Rough Month

Since I wrote the post on the Color Run, we ended up not being able to go because I had to have a procedure done the day before that made walking painful so we had to sit it out which made me  really sad.  I have slowly been getting my speed and my endurance back up since the weather started warming back up and hurt my ankle due to some tight calves on April 15th doing a group run with one of the local running stores.  I made an appointment for the Campbell Clinic for April 18th but ended up going up to Nashville a day early because my father had a heart attack so I had to cancel it.  I have rescheduled with a physical therapist for Wednesday of next week to hopefully get some exercises, stretches and things I should do to help alleviate some of this pain.  I'm also going to have them check on arm and shoulder since it is giving me some issues as well.

I don't have a memory of my father being sick so seeing him in the hospital was a surreal experience and has put some of my own health perspectives in line.  In February, I went to the doctor to have an all around physical done and found out that my cholesterol was a little high as were my triglycerides so I made a conscious decision to start changing and being more diligent about my eating habits and the foods I put into myself.  After this weekend and the family scare, I want to make even bigger and better changes for myself and my little family.

I've been doing a lot of reading on heart healthy diets, diets that seem to be the best overall for losing weight, and those that are good for long term, lifestyle changes.  One of the major things is that it needs to be something that is sustainable in the long run.  It has been interesting to me that many of these diets share the same underlying principle: lean meats, dark leafy greens, variety of colors for your vegetables along with a variety of colors in your fruits, and minimizing grain intake, soda consumption, and sugar consumption.  I'm glad that I am already doing some of these things but I can't wait to incorporate more healthy living and eating choices into my life to have a healthier way of living.

Color Run

I'm really excited!  I'm doing my first color run this Saturday here in Memphis and I'm doing it with my husband.  Tristan started working out at the beginning of the year but has fallen off track due to extremely cold and bad weather and getting a really bad respiratory infection; however, he is still going to do this with me since it is a fun run and you aren't really timed.  I'm going to bring my camera with me and hopefully get some really awesome shots of us both acting crazy in color.

Oh the pains

One of the things that I am learning about working out so much is the amount of pain or at least muscle soreness I experience nearly daily. After reading about how it is not always effective to take a pain reliever for your muscles, I started looking into alternative methods of relief.  I have found an intense love for my heating pad and have discovered the awesomeness that is massage balls.  The ones I have are pictured below.  So far the spiky one is the only one I've used.  I don't do the hot or cold thing with it yet but I have to deal with a dog that is obsessed with balls so I have to use these things covertly.

I am still having some shin pain even though I bought some new shoes.  This weekend I was going to look at some compression gear but because of some family emergencies I was not able to.  I'm starting to wonder if I need to either: a) start some leg/calf strengthening exercises on top of everything I am doing in kickboxing or b) have my legs examined in case there is a bigger problem going on.  We do this hopping thing to Tina Turner's Proud Mary in my Wednesday night kickboxing class and it is a full 2 minutes of hopping and it just kills the front part of my legs like shooting rockets of fire are coming up from my ankles. The good news on that though is that they get better each time that I do them.

Throughout this exercising journey, I have found a ton of pains.  Leg pains, back pains, knee pains, neck pain, etc. however,  I have also discovered the joy of when something used to hurt so bad and doesn't anymore.  The feeling of utter accomplishment that happens with that is amazing.  I still have a lot of room for improvement (planks are still an enemy of mine most days especially when we do reverse plank) so this journey isn't going to come to an end any time soon.

Only $14.99 at Target!

New Year, New Goals

I simply CANNOT believe it has been over 3 months since I have updated this thing!  That is just crazy to me as I was pretty good about doing this when I first started writing this thing.

There have been some changes since I last wrote here.  Tristan and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in New Orleans and had an extremely amazing time doing some amazing things. I kind of freaked out because they thought we were going to see some hurricane action, not talking about the drink here folks, but all we say from it was rain. During the holiday season, I tried doing a mile a day running streak but the flu had different plans for me.  I actually got the flu for the first time since I was a teenager and it sucked.  At that doctors appointment, I was tested for asthma and found out I actually have asthma.  I suspected this once it got cold out because I would come home from a run all wheezy like so I'm super glad to have an inhaler for this now.

Since getting the inhaler, I haven't ran nearly as much as I would like although that has been more of a weather thing than anything else.  This morning for instance it was 17 degrees when I woke up and that cold air just hurts my lungs so I can't really run.  Shelly and I have started doing a 20 minute walk since the GPS on my phone didn't really work in the concrete slab that is our building so we can't say we just walk a mile.  I am pretty sure it is a little over a mile but since I can't really figure that out without pulling out the building schematics we just do the 20 minutes before kickboxing.

One of the biggest things to have happened since the last time I wrote was that I did a 5k in under 35 minutes.  I'm still having a hard time processing this fact.  That day was a perfect day for running though.  It was about 55 degrees outside, bright and sunny, and I did a different route that was so flat compared to my normal route.  The pups and I just wanted to keep going and it was awesome.  Since that day, I haven't been able to match that speed because of some shin pain but I have no doubt I will be close to that again soon.

So here are my goals for fitness in 2014:

Run between 500-750 miles this year.  I gave myself a range because I have pledged to do at least 500 in a virtual run that is to get people from all over the world to pledge miles to be able to say that as a group we ran to Venus. I know that is corny but I thought it was a cool idea.  My ultimate goal is 750 which is a little over the distance from Memphis to the Canadian border.

Train for and run my first Half-Marathon.  I want this to be done at Shelby Farms Park in October.  This summer I will probably be changing my runs on Saturdays to runs in the park and that makes me uber excited about it.

