Sick with too much time to think

It's been nearly a week since I got the cold from hell, which I got from my boss and now seems to be circulating through all the employees (and now my husband has it too) but I am starting to feel better-ish. I'm still really congested but I'm not quite so tired or in pain.

So! Off to the gym to work out!
Oh man, it was a disaster.
After the first 3 exercises I started to feel weak and nauseous. I was coughing non stop. But I pushed through... cut a couple things out because I wasn't feeling it / didn't feel like waiting for a bench to open up. Also did not do my finisher stuff because burpees would probably have killed me at that point. I sat in the sauna because I figure it might help me sweat out the rest of the sick germs.
I took the most GLORIOUS nap this afternoon.
And yes, I do plan on running tomorrow (just maybe a bit slower than normal!)
Even if I feel like shit doing it, I'd rather be doing it. Too many days of sitting around make me feel just like this ..

I guess with the new year comes people planning out their race schedules. I'm already getting questions ... "Hey, come run this 10k leg of a triathlon with me in May!" "Are you running Tough Mudder VA again this year? We got a team at 8:30" ... I would love it if I was a Georgia resident again come May, but I really have no idea when it's happening. The next job that opens is going to my husband - it's only a matter of time - but is it a month or 6 months? Makes race planning a bit difficult. I figure I will most likely register for the big ones, and have a backup plan for running a southern location and transferring my registration if need be. For Spartan I will most likely do the SC Beast again no matter where I live because I liked it better - just would be nice if it was 1.5 hours vs 7. Local stuff I will hold off as long as possible, and I doubt it would be much this year anyway. I'm looking at 3 Spartans, TM, Battlefrog, a Savage Race if I can, maybe a half, and hopefully a 5k with my family.

The truth is I've been really homesick lately. Not for my home town, although I do love it I have moved on. We had something special in GA. We both felt at home and at peace. Had everything we needed. Other than my job/low Army salary, everything was perfect. I loved running there, I could just get lost in a run surrounded by those pine trees. I had plenty of places to go. Hometown races were small and had that local feel. Road tripping to race destinations in the middle of nowhere, cruising country roads.. It was just different. Here I feel trapped. I can't "escape. All the paths are covered with townhomes and office buildings, the trails are PACKED with people and they cost money to use, and aside from spring and summer it's pretty ugly around here. Grey, lifeless, trash and graffiti everywhere. Races are hectic to get to and packed with people, outside of OCR's I have no desire to use parking shuttles to get to a race!
I dunno. I'm a southern girl, I don't feel at home here. But! It's just a matter of time. My home is waiting for me!

Anyways... I dunno where all that came from, like I said I've just been missing home lately and I guess I wanted to get that off my chest.

Until next time

Beginning Anew

So we got hit with that massive blizzard everyone's been talking about - Jonas? Yep, over 2 feet of snow was dumped on us. Aside from shoveling I haven't left the house in 4 days. They finally plowed our street today and we can officially leave, and I'm going back to work tomorrow. This would all be well and good because I can work out at home, except there's just one problem. I'm sick. So this meant doing nothing for 4 days. And I've been eating bad too.

In a couple more days I'm going to start exercising again. I also want to lose some fat that I've put on over the last few months. This is all gonna be about consistency. Making it to the gym to lift 3 times a week. Running 2-3 times a week, a mixture of steady state and HIIT. I need to get back to eating healthier on a consistent basis. This means forgoing the convenience foods and not saying yes to every single wild craving that pops into my head. If I do this 70-80% of the time I'll be good.

No more of THIS!!!

I need to find the girl I was 2 years ago. Just getting started, losing weight, and excited. I may not be happy with where I live but I still need to train like I did. And I know eventually I will make it back home and I can run in the places I love. Patapsco is nothing compared to FATS :) I do love my gym here but going back to GA means I will more than likely start Crossfit and be lifting with others and with a coach on my side. Life isn't terrible here, but I feel like somewhere last year I lost my spirit just a little bit. It's time to find it again.

Exercise = good

First full week of being active again is a success

It feels sooooo good!

Ran 5 miles total, would have been 6 but yesterday I ran out of time and had to cut my run short.
Full body workout over the course of 2 days
And I'm about to go to the gym with my husband to do more stuff

Everything feels so much better... I don't feel like such a pile of crap, I feel calm and happy... Sleeping way better, I'm out within 30 minutes of lying down (makes it hard to watch movies though) and bathroom stuff is back to normal too.

