I woke up at
5:07am this morning. My alarm went off
at 6. Brilliant. So that’s how we’re gonna start this day,
huh? Alright. So, I stayed in bed until the alarm went off,
in case you were wondering. I got up,
started my coffee and then started getting my stuff ready for going to the
county gun range and training facilities.
I know where my gun is…on my desk.
I know where my duty belt is…the bathroom. But where oh where is my gun box with my 2
extra magazines? I looked
everywhere. Then I looked everywhere
again. Then I looked somewhere that I just
KNEW it couldn’t be. Guess what. Yep, that’s exactly where it was. Geez. About
gave myself a heart attack. I looked for
about 15 minutes. Glad I got up a little
early. So, after I finally found my gun
box and magazines, it was time to get my oatmeal ready and eat it. So I did.
I get to
training by the start time, 8am. A little
early, like I like to do, in fact. It’s
all classroom today. Great! Except the chairs SUCK!!! My legs were a little restless and my lower
back kept cramping all because I couldn’t get comfortable in the chair. Ugh. For
lunch, I was thinking I would go to Subway and get a turkey breast on 9 grain
honey oat, meat and veggies only, no mayo or sauce of any kind…the way I like
it, actually (yea, surprised me too when I did it on accident one time…totally
forgot to have the guy do one swipe of light mayo and found out I like it
better without). I had originally
planned to take my lunch, but I didn’t have any bell peppers because I forgot
to go to Sam’s Club yesterday to get some.
And I didn’t want to take yogurt AND cottage cheese for lunch. I ended up going to a place called Cabo Bob’s
with some of the other ladies in the class.
Cabo Bob’s is the same kind of place as Chipotle. I think I prefer Chipotle. But, it wasn’t bad and was fairly healthy
(except for that large dollop of sour cream I had them put on it…teehee). Oh, I got the bowl and not a burrito…I make a
huge mess when I try to eat all that stuff in a tortilla…and it saves me the
processed carbs!
We get out
of class around 4:30pm. I get home and
chill for a bit. I remember I need to go
and pull out the last little bit of money that’s on a prepaid debit card I use
to pay certain bills because that company will be closed as of midnight and if I
didn’t withdraw the money today, then I’d have to wait probably something
ridiculous like 6 weeks to get my check for a whopping $14.05 in the mail. Then I returned a tub of powdered Gatorade I bought
the other day and decided I didn’t want because I don’t really like the flavor
that much. I like the fruit punch flavor
better right now. Then, I went back
home, changed into my gym clothes and got all my water bottles and running gear
ready to go and headed back out. I stopped
at Sam’s Club first for those coveted bell peppers, then made my way to the
gym. I got there about 15 minutes early
for my consultation with Paige. I went
in and used the restroom and then read some emails on my phone until it was time
to meet with her in the trainer area.
First off,
she’s very nice and personable. She didn’t
seem all “I know everything” to me. She seemed
like a good friend that just happened to know more about fitness than I do. She always made sure I knew what she meant
and made sure to explain anything I wasn’t completely sure about what she
meant. She asked me a LOT of questions
to get a good picture about what I wanted to achieve and about my background in
my personal fitness journey. After all
the questions, she took me over to take my weight, measurements and body fat
%. I was dead-on about how much the
scale would say I weighed. When I weighed
yesterday, I weighed in first thing in the morning right after using the
restroom and without clothes on and I weighed 174.4. I figured it would say around 180 because it’s
later in the day and I’m completely clothed.
I was dead on. It said
180.something. When we got to the body
fat %, she asked me what I thought it was and I said that my scale that
measures my body fat % if I stand on it without socks said I had about
22%. She told me that she doesn’t like
those kinds of scales because they lie to you.
So, I figured I was probably around 28%.
She used a caliper and some math to do my body fat % calculations. Let me tell you I was horrified at the
result. 36.2%!!! OMG!!!
