My attempt to get water

The other night I was working late to catch up on emails from the day and got up to get some water. I get to the sink to fill a bottle and see my husband’s lunch Tupperware piled up, along with my own….  I hadn’t had time to take care of them before our weekly budget meeting. Load all the stuff into the dishwasher, start dishwasher and prep coffee cups for tomorrow. Double check that there are enough lunches made for tomorrow (we both eat a few, thus the lunchES) Husband calls from bedroom “Hey babe, can you bring my water bottle from the fridge if you are coming in here?” I didn’t plan on going in there, but surely I can drop off his water bottle before going back to work. Grab his water bottle; realize my own Nalgene also needs filling. Fill it and pop it in the fridge, drop off hubby’s water and finally back at my desk ready for more email. 10 minutes later, I realize again, that I am dying of thirst and left the stupid water bottle in the kitchen. Seriously, getting a glass of water should not be this hard. 

The Pain That Comes With Success

We see athletes and think, wow I wish I was like that. It would be so awesome to be that in-shape. It’s a fleeting thought, maybe with a hint of jealousy. That “shape” doesn’t come without pain. Facebook and day to day posts highlight all the great accomplishments, as they should, but what people don’t see is the work. The hours and hours of pain put in to get there.

16.1 crossfit open workout was a brutal 20 minutes of pure exhaustion. The pain didn’t set in until after. It isn’t one work out and then you take a week to recover. It is one day of working out, that will be followed by another and another and another.  Today; away from home I dragged myself to a gym as a visitor. You always feel just a tad self-conscious as a visitor at a gym, even though they are super welcoming.

I was tired. I was hungry. I was sore. I showed up.

That workout was also brutal. By the sixth rope climb, I had effectively rope burned all the skin off the outside of my right leg. The 8 rounds of squat snatches nearly destroyed my already severely sore bum. 21-15-9 of calorie row and toes to bar effectively deteriorated any remaining portions of my body that weren’t already sore. My shoulders are done. My abs are done. My legs were done before I started and have reached and all new level of numbing pain.

I lay in my hotel bed, trying to find the motivation to roll out my throbbing legs. Everything hurts and I am starving, but so sore and exhausted from the work out that I feel a bit too sick to eat any more than I already have.  I am so exhausted that I kind of want to cry. I know if I don’t roll out my legs I may not be able to walk tomorrow without a lot of pain. And to be clear, foam rolling hurts like hell. The groans let out during foam rolling are not groans of pleasure.

Now when I see someone who is in incredible shape, I have pure respect. I know the pain they have put in to get there.

The hours of work

The ice baths

The Ibuprofen

The dates with friends skipped for sleep in order to recover for the next workout.

So why do it? Are abs really worth all that? No. They aren’t. But every new personal record is worth every ounce of pain. An entire gym of friends cheering you on when you accomplish a new goal is worth it. Not feeling exhausted from daily tasks is worth it. It’s not about having a perfect body; it’s about something that is so much bigger. It’s about building confidence and realizing how amazing the human body is.

And I mean at the end of the day I figure it will give me better odds of surviving a zombie apocalypse  

Running is hard

Continuing on with this whole training thing is my first official 2-a-day workout for 1/2 marathon training. 

I had missed the first week of marathon training due to travel, so I was super anxious about my first day of group training. Our 2-a-days start bright and early at 6 am outside our gym. My nerves woke me up at 2 am, 3 am, 4 am and then put me into a nice deep sleep for the 5 am alarm. Thanks brain. 

We ran. It was good. I learned I have no abs. Here I was thinking I know how to run. As it is with so many things, the moment you actually start to focus on doing it correctly you realize you totally suck at it. I quickly realized I totally suck at running. 

After a mere 800m I start to have a stripper butt, as our coach calls it, otherwise known as sway back. I keep repeating "Tuck the butt, Tuck the butt" to myself. Tucking the butt causes me to tense up my shoulders and arms, which we are told is also bad. 

Ok. Tight stomach. Tuck butt, loose shoulders. Got it! The coach asks if I notice I am turning my right foot out more than the left. No. I had no idea. I am still just trying to keep my stupid butt tucked. 

Ok.Tight stomach.Tuck butt Loose shoulders. Don't turn foot out and oh yeah, run at 90%

At this point I am so focused on all my body positioning I barely even notice I am running and have forgotten to breathe all together. We finish the event with standard planks and flash dance planks; yes that is exactly what it sounds like. Hips to the ceiling, head back...because lets face it at this point there is no energy to hold your head up anyways. I already found out I don't have abs, so this whole ending the running with an ab workout is just salt in my new wounds. 

7 am rolls around and I head to work in full running gear. I am greeted by a co-worker in the parking lot who jokes that I have taken causal to an all-new level. 

Ha. So funny. 

I drag myself through the factory to our bathrooms fit for a horror movie. Yes that is an actual photo of our bathrooms. I opted to skip the shower and started the day with a dose of perfume. 

let's just say I was teetering on a fine line between full motivation and complete desertion...and that was only the first work out of the day. 

A late start is better than no start.

At the beginning of the year I set some fitness goals. Then I started writing about it. Then I forgot to post, so I am finally getting around to the whole actual posting bit. Better late than never right?

So here is how things started out, about a month ago. 

I was three weeks into my 2016 fitness goals, 2 weeks into training for a 1/2 marathon. Now let's have a little re-cap to start this journey off. I decided 2016 would be my year of fitness. I joined the Lurong challenge with my gym, which was a whole eating and fitness challenge. I also joined my gyms endurance program to start training for a half marathon, which has always been a bucket list item.

Week 1 was as you would expect; full of excitement and motivation. That whole "Can Do!" attitude. The first weekend of all this fun, we (my hubby and I) ended up traveling to Chicago to visit friends and the fine-tuned diet kind of went out the window. The following week was the first low. The "I give up" point. Yes just 8 days into my year of fitness, I was already giving up. Probably best I wasn't writing then as it would have been a big self-pity party with a lot of woe is me fun. Just be glad you all did not have to endure that post! I pushed through that week of workouts and eating right, but I will be the first to admit I had a horrible attitude ALL WEEK. I felt tired and week and unmotivated. There was a small glimmer of hope which grew into determination. Which brings us to day 3 of week 3 and where the story will continue on.