Running on Hard Mode...With Fantastic Eyeliner!

It is finished.                    

This week has been rough, running-wise. I've either got some sort of bug, or I'm having an "auto-immune thing." That's what I've started calling the "my glands are swollen, I feel like I'm getting sick, but no one around me is sick," stuff that I get frequently. Either way, I haven't felt awesome. I pushed through it on Monday and did three miles anyway, but the last couple of days, I've just stuck with walking at work. So today, I drug my hind end out of bed and told myself I could just walk. ... I'm so sneaky.

Nine times out of ten, once I start walking, it eventually turns into a run. I did end up walking for ten minutes before decided to see how running felt. I was able to finish out three miles and now at least my legs feel awesome.

I've been a bit hit and miss with my running lately. Averaging two to three three mile runs a week with a four miler on the weekends. While that's certainly nothing to sneeze at, I'm not really working towards anything right now, and I think I get more satisfaction when I have a goal, so I'm thinking about training for a 10k or maybe a half.

Random photos of family fun.

Since having S, and finally getting back to running the last year and a half, I've avoided doing more than six miles because of my weight. While it's been on a SLOW, but steady decline (then flattening out into unintentional maintenance mode the last six months), I'm not quite as light as I'd like to be before getting into the higher mileage. The reason for this is twofold (yup - twofold): one - the first time I tried to train for a half, I was a few pounds heavier than I am now, and once I got up to seven miles, my knees were NOT happy and that was before I had psoriatic arthritis.

The second reason is time/speed. I think, in the back of my mind I've been assuming that as I get lighter, my speed will pick back up to where it was - and let's face it, running long distances REALLY slow take a LONG time.


That being said, I think I'm going to search for a plan that incorporates some speed work with a longer run on the weekends. Brilliant, right? I know, I know, I should totally coach. :O)

Speaking of long run on the weekends, a couple of weeks ago I had some fun and did a test of the new Enduring Eyeliner I ordered. It's supposed to be practically bullet proof, so I decided to test it out on a long run. I put some on my eyes, of course, but also drew a smiley face on my forehead to see if it would stand up to all of the sweat.

The result? My eyes were perfect, not a smudge or smear. They even held up after a shower and a full day of activities, including yard work in the hot sun. I was impressed!

Unfortunately, the smiley face didn't make it. Apparently sweating profusely and then wiping at your forehead was too much, but I suppose that is fairly reasonable.

So, if you are looking for something that will stay on your EYES for a long run, let me know, and I can hook you up with the perfect eyeliner. If you're looking for a way to keep drawings on your sweaty forehead, sadly I cannot help you.

Hope everyone had an awesome run today, or has one in their near future.

Take care,

~Megan

Bad Run Turned Decent Walk

"The only bad workout is the one you didn't do." We've seen this all over, right? Well, let me tell you, I had a bad run yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I'm still glad I did it, but MAN it was rough.

I mentioned in my last post that I'd had in interruption in my antidepressants that led to a seriously unpleasant mood shift. While that is getting better, it's still not quite back to normal yet. That on top of some general life stress put me in a really nasty funk last night. So I decided to go for a run outside. (If you've followed me for very long, you'll know that outdoor running is pretty rare for me).

Whelp...it sucked. I felt like a clumsy elephant. Everything hurt - my muscles were screaming at me, my joints weren't happy, and I felt like I could feel every single extra pound as my feet hit the pavement. So I stopped to walk. I thought, "it's ok, I'll warm up." Noooopppeee. Every time I tried to pick back up to a gentle jog, my body rebelled. I seriously felt like I hadn't been running in months. It sucked. Did I say that already? Well, it bears repeating.

Having a bad run when I needed that run to help my mood also was not good. I almost started crying. But then, I took a deep breath and looked at the beautiful evening and the green trees and perfect weather and made myself smile until I meant it. I reminded myself that I like walking and that there is no shame in needing to take it easy if that's what my body is telling me to do. Once I embraced the walking, I was able to relax and enjoy it. I tried a few pick-ups, discovered that things were not inclined to change, and went back to walking and listening to music. By the time I got home, I was in a much better mood. It wasn't as good as a run, but it worked well enough.

Here's hoping tomorrow's run is better. Talk soon!

Ow! Haven't Done That in Awhile

Holy sweat, Batman! I'm toying with the idea of re-starting one of the Beachbody programs to help me get in a routine with strength training. I was planning to start another round of P90x, but since we moved all the workout stuff downstairs, we haven't moved the pull up bar yet, so I decided to try one of the T25 workouts.

 The good: at 25 minutes, I was able to get a good sweat and still get in a couple of miles on the treadmill. Also, I'm crazy sore, so clearly it works.

The bad: I was reminded why I didn't like the T25 workouts. For one thing, it's pretty jarring on the joints. You can do the modifications, but then you don't get nearly as good a workout. I tried to do a bit of both, but MAN my knees were not happy about it later. 

The main thing I'm not a fan of, though, is the boring music and relatively boring moves (probably largely due to lack of music). So, basically, the short workout is offset by the fact that all 25 minutes are unpleasant, and not just in the "this is hard" kind of way. I like to at least have the "this is hard, but fun" kind of feeling.

