Holy mother of sore muscles, Batman!

The boost of intensity yesterday really kicked me in the butt. Literally. My butt is sore. My legs are killing me. Muscles in my body I didn't know existed are hurting.

Don't worry, I didn't give up exercise today. I actually did the 5 mile walk around Miramar Lake. Aside from the wind, it was beautiful out. One of my favorite littles and her mom, joined me today.

Walks with friends make it that much better. And when the little one keeps saying in her adorable squeaky voice, "Silly Zoe," I die. It really is the cutest thing. FYI, these photos are from last month, but I had to share a photo of how precious Julie is.

We had a run-in with geese. They were everywhere. I actually thought Zoe would have chased them. Her prey drive at home with the crows is on full speed, but just the opposite happened at the lake. She kept her distance. Good thing, too. They were nasty little suckers. The giant geese hissed at us. They honked for food and then if you got too close, they'd hiss. Weird. And of course, I got it on film.

  

They practically took up the whole sidewalk. You'd have to walk through them in order to continue on the path. And it didn't help that a mother/daughter duo kept feeding them on the walkway.

I've been stretching a lot today, but it hasn't helped any. I drank a glass of coconut water, a glass of chocolate milk, and ate a banana after the lake. Trying to get my body filled with potassium and vitamin D. I'm hoping tomorrow to not wake up in as much pain as I did today.
I'm thinking that I might go back to level 1 on the DVD; switch off regularly between the levels so as not to overwork my body. Rebuilding muscle is tough.

What do you do post-workout to help alleviate sore muscles?

A Slow Process

 

I know it's only the 3rd week into my new weightloss/exercise plan, but it's even more clear to me now how tough this journey is going to be. I've been working out around 5 days each week for at least 30-60min, which is awesome for me, but results so far are barely there. I became so complacent as a couch potato, granted a lot of it had to do with my health, but now that I'm back to 100% I can't stay at this weight. I need my muscles back. I know results will come later, but it's hard to see where you want to be right now and you can't snap your fingers to make it happen.

If only I had my own personal genie...

• I'd have my own personal trainer
• I would make the time to workout a couple hours a day
• I would have a personal chef to make sure I eat all the right foods
• My ankles would be good as new and I'd be able to run again

What would you do if you had a genie?

Finding My Groove

Boyfriend got me off my butt tonight. It's been a pretty lazy day, so getting out of the house was nice. Even Zoe was just sleeping the day away. It was nice that someone in the house took initiative to get us out.
What was originally supposed to be just an out and back walk, turned into a 1.5 hour walk. 4.91 miles. Fairly leisurely. I think we averaged an 18 min/mile. I think at my best I've done 5 miles in just over an hour, but I was training for a race. This was merely a "let's get out of the house and enjoy the weather" kind of walk. And it was definitely nice to NOT walk by myself. I love Zoe's company, but we can't have conversations other than her wagging her tail to let me know she's having a good time.

I'm now exhausted. I think I might have pushed myself a little too far, but at least I got out. Most likely, I'll be sore tomorrow, but I'll use it as a day to stretch and recover and then get back out there. Getting back into the groove of exercising is really hard. Especially when you've had a 7 month hiatus. Word of advice, don't sever your ligaments. It takes you out of commission for a lot of things. Exercise in particular. Now I find that I'm fighting with myself everyday to convince my body to get out of bed and create some endorphins. Problem is, the warm bed usually wins. And I put of getting back into shape for another day. In my head, I see me running (which I can't do yet) and slowly taking off the weight that the meds made me gain. I have a goal to achieve by October. It's realistic and attainable, but I really have to step up to the plate. I currently can't rely on training for half marathons to reach it, so I need to find another way to keep the motivation going.
I have some amazing friends that have offered to walk with me a couple times a week, which I will definitely be taking them up on. Exercise with friends makes the workout more fun. At least in my experience.

So here it goes. Today I walked 4 miles. I'll stretch tomorrow and take Zoe out for a walk. Not 5 miles, but a nice neighborhood walk. I'm always looking for new ways to shed some pounds so please feel free to send me your suggestions or what you do to keep in shape.

I Got The Sicks

Ugh. I caught a cold. Again. Second time this year. And we're only in the 3rd week of January! Bleh. I can't breathe out of my nose. I sound super congested and I have very little energy. But you'll all be proud of me. I have been walking. At least with Zoe, my dog. Since catching the sicks, I've been trying to get out and walk my dog before my energy is completely gone. So far it's worked. She's happy and I get a little sun, which is actually really good when you're sick. Your body needs that vitamin-Sun. :)

Zoe, sporting her scarf, ready for a walk

I'm thinking that for exercise and to keep me motivated, maybe what I need to do is sign up for a bunch of 5Ks. I can't run a half marathon (I'm saving my return to those next year), but I can train to walk a 5K. I'd rather run it, but I have to listen to the doctors this time. It's probably how I ended up with the severed ligaments - not letting my ankle injuries heal completely. So I'll be good and not run. But I can learn to walk super fast, right?