Now, while I was horrified, I must say that, really, deep down, I’m not
surprised at all. When someone like
Michelle (from diaryofanaspiringloser.blogspot.com) weighs 140-ish and says she’s
at 25%, I kind of knew that my scale wasn’t being completely honest with
me. The “good” news is that it wasn’t as
high as she thought it would be. Because
I’m a long distance runner, she was really expecting AT LEAST 40%.
Alright,
moving on. She had me get on the
treadmill (EEEK!) so she could see how I run.
At one point she asked if I could see my feet as I ran and I said I could. After a half mile, she had me stop and we
went over to do some baseball rolling. It’s
like foam rolling, only more specific. I
have a lacrosse ball at home, so I would use that instead if I’m doing this at
home. She had me place it under my calf
(as I sit on the floor with legs extended in front of me) and rolling my leg
from side to side looking for tender spots.
When I found one, I was to push down on the ball and hold it for 60
seconds. I only found 2 “sort of” tender
spots.
Next, she
went over my gait with me. She said that
I’m a quad-heavy runner. Runners get the
most out of their gait if they use their hamstrings more than their quads. I know this from all the reading I’ve done,
but apparently have not been applying it.
Really, I didn’t realize this was a problem I have. But, it explains the tight left hamstring
problem I’ve been having. She showed me
a box jump exercise I can do to help strengthen my hammies. It’s hard, but I like it. Then she explained how I should be running…hamstring-heavy
running, that is. The way I can explain
it here is the way I picture myself in my head as I’m doing it to keep myself
focused on my gait and trying to keep it proper. You know those slow-mo scenes in movies where
someone is running across a field? Think
of that, with taking long graceful strides.
So, she had me get back on the treadmill to try it out. The first time, I could hear my footfalls…they
were heavy. This time, I could barely
hear my footfalls. I like it! I like it!
To close out
the consultation, she said that since I don’t have the money right now to
purchase a training package, that she would put a little something together for
me with workouts and leave it for me at the front desk for me to pick up when I
come in on Thursday. Awesome! Oh, one thing I did NOT like was that she
suggested dialing down my mileage…a LOT.
Yea, that won’t be happening. Speaking
of, I FINALLY did up my run schedule for October today during one of our breaks
at training. I’m running less than I ran
this month, but I’m not cutting my mileage as much as she wants me to. Just not going to happen. She only wants me to run for 30 minutes
during the week with only 1 run longer than that. No way.
I’d go insane. Anyway, here’s my October
run schedule:
10/1
– 6
10/3
– 2 BTG
10/4
– 4.5
10/6
– 9
10/7
– 2 BTG
10/8
– 8
10/9
– 2 BTG
10/11
– 7
10/14
– 12
10/15
– 3 BTG
10/16
– 7.5
10/17
– 3 BTG
10/18
– 6
10/21
– 13
10/22
– 2 BTG
10/23
– 7
10/24
– 2 BTG
10/25
– 5
10/27
– 14
10/28
– 2 BTG
10/29
– 9
10/30
– 2 BTG
Total:
128
After the
consultation was over, I went out to my car and geared myself up for my run and
set out for 2 miles outside. I went with
my new stride to strive for (teehee) in the front of my mind. I didn’t hit it 100% of the time. Heck, I’d be lucky if I hit it 75% of the
time. But I did indeed notice a
difference. First off, I *felt* faster
and a glance at my Garmin proved it. At about
¼ mile in, I was cruising along at about 8:45.
WOW! It felt like 9:15-ish to
me. At the first mile mark, I closed out
at 9:21. Wow! (again)
That’s my fastest complete mile in probably well over 6 months. My second mile was 9:36. Overall average of 9:29. That’s upwards of 20 seconds faster per mile
that I’ve been running my tempo runs on the overall average pace. I’m excited to try it for a longer distance
tomorrow with 6 miles. Since it’s new to
me, I have to keep focusing and refocusing on it so that I continue to keep
that stride. But during tonight’s run, I
definitely noticed when I slipped out of it.
My total
mileage for the month of September?
148.75!!! Oh. My.
God. That’s just fabulous!