Do 4 kickboxing classes every week.  This will be my 3rd week of doing at least 4 classes a week and I can already tell a big difference.

Add more fruits and vegetables to the diet.  In order to do this, I started making smoothies in the morning as my breakfast during the work week and trying to add more veggies to our suppers since we have leftovers for lunch every day.  I'm still working on adding more veggies to dinner but this is a growing process lol

Thanks for reading my rambles.

2 Month Update

I can't believe it has been nearly 2 months since I updated this!  I guess there was legitimate concern with the whole work/exercise/life balance thing.

Since August, my whole training regimen has really shifted.  I'm really focusing on getting better and stronger with the kickboxing classes.  There are some days that I feel so accomplished and proud that I can hold a plank for a solid minute and then the next class I am barely able to hold one for 30 seconds.  Some of that has to do with the different exercises we are doing in class and the different muscles that we will focus on but it can still be bothersome.  However, I can see those changes in my body nearly every day when I look in the mirror.  My arms are becoming more muscular and defined, my stomach is getting flatter and I can feel the muscles underneath forming, and my legs are becoming rockstars.  I've also lost nearly 20 pounds since starting kickboxing and this week, it will be time to see how many inches have come off.

I've been continually working out for the past 3 months and my whole life attitude has changed.  Going to class has become so habitual that I don't even think about it anymore but there are still things that aren't functioning as perfectly as I wish they would be by now.  This week I hit my 2 month mark with Memphis Fitness Kickboxing and I love it but my shins and calf muscles still get all cramped and hurt.  This isn't nearly as bad as it used to be but it is still discouraging when it happens.  The instructors have also added a lot of new exercises to the routines so I know that a portion of it is muscles being worked like they haven't before.

My running game comes and goes.  I was able to run a mile in less than 15 minutes for the Cooper-Young 4 miler in September and was extremely proud of myself because I was able to meet that goal.  Since then I haven't been running nearly as much.  This week I amped it up and was almost able to do a 13 minute mile (which isn't the best in the world but it is awesome for me) but the dogs had different plans lol.

I'm going on vacation to NOLA tomorrow.  Tristan asked if the diet was also going on vacation while we are down there and it really got me thinking how I was going to handle being in a city with such great food while maintaining the progress that I've made.  Then I remembered our honeymoon.  We probably averaged about 12 miles a day walking around the city and both of us lost nearly 10 pounds that week.  So as long as I don't go overboard with the beignets, I should be good.

Thanks for reading this really long update that probably seemed a little scattered today.

Feeling Strong

For the past two weeks, I took a kickboxing class that I loved.  I loved the teacher, loved the studio, and loved bringing people there to test it out.  I was super excited about joining but didn't know how it would work with my late work schedule during the school year.

After the urging of a friend for a closer place, yesterday I tried a new place.  It is closer to work, closer to home, has about the same hours, and offered a special for signing up that day.  Although, I did not like the new place as much, I went with them because of the money situation.  Both places have a $99 enrollment fee which pretty much pays for your gloves and wraps and then for 12 months it is $59 a month, unlimited classes.  With Memphis Fitness Kickboxing, the $99 enrollment fee was waived if you signed up that day so I did.  I now have hot pink boxing gloves and purple hand wraps.  I went with the pink ones so I would know which ones are mine when I go.  The workout out at Memphis Kickboxing was a lot more intense than with Urban Fitness which I truly did not think was at all possible. 

I am really enjoying all this new activity in my life.  The only exercise that I have truly ever enjoyed was yoga, which can be extremely intense but is nothing like running nor kickboxing.  I think the kickboxing is really going to help start shredding the weight and make me stronger.  I feel invincible after the classes, every muscle burns and I feel like I am slowly dying during the class but afterwards I can't believe I was able to do everything I just did.  I think this will really help with the endurance aspect of running, especially with that 4 miler coming up in just over a month. 

Right now my biggest concern is balancing all of this exercise out with my normal life.  This morning I hoped to get up about 30 minutes early to get in a run but ended up sleeping 30 extra minutes instead, oops!  I guess I will have to work on that!  Yesterday, I did a lazy mile before the kickboxing class and don't know if that was a good thing or bad.  Poor Shelly told me she hated me at one point during the kickboxing class but I know exactly how she felt!

In running news, I have gotten new shoes which are spectacular and have officially signed up for the Cooper Young 4 miler in September.  Yay! 

Changing It Up

So this past week, I really changed up the routine a little bit.  I did some running but because of rain and pain did not get in the miles that I was hoping to do.  I did go to a kickboxing class for the first time at Urban Fitness Kickboxing in Bartlett TN and I also did a Yoga class for runner's at Fleet Feet Sports here in Memphis.  Kickboxing was a totally surreal event for me.  I made it through the class without dying although there were some instances that I didn't think that was going to happen.  I don't know if I have ever sweated that much in my entire life.  But after burning nearly 1100 calories, I am going back this week to give it another go.

I am going to take the running easy this week until I am able to get some new shoes.  Luckily, the awesome yoga teacher from YogaFest was able to give me some pointers on how to help handle some of the calf pain I've been having.  I am going to test that out today and see how it helps with the issue.  Yesterday was one of my running rest days and I haven't been able to do more than 2 miles in a run since the 5k.  Hopefully with the new added stretches and the new shoes, I can start doing 3 in a go which is what I would love to be at my August 13th.  If I am at that level by then, I am going to start doing 4 milers to help prepare for the Cooper Young 4 miler on September 13th.

The upcoming races I am planning on doing are:

Cooper Young 4 miler on September 13th
LuvMud September 28th
Color Run October 26th
Memphis Grizzles House 5k December 7th