MBFA: Week 1/3

Week-beginning Thoughts:

Well, I had some severe stomach cramps last night around 5pm, was fetal positioning in bed at 7pm, slept until 6am... got up to be "present" during the morning hustle, and then went back to sleep for another two hours. It's 12:30pm now, and I'm working, feeling relatively fine... but maybe not ready for the intensity of MBFA. 

..and now it's 2:30 and I'm thinking about a run. :P 

Monday

Did: nothing

Slept a lot. Worked. Ate more bread in a single day than I have in the past month... Then slept more. 

Tuesday

Did: MBFA Day 1, 6.26mi @ 8:59/mi avg

Attempted to sleep in and recoup from whatever I had Sunday, telling my 10KTuesday buddies to go ahead without me. Body woke up at 4:30 anyways to thunderstorms. I wasn't sure I was in running shape, but wanted to do something, so I started the next level of my Beachbody-on-Demand program, Muscle Burns Fat Advanced (MBFA). 

I liked that the workout followed the same predictable structure as MBF. I dislike that all the workouts are 30-40min instead of 25-35min. You wouldn't think that 5-10min could make a difference, but it does. I considered doing both Day 1 (lower body) and Day 2 (core), but only had time for Day 1 before I had to get to work. 

Day 1 went well. Honestly, the hardest part wasn't the exercises or my lower body, but rather keeping grip on my 20 to 25lb dumbbells for almost the entire workout-- those things get HEAVY. 

I thought about doing Day 2 over lunch, but my teammates messaged me to say they were running 10KT later, due to this morning's storms, so I opted to join them. Things that were weird about that run:

• having to figure out how long it would take me to get there with traffic (there's never traffic at 4:30am...)
• seeing my teammates in DAYLIGHT (I don't think I've done that in over a year with one of them)
• running with people in DAYLIGHT
• having to be aware of cars and other pedestrians
• not being able to hear each other talk due to road noise
• sunlight
• wearing a sports bra and shorts and being hot... despite wearing full tights, underarmour, gloves, and earband two days ago.... 
• trying to figure out how to eat, when to eat, what to eat for a lunch run
• shifting my work hours to accomodate a midday run (i.e. having to log back on after kids are in bed)

Still, it was a good run and I'm glad I went. I would NOT have run without them. Plus, it's always nice to see a faster pace when I run midday, after my body/legs have "woken up", rather than the high 9s I run at 4:30am... 

Wednesday

Did: MBFA Core, MBFA Upper, 5K lunch walk with husband :) 

These workouts are definitely harder than MBF, and I'm loving them. That said, I probably need to be better about cooling down and stretching post-workout. Sitting in a chair for the bulk of the day did not make my hips happy. 

Thursday

Did: 5.08mi @ 9:15/mi avg, MBFA Core

Ugggh. Last night was the worst. I went to bed around 8pm, and was woken at 10:36 by the baby asking for a change. While baby was changed and back asleep within two minutes (I kid you not), I was up with insomnia until almost 3:15am... Ugggghhh. 

Got up before my alarm, couldn't get back to sleep, so I met my teammate for a COLD and WINDY run. Felt better, but still super tired in the morning. Took a brief 30min nap between drop-off and work, and then hit up my MBFA workout at lunch. 

using kids' etch-a-sketch-y tool for my 

AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)

MomLife

Friday

Did: MBF Total Body

Got up at 4am after a MUCH better night of sleep, got my workout in, and got on with my day.

Saturday

Did: 10.17mi @ 9:24/mi avg, 1.5mi bike ride, MBFA Dynamic Stretch, 1mi walk, 30min yoga

I love double digit runs before dawn with my training partner. :) 

Kid wanted to ride bikes at sunrise, so I came home, had a 30min turnaround with oats, eggs, and a wardrobe change. Despite having way more clothes on, I was freezing... and kid was freezing... so we made it 1.5mi and then thawed out in the car. 

Sunday

Did: MBFA Power Ignite, 3.71mi on treadmill @ 9:43/mi avg (2x5min tempo at or under 8:00)

Woke up feeling super tired, and opted out of any morning workouts (partly because of that, partly because of cold rain).  Thought about a tempo run on the 'mill... wasn't sure about it, and decided to postpone until I was feeling confident that it was a good idea. 

Felt better around lunch and did my MBFA with my kiddo, then followed up with a treadmill workout. After a mile, I felt really good, and opted into tempo. Instead of a full ten minutes, though, I did 2x5min with a 5min recovery in-between. 

Solid day. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 25.22mi

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I had a great consult with a Registered Dietician who helped me figure out my actual RMR, talk through what types of foods to eat when, and review my current eating patterns to help me create a plan for what to eat when in order to lose weight or maintain it. I love how she utilized my existing foods, recipes, and habits and just made suggestions on how to modify those instead of a brand-new "here, use this meal plan" fix. 
• I feel really good about what my direction is moving forward, and hope to knock out the first stage of this plan in the first quarter of the year, and then just go into a more intuitive maintenance mode. We still don't have any idea what caused the big bump in weight last year, but at least things are moving in the right direction now?