HI!!! I'm BACK!!

Hello world, I'm back!

So what the hell happened to me?  Quick summary.  So last you all saw me, I fractured my foot and was in a walking boot.  I wore the walking boot for approximately 2 months, and have been finished with it since the beginning of October.  During that time, I used the bike at the gym and did a little weightlifting (only if Cameron came with me), but obviously no classes, no yoga and most importantly, no running.

So why didn't I reappear in the beginning of October when the boot came off??

Cuz we got married!!

Here are a couple of pictures from our wedding: 

OK, that was October 14, why didn't I start blogging and exercising right after that??

That's a little tougher to answer.... I'm not sure why to be honest.  I wanted to and even had moments where I thought about writing, but then I just didn't.  But now I feel ready and I'm back and ready to document my exercise "adventures" and other life events.

However, I've done a lot of thinking about this "journey" I started over a year ago.  When I started exercising, I was just trying to get into the habit of doing something a few times a week.  When I started blogging, my goal was to try all sorts of different forms of exercise.

When I was injured, I found what I missed most was running.  I'm not sure if I missed running because I'd been training or because that was the form of exercise (I feel like I've said exercise too much) that alleviated the most stress for me.

I think my journey is evolving.  It makes sense thinking about it.  My first goal was to just do ANYTHING.  It really was to just make it to the gym or a class several times a week.  I didn't care how I did, I just had to stay for 30 minutes or the duration of the class.  My next goal was to explore different options.  I thought that I would get bored doing the same thing (hence exercise ADD), but I also was looking for something that I enjoyed, was good at, or wanted to keep going back to.  Unexpectedly, I found that: running.

So I think my focus now is running, and improving my time and increasing distance.  I still plan to take classes when I can and do other activities, but my main focus is really going to be running.  With that, I want to change the name of my blog and update the format.  Suggestions are welcome!!

How have your goal changed over time?  What should I rename my blog?

That can happen??? Seriously??

This is supposed to be an exercise blog, not an injury blog!  And I thought exercise was supposed to make you healthier, but apparently since I've started exercising, I've discovered I have asthma, developed sciatica, had a little plantar fascitis and now...

CHECK OUT MY FOOT.

Not sure what you are looking at?  I wasn't really either.  Other than the fact toes are freakishly long and those little end toe bones are a funny shape, I have absolutely no idea what this x-ray means..

Apparently...

You see the little fleck that those very discrete arrows are pointing to?  That's probably a piece of bone. I didn't even know bone could do that!  Basically, I most likely tore a ligament and when I tore the ligament, a little piece of bone chipped off as well.

Seriously??

I was given a super cool boot to wear for several weeks and I have to get an MRI to check out the ligament damage.  She called it a "Stress reaction" which when I googled it, I got "Acute stress reaction (also called acute stress disorder, psychological shock, mental shock, or simply shock) is a psychological condition arising in response to a terrifying or traumatic event. It should not be confused with the unrelated circulatory condition of shock" from wikipedia.   Not what I have... 

Further googling reveals that it is caused by overuse and is similar to a stress fracture, but a different kind of injury.  Lesson learned... don't go from running leisurely a couple times a week to running 10-12 miles a week immediately.  I think this is why experts recommend only increasing your mileage by 10% every week.  Fortunately, I am not an expert, nor have I claimed to be, so all I can tell you is what I've learned from this experience.

Back to my original point... has exercise made me healthier?  Yes.  Definitely.  OK, so all these random injuries suck, but honestly, I basically haven't exercised at all, so my body is still adjusting.  And it's funny, because the (second) most frustrating part of this injury is that I can't run right now!  I feel a little scatterbrained without running.  I love running on the Hudson... I wasn't particularly enjoying the longer runs, but I was really starting to enjoy 3-4 miles.  

Of course, the most frustrating/nervewracking part is whether or not I can wear my beautiful purple shoes for our wedding.  It should be all better by then, and the doctor said even if it isn't, one day out of the boot is fine.

SO PRETTY!

Do you get injured frequently?  Are you done listening to me talk about my foot?  Do you feel healthier as a result of exercising?

Training Week # 3

Let's check in!  How did training week #2 go??

I added 1.00 mile to my weekly total AND I cut my average pace/mile by over a minute!  I have to say... antibiotics for bronchitis made all the difference!

During the middle run for this week, I was able to run for 75% of the run, including the entire first 2 miles.  That was the first time I'd run 2 miles continuously without walking breaks.  It might not sound like a lot, but as a relatively new runner (ok, it's been almost a year, but a lot of this year has been trial and error) its huge.  I have no athletic base to build off of, and so I was literally starting from scratch.  Running 2 miles continuously as a 10 min pace is pretty good.

I also took a hot yoga class at Pure Yoga on Tuesday night.  The class itself was okay - it was a community class and my friend and I felt it was a very advanced class.  I'll write a full review this week... but it was not up to the usual Pure standards that we've seen in other classes.

