The Wagon Wheels Ran Over Me
I fell off the wagon and now I have wheel marks over my back, I’m face down in the muck and I can’t get up. My diet has been off the hook and I seem to keep finding reasons why it’s okay to eat: holidays, celebrations, food that’s going to spoil, parties (hello Mardi Gras, I love/hate you and your king cake). But I’ve also been a little too busy to care enough to plan better. This week isn’t looking much better but a girl can hope.
What I HAVE been doing instead of eating right is a lot of writing. A while back a request went out for feature stories on the Arkansas Women’s Bloggers network for February stories about love. I thought it was interesting because it didn’t have to be about romantic love, could be, didn’t have to be, it could be about anything loved, a book, a pet, a place, an activity, anything. I thought I’d write a story tying my romantic love to something else I love since he was the person who introduced me to it, that’s backpacking. So here’s that story with a big thanks to Arkansas Womens Bloggers.
Finishing
Chasing
Saturday February 18th was the first race in the Arkansas Trail Running Series at Cadron Settlement Park just North of Conway. After the Mt Nebo Bench Trail run in December, I committed to doing this series. The series is in its second year and any runners in Central Arkansas who are reading this, check it out- it was fun, very competitive and because I want the races to continue for very selfish reasons, I want more folks to sign up and do them. I went, I saw, I did not quite conquer but I did finish strong and that’s better than sitting on the couch. 4.2* miles of dirt, rock, mud, hills, roots, gravel and water in 42:06. Not fast like a rabbit. Not fast like the 15 year old boy who ran sub 6 minute miles. But not bad for my 5′:2″, 26″ inseam having self. And yes of course I have leg envy when I look at pictures of tall lanky runners, what short girl wouldn’t?
The story of my Saturday run is published somewhere else too. The part of the story I didn’t tell there was more about the young girl who was running with me. We traded places throughout the entire run. She is an exchange student at North Pulaski. Her name is Dear. Is that not the cutest thing? She reminded me of my niece who also runs cross country for her high school. They have the same dark swishy ponytail and though my niece just recently got her braces off, my Dear still has hers. And every time I heard Dear grunt out a little “come on” to encourage me, I thought of my sweet niece and how I bet she’d be saying the same thing. “Come on, Aunt Lisa…you’ve got this” I hear Libi say even though it’s Dear’s voice.
The other special this race brought me was a face to face with my roommate from 20 years ago who I’ve only connected with via social media since she moved back to Arkansas a couple of years ago. It was so nice to see her. Hug her. Run the last .1 of a mile with her after I finished my run. She is embarking on a journey of fitness for herself having given most of the last 17 years to raising 4 babies. She’s awesome, her attitude is phenomenal and it made me happy seeing her bright smile and big blue eyes again.
This week I had to hit up Bob Harper DVDs for help on Mon/Wed/Fri! I just had a tough time getting to the gym and on the 2 days I planned to run, one day it was raining and all the treadmills were full at the gym then Friday a friend asked me to do a Bob with him, he finds them tortuous and likes to share the torture with me on days he doesn’t run so I gave in. I know I need to work on my speed if I want to do these short trail runs, I should work on that.
The other 2 workouts were:
Tuesday: Warm up then Curl to Press 4 x 10 x 15lb
2 Rounds, 1st x 50 2nd x 25 reps each
- body squats
- box jumps x 18″
- floor wipers x 90lb
- burpees with push up
- kettlebell swing x 30lb
- sit ups
- mountain climbers
- inverted row
Thursday:
5 Rounds
- thrusters x 15 x 45lb
- jump rope x 100
- sit ups x 20
- box walk x 4
- inverted row x 12
Frenetic Fitness 