Face The Music Friday #46

Saturday – 8 miles

Sunday – Rest

Monday – 5 miles

Tuesday – 1 hr Core Fusion & Stretch class at Unleashed

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Rest

 

I’m not gonna lie – this wasn’t a good week. Saturday was a very, very soggy 8 miles in the rain. And I don’t mean like a drizzle. It was pouring on me steadily the majority of the time I was running. I did it though, and only did it that day to rearrange my entire workout week. I had it planned down to a T, then it all kind of fell apart.

Saturday after my run I had a lot of hip soreness (which I always do), but my IT band was also bothering me on the other side (the bad IT band). I had my ice bath when I got home, popped some Advil and did my stretching and rolling right away, but it only seemed to get worse as the afternoon went on. I figured some sleep would help and when I woke up Sunday, it was still sore, but not as bad. I decided to chill out and see how Monday went before deciding on my next run scheduled, which was 5 miles.

 

 

Monday was OK so I went for my run after work. Apparently, it wasn’t OK. By the time I got back to my car to stretch, I could barely stand on it. Not cool. I decided then and there that I likely wouldn’t be running again until the Spartan race on Saturday, which was a bummer because I had rearranged my schedule so I could run in the Off Road Conditioning class on Wednesday. I suffered through work on Tuesday in a decent amount of pain anytime I put weight on my leg, but decided I would still go to a new class I wanted to try out Tuesday night because I thought it could be beneficial.

 

 

The class on Tuesday was Core Fusion & Stretch. It was basically 1/2 hour of core work and 1/2 hour of stretching – the majority of the hour was basically yoga poses we would hold for about a minute each. I’m not gonna lie, I was sweating my ass off even though we were “just stretching”. It was a very difficult class, for me personally, so I was glad it was only 5 women taking it so there were less people to see me embarrass myself.

It’s really hard for me to do a lot of floor work because of various issues I have and I always feel like people are judging me, like I’m not trying hard enough. The issue is that I know my body and I will NOT push through pain. Toughness, yes, I’ll work through something difficult, but if it hurts me to have my lower back against the floor, I just can’t do it. Do I want to do it, yes. Do I feel like a failure when my body won’t let me, yes. Are people really judging me? I’m sure they’re not – doesn’t change my mindset. Regardless, doing what I could, I still got a kickass workout from Bobby and am still sore two days later.

Aside from workouts, I’ve just felt “off” this week. Maybe it’s because my schedule got messed up and I got injured again. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s why. I’m a planner, and when things don’t happen according to plan, I get easily perturbed. Add into this mix that the air conditioning is broken at work (only in our one corner of the building on the third floor) and it’s been 88* inside for the last two days (and likely today too) and that makes for a cranky Courtney.

Saturday is my second of 3 Spartan Races for the year. I’m more nervous about this one than I was the first one for some reason. Maybe because I’ve actually run one now and know how difficult it can be? Who knows. I have some Battle Buddies ready to run with and am hoping they can help me over the walls like my friend Zak did at the first one. If I have to walk the whole thing because of my hip and knee, I hope they’ll still stick with me, but I’m going to try to run where I can.

 

 

Before I move on to the musical selection this week, I have a question for all the runners out there (if you’ve made it this far): if my Spartan Race is almost 5 miles on Saturday, but I’m supposed to do my long run Sunday of 9 miles, what would you do? Would you count the race as your tough workout of the weekend? Would you run the race Saturday and then run 9 on Sunday, or would you run 4 additional on Sunday to make the 9? I’m really torn about how to handle it and welcome any advice.

Now, to cheer me up a little, here’s a perky little number called I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker by Sandi Thom. Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #45

Saturday – Dirty Dash

Sunday – Rest

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – 4 miles

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – 4 miles

Friday – Rest

 

I’ve had a cold since last Friday, so basically if I wasn’t running this week, I wasn’t doing anything else but resting. Next week is also going to be fairly insane, schedule-wise, leading up to my next Spartan Race so I’m not too worried about it. I still got all the training miles in that I was supposed to this week, so I’ll call that a win.

Big update on the nutritionist front: We’re pretty much done with him. I emailed him last Friday because it was the end of the first two weeks and that’s what he had told me to do. I figured we’d get a new/revised plan to follow that was more long-term or something. I never heard back, so on Tuesday morning I forwarded my email to him again. He just said sorry for the delay, he was working on his new store. He said he wanted us to keep doing the same (ONE DAY) diet and to start taking metabolism boosting/fat burning supplements and they could have caffeine or not. I told him we weren’t interested in taking any pills like that, was there a natural alternative? He said the only alternative would be to revise the diet even more strict for fewer calories! We’re already in the 1400 calorie range, so I told him that doesn’t seem very safe. This was his reply “Well it’s either one of two things, either you need fewer calories to continue the weight loss, or you could try eating more calories to stimulate weight loss.  I’m leaning towards less calories because your body’s have slowed down pretty quick.  Let me look over your meal plan and send something over to you in a bit.”

I don’t know what he means by “we’ve slowed down pretty quick”. We both lost around 10 lb in the first week, but that always happens to me when I try a new diet plan. Then it evens out to a couple of pounds a week. Apparently what I feel is “safe” isn’t losing enough. And by the way, when he said he would “send something in a bit”, he never replied back again, and that was Tuesday morning. So yeah, we’re basically done with him. I guess if he can’t sell you his other part of his business (protein powders and pills), then he doesn’t want to bother going anywhere with the nutrition plan we shelled out $75 (discounted) for. Guess I should have trusted everything I’ve ever read that said to see a registered dietitian instead of a “nutritionist”. So we’re on our own yet again but we’ll figure something out.

