Mostly it’s the endorphins.

I don’t know if you know this but I’ve started running. Specifically, I’m on Week 3 of Couch to 5K. If you follow me on twitter and Facebook you know this because every time I do a run I’m like HEY EVERYBODY I RAN LOOK HERE IS HOW FAR AND HOW LONG AND HOW FAST AND I AM SO AWESOME YEAH!

Mostly it’s the endorphins posting.

Mostly.

It’s also partly that I just want the acknoledgement that I actually went out there and moved myself forward in a fast pace. Faster than my normal pace which is NO PACE.

There seems to be a lot of bloggers that have found a love of running and my most favorite by far is Miss Zoot. I LOVE her attitude. She’s REAL about how HARD it is to run. And I understand there are people out there that just have a body that RUNS. It just WORKS. I do not have one of those bodies. I get HORRIBLE shin splints if I don’t wear my neoprene wraps on my legs. If I don’t hydrated REALLY WELL and make sure I have a good amount of calories in me, I bonk hard on the last sprint or two.

I might be there one day. I’ll strap on my shoes, plug my headphones in, hit the trail and be zen. For now every step is a battle, every sprint is a war and at the end I feel like the motherfucking badass that stormed the castle, killed the giant lizard and wins the heart of the princess.

Mostly it’s the endorphins. They are totally awesome.

Also awesome? The tan lines…

Motivation. Time to BRING IT.

Last year I made a BIG change in my life. I started working out regularly and eating better (not perfect, I just made better choices and practiced portion control) and I lost 45 pounds. And I LOVED it.

And I looked like this:

And I had arms like this:

And calves like this:

And then I suddenly got lazy and complacent again and gained like 30 pounds back.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

It didn’t all come piling back on and I for quite a long time managed to maintain the loss but in about the last 3 months, my weight just steadily crept UP AND UP AND UP!

And it’s time to fix it. About three weeks ago I started slowly incorporating workouts back in to my daily routine about three times a week. I didn’t feel like I was QUITE ready yet to just go gung ho all in.

Then for the first time last night I felt disappointed that I DIDN’T get a workout in. I didn’t sleep as well last night, I felt kind of “off” all day today, I couldn’t concentrate completely and I kept thinking that I’d REALLY wished I’d gotten a workout in. I couldn’t WAIT to get home and bust out the Legs and Back.

Then about 30 minutes before I left work Ben and I kind of got into it. Not a fight, we were both just annoyed with each other and I’m premenstrual so probably over reacted and I got home and was like JUST FUCK IT. I’M NOT WORKING OUT! WHY BOTHER! I HATE EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD EVEN KITTENS! ESPECIALLY KITTENS! AND BUTTERFLIES! FUCK BUTTERFLIES!

So after taking Cassidy to a friend’s to spend the night, and drinking a Shakeology, I sat down on the couch to pout and HATE THE WORLD. Then I opened YouTube and decided to just watch a few of my “motivation” videos. By about the third one I was feeling a bit better then I watched Tekoa’s video and that was all it took, I was going to press play.

And I did. And it was good. And it will probably hurt to THINK about moving my legs tomorrow. And my glutes are ALREADY sore. It hurts to sit. It hurts SO GOOD.

Anyway, this is just a post to say, I AM BACK. I’m not even close to those pictures up there but I’m pretty pleasantly surprised at how quickly my arm tone is coming back. Like, they are solid when I flex. SOLID. And covered in a layer of fat.

But give me three months. Pressing play 5-6 days a week, making those same smart food choices and I’ll be back.

Three months.

Time to BRING IT.

In which I hiked.

We hiked 3.5 miles up and then UP SOME MORE, then back down the UVAS canyon. It was a gorgeous day out and it was great to get out into the open wilderness and get lost in the beauty around us for a few hours.

We started out with a decent ascent up the first trail which became a narrow set of switchbacks through a beautiful shaded path. It was a little steep at times but doable and Ben walked out in front of me to set a pretty decent pace. I was able to keep up with him for the most part and only had to stop a few times for water breaks.

And to admire the view.

And to make sure that we were avoiding the poison oak that was EVERYWHERE!

We made it to the peak of that hike and I was feeling pretty great and checked my heart rate monitor for the first time to check my calorie burn and it was at almost 500 calories! So it was time to refuel with some Kashi bars before heading back down the mountain on the more scenic, but not as steep trail.

