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Sep 19, 2011

A Success (Sort Of)

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So early last week, my husband reminded me that the March of Dimes Night Moves 5K was approaching at the end of the week. And that he had signed us both up for it.
Wow, September 16 sure arrived quickly.
I had forgotten about it. I knew Aaron was training for the 5K, and I had agreed to sign up for it, too, but then life and work and my need for sleep got in the way and I put it out of my mind. So as Friday approached I realized that I wasn’t ready for this at all. I haven’t put on my running shoes since before BlogHer. I haven’t even done any kind of workout in a few weeks. In short: I was going to suck at this.
The day of the event was even worse. In a pure fit of denial, I only took a 2 hour nap after getting home from working all night and then decided I wanted to stay up for the afternoon so I could get some house cleaning done. Again, I forgot about that 5K we were doing that night.
Finally it was 5pm and Aaron went upstairs to change into his running shorts. Oh yeah, we’re supposed to go to a 5K, aren’t we? I trudged upstairs, still tired from a lack of sleep, and pulled on some workout gear. It didn’t help that it was supposed to be cold that night – do I dress warm, or will I be too warm?
At the race, I still wasn’t feeling it. Aaron planned to run the entire way, and I was ready to cheer him on. But I was doubting my own contributions to the run. I decided I would run/walk the race, probably with a strong emphasis on walking. This was the same 5K where I ran the entire thing last year – I was fully prepared to be disappointed with myself this time.
Blurry photo of us – it was already getting dark and cold.
The bell sounded and the pack took off. It was chilly out at this point so I decided running would be the best way to start, if for no other reason than to keep warm. I ran for about a half mile before I needed to slow to a walk. Two minutes later I felt good enough to run again, but my stamina was quickly fading. I passed the one mile mark and was surprised that I had a 14 minute mile.

The second mile was even more walking, with occasional urges to vomit when I did run. My side ached so I tried to take it easy and focus on my breathing. I passed the second mile marker and again had another 14 minute mile. How was that even possible?

I was determined to not just walk the final mile and a bit, but I had practically no energy left. I used a section of road that sloped downward as one stretch of running, allowed the lack of incline to work to my advantage. And then with the end in sight I ran the final block, crossing the finish line with a time just over 44 minutes.

Aaron found me in the crowd, and I had to grab his arm to keep from falling over. One Gatorade later and I felt a little less wobbly, although still very exhausted.

(Aaron ran the entire race in under 28 minutes – go him!)

At the time, I thought I was less than a minute off from my time last year. I looked back through this blog, though, and realized I was actually three minutes slower than my time last year.

But still…only three minutes slower than last year, where I ran the entire race, and when I had prepared for it and got plenty of sleep beforehand and actually remembered the damn race? Not bad.

Of course, this does nothing for my motivation. After all, if I can run/walk a 5K with 2 hours of sleep and no training or preparation ahead of time and STILL only be three minutes off of my running time, why bother training?

Just kidding.

Well, mostly.

I was proud of myself for finishing, even with everything going against me. It’s good to know that even without working out for a few weeks, my body hasn’t forgotten everything I’ve been trying to teach it. And maybe I will start pushing myself to run again so I can shave a few minutes off of my next 5K.

Although at the moment I’m dealing with the one downside to taking on a 5K with no training: I can’t move my legs. I don’t think my legs and hips have ever hurt this much. Lesson learned.

Filed Under: running, success ·


Jun 17, 2011

When Workouts Attack

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Now that my daughters are in summer camp, I have a little more flexibility in my schedule each day. As a result, I decided to try going to my strength training bootcamp class in the late afternoon rather than the evening yesterday. I know so many people who say that working out in the morning is the best for them, and well, late afternoon is the third-shift worker’s “morning” so it sounded like a good plan.

It wasn’t a good plan. OK, that’s not quite fair – it’s possible that working out at that time of the day is fine, but for whatever reason, yesterday did not work at all.

I ate a small meal with a glass of water an hour before my workout, just like I always do, and when I arrived at the gym I didn’t feel any different than normal. I signed in and began stretching, realizing I was a little tired but ready to get moving.

