Ohh Hi There...

Remember me?

Yeah...I wouldn't remember me either. It's been a LONG time. It's definitely not how I planned my triumphant return to blogging, but it's how it worked out. Things continue to be crazy busy (I'm in the UK for the second time in 6 weeks, with a couple US trips thrown in between), and I continue to have zero great stories about health and fitness, so there never really seemed like a good time to blog.

Remember how I said I would run 365 miles this year?

Yeah...I've run like 4. Not a great start seeing as it's a week into May. I've walked or walk/run quite a few more than that, but totally running without stopping and counting them, not so much. This might have to be shortened to a 6 month goal of 182.5 miles.

Remember how I wanted to strength train?

Yeah...well as soon as my TRX class (which I totally loved, btw) ended, I stopped anything remotely close to strength training. I have not so much as picked up a weight in that time.

I am clearly amazing.

Sometimes we set goals for ourselves, and even with the best of intentions, we don't meet them. But, as with most things in life, I can give it another try. I can start tracking miles now. And why not count the ones I'm walking? Those should count too because with those, I might even make to 365 from this point to the end of the year (and moving any number of miles is something over nothing). I can start lifting now. I have weights at home and most hotel gyms have SOMETHING heavy to pick up.

It's never too late to start. It's never too late to try again. And it's never worth throwing in the towel just because it took you longer than you wanted to get into shape, or back to goal weight, or to start a healthy habit.

I mostly say this as a reminder to myself, and so I'm not so hard on myself. It's life. You've got to live it, and sometimes, it means failing at things. And I have to be ok with it. It's not over. I still have time to get back up on the horse and try again.

So here's to trying again...and being a little more serious this time...

Cheers.

Bikeaphobia

As expected, my attempt for strength training last week was a bust. Unless you count the 10 minutes of pi-yo movements that I could remember from class? Probably not. I’m going to do a little searching for a good yoga dvd or maybe some new TRX moves that might motivate me to strength train.

As I mentioned last week, I did attend a spin class and really enjoyed it! The instructor is so fun, motivating and always has a great playlist- all of which I decided are the things that keep me interested during spin class and wanting to come back. It’s those few times where there is a teacher that is so boring or has horrible music that I start to avoid the class and just have a negative outlook on it. I got a copy of the latest biking schedule, so I can plan on going to the fun teacher’s class at least once every week. Embarrassing story – the instructor had the theme song from that Night at the Roxbury movie and Jay and I couldn’t help but do that silly head-bopping dance, much to everyone’s humor, we totally got caught! Whoops.

There’s something about bike riding that you should know. I’m scared of it. Like butterflies in my stomach and sweaty palms scared of it. Growing up, I rode my bike a lot and I fell a lot but it never bothered me. Maybe it has something to do with getting older and realizing the potential for injury or maybe it has something to do with having recovered from some major injuries and knowing how miserable that can be or maybe it's just knowing how dangerous it can be to ride on the trails or the road that has created this fear within me, I really don’t know. I have even translated this fear into a hatred for bikes. Wtf, right? I tried mountain biking once and it was ok, but I didn’t do it again... until last week. The hubs is certain I’ll enjoy it and wants me to give it a fair try and for some weird reason I agree. We went on an hour long ride through some easier trails and it was good – I loved the muscle burn and elevating my heart rate as I cranked up hills but the downhill was terrifying. I survived it and even went on another bike ride days later, this time on some hilly and traffic-free roads (seriously, the thought of riding on roads with traffic and potentially distracted drivers makes me ill with nerves) with my dad and the hubs and I actually enjoyed the heck out of it. I get anxiety when I think about going on another bike ride in the near future but maybe by sticking to the trails and avoiding the traffic I can start to enjoy bike riding. Maybe?

You know another funny thing about this whole bike fear? I have a helmet that looks totally hardcore – it’s decorated with flames or bolts and I definitely still scream when I ride the bike down the driveway. Yep, really hardcore.

Goal Updates!

First I have to tell you about my fall. I went running on a Friday during lunch time at a park near my work. Everything was going pretty well and on my final lap I started to increase speed (work was super stressful and I was taking it out on my pace!) and before I knew it, my foot got caught on a large tree root and I fell. I landed with a big thud and loud gasp on my knees and my left hand. In all my years of running, I can only think of 1 other time when I fell while running and I was about 12 years old, so this surprised me. I started to do that nervous laughing/crying thing but got up, shook the dirt off my pants and finished my run, much more slowly. My knees, legs and hand were bruised and cut up. It really hurts and is a good reminder that I can’t be complacent, I need to stay on my toes (haha) because running can be dangerous.

