Run like the wind bulls eye!

[Katie Little]

Since I’m paying myself to work out, does that make me a professional athlete? $10 workout tomorrow! Upper body- it’s the easiest work out. I got this!

 

[SheHulk]

Just wanted to say I only drop into your training journal every now and again but I love it whenever I do!l Your journal is very real and when you're so positive it's contagious.

 

[Katie Little]

Just wanted to say I only drop into your training journal every now and again but I love it whenever I do!l Your journal is very real and when you're so positive it's contagious.

Thank you - That means a lot!!!

 

[Katie Little]

Pro-tip! Making my days after rest days worth more money totally worked! I wanted to have another lazy day like yesterday but I kept thinking about losing $10 out of my beach trip! So I got it done!

 

[Katie Little]

Total Beach Funds - $58.67
Added this week - $26.67

I've pretty much updated this every day until Friday, so I'm going to just start with Friday.

Fridays are tough for me. They are the day my sister comes to clean and she brings my dad. My dad and I spend the day together and then we'll either take him home and have dinner with my parents or my mom will come to our house for dinner and take him home. This all started when I had ornaments to make for my etsy shop and my dad was helping me fill them; however, I realized how much it was helping my mom to have a day to herself and my dad to just get out of the house. And honestly, he's pretty depressed because he can't do things like he used to so I always try and find an activity for us to do. All of that to say, If I don't wake up and work out before my sister gets to the house with my dad, the only time for me to work out is at night after they leave or when we get home from my parents house. I did wake up early Friday, but I had to go to the grocery store. I also get us chick-fil-a every Friday because my dad likes feeding nuggets to my dogs. Between traffic on the way to the store and Chick-fil-a's system going down while I was in the drive through, My dad and sister beet me back home. No worries, I thought, I'll just work out after they leave. The plan was for my mom to come over for dinner and take him home. Then it started raining. My mom doesn't like to drive in the rain so we offered to just bring dinner down to her house. Usually we are home by 8p; however, since we had to cook dinner we didn't get home until 9/10p. Long story short, I was too tired when we got home and missed my workout.

Saturday - I woke up and couldn't lift my right leg. I mean I can, but there is a sharp pain right were my thigh meets my pelvis if I lift it too high. I thought I may have slept on it weird so I just kind of took it easy for the first part of the day. Then as it continued to hurt and didn't get better I did a little googling and I think it's my hip flexor. It still hurts this morning. So I'm alternating ice and heat while I sit at my desk to work and I found some stretch's online that I'm going to do. If this continues to hurt this week, I'm going to call and get an appointment with a PT.

Lessons learned -

Plan better! I'm going to slightly rearrange my days so that Friday is a rest day. I really just need to face the facts that I will never be the person who wakes up and works out first thing in the morning. As much as I want to be that person, It's just not happening anytime soon, and I'd rather plan around that so that I'm still working out when I need to.

Don't take workouts for granted. As I was skipping Friday's work out, I thought "It's just one work out. I'll be back on track tomorrow." Well turns out it was 2.

Never skip a Monday! Tuesdays workout was easier to get done because I started the week of on the right foot. Even when I was dreading the workout before I decided to go for that magical run, there was never a question of "Am I going to do this or am I going to skip it?" It was just "I'm going to do this and it'll feel better once I get started."

Plan for next week. If I'm still struggling with this pain, I will give myself the money for any type of movement that I manage to do. But that is only if I'm still hurting. This is my last week of this plan and I want to stick with it as close as possible.

Sunday - Rest day.
Monday - Lower body -$10
Tuesday - Total Body $6.67
Wednesday - Upper Body $6.67
Thursday - Total Body $6.66
Friday - Rest day.
Saturday - 20-30 mins light cardio. $10.00

 

[Katie Little]

God bless “Bob and Brad the 2 most famous physical therapist on the Internet. In their opinion of course.” If you don’t know them, look them up on YouTube! But I did some of their stretches for hip flexors and I haven’t had pain for a couple hours! I do think I’m going to do a total body tomorrow instead of lower body just so I’m not straining anything and It’ll give me an extra day before I’m really working my lower body.

 

[Katie Little]

I feel so freaking dumb coming back here to type out my plan for the future, but here we go.

