I dunno what the fudge was goin’ on but my right knee was pissed off! I finished the mission but I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t have extra walk breaks this time.
Overall, the rest of my body felt completely fine. My back doesn’t hurt, my muscles aren’t cramping, it’s just that damn knee.
Also, I skipped the sweaty selfie because I jumped right in the shower to get into writing mode and no food because I pretty much ate the same thing I usually eat; salad, meat, cheese, etc… Kinda boring but a reliable go to for my meals.
Tomorrow’s run will be shorter to spare my knees (unless they feel better). I will have to mine the cupboards to see what I can make that’s more interesting than just a salad.
I tried three times and for some reason, the app kept reloading the Canada mission… Ah well. I like that one. It has crazy Margaret Atwood in it.
I am liking the idea of posting to the blog every time I do a run. I honestly feel like I NEED to make sure I run because I don’t want to skip too many days of posting.
Saturday I took a rest day… Well, less of a rest day and more of a took-my-car-in-and-was-stuck-doing-that-all-day… Day. And it cost me $900!
Thanks, fucking asshole potholes in all the damn streets!
Anyways, as the title states, this is the run that put me over my 10 mile a week goal. I use Google Fit’s measurements; which go from Monday to Sunday rather than Sunday to Saturday. Oddly enough, my knee started randomly bothering me. I just took it easy and finished the run very carefully.
I can tell my speed is increasing since it’s taking me less and less time to get to 2 miles. However, I still feel dead on my feet around 2.5 miles; making getting to 3.11 or 6 miles feel as if they might as well be a million miles. I know the adage is “your race, your time” but I don’t want to take so long to run 3 miles and I would like to spend less time walking.
I can tell my endurance is better from a couple weeks ago. I just need to be patient.
As for my food today? No pics. I had Wendy’s. Today was a #fuckthediet day.
Yesterday I woke up feeling like absolute crap. I got the kid to school and went back to bed for a nap before I went to work. Today, I made it up.
I may have been slower today but I was able to stay at 3.4 miles per hour and stay there for 10 minutes without feeling like I was going to die. All that training is paying off and I LOVE it.
I also have to report that I may have gained a couple pounds (somehow I crept up to 221!?!?) but I am back down to 217.8. I am losing about 2 pounds a week which is exactly what I wanted! My fancy scale also shows my muscle going up!
No pics of that because I was tired and fuck it. Maybe next time.
As for my food today, I went for a bagel for my late breakfast but I cooked dinner:
I really should write shit down when I cook it but I am a true kitchen witch; I add shit to the pot and smell and taste as I go without measuring.
This is basically sliced some garlic and ginger and threw it in a pot with some butter. I let those cook and before they could get brown, I added the sliced chicken. While that cooked over a low flame, I sliced up half of an onion and threw that in there. That cooked while I sliced up the bok choy. When the chicken was mostly cooked, I poured in some mirin and soy sauce, stirred it up, then poured in about 4 cups of chicken broth. Simmered for 5 minutes, added udon noodles. Let them cook for 10 minutes, then added the white parts of the bok choy. 2 minutes later I added the green parts, put it all in bowls, and sprinkled some red pepper flakes on top.
This is truly the essence of “I made this shit up” cooking.
Every so often I think I should video myself cooking and have someone who is an actual professional reason out what the hell I did but then I would have to be on video and hear the worst dregs of any YouTube comments section so… No.
That may account for only two meals today but if I am presented with a chance to sleep in, I will do it. I don’t care if I miss a meal. One of these days, I’ll post a timeline of how a typical day of mine is like for a day so you guys can see how I would nab any sleep I can.
I am pleased with today! I haven’t knuckled down to write yet but I always write better on days I workout. I’ll get to that later.
As with any journey through fitness, most of the changes you see won’t be immediate or particularly dramatic. The scale may nudge one way or the other, stamina increases, soreness evens out…
Or you get superhero calves.
It’s silly but that’s exactly what it felt like to reach down to shave and there’s this giant divot in my calves! I’m also noticing my outer and inner thighs are slowly growing muscle definition.
There is an element to all of this that does include losing weight overall but it is really cool to see my legs slowly morphing from smushy to defined. I wish I had before and after pictures but the last thing I thought of to photograph was my calves. But hey, I’ll take it! It’s tangible evidence that all this training and soreness and sweat and time are paying off in a way I can see that isn’t a scale. I may want to lose weight but being “skinny” isn’t my goal. My goal is to do a Tough Mudder or Spartan Race one day and scale numbers have nothing to do with that. I want to be strong and confident like I was when I was 24 – before I got pregnant – now that I’m out of that terrible abusive relationship and free to push myself to new heights.