Class started and I made the decision to not push myself too hard. It’s been a busy week, so I used the 9lb hand weights instead of the 12lb ones. The first circuit was mostly lower body moves – I’ve got strong legs, so I had no reason to expect any difficulty. Jump squats, followed by twisting lunges, and then a wall sit (holding a 10lb weight for all of this) made up this circuit.

When we repeated the circuit, I found my balance was really off for the lunges: each time I lunged and twisted my upper body, it took a lot of effort to not fall over. I tried to slightly widen my stance, but still occasionally tipped over to the side and had to grab the wall for support. Balance has never been my strength, so I didn’t think anything of it.

During the second wall sit, though, I started to realize this was not going to be a good day. A wall sit usually doesn’t bother me. Sure, it burns, but nothing out of the ordinary. This time, my legs were practically vibrating with shaking as I tried to look at the TV on the wall and distract myself.

I took a few large sips from my Gatorade and tried to shake it off. I made it through the next circuit of moves (sumo squats, hip flexors, and dead lifts with bicep curls) twice, and while I was sweating hard, I didn’t feel that bad.

It was the next two circuits where something went wrong. At the end of the third circuit, I started to feel fuzzy-headed and a little sick to my stomach. I kept drinking my Gatorade, thinking I just needed a little burst of sugar to replenish my glycogen. Still, I kept going.

At this point my memory is very fuzzy. I remember sometime during the fourth circuit a weak sensation came over me. And then the next thing I remember is sitting on the floor with my back against the wall. Did I pass out? I don’t think so. But I definitely have a gap in my memory at that point.

I don’t remember how I got there. Apparently I quietly sat down, because the class would have stopped had I collapsed. After a minute or so, my trainer realized I wasn’t getting up and asked if I was OK. I mumbled something about being underslept and she instructed me to finish my Gatorade. I continued to sit there for a few more minutes, still wondering how I got to the floor and trying to piece together what had happened.

After I finished my Gatorade, I (foolishly) tried to get right back into the class. They were on abs, and I didn’t want to miss my ab work. I did one set of crunches before the dizzy/sick feeling came over me again. My heart was beating faster than the techno music from the classroom speakers. Having finished my first Gatorade, I was given a second one and told to rest. 

The workout was an epic fail. The remainder of the night I continued to be weak and foggy-headed, despite eating dinner and drinking plenty of water. I don’t appear to be coming down with any illness, so I can only guess that I somehow worked myself too hard, even though I wasn’t working as hard as I’ve done in the past.

Can the time of day really affect performance that dramatically? Or was I just having an off day? I’m not sure, but I’ve never had to quit in the middle of one of my classes, so something clearly wasn’t right.

I’m planning to take a few days of rest before attempting any further exercise. Maybe some extra sleep would be more useful than more workout time at the moment?

Filed Under: ow · Tagged: ,


May 24, 2011

Did I Mention I Ran A 5K?

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So I completely forgot to mention last week that I ran a 5K on May 14. I know, who forgets to brag about something like that, right?

Actually, I went into it with the intent to walk most of the 5K. I was mostly supporting my husband, who has been training for the past 3 months and decided the Komen Race for the Cure 5K was going to be where he put himself to the test.

During that 3 month period, Aaron taught himself how to run, lost 20+ pounds (he’s totally kicking my butt in weight loss), and was ready to take on his first 5K. During that same time frame, I went to my bootcamp classes, ran a couple of times, lost a couple of pounds, and well…didn’t do anything nearly as impressive as him.

On the day of the race, I lined up with the non-competitive runners. I haven’t had the chance to run more than a day here and there lately, so I didn’t expect that I was even going to make it further than a few blocks without needing to stop for a walk. Aaron was ahead of me with the competitive runners. He didn’t expect to place in the race, but he wanted the timing chip so he could see his exact finishing time.

When the bell sounded, I pressed play on my iPod, took a deep breath, and started the run. I was helped by the amazing energy of the people around me – they were all so happy and excited. (Me at 8am? Less so.) The first few blocks were a bit of start and stop as the crowd needed time to thin out. I tried to stay to the side because I was a slower runner and didn’t want to be in anyone’s way.