We were checking the map and I saw this offshoot trail that was only half a mile long and thought that we should totally try and tackle that and Ben was up for anything so we decided to hike up it and see what was at the top. The map had the name of the trail and the word STEEP in brackets but I thought that it couldn’t be much more steep than the one we had already hiked, right!? BOY WAS I WRONG! I jokingly asked Ben to pose in front of the sign so that I could title the picture “before I died”. I didn’t realize then that THAT HALF MILE WOULD ALMOST KILL ME!

It took pretty much every single bit of will power I had in my system, then some of Ben’s, to get me up that hill. It was TOUGH. We stopped at one point to take pictures and after the first two Ben was like, “You should at least TRY and look happy! LOOK HAPPY!”

So I did.

You can kind of see how steep the climb was there. Trust me, it was twice as steep as it looks there. Even though Ben is in much better shape than I am and was able to motor up that climb MUCH faster than me, even he stopped to enjoy the break at the top.

After that short break we started back down that steep path and it was then that I realized that the rest of the hike back to the car would be down hill and this is how I felt about that.

All in all it was a GREAT way to spend 2.5 hours of our Saturday and burning 1480 calories in the process. We had such a great time that we are planning on hitting a more challenging 11 mile hike next weekend. I was pretty proud of myself for making it not only through the hike, but up that last half mile section. I know that a year ago, I’d NEVER have been able to do that. I’d have either not even attempted it or quit half way up because it was too hard. It’s just such an amazing feeling to know that I accomplished a big goal for me which was to go on a hike with Ben. It’s a goal that I’ve been working towards for a long time and I DID IT!

Not only did I make it through the hike but I felt AWESOME after the fact. We stretched really well when we got back to the car and my legs feel great now. We set a goal to keep doing these mini practice hikes and eventually, hit Half Dome in Yosemite. Ben has done it before and he’s said he’s in better shape now than he was then but it’s a TOUGH hike so it’s not something we are going to rush out and to tomorrow, but eventually!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Peddle Faster!

So I kind of quietly started a new round of P90X on Monday. I didn’t really tell anybody but Julie and Ben because that meant having to admit out loud that I totally failed the last round. I’m not sure what happened but about half way through I just lost steam and motivation and gave up.

But I’m back, baby!

I’m not following the workout plan exactly because on cardio days I’ve been out on the bike peddling off the calories. I finally had to admit to myself that I’m just not going to be able to run. At least not right now. My shins have never stopped giving me problems and after trying stretching techniques, icing, aspirin, new running shoes, neoprene wraps, focusing on my landing, EVERYTHING, I’d still have KILLER shin splints every single time I tried. Having to admit it just WASN’T going to work was really hard on me because I hate being a quitter.

BUT! On a more positive note I’ve discovered that while I’m not a runner, I AM a biker! Ben, Cassidy and I started taking bike rides and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. The first day we rode about 10 miles and for the following two days I walked funny and had a hard time sitting down but that hasn’t happened since and I’ve been able to do the 9-10 mile rides with great success. I still can’t keep up with Ben, but I’ll get there soon!

So for right now (and at least the next two weeks) my schedule looks like this:

Monday: P90X Chest & Back
Tuesday: Bike ride (this week we did a 10 mile ride and I burned 700+ calories)
Wednesday: P90X Arms and Shoulders
Thursday: Bike ride (did 9.6 miles, 670 calories)
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: P90X Legs and Back
Sunday: Bike ride plus either X Stretch or Yoga X

Friday was a rest/free day for me and I think that I might stick to that for awhile. I have a LONG week of working and by Friday I am BURNT OUT. Ben and I like to have date nights those nights and then I’m in bed REALLY early. If I can manage to make it to a Friday with enough energy to work out I’ll probably plug Kenpo X, Plyometrics or a ride in there but for now, I’m not going to get down or myself or feel bad if I don’t manage to get to it.

Also, I’ve stopped using Spark People. It’s a great site but SO BLOATED with extra crap that I don’t need. So I’ve switched over to MyFitnessPal and I love it so far. So, if you use it add me!

And I PROMISE I’ll get back to blogging more regularly again. I was in kind of a slump there for a bit but now that I’m back on track and eating more healthy and getting some great exercise I feel like I’m getting all my energy and spunk back.