Also, my medal wall needs more bling!! It’s too bare!
Anyway, today I strapped the waist trainer belt thing and put the one pound gloves on for my run. I was reading how if you are going run every day, at least some of those days need to be short, easy runs to prevent injury and spare my joints. As I am a plus size gal, I have to take a great deal of care with my knees and ankles. I put the treadmill at 3.3 mph and left it there for ten-minute intervals with a one-minute break in between and a three minute cool down at the end. My heart rate stayed around 150-157 and even my arms got some extra work with the weights on. It may have been a short run but it felt productive.
As for my food, I was bad and skipped breakfast today and just had almonds and popcorn for most of the day. I was not hungry at all but I made up for it at dinner.
Baked chicken breasts and broccolini with salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika. I had enough left over so I get to have it for lunch tomorrow. I tasted delicious so, I don’t mind at all.
I had enough calories left over for a cup of cookies and cream ice cream afterward, too. And yes, actually ONE cup. Not just ‘ZOMG CALORIES’ but I don’t enjoy large amounts of sweet things. I will actually eat a proper serving because that’s all I can take. In fact, I usually don’t bother to buy ice cream because it takes me so long to finish a container, it gets that ice fuzz on it before I’m even halfway through it and I end up throwing it out.
Or, my kid sneaks and eats it when she thinks I don’t know.
If I had a complaint to myself about today, it would be that I didn’t move around over the whole course of the day. I have my Atlas Shape set to vibrate every 30 minutes if I’m being lazy and I was so sleepy, I did not care.
But hey! I finally finished season 2 of Zombies Run! And that’s including all the special Halloween and other side missions. The app is currently up to season 6 so I have plenty to catch up on. And I have the Spring virtual race coming up. It would be nice if I could set a personal record with this race but I am not stressing it. I’m just moving forward.
As promised, here’s my workout for this evening. I am very aware that for my body to make any real changes, I need to incorporate strength training with my running so I picked through the various routines on my Atlas Shape app and switched my primary routine to the toning one instead of fat burn. I already do the running for fat burn.
And yeah, I’m knock-kneed. Deal with it.
I did two rounds of the Ninja total body toning which included Alt. Right/Left Lunge, Russian Twist, Sumo Squat, Prone Hip Driver, and Jumping Jacks. All of these are max reps. I kinda wish Atlas integrated with My Fitness Pal as seamlessly as Zombies Run so I have to add in the routine manually. That’s ok I guess but I feel like I’m missing something in the total burn for the day. But after a 500+ calorie run, that piddly 52 doesn’t seem like a big deal.
I feel sore but kinda invincible. And NO I didn’t take any Advil… I dunno what else to really say but post workout showers are the best.
Of course, a normal person would be asking why getting new glasses would be strange. Well, I kinda think this ties into the “You? YOU are a runner?” kind of mentality in a loose way but also a little of a nudge to some companies who make prescription glasses frames for the general market.
For monetary reasons, it took me two years to finally get my eyes checked out and I knew I’d need a new prescription since it’d been so long. (people can nag all they want but I went to the dentist for a checkup and I have no dental AND I cracked a damn tooth after that so, there went the money for glasses) I am happy to say my eyes are healthy and yes, I needed new lenses and my frames were pushing 5+ years old so I needed those too. But since I have been sticking to this running thing, I was looking forward to getting sports frames.
The odd thing is, when I asked for them it seemed like an odd request. Does no other woman go to get frames and ask for frames that will stay on during workouts? I’m not blind but yeah, I NEED to be wearing glasses if I insist on exposing myself to public scrutiny by running where other people are. I enjoy seeing where I am going and having Transitions lenses (#notsponsored) is VERY convenient for outdoor sports. I kinda found it strange LensCrafters didn’t really have these sorts of frames for adults – they absolutely had them for kids (mainly boys but that’s a rant for another day). I did manage to find really nice frames that hold tight to my head no matter how sweaty my face gets or how hard I run but I was kinda looking forward to something that would wrap around my head like the kid’s frames do. They do make them for adults but not at the store I went to.