Quickly I realized my iPod was going to be trouble. It has a problem where the songs will “scramble” when the headphones are in, meaning it’ll play a few seconds of the song, then scramble the song on high speed for a few seconds, then shift to another song, where it does the same thing. So I found myself jogging slowly while trying to hard reset my iPod, put the headphones back in, and try again. It gave me a few songs in a row before it would scramble again, but those few songs were better than nothing. I need music to distract myself from the reality of running.

We made the first turn, and I was surprised I was still running. Then the second turn came two blocks later and I was hurting, but still running. A huge hill was in front of me, though, and I realized I couldn’t make it up the hill. I stopped to walk, a little disappointed, but also reassured by seeing others slow down to walk up the hill.

Once we reached the top of the hill, I decided to go back to running. My lungs ached at the greater effort again, and although I couldn’t hear it over my music, I’m sure I sounded wheezy as I gasped for air. This part of the run was slightly downhill and after a couple of minutes I finally fell into a comfortable pattern. I was still working hard, but I wasn’t hurting.

The next leg of the race took us around a local park. My side was starting to hurt again, so I made a deal with myself that I’d walk when I reached the north end of the park. I kept that agreement, slowing down to walk along the entire north end of the park.

As we made the final turn for the (long) home stretch, a guy in a lobster costume passed me by as I was walking. I’m being passed by a lobster? Surely I can run again if this guy in a full-body costume is still running!

I forced myself to run again, but at this point it was getting hard. During the final stretch I took a couple of short walk breaks, just to catch my breath, and then threw myself forward into running slowly again.

I didn’t see my exact time when I crossed the finish line, but I believe it was somewhere around 44-45 minutes. Not a great time, of course, but only slightly longer than the 5K I trained for back in the fall.

While I had planned to walk most of this 5K, I instead ran most of it and only walked a small portion. I was exhausted at the end, but proud of doing more than I had intended.

And Aaron? He finished at 30 minutes, which is a very respectable time for his first 5K run. I’m proud of him for accomplishing his goal and getting so fit in the process. Hopefully we can both find time to run during the summer and sign up for other 5K races.

Again, if I can do this, anyone can. It just takes baby steps to do so. Had you told me five years ago that I’d be running in a 5K, I would have laughed at you. Yet it’s happened, thanks to making small changes here and there.

Filed Under: running, success · Tagged:


Apr 5, 2011

My Week of Suck

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Coming off of last week’s high of seeing myself creep ever so slowly to my lowest adult weight ever, I still expected to see some results at my weigh in on Saturday. What I didn’t expect was to see a number one and a half pounds higher than the week before: 172.8. What happened?

I reviewed my calories for the week and everything seemed to add up to loss. On Friday I did go out, but limited myself to two small glasses of sparkling wine and a very modest dinner. I tried to not feel down about the gain, and tried to convince myself it was just water weight from the alcohol.

Saturday was also the day when I had my strength training boot camp class. I had the alternate trainer again – the tough one – and she put me through a very difficult routine that felt like punishment for my weight gain.

When I woke up on Sunday afternoon, I could barely get out of bed. The only movement that didn’t hurt was my eyes. Still, I know the best way to cure sore muscles is to move them, so I attempted to go for a run in the early evening. Yet another fail – I did Couch to 5K, Week 3, thinking it would be an “easy” run, only to find it was terribly difficult. That’s what I get for not running all winter.

I focused Saturday and Sunday on drinking plenty of water and eating right in the hopes that my weight gain was just water weight. But when I stepped on the scale again on Monday morning, I was greeted with a weight that was half a pound higher than the previous one!

It’s just a number. I know it’s just a number. But I hate seeing it go up when I was so close to reaching my lowest adult weight. I’ve been to this point before a number of times, and this always seems to be the time when my body gives up and tries to correct itself back to heavy. I’ve already said goodbye to heavy, though, so I feel like I’m at war with myself to keep going.

