Ten Tunes Tuesday: Baby Got Back (Pain)

"One good thing about music: when it hits, you feel no pain." -- Bob Marley

Last week was not a good week for me from an exercise/health and wellness perspective. I spent the early part of last week sick with an upper respiratory thing, got very little sleep midweek due to a scare at my house, and majorly messed up my back somehow at the end of the week, essentially ruining my weekend plans. UGH! This coming off of a poor performance at my Dodger 5K last Sunday too... such a bummer! 

When I started last week, I was incredibly motivated to hit my marathon training with gusto. I had modified a Jeff Galloway training program I found thanks to RunDisney to incorporate lessons learned from another 1/2 marathon training program I read about on Women's Running Magazine's website. I am a little more partial to the Women's Running program as it incorporates strength and cross training, but both programs have received excellent reviews. After much deliberation, I wrote my own 16 week program utilizing philosophies from both programs, and was excited to try it. I did pretty good all week until Thursday, a casualty of my sleepless night the night before. But when Friday rolled around... it went downhill pretty quick.

I'm not sure if it was that I was kind of fighting some illness, if I was training too hard, or if I simply slept in a weird position... but whatever the case, I woke up on Friday feeling pretty beat up. As the day dragged on, I was experiencing ever increasing upper back pain, so much so that I was near tears at lunchtime. Yikes! A couple of Advil and two meetings later, I did something I never do... I left work early and tried to get some rest. I spent the rest of the day alternating between light walks in my neighborhood and sleeping while sitting up. It was SO much fun (... not).

Which brings us to Monday... I type this now with the minty smell of Icy/Hot burning my nostrils and sleep heavy on my eyelids. Yes, my back is still sore. While it has improved day by day, I can't believe I'm sitting here on my couch on Monday still annoyed by the pain. Sigh. I did finally return to the gym today, but I haven't ran in almost a week. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel up to it again.  Maybe. I'm so mad that this happened - I need every single training day I can get! I'll be at the beach for a conference for the rest of the week, so I intend on taking advantage of the area and get some good runs in while I'm there. Here's hoping my back holds up! 

Since most of you won't read this until Tuesday anyway, I figured I would leave this post with my Ten Tunes for your day. Music is my favorite mood booster, and is often the only thing that cheers me up more than strength training in the gym these days. Today was an especially frustrating day at work, so I was oh-so-glad to have good tunes and heavy weights to carry me through the end of the day. Without further adieu, here are your Ten Tunes for this week. These are a bit beach inspired as I definitely have the beach on my brain for my week ahead. Enjoy!

1. Bob Marley - "Trenchtown"
2. 311 - "Love Song"
3. Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat - "Lucky"
4. Mamas & The Papas - "California Dreamin'"
5. Rihanna - "Pon de Replay"
6. The Beatles - "Here Comes The Sun"
7. Ziggy Marley - "Drive"
8. Jack Johnson - "If I Had Eyes"
9. Weezer - "Surf Wax America"
10. Colbie Caillat - "Bubbly"

PS - A big thank you to so many of you who have reached out to me in person and via Facebook with helpful suggestions on how to reduce my back pain. I think it was a combination of these recommendations that have me feeling so much better today! While I intend to take the strength training easy for the rest of the week (I'll be doing it - I just might not go as hard as it as I often want to do), I definitely plan on getting some miles on my feet while I'm working from the beach. Hope each of you has a happy and healthy week too!

Cheers!

Becky

Ten Tunes Day (LA Dodger 5K Edition)

I don't know - could've been a lame jogger maybe,

Or someone just about to do the freeway strangler baby,

Shopping car pusher, or maybe someone groovie...

One thing's for sure - he isn't starring in the movies...

'Cause he's walking in L.A.

Walking in L.A., nobody walks in L.A. 

