"I hate the point where you have to get off the ladder, or get back on. I don't know if that's a fear of heights, or literally a fear of falling. I want to be afraid to fall. That seems like a good fear." -- Chuck Klosterman
Hi friends. I know I've been slacking, but it's been a tumultuous couple of weeks (to say the least). I won't get into all that on this blog - those of you who know me best know exactly what has been going on in my life, and I appreciate you for being there for me more than you know. Alas, I figured I better blog now or this little blog of ours is surely to just die.
So.. about that whole "Whole30" thing. I totally failed. I lasted about a day before I gave up, citing work stress and vacation as excuses for why I couldn't do it. I suck, and I know it. I have been watching everyone else's posts and progress on the FB group, however, and I gotta say - I'm impressed! So impressed, in fact, that I spent all of today buying food and doing food prep so I can stick to that this week. I'm still only going to do it for 2 meals/day (I can't give up my greek yogurt breakfasts), but that's better than nothing! Wish me luck!
In other news, my vacation (staycation) proved to be very busy and very active! Eugene and I racked up an impressive 20,000 steps over the course of 13 hours on his first day in LA, and we spent the following day hiking in two counties! (Side Note: The weekend he visited was National Park Week, which meant free admission to all National Parks. I really wanted to do a park, but we didn't have time to fit it in with everything else. Le sigh - I hope I can talk someone in to going to Yosemite for the day with me soon!)
I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I recently joined and became an admin for a group called "Girls Who Hike LA." It's a group of over 1,400 women in Southern California that enjoy hiking as much as I do. The founder schedules hikes nearly every month, but other girls schedule impromptu hikes now and then too. One of the hikes I was dying to do was a hike the group recently did to Paradise Falls. (I missed it because I had promised to hike Wind Wolves the same weekend.) Paradise Falls is one of many hiking destinations within the Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, CA. The hike is rated by experts from easy to moderate... I think it really depends on which path you take to get there and return. We chose the shortest route (measured at around 2.5 miles), and the only hard part was the 250' climb back up after hiking down.
The trails at Wildwood Regional Park were very active while we were there - several hikers had their dogs and/or babies (in strollers) with them. I think quite a few regretted those strollers on the way back up :) The falls themselves are pretty but small - I heard they were fantastic a few weeks prior when we had a good deal of rain, but they were still pretty steady when we were there. Eugene and I enjoyed it and thought it was a good workout after breakfast - just enough to get you sweating without making either of us sore later on.
Later that same day, Eugene and I made our way northwest to Sequoia National Forest. Eugene had his heart set on seeing "the big trees;" alas, the roads to the Trail of 100 Giants was still closed for the season. As somewhat of a compromise, I offered to take him through Kern Canyon for a short hike in the Sequoias. It was absolutely beautiful. We got there just in time for the "golden hour" before sunset, and the temperature was cool and crisp.
Our hiking adventures left us famished, and we ended the day with burritos from my favorite burrito joint. It was really nice to bring Eugene on a couple of hikes with me, even if they were small ones. Hiking is, and always has been, one of my favorite things to do - I'm lucky to have people in my life that like to do it with me! As with most things, hiking is always more fun with friends :) And it doesn't feel like working out if you're gossiping while you're doing it! Ha!
Since Eugene left, I've been trying to keep to my running schedule. I can't believe how much I have fallen off that wagon. I was averaging 100 miles/month from October through January (we won't talk about February or March...). Next week is my Tinkerbell 10K race, so I knew I needed to up the ante a bit this weekend. I have a bit more free time these days, so I figured why not use it? On Saturday, I did a quick and dirty 5K... Quick because I'm lazy, and dirty because I was sweaty as hell! I never sweat, so I'm going to blame it on the humidity. It wasn't a fun 3 miles. My feet had been hurting, so I stupidly thought adding another insole would make it more cushiony (is that a word?). I was totally wrong - it made my feet feel like bricks, and hurt even more! After the first mile, I sat down, tore those friggin' things out, and went about my run. It made a world of difference - miles 2 and 3 flew by!
I had planned to get a 6+ mile run in today, but that didn't happen. I decided to meet a friend at 6am to walk our dogs - I thought it would be a good warmup since my first mile always sucks anyway. I was wrong - after our walk, I brought my dog home and promptly fell asleep on the couch. D'oh! When I woke up at 7:30, I panicked. I thought I had plans to attend to later today, and didn't think I could still squeeze in a full 6 or 7 mile run. So... I decided to squeeze in what I could so I would at least get some running in today. I was able to get just over 5 miles done. It was a better run than yesterday, so that was good. But I still worry I am vastly underprepared for my upcoming race.
Distance running is so weird. My body argues with me the whole time. Do any of you have this problem?
Mile 1: "I hate you. I hate running. We aren't doing this. Just stop."
Mile 2: "Ugh, you aren't listening to me. I guess we will do this. Don't your feet hurt? Yeah, they do. Let's stop and get ice cream instead."
Mile 3: "I guess we are doing this, aren't we? Why can't you just bike like a normal person? Ok. Let's do this."
Mile 4: "Feet? You there? Oh, you're numb. Got it."
Mile 5: "We can do this. We are doing this. Look at you, legs! Lungs, don't fail us now!"
Earlier this year, I decided that the 10K is my favorite distance. The 5K is too short - my body just complains the whole time, so I'm super slow. I start hitting my stride around mile 4, and can usually carry myself through to the last 2+ miles on euphoria alone. After mile 8 (in a half marathon), however, my body starts to negotiate with me again. It becomes a mental game - Can we do this? Should we do this? How badly do we want to do this? I don't remember having these conversations with myself when I ran when I was younger. Ugh... why do we have to get old?
Well, off to bed. I have my food prepped, my training scheduled, and my bed made (wait... crap... no, it's not... off to make my bed!).
Have a great week, y'all! Onward and upward!
Becky
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