Friday, August 21, 2015

Friday means rest

Good Friday morning my friends.  It’s a good Friday because well, all Friday’s are pretty good.  Today is 4 weeks until Maui. And yes, I am going to keep this countdown alive and going for the next 4 weeks. It’s probably mostly all I shall talk about.  I mean, it’s mostly all I think about, so why wouldn’t it be mostly all I talk about? 4 weeks from right now I’m on a plane flying to Maui.  CRAZY!  And exciting and happiness and nervous.  I’m less nervous right now but I am CERTAIN that on the actual day my nerves are going to be thru the roof.  I mean, I was way chill before I ran my first half marathon up until the night before when I was so sick I wanted to puke.  I puke when I get too nervous.  It’s my little nervous habit.  Anyway, enough about that.

Last night I went off to the gym for boot camp class.  I did NOT warm up before class and I can honestly say I totally felt that.  I barely worked that hard as a result. We did 8 exercises, 3 rounds.  It was hard don’t get me wrong but not sweat dripping constant movement.  It was fine except when I was done with the half hour I had only burned like 130 calories.  And that is simply not enough for the evening.  I debated just going home but was like, no that’s lame.  You are dressed and here just go do something else.  I was going to maybe do the stair climber but that machine was in use. Fuck.  So I ended up on the treadmill of course.  I didn’t need to run, that is why it wasn’t my first inclination.  Today is rest day but I don’t mind taking 2 days off from running before a big run. Whatever, I told myself I could just go REALLY slow and burn some calories. I ended up doing 3 miles of course. I did slow it down but honestly it felt fine.  Comfortable of course.  Nothing fancy, nothing life shattering.  Just enough.  I got my calorie burn to over 500 and called it good.


After that I ran into the grocery store which is right next door to the gym and got more Greek yogurt. Well, I went in for the yogurt because I am not going to lie I’ve been obsessed with it lately.  Everything goes in spurts. But damned lately it’s like my total go-to.  I eat an 80 calorie yogurt with some sprinkles in it and it’s like the BEST thing ever.  Of course I ended up picking up way to much other stuff, all good of course.  Salad dressing, bananas, coffee creamer. You now.    Came home, took the doggies for a walk and pretty much called it.  Scratch that. I got a tub of blue diamond coconut almonds and those things are addictive and delicious and I pretty much ate the whole can. Again, not the end of the world. It’s freaking almonds for crying out loud.  But still. We had spaghetti for dinner because I’m trying out this carb loading for 2 days prior to a long run day.  Plus you know, excuse to eat more pasta.  I didn’t track my food intake last night.  It happens.  I know it was too much but boy its freeing to just dish out pasta directly onto your plate and not weigh or measure any of it.  Granted at this point in my life I have a fairly good internal judge for how much is enough of stuff.  But still.  Felt slightly bad and yet slightly didn’t care.  It happens.

So I ate too much.  Whatever.  And then I got some lovely doggie snuggles which are the best thing ever!  My Bella really is quite the cuddle bug.  If I am sitting on the couch she wants to be on my lap, giving me kisses.  I love a good doggie kiss but eventually I don’t want to be licked anymore. 


So yesterday, I also posted this.  This is inside my bikini drawer at home.  A couple weekends ago when I reorganized my clothes and my drawers, I actually got to move stuff around and organize.  One of the drawers that got a makeover was the swimsuit drawer as well.  Okay, its bikini drawer. There’s not a full on swimsuit 1 piece in there.  The funny thing is, I NEVER wear these, right?  But I have so many of them and they are so pretty.  I clearly don’t need to bring ALL of them to Maui with me, but boy am I looking forward to wearing them.  I just pray that the confidence I have today carries over to when I’m actually in Maui.  Sometimes I feel great and ready beforehand and then something about actually being on the beach in public in the bikini with other women who look great in bikini’s and I get extremely self-conscious and all messed up in the head.  It’s pretty much happened most every time on most every vacation.  Hopefully having this extra amount of confidence in myself right now at this point in my life helps to eliminate some of that anxiety.  Nonetheless, I’m excited right now.


