my world of change

It has been an eventful week for me, so much is about to change in my life. During this process I want to be sure that I stay on track with my fitness and healthy eating habits. I'll be honest this week has sort of been a bad week with my diet. Had one too many Starbuck's hot chocolates (could you blame me, it's been cold!) and I feel like I have probably had too many unbleached enriched flour products. Not the end of the world, I just want to be sure I don't fall off the wagon for too long. And now with the snowpocalypse we are experiencing here in Portland, I won't be getting much exercise in this weekend. As long as I get back on track, I know I will be fine.

So on to my awesome news… I got into the Fitness Technology program at PCC and begin this Spring! YAY! First obstacle down, second one still to come… financial aid. I think it may actually work out just fine but we shall see. I decided to go on to the 2 year program and get my Associates in Applied Science oppose to the 1 year certificate program. It just makes better sense. Since we all know I am a career student and just might want to go back later down the road, I want to have something I can utilize. I have learned that my work load will be rather intense and my current work schedules won't quite work out with my school schedule. With some thought and conversation with Aaron, and a conversation with one of my employers, I have come to a decision to leave one of my places of employment and increase my hours at the other. It only makes sense as I will have more flexibility with my work schedule and the location is within minutes of the campus. But this decision does leave me sad, as I am leaving an environment of some incredibly talented and strong women! I know I need to focus on my future, and I know this was the right decision for me. Change isn't always easy.

I am currently taking a class through PCC online that will be used towards the Fit Tech program. It's a Health and Physical Education class, which requires me to set up workout plans. One of which is running. I have started to run on a track to work on speed and warm my knees up to it again, and then around the neighborhood. I accomplished something incredible with this, I finally ran my first 1 mile without stopping to walk. It's been one of those challenges I have been dealing with since 2009. It wasn't a fast 1 mile run but I am completely ok with that. Unfortunately my knee has decided to be an ass this whole week and I have had to limit my running and any form of squatting. Even sitting down for long periods of time is painful. I am focusing on mobility work to get myself back into running/squatting shape. And now with all of this snow, I will be taking a forced break in all of my fitness activity. I am hoping to get back out there and running another mile in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

This photo was taken from Pinterest.

running, again

Today Aaron and I went to Grant High School to utilize their track, which is very nice. I have a goal to run the same 10k I ran in 2010 this coming June. But in order to do that, I have got to get back out there and run again. Last weekend we gave it a try and it was a disaster. My knees weren't happy at the least bit and I could feel a full blown asthma attack coming on. And like the smart person that I am, I left my inhaler at home. I don't know if the cold weather was throwing me off, the bad shoe decision, or a combination of both but it didn't go well.

Getting ready.

I wanted todays go to be a better success, so I did some research on the asthma thing. I don't have a full asthma problem, at least I am not aware that I do. I get seasonal allergies (Spring time) that induces asthma, as many people in Portland do. But as it seems that there are times that I'll get a mild attack throughout the year when I am dealing with congestion or breathing too hard. I had read that if I use my inhaler prior to the run, I shouldn't have any issues. Today I tried that advice, and it worked. My lungs didn't feel like they were going to jump out of my chest and my throat didn't sting at the least. I also know that I have a horrible habit of taking off in full speed when this is suppose to be at a pace that I can handle for a long distance. So I focused pretty damn hard on my speed and intentionally ran slow. I couldn't believe that worked. There were moments when my knee wasn't happy, I'd stop and shake it out and get back to running. I didn't run an entire mile, it was more of an interval sort of thing. My goal is to get to where I can run an entire mile without pain or feeling like I will die any moment. Then I will work up on my speed. Today's mile was accomplished in 15:47, a slow time but I am pleased. We all have to start somewhere!

After completing a total of 2 miles of walking/running.