There's a really cool 5K coming up in March called the Hot Chocolate 10K/5K. I'm thinking I'll sign up for that. I love chocolate, and I'll get some exercise and make it worth eating the chocolate at the finish line. Who's with me?!

Recap of the Week

So I realized it's been about a week since I last wrote. Let me catch you up.

My fundraising is going super duper well! I'm already up to about $1700 and I just got 2 more donations in this weekend which should bring me up to about $2000. You guys are awesome! Please keep forwarding out my fundraising webpage to all your friends, family, co-workers, etc. You know what's really cool is that I've had a few people donate $26.20 in honor of the 2 half marathons. 13.1 x 2 = 26.2 It's AWESOME!! I love it!
So I've got about $3000 more til I reach my goal so keep them coming!

Wed (16th), we had a really good run/walk. Group training was at Mission Bay again. I took Zoe this time with me. She was soo good. Everyone loved her. Even Coach Dave fell in love. He ran with her on the way back. Zoe LOVED it. When I run with her, she still sort of has some freedom to sniff since we don't go so fast. But with Coach Dave, he's a runner in the true sense of the word. Zoe actually go to RUN. And from what Dave said, she was actually going faster than him, but he didn't want to push her too hard since he wasn't sure if she could take it. I told him next time to go as fast as he wants. She'll keep up. He's excited to do it again. I think as long as we have runs on Wednesdays at Mission Bay, I'll probably bring her. She'll be our Wed night mascot. Now I just have to work on getting Zoe her own "I get the runs for Crohn's & Colitis" t-shirt. That would be so awesome.

I wasn't able to make the Saturday group run because of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. I had to be a good Jew and go to temple. So needless to say, this weekend has been training free. But I'll get back to the grind on Monday.
I've been feeling some pain in my right achilles. I think I need to stretch it out and do some strengthening exercises. It totally kills to try and walk. And I don't even know why it started. I don't remember aggravating it at all. It sucks. I'll have to email the coaches and find out if there's anything else I can do besides the calf stretches to get it healed. Bleh. No pain, no gain. Right?!

Well, I'm gonna go work on healing my achilles. Send positive thoughts my way. Thanks!

Awesome Mentees

So I finally got to meet my mentees, well almost all of them. They are super nice. I have a family I'm working with. A husband and wife duo. They are too cute! The wife has Crohn's, which almost took her life last year but she's doing great now! And I'm so proud to have her and her husband as my mentees. They are starting out as walkers, but in the future, they want to be able to work up to running. PERFECT! I can do that! I can get them there.

Our group training was in Encinitas this time. I've never run up there. It was a nice run/walk. We ran along the coast highway. I think we did about 3 miles in just shy of 45 minutes. Not too shabby. I got some good advice from one of the coaches we have about walking. Since walking, I've found that I've been using totally different muscles and the pain I've been having on my shins (not shin splints) is completely normal. It means that my muscles are working to get stronger and eventually the pain will go away. That's good news. And I got some good stretching suggestions for my shins. Yay!

Oh, I almost forgot...I ran for a while too during the training - for about 8 minutes! It was awesome! I'm working on stretching those lungs out. I still haven't called the acupuncturist yet, but I will. I think probably some time this week.

There are 2 of us walking mentors. Me and Jake. I found myself at the training in between the fast walkers and the slower ones. I think my walk/run intervals will be good. I met a couple new participants who just joined our team on Saturday morning. Both walkers. One is the fast walker (she has long legs) and the other is more my speed. Not sure which of us mentors they will be matched up with, but I'll be very happy to have one or both of them.

I have one more mentee who Jess said probably won't train a lot with us as he is part of Team Fusion (a large group of people from a company who joined Team Challenge). But I hope to meet him soon. At least I can support him via email or phone.

I took today off from training. Back to the streets tomorrow.

Hope you're all having a great Labor Day weekend!

Getting In Gear

So I'm getting ready for the season. I just got some new running shoes and they are really comfortable so far. The nice thing about getting shoes at Road Runner Sports is that I can try them out for like 60 days and if they give me any issues, I can return them and try another pair. It's awesome. But I have a feeling that these shoes will work out.