So that brings us to this morning.  I feel pretty okay today. Nothing fancy.  But hell, it’s Friday and that is worth being excited about all on its own.


I also noticed this morning my abs looked pretty decent.  I do not understand the rhyme or reason as to why someday I can’t see my abs for shit but then other times they are there.  Who knows. I have learned to not question it so much and just embrace the days I can see them. 


My  belly button is fucked up because of the loose skin.  That is loose skin around there that makes it look long and deformed instead of tight.  This is me being super self-critical and that is a shit attitude.  I know it.  Instead of looking at my deformed belly button I should look at the top part and the ab muscles that I actually see there.  Yes, there are true abs inside and I actually know  these. Even on days when I can’t see them, I definitely feel a hard muscled core in there.  I do not think you can get abs from exercise.  Abs are just mostly diet.  I do think running has helped tremendously on the abs front because it does require so much of my core.  I’ve always had really good core strength and I think that is from a lifetime of running.  It’s just nice to sometimes see the actual muscles.  I don’t live my life by it or entirely work hard to get abs, it’s not my top priority. If abs happen while in pursuit of my other passions then that is great. I mean, I won’t turn them down!

So the fact that it is Friday means its rest day. I do need a rest day so that I can effectively run 16 miles tomorrow morning. It is going to be hot tomorrow morning so that is only going to add to the misery of it all.  Sigh.  Therefore today I must relax and rest and let me legs recover to run said distance tomorrow.   But guess what? I get myself a free massage tonight.. what???  Yup. A guy that goes to the gym that I’ve known for quite a while is going to massage school.  I think he’s in his second year and in doing so he has to log hours of practice for free.  He has given Amanda a lot of massages so it’s nothing creepy.  He’s a very nice older married gentleman.  Like in his late 50’s.  He’s a hippy guy with long hair.  Totally seems fitting that he wants to do massage.  But it’s awesome.  So I texted him and right after work I’m going to his house. He has a “studio” set up, like a massage parlor.  I am not worried or creeped out at all. I know this guy and like I said Amanda has gotten several massages from him. All professional.  He was like, be prepared to fill out the paperwork and then the first massage is 90 minutes.  I’m like hell yeah!  A free 90 minute massage.  I’m down.  Also this is very good because its rest day and otherwise I’d probably go home and just end up eating things I don’t need to eat so this REALLY works for me. 

I haven’t had a massage in forever so honestly I’m way excited for this!  Good times.  But tomorrow I have to wake up pretty damned early for the run.  This is not a half marathon but it is an organized training run by a local running group so it is an official half marathon course.  No medal. No shirt. But no cost either. There weren’t any half marathons this weekend to do.  Sigh. But the point is, we are meeting at 6:30 to take a shuttle from the finish line to the start line and running at 7 AM.  The location is over an hour away. So we basically need to leave our house at like 5 AM.  Meaning wake up at 4:30 AM.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  The things we do because we are motivated and committed to this.  After we run the 13.1 miles Chris and I are just going to run another 3 on our own, because we half to! This is all fine and dandy but tomorrow is going to be a crazy day for us.  After we do that we are going to drive home and shower and do all that stuff and then tomorrow night Amanda is doing a bodybuilding show in Vancouver.  (Back up the freeway again another hour drive)  I really don’t want to go to the show because I think bodybuilding is sick and mean but I love Amanda and she is my best friend and supports me unconditionally and therefore I support her.  This is very important to her so I am going to go.  Chris and I are both going to go.  She is there for me when I need her so I need to be there for her.

After the show everyone is going out for pizza, so that is going to happen.  That will be my cheat meal for the week and honestly I will have ran 16 miles at that point so my body can probably handle it.  That’s the great thing about running, I get to eat!  My body is burning up everything these days. Seriously.  I can tell my metabolism is really high right now. 

I have no plans for Sunday.  We are going to sleep in, because we will be crazy tired at that point for sure.  But I would like to do something physical and active, but we shall see. Maybe a hike. It’s been a while since we went on a hike and honestly it would be nice to get out in nature.  But boy at this point that is a long time away so we will just have to wait and see how it all plays out! 

Have a fabulous weekend my friends.

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