Meet Treadwell         

Like I said, I am a big fan of the fact that I was then able to do two miles on my treadmill. Speaking of treadmills, I don't think I introduced you to Miles' successor - Treadwell - he's British. Fortunately, my sister had a treadmill that she wasn't using, so she gave it to me. It is a model or two older than Miles was, but it works just fine. Eventually, I'd like to save up for a treadmill with all the bells and whistles, but for now it's really nice to have gotten one for free!

While I ran, I gave Zombies Run another shot and was able to keep the supplies I collected and work on building a base. I'm anxious to get further into the missions and see what it's like. Because I lost my spot last time, the mission part was a repeat of what I'd already done. The supplies that you pick up do seem to be randomized, because they were different this go around.

Honesty time: last week was TERRIBLE calorie-wise. I had an interruption of my antidepressants and it caused my mood to seriously go off the deep end, which seems to have triggered a "let's go for the high-score in calories" response in my brain. So last week as a food-a-palooza. I am getting back with it this week. I do not like feeling semi-out of control with food and I am seriously buckling down this week to get my attitude towards food back into a healthier place. I'll keep you posted on how that's going.

Talk soon!

Zombie Run and Shameless Plug

Hi all! I suppose first of all I should share some sad news that I forgot to mention last time. Miles, my treadmill, has passed away. After many years and many, many miles, he came to the end of his useful life. He will live on in our hearts.

Here lies Miles, beloved treadmill, forever in our hearts and quads.

This is either a great or tragic segue into my next topic - Zombie Run. I came across this app a few years ago and thought it looked interesting, but wasn't able to try it out at the time. While putting useful apps on my new phone this weekend, I came across it again and (because it was free and now works for treadmill running as well) decided to give it a go. It is awesome! You turn on your playlist and then start the app. I used mission mode and it started me out in a helicopter that crashes outside an isolated town trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. It then tells you that you have to make a run for the town and hope for the best. There are intermittent cut scenes where the tower is communicating with you collect supplies as you go. When your run is finished, you can work on "building" the town with the supplies you've collected - pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I picked a music playlist that was too short and when I changed playlists, the game lost my spot. I think this was because I hadn't completed the registration process, so I'm going to try it out again on tomorrow's run and see if this resolves itself. I was a little disappointed at how long it went between "communications" - about 4 songs (12-ish minutes) for the first bit and another 3 or 4 for the next. Tomorrow, I'm going to set it for a shorter duration and see if the same scenes happen in a shorter time frame.

Incredible view and nice camera on my new phone - yay!

Kayaking fun.

My and my fella

In family life, we had a great weekend hanging out at the lake with my in-laws. S got to play by the water with grandma and run around looking for things in the woods, and I got to go kayaking, so I was pretty happy. Poor Cody got a zillion mosquito bites and I got exactly two. My dad was telling me that taking B12 will keep mosquitoes away, so I'm wondering if my recent love of brussel's sprouts might have something to do with it. That, or he's just tastier than I am. :O)

On to the shameless plug. I've recently started selling LimeLife skincare and cosmetics. If you might be looking for chemical-free skincare or professional-quality cosmetics, check out my store website or Facebook page. I'm always around if you have any questions.

Hope you all have a beautiful Monday!

~Megan

Long Time, No Post

Wow, it's been two years since I've posted. Where does the time go?

So - hi! I'm still here, and I'm actually running again, but more to follow on that in a bit. First, a few random life updates:

 

* S is almost three (how did this happen?!?). He is thriving and we're all pretty sure he's a genius.

* I finished my degree! While this took me WAY longer than I'd planned, I finished last October and Cody surprised me with a trip to Orlando to attend the commencement ceremony. It really made it feel real - and the Florida weather in February was delightful.

* It turns out the problems I was having with my back were not entirely pregnancy related. I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis last November. So the down side is that I have an auto-immune disorder, but the bright side is that now that I know what is causing my issues, I can address it before there is permanent joint damage.

* I'm down a total of 60 pounds from my highest (not counting while I was pregnant). It's been slow going, at about 30 pounds a year. Sigh. I wish it was faster, but slow and steady seems to serve me well in a lot of areas, so that's the way we're going.

*Cody and I are trying for another baby. While I would prefer to be down at goal weight, I'm not gettin' any younger, so my plan is to keep going with weight loss until I'm pregnant and then focus on fitness and nutrition after that. It is my sincerest hope that I will be one of those crazy pregnant ladies you see running by the side of the road, but we'll have to see how my joints hold up.

Speaking of which - on to running:

My efforts to return to running were pretty sporadic and I had trouble getting back in the groove. I was really struggling with depression and my wonderful husband reminded me how much happier I am when I'm running. He suggested I pick a race and train for it. I decided to pick a 10k because I felt like if I could run 6 miles without stopping I would definitely feel like a runner again, so I picked a couch to 10k program and stuck to it.

It was amazing to see the progress of going from barely being able to run for five minutes to doing six miles was nothing short of miraculous. The 10k was Christmas of 2017. I've since kept up running, doing  3-4 miles a few days a week, with one 5-6 miler thrown in on the weekends.

Definitely my child.

I am starting to work on speed and adding in some strength training to try and protect my joints a bit better for pregnancy (and in life as well, obviously).  




I'm hoping that now that I'm done with school I can get back to blogging more often. Talk to you soon!