Going the Distance

Last week I started a new walking program.  At least, it is new to me.  I did a little reading and decided to walk Jeff Galloway's 5K training plan.  I looked at his and Hal Higdon's and decided that I like the simplicity of Galloway's.  Neither is overly hard considering it is all walking and the times just get changed up.  However, I plan to workout 3 days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.  I can following the Galloway 5K training plan by simply shifting the whole schedule forward one day.  I would need to add a 4th day to follow the Higdon 5K walking plan and I'm just not ready to commit to a 4th day in the gym yet.

Having already walked three 5K's this year, I've been resisting backing up and trying one of these programs.  The first 5K was completed through force of will.  I was only a few weeks into PT and really should have backed out of the race I'd planned on running.  Completing that walk was painful and exhausting.  And cold!!!  It had snowed that morning.

The second was the MS 5K Walk 2 months later.  That 5K was a slow walk with friends.  We talked and walked and stopped and dawdled.  It was a day I will never forget.  I know I've not written about it here.  Some day I might, but there is one moment from that walk that I will share now.  Hitting the last quarter of a mile my hip started to cramp.  I was wet and cold and ready to be finished.  Rain had pelted us the entire walk.  The approach to the finish line was, of all things, uphill.  As I approached the finish line, I saw my oldest daughter waiting.  She was wearing her Hawaiian rain jacket and matching boots cheering me on.  Even better than that moment are the many moments since then when she's told me that she is going to do a 5K when she grows up and she wants to run it in the rain too.

And most recently I walked a 5K on the treadmill in the gym just to see how I felt.  As with the first two my hips started to cramp in the third mile.  I worked through it and it wasn't nearly as bad as during the first 5K, but still...  I'm not pleased.  I feel like all my time in PT and hard work are simply not paying off.  How long is it going to take?  How many leg lifts in various directions are required to get these muscles in working order?

While my two official 5Ks left me needing a week to recover, each had moments I won't forget.  I begin to understand why people race over and over.  Why they keep moving.  I can see that getting out there and moving will make a difference.  However, my last unofficial attempt left me frustrated and knowing I shouldn't sign up to make a third official.  Exercise is supposed to be about moving and nourishing a healthy body.  My body is getting healthier, but it is not ready to walk 5K.  I'm not sure why this distance means so much to me.  Maybe because running it will always be the first goal I made for myself.

Versus trying again and again with the same painful results, I'm doing a walking program.  A slow progression to walking a 5K.  It's 15 weeks, 3 days per week.  At week 11 I actually walk 3.5 miles.  Which is more than a 5K.  As I approached Couch to 5K, I'm going to keep repeating each week until I can complete the walk without pain.  Maybe this is the answer I need for getting past this hurdle.  At a minimum, I now have a program to follow, a specific online to progress along.  That is something I've wanted and needed lately.  Best case, I might actually whip these stubborn muscles into shape.

For now, I'm mostly working on being thankful to have yet another chance.  And more time to practice patience.  Practice makes perfect right?

A Perfect Day

Since adding two little girls to my life, perfect is a redefined word.  I have many perfect moments.  They are gleaming memories sitting atop a pile of dirty laundry, cartons of diapers and an endless rotation of dirty dishes.  Not to mention the mommy sanity timeouts.  But in all of my complaining there are awesome memories, ones I'll remember for years to come, and every once in a while I get a perfect day.

Yesterday was a perfect day.
It all started by me waking up at 6am to a quiet restful house.  My girls are visiting their grandparents for the week.  Having my house to myself and only my own schedule to maintain is such an awesome luxury.  For the first two days of this week I gave myself permission to simply exist each day, sleeping late, going to bed whenever I felt like it and making meals whenever.  I seriously debated staying in bed one more day, but it was Wednesday and I haven't missed a Wednesday at the gym since I returned to working out at the beginning of July.  I'm not giving up a 6 week streak now!

For a pleasant change of pace, my husband got up and went with me.  We exercised side by side.  It was my second day of my new 5K walking program.  A short warmup followed by fifteen minutes walking.  I walked; he jogged.  We marveled over the differences between Fox News and CNN.  That's my new hobby while in the cardio room in the gym - studying the difference between the news networks.  Following our walk, I ran us both through a PT style workout.  By the end of it, my legs were shaking and I think I might have even inspired a little awe.  He's never seen all the stuff I learned how to do.  *grin*  It was fun to show off.

Workout accomplished we hit our respective locker rooms and got ready for work.  He drove me in.  I invited him to breakfast at my usual morning stop.  I was dropped off at work with a kiss and promises of dinner plans to be emailed.

My work day was fairly typical.  I'm about 3 months into a 9 month project.  The pressure is present but motivating.  Towards the end of the day I did get a bit of a scare when an issue was discovered with one of my releases.  I didn't take it in stride at all, but I do understand what happened, presented to my manager and came up with some alternative quick workarounds.  All-in-all it was one of my better days at the office.

And then came dinner.  Mmmm.  Given that we were child-free, Hubby sent me a few options which we would not consider with the kiddos.  Having heard amazing things, we headed to Carrol's Creek.  It's a marina restaurant with outdoor seating, decadent appetizers and an overall relaxing atmosphere.  Our feast included baked brie, seafood cocktail and southwestern seasoned scallops seared and served with black bean corn salsa and a cilantro cream sauce.  So yummy and cooked just perfectly.  I'm glad the sauce wasn't available until my main entree; I would have had to try it on everything!  To top it off Hubby ordered a caramel cheesecake for us to share for dessert.  It was delicious.

I wish I'd taken a photo of all the yummy goodness we enjoyed, but alas...  I was too busy enjoying it.   At least I did manage to snap this picture.   Could the evening have been more beautiful?

