originally it was mid-February).

Anyway...

EATS...
I'm going through a weird food phase.  I'm disenchanted or turned off by cold cuts and just eh on other foods.  yesterday for breakfast I had oatmeal, which used to be my love, and didn't even finish it because it just didn't do it for me.  Cereal (sans milk) has had better luck but never keeps me full.  So today I opted for Cinnamon Life and then about 2 hours later, an apple.  So far so good.

Since tonight is spin, I'm limited in what I can eat.  I don't think I've ever gone in to detail about the oddity that is my stomach.  On days where I spin in the evening, I can't even think about eating something that has peppers (of any sort).  Thing is, if I eat them, and then spin (even hours later), I get stomach cramps that range from painful to unbearable.  Other foods have caused this as well, so lunch on a spin day needs to be pretty basic and something that I've eaten before and successfully spun after.

During one class I got pains so horrible I didn't know what to do.  They'll usually subside shortly after class, but this time they lasted the whole car ride home (45 minutes) and I actually thought that maybe I needed to take myself to the hospital.  Thankfully once I got home and laid flat, they passed.

I blame the bending over position.  Whether or not this is true, I don't know, but it seems to me that the hunching over that is required in cycling must mess with my digestion.

Apples are bad too, so the fact that I'm eating one now is a risk.  However I'm hoping that by eating it a good 7.5 hours before class I should be OK.  Fingers crossed.

Anything similar ever happen to you???  Foods you have to avoid for certain activities?

5K or bust

My 5K is exactly one month away.

What have I done to train?  Nothing.  But that is going to change.  I need to make this more or a priority.

Having never done any sort of race before, I'm pretty clueless about proper training.  I took a quick look online but all plans require at least 6 weeks and lump runners in to beginner or intermediate and I think I fall somewhere between the two (maybe).  I just haven't run in a while.

Knowing my abilities, I've attempted to put together my own plan.

Here it is:

Some comments:
I didn't want to schedule set days, so I'm just aiming for 3x a week on non-consecutive days.  I spin on Monday/Thursday/Saturday so I'm going to aim to run on Wednesday/Friday/Sunday, but this may vary based upon my schedule.
I may add an occasional 1 mile run in at times.
Intervals mean speed intervals.
I know a 5K is 3.2 miles, but the most I'm going to run is 3, I hope that's OK!

Sidenote:
I know that the general rule with running is to increase your distance by about 10% a week.  Unfortunately I don't have time for that.  I'm hoping that since these are relatively shorter distances and I have run them before, that I should be OK.

Any readers with running experience should feel free to comment since I essentially have no clue what i'm doing. :)

Is this my day?

Good morning!

I woke up this morning, took a shower, made some coffee, and got ready for work.  Right before leaving the house I filled up my travel mug with coffee, stirred it up and noticed grinds.  Ugh.  Took a closer look to try and fish the big ones out and noticed that it wasn't grinds, but rather, an ANT!  Ewwwww!

Coffee right down the drain.  I'm just glad I noticed prior to putting the cover on.  Yes, consuming an ant isn't going to kill me, but still.  Yuck.

Strike one.

Got to work, settled in, waited till after 9a to call the store where I bought my appliances and reschedule my delivery.  Called them up, gave my order number, only to be told that my delivery had never been scheduled.  So what was that phone call I saw my sales rep make? Fake?  Thanks a bunch Mark!  It actually worked out fine since I wanted to delay delivery, but it would have been nice to know I wasn't going to need to be available from 7a-7p on Saturday. 

Strike two.

I hope that this is not indicative of the rest of the day.  I've only got one strike left.  Haha.

Will post a more fit-related topic shortly.  Happy morning!!

Blog reading

Once a day (sometimes more), I skim my usual suspect blogs.  Most of them are listed down the right hand side of this page, although sometimes I find others.

Today, two of them made a mark.

The first one (shout out to Darcy), shared this endearing story from the New York Times. It's about spinning, but not totally, but either way, it made me smile.  And here's the cute graphic that goes along with it.

The second was from Fit Chick in the City where she talked about being accountable for your workouts by making them public.  She wrote on FB that she was going to do hot yoga, then didn't want to go, but did because she had told people she was.  I get that.

