Weekend Perfection

I had what I would consider close to a perfect weekend. The rare meeting of activity, good company, and awesome adventures. Weekends like this last are a good reminder of why life is so good and ultimately it is so important to hang on to the things that keep you going.

Friday night I did end up going to the gym and meeting mom there for what I consider a lighter workout. It wasn’t crazy insane, but it was still work. It was, what I consider good enough, especially after 4 killer days of work at the gym.  Chris had the weekend off and we did not have any major plans for Saturday. I woke up and was lying in bed about 8 AM trying to decide what would be the best course of action for us for the day. We could piddle around the house and around town doing random errands, but honestly I was scared about my ability to not overeat if I wasn’t engaged in some activity. I didn’t really want to go to the gym because I had the previous 5 days plus I was running a half on Sunday morning.  Mom had mentioned that she was going to go hiking at Multnomah Falls with my sister and brother in law. As I lied there in bed it occurred to me that this would be a fun activity. The thing is, hiking before a half marathon probably not advisable but because of who I was going with I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult or long of a trek. Probably just a couple miler which wouldn’t kill us. So I texted mom from bed asking her what time they were leaving. 11 AM. Perfect. We were on board.

The thing is, it turned out to be absolutely awesome. We traveled to the falls with my sister, brother in law and my mom. Packed a few healthy snacks and away we went. Like so many hikes there are multiple directions and ways one can go. We started out with the most obvious choice which was a lovely fairly uphill climb to the top; this was about a 1.25 mile hike straight up. No problems, lots of fun. We were then faced with the option to turn around and go back down the hill or explore the other way. I was feeling full of energy and honestly after an hour, wasn’t really ready to be done. I pressed for the unknown option. Of course, sometimes the unknown option can be scary :)

Chris and I were 100% capable and able to complete the route that we had chosen. My other family members perhaps were not physically prepared for what lie ahead. We went slow, but perhaps we were not prepared enough on the water front. The hike just kept going up and and up and up and up. I loved it. We were hiking thru some really gorgeous terrain and I was happy to be there with all these people that I love doing something healthy and fun, enjoying the out of doors. I was probably smiling most of the time because it was really awesome. But it was long. The farther you go “in” the farther you will eventually have to go “out”.  At the end of the day we were hiking in the woods for 4 ½ hours. Yup, 4.5 hours of hills up and down. Physically I could handle it but at some point I realized that this probably would affect my half marathon on Sunday morning. Probably not wise to spend 4.5 hours hiking using your leg muscles up and down the day before you plan on running 13.1 miles. But I’ve never been the brightest, right?

So we finally finished and returned to civilization and at this point we were all starving. We didn’t really realize we’d be on a 4.5 hour hike and thus didn’t plan that great. Of course I insisted that if we were going out to dinner hit had to be Italian because I needed pasta pre half marathon. We ended up at the Old Spaghetti factory where I ordered a giant plate of good old traditional meat sauced spaghetti. And of course bread. I love bread.

Between everything I ate I ended the day around 1800 calories which I don’t think is too bad considering the extra 4.5 hours of hiking that I did. I am sure my body needed the food. Of course by the time we got home at like 8:30 I was exhausted and ready for bed and not looking forward to the 5 AM alarm to get up, and go run 13.1 miles.

These words were never truer then at 5 AM when the phone sounded obnoxiously telling me it was time to get up. I had a few moments of fuck no, I’m not getting up, screw this shit. I literally fought with myself for 15 minutes to get up. I’d like to say the inner dialogue ceased once I was up and dressed, but it didn’t. I was tired and unsure of why I was further torturing myself. Despite being fully dressed I asked Chris if he really wanted to do this. That we could just go back to bed right now. He was tired and grumpy and his stomach didn’t feel well and honestly all it would have taken was one word from him and I would have bailed on this. That’s how much my morning brain doesn’t want to function. But he said he couldn’t go back to sleep at this point so we just loaded up and headed to the race.

I was scared. It has been 2 weeks since I have ran at all. Like even for 5 minutes. I tend to do that, freak myself out when I don’t run and second guess my ability to run period. I mean I’ve been kicking ass the last two weeks doing other things, but I have not ran. In the grand scheme of things this probably isn’t the best. I should probably make myself run at least once a week.

We got to the event and somehow my nerves calmed as I was walking around with all the other racers/runners. I do love this environment more than anything else. It is my happy place. But I was still scared. We were waiting in the line for the porta-potty. Those lines are always stupid long. As soon as we exited we heard the horn sound for the start of the race. Ooops. It’s really okay because you can pretty much start whenever and you are fine because your time isn’t activated until you cross the matt. We took a few minutes and then began our run.