 

After dinner, we walked around talking for a while.  As we headed home, we called our girls and attempted to say good night.  I could hear all their glee in the background, but talking to Mommy and Daddy while they are hanging at Grandma's doesn't seem to be high on their list.  Soon enough they will be back making a ruckus and inspiring simple moments of glee.  But for just one day, I had a perfect day just me and my husband.  It's not often we have moments together without our kids mixed in.  I'm so happy to have one perfect one in recent memory to add to the list.

Workout 120531: Going Up

Today's Workout:

5 min Recumbent Bike warmup
30 min Arc Trainer - Interval level 3
5 min Treadmill cool down
STRETCH

Today the stretch deserved CAPITAL letters.  I got home last night and was sore.  My arms and abs and legs.  Just all a big bucket of soreness.  Maybe I didn't have enough water in the week.  Maybe I didn't stretch enough.  No idea.  I was sore.  This morning I woke up still sore.  I made myself complete my workout using the just-one-more-minute strategy, promising myself I could quit after just. one. more minute.

And then I got to stretch.  Ahhhh.  It felt so good.  I just kept stretching.  Ten minutes went by and I had done every stretch I could think of minus a few Yoga positions.  It was awesome.  I love stretches like that.  Like waking up unassisted after a great night's sleep and you just stretch your body awake.  It felt like that.  So awesome.

Following yesterday's post, a commenter asked about my progress on the no elevator resolution.  I'm well overdue to give an update on that one.  To my original resolution I have stuck!  I have not taken the elevator at work since April 24th.  Additionally, I stopped taking the elevator at my hospital when I have my PT appointments.  As of today I have been completely elevator free for 21 days.  Three whole weeks!  I can't say it has gotten easy, but I'm learning more about how to protect my knees when I climb stairs (abs - get some) and I can now climb two consecutive flights without gasping for air at the top.  Woohoo!

I'm sure I'll take the elevator again at some point, but I find myself actively seeking out the alternatives these days.  That coming from the girl who knew all the passages between her college campus buildings so that she'd never ever have to take the stairs is quite an accomplishment.  I've also found that someone has posted signs with encouraging slogans in the stairwells at the hospital.  It's nice to have some one encourage you to keep moving when you really wish you'd gotten on the elevator with the 10 other people you passed in the lobby.

But the best feeling was the first day I took the stairs to PT.  There was a woman waiting outside the elevator on level 1.  I passed her on my very first trip to the stairs.  When I exited the stairwell on level 2 she was just leaving the elevator.  As we walked along side each other, she said "You just inspired me.  I'm not taking that elevator anymore."  Maybe I inspired her, but her comment has stayed with me every day since then.  Everyday that I have to walk past the elevator and slog up another flight of stairs her words come to mind.  I love that my choice touched someone.  And I'm so very thankful she shared that moment with me.

How Much a Number Can Mean

There's a piece of news that I've been keeping to myself.  Mostly due to all the offline introspection going on, but also...  I'm proud of it.  This month's weight-in results?

230

I am 10 pounds down from my start weight in January!  This is 10 % of my overall goal!  I'm just a little thrilled.  *grin*  I'm happy to be seeing progress and I'm hoping that I'll get to continue seeing it.  Just so you have an idea of where I've been for the past week, here's more on what this number means to me.

The last time I weighed in at 230, I had a tiny baby in my arms.  My second baby was 6 weeks old.  When I found out I was pregnant with her, I weighed 245 lbs.  I'd had a c-section with my first child and was terrified to go through that process again.  I knew it would be worth it to have a healthy baby, but I was out-of-my-mind scared.  I blamed the c-section for the depression which followed the birth of my first baby.  Recovery was slow and painful and scary for me.  Thinking of going through all that again with the addition of a toddler was mind-numbing.

I'm not sure my doctors ever fully understood the depth of my fear.  But they did present me with a way out.  A VBAC.  I could have my second child naturally if nothing went wrong.  I had to have a completely uneventful pregnancy AND I had to gain minimal weight.  The sheer fact that I weighted 245 lbs at 8 weeks pregnant made me high risk; it didn't matter than my first pregnancy contained no weight-related complications (my c-section was required due to my first baby being in a breech position).  Adding to my weight was the previous surgery.  The doctors would accept no additional risk factors.

Fear is motivating.  I went home from that first appointment determined to make this work.  I made a plan.  I joined BabyFit - Spark People's pregnancy accommodations.  Using their exercise suggestions (which appeared to have actual pregnant women performing the exercises), I planned out a workout for 5 days a week.  I did strength training MWF and walked for 30 minutes on TuTh.  I also abandoned my habit-forming French Fry Fridays I'd adopted during my first pregnancy.  These changes, constant monitoring by my OB and obsessive worrying on my part resulted in a 12 pound gain for my entire pregnancy.

For the first time in my health life, I felt powerful and successful.  Move the body and monitor the food to get the results you seek.  It was empowering and just what I needed to conquer my fears upon finding out I was pregnant a second time.  During those months, I truly believed "You can do this!" and I did.  It was terrific.  And at my 6 week check up, my hard work was validated.  I was 15 pounds lighter that I was at the start of the pregnancy.  And I had two beautiful babies.  Life was absolutely wonderful.

So this past week, I returned to that place.  The place where I felt accomplished and powerful.  I'd achieved my goals and felt terrific.  I'm feeling a little more of that these days.  Life is still wonder filled.  And I can accomplish goals just as I did 2 years ago.  I make a plan.  I execute the plan.  I find the results I seek.

Next up?  More on the plan.