Whitney for no Additional Charge

Today was a lazy day.  Caught up on all the errands and chores I didn't do throughout the week.  Laundry, groceries, drug store (to buy sunscreen on sale in huge amounts), etc.  In case you were curious I burn through 3-4 spray tubes of sunscreen for my legs and arms each week during my summer runs.  Ridiculous!  I am pretty sure there should be a fair skinned discount.  

However, I did get my run in.  Another 5 miler.  Really slow since it is about 90 degrees again today and I am not used to the heat, but once again felt way better than Friday.  I ran the other way down the trail this time.  It is much prettier that direction, but is completely empty, no stores and only 1 neighborhood, so if I want food I head the way I went yesterday where there are at least a dozen different options.

The very end of the trail is super rocky.  It's an exercise in not rolling an ankle, and since I have the grace of a large elephant on roller skates, my least favorite part.

FYI- I wear a size 11 shoe!  Just to put the huge rocks in perspective.

However, it is worth it because once you make it out the there the landscape really opens up and the marsh views are gorgeous.

Now that I have caught up on my Sunday night TV, I watch Once and Game of Thrones and other than that the only show I watch is Glee (yes I know their target audience is half my age) I have amazing taste in TV! HA, but how could you escape this awesomeness?  Seriously check it out and try to hold back the urge to sing along.

Hit Every Branch on the Way Down

Woke up at 8:00, then had 2.5 servings of jelly beans (left over from Easter) for breakfast.  I had intended to have just my little Greek yogurt with honey, but then somehow through all my best intentions the S*&t hit the fan.  Don't get me wrong, I'll work my bottom off to make up for it and I do count calories so I know exactly how much I screwed myself, but I can't help but feeling that if I could stop the sugar addiction I'd be so much healthier.

Urrrggggg…. Suggestions?  Seriously I could live off of this junk.  Love it.  Bane of my healthy eating. 

 

So then I had a sugar coma induced nap from 9:30-10:30, yes I know I was up for less than 2 hours, don't judge, it was a rock star nap.  However, it then meant that my run was pushed back to 11:00 and it was almost 90 degrees in Charleston.  Guess you get what you deserve, maybe that was sugar karma kicking me in the butt.  In addition to that it was super sunny.

Hmmm, how do I explain my skin tone to you.  One of my students wanted to know if I was a vampire like the people in Twilight.  Another once asked if I was goth because, "They always paint themselves white."  Teach 7-11 year olds, they don't play, kids lay in out like it is.  Basically my grandpa was half Norwegian and all three of his daughters missed it, they ended up dark haired, normal skin toned girls.  I one the other handed plummet out of the Norwegian tree hitting every pale skinned, pasty colored, easily sun burnt branch on the way down.  Luckily C did a Komen run and they were giving my favorite sunscreen out.  Love the high SPF, the fact that it doesn't feel too greasy, or cause me to break out, and it seems to stay on pretty well.  Well C was blessed with the gorgeous type of skin that turns beautiful deliciously bronzed (I swear I would hate her if she wasn't so darn nice) so when they gave out bottles to the finishers she gifted it to me right away.  Woohoo free sunscreen!

So after I was all sun screened up and on my way out into the heat I actually had a pretty decent run.  It was my first 5 miler since my injury break and I survived.  It was slow, but my legs weren't killing me as much as last week.  Maybe they are remembering that we have done this before.  Fingers crossed (and toes).  Ran down the greenway which is a pretty decent little trail.  It is about 9 miles long and runs parallel to one of the main roads, but about a fourth mile back so you can't hear all the traffic.

Jogged down to the end and then just a short bit back to Normandy Farms.  Had never been there before, but bribed myself with trying new food.  Hey, it works for me.  Plus in the grand scheme of things I ran 5 miles and then walked 4.75 just to get my lunch.  I think I earned it.  I am sure I consumed about as many calories as I burnt, but I love food and refuse to give it up, so I compromise- Instead of driving there I hoofed it almost 10 miles round trip.

My sandwich was nothing special - tomato, mozzarella, basil, but it was on this delicious crusty bread that most places just don't do quite right.  It was amazing there.

 Also, saw the fruit staring at me in the case.  Yes, food looks at me, sometimes it calls to me too, better you just accept that now.   Wanted to see what the little green flecks on it were so I tried it.  Tasted like little bits of mint, differently delicious.  

Overall it was a great workout/lunch.  

Friend with Benefits

Last night my workout was a good one.  Slow and steady and wonderful and painful all at the same time, but great when I realized I'd finished and that was one more run in the books.  So you ask (or maybe you don't, but you're about to find out anyway) why was it so great if I'm still so far below my goal… because I am making progress. 