I recently had an interview for a promotion at work (got it btw). While preparing for the interview one of the practice questions I came upon was talking about a time you did something hard and what you learned. I immediately started thinking about 2018. I started by saying “In 2018 I went from not being able to run to my mailbox in January to running a half marathon in November.” I explained how I used a race every month to keep me motivated and how my biggest lesson learned was “progress not perfection.” And then I stopped my interview prep and looked in the mirror and said “did I really though?”Have I truly grasped that concept?Because lately it seams I’m good for 2 weeks of a routine or plan and then at the first sign of trouble I’m back on the couch for 3 months and then I start over. Have I really learned the lesson “progress not perfection?” Because I don’t think I’ve grasped the concept.

Then, I saw an interview with J.K Rowling ( not her biggest fan these days but YouTube was on auto play while I was cleaning) and I walked in the room to hear her answer a question about what’s next (I think this interview was shortly after the last HP book) and she said something about HP being her Unicorn and not feeling pressure to recreate that level of success. Didn’t think much of it.

Then I saw another YouTube video where a girl was talking about her experience going viral for 1 video. She talked about how the video really messed up her analytics. She explained how YouTube would tell her her views were “down” because a video didn’t get millions of views. When in fact, her video was getting thousands more views than her videos from before the viral video.

These 2 videos led me to another conclusion.. 2018 will never happen again. It was my unicorn. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it was magical. I’ve been trying so hard to recreate that first time feeling and that beat yesterday mentally, that I’m not giving my self credit for simply showing up. All of a sudden that wasn’t good enough any more. All of a sudden I don’t want to run a 5k unless I know I’m going to PR. And if something happens and I don’t beat yesterday, then I’m so hard on my self. It’s not fun anymore. And therefor it’s not motivating.. and then I miss a day... and then a week... I justify not updating my journal by saying “since this week sucked, I’ll just do better next week and then update my journal when I have a positive outcome.” Aka when I’m perfect again and well this poor Journal has been ghosted by me more times than most high school relationships....

So what’s the plan?

Well my foot and knee still hurt if I walk more than a mile or try to run, so I need to do some PT and get that better. Honestly, I’m not a great hot weather runner anyway so I don’t mind taking a month or so to rehab right now.

I recently joined a pool and discovered that swimming for exercise is more fun outdoors than it was at the y. I think it’s because I can float around, swim some laps, float again, lay in the sun, swim some laps and repeat. So that’s my main source of exercise right now. I’m also not tracking it. Partly because my lax nature of switching between swimming and floating makes it hard to track but mainly because I don’t want to beat yesterday. I just want to enjoy something that’s good for me.

I also want to get to the gym 3 days a week. But I feel like I’m starting too many new things at once. Historically that has been a recipe for disaster. So for now, the plan is to go every Monday. Just 1 day a week.

I had my wisdom teeth removed last Friday, and I used that as a time to quit soda. I figured if I was taking pain meds and prescription ibuprofen, I wouldn’t notice a caffeine headache and it worked- I haven’t had a headache all week! I have; however, been craving soda for the last few days though, so I’ve decided fountain sodas don’t count. The logic being, I don’t have easy access to fountain drinks so I have to go out of my way and make a conscious decision to have a soda if I want. (Is this the soda addict’s version of California Sober??)

Similarly, I’m not putting myself on any kind of diet and I’m not tracking it restricting anything. However, I have been decluttering my cabinets and donated a lot of my overly processed staples to the food bank. I have been trying to keep only healthier foods around. So not restricting anything, just making it so that if I want something not so healthy, I have to make the conscious decision to either go get it or pay a delivery fee.

I also want to get back into updating this journal weekly. I want to sit down and think out answers to the following questions.

1) What went well this week?
2) What went poorly?
3) What did I learn this week?
4) What do I want to learn next week?

Right now my hope is that I’ll be running again by fall, but if that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I’m not putting pressure on it, or promising myself anything.

 

[Katie Little]

1) What went well this week?
I started a new bedtime that gets me in bed right at 10p. This routine includes 15-20 mins of either yoga or foam rolling. I’ve stuck to this bed time routine every except for 2. 1of those days I didn’t feel like it and the other was never going to happen because it was my 3- midnight shift!

