Workout Wednesday – February 2014

I’m finally ready for winter to be over. I’ll be incredibly sad to see the snow go and that there won’t be the beauty of the silent snow falling or even the cold (I do love it). The problem is I’ve definitely hit a low point. The short days and even the coldness in the morning are seriously starting to affect my ability to get out of bed, not to mention get out of bed and drag myself the half mile to CrossFit and back before 7AM! I mean the past two weeks I dropped down to one day a week, but somehow kept up at least two days a week running at the gym.

I’ve tried counteracting it by getting new SERIOUSLY BRIGHT work out gear (I needed it anyway), but that’s only given me temporary reprieves and I’m just ready to be outside again. What I really need to do is get a new pair of shoes as mine are almost stripped, it might be time to invest in a full price pair. I’m not sure how I feel about the new FitBit band, I love the brightness, but I definitely feel like it’s getting dirty very quickly.

I think the big hurdle right now is that I’ve plateaued with my weight loss. I’m not worried at all because of how much I lost last year and how quickly it happened , but it is discouraging to just feel like I’m doing all this work and then nothing. What I really need is to go for a long walk outside (or maybe even run, because I can now :-D). I think the change of scenery and the comforting walking paths from last year will do a lot for my mental health and give me the push I need to get back into the swing of things.

Unfortunately, this week due to all the plans I’ve made I had to take a break from running (which let’s face it, I probably needed). But on the bonus side, last week I officially entered the 10k portion of the Couch-to-10k program. I went back and did the last couple of weeks of the Couch-to-5k program to gear up.

The first week wasn’t too bad it was a 20 minute run a 3 minute walk and a 20 minute run. So only 5 extra minutes of running, but when they dropped that 3 minute walk to a 2 minute walk I was like “WHOA WHOA WHOA, wait a minute here…” I was proud I didn’t struggle as much as I thought I would, but I am most definitely going to take my time and repeat weeks as I’m not even thinking of a 10k until September!

I have, however, started to plan out the official races I want to do so I keep training and they are below. It looks like a lot and would be really expensive if I hadn’t volunteered for this year’s Jingle Bell Run and got reduced entry for three races (March, May and July) and all of them donate to worthy nonprofits so it’ll be a lot of fun!

• March 16 – Rás na hÉireann 5k, Somerville, MA
  • Run by the same people who do the Jingle Bell Run and I volunteered for the JBR so I get a few free entries and this one looked fun! My sister is going to come in and run this one with me and I think a couple of friends will run as well.
• April 6 – Fools Dual Half Marathon and 5k, Gloucester, MA
  • Hayley and Caroline from the picture above are doing the half marathon, Nick (Caro’s fiance and I are doing the 5k)
• May 15 – The Blues Run Walk, Cambridge, MA
  • Run by the JBR people again and this’ll be good because it’ll give me a preview of the Jerry Garcia route and how to get to the route.
• July 31 – Jerry Garcia Memorial 5k, Cambridge, MA
  • Nick and I are going to do this one! He is(/was) a big Deadhead and it’ll be fun. (Another run by the JBR people.)
• September 14 – 10k Run for Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, Concord, MA
  • I’m most excited (and nervous) about this one, but I’ll be ready! I mean books and running combined what else could be cooler!
• September ?? – Thompson Island 4k Trail Run, Boston, Harbor Islands, MA
  • This will depend on when it is, compared to the 10k run. I worked for Thompson Island for 2 years and the 4k was my favorite project I worked on and I’m super excited and hopefully I’ll get to run it.
• December 14 – Somerville Jingle Bell Run, Somerville, MA
  • Clearly I’m going to have to do this one! It will always be my first 5k so as long as I’m in Somerville I think I’ll keep doing it!

Next month will be my one year anniversary of CrossFit and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean I’m ecstatic I’ve stuck with it this long and super proud of what all I’ve accomplished, but it most definitely doesn’t feel like a year. Between now and then I will probably revisit my original CrossFit post from May of 2013, which you should go back and read immediately because holy shit it was hilarious and I’m still impressed with myself! I want to look at the goals that I set and see where I am a year later.