So this is Christmas... I lift!

Hmmmm.... lifting...

Just a quick pop in here (mostly because I did my first at-home lifting workout just a little bit ago, and I have the feeling that I won't be able to move my arms to type later...).

Got this great surprise this morning for Christmas from my DH and DD. I went out of town with my best friend for the few days before Christmas, and while I was away my husband and daughter converted our basement into an at-home gym complete with some weights, a bench, a covered floor, an exercise ball, a medicine ball, some sort of squishy ball thing I don't yet know how to use, some rings that are yet to be hung, and other assorted surprises. How amazingly cool. I have access to the fitness center at school, but I have always wanted a space to do an at-home lifting workout, and now I've got it. 

Now, to use it.... workout one down. I used the Runner's World "Strength Training for Runners" workout today. It will be a while before I outgrow that one!

A One-Month Challenge: Run, Lift, Sleep, Eat, Teach, Mother, repeat....

Credit: www.goneforarun.com Facebook page

The PF Report and Long Runs

I've said it before; I don't know who I am when I'm not running. And yet I haven't been running. Because PF. And when I saw this image pop up on yesterday's Facebook feed, it spoke to me (even if ironically). 

Long runs matter. For me, long runs are therapy. Personal time. Think time. Work it out time. Time I've needed very much in the last two weeks. And had my left heel not hurt so stinking much, to mitigate the stress of the last two weeks at work, I would have needed fifty miles on the road. 

Coffee matters. No further explanation needed there.

So I did go long today. Six miles long. That's as long as I felt comfortable pushing my heel. They were six hard-fought miles, though. I'm not sure that I got any closer to accepting the things I cannot change, but I got a little closer to accepting that the conversations I have in my head while running long might be the best I can do with some of that work stress for now. 

A One-Month Personal Wellness Challenge

The injury has set me back quite a bit mentally in other ways. I wasn't prepared to run the 1/2 marathon this weekend that I usually run in Indianapolis with my best friend, so I didn't go. I've justified it by saying that I'm resting from the injury, but I also know I'm not doing enough to heal the heel; I need to be consistent in icing, taking anti-inflammatories, stretching, wearing a Strassborg sock to bed, and trying out this new essential oil that's been recommended by a friend. 

But I always do better when I've got a target, so I'm taking on a one-month personal wellness challenge. I chose a month because I've got one month until my Wellness Screening at school. Every year we get a weigh in with a BMI and a blood test and a flu shot and a whole host of other pieces of data about our health. Every year I tell myself I'll do something different. But a year seems like a bit too big of a bite (and it clearly is since I've only got a month left until this year's screening.) 

So one month. Targets: Run, bike, or lift every day. Record and manage nutrition for all 30 days. Consistently treat the PF.  

We'll see what a difference a month can make. Anyone else interested? 

On recovery, endorphins, and a stupidly brief stab at lifting weights.

I've been a jerk for the last week. I've been home from Disney for two. I had a week of post-Dopey, pseudo-endorphin fueled euphoria! I ate a lot of food. I slept a lot. I wore my Oofos around the house. I updated my blog to try to grab those memories from Dopey. I didn't unpack my suitcase (although I did make a half-hearted effort at it). I didn't run.

And then I had this week. And this week, it felt like there wasn't anything that didn't trigger a reaction in me--either internally or externally. I was spending the week just below boil. I don't think that's my normal mental temperature; it didn't feel "normal" to me, and I was aware that my reactions to just about everything felt larger than they needed to be. I still didn't run. 

In the last year and a half, I have not gone more than four days without running. For the second half of 2016, I was on a streak. I ran 180+ days straight. And at the end of that running streak at the start of 2017, I started marathon training for the Illinois marathon. And at the end of that training cycle, I started training for the Dopey Challenge. By the end of the year, I had run 1281.38 miles. 

So when I got back from Dopey, I decided to take PLENTY of time off. Two whole weeks. I should have recognized the signs of withdrawal: depression, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, muscle aches and pains, insomnia. Sorry, friends and co-workers. 

And then today I ran. How on earth do people live without the endorphins from running? I even stopped at the Fitness Center to lift after my run (rare!). For a full three hours after my run (of just four miles), I was planning to take on the world. I started by rather unsuccessfully cleaning the house, followed that by taking my daughter to lunch in town and some grocery shopping, came home and finally unpacked my Dopey suitcase. My brain was working in overdrive, too. Wild. 

The timing of Dopey is tricky. It hits right at the beginning of January--the time of year when most of the country is making New Year's resolutions and setting goals for the coming year. Meanwhile, I kicked off the year by nailing a goal from the previous year. And in the two weeks after completing the challenge, I haven't been able to even think about what's next. Feels like just about everyone is thinking only about "What's next?" in their own lives (understandably.) And while I'm not a new year's resolution sort of a gal, I am a goal-oriented gal, but I've had to give myself permission to not think that way. 

Which brings me to today. I lifted when I finished my run. Not sure what that was about. I even considered going online and posting a request for someone to help me learn more about lifting... the horror. I'll have to revisit this one again later in the week. Post-run today, I felt ready to do anything. I'm off that. But I do have to figure out what's next. So maybe what's next is to figure out what's next.