My dog, Zoe, loves when I train because she gets to go out for runs with me. This dog has so much energy. She can keep up with how ever long of a run I go on. 2 miles or 5 miles, she's right by my side. I love it!

I'm back to playing soccer again. After taking the last 4 months off to let my ankle heal from injuries, it's so nice to be able to play again. I've totally missed it. Last night was my first game in a while and we kicked butt! 9-2 and one of those goals was scored by my boob!! Yes, I said boob. It kind of just bounced off it and into the goal. It was awesome! No one really saw it, but I felt it. :) What a great way to start the season.

The kickoff for Team Challenge Las Vegas is in a few weeks. I won't be able to make it, which I'm bummed about, but the first training starts on the 29th and I'll definitely be there. I leave for Canada next week to visit a friend and drive back with her to the states. I probably won't get back to San Diego until the 24th, but I'm looking forward to the road trip home. Should be lots of fun. I'm hoping to keep up the training in Winnipeg. I've been doing about 30-45mins a day, either walking or running. Lea says there's not much to do in Winnipeg Beach, but at least I could walk around the lake or something.

I'm super excited about this season. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Testing The Waters

So I took Zoe out for a walk today. Not a super long one, but it was a good 30 min walk. I really need to do it earlier in the day, because at noon, it's just too darn hot! But we did it anyway. While walking, I got the urge to see if I could run without any ankle problems. It actually wasn't so bad. I didn't feel any tightness or soreness or anything to make me think I couldn't start running again. It was a nice feeling. Granted my lungs need work. I didn't bring my inhaler since I wasn't planning on running, but I survived.

I have to start taking the steroid inhaler again on a regular basis if I expect to run. I hate having this exercise-induced asthma. It really holds me back from doing what I want to do. And I never really found the inhalers to work that much. I'm thinking of trying out my mom's acupuncturist. Apparently she helps with asthma and I'm willing to give it a try. If she could make it so that I can run longer than 3 minutes without becoming out of breathe, I think I'd be in heaven. I can't remember what it's like to run without breathing problems. I've had this issue since I was 17 and I've felt that all it's done is held me back from any type of sport. I was able to survive soccer because it's stop and go running, but for me to run another half marathon, I'd like it to be a little easier. I'm very proud of myself that I was able to run a half in the 3.5 hours, and with 2 asthma attacks (mostly caused by emotions running high); but I would love to be able to do it in less than 3 or even 3 hours would be awesome! So we'll see.

Anyways, I have the Team Challenge Mentor meeting tonight. I still have to fill out the application, but I'm excited to find out more about the position and what it entails. Being that I'm not a "runner" per se, nor am I a full-fledged "walker," I'm hoping there's a happy medium. Maybe to be the "wunner" mentor. Ha! We'll see.

I should probably go hop in the shower now. I feel so diiirty. :) But good after a nice walk/run this afternoon. I know Zoe is completely pooped out and that's a good sign. She's got so much energy that she benefits from my training sessions too. She's a happy pooch.

At The Starting Line...Again

So I've been thinking about running another half marathon. There's this one in Las Vegas - The Rock N' Roll Marathon which also happens to have a half marathon too! My friend, Sara, is an avid marathon runner. She has this goal to run a marathon in every state. She's getting pretty far in that goal. But I guess she found this one in Vegas and it just so happens that the race is also affiliated with CCFA and Team Challenge. How perfect is that?! I can run again, this time with a long time friend, and raise money to help Crohn's and Colitis!

I got an email a few weeks ago from Jessica Johnson, the coordinator of Team Challenge. She asked if I'd be interested in being a mentor for this next race. How could I not? I get to train with a great group of people, encourage others to overcome any obstacles they have about running/walking a half marathon, and tell them my story about my first adventure. I think it's a great plan. I believe training starts in August so it works out perfectly.

I had an ankle injury back in March, which I injured again a month later. Totally sucks. I haven't played soccer in months. I haven't run. I've just walked and taken it easy. I'm trying to ease my ankle back into training mode. I've been doing some strength exercises for it so that I can try and prevent this from happening again.

I'm definitely going to have to invest in some new running shoes as I'm sure I've succeeded in passing the 300 mile mark on my shoes. I hate that they're so expensive, but my feet love that they are protected and comfortable. My running jersey from last year is all blinged out, PERFECT for VEGAS!!! Thanks Jessica! I'm pretty sure I can use it again. If not, I'll just have to enlisted Jessica's help again to sew on all the sequence, if she has some time. But I think it should be good.

I'm so excited!! This is going to be another awesome chapter in my life and this time, I hope my parents can come up and cheer me on. It's a little closer for them to get to. :)

Til next time!

This is Deb. And I'm running for you!