Week One in the books

I have had a running theory in my life that if it feels like the devil/world is fighting you every step of the way, you must be doing something right. If that is in deed true, I must be on the right path with my current plan. This week has been a nightmare to get through and it is all because of annoying little things that can set you back. 

Monday was day one of my training plan using the New Rules book that I talked about in my last post. I had to get our workout space set up which meant I had to do some rearranging. We had originally planned to use the "sun room" as the spare bedroom and what would be the master bedroom normally as the workout room. Once we started moving everything in however, we decided to switch it around but the movers had already put the spare bed and most of our boxes in the sun room. So Monday night started with me clearing out the air mattress from the back bedroom and moving LOTS of boxes so that I could move the spare bed into the right room. Then I had to continue shifting boxes around to make room for the workout space. This, of course, was a pain in the ass. I got a little beat up in the process as well.(Moving a queen size bed alone can be dangerous.) I was frustrated and tired before I ever began my workout, but I sucked it up and did the first work out in the plan. I felt good but was really reminded of how far I really have to go in this journey of strength. 

The plan calls for you to do their workouts three times a week. I will be doing MWF  with some running on TTS. That means Tuesday night called for a quick run. Nothing major happened that night when I did my two mile run. I could have gone for more but I wanted to make sure I wasn't pushing too hard during the week since I really want to do the strength stuff right. 

Wednesday was my birthday and I decided I wanted to get myself a gift. that gift was a tiny barbell set from Academy so that I can start the program completely at home while I get comfortable with all of the moves and figure out how much weight I should/can lift. The thought of walking into a gym with NO CLUE how much weight to use made me want to stay at home. I had looked several places but couldn't find what I wanted. We finally hit Academy just before they closed and they had EXACTLY what I needed. It is a total 110lb set. It has a 5 foot,  25lb bar and 85lbs in discs(four 10s, six 5s and six 2.5s) It is perfect for a newbie like me. Once we were home, I still had a few more things I needed to set up. Workout A(Monday) didn't call for too much equipment other than a few dumbbells but for Workout B, I needed a bench. Luckily, I had picked one up for Mac's birthday last month but we had not put it together yet. After searching what seemed like forever for the tools needed to put it together, I finally located everything.(FYI: I HATE MOVING) The instructions said it was a two man job but I was on my own because mac had already gone to bed. It was all fine until  the wrench slipped and I knocked a huge chunk of skin off of the knuckle on my right pinky. It hurt like hell and bled like crazy. I had to get Mac up so he could put a band-aid on it because I couldn't control the bleeding and put on a band-aid at the same time. He helped me get the last of the bench put together. I was hurt and angry and really just wanted to go to bed, but I didn't. I grabbed my lifting gloves I picked up for cheap at TJ Maxx and decided to just get it done. My hand wasn't always comfortable but I made it through the workout. 

Thursday was the first day I was really sore. We were heading down to Fort Worth that night so I wasn't going to get in a run but I was hoping to get some time in the pool at the hotel. Unfortunately, we got there a little later than we had hoped and that wasn't an option either. It didn't end up being a total wash though because we were staying in the Stockyards area and did a lot of walking that night. I got a horrible night's sleep at the hotel and woke up feeling off on Friday. I just felt bad all day. I think something I ate Thursday night didn't sit well with me and I felt it all day. As the day went by, I wondered how I would be able to do the workout that night. Mac finally suggested that I start it, see how I felt and then either stop or continue. I ended up making it through the workout and only cut one set short but that was because I still have to work up to being able to complete it.

I was hoping to get a long run in this morning but running this weekend is going to be hard because we are supposed to have rain and thunderstorms every day for the the next few days. I am hoping I can at least get a short run in tonight if it holds off for a couple hours but we will see. In reality, at this point, if I can't do any of my runs, I'm ok with that, as long as I am doing the strength workouts. I have to get my body used to these new workouts first and the training plan I was hoping to use for Avengers, doesn't actually start until the end of July so as long as I can throw in some short runs here and there just to keep my legs moving, I should be fine.

I am considering doing the Runners World Summer run streak but I ma not fully committing to it yet. I will see how running a mile on my workout days feels and if I feel like my body can handle it, I will continue. If I feel like it is too much, I'll stop.

For now, week one is in the books. I did all three workouts and I am happy with it. I still have to tweak a few things to find the right amount of weights to use but I am getting there. I also finally have our workout space completely set up. The entire room isn't done because there are still boxes we need to deal with in one end but the  required area for everything else is cleared and set up. Take a look below. You can see my tiny barbell set in the corner. It currently has 10lbs on it and the rest of the discs are stacked in the corner. Hopefully, now that it is done, I will quit beating myself up and all of this will get easier. 

