Mission P90X3 Month: Day the Fourth

I am SO TIRED.  Soooooo very tired.  Like long-blinking useless tired.

But I got my butt, which is becoming marginally less sore, up this morning and did Isometrix.  Which did make me sweat but not as much as the others.  I did lol at the idea that the yoga mat was optional.  It was sooooo not optional.  And I struggled with some of the poses but I suppose that is the point.  Was easier today to put my laptop (on which I watch the P90 vids) on the floor because this one is up then down the whole time.

All in all, a WIN just for waking up today.

Today is the P's birthday and I have reservations at a fancy restaurant which will keep me up later than I like.  (Read: past 8.)  But perhaps I can nap ahead of time and I can definitely sleep late, if Grimmy lets me.  So I just need to get through today.

Silver Lining?

I am still struggling through this week.  Exercising about every other day, and kind of beating myself up about it.

But.

But.

Last night I had a talk with Preston. 

I've been thinking that my problem is that always before when I started a diet and/or exercise kick, I started it HARDCORE.  You know, like 21 days straight of working out and eating well.  And that has ALWAYS led to results.  Results make me happy.  Happiness makes me want to continue, and off I go.

This time... this time I think I've got several issues.  My core is still really sore from the bronchitis, and I still feel the asthma taking a hold of my lungs occasionally.  So I'm not going hard on the workouts.  Plus life keeps interfering and I'm tired.  And then I can't do my diet the way I did in the past because I've been worried about the Z and the impact of us all not eating the same thing in the evenings.

So here's how I'm going to try to address it.  We've got a Boot Camp on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting up at work.  That will enable me to get an extra hour of sleep on those mornings.  I'm going to try to make at least one a week.  I am hoping that will help with the pesky life days.  Booty Barre has really helped me to get off my ass on Friday or Saturday.  I will keep this up. And the 5K I'm registered for makes next the PERFECT week to start this all off with 6 straight days of exercise.

As for eating, Preston and I talked and next week, I'm going to eat my stuff at dinner.  Which essentially means I'm going to buy Kashi frozen meals so I can count my calories properly.  I'm not sure if he knows it yet, but it also means I'm going to try to limit the eating out.  I do so well at work - I come home at 1100 calories or usually less.  At home is when I'm blowing it.  I have to find a way to get control at home.  This first kick is not a long term solution, but I'm hoping I can go from a week of Kashi, to maybe a week of My Fit Foods dinners, to working on cooking healthier options at home.  This can be done.  It is just a little harder this time around.

Preston is also going to work with me to try to stick more vigorously to Z's 8pm bedtime.  We've been letting it slip lately to closer to 8:30.  I literally walk straight from her room to my bed to go to sleep, and somehow I think that extra 30 min is really biting me the next morning when my alarm goes off.

So, the plan is in place.  The game is about to be afoot.  I am feeling... hopeful.

WF3, and Dolly Run

First on last weekend's FIT run.... it was ok.... I'm still not totally convinced about this whole group thing. The Yellows and Reds were to run the same route, and the Reds started just a few short minutes before the Yellows. As a result, when we started, we were almost instantly all jammed together on this congested path. I was super annoyed. (I'm pretty pissed off at the universe in general on most mornings, but I feel like there were some real issues in play here.) First of all, the Reds needed to be running single file on the right side of the path. The path is only wide enough for 3 total, and that includes both directions, so you should never run more than 2 abreast anyways. That way the faster Yellows could have been passing on their left, and still left some room open for the poor unfortunate souls who were trying to go the opposite way. When this wasn't the way things went, however, I felt like it was totally unnecessary behavior on the part of several Yellows to actually run off-path on the left to try to get around the pile-up. There were trees there, for crying out loud, so they'd jump off, run a few feet, then jump back in in front of some poor sap, then do the whole thing again. Really dangerous. Oh, and just in general, it would be really helpful if people would put their conversations on hold for the first half mile of the run so some of these problems could be more easily alleviated. I'm just sayin'...

Anyways, when we got to the first intersection, most of the Yellows, including me, took the opportunity to jump around the Reds, and then we were running freely. I found myself about 5th from the "leader". Is this what it is like to be near the front of a race??? I'm not sure it is my favorite... near the front we were all running splits in the 8's. I realized that I was going out too fast, and made an effort to rein it in, but then I ran into a situation where I was the only one around. The fasties had all gone on, and the people who were going at a proper speed were way behind. This sucked for 2 reasons: I love to chase people, and run better when I'm doing it, and I don't really know the routes, so I didn't know where the hell I was going. Ugh!! I'm thinking I should print up a little map of this week's route, if it is posted in time, and use some tape to "laminate" it, and I could stick it into my wrist sweat band, because apparently, even though the point of group runs is to run with a group, I'm never gonna get to do that... (Now I'm just being bitter. I keep trying to keep an open mind and tell myself that it'll settle down and get better, but each week of same suckiness makes that harder.)

Anyways, this morning I went for my scheduled run. Like an idiot, I thought the outer bands of Hurricane Dolly had passed through yesterday, but when I stepped out into the humid morning, I noticed a cloud on the horizon. That bugger moved *fast*. Before I had run half a mile, the clouds were over me and the rain started falling. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I turned around and ran about a quarter of a mile back to a little shelter in a local park, and just stood there for a minute or two. And standing felt so.good. Let me tell you. After that, I could hardly make myself run again. I've been really kind of tired and worn down feeling this week, and once I realized that the rain was from a hurricane band and would move through, so I decided to run in it, it took everything I had to overcome my lack of inertia and start moving again. Everything. Anyways, that feeling that the air was resisting me persisted for 2 miles as I ran in the rain. Grr. This tired thing - first I thought it was left over sick from last week. Then I thought maybe I'm not eating enough, so I started eating more. Now I don't know what I think, but I want it to freaking stop. That is all.

Tae Blarg

I'm still plagued with an exhausted lethargy. I didn't swim last night (raining, AGAIN). I didn't want to get up this morning, and it is possible that I half-assed parts of my tae bo this morning. I don't even give a shit. All I want to do is sleep. The holiday weekend can't get here fast enough. I've gotta snap out of this - I don't even like me when I'm like this. There must be a pattern... there must be something I can do to avoid these valleys.

Etched Glass Ceiling over the Run

This morning the OHR schedule called for a 38 minute run. The run itself felt pretty crappy (I felt really tired and slow, and my left shin started complaining loudly enough near the end of the 2nd mile that I considered stopping). What was striking and blog-worthy was the gorgeous full(ish) moon gleaming over the pines lighting up clouds that had lines that were so precise they could have been etched in glass. Beneath this canopy I eked out about 3.45 miles in 38 minutes for just over 11 minute miles.

Last night the weather prevented a swim that I was considering cancelling due to tiredness anyways. I'm hoping to swim tonight instead... and then this week is almost over!

This tiredness thing - I need to go back and try to determine - is it when I'm trying to ramp up the exercising hours? Is it when I haven't been eating right? Is it to do with the full moon or something else totally random? If I push though without cutting back will it abate? Or should I be cutting back when it strikes?