I'm Back & It's On!!

So I got home from Alaska last Wednesday. I've been really tired but I'm trying not to let that get to me. I find myself needing an afternoon nap. I'm fine today though. Yay!

Anyway, I got back to being active on Friday. I went skating. Yes, skating. While I was not blogging or running, I started skating on Dec 1, 2010. It's been an off and on thing so I'm not exactly a pro. I'm pretty decent but don't ask me to skate backwards. I'm still working on that. Come Saturday, my inner thighs were feeling it.

Starting this week, I made my way over to the Y for the classes I signed up for. I did yoga on Monday. The instructor figured that I did Dolphin pose pushups too easily. She thought I could handle more. I said, "Oh, you think?" She had me move my feet in. I thought she was trying to kill me. That's when the trembling and sweating started. My arms and shoulders were definitely sore after that. And after that, guess what I did? I ran. Yes, I RAN! I moseyed over to the indoor track, put on Robert Ullrey's Couch to 5k podcast for Week 1 and went to work. I found the 60sec running intervals too short. I ended up running before I was supposed to and not wanting to stop when it was time. I sped up some and started to feel like my old self. At the very end of the run I sprinted. That's something I did with most of my runs. If I have enough juice in the tank to sprint at the end, I know that my pacing is okay.

On Tuesday, I went to my first chisel class in ages. I hated the class way back when and still hate it now. I have a different instructor. She thought of new ways to torture us. Men were in this class too and even they were struggling, so I didn't feel bad. But yeah, I hate it. I was doing some arm exercises that burned my muscles so bad that my neck felt like it was on fire. It felt like someone slathered lye on my neck and let it burn. And at some point during the class, I felt nauseous. That was weird because I ate HOURS before. Anyway, we worked all the major muscle groups from top to bottom and I was hurting bad. But you know what? I ran after. Why? Because I knew it would hurt even worse today.

Okay, so I fast forwarded to Week 3 of Couch to 5k. I'm sure I would have been fine if I didn't set my muscles on fire just minutes before. But when I started running, I felt it in every step all in my glutes and hamstrings. Being that my butt is the biggest muscle on my body, my run wasn't too enjoyable. I started to feel it in my calves too. That didn't happen during the first run. Maybe because the intervals were shorter. Or maybe I was trying to land more lightly on the balls of my feet so that nothing else would hurt. That makes my calves work more since I'm still doing the minimalist/barefoot running thing. I don't plan to ever run in regular sneakers ever again. So I'm sure my running experience this time will be totally different from the first time. Maybe it means I'll burn more calories too.

So today is Wednesday and I have a water exercise class on the menu. I hope that doesn't kill my already dead muscles. I have chisel class tomorrow but I think I'll try to swap that out for some laps in the pool instead. I can't deal with that torture twice a week. No way.

7/6 - Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll (2:15 - once I'm on skates, it's hard to get me off.)

7/9 - Yoga (35min - I got there late)
C25k - Week 1
Warm up/Cool down walk (10min)
Run/Walk (20min)

7/10 - Chisel Class (50min)
C25k - Week 3
Warm up/Cool down walk (12min)
Run/Walk (18min)