Dirty air, blech!

I made it on the elliptical today. Part of my time was spent holding Jenna while on it. She had come into my room very sad, so I picked her up & continued on. I'm pretty sure she loved it.

I think the hardest thing today was just looking out my window while I exercised. I could see the foggy haze & just knowing that we have the dirtiest air in the nation made me want to not breathe at all. Every year about this time I think that we need to move away from this area because the air is horrible all winter long. Gross.

Twos

Two things have been determined.

1. I'm growing out of my clothes. Randy said I can't buy any more.

2. I've been on a yo-yo the last 3 years.

This year I have made my health goals few and simple. I really have to make sustainable changes that I can live with...not just do for a few months & then revert back to old behaviors. So, these are my two goals.

1. Eat 5 servings of fruits & veggies every day.

2. Exercise 5 days each week.

The goals are so simple, yet so hard. But I'm going to do my best & not beat myself up when I fall short. I am human, and I will fall short some of the time. I do plan to select a few races to run this summer to get myself running again. For now, I'm using the elliptical & hoping to spring the cash to get the computer on it fixed.

Explaining to do.

I realized that I never said anything after my last run. My shin splints were so bad (hence me needing to run so slow & walk a lot) that I've decided to take a running break until spring. Of course, I'd have to do that unless I had a gym membership or wanted to run in freezing weather & snow.

I want & need to hop back on my elliptical, but for this week, I'm focusing on getting to bed at a decent hour. If I can tackle that, then I should be able to wake up early enough to exercise before my little terrors wake up...I mean, my little sweethearts.

I do plan to put my running shoes on in St. George this week, but I'll probably just walk. An early morning walk in not-so-cold weather sounds great, especially with my family!

Cold & Dark

I had to run with a head lamp half of the run today. We started out on the trail, but it was spooky, so we got off at the first chance. We weren't as speedy as I had hoped, but I'm just glad that Janell's patient with me & my need to stop and walk on occasion.

Running (with a few doses of walking, per my request): 2.38 miles, 28:51, 12:07/mi

Total: 2.85 miles, 36:43, 12:52/mi

Running again

Tiff and I decided a few weeks back that we would not be doing the Snow Canyon Half. My legs were hurting too badly to continue the training. Instead, we will do the Butch Cassidy 10k on the same day. So, after a 3 week break, I went running with Janell today (who has continued to run in my absence). My break felt much longer than 3 weeks, by the way. Well, my legs felt great. My Garmin's battery was low when I started & didn't make it, so here are the stat's from Janell's.

Running: 2.22 miles, 25:55, 11:42/mi

Total (I'm estimating): 2.9 miles, 38 minutes

4 and hanging them up...for now

Running (w/ a fair share of walking): 4.03 miles, 50:21.30, 12:30/mi

Total: 4.48 (plus another probably .22 that I didn't clock) miles, 58:24, 13:03/mi

My legs were feeling decent yesterday, so I figured I'd try 4 miles today. Seemed easy enough. Until I woke up and felt tight calf muscles. Needless to say, the run was painful for me, and riddled with walking. Janell humored me & walked right along when I needed to slow down. I made it the whole way, but I also made a determination, too.

I'm going to hang up my running shoes for a while. I'm not sure how long. At this point, my shins & calves & ankles couldn't carry me 13.1 miles, it's just too painful. So I'm going to give them a break. I still plan on doing the 100 & 200 challenges, and I'll have to dust off the elliptical to keep myself moving. All in all, I think my legs will thank me.

Undecided

I haven't made it back out running yet. As of today, my legs still really hurt--mostly my shins and my right ankle. I want to keep running, and yet I want to quit. The pain is sometimes pretty intense & I've been taking ibuprofen every day. I'm sure I'll keep going, and hopefully I'll feel good enough to get out on Saturday.

I'm not sure what to do because two of my long runs before the half-marathon are going to be difficult or impossible to do. Randy will be out of town for several days when I need to do one of them, and we'll be in NM during another. I could do a treadmill in NM, but I don't know what to do when Randy's gone, since I want to be able to do it early in the morning.

A blog that I follow talked about the one hundred pushups challenge, the two hundred situps challenge, and the two hundred squats challenge. I'm needing something to continue pushing me along on the days that I don't run. Yes, the elliptical is always staring me down, but I've yet to hop on it in a while. So, I'm going to do the challenges. I tested myself tonight & will begin them next week. I'm actually excited & hopeful that I can tone my flabby arms a bit. Oh, the pain of needing to lose weight & not getting it done!