Ouch!

This hurts, no not making another vlog (although considering how awesome my voice sounds on video you all might be saying Ouch! soon too), my back is killing me and it is ruining my weekly workouts.  Help!

Bam, that's my face, wowza!

Probably should have watched the video before I uploaded it, whoops!  However, I guess that makes it more authentic.  Do I look like I'm in pain or what?  Side note: If I could learn to talk without using my hands I'd probably move around less and be in less pain.

So anyways.... Any tips?  Tricks?  What should me next step be?  

Basically this is making my angry - I want to go run.  Now!  Urrrgggggg....  

I'm Famous, Where's the Rich

Today was one of those crazy, busy, hilarious wonderful days. 

I woke up and could barely get myself out of bed (snooze button Queen) after such a busy day yesterday.  Then I puttered around the house playing on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter while eating breakfast. 

After that I was off for a run.  Wow!  Everything just clicked.  This was one of those runs that makes you remember why you became a runner in the first place.  I kept pushing it, a bit faster, than a little more, and my body happily agreed.   By far the best run I have had in almost 5 months since my injury.  What a ridiculously amazing feeling.  People riding, walking, and running on the trail might have actually been crazy/stupid enough to mistakenly think I am fast.  I was am on such a runner's high.

The whole time I ran I couldn't stop thinking about how much I love running and even imagining all the races I'd do if I wasn't a poor teacher, with crazy grad school loans, who is only given three personal days a year.  Really… It is almost dangerous for me to have great runs because the whole time I am running my brain is spending thousands of dollars I don't have to go have more great run in other places.    

FYI My Imaginary Run List Compliled During Today's Run:
*If I were rich not poor this would be my fall/winter race schedule.  See why having good runs can give me bad ideas. 

10/06/2012 - Isle of Palms Connector Run 10K = Actually Registered
10/28/2012 - Marine Corp Marathon =  Actually Registered

11/03/2012 - Savannah RnR Half Marathon - Nearby would be fun (Maybe possible)

11/18/2012 - Big Sur Marathon - Right next to my Oma's house & right before here 90th birthday (totally cannot afford)
12/08/2012 = Kiawah Island Half Marathon - Hope to do this if it doesn't conflict with our big rugby tourney (Maybe possible)

01/12&13/2013 = Go Goofy at Disney - Half & Full Back to Back - How cool would it be to go back to the sight of my first marathon where I look at all those Goody runners with such admiration and do it myself? (totally cannot afford)
01/19/2013 = Charleston Half Marathon - So close, hope the dates on this one work out so I can do it again (Maybe possible)
02/24/2013 = New Orleans RnR Marathon - this will get done in 2013 for sure, but I'd would love to do it before then (totally cannot afford)
04/06/2013 = Cooper River Bridge Run 10K = Actually Registered

Big Sur

How much cooler would my runs be if I had money?  Amazing right?  I would love to have the above schedule.  Great runs are both a blessing and a curse because they get me thinking about things like this.  Time to find a corporate sponsor.  Think any running/fitness companies want to sponsor a perfectly average speed runner?  Maybe I'll find a sugar daddy.  Hey Mr. Hefner.  I am a 5'10, blue eyed, blonde.  Sorry though Hugh, I refuse to take off my clothes in magazines and there is no way I am kissing a dud older than my grandparents, but can I still get a couple grand?  Thanks.

Then after that running high I can home to find out I'm famous (minus the rich part).  Well… almost famous.  I had a new Twitter follower with a weird name Jogging in Jeans.  Who the hell jogs in jeans?  How stupid and uncomfortable.  Those people must be idiots.  Out of curiosity I clicked on their blog.  HA!  Are you kidding me… I was the front page story.  Too funny.  I guess crazy, ridiculous people like me run in jeans.  Enough that there is a whole blog about it and she gave me a pretty glowing shout out.  Does this mean I have a  fan?  I knew there was 1 somewhere out there.  How funny to randomly stumble upon a whole piece about myself on another website.  This must be what the Kardashians feel like.  Fame can be tricky.   

Then it was off to a joint fundraising event for my rugby team and the SPCA, home to cook delicious food (more great recipes to come this week), and True Blood time (not enough Alcide - Boo).  