I instantly knew this was going to be harder than I wanted. That 4.5 hour hike the day before, the lack of running for 2 weeks, my piss poor attitude. Much harder than I wanted for sure, but I ran. The first couple miles felt like torture, as the first couple miles are always the worst. Once you pass a certain point your brain becomes more accepting of its fate, but it fights you every one of those first steps. Chris was really not feeling well, and knew he was having some digestive issues. He ended up sticking by me and we would walk up the hills, my body had no more tolerance for hills after yesterday, and then we’d run the in between stuff. It was not my best run by a long shot, but I still ran. It clearly identified some weaknesses or complacency that is occurring in me. I don’t have a lot of desire to push myself that hard these days. I need to work on that.  But in the end, I ran more than I didn’t, and I finished, which was kind of the goal. Of course I realized that after having hiked for 4.5 hours, running for 2.5 hours early the next morning is kind of stupid. I felt sore in some weird places after running. The upper part of my ass is tight. Not the lower part, not the same muscles from squatting, but weird upper butt muscles, most likely from hiking and then running. And also, one leg, my left leg has some shin splints. This is from the downward motion of hiking hills.  You use your front legs for balance descending mountains.

Today my ass and shin are tight, but that is the price to be paid for all the activity I endured. Once I finished I was actually proud because this race was one that I had to pretty much force myself to do, but I did it. There was nothing special or fancy about it. Nothing to write home about, other than I accomplished it, I am staying true to my word and my goals and Number 16 half marathon is done. My bigger goal was to not pig out on food after running. I was hungry clearly, 2.5 hours of running is hard. But I made good decisions. Yesterday, I ended the day right around 2000 calories. Yup, more calories than I would like, but also clearly a compensation for the extreme physical activity I endured.

I am going to call this a big win because between Saturday and Sunday I consumed approximately 3800 calories. BUT, I burned approximately 3000 calories with physical activity. I was approximating 1,500 calories each day. I typically burn 1,500 calories when running a half marathon, this is my normal. 4.5 hours of hiking hills, estimated by those tracking things was over 1,500 calories, but I just figured it was really only about that level of effort. Your body bare minimum needs at least 1,200 calories a day. So really this means I only consumed in theory an extra 1,400 calories, while burning 3,000. It’s not perfect math, and I still strive to do better. I mean I wish I could have kept the calorie intake closer to 1,600-1,700 each day, but baby steps. I am fairly certain every previous half marathon thus far I have consumed closer to 3,000-4,000 calories so it’s a definite improvement. Clearly my body was put thru some vigorous exercise and needed the nutrition as a result.

I spend the rest of my Sunday afternoon on the couch with my husband watching HGTV while he slept. This is pretty much one of my favorite activities. Hanging out with Chris and my dog Molly on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Overall I had such a great weekend. One of my favorite as of recently. Reminds me how thankful I am for my health and overall fitness. I may take for granted where I am at, or get down on myself because I am a mental basket case at points, but are you kidding me, really? I can hike with ease for 4.5 hours up hills and then wake up 12 hours later and go run 13.1 miles. That’s a fitness that I could have only dreamed of. I will take it and be proud.

Today I am back at the gym, tonight is a ½ hour butts and guts class which I am not sure if I am going to do, because as the name indicates it is focused on the butt which happens to be really tender at the moment. But we will see. I am for sure doing my hour long Iron Power class tonight though at 6 PM.  Good times.  I really had not actually intended to exercise on Saturday so the extra 4.5 hour hike kind of threw off my rest day plan. Which means, I am going to go day after day with exercising. Oops.

I also have this strange feeling that despite all of these lovely in caloric range days and extra exercise that I am not going to actually lose any weight this week on the scale. Call it intuition or just a gut feeling but I kind of know my body at this point and I think its holding fast to this weight. I am okay with this, because I know the effort I’m putting out, BUT, we will just see. I think it might hold onto the weight for a few weeks and then suddenly, out of nowhere, one week it will just be down like 3 or 4 pounds. Just my prediction. But I haven’t weighed myself honestly, so I won’t know until Thursday morning I guess. 

But I am a happy girl because I managed an entire weekend of being healthy and staying on track and killing it with the exercise. I feel relief having survived a weekend without crazy binging. The control I am exercising is the most important part. I feel confident in my ability to reach my goals, and that is epic!