We went to the gym Monday! I did planet fitness’ 30 min circuit and let me tell you, it was a full work out. I hated it the workout but loved how it made me feel so I may give it another shot.

I haven’t cheated on my soda plan, and I’ve only had 2 fountain drinks which is significantly less soda than im used to.

2) What went poorly?

Chafing…swimming has caused more chafing in 1 week than I ever dealt with running. And when I was running I’d chafe on my arm pitt or my foot..swimming has me chafing in a much more sensitive and uncomfortable area (sorry for the TMI)

I warmed up for 10 mins on the treadmill before doing the 30 min circuit. I walked about half a mile and pushed the speed till I was almost running towards the end. My foot was burning after that and I had to stop and do my stretches before moving to the circuit.

3) What did I learn this week?

Foam rolling is amazing! For the 30 min circuit at PF, there are 10 machines and 10 step boxes. I had looked up what to do at those boxes before going in, but when I got there I felt so uncomfortable, like everyone was staring at me that I forgot all of my research and just did some form of squats or lunges for everyone. I could barley walk to the truck after because I had jelly legs. I did 15 mins of foam rolling before bed and Tuesday I felt like I had done that work out 2 days ago. I was still a little sore but nothing like what I would have been if I did not foam roll.

This isn’t really a lesson as much as it is a discovery. Having a written and set in stone bedtime routine has made me feel so much more in control of my life. I’ve had a couple days this week where I’ve felt the start of some depression coming but it’s like this 1 postive routine has kept me from spiraling

4) What do I want to learn next week?

I’m going to change this question to just a look ahead at next week. It’s kinda silly to ask what I want to learn… umm something new. Lol

So a look ahead at next week, I want to copy and paste. All of the changes I’ve made have been really helpful and are working. I want a little more consistency before taking anything else on!

 

[Katie Little]

1) What went well this week?
- I stuck to my bedtime routine about 50% of the week.
-I found a routine to keep the chafing under control.
-I am finally getting the hang of the proper form when swimming freestyle.
-I swam 2 lengths of the pool without stopping to stand (it’s an Olympic length swimming pool so that’s a long swim)
-I’ve stuck to no pespi out of the bottle or can and I only had 2 small fountain drinks this week despite eating more take out.
2) What went poorly?
- Had a bad day Monday, ended up missing work and the gym.
- only stuck to my bed time routine 50% of the time. Mainly because we were out late a couple times so need to get better at planning.
-lots of eating out, and didn’t go grocery shopping so less healthy food in the house.

3) What did I learn this week?
- proper free style form.
- I’m working on finding a balance between being self aware/pushing myself to do better and expecting instant change/beating myself up when it doesn’t happen. Not quite fully learned but it’s been a focus this week both at work and outside of work
4) a look ahead to next week?
- grocery shopping and food prep are already done for the week, so getting back in the kitchen will be great.
- want to make sure I go to the gym Monday.
- want to work on waking up with my alarm and not snoozing so much.
- want to keep a focus on my bedtime routine.
- want to make sure I keep swimming fun and low pressure. Now that I’ve swam a couple lengths of the pool I can feel myself wanting to do more next time or see if I can do it faster some how. These aren’t bad things inherently. Obviously I want to improve and I’d love to get more exercise, I know swimming is great cross training for runners. I just want to keep my finger on my pulse to make sure I don’t start to be obsessive about it to the point where it’s not fun.

Also another life update-
I know I’ve mentioned here before that the plan was to get pregnant this year. We’ve been trying since January but no luck yet. This is starting to take a toll on me. So if it seems like I’m extra complain-y or little things bother me more than they should, this is why. This is also the main reason I’m trying to take a much more low key approach to all of the changes I’m trying to make. Just a little stress reduction. Idk- I just felt like I wanted to share that little tidbit because it’s good context for my journey.

 

[Katie Little]

As I continue on my journey to truly learn “progress not perfection” this image hit me hard! Especially seeing how low the girl in the image dips at some points. This gives me hope.
It also reminds me of the elevation profile of my very first 5k so many years ago but let’s not relive that!

 

[Katie Little]

Not doing the full questions this week. Because been a really bad week personally.

