Move/make: Weeks 3-5, Take 2

Today's weight: 172.2.

Workouts:
Week 3
Mostly took the week off to travel. No workouts worth writing down.

Week 4:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Walked 3 miles
Wednesday: Ran 25 minutes
Thursday: Off
Friday: Off
Saturday: Ran 35 minutes
Sunday: Ran a charity 5K (33 minutes)

Week 5:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Ran 22 minutes
Wednesday: Ran 30 minutes
Thursday: Off
Friday: Off
Saturday: Ran 40 minutes
Sunday: Ran 20 minutes

Thoughts on food:
Ate a lot of Indian food these last couple of weeks. Learned that it's hard to be a vegetarian in small-town Arkansas. Finally started cooking for myself in a real way that I am actually excited about. Made grilled brie sandwiches with wilted spinach/sauteed garlic for lunch today. Delicious.

This upcoming week is the first one where I've planned a meal for every day that I actually want to eat (and don't just feel like I should eat, like a salad).

Overall reflections:
A busy couple of weeks of work-travel-work meant I was pretty burned out on running/eating/work/life. Throw in some random heel pain, severe depression, and lack of sunlight, and I didn't do much for a week or so. But I bought new running shoes (again), got some sleep, and finally sorted out some things. My heel pain is gone, and I also beat my PR for a 5K. I'm feeling better.

Tonight I'm going to a spin class for the first time ever. I get free gym classes as part of my employee gym membership, so I'm trying to take advantage of them. Hoping these classes will keep me from tiring of running. I just haven't been feeling it lately. I'm always careful to pay attention to when I'm not as excited about running. I want to protect it and keep it as something I look forward to, something that sustains me. I don't want it to ever be a chore.

These last couple of weeks reminded me that life is always a work-in-progress. I've been feeling a little worse for the wear. I am trying to remember to be gentle to myself, to take it easy when I need to. I am trying to be more vocal about who/what I am grateful for. I am trying to remember how much my loved ones sustain me. I am trying to remember how much running sustains me. I am trying. I suppose that's what matters, on tougher days. On better days, it's the doing that counts.

Goals:

• Go to a couple of gym classes. This will help with cross-training and keeping me interested in working out during these shorter, drearier fall days.
• Set up a time to meet with a personal trainer and nutritionist (also free, courtesy of my gym membership).
• Cook the meals I said I'd cook (mostly fancy hot sandwiches and fish tacos). 
• Get at least one shorter, tempo run in.

Think/act: Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"

Look/hear: Neil Young

Neil Young is awesome. I grew up listening to him and CSNY, thanks to my dad, and have always loved him.

I've been listening to this song a lot lately. His music is perfect for cool autumn nights.

Move/make: Week 3, Take 2

Today's weight: 175.0.

Workouts:
Monday: Hill sprints (11)
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Tempo run (2 miles in 22 minutes)
Thursday: Ran 30 minutes
Friday: Hill sprints (10)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Ran 35 minutes

Thoughts on food:
My original goal was to go out to eat twice. I went out to eat four times, but two of those times were Indian food, which is healthy and delicious. The other two times were beer and bread-based snacks -- not so healthy, but good cold-weather comfort food.

I spent tonight making quinoa, oatmeal and hard-boiled eggs. I've got a rough idea of meal plans for the week. I've been drinking kombucha and kefir, which has made my stomach feel much better. And I've been eating a lot of chia seeds, and taking vitamins. I'm still feeling good, despite my new addiction to dark chocolate bars with cayenne pepper and cinnamon in them (amazing).

I had a Diet Coke today -- my first since last Sunday. It tasted OK, but I don't need another one for a while.

Overall reflections:
Had a rough run today (don't know what it is about Sundays), but I am getting faster overall. An 11-minute mile is probably nothing to write home about, but it's a minute faster than my previous average. I want to get down to a consistent 10-minute mile, or I'm going to be miserable running longer races. I'm happy to see the speed training is making a difference, even after only doing it for a couple of weeks.
I've always thought I was a slow runner (and I am), so it's been nice to chip away at my times.

I'm also happy that I worked out five days last week.

Goals:
I met two out of my three goals from last week. I'm traveling at the end of this week, and the next couple of days are shaping up to be very busy. Because of that, I want to:

• Work out only three (but ideally four) days this week.
• Keep taking my vitamins, especially since I'll be traveling and run down.
• Eat healthy, home-made meals for all meals but one.