Sara Sucks at Fitness Update: Rest Day

Yesterday, I ran a holiday 5k (which was actually a 6k due to how they routed the 2nd and 3rd loops of the course, but who's counting).  I ran the first mile with a cheap, dollar store, reindeer antler headband but the wind turned my fashion statement into a hazard so I had to take them off.

2 hours and a half a banana later, I was off to run another 4 k with a friend, testing out the Galloway method for the first time. Initial reaction: I need to play around with the intervals. We did 1:30 run/0:30 walk and I think I'd like something closer to a 3:00 run/0:45 walk, but I'll keep experimenting.

And last, but certainly not least, drumroll please...

I have stayed true to my squat challenge!!! 360 squats later and I have reached my first rest day.

Rest days can be particularly challenging for me as a lazy person. It's hard for me to pick up my progress from where I dropped it the day, two, three, weeks before. I end up right back where I started, thinking I should workout for 2 weeks and then stopping. It's a cycle that gets me no where, pushes no limits, and leaves me feeling defeated.

On the other extreme, rest days can seem like an obstacle for your true goal.  You feel like you need to keep pushing to drop those last 2 pounds or cut those last 15 seconds. A rest day is the last thing you need in order to get harder, better, faster, stronger (more than ever/hour after/our work is/never over). But that mentality can leave you injured, fatigued, and unhealthy in a brand new way.

Like all things, exercise and dieting is best done in moderation.  Every expert and "expert" will have their own caveats, but clichés are popular for a reason and everything but the kitchen sink kills two birds with one stone. Wait, what?

Tomorrow I start again with 65 squats and it's been very helpful to do them in quick bursts of 15-20 with 10 second breaks between sets.  I am learning a lot about how I need to train myself to train, which, as convoluted as it sounds, is an essential life skill. It's great to have accomplishments and to throw out arbitrary numbers of how many reps you'll do and how much you'll lift and how far you'll run, but the hard and dirty work is the time you have to put in to prepare.  It's never just the longer runs and workouts. It's also the stretching, the meal prep, the playlist curating, the laundry, and, worst of all, the saying "no" to friends who want you to go out to eat or have another drink.

Success is selfish, but that's not a bad thing. And neither is saying "Hell. Yes." to those Quatro Queso Dos Fritos every once in a while. I look forward to keeping up this progress while remembering that self-love comes in many different, and sometimes delicious, forms.

Cheers!

This balaclava certainly gives me the "ninja" vibe.

Sara Sucks at Fitness

2017 was a year of first for me, fitness wise.

I'm pretty sure it's the first time that I have intentionally jogged at least once every single month (although maybe not every single week...). We're starting small here.

I also ran my second and third half-marathons, which means it was the first time I have run 2 major races in a single year and, totaled together, I basically ran a marathon (hearty guffaw).

I got my first tattoo.  It is located on my foot which is prone to going numb while running and I haven't yet scheduled my first doctor's appointment to see if that may be a cause.

I found my first pair of shoes that totally cured my foot-numbness-while-running (God bless you Lincoln Running Company and Brooks Glycerin 14s) and I also subsequently wore out those shoes and went right back to where I started.  To solve that problem, I made my first multiple shoe purchase and bought 2 pairs of the exact same shoe in a size that feels much too big for me normally but fit just right when I run.

I bought the Tube and it was a total game changer.

I learned the value of a good lacrosse ball and/or foam roller.

I started Zumba Step.

I ran my first adventure race, which was a triathlon sprint (canoeing, trail running, and biking) and I learned that my feet still can't handle anything but roads or they fall asleep in protest (lazy bitches, but I love them).

I started regularly attending a core class. Sure it's only 25 minutes. Sure it's only once a week. But I'm doing it and that's what counts.

I started night-running.

And yet for all of this, I'm still a turgle who magnificently manages to con myself out of morning exercise day after day.  Something's gotta change.

So I challenged myself, this month, to do yet another first.  I have always wanted to, and yet managed, to complete this thing.  It has eluded me because, as I said, I am a master deception artist who can justify my apathy towards anything in a given moment. My brain knows I am overtly lying to itself and yet I still succeed in tricking it into submission.

And so, this month, I have challenged myself.....to complete the Holiday Squat-a-Thon.  By December 31st, I will have completed 1975 squats.  Why 1975?  Idk. Because on the rest days I don't do any. Because The 1975 is a kickass band even though I sometimes can't understand all of the words they sing.  Because Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft that year in Albuquerque.  Who even knows?

Whatever the reason, I'm doing this because I can and because I want to and because, frankly, I need to up my workout intensity if I want to justify the amount of carbs I'm going to enjoy this Christmas.

So Merry Squat-mas, Happy Christmas, and to all a blessed holiday season.

Cheers!