Friday 5: long-winded exercise update edition (and other misc)

1. I am loving all of the “Yearly Round Up” posts that are starting to circulate.

They are so fun to read and give me great ideas! Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to sit down and formulate any of my own thoughts on any of these yet.

A few post ideas I’ve seen lately and think it might be fun to replicate, eventually:

• Favorite things of 2023
• 2023 Goals Recap
• Ask Me Anything posts (I’ve never done one! Should I? 🤔)
• Top 5/ Bottom 5 posts (especially relating to things like Christmas movie, Christmas music, etc.)
• A 2023 Recap post/ highlight reel, bullet point style (I did this in 2020 and it’s still one of my favorite posts! Would like to repeat and am bummed I didn’t do it in 2021/ 2022).
• Top Books Read in 2023

2. Workout/Running Update:

If anyone is wondering, yes, I have still been running a bit! Nothing crazy- according to my records, I have now logged… let’s see… a total of 4 times on the treadmill, and 2 times outside since November 28.

3 miles each time, so 6×3= 18 miles.

A few observations:

🔷 I’m pleasantly surprised that I’ve actually been able to complete the 3 miles outside without walking. It hasn’t felt “easy”, but I haven’t died, either. Go me.

🔷 I intentionally have not been aiming for a particular pace right now. I just hide my watch and run what feels like a good strong cardio workout pace on the outside runs. For me this has been around an 8:50 mile/pace. This pace feels nice at the beginning, challenging at the end. My endurance is fair to bad. Haha. I’m also still figuring out how to read my body cues and all of that again. I get excited/ feel good at first and go out a little too fast.

🔷 IF I keep running, I will likely figure out some rhythm to incorporate easy vs workout type runs. And will probably start paying attention to my watch more. Right now I think I wanted to challenge my cardiovascular system a little bit! Just wanted to sort of let loose and have fun and see what I could do out of the gate. I know I used to default always to around a 9:15/mile pace “back in the day”, so perhaps I should aim for around there?

🔷 My strength workouts weren’t great this week- I just had some busy evenings and got off track. I did hit legs last night quite hard which was fun. But I won’t be hitting my 5 strength workouts goal. Oh well.

🔷 Speaking of strength:

I quit running back in… 2011/2012, I think? And then I picked up more serious strength training in the gym by 2014-2015, with 2012- 2014 a sort of interim strength focus (more home video type stuff).

I am certainly not “strong” today by anyone’s standards (I am naturally skinny/scrawny muscle-wise), but compared to my 2011 self, I definitely have way more muscle mass than I used to, especially on my lower body. (My back to butt to legs used to look like a flat, straight line, all the way down. From my neck down to my feet, no butt. 🤣🤣) Thanks to years of heavy hip thrusts… I now have an actual butt. (Sort of. No J. Lo or Kim K. over here, but a definite improvement.) I feel like I can notice a difference in my running, compared to years ago! Like I do not think that 2012 me could have gone out and run a 8:45 mile 5k with no training, if it weren’t for some real muscle boost. A testament to strength training, perhaps?

🔷 Vacation + exercise:

I probably won’t workout at all in Mexico. It never seems to work; I’ve tried. There’s no private place with enough space for home workouts in that house, and running outside (alone- definitely not, and probably just in general) is kind of impossible where my in-laws live, for various reasons.

In fact, I probably won’t even take running shoes along. Might as well not waste the suitcase space. I am fine with this. I RARELY, if ever, do much formal exercise on vacation, even 2 weeklong ones. And my fitness and physique are never any the wiser. I used to fret about this, but I really don’t anymore. It’s a blip on the radar and does not matter long term. 🙂 If anything, maybe I’ll do a little “body weight hotel room” workout or something, but probably not. 🤷‍♀️

3. We ate some veggies last night.

My diet has been…. crap. CRAP. CRAP. CRAP.

Ever since we got Charlie, I have just been totally disorganized for my daytime meals. We have had some planned dinners, yes, but I have been picking through the cabinets and fridge and eating the most random stuff most of the rest of the time. And not always particularly nutritious stuff. Protein intake has been all over the place, too.

Anyway, last night I made lemon-pepper tilapia, rice and broccoli/ zucchini.

It felt good to eat some veggies!!! I need to straighten this back out in the new year.

4. Charlie got a new Christmas coat.

It took me 3 trips back to TJMaxx to get the right size, because I had it mixed up in my head what his old one was (which was too small now!)….anyway, finally got it straightened around. Love the holiday plaid! Will be cute all winter.

5. I completed my Day 2 Christmas Challenge activity yesterday: 24 hours No Social Media.

Well, sort of.

I accidentally cheated twice, momentarily, because my fingers are possessed. They literally opened the Facebook app without me telling them to. 😆 (Seriously, it is gross when that happens. I was like, OOPS I’m not supposed to be in here….and immediately closed it, but jeesh. Perhaps that is telling that apparently my brain is now pre-wired, and not in a good way, to just open that app constantly??! 😳😳)

I guess I don’t really have photo evidence for this one, sorry!

Unfortunately, no big revelation from a day without social media. I basically just checked my email a lot and refreshed Feedly instead. Sigh.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that this weekend is Asher’s swim team’s big home winter meet…. and GUESS WHO’S NOT RUNNING THE VOLUNTEERS??? That’s right, me. For any long time readers, you’ll remember I had a massive volunteer job for the last ~4 years, which I finally relinquished this past spring. IT HAS BEEN AMAZING. I wish I could say I miss it, but, nope. I’ll be there for a couple regular shifts this weekend like a normal parent volunteer and that’s it. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