Bed time routine is still the smartest thing I’ve ever done, and while the stretching/yoga portion has dwindled to a more general me time, bed time is still great.

nothing else went as planned this week. No gym, less pool time lots of eating out.

I’ll check in next week.

 

[Katie Little]

I bet you think this is going to be another semi winy semi pull myself together post AKA the only post I've been good at making recently. Admittedly I was on track for that. But then something changed.

I was laying in bed a couple weeks ago trying to figure out why I can't seem to get it together any more! Why did I loose motivation for most aspects of my life... Why have I been slowly spiraling the last 2 years can't I pull myself out of it. I mean for crying out loud I know what I want/need to do and I know why I want/need to do it. I'm simply lacking the will power and motivation... But I'm not lacking motivation. I know my whys for all of my goals. This subject is very well thought out. I know my whys from the insignificant of I like shiny medals and being part of a community to the more significant I don't want my future kid to be unhealthy. And that I'll have a better chance at having that kid if I get healthy...

So that leaves us with a will power problem.. and what do you do to fix a will power issue? You just have to do it. And this realization didn't come to me in any overhyped motivational Shia LaBeouf kind of way. It came to me with a distinct tone of apathy. It wasn't this great epiphany moment that I've hyped up in my head it was just the kind of honesty that you can only give your self. Because if anyone else had told me that (and a few have tried) I would have said "yea you're right" and continued waiting for that magical moment of motivation to spark action in me.

The last week and a half, I've stuck to my bedtime routine most days and I've started waking up early. I've been taking my vitamins regularly. I've been cleaning up my house and decluttering 20 mins at a time and I've started walking the dogs regularly. That is a 1 mile walk per day with a small break in between. (I walk baker, come home and usually work, sometimes play video games or sometimes sew for 20 mins and then take chester for that same half mile loop.) I've also just gotten good at cooking at home as well so we are eating healthier and saving money. I know that all of that looks like I'm managing everything well but I did want to say that a couple nights I've stayed awake past 10 and this morning even I slept in until time for me to log into work, I've missed some walks here and there but overall and as a whole I'm doing better than yesterday (yesterday being the last couple of years).

The best part, I'm starting to find joy in all of these things again. Maybe joy isn't the right word... I think hope is a better word. I'm starting to feel that little fire in my heart that told a 2016 version of me that I was going to run the 4 miler I was currently walking in 2017 and that I was going to take it one step further and run the 10 miler in 2018. That little bit of defiance that I felt in 2018 when I couldn't run to my mail box without stopping but I said I was going to run a race every month any way.

So I sat out to learn a lesson of consistency but instead I learned a lesson of persistence.

I know I have a long way to go but for now this is where I am.

 

[Katie Little]

An update!

I haven’t ghosted this journal again, I just don’t have an update that often since I’m not really training for anything.However, one little thing happened this weekend and I thought I’d share.

my just do it mentality has been working well. My life is getting a little better and I’m finding it easier to do things I don’t necessarily want to do but I have to do. Sometimes I do them with complete and total apathy, And sometimes I am so excited and feel so great about it and have a lot of energy and positivity going into whatever it is that I’m doing. Nothings been perfect but I’ve been moving more and stretching more and that’s simply what I wanted to do.

Last week I went to the beach with my mom for her birthday! Yesterday was the five hour ride home. We stopped to get gas and use the restroom about halfway through the ride. I really had to pee.. like really bad. I went into the gas station And to my disappointment saw a sign on the door that said the restroom was closed and use the Porta potty outside. Ew! But since we were verging on emergency I’ve open the Porta potty door and decided it wasn’t that much of an emergency. I went to my mom who was pumping gas and let her know the bathroom was closed and that the porter potty was the nastiest porter potty I had ever seen and I ended by saying “and I’m a runner!“

did you catch that? “And I am a runner“ I heard myself say it and I just smiled. I don’t think I’ve said that about myself since Princess 2020.

Don’t worry there is another gas station two minutes away so I was able to use the restroom. But for the rest of the ride home I thought about how I am still a runner even though I haven’t run for a while I’m still a runner. And I think maybe just maybe it’s time to start acting like one again.

