Cabin in the Woods

This week, I was completely focused on the upcoming weekend.  A few college buddies and myself were heading to Brown County to celebrate a birthday with a weekend away.  The birthday boy decided he wanted to spend a couple nights in a cabin in the woods and just hang out.  So, that's exactly what we did.

However, I still had to get in my workouts.  I made it through my Wednesday pace workout just fine.  I did try to push myself a little during this one.  Thursday, I could tell I was a little sore, but my legs still felt good to go.  This was an "easy" workout so I took it easy and got going.  About halfway through I could tell that my dinner was catching up with me as I tend do do most of my workouts in the evening.  My stomach started to cramp and I decided to call it there rather than make it worse.  I could run through a side stitch, but this was beginning to get a little worse than that so I decided to listen to my body.

Friday, I spent the day getting ready to head down to Brown County to check in to the cabin.  We rented the home through Hills O' Brown.  If you have ever rented a cabin around the Nashville, IN area, you have probably gone through them.  The cabin was great!  We stayed at the hilltop hideaway and enjoyed every minute.  We basically sent ourselves back to college.  Saturday we drove into Bloomington and went bowling and the rest of the time we spent hanging around the cabin and playing video games.  It was a fun time.

I got home on Sunday and needed to change the battery in Mrs. Re-Dan-imation's (she got all of her workouts in this week by the way) vehicle as it had finally kicked the bucket.  It lasted about 7 years.  Not too shabby.  After doing that, and eating dinner, I spent the remainder of the evening watching football and planning on catching up on some sleep.

This morning I woke up and found that I felt a little more rested.  I got on the scale and well let's just say I am beginning to lose faith in its accurate measurements.  Most days I get on the scale and get a few different weights and I go until one repeats itself.  This morning I only stepped twice and it said that I gained over 4 pounds.  I have quite a hard time believing that!  So, for this week I am going to forgo the actual weight portion and just go with how I feel.  I will be getting my workouts in and constantly improving my fitness.  I can feel myself getting stronger during my runs and I am looking forward to more of that.  With that said...Until next week.  Food. Feet. Water. Repeat!!

Back on Track

The NordicTrack that is.  After finally assembling the treadmill last week and then becoming ill on Sunday, I was actually able to get in all my workouts this week.

I'm glad to be back on the right track concerning my fitness.  I was able to complete easy, pace, and long runs this week...which according to my training plan appears to be what my workouts look like for the foreseeable future.  I did a little better than I thought I was going to, but I obviously have a long way to go before I will be ready for the Mini.  My workouts consisted of 40, 50 and 70 minutes and I came in at a total of 13.2 miles for the week including my warm ups and cool downs.  Mrs. Re-Dan-imation even took a picture while I was using the treadmill for the inaugural run.


If you remember I talked recently about the accuracy of my new Garmin Forerunner 235.  I tried it again recently on the treadmill and again, the pace was way off what I was actually running.  So, I did some research.  It turns out that I am not able to calibrate the watch on a treadmill and that instead I need to do some runs outdoors and it will learn my pace based on my arm movement in association with the GPS.  I'll be honest, it's been pretty cold lately and outside is not something I have been up for since we purchased a treadmill.  I will get back out there, but I plan on doing it at a point when I can dress appropriately for the weather while maintaining my comfort as well.  Plus, I am a SWEATER, and I don't feel like overheating in the cold and then freezing stiff as a board when I start to cool down.

Mrs. Re-Dan-imation has decided that this new treadmill is definitely not just for me.  This week she worked out on it twice.  Gotta say that I am proud of her.  Running has never been her thing, but hopefully she begins to learn to love it.  She also downloaded the Couch 2 5K app and just started that.  Hopefully it helps her build some stamina and confidence.  It's funny that she is asking me questions about running although I weigh 2.5 times as much as she does.  She was understandably a little aggravated when she got on the treadmill the first time and the "enter weight" portion wouldn't drop down all the way to her weight.  (You can stop cussing at her now) ;)  Good Job!! Maybe one of these days I will get her to sign up for a 5K with me!!

I have noticed lately that monitoring my calorie intake has taken a turn in the wrong direction.  I was doing so well before Thanksgiving with this and since then I have been hit or miss on actually entering the data into MyFitnessPal.  I'm a little mad at myself about it.  I feel like even through the holidays I could have done much better monitoring myself, but now we are significantly beyond that point and I am still not back at it.  I will do better, I have to.

Stepping on the scale this morning was honestly a bit of a surprise to myself.  I weighed in at 261.3 lbs.  I really was a bit pissed to be honest.  How could I have run 13.2 miles in workouts this week and not have lost weight.  I went up 0.3lbs.  And no, it wasn't muscle, as my body fat percentage was higher as well.  It all goes back to that food monitoring point.  I am putting in way more calories than I am burning.  Simple math.  That's ok.  I know what I need to work on.

Until next week...Food. Feet Water. Repeat.