I have two amazing friends that live in the area and are my exercise buddies.  One is my marathon training partner and the other is the one I can call up for little healthy activities: a jog, bike ride, dog walk, etc.  Well one of the hardest parts about starting over is that I have been running so slowly and such short distances I felt bad making them go for dinky little runs with me.  However, I am now up to 4, very slow, miles and so it was time to call in some support.  We scheduled a trail run ending at a delicious soup place we all had Groupons (Aren't those like the most amazing invention ever?) for.  Oh, and by the way my computer keeps trying to change Groupon to groping, does my spell check have a fondling fetish I don't know about?

It was hard to motivate myself to go.  I really just wanted to take a nap.  However, I knew someone was counting on me to be there.  That's reason number 1 exercise buddies are the best- It's easier to ditch yourself, you're a jerk if you ditch a friend.  Keeps you motivated and your scheduled workouts on schedule.  I highly suggest trying to find anyone who might be interested in getting active with you.  It makes you so much more likely to make it out the door which can many times be the hardest part of a workout.

My other reason I love my workout buddies - talk time!  Yes, music is great and I do run with it quite frequently.  However, I noticed I was getting so used to running with music that it didn't really give me that extra push anymore.  So I started running with friends.  I found that talking to them makes the time fly.  I can spend way longer than one should planning a viewing party for the season premiere of True Blood and next thing you know the run is over.  FYI - I am making fresh sangria because it is kind of blood colored right, T thinks we need some type of red meat to be all vampy themed, and C was way more excited than a grown woman should be about scary teeth she has (love those girls & Alcide, but he wasn't on the run, STUD!).

I am very lucky to have such wonderful workout supports.  Now I just hope I can force them to run with me ALL THE TIME so that I have no excuse to slack off.  I am blessed to have such great exercise buddies, but they might regret the day they ever started running with me when I have them on speed dial (I do FYI) and start calling them 6 days a week.  Okay I probably won't be that bad because I think that qualifies as stalking, but a support system is fabulous.  If you can't find friends to workout with try to find some way to connect with people, for instance an online blog;)   

Story of My Life

Need a little less column A:

and a LOT more column B:

Here Goes Nothing

Hmmm… where to begin.  So what is square zero you ask?  It's like square one, but suckier. It's not like I am back at the beginning, it's like I have regressed so much past that.  Don't get me wrong I've made healthy decisions before.  Heck, I even ran my first marathon, Disney, in January.

But then it all hit the fan.  Even when not marathon training I'd always kept a fair level of exercise around usually in the form of 4-6 mile runs many days after work.  I wasn't always in marathon shape (however, let me point out that my marathon shape is always much shapelier than some of those stick like runners), but I always had a good foundation.  Then it struck.  INJURY!  At first I tried to fight through it and then I realized that I'd just end up jacking myself up more for the future so I did the unthinkable, I rested for 2 and a half months!   

So now I am back at it.  Slowly starting to run again and it is rough.  It's like I am a brand new runner.  I haven't felt this way in years.  It is ugly.  My legs are yelling at me, they feel like lead, it is miserable and that is only mile #1.  Dear legs,  How in the h$&L do you not remember we just did this a few months ago.  Get it together!  And while that sucks and is painful and slow, on the other hand I am trying to be thankful that I can come back, that I can try to run again.   

I am not giving up.  Square zero is a tale of a girl who could have just happily sat on the couch and continued to watch Criminal Minds reruns (Shemar Moore, insert drool here) as she had for the past 2.5 months, but who instead decided to use this to make a change.  I am going to build myself back up, I will run a marathon again, and in the process maybe I should learn some other healthy lifestyle tips.  Like the fact that normal people can't eat an entire jar of peanut butter in one setting (weaklings) and that adding milk to Funfetti cake mix and eating it by the bowlful is amazing, unhealthy, delicious, worrisome.  Apparently when you stop working out for months your diet shouldn't be the same as when you were marathon training.  Whoops.  Not my fault, I am pretty sure my mother fed my sugar in the womb because I am sure my love of sugar qualifies as a long term relationship.  Hello my name is Abby and I am a Sweets Addict.  Cupcakes, yummm.  

So here it is - I am a 30 year old with a full time job trying to find time to squeeze it in and get it back together.  Along the way (read over 2 months playing in front of a computer on doctor ordered "rest") I discovered some fitness/running blogs that motivated and amused me & cooked about a million Pinterest recipes, mostly all desserts.  So I decided if I can motivate or amuse anyone along my journey to get back on track and make healthier decisions then why not.  Here goes nothing from square zero to….