Lesson learned: Running while sick = bad.

Hey, I only learn lessons the hard way, but once they are learned, they are ingrained. So, no more running events while sick. Period. In my defense, I actually felt better on Sunday and thought I was better, and the run itself felt really good. Aside from the first mile in which I struggled with a side cramp. After that subsided, the rest of the run was amazing. My time was 44 minutes, quite a bit slower than I was hoping for, but clearly due to the first mile of pain. Within about an hour after the run, the adrenaline wore off and I knew I was in trouble. I literally went home and passed out. My chest congestion was awful, my cough got worse, I slept all day Monday and went to work sick for the rest of the week. I skipped all workouts and just started back with my personal trainer on Friday. None of this was worth doing the run. I should have just skipped the run and I'd have been healthy a week sooner, but my stubborness didn't allow for this at the time. And again, I felt better at the time, I swear!

Somehow through my sickness and lack of exercise, I didn't gain any weight back and I'm still at 155. 154.8 to be exact, if my home scale can be trusted. I have 4 weeks until my next 5k and I feel pretty good about that. I know I can do the distance, I just need to focus on staying healthy and improving my speed through sprint intervals. Adria is training with me for the Cindo de Mayo 5k, my goal is an 11-12 minute mile by then. I'll be happy with a 12-13 minute mile at the Young Life 5k in April. Overall I am feeling much better, though I really took it easy this weekend and made a point to rest a lot. Next week I'm going to try a normal workout schedule so I'm hopeful my body can handle it!

Countdown to the Shamrock!

2 more days! Well really, 1 more full day of rest and then bring on the running! Still battling a nasty head cold, chest congestion and hacking cough BUT it will not stop me from running on Sunday. Both my running partners are in the same boat; Kirsten has the same thing I do and Amber injured her foot this week. Tough shit! It's only 3 miles, the goal is 40 minutes. That's a cake walk. No doubts we can do it. Philippians 4:13!

Aside from being sick I feel pretty amazing. I had my first drill weekend last week, got to meet my unit and my squad, and had a really awesome time. I love the people I work with! We did land navigation and orienteering in Lewis and Clark State Park and it was a blast.

Next week I will be back to my regular work out and running routine. Now that I'm running 3 miles my goal is to improve speed. I want to be at least 1-minute faster per mile at the next 5k, which is April 16th in Vancouver. I'll do 2 days a week of running my 3 mile distance, and then 1 day a week of sprint intervals for 30 minutes. As tired and sick as I am right now, I'm really looking forward to seeing progress! :D

I got a new attitude!

It's amazing how a healthy day of eating and a solid jog at lunch can change my whole attitude around. My hamstring is still sore and I'm sitting on a heating pad at the moment, but I made it through a nice slow 2 mile jog at lunch that felt really good. I wasn't able to do the crazy Army PT this evening, but it looked like fun, right up until the throwing up part. Next week for sure! I feel refocused and revamped and I'm really looking forward to a weekend in the cold drizzly rain with my new unit. I know it sounds sick and wrong, but I am so excited!! :D

I need a new attitude

Ugh. Struggling with my diet. Struggling with motivation and energy. Struggling with another strained hamstring (the other one). It's been a week of struggles!

The diet is my own fault and frustration. I'm not good at making healthy choices at restaurants, so I combat this by not eating out, which is also better for me financially. The only problem with that is that if and when I do go out to eat, I eat everything in sight, plus dessert, thank you very much. I really only make good food choices when I create and cook my own meals, so for now, this is what I need to do. It helps that I work out 5 days a week and I'm not available for the lunches with work friends. I need to work harder at saying no to gatherings that focus on food. It just leaves me depressed and grumpy and sluggish.

I also need to work out a better compromise with my personal trainer. She likes to push me hard on max weight, which is what hurt me this time, and I just can't afford to get hurt in the next 4 months. Not only does it throw off my entire workout routine while I'm healing, but it also throws me off my mental game of reaching measurable goals. I need forward moving progress to stay motivated and injury is not allowed. I think we need to focus more on endurance, more reps with medium weight, so I'll talk to her about it on Friday. I also need to get serious about my push-ups and sit-ups. I'm already at my passing goals, so now I need to set higher goals and work harder to reach them. I refuse to be a just-barely-passing kind of girl in the Army.

As far as the hamstring, I think it will be ok. I hurt it on Monday, jogged on Tuesday, and took today off completely. I've got heat on it now, will soak it tonight, and do another light jog tomorrow. I have FSA class tomorrow night but I can modify any running required. I think it will be fine by the weekend, though I won't push for speed in any of my running over the next 2 weeks. I am running the Shamrock 5k come hell or high water! :)