---- Missing Persons

Hey friends! Hello again from your friendly Californian blogger! For this week's Ten Tunes Tuesday (this was a thing... should I bring it back? Do you hate it? Hmm)... Anyway, for this week's Ten Tunes Tuesday, I thought I'd put together a list of songs about Los Angeles (or songs that simply remind me of Los Angeles). Why, you ask? Well, I thought it would be fitting considering I just finished my first 5K of 2015 over the weekend benefitting the Los Angeles Dodger Foundation. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I haven't been doing much by way of racing lately. I did a few 5Ks when I first moved to California in 2011/2012, but I think it's been well over a year since I last participated in one. I've been steadily increasing my runs over the summer, with the longest continuous one lasting right at 4 miles about a week ago. I thought I was prepared, so much so that I even warned my 5K buddy that I intended to run most of Sunday's race. But did I? Nooooooo. And while I could sit here and list a million reasons excuses for that, I won't. What I will say is that I did run some of it. I also learned a lot about what I need to work on as far as training goes before my half marathon in January. I definitely need to find a trail that incorporates more hills. I also really need to strengthen my core - I think part of my problem on Sunday had to do with my weak core, and that's probably because I've increased my cardio but haven't been maintaining my strength training lately. All said... I had a great day with a very good friend. We finished the race, got a really cool medal, and got to walk around the field of Dodger Stadium. Winning!

Without further adieu, here are my Ten Tunes for this Tuesday night:

1. Missing Persons - "Walking in LA"
2. Decemberists - "Los Angeles, I'm Yours"
3. 2Pac - "To Live and Die in LA"
4. Randy Newman - "I Love LA"
5. Guns N' Roses - "Welcome to the Jungle"
6. The Doors - "LA Woman"
7. Ice Cube - "It Was A Good Day"
8. Weezer - "Beverly Hills"
9. America - "Ventura Highway"
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge" <-- admittedly not uplifting, but sometimes such songs pair great with a good long hike too!

Did I miss any of your favorites? (I know, I know... some of you don't have the same adoration as I do for the fair City of Angels...). Anyway, I'm going to close this with a post-race picture of my friend and I at Sunday's 5k. She and I are looking for another one to do between now and the end of the year. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise... Stay tuned!

Until next time, my friends. Cheers, and GO BLUE!

Becky

NOTHING tastes better?

So, as part of my 90 day fitness challenge, I also have access to an online support area via Facebook.  I didn't find out about the online support until about 60 days into the challenge (which appears to have been more of a blessing than a curse).  As a result, when I found it I was glad that I would have some people to commiserate with.  Well, that was not really the case.  For the most part it's just people posting selfies of their ripped bodies.  I'm not a hater, but I was a little more interested in finding people who are in the same boat that I am (tired of egg whites and ready for ice cream). 

I made a ranting post about how I was about to eat everything that wasn't nailed down and asked for support.  The majority of the commentary was supportive, but one comment stuck out from the rest.  "Nothing tastes as good as being fit feels."  Seriously?!?!  Never mind the fact that this is the most cliche cliche imaginable, but for some reason I found it to be very insulting.  Nothing tastes better?  I immediately starting thinking about some statistics that I heard about how 60+ percent of this country is over weight and nearly a third are obese.  Nothing?  Now I have been thin before and here is a (limited) list of things that taste better than being thin feels:

Green chile chicken enchiladas
Hot funnel cake with powdered sugar and cinnamon
Duck Donuts
Beer
Hot fudge sundaes
Cakes/Pies/Chocolate anything. 

I also got "eat to live, don't live to eat."  As a native(ish) New Mexican, this is nearly impossible.  Maybe it's possible over here in bland city U.S.A. AKA the east coast, but I can think of something mouth watering to eat in New Mexico every day of the week (carne adovada anyone).  Maybe I'm just blessed to be surrounded by people who like me just the way I am, whatever that is at the moment, and the incentive to be extra slim just isn't there.  Yep, that's it.  One more treat and back to the gym. :)

Natasha