12/28/13

Well, yesterday I got in my FOURTH workout this week.  Yes, you read that right.  I managed to make four whole workouts happen…for the first time in over a month, I believe.  I am extremely happy and proud of this accomplishment.  And I feel really good.  Even though my eating wasn’t close to stellar, I didn’t really super overeat except for on Christmas eve when my regular shift had their Christmas spread…and a little bit on Christmas day, but not as badly as the day before.  The rest of the week, even though here and there was cupcakes and cookies, it really wasn’t all that bad.  I ate mostly “on diet” for the day after Christmas and on this week, so that’s a bit of success there too.

Yesterday, I ran 3 miles.  It’s official…I’m slower than I used to be.  But, you know what?  That’s okay.  I’m running again and that’s what matters.  Also, I’ll get that little bit of “speed” (remember, I said that fast is a relative term when applied to my running pace) that I lost back eventually.  Something I need to do, since my half at the Austin Marathon is only 7 weeks away, is buy another marathon/half marathon training book.  Most half marathon training programs are 8 weeks…perfect!  I’ll just start on week 2…haha.  But, I figure following an actual training plan will do me good as far as making sure I’m ready for the half in February.

Something I’ve noticed on my runs this week is that I don’t really need water for a 3 mile run.  It’s really nice to have at the end of the run…but I don’t really need it during the run.  So, when I was running before and was drinking all that Gatorade…even for a 3 mile run…I think I was overdoing it.  I didn’t need all that.  And, when I ran RNR last month, I took 1 water bottle with me…my handheld…and no fuelbelt with extra water/Gatorade.  I knew there would be water and Gatorade stops along the way, so I knew I didn’t need to carry all the extras with me.  It worked out perfectly.  I finished up the last of the water in my handheld about a mile before the end.  And then they were handing out bottled water and bottled Gatorade immediately following the finish line.  And there were bagels and other yummy things too.  I was able to fully hydrate and such right after completing the race.

So, I’m hoping that the 5K I did last year in March is happening again this year.  Even though it’s a double loop of the same route, it was still a good run.  And it was for a good cause.  And I got to run with a lot of people I know from the Sheriff’s Office, so that made it more fun.  Plus, it’d be a good filler race between the half in February and the 10-mile Austin 10/20 in April.  I still need to get dates for the Capital 10K and Bun Run that should both happen in May.  I think the Capital 10K is the first Sunday and Bun Run the last Sunday.  But, the last Sunday in this May is Memorial Day weekend, so maybe not.  I kind of hope it’s not that weekend because I have another friend that will run the Bun Run with Mark and myself if it’s not that weekend.  Fingers crossed!

Back to yesterday’s run.  My phone did yet another thing to make me hate it more.  I was about a half mile into my run and my music stopped.  At first I was thinking that the song I was listening to had a long moment of dead air at the end, but then I didn’t think the song had been at the end of itself.  So, I pulled my phone out of my running belt to see if somehow it got paused.  Nothing.  Somehow the phone had turned itself OFF.  Seriously?  So then I spent the next 4 minutes or so getting the phone to turn back on…while running.  My shoulders cramped up later in the run as a result.  I finally got it turned back on and got my music going again.  But, this little issue just cemented the fact that I’m going to get a new phone.  And I’m not going to wait until mid-month to do it, anymore.  I’m going on Monday to get it.  I’ll have to order a new car mount too.  But that’s okay.  I’ll have them flash all my pictures to the new phone, so I won’t lose them.  Then, I’ll just spend a few hours redownloading all my apps onto the new phone.  I’m really hoping I can get the new phone to take screenshots since I have never been able to get this one to do it. 

I’m hoping to be able to afford the TV console I want when I get paid next week.  I need to wait until after I pay bills before I attempt to buy it.  Then, with the mid-month check, I’m hoping to buy that digital camera I want.  Then, after that, straight up saving for my Oregon trip in June.  I know, I had said I was going to go in May, but I have those 2 races that I’ll be doing in May, and I don’t want them to get in the way of my Oregon trip, so what’s an extra month?  It’ll give me another month to save up some more money before heading out. 

Not tomorrow, but the following Sunday, I’m going to be starting the Shred Diet over from the start.  I’m also going to make a point to do fresh fruit/veggie smoothies instead of doing the frozen fruit and yogurt smoothies like I’ve been doing.  I’m going to go back to the Reboot Your Life (www.jointhereboot.com) website and copy-paste their smoothie recipes.  I really liked those.  I’ll probably stick with the Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness pre-bottled veggie smoothie for when the Shred Diet daily food plan calls for a veggie smoothie. 

I’m looking forward to hitting the restart button and doing my best to “do everything right” again.