Here we go

So I have been wanting to blog more but just haven't done it. I try to blog during the day so that people will actually see my posts but now I think I am just going to have to start scheduling the posts because I always want to write at night, while you are all sleeping. I want to get back to sharing my story because even though it is not pretty right now, it is real and I think I need that to keep me accountable. I've let myself slip way too far and I really want to make a big change in the right direction during our short time here.

I'm finding myself feeling like I am starting over. I'm not, but I am just as scared as I was when I started all of this. I guess it is because I had done so well and come so far and then I let myself mess up and go backwards. Those fears that it just isn't possible keep creeping in. The reality is that it is possible, I just have to find the right way for me. A lot of the success I had last year was the result of the fear I had from the crazy medical stuff that was going on. When you are scared to eat anything, it is easy to cut back and lose weight. Now that I am not afraid of food anymore and not depriving myself, I need to learn how to eat what I like, feel satisfied and lose weight.  Mac and I have done way too much eating out for the last month or so with the move and I am really trying to get away from that again. It's still hard though because there are still so many boxes and we can't find everything we need. Plus the kitchen is so much smaller than our last one and it feels like there is no room to do anything.

One thing I have really wanted to do for a long time and been too scared of was weight lifting. I knew that I needed to do more strength training but I had no clue what to do or how to do it so I tried to find other ways around it. While I love Insanity and gained a lot of strength from it, I still wanted to do something more strength focused. I have toyed with the idea of getting a personal trainer but it is just so expensive. I have really been wanting to get to a point where I can do a pull-up and looked at a ton of different possible plans but they all felt overwhelming.  Last week, I noticed a blog post from a FB friend of mine that I found very interesting. She was reading a book about weight lifting for women and it sounded really interesting. I decided to do a little more research on the book and found a fitness blog with a review of the book. He loved it(and the others by the same author) and only had wonderful things to say. He is a personal trainer that doesn't treat his female clients like they are incapable of really working out and lifting real weights. So many times, you see stuff for women recommending 2 or 3 lb weights or doing lots of reps with basically no weight and these guys(the blog author and the book author) don't do that. They tell you to really lift real weights.

The book is called "The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift like a Man, Look like a Goddess". I read a few sample sections and finally bit the bullet and ordered it on Amazon. I also had some credit on my Nook so I downloaded it there as well. I really like how it breaks it all down, explains the methods and thought process behind all of the rules and then gives you a training plan to follow. It also talks about nutrition as well. The full training plan consists of 7 stages with stage 6 being optional. If you complete all seven stages, it is a six month program. I am going to be skipping stage 6 for now so it is about a five month plan for me. Some of the workouts I will be able to do completely at home, like tonight, and other days, I will need to go to the gym. The awesome thing is that, on a military base, the gyms are free. I just have to get over my fear of them. I'm still self conscious but I am hoping to work on that this summer as well.

One of the other cool things that I found when I was looking up the reviews of the book was in the review I read by the personal trainer, he also mentioned his progression to pull-ups for women. I looked into them and really liked what I saw. One thing that I really liked was that his first stage incorporates a TRX for those of us that are really starting from scratch. I am going to be throwing some of those workouts in the mix as well but I will be taking it very slowly so that I do not over do it at all.

On top of all of this, I will be running and hopefully swimming. I will either do an easy short run on weekdays or maybe spend some time in the pool and then run my long runs on Saturdays as usual. I want to really have a nice solid base before my mileage starts going up as I prepare for the Avengers half in November. I want to be sure that I can get the miles in early in case things are really crazy right before the race with the possible move being around then.(Which seriously has me stressing over airfare. It's hard to buy a ticket when you have no idea where you will be flying from.) I want that race to be a really strong race. Lots of people talk about not trying to get a PR at a Disney race but I am really aiming to do just that. I don't stop for pictures and the DL courses are actually really good for having a faster race since the last half is spent on city streets so there is nothing to stop for at all.

I also want to possibly go home and run the Macon Labor Day Road Race again. I still have a bone to pick with that race and I know that it could be a great way to get a good proof of time for a future race. I'm not expecting the 10K at the end of May to be a great race but I will still do my best. I haven't been getting the right training runs in like I had hoped. The following weekend is a half marathon on post that I am considering doing(so I can check Oklahoma off the map) but it will be a slow race I'm sure. We got permission for Mac to pace me on his bike so that he can carry lots of water and some snacks for me since I am sure I will need them on June 7th. They were finally smart about it and moved the start time up to 6:30 so it won't be horrible, but it will still be hot by the time I am done.

I have lots of great plans, but I have had lots of great plans before. I just have to ignore the fear and do it this time. Mac is trying to help me stay on track and I am hoping to leave Oklahoma a new person.