This week I’m going to throw something completely unexpected at you for a song. I heard one of her songs at one of the cookouts this past weekend and was told to check her out. I’m pretty selective with the rap I listen to (and mostly old school stuff like Snoop and Dre) but I’m really into her music I’ve listened to so far. This was one of the songs I chose to download the other day. I opted for the lyric version of the video because the other one is pretty intense.

 

Angel Haze (feat Sia) – Battle Cry

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #44

Saturday – 4 hours standing at Samurai Sprint and then walking around Boston before the concert

Sunday – 7 miles

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – 4 miles

Wednesday – 30 min elliptical

Thursday – 4 miles

Friday – Rest

 

This week was pretty spot on with my training plan. The only change-up I made this week was making today a rest day instead of tomorrow since tomorrow I will be racing. The timing is actually pretty perfect because this week tapers back just a bit so that my long run on Sunday would have been 4 miles before it jumps up again. Since the Dirty Dash is probably going to be close to a 5K course (I would imagine, though I’ve never done it) I figure that will just be my weekend run. I haven’t decided if I’ll take Sunday off or not, I guess I’ll see how I feel.

I pushed myself a little on Tuesday and Thursday with my runs. The plan I’m following for the half marathon is a 4 min run/2 min walk plan, which I’m sure I mentioned before. I set my intervals on Runkeeper and just listen for the jingle telling me to switch. It’s been going great and I can feel my endurance starting to come back (finally!!!). I decided on mile 3 of 4 to run the whole last mile and I was able to do it on both days! Slowly but surely, I’m getting there.

We were invited to two BBQs this weekend, so it’ll be another busy weekend, but I can’t wait. We may splurge just a little bit, depending on the food available. I know one of them seems like it will be really healthy, so splurging for us might just be having some fruit. Speaking of splurging, I think tweaking the diet plan this week has made a little bit of a difference. My body could also be getting used to this crazy deficit of carbs. I didn’t stick strictly to the 20% or less carbs ratio every single day, but didn’t go crazy either (I think one day was 30%). I need to send him an email since it’s been two weeks now and see what we’re supposed to do next. He had only given us one day of a diet plan and said “follow this for two weeks”. I feel like I could have done that myself for $75. So we’ll see…I’ll continue to update on that.

Not much else to talk about this week, so let’s rock the 80s, shall we? I wanted to do a little throwback today and mix it up some. I love Annie Lennox’s voice so it was an easy choice to include The Eurythmics song Sweet Dreams. While I do love Marilyn Manson’s Sweet Dreams also, I’ve been digging the 80s lately on Spotify so that’s what I’m going with today.

 

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #43

Saturday – 9+ hours on my feet at Unleashed Open House + mowed lawn

Sunday – 6 miles

Monday – Train Reaxion (description below)

Tuesday – 2.5 miles

Wednesday – 1 hr kettlebell workshop + messed around on obstacles a bit

Thursday – 4 miles

Friday – Kayaking + mowing the lawn planned for today

 

Busy, busy week! No real rest day to speak of because I decided to mix up my routine a bit and try some of another trainer’s classes at Unleashed. They were AMAZING! Monday was a regularly scheduled class, but Wednesday was a small group class that he put on just for a few ambassadors who had expressed interest in taking one of his classes at the open house, but we really didn’t have time. Totally worth the quad and glute pain I’ve had since Monday! It certainly made my runs on Tuesday and Thursday interesting, to say the least.

As for the runs, half marathon training is going right along by the plan. I was supposed to do 4 miles on Tuesday as well, but between my muscle soreness and the 88% humidity, my body wasn’t having it. I also had some stomach issues with these stupid protein drinks we’re on from the nutritionist. I did tell him we’re not going to be using the powder anymore once it’s gone. It’s just too nasty and too expensive.

So this class on Monday was a sweat fest! Below is a description of the class. The first 2 columns were done 4 times through, 30 seconds on, 12 seconds off. The last 2 columns were done I think 3 times through, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. It was super intense and tough, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

 

 

Before I can go on, I need to share this video. I know everyone and their mother has posted about her all over social media, but in case you missed it, Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman to ever finish an American Ninja Warrior qualifying round. She then put on this amazing performance and made it through the Finals! She’s going to Mt. Midoriyama!! It’s so exciting to watch! I love this show so much and now have a super chick to root for!

 

 

As for an update on the nutritionist plan, well, I hate it. I hated it on day one. I hate it on day 6. I feel like I’m always hungry unless I just literally put food in my mouth 5 minutes ago. I’m really tired in the morning without my coffee and then when it’s bedtime, I (and Tara) have to get up like 2-3 times to pee in the middle of the night, which never used to happen until this week. I also can’t sleep well past 2-4am and then I toss and turn quite a bit. As I mentioned before, when the protein powder is gone, we’ll resort to just eating real food again, which is kind of what I wanted in the first place. The one positive of the week is that I’ve lost 7.5 lb since Sunday. This is not that big of a deal because this has happened with me before when starting a new type of diet. It’s mostly just water weight that comes off in the very beginning. What will be interesting to see is how it progresses over the coming weeks when it levels out, and I introduce more actual food into my diet again. I’ll keep updating, at least weekly here, if not when something else arises.

 

 

Tara and I will be going kayaking today. She had all this week off so I took one day to hang out with her and I just happened to pick the right day! The weather should be gorgeous and I can’t wait to hit the water.

I went local with this week’s song pick. This is a Providence band and I just love their sound. This was the first song I ever heard of theirs played on the radio and I still love it to this day. At the time, they were simply “The Rice Cakes”, but now I guess they go by Roz and The Rice Cakes. Who knows. Anyway, enjoy Yellow Fields!