 

My goal a few weeks ago was to book my appointment for a Locks of Love hair donation. I won’t lie, I was super nervous and even had to get a pep talk from the BFF. You can’t really see it in photos, but I did have purple highlights put in my hair, just to jazz it up…Here’s the new look!
 

 

It was a bittersweet way to honor my grandmother – she passed away not too long ago after a battle with cancer, I miss her every single day and I hope someone who may be fighting the same battle is able to smile when they get their wig.

About my new goals…I struggle in balancing my workouts. If I’m able to run, that’s my preference and that’s all I want to do. If I’m injured and can’t run, then I focus completely on weight training and neglect cardio. Recently, I’ve tried to integrate sets of push-ups and sit-ups but that really isn’t happening. That being said, my goals this week have been to take (and enjoy) 1 spin class and 1 strength training session (yoga, weights, etc.) in addition to my 2 days of running. So far, I've done the spin class but my strength training has yet to be done! I still have like 2 whole days though...

I think we’re expecting some sunshine in NM this weekend, I can’t wait to get out there and enjoy it!

Are you finally seeing warmer temperatures? What’s your favorite Spring time activity?  

 

Winter Sport No Fail

I finally found a winter sport that I enjoy!! And not just enjoy a little, but like cannot-wait-to-go-again-hopefully-soon!

After trying and not loving ice skating and downhill skiing, I was so nervous when the hubby asked me to go cross-country skiing. He is a big winter sports kinda guy and I wanted to share in the fun. So we headed out to a relatively flat area in the Jemez Mountains, the Valles Calderas.

Gorgeous Mountains

We kept on a relatively flat path which made the learning process easier. I still need to work on the downhill part but it's a start! The day wasn't complete without a few falls...



Hubby Practice Falling

Ironically, about 20 minutes after taking this picture, Jay really did fall hard on his bum. And then I did a complete face plant. It was really hard to stop laughing and get back up.

In the spirit of trying (and liking) new methods of exercise, I gave a pi-yo class a chance. This mixture of pilates and yoga is so intense! I'm not sure how most classes are set up, but this one flowed from one position to the next and in between there were reps of exercises. For example, we went into plank then did two push-ups, then upward facing dog and back up to plank and repeated the entire process several times. As soon as we finished that we moved into downward dog and did several tricep push-ups while still in downward dog! By the end of this class, my heart rate was up and my muscles were jelly. Fantastic, in my book!

I'm working on a post with an update on my goals and one where I'll be sharing a recipe for crock pot enchiladas. Stay tuned! Have a great week!

A Week of Random Fitness

To no one's surprise, I'm sure, I'm traveling again. I had a conference yesterday in Baltimore, and I'm staying the weekend to hang out with my awesome non-Welsh friend from Wales again.

It's been fun so far...in that I've not made it all the far from the hotel...but I had a nice view...

And we ate dinner at a German resturant in the private dinning room. And by that I mean there was NO ONE else is the entire place. Talk about awkward. But the food was decent.

It's been a busy week, but I've managed to work on my fitness a couple different times and stay fairly on track this week (minus drinking a couple too many on Sunday night when the Pats lost...to Baltimore nonetheless.

On Sunday and Wednesday I took spin at the gym.

I really love spin. It is such a sweaty wonderful workout, as show cased in this awesome selfie I took in the car post-Sunday spin.

On Wednesday I was not as pleased with spin though. I don't love the new bikes at the gym closest to my apartment, but it's closest to my apartment and the class times work well for me a lot of time. BUT there was a weird screw on my bike and it ripped my pants and I ended up with a nice little chaffed spot on my leg because my leg kept rubbing on the seat instead of my pants being nicely in the way. It was not pleasant when I got in the shower.

Yesterday and this morning I rocked out at the hotel gym. I'm not sure I would have motivated myself because I'm kind of hating on the treadmill right now, but a couple of my conference friends were going and I didn't want to be the lazy one, so I knocked out some walk/run time. I didn't count any of it toward my 365 Miles in a Year total because with the chatting and the jankiness of the hotel treadmill, I don't think I actually ran a whole mile without stopping. But hey, at least I went! And I foam rolled the ever living daylights out of my legs and it HURT SO GOOD.

I'm off from work today, but of course I've already been on the phone like 4 times and answered a million emails, so I guess I'm not so good at actually taking the day off. I need to get my stuff together and get outta this joint before I miss my checkout time, but I wanted to leave you with a picture of my breakfast today.

Breakfast. Of. Champions. Boom.