I have another boot camp class tonight. No idea how I’m going to get through it when I’m still really sore. But I’m going to do it.

I’m also waiting on a delivery from Amazon with my Jillian Michaels’ Ripped in 30 DVD. I’m joining the Shredheads in trying out this DVD in April. I can’t do it every day, since I still have my boot camp classes, but I plan to use the DVD on as many off days as possible. I remember the success I had with Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred, and I’m hoping this might be the jump start I need to get the scale moving downwards again.

Filed Under: ow · Tagged: ,


Feb 14, 2011

My Week In Hell (Er, Bootcamp)

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So…bootcamp.

Yeah. Wow.

I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be easy. And for a program designed for people to lose weight, I was a little intimidated by all of the thin young women I saw in the class. But I showed up for my first class, took my place (in the back of the class) and was determined to do my best.

It was hard, but it wasn’t impossible. The instructor started off with some basic cardio moves involving the step, and I easily followed along. It wasn’t until near the end, when we began switching into more strength moves that I started to struggle a little. Still, I finished strong, and not once did I feel any lightheadedness or urge to vomit.

Actually, all urges to vomit came the next night, when a stomach virus hit me out of nowhere. Ugh. Once again, I’ll say a stomach virus might just be the quickest way to lose weight, but certainly not the most pleasant or one I’d recommend.

By Thursday night (24 hours later) I was able to stomach some solid food again, and by Friday I was nearly back to normal. Which is good, because my second day of bootcamp was Saturday morning.

This particular program features 2 classes a week. One class is the traditional “bootcamp” with a mix of cardio and strength training. The second is what they call QVR (for quick, visible results), which is completely a strength training class with weights. I had been warned by a certain someone that QVR was harder than bootcamp, so I was prepared for the worst when I arrived on Saturday.

It was crowded when I arrived. Due to the success of the Groupon deal, they had more new recruits than they could handle. So they had to split the class into two. I was a little disappointed, because I’ve never worked with a weight bench and really wanted to, but my class was sent to the other room to work with free weights.

The instructor asked everyone to get a dumbbell, but she chose the weight for us. When it was my turn, I flashed my best pathetic smile and said, “Hi, I’m a newbie and a weakling,” as I eyed the 5lb weights. She took a hard look at me and handed me a 10lb weight. I tried to argue, but she was already on to the next person. Huh, maybe she knows something about me that I don’t, I thought.

The class started with lower body strength training and it didn’t take long before I broke a sweat. Lunges holding the weight, wide-leg squats dangling the weight, calf raises, dead lifts…they were difficult but not impossible. But that 10lb weight…it was getting heavy already.

When we moved into upper body routines, I started to lose any confidence I had. I normally use a 3lb weight for videos, and a 10lb weight felt damn near impossible at times. My arms trembled, I had trouble even lifting the weight from starting position at times, and I didn’t do nearly as many reps as the instructor was counting out. I was panting, grunting, whining, and my shirt was completely damp from sweat. A 10lb weight was WAY too hard for me.

For the last 15 minutes of class, I kept noticing the lights flickering in the room. That’s odd, I thought, why do the lights keep flickering? I finally asked the woman next to me, who confirmed that no, the lights weren’t flickering at all. Ah. So this is what it feels like when you’re close to passing out.

I grabbed my Gatorade and tried to give my body a little sugar to help with the stress I was putting it through. It gave me just enough energy to finish. In the cooldown, I was hit with nausea, but I focused on my breathing and it passed after a few minutes. I barely had the energy to haul my sorry self off the floor and put my hated 10lb weight back on the rack.

I left feeling broken. My arms felt like limp spaghetti, my legs ached. But an hour or so later I felt…good. Energized. Powerful. I was tired, but it was an exhaustion from solid work.

Yesterday? Oh, I hurt. A lot. And I still let out a small groan when I sit down sometimes. But I’m totally going back this week. If they can force me to work harder than I usually do, then I expect some awesome results when it’s over in 11 more weeks.

Oh, and current weight: 177. Lowest I’ve seen in a while!

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