So here’s the plan. My bedtime routine has been going great. And I’m about to start getting really busy. I’ve started quilting which is a time sucking hobby on it’s own. I need to start making the Christmas ornaments For my Etsy shop. once they’re all made, the shop will keep me busy from November on. And it’s the time of year that my job requires a lot for me. So if I’m gonna do this running thing, I think I need to “suck it up buttercup” and get my runs done in the morning. Which means it’s time for a morning routine.

This is what my ideal morning looks like.

7 AM wake up
7:15 AM workout/run/walk
8:15 AM shower
8:30 AM eat
9 AM work.

i’ll be testing this out this week and let you know how it’s going next week!

 

[Katie Little]

So fun fact.. it’s not a good idea to try and start a new regimented routine on a week that is anything but regimented or routine.

I was still on vacation from work Sunday - Tuesday so forcing myself to wake up early when I didn’t have to be up at all was near impossible. By the time Wednesday rolled around I was struggling to hit that reset button. So Grace given and trying again this week!

 

[Katie Little]

Okay so this forcing myself to be a morning person is going to be harder than I thought! It’s really really hard to have will power when it’s cold but your bed is warm and the doggies are cuddled up!

I’m awake though. I’m awake and I’m out of bed at 7:30 and I’m currently attempting to summon the wherewithal to do a little work out.

edit to add-

while waiting for motivation, I decided to clean out old pics from my phone and came across this screenshot.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I'm going to just say that some people are NOT morning people (because it's not the optimal way for their body to function.) And that's OK. But if getting up early is what you need to do to get workouts in, that's OK too.

 

[Katie Little]

An update!

Sunday is the day of rest! JK. I intended to start my morning routine on Sunday but Saturday was a late night, so I decided to start Monday.
Monday - I've already posted a little update in the morning when I was trying to wake up, but I did it. I found that putting my phone just out of reach forced me to get out of bed and once I'm already out of the bed it's easier to stay out of bed. I got a 30 min walk in.
Tuesday - I woke up early but didn't do a work out (this was planned). Even though I "only" walked for 30 mins, this is about building habits and a rest day after a work out is totally reasonable.
Wednesday - I slept in, but I did get my walk done in the afternoon. That one really hurt my foot so I ended at a mile. Guessing it's time to step up my stretching and foam rolling game.
Thursday - I slept in. This was somewhat planned. Since it was a rest day anyway and because I work till midnight on Thursdays, it makes it easier to stay up late.
Friday - I slept in. I think getting up at 7am is hard when you stay up so late the night before; however, I did sleep till 10:30am so there's room for improvement there. Also, no work out because I woke up late and just jumped into my day.
Saturday - We went delivering for door dash Friday night and usually we are home by 9; however, the orders were coming in steady and the money was good so we stayed out until 12:30a and didn't get to be until 1a. So I slept in Saturday as well.
Sunday - Today I work from the office. That's 8a -10p so I woke up at 6:45a with no issues... but that left no time to work out. The good news is that I slept sooo bad last night and I'm so exhausted now, so getting to bed will be a piece of cake tonight!

Another update.. about an hour after my walk Monday, my Garmin started scrolling through all of the options and turning it's self on and off. It finally turned off for the last time officially dying - RIP my Garmin. So if anyone knows of a good and affordable fitness watch (less than $100), I'd appreciate a recommendation. I'm back to just using Strava on my phone which honestly is fine for now. I never felt like I needed the watch until I finished my first half marathon with 2% battery and judging by the foot pain on my slow 1 mile walk.. I think I have some time, but none the less gadgets are a fun to have.

 

[Katie Little]

So today was the VA 10 miler. I decided not to participate this year because sometimes walking my dogs makes my foot hurt so even doing the 4 mile walk portion would be pushing it. Plus, our town is a little bit of a hotspot for covid right now, and my husband’s job didn’t sponsor it this year so we would have had to pay for his registration ( don’t get me wrong we would have happily done if either one of us were super into this year).

Picking this year not to participate kinda sucks though because my company has always sponsored the race but this year we were actually listed on the T-shirt!

I’m feeling a lot of things about not being there this year. Obviously sad that I’m not there, but still hopeful that what I have been doing the past couple weeks will build up to me being there next year. I’m also feeling incredibly proud of all my friends and coworkers that did participate! One friend tackled the 10 for the first time another set a corse PR!! Idk, just a pretty reflective morning/day and I thought I’d share!

