Light week

So it seems that June was a big month for me. I did Dirty Dash, ran Ragnar, and completed the Spartan Beast. I really didn't rest in between the different activities (I went to boot camp the day after ragnar) and was starting to feel a bit burned out and more sore than usual. I was tired, I was moody, and I thought about throwing in the towel more than once. After hearing me complain quite a few people suggested that I take a little time off from that whole crazy working out thing. How does one going about this without going crazy?? Usually when I go on vacation I freak out that I won't be able to work out every day. But there are a lot of things with which I was able to fill my time. I informed KC of my workout plan for the week so that he could hold me accountable (and he did).

So my usual workout week looks like this:

Monday - LEGS (strength training)

Tuesday - Boot Camp

Wednesday - BodyPump/BodyCombat

Thursday - Upper Body (Strength Training)

Friday - Cardio (3-5 mile run)

Saturday - Boot Camp

Sunday - Rest day

My modified week:

Monday - 3 mile run

Tuesday - Boot Camp

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - 3 mile run

Friday - Rest

Saturday - boot camp

Sunday - rest 

It's now Sunday evening. I feel completely rested, and, minus a strained hamstring from the previous week, there's not a single pain in my body. I'm really looking forward to being back and the gym and working out again. With training/preparing/recovering from Ragnar and Spartan, I haven't done a proper leg day in almost a month. I wish I could reserve the squat rack for tomorrow.  I'm so thankful for everyone who was looking out for me and wanting me to take care of myself when I couldn't see that I needed a break. It's all about being balanced :)

Another eating post

During whole30 you're not supposed to track what you eat. This was one of the big selling factors for when I did the program. But then it was really hard for me to get back on track afterwards. I would just try to mentally take note of what I was eating. That never really worked. I found myself eating more and more of the things that I had gone without for so long. There were too many binges that I had to account for. And I really wasn't being honest with myself.

I decided once and for all that I needed to get back to tracking what I eat so I can be more accountable. I have the whole workout thing down. I know what I need to do when I need to do it. But I have always struggled with my diet.

Last Sunday I meal prepped (which I should be doing right now too). I grilled a ton of chicken, made a couple recipes, and cut up some veggies so they could be used when needed. It made eating according to plan that much easier this week. I have given myself a cut off of 1700 calories. I don't necessarily have to get there (I would like to stay closer to 1500-1600), but it gives me some room if I need it. With the 1700 calories we're trying something different this time. 40% of my calories should come from carbohydrates and protein each with the remaining 20% coming from fat. Myfitnesspal.com is great this way because it calculates it perfectly for you (if you put the right foods in) and then, if you have the app it comes up with a fancy pie chart that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy

Perfect Eating Diagram

Then one day you'll get this GREAT idea that you deserve a cheat day/meal. Actually, Friday was going really well until 2:00pm and then everything just died. One thing about a cheat meal is that you probably shouldn't document everything that you're eating. But if you happen to be in a "we're documenting everything that we" competition then you kind of have to. And that disaster looks like this

So many carbs, and not the good kind

I won't share with you all the details of this day, but it was bad. I'm actually glad that I documented my cheat day, bite for bite, because I've never been that honest with what I eat on my bad days. I would lie to myself that I didn't eat a whole sleeve of oreos, or the extra handful of m&ms. I remember back in the day how my Friday nights consisted of a DiGiorno's pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry's. That would easily be 3000 calories in one meal. (hint, my day wasn't THAT bad). So I made a few bad choices, but I was back on track the next day, worked out hard, and we're not going to talk about it again. That's the reason for a cheat meal. New emphasis on meal.. not day.

And today is day 7 back on myfitnesspal. Are you on it? Do you use it regularly? It only works if you're honest with what you're eating. Stupid honesty.

Dirty Dash

Dirty Dash was at the beginning of the month (June 8th). I've done this race before so I knew what to expect. There is a 5K option and a 10K option. Of course we chose the 10K option (naturally). There were about 15ish obstacles. I'm a little fuzzy on the details right now since it's been a few weeks, but I had a lot of fun and was able to finish it in a good time. Lets see, there were muddy water pits that we would wade through and then climb up over mud hills back into the muddy water. We climbed over 6' walls, crawled on our hands and knees through large PVC pipes. There were monkey bars, but I couldn't do them. There were cargo net climbs, up and over, there was another pit with waist high muddy water with 8 or so 12" wide PVC pipes that you had to climb over. It's hard to remember all the different obstacles, but we had a lot of fun! KC actually did the race with me this time, pushing me, cheering me on, and making me run when I didn't want to. I think I beat my time from September. I ran a lot more this time than I did in the last. I'm registered for the next one September 14th.

We were so clean! Me, KC, Sarah, and Shauna. 

This was in the new obstacle for the year. It was an inflated "house" that had inflated tube that you needed to roll over. There was tons of mud and foam (can you tell). My bib number was getting caught on everything so I was really concerned.

They had the inflatable slides down one of the larger hills. This was the 2nd to last obstacle. I picked the best slide (there were 6, all attached). Last year I got caught half way and had to scoot the rest of the way down. This time and I got a good running start and I slid all the way down.. and didn't stop. I hit the hay at the end and did a backwards somersault. It was great fun!

Final shot. Lots of mud, lots of fun.

Comparing and competing

Wow, I'm a horrible blogger. I have so much catching up to do! I'll start working on that...I needed to add to the post that I made a few weeks ago on Facebook.

Two years ago I was the most miserable I had ever been. My family was on the beach in Florida and I was dying. We were walking distance away from the beach, but that walk included 6 flights of stairs. Getting to the beach was fine, but as we would prepare to go home I would panic about getting up all the stairs. It took the fun out of being at the beach.

Anyway, this June I was doing RAGNAR (198 mile relay run through the Wasatch mountains) and I was getting down on myself. The rest of my van had pretty intense runs, up and down canyons, long distances, etc. I was the slowest, had the least amount of miles, and the least degree of difficulty. But then I took a minute to realize where I was coming from. I knew that the beach picture was taken in June 2011.. somewhere around the time I was running. It wasn't until I was able to get home that I put the dates together that I realized it had be EXACTLY 2 years. I felt a lot better about my performance during Ragnar, the fact that I actually did Ragnar and survived, and that I had overcome where I had been.

I've had a couple more experiences with competing and comparing myself with others before this happened and afterwards. I'm still working on not comparing myself to others. It's a daily challenge. Nobody is perfect. 

So my new goal is to work on me, to reach the goals that I set for myself. Here's to not worrying that person X just lapped me, or jealous that person Y's hair just flows so effortlessly. Maybe person X is a trained sprinter and you know what? Maybe person Y has a really top of the line wig. Who knows. But I spend more time making myself better than dwelling on the things that I don't have. I'm going to celebrate going 4 days without chocolate. And next time, maybe I'll beat my weightlifting PRs.