I have also noticed that I feel much better at work. After the initial pain of my injury subsided I was still having pain at work. I do alot of squatting and bending down during at typical day, and any deep squatting was really hard because of reduced range of motion, lots of tightness in my back and hamstrings. This week it's been awesome and I can squat down with no pain. I'm also in a much better mood overall which makes it easier to deal with the occasional asshole customer.

So basically... I'm not sure I did the right thing by waiting so long to run and lift again. I have never had an injury like this before so I thought I was doing the right thing in being cautious and taking my time to heal. But it turns out exercising is actually helping significantly, and doing nothing seemed to make it worse. I'm still having a little bit of pain sometimes but it's so much better than it was.

I'm back at it with almost as much fire and intensity as before. Not lifting super heavy just yet but I'm working just as hard. There is some pudge to be shed off of my body so I'll be adding in some complexes and interval sprints soon.

I'm back baby!

Today was my first day back in the gym after more than a month of not lifting due to my back injury. I was so glad to be back.

I was daring enough to even work my back today (I may lift with a coworker on Thursday and I'd like to do more of an upper body workout with her) and for the most part things went pretty good. I didn't do any crazy heavy weights but that doesn't mean I took it easy..

Deep squats, #95. No issues here except some knee soreness at first

RDL's with that barbell up there. I probably could have done #85

Pull ups. Lost alot of progress here :( Also getting my foot into the band hurt my back a little

1 arm rows #30 each

Various seated leg machines. I never do these but my husband advised it figuring they would be back friendly. Believe it or not these hurt my back the most out of anything I did

Curls #15

Back extensions!

Then my tabata stuff - it was hard cause I havent done it in awhile ... it was air squats, burpees, kettlebell swings, jump rope. The burpees were a bit rough but I was able to do them

Core work, stretching

I am feeling good and having no pain. Just sleepy.

I'm so happy to be lifting again.. And running too.. maybe now I can shed a bit of this pudge I packed on during my time off/holidays

A brightening future..

It's been about a month since my back injury occurred. No exercise, playing it safe. It does still hurt but it's better than it was, so I decided to test the waters with a 2 mile run. After a month of zero exercise, and even longer since I had last gone running. Lifting dominates my life these days.

It went totally fine! It was one of those things where it doesn't hurt, but you're "aware" of it being there if that makes any sense at all.. Yay! If anything my right hip/groin hurt the most, but that's just my ongoing shitty right hip that's been an issue since day 1. My calves are going to hate me too because it's been so long since they got used. I did this at a nice 10:05 pace and it felt pretty darn good.

So I'm going to make this a thing, 2-3 mile runs 3x a week and adding distance as I feel comfortable... also my hip/hamstring/lower back yoga video at least twice a week. I hope I can get back to lifting in 2-3 weeks. Because I really miss my gym

Oh yeah, and it's a whole nother year now.

I'm not much of a new year person.. I had a pretty good 2015 - aside from wanting to move away from this miserable place I had a great year. Fitness wise especially, my lifting really took off in 2015. I went from being a beginner who couldn't squat or deadlift more than 50 pounds to adding more than 100 to that number. I hit a 205 deadlift, 185 squat, and 115 bench. My strength and endurance grew so much. I did alot of races - A half marathon (PR'ed!), the Hot Chocolate 15k, Savage Race, Tough Mudder, and my Spartan Trifecta - 2 of my hardest Spartans to date in NJ and PA... and a few other random things thrown in there. I was so much better at obstacles this year too, climbing the 8 foot wall by myself for the first time and making it 1 knot from the top of the rope climb. I have alot to be proud of this year.

For 2016 I'm just going to keep improving. Lifting, running more often... race wise I will probably chill a bit more this year, but I will at least do another Trifecta, a Battlefrog, a Savage Race, hopefully some new to me OCR's, and I would like to do a half this year. I don't know what this year is gonna bring, it may bring us a move back to Georgia which could throw off my schedule - so I'm going to wait to plan anything for a couple months. I miss running in the woods of GA and SC, without all these people around, just enjoying the laid back country.. Sigh .. :)

Whatever happens, rest assured I'm going to be improving, trying new things, and getting stronger.