 

[Katie Little]

I feel like me ghosting my own training journal is the perfect metaphor for me not showing up for myself...

Not much to report since my last update a year ago!! I've tried walking/running on and off since then. Nothing lasted more than a week or 2 and for the most part I've been a couch potato.

Lately though, I've been having some chest pain... 31 with chest pain... yep. Every time it hurts I think back to my blood work 2 years ago. I had high cholesterol, but after discussing it with my doctor decided not to go on medicine. I wanted to try to address with diet first and since I'm trying to have a baby it didn't make sense to start taking a medicine I wouldn't be able to continue taking during pregnancy. So we talked about me working with a nutritionist and coming back for more blood work... None of that happened.. Not the nutritionist, not the diet change and not the follow up. It's also nothing for my heart rate to just be in the high 90s after doing something like walking 100 steps to use the restroom..

Also, my butt hurts LOL. All I do is sit at my desk and work, then go to the couch and sit then go to the bed and lay down... So I bought a standing desk.. and a new office chair.. and a treadmill to go under that desk. I've made a doctors appointment but it's not until February...

The goal was to focus on diet and adding movement. Running wasn't going to be part of it. I wanted to keep it simple and low pressure, but then I was scrolling on Facebook and I see the spring time race weekend themes. A Toy Story race?!?!?!?!?!?! Side note, why can the race I want to run never be the 5k?? Why is always the big one? I immediately start doing the math.. If it takes 12 weeks to train, I'd have 23 weeks to prepare for training.. that fells okay! We could stay at all star sports and a weekend trip would be right at $2k.. It's doable.. holy crap.. I want to run a 10 miler?! I haven't been this excited about a race since 2019!!

Then I sleep on it.. I'm still excited about it the next day but I'm a lot less emotional.. I start to realize, I don't have that level of disappointment in me again.. Like yes I want to do it! But if I fail, would that be the final straw in that breaks my runners heart?? Yes.. I think it would.

But I still want to run.. The thought of the race is still in the back of my mind.. and as the days go on, the theme of the race and the excitement of Disney are further and further away from my mind, but the thought of a race, the thought of a training cycle the thought of running is coming further and further forward. And then I remembered... I still have 4 medals in a box in my closet that I haven't even opened because I haven't earned them. Just looking at the box upsets me. These are the 2020 Summer Virtual 5k series medals. I think it's time to earn those medals.

The plan - well the plan is to keep it pretty low key. Once my treadmill comes, I'll be able to slow walk and work. I want to focus on my diet and adding movement to my day and see what happens. I have a calendar pop set to remind me to check in and refocus in a month. See what's working and what's not working. My goal is that I will make enough small but meaningful changes that in a month, I'll be in a better place to come up with a specific plan for those medals.

Wish me luck! See ya next month!

 

[Herding_Cats]

A Toy Story race?!?!?!?!?!?! holy crap.. I want to run a 10 miler?! I haven't been this excited about a race since 2019!!

Then I sleep on it.. I'm still excited about it the next day but I'm a lot less emotional.. I start to realize, I don't have that level of disappointment in me again.. Like yes I want to do it! But if I fail, would that be the final straw in that breaks my runners heart?? Yes.. I think it would.

But I still want to run.. The thought of the race is still in the back of my mind.. and as the days go on, the theme of the race and the excitement of Disney are further and further away from my mind, but the thought of a race, the thought of a training cycle the thought of running is coming further and further forward. And then I remembered... I still have 4 medals in a box in my closet that I haven't even opened because I haven't earned them. Just looking at the box upsets me. These are the 2020 Summer Virtual 5k series medals. I think it's time to earn those medals.

My goal is that I will make enough small but meaningful changes that in a month, I'll be in a better place to come up with a specific plan for those medals.

Wish me luck! See ya next month!

GOOD LUCK!
I was going to suggest that you consider the virtual option for the Toy Story medal since you can decide how you want to approach it and aren't bound to completing all 10 miles in one go if that's not something that's in the cards for your at this point in time. DH signed up for the W&D challenge for the Genie medal and he has absolutely no plans to run a half marathon in one run (yet.)