I really have to say – and not just to cover my ass – but this isn’t a dig at LensCrafters. I cannot tell you how frigging nice to me they were and to my kid. I did the survey and I gave them fantastic ratings. Very polite, kind, funny, comforting people and that’s why I keep going back. They worked their asses off for me and I thank them very much. In fact, when I asked for frames that would be good for running and various intense workouts, the woman helping me was impressed, said that’s awesome, and nobody had asked her something like that before. This is more of a “Hey, you guys may wanna get on this” kind of thing. I honestly don’t want to have to order crap from five different places, pay WAAAAYYY more than I can afford, to get what I need.
I got myself some AMAZINGLY geeky librarian frames from LensCrafters that I am SO in love with and some frames that may not have originally been intended for sports but they absolutely serve the purposes I need but it would have been cool to get some of those goggle-type lenses in the same place I got those amazing geeky librarian frames.
Once again, LensCrafters: You have always been awesome to me and I will be coming back. But hey, maybe you wanna add something like these? I’m sure Rayban or DKNY or whoever can design frames for adults you can keep in stock for nearsighted/farsighted with astigmatism pseudo-athletes like me.
Or not. If I sell enough stories, I’ll be back next year anyway. I do pay for you guys out of pocket so I obviously think you’re worth it.
Yeah, that was a shameless plug to beg my readers to buy my stuff, so what?
Kid: “What did you get for your running?”
Me: “A pair of two-pound gloves and an eight-pound weighted vest.”
Kid: “You are going to kill yourself!”
Me: “I’m not going to wear it all NOW. I have to train for it. Like Dragon Ball Z.”
Kid: “So, it’s going to take you two seasons to train?”
This kid is savage… XD
I was going to just throw this up on Facebook and forget about it but I figured this was also a good time to talk about where the running is these days.
I did indeed get some weighted workout gear but if you have been following me on Instagram, you may have seen me complain about getting to 2 miles in under 30 minutes in an effort to have a complete 5k take less time. If I can get to 5k in 30-45 minutes, a 10k becomes much more feasible from a time standpoint. I can’t imagine cramming 2 hours of training into every day. I’m lucky to get 1 hour between reading for reviews, writing, needlework, working full time (and overtime), and kicking ass as a single mom.
Currently, I am hovering around the 31-32 minute mark for 2 miles. I get disappointed but I try to remember that its a process and I’m not doing too bad if I’m getting back the speed I had before my surgery and after being sick for a month. Heck, I’ve even lost a pound. I am used to beating myself up over my “failures” but I am forcing myself to see this as a journey and I am perpetually taking steps forward. I want to be faster and stronger and I am absolutely going to get there.
I also picked up some knee braces. They are amazing but not as amazing as this belt.
Thanks to some generous genetics, I have a large bust and deal with the lovely gift of lower back pain. In addition, I did notice I am always self-correcting my posture while I’m running in order to maintain proper form. I thought a belt may make a difference and despite the gymnastics to get the damn thing on and secure, I felt the difference in the first run I used it. I had the same sort of muscle ache in my lower back, my upper back muscles were screaming with the distinctive “you have never used these muscles before” kind of pain.
While I have solved the slouching problem, the jury is still out on if this little doodad affects how engaged my abs are during runs. So far with the intermittent use (I just forget to put it on sometimes and my lower back immediately makes me regret it), this was a great purchase and I’m glad I got it.
I will toss this little statement out, though: running is not a cheap hobby to pick up. You always need more than you think and while a posture belt isn’t necessarily essential, it is helpful enough to be worth the expense. At least this was cheaper than the new running sneakers I need…
I haven’t bought sneakers since I first started running in September 2016. I can hear you all ready to scold me but give me some credit, I did NOT think I would be sticking with this running thing for so long.
Not exactly my best time but hey, I still did it.
With my knee as messed up as it is, this was more of a power walk than a run. But after resing the knee for two weeks, I was beginning to feel lazy and I’ve gained some weight. I know my weight is not a reason I run BUT I recently had my yearly checkup and all my bloodwork came out PERFECT. Blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid; all completely normal. The doctor said to me “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” What I was doing was running. Not being active will not keep those numbers.
For now, I’m just walking fast and going for endurance. Straight up calorie burn and leg strengthening. I’m also looking into a good orthopedist to protect my knees into the foreseeable future. I would hate to have to get a knee replacement one day because I didn’t take care of them properly now.