Unfortunately my workouts have been suffering due to all the condo stuff.  I'd like to think the end of that problem is near, but figured in the mean time maybe making these statements for my (two) readers would help. :)

My plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday:  Was hoping to go to boxing but now will be meeting with a contractor and plumber instead (if I can still manage to get to the gym, I will)
Wednesday:  Run, strength train
Thursday: Spin (teaching makes it non negotiable)
Friday: Run, or maybe Insanity, but only if I can manage to squeeze it in before work or my evening plans change
Saturday:  Spin
Sunday: something...tbd

OK, so now I just have to MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Just another manic monday....

I apologize if I have used this subject line before.  Please forgive my lack of creativity on a Monday morning in the winter spring.

How were your weekends??  Mine was good, chaotic, busy, stressful, and productive.  Nice combo, right?

So let's talk today about stress. I am super stressed.  So stressed that I feel a bit like I have a rain cloud hanging over my head and it's not even possible for me to be excited about anything.  It sucks, but I will continue to push through.

To blame is the condo renovation.  Having never done anything like this before, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Let's just say it's a huge undertaking involving lots of big decisions and money.  Lovely.

So yeah, I'm stressed.  Stress effects everyone in different ways.  In the past, stress has caused insomnia for me, has made me clumsy, emotional, and short tempered.  This time, I think it's taking itself out on my skin and my scalp.  Yes, you read right, my scalp.  Dandruff can be made worse by stress and let's just say that it seems to be rearing it's ugly head.  Apparently most people have some level of dandruff since it's really just the shedding of dead skin cells.  Sorry if this is TMI, but it's worth addressing.

According to LiveStrong.com
Stress can affect dandruff even though it does not cause the condition. People under stress often have an impaired immune system. Because of this, they may not be able to effectively fight pityrosporum ovale. This makes it harder to get rid of dandruff if you already have it.

Dandruff itself may even raise a person's stress level because it is an embarrassing condition. The flakes are often visible in the hair and on dark-colored clothing, making the problem readily apparent.

So yeah, I'm just lovely right now.  It's not that bad, I'm just hypersensitive (another lovely stress reaction).

How does your body react when under stress?

Don't say it if you don't mean it

Do you think I'm intimidating?  I don't, but maybe some people do.  It's really the only explanation I can come up with.

A certain instructor seems to make a habit of saying to me "Oh yeah, I'm going on vacation in (insert month) and will needs subs.  I'll definitely get in touch so you can cover."

That's cool.  I like to sub, especially when it's convenient.  Do I need to sub?  No.  Do I really care that much?  No.

But don't say it if you have zero intention of following up.

What I know about this instructor is that he's rarely on the bike, and instead walks around and harasses people a bit.  That's fine.  What I find interesting is that the one day I took his class, he was on the bike almost the entire time.  Maybe I'm just being an ego-maniac, but did you change your style because I was there?  I will admit that it can be a little nerve wracking to teach to another instructor, but if you're confident in your style, just own it.

So do you not ask me to sub because you're afraid people might actually like me, maybe even more than they like you?

Just a thought.

How far have I come?

I'm eating lunch at my desk (Panera Thai Chicken salad, holy spicy!) and figured I'd browse a bit on the Internet and stay (far) away from Facebook.

I was actually reading my own blog.  I went to the oldest possible entry (2009) and started from there.

I have to say I made numerous mentions of running a half marathon.  And here I am, almost two years later, and definitely haven't done it.  I think I felt the blog would hold me accountable but then no one read it, so it didn't matter.

So let's revise that goal and take baby steps and say that maybe I'll get there one day.

My sister has run quite a few half marathons.  Last year they were significant, I think my parents might have even gone to one or two.  This year, they don't get much thought.  She now runs them like I'd run a 5K.  She ran the NY Half this past weekend and pretty much just mentioned it in passing.  For her, things have changed.

For me, not so much.  Or rather, not so much on the running front.

But that's OK.  I have a 5K in front of me, then if that goes well I'll do another, or maybe even a 10K.  Baby steps.