Manic Monday

I had one of those mornings where I woke up at 4 something and somehow managed to worry and stress while trying to make myself go back to sleep for another hour. No such luck. Have I mentioned I some serious anxiety issues?

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I don't really know why some days I feel that way. I get so overwhelmed by the sum total of all of the little things worrying me that I want to just stay in bed. But alas, I have a mouth to feed (besides my own) and I wouldn't be a very good mother if I didn't go to work!

He does have a really big mouth, after all.

Anyway, after my round of morning anxiety, I got my ass in gear and started my day. My day turned out to be pretty darn good, so as usual, all of my worrying was for nothing. I tackled all of the things I had to get done and now I don't feel so overwhelmed.

I went to the gym straight from the office and worked on keeping my heart rate under 150. It was a challenge! And also a little boring. One of the bonuses of doing treadmill work is doing intervals which breaks up the tedium of running in one place. So it seemed as if I was on the treadmill for an enternity. It's only my second run focusing on my heart rate and I already want to be faster!

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I'm somewhat impatient. That's why I have to write things down, otherwise I think I should be making progress immediately. It's tough to be running this slow and not feel like you're regressing rather than progressing, but about halfway through my workout I realized that my current "slow" pace used to be a goal pace when I trained for my first half marathon and couldn't run to the mailbox without stopping. 

I ran for 3 continuous miles only stopping twice for a few seconds to drink water. And I only did that because the other day, I nearly chipped my tooth trying to take a drink while running.

I ended my night having Mediterranean food with my aunt for dinner. It was so delicious and the restaurant is right across the street from my house. I need to go there more often.

And two stores to the left is a Starbucks...

I tried taking pictures of my steak kabob salad, but my phone just isn't doing the trick. I used to carry my little Canon Powershot Elph with me everywhere before I got a decent phone, but that was also before I started blogging and my phone pictures just look crappy. I have no plans to invest in a mighty and awesome camera, but I think I might upgrade to the next generation of Canon Elph.

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It's not the top of the line, even for the Canon Powershot Elph, but the one I have is only 7MP and did a pretty good job. Plus, I already have a two expensive hobbies, I do not need to add photography to the growing list! I'm sure this will do the trick. Maybe I will get around to purchasing this little guy this weekend.

I'm off to bed, there's a cute pony waiting to see me in the morning. Good night!

Sleepy Thursday

I was feeling fairly worn out today after killing myself on the treadmill last night. T - who I shall now refer to as Tara, because A.) that is her name, B.) that's what she calls herself on her own blog so I'm not revealing any classified information and C.) I'm fairly certain she is not part of Witsec - warned me against working out when I'm already worn down because that's when she tends to get sick.

Anyhoo, in an effort not to lose my training momentum, I reluctantly dragged myself to the gym after deciding that I would do an easy, light elliptical workout for a measly 30 minutes. I'm an athlete, after all (stop laughing), and I knew I would feel guilty if I gave myself the night off.

It's sad how true this is. I can't stand the sound of my own labored breathing...

Well, the elliptical machine Kicked. My. Ass.

For real.

I had it on the easiest setting and figured 30 minutes would be nice and easy. I do not remember the elliptical being this hard. I was not only huffing and puffing, but my quads were burning. Just goes to show that even with riding my horse 5 days a week and running 3 or 4, there are still muscles that are not getting a workout.

Once again, I over did it. I even dragged out the foam roller when I got home and I hate that thing.

I haven't been on an elliptical machine since before my first half marathon. I just don't remember them being this hard. Maybe I was on a particularly hard machine or maybe it was because my body was already feeling fatigued, but damn.

I'm definitely taking tomorrow off. My first long run is Saturday morning: 6 miles. I will try not to drink tomorrow night, but I can't promise. It's Friday, after all.

I wish this movie was opening this weekend:

I've had a long love affair with Johnny Depp. I'm not sure I dig his pale visage here, but hey, it's Johnny Depp. And Michelle Pfeiffer. Doing a Tim Burton movie. Sounds perfect to me.

Fail!

Original Pre Half Marathon Plan for last night:

1. Slow jog for 2-3 miles as a taper run
2. Drink lots of water to hydrate for Saturday's race

Reality:

1. Forgot to leave board check for Bam Bam's board, so I trekked up to the barn to leave a check.
2. Fellow barn mate opened a bottle of wine.
3. Jogged .000002 miles to my car to get cell phone
4. Drank entire bottle of wine with barn mates.
5. Decided we needed sushi at 8:00pm
6. Had more wine and snarfed a whole lot of sushi
7. Stopped on my way home to get gas and bought a package of praline pecans.

I wish I had not discovered these praline pecans. I always see them, but now that I know just how delicious they are, I may become addicted. Anyway, I feel kinda gross and head achy this morning from too much wine. I'm hoping that if I suck down water all day, I will feel better for the race tomorrow...

Hey, I can also finish entire marathons of NCIS.
'Cause I'm an athlete.