Fitness Update March 16th and One Thing You Should Never Do

March 16, 2017 by Zucchini Runner in Fitness, Running | Comments Off

No recipe post last night, and if you are subscribed to my email list or follow me on social media, you know why. It has been kinda crazy the past couple weeks in our household. As a result, this week’s fitness update is a bit lacking in the fitness department, but I will definitely still share my week, because this is real life. I have some nutrition tips for traveling, and a “don’t ever do this” moment to share.

Below are the workouts I did over the past week:

Friday
Moving day for Mr. Zucchini Runner’s mom from Seattle, WA to AZ; so lots of lifting heavy boxes, climbing stairs and walking. I walked 5.6 miles – 3 were probably related to the moving. This is the day the “don’t ever do this” moment occurred, but we’ll get to that soon.

Saturday
Rest Day – on the road with the moving truck loaded down and her car in tow.

Sunday
Rest Day #2 – final day on the road with moving truck and car in tow. I had high hopes of starting each morning in the hotels with a little 30 minute workout, but it took all I had to just get out of bed. Moving is hard. Moving is exhausting.

Monday
Boom. Another rest day! I was EXHAUSTED. Also had our chiropractic visit this day; much needed.

Tuesday
3 mile trail run, felt amazing.

Wednesday
5 mile road run, with the second half at a quicker pace.

Thursday
4 mile road run, nice and easy pace + amazing massage from my LMT, Barb

running 4 miles

If you’ve missed any of the previous Fitness Updates, and are interested in the pattern (or lack thereof) here you go!

March 9th

March 2nd (Mesa-Phoenix Half Marathon Race Recap)

Nutrition Talk

Considering I was on the road for 3 of the above 7 days — I think I did pretty well with my food. As you saw with last week’s post, I was able to find a green juice and salad in the LAX airport. Over the years I’ve learned that when traveling, especially stressful traveling, I need to keep my nutrition on point the best I can. Because no matter what I do, it won’t be as good as what I cook at home – in terms of nutritional value.

fresh produce natural grocers boise idaho

I snapped the whole road trip via Snapchat. 🙂 I was a little relieved to say the least when we found a Natural Grocers in Boise, ID.

If I don’t eat well while traveling, there’s a 50% chance I will get sick. So finding a Natural Grocers in Boise, ID was a little slice of heaven for me.

The grocery haul for the remainder of our trip to AZ.

It’s not all amazing food, but FAR better than what the gas stations had offered us so far.

Below is a snapshot of yesterday and today’s journal entries for my Be Well Fitness log. I kept on track during the trip, once we got on the road. There wasn’t much else to do but eat and stare at the scenery.

be well fitness log

Fun Fact

In the image below, you can see my resting heart rate (blue) and high/active heart rate (red). You can see a direct connection between sitting and doing nothing all day on the road (circled in yellow) and actually getting back home and working out again, last three dots. So even though I was not working out, my resting heart rate was actually higher. Kind of a no brainer that exercise is directly connected to heart health. Just further proof to keep moving. <3

heart rate daily

Lastly, don’t ever do this.

Don’t ever ever ever stand over a tow dolly as someone is driving a vehicle onto it. Even if you think it is secure, and you’ve checked it 10 times. Don’t put yourself in that position – literally. We learned this the hard way on Friday. It was a dumb move on my part, especially given the fear-laden, “what if…” personality I have.

As I was straddled over the beam, I thought, “I shouldn’t be doing this.” No sooner than 30 seconds later, and that beam unhooked from the tow hitch, due to the weight of the car, and swiftly lifted me up in the air – teeter-totter style, and I fell to the ground screaming in pain and fear.

Not a moment I want to relive or have anyone experience… ever.

The good news is, no broken bones. It hit my inner thigh first, so I have a beautiful purple bruise and a nice little complimentary red scrape. It tore a hole in my FAVORITE pants, but I already repaired them. 🙂 {looks down} I’m actually wearing them now! hahahaha So yeah, DON’T EVER DO THIS. Not a great way to start a 1,400 mile road trip that will take you 27 hours.

Until next week!

Sleep hard.
Get moving.
Trust Your Gut.

Fitness Update Feb 16th

February 16, 2017 by Zucchini Runner in Fitness | 13 Comments

Have you ever heard this quote?

“Sing like no one is listening.

Love like you’ve never been hurt.

Dance like nobody’s watching.”

Or something like that… well today I danced like nobody was watching and it felt great. I highly recommend it. <3

This week’s update is gonna be short and sweet! Yesterday’s post took all my energy; or maybe it’s because I realized this past week, that I only took 6 rest days in 2017 so far!

Below are the workouts I did over the past week:

Friday
No spin, just an easy 2.2 mile hike with my niece and her boyfriend. (I had a killer massage that morning too, where my LMT tackled my tight SI joint. Ouch.)

Saturday
REST DAY – I was feeling run down and tired. I watched lots of TV and ate more chips and hummus than I care to admit.

Sunday
Barely made it through 6.8 WINDY miles of my scheduled 10 mile run. But it’s always better to under train, than overtrain… right? (That’s what I kept questioning, until I actually sat and looked at my workouts since the first of the year.)

Monday
Kundalini Yoga, which I talked about in my Motivation Monday post. It was incredible and very relaxing; very gentle.

Tuesday
Another REST day, still wasn’t feelin’ it. Had to respect my body’s messages.

Wednesday
5 miles – nice tempo, finally felt good to get out there and sweat again! But it took some pep talking!

Thursday
30 minutes of weights and core, 37 minutes of hill repeats on the spin bike (felt energized today and therefore did some dance breaks in between sets!)

Below is the snapshot of my Strava calendar to hold me accountable!

Below is a little comparison for my increase in workout volume over the past 12 months. As you can see, March-June were pretty low. It wasn’t until July that I started running regularly again – and it was 2 miles here and 2 miles there. By October, we had made the conscious decision to stop trying for a family, after 6.5 years. It was a huge weight off my shoulders, to allow myself to move forward with my life — and pick up running regularly again. Then the holidays hit, of course, but January was an awesome start to the year!

Although I felt like I was being very careful about not over-training, I think it became a little too close for my comfort last week. I thought I was in the clear, since every workout was easy to moderate intensity, with just one intense workout a week. But you can see below that I worked out every single day, for 19 days straight. Now before anyone freaks out, at least once a week there would be a restorative yoga, or a 30 minute easy walk on the treadmill, etc. But it just goes to show, that even when you feel like you are pacing yourself appropriately, you still need to ultimately listen to your body. For me that meant sleeping in a couple days and doing NOTHING in terms of workouts. (See above, chips and TV were part of the equation too.)

Lastly, here are the scribbles in my Be Well Fitness Log, it truly helps me stay accountable to myself. 🙂 Note: I have not had dinner yet, so it’s not listed on Thursday!

Until next week!

Sleep hard.
Get moving.
Trust Your Gut.

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