Week Ten

I'm late with my post this week in large part due to over indulging while in Chicago.  Excellent, much overdue, and somewhat detrimental to this process, yet much needed for my sanity.  I was able to make some long overdue visits to some great friends, not to mention meet some kick ass new folks.  It's incredibly likely that my day of binge drinking and debauchery replaced much of the good I have done over the last few weeks.  It was a great weekend that wouldn't have been complete without a 4 hour delay at O'Hare.  This delay helped a little.

I was killing some time in terminal 3 so I headed to Starbucks.  I started chatting with a lady sitting there.  She had on some awesome running shoes.  When I complimented them she mentioned she had just completed the NYC Marathon that weekend. I (a little too enthusiastically) replied with "REALLY!!??  I'm doing my first 1/2 in April!"  I started picking her brain.  It was her first race.  Her training sounded a lot like mine and she said she had to do a lot of walking.  This scared me a little bit because it was clear that this lady was quite fit; far more fit then me.  If she had struggles what on earth have I gotten myself into??  She said she had never even completed a 5k and only trained for about 6 weeks.  She finished, but said it was hell and she was in a crazy amount of pain.  Awesome.  Pain.  I hate discomfort, let alone pain!   It was nice to chat with someone who has recently been there and was also a rookie.  Hope!  There is hope!

So the workouts have been on hold for four days.  Since I had plenty of time on my hands at the airport yesterday I did some walking.  Lots and lots of walking.  A three hour walk to be precise.  I don't think this is what Jared had in mind when he said I need to do some workouts that are long and it was hardly an endurance exercise but it did keep me in my fat burning zone 2 for three hours.  My feet were killing me when I was done.  Thank goodness I packed some extra sweats.  :)

My workouts last week with Jason last week were intense.  He brought out two interesting new torture devices: battle ropes and the prowler.  Holy shit.  If you watch The Biggest Loser then you've seen the battle ropes.  Who knew that swinging some ropes would be so painful and exhausting.  I'm wimpy!  The prowler reminded me of a plow.  It was pretty tough as well, but not as bad as the ropes.  It's a good thing that was the last exercise for the night.  I was spent.

So that leads me into this week.  I have got to double down this week and pick up the pace.  Weekend workouts are about to get a lot longer and the diet is going to have to be strict this week to try to undo some of this past weekend.

I found a pretty good new breakfast recipe.  It's a good substitute for oatmeal.  It's a spiced quinoa with apples.  Pretty good stuff.  Also, my friend Kate had passed on an awesome stuffed peppers recipe.  I don't love the peppers part, but the filling is really awesome in a burrito with some scrambled eggs for breakfast.  I'll probably be eating a lot of that this week.

My to-do list for the rest of the week:

1.  90 minute minimum workouts Tuesday-Friday
2.  Two-a-days on Saturday and Sunday
3.  No more than 1500 calories a day for the next two weeks and not a single item from a restaurant
4.  Get my sleep schedule back on track

Until next week...