What's coming up for this week:

I'm added 1 more mile to my weekly today during my long run.  I'm excited for this because I work 5.5 miles from home, so this means I can use my commute home as a run... I might have to overshoot home, but at least I'm saving some time.
The rest of the week is going to be tight - I have a very exciting and busy weekend coming up!  We are going to the sample presentation for the florist for our wedding and then on Sunday, we're going to see Book of Mormon with my family.  My sister-in-law's parents got us tickets for Christmas, and at the time, July 22 seemed ages away.  Now it's here.
Thursday I'm going to get my orthodontist in NJ to get my Invisalign taken off... I think.  Yes, I have Invisalign.  When I got my initial braces off when I was 14/15, my teeth were great.  I wore my retainers through my freshman year of college and then stopped.  My wisdom teeth came in/were impacted and pushed all of my teeth - particularly my bottom teeth - all out of sorts.  When it came time for the wedding, I decided to go for Invisalign because I didn't want pictures of my teeth to look terrible.  It's a little superficial, but there were always pictures of brides with their mouths open laughing or talking, and I just kept thinking, "oh gosh, these pictures are beautiful, my teeth are going to ruin these pictures of me!!"  However, I have noticed that as a result of the Invisalign, I have been much more meticulous brushing and caring for my teeth, and I have also found that my teeth are easier to brush and floss as a result of my teeth not being on top of each other.  It has definitely had it's benefits, but I am excited to get the little brackets (yes there are little brackets even though its Invisalign) taken off and to not have to wear them constantly!
To sum up, I have to run 3 out of my 4 available days, which isn't that big a deal, but it just shows how inflexible my schedule will be for the next few weeks.  I have time to fun, but I can't be lazy/procrastinate because I don't have time to make up that run if I decide not to go.




How are you doing making progress towards your goals? Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend? 

Training Week # 2

OK... so how did I do with Week one... let's check it out...

I did all my miles!!  Maybe not on the days that I scheduled, but I did it all.  Also... that middle run may not have been so easy, but I'm pretty bad at pacing myself.  Whoops.

So... Week 2...

We'll see how it goes... adding 1 mile to my total.  I also will be doing Hot Yoga on Tuesday at Pure Yoga East as part of a Community Event.

In other news... it's less than 100 days until my wedding!  My brain is like completely wedding crazy right now, so its nice to do something thats not wedding related.

What are your goals for the week?  Did you do what you set out to do last week?

New Goal

So since the PRoNE 5K run, I've been very... lazy.  I've been to the gym here and there and gone to a bunch of yoga classes, but really... I've been taking it easy.  This past week, I have had a cold, so I haven't exercised since Monday.  I also have been working very late hours which hasn't helped.

Well my friend Tim (the one who won the PRoNE 5K) emails me the other day asking if I want to run a "Half-Mary" which apparently is his auto-corrected way of asking me to run a half-marathon. I did a little research (check out http://www.halfmarathons.net/ for half marathons all over the country!) and found one in Jersey City, NJ.

The Newport Liberty Half Marathon

Here is the course map:

I want to do this one because it's in Jersey City.  Cameron and I are getting married in Jersey City on October 14, right in Liberty State Park.  The hotel we'll be staying at is by Newport and all the weekend events will be along this course route.  I get very tied to places (as you can tell by my love of Boston, and my last post professing my love of NYC) and think it would be really cool to do my first half-marathon in the city I will be getting married in just weeks later.

Also, JC is conveniently 2 PATH stops away from us.  And this will be a great opportunity for me to get to know the area a little bit before the wedding.  If I can run from the hotel to the venue, I should know how to direct a bus or a cab!

So... new goal... to run a half-marathon.  This is a serious one.  I need to train for it.  I emailed Tim, and he will be crafting me a training plan that I need to stick to.  To help me stick to that... I'm going to start post my training plan here when he and I make it, and then every week, I'll post what I should be doing and if I did what I was supposed to do the week before.

My plan is to exercise 5x/week - 3 runs, 1 cross training (most likely bike because I'm not a fan of the elliptical), and one class.  In addition to this...one of my runs will be... wait for it... A PRE-WORK RUN.  I'm a bad sleeper, so I don't want to start getting up super early every day of the week, but I also don't want to give up every single afternoon/evening of my week on those weeks where we go away for the weekend.  I'll compromise - I'll get up earlier once a week and run, so then I only have 4 days a week to exercise after work.

Do you think I'll be able to manage wedding planning and half-marathon training this summer?  What do you think of the course?  How do you stay on track to meet your goals?

Fitness goals

I guess if I’m going to track progress towards a goal, I should set a goal.  As a special education teacher, that’s pretty much my job anyways... set goals for my students, then track if they meet those goals.  If they aren’t on track to meet goals, we try different tactics to reach those goals.

Goal 1: Be able to make it home from work in under an hour (by running! I can already do it by subway!)  Right now, it takes me about 1:10, but I tend to hit lights.  When it gets lighter out, I’ll run along the river, which should help decrease my time.

Goal 2: Enroll in and run some kind of running race.  This goal will be refined as I figure it out.  I think enrolling in a race is a big enough goal for me right now, as the idea of doing so is pretty daunting!

Goal 3: Get more definition in my arm muscles.  More specifically... I’d like to be able to flex my left arm (I wish I could say I was kidding)

Goal 4: Get more definition in my abs.  I have a relatively flat stomach, but I would loooove having some abs. Also, I think that if my core were stronger, I would have better posture and be more comfortable.

That’s it for my goals, for now.  If I meet them, I’ll add more.  I haven’t set a timeline for these, but my wedding is in October, so that’s the absolute deadline!