whole lot o' stuff

things around here have been busy. productively busy, so that's good. I'm really enjoying these last few weeks that we have before training really begins, but it's starting to get challenging to fit in all of the stuff I want to do. It's a really great feeling to be outside doing stuff when the weather's this nice. so, to wrap up the last week, category style...

Nutrition
When I last wrote, I talked all about how I wanted to do better nutrition-wise. And then that night I believe we went out and had big ass margaritas, and then next day I had a big old burger and fries for lunch. Clearly, my resolve is lacking.

No, seriously though... my therapist and I were talking last week and she mentioned that I've complained before about being tired all the time and she asked if I've made any progress on that. I explained to her my "I have more energy when I'm not eating as many carbs" theory and she started laughing because she said that was the very next thing she was going to suggest. She agreed that if the tiredness wasn't due to stress or vitamin deficiencies, it could very well be from diet, and that she knows a lot of people are really sensitive to carbs and it will make them tired and sluggish.

Since I spoke with her and she reaffirmed my thoughts on the subject, I've been really good about tracking things and making sure that I'm getting everything pretty balanced out, food-wise. I'm pretty sure dice is tired of hearing me say, "It looks like I haven't gotten enough good fats in yet today," or "Is there some way we can fit some type of protein into the meal?" For the most part, I've felt really great and energized and I'm recovering well from my workouts, so all systems are go on that front. The only time I went carb-overboard was last night when we had heaping servings of pasta for dinner, but that was necessary to replenish the fuel used up by the longish run (10 miler) that we did earlier that day. It didn't really seem to affect me last night (more than likely because my body really needed it) so I must be doing something right. So yay on that front.

Activities
Not to confuse everybody now that I just said that I, "feel really great and energized" all of the time, but do you know when I don't feel energized AT ALL? First thing in the morning. For the most part I can get a run done or lifting in or a workout squeezed in there in the morning, and I love the feeling of having it done for the day, but if I even try to do something that requires me putting in a hard effort, I'm so screwed if it's before 7 AM. I keep trying to do my tempo runs in the morning and keep dramatically failing (3 miles instead of 4 on Thursday morning) even though I can do that speed with relative ease in the evening hours. So note to self: DON'T EVEN TRY TO TEMPO RUN IN THE MORNING, YOU IDIOT. Seriously.

The only other running I got in the past week was the aforementioned 10 miler on Sunday which was awesome. Dice and I headed out for an easy longer run in the sun and then all of a sudden these clouds came through that dumped a bunch of rain and hail on us. So that was pretty sweet. But we felt good through the run and had a blast doing it, and our pace wasn't too shabby for an afternoon stroll, either (almost exactly at 9:45 pace) so we were pretty happy with it.

We've been concentrating a lot on strength-work the past few weeks, too. As Dice mentioned, we started a new lifting plan that is supposed to focus on mixing things up more via supersetting and providing a cardiovascular workout while still giving strength gains. Regardless of what it's supposed to do, it's giving us a structured outline that we both are happy with (something that tends to be a point of contention between us) and I'm really feeling like it's a) kicking my ass, and b) making me stronger. We've been getting in 2-3 weight lifting sessions a week, each of them nearly an hour of grueling misery, so I guess there's a good reason why I'm feeling like that, eh? Most important, I think something like this is something I can follow while I'm running a lot, because it's not focusing on max weight lifts and more on enduring through a set of a fixed length, which tends to make me less prone to DOMS.

And last but certainly not least, I've been considering trying Bikram yoga for a while now since there's a studio up the street the offers the tempting "31 days for $29" deal. But sweating in a hot room with a bunch of people that are super duper bendy was really intimidating to me so I kept putting it off. A couple of friends have tried it and LOVED IT, so I keep telling myself it's something I'll try to work in once the miles start to pile up, but really, how likely is that to happen? We were hanging out with a few friends two weekends ago and one of them suggested I try it with her that week. Having someone you know with you to make you informed about all of the stuff that's potentially intimidating makes all the difference, so I agreed and we made a date for Friday night. And let me tell you, it. was. awesome. There was the standard "having to sit down and catch my breath before I passed out" feeling going on at a few points, but otherwise I felt great (albeit hot and sweaty) and afterward I felt so refreshed and awesome. I'm really, really glad she convinced me (finally) to try it. And, it was fun to just hang out without the boys... this particular friend is one of Dice's good friends from college and it's not often that we spend time together without our respective male units. Now I just have to figure out how to work THAT into my schedule, too, as it's quite the time sucking (and potentially addictive) activity.

Wedding Shiz
We also have been getting a ton of stuff done on the wedding planning front, mostly due to the fact that Dice is freakin' awesome. My dress has arrived and my boss and I may or may not be playing hooky later this week so I can go try it on. So that's super exciting.

So yeah... that's about all that's going on around here. There's the usual "day job" thing going on between all of this stuff, and that's always awesome too (see: the fact that my boss wants to play hooky with me to go look at my dress) so yeah. Life's pretty darn good right now.