Runner's World Summer Run Streak -

Day 21 = 8 miles (wanted to do more, but had to leave for the fundraiser)

Total Miles Run = 82

If Only

 My Day Today:

Stealing leftover teacher appreciation fruit as a snack.  I was starving and happy to find a healthy alternative.
Even if I didn't do as well tonight.

Hopefully this is true because if you have seen my paycheck you know the government doesn't appreciate me at all.

The Day I Want:

My parents are in Indy for my nephews 1st birthday tomorrow.

My father is fabulous and keeps sending me pictures from his cell phone.

So jealous.
Health isn't just about exercise, eating right, and getting enough rest - it's also about your happiness and this little guy makes his Aunt Abby so very happy.

If I'm fantasizing anyway...:

Enough money to get myself (and T) to NOLA for the marathon.

Alcide to jump out of my TV (a girl can dream right?)

You ran what?

I have a little oval sticker on my car that says RUN 26.2.  It is to remind me of what I work for and how far I have come.  Today a sweet older man at work saw me get into my car, saw the sticker, pointed, and said, "Really.  YOU ran that.  Why?"

He must be in the same fan club as my father.  When I told my dad about registering for my first marathon his instant response was, "Why would you run 26 miles?  That is why they invented cars."  However, I was okay with my father thinking I was crazy because I was proud.  I felt strong, athletic, and pretty darn excited about my new fitness goals, more excited than I had been about anything in a long time.  I was going to be a marathoner, whether people thought I was crazy or not, and that made me pretty doggone happy!

I do understand why people ask with that oh, dear heavens Abby has gone crazy tone in their voice though.  If you are not a runner it seems like a ridiculous distance, sometimes (many times) it still seems like a nutso distance to me and I already signed up for a second 26.2.  Plus, I will admit, I don't always look like what lots of people picture a marathon runner to be in their head.  However, I love that.  I love that at the race there were people of all shapes, sizes, age groups, experience levels, etc.  Because in the end, it doesn't matter how you do it as long as you do.   

So to the man who asked me by my car... Why?

TO PROVE I COULD :)

Rest Days - A 4 Letter Word!

One of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around when I first upped my mileage shorts that didn't fall off my nonexistent butt, waking up super early before it got too hot to run double digits, stretching, hydrating, realizing I could no longer subside on sugar alone was the concept of the REST DAY…. dun dun dun (that is supposed to sound like foreboding old music in case you didn't catch on to my wittiness via the written word, I am making the sound effects out loud as I type it and trust me they are awesome in person, but just don't translate to paper/blog well).

I know, rest day, really Abby, that is what you had a problem with?  Are you crazy?  You just rest.  How hard it that?  Grab a book, rent a movie, find your couch and enjoy it.  Stop complaining crazy!  But it was hard… Really hard.  You get going on your training and you want to work out every single day.  You feel like you are doing awesome and worry that by skipping a workout you are cheating yourself, cheating your fitness, etc.  I don't know how many weeks there have been where I had to force myself to rest.  I actually have an internal dialogue (okay, maybe it is out loud sometimes, but not quite bat crap crazy level of talking to myself, yet) going on with one side saying, "you feel good, burn some calories, get in some extra miles, you'll be glad you did" and the other saying, "you've worked out 6 days in a row, you need to rest, let your body relax and repair."  This is even tougher for me now that I am trying to lose weight because every day off is a chance to burn calories, turn fat into muscle, get back into shape, etc. missed; whereas, before when I was maintaining it was still horrid, but better. 

However, I must say even though I hate rest days and suck at doing them.  They are a necessary evil for me.  I know that if I keep going without ever taking rest days it will add up and take its toll on me.  So the solution - Schedule Rest Days just as you would any other exercise/run.  I knew today was scheduled as my rest day so I pushed it with two longer runs (8 miles Sat. & another 8 Sun.) this weekend.  Now here I am relaxing at home after a long day at work and I really want to run, especially after I caved to a few of those cookies (I was in a traffic jam, they were in the passenger seat, the called to me, I answered, don't judge) and want to work them off, but I am restraining.  I am resting.  This is me resting.  See how well I am doing.  Are you impressed yet?  As much as it pains me I'm going to take it easy, because while I know my mind may be yelling at me today (go go go), my legs will thank me in the long run.  So rest up legs, you're back on duty tomorrow and I have already scheduled 2 workouts:)    

That's right Ryan (Do you like how we are on a first name basis?) I'm busy kicking some mentally strong a** today.  

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;)   

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….