Pardon the recent absence BlogLand, it's been quite a crazy few weeks.
First, I ran off to Vegas and eloped with Hans - and it was everything we wanted it to be: Fast, fun, easy and cheap. We spent all our money on Vegas shows, and crazy dinners. Wonderful. I admit, there was zero training for several days, during that trip. :-)
However, it seems that the extended time in the sardine-can plane exposed me to the Travel Crud, and I was down for the count for 3-4 days, after returning home. You know that kind of crud, where you're curled up on the couch under 40 blankets, still cold, don't want to eat, can't move and you're pretty sure you're dying? Yeah. That.
The good news is, I was back at it this week! I got in two solid strength classes at the gym and almost a full week of programmed runs (Monday was still a sick day.).
Tuesday and Thursday brought deadlifts and squats respectively, still much lighter than I know I can handle, but a good exercise in practicing form and muscle memory. We also did our usual strength circuits, and I feel that Hendrik, our fearless leader has begun an unconscious assault on my arms/shoulders/back. (Either that, or my weak link is showing... lol). We can do squats and lunges and leg stuff all day, but the only time I've been sore is from doing pull downs and strict presses, etc. My t-rex arms are still only decorative!
However, my biggest victory this week was jumping back on the running bandwagon, after several weeks of rowing/elliptical to take care of the ankle (which is all good now, btw). On Wednesday, my assignment was a 2 mile tempo run. Effectively, I was assigned to take this one SLOW, so I could run 2 miles, straight through, no breaks. It feels sort of dumb to say that was an accomplishment, like ooo... 2 miles.... but it was! Straight through, 2 miles, no breaks and I didn't die. I ran really slowly, but I felt pretty good doing it, and it wasn't horrible. I've definitely made some progress since my initial return to running, because I know that 3-4 months ago, I couldn't run 2 miles straight through.
Today was 40 minutes of intervals to start our Saturday morning. Today, although I felt a bit tired going into it, went by smoothly and without struggle - when was the last time I said that about a run on the treadmill?! Granted, I elected to keep the pace pretty slow (like Wednesday's run), but this lead to me being able to easily get through my intervals without jacking up my heart rate through the roof. I felt much more "able" on this run, if that makes sense? Like I was able to run "strong", keeping good form, without hanging onto the treadmill for dear life (we've all been there, c'mon), and just run along. Part of me was dying inside looking at the pace I had to go at to be in that state.... but, I was still running - which is more than I can say about a lot of people, and more than I can say about myself, even 6 months ago. SO.... we'll call this a progress win!
In other news, Hans and I have finally got the diet stuff on track. Hans has been spearheading (taking complete ownership!) of our meal-prep initiative, prepping meals for the week every Sunday. As such, we've been able to take a TON of stress out of the evening quandry ("What do we have for dinner?!"), which always resulted in some sort of debate, and (usually Hans) feeling obligated to pull something together for us, which takes time and effort that sometimes - after work, after gym, you just don't have. SO... Meal prep has been a great solution. It's also keeping tabs on our portion control, which is a huge one for me. I just eat what we've portioned out.....and the last 2 weeks, I've been down 2+ pounds each week at weigh in time, so I guess it's working.
All in all, back on track, eating well, and getting sweaty.
I did have a minor freak out this week, as we officially paid for our Ragnar Trail team entry.... so, the Big Goal is FOR REAL now. No backing out. *gulp* I'm trying to just wooo-saaah and believe in the process. Put the work in, follow the directions of my experienced coaches, and just keep moving forward. One step at a time....
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