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.

Option A. Find a bathroom Option B. Shit my pants

This is a little story for my fellow crohnies. As some of you may know I have crohns disease. You can Google it, but pretty much if we were playing Oregon Trail, I would be the one dying of dysentery first. You get the idea. If you don’t know what Oregon Trail is, then you had a deprived childhood.

It had been kind of a long day and I needed to get some exercise. I was going to go biking, but I have had a cold and sometimes I push it too hard on the bike, so I decided to run instead. I don’t really love running, so I was unconcerned that I would attempt to push it too hard. I mean let’s be serious here. Anyways, about 3 miles out I got that little feeling like “oh hey, I might need to hit up a bathroom sometime in the nearish future.” For normal people this is not generally an issue. For a person with crohns this is a more time sensitive concern. 

I hit my turn around point and was feeling pretty good. The stomach was a little rumbly, but I was confident I would make it the 3 miles back to my house. After about a half mile I started to view bushes and hedges as possible shitting locations. I quickly realized that the remainder of this run was probably not going to happen without some sort of uncomfortable situation. I was fairly certain there was a park at the next path, road intersection and started to pray that there may be bathroom facilities there. That was still a half mile away though and I was seriously questioning that I could make it that far. I continued to jog until the park was in view and there did appear to be a bathroom facility of sorts. It was less than a quarter mile away, but at that point I had gone into self talk, deep breathing mode. One step at a time. You can do this. It’s not that far. You are NOT going to shit your pants right here!

I finally made it there. As I reached for the door, panic swept over me and for a split second I freaked out. What if the door is locked?  Closed after six? Some sick joke the universe was about to play on me to kill all my hopes and dreams of simply using a toilet instead of a bush or my shorts. The panic was also brought on by the fact that I had about 3 seconds before all hell would break loose in front of families playing baseball. To say I was relieved when the door was indeed unlocked would be a vast understatement.

I had made it! Life was good! Possible pants shitting situation had been averted. Though this all took place in maybe a 10 minute time lapse, I promise you it felt like an hour. So next time you are out running or biking and your feeling kind of tired or unmotivated, just be happy you don't also feel the need to shit your pants.