Day 5 - Pain vs. Gain

What. A. Day. I don't even want to discuss what it started with, nor how the work day ended. Suffice to say that I not only looked greatly forward to its end, but every time I ran up or down flights of stairs, all I could think--each and every time--was that I simply could not wait to Get. Out. And. RUN.

Breakfast: 2 soft boiled eggs

Lunch: smoked salmon and hummus (with spinach and artichoke - yum!!!)

Fix-my-mood-and-keep-me-sane: 2 (yes, 2, but not back to back) Starbucks double shots

By the time Shane got home and a few quick errands were run, I was absolutely, positively, raring to go. This...had been the one thing I'd truly been looking forward to all day--even before rehearsal, because I knew I'd go into it calm, because truly, by noon today, I was wishing I drank, like, a LOT.

We hit the road--and I was happy. Funnily enough, even with the increased distance and time compared from Sunday to Tuesday, I was definitely way less sore, and while I twinged a bit on the first few steps (I know I didn't stretch enough--that won't happen again!), after that, all was fine.

Because I'm working with training modules, I kept the same pace I worked last time. Today's focus was on form--opening my stride, pushing off the ball of my foot, keeping my hands below a certain level to not increase my cardiac load unnecessarily. I noticed that each time I switched from walk to run, I lead with my left foot, pushing off the right. I tried to vary it up once I'd noticed, and kept ending up taking another step.

I decided to keep the focus on the form and ignore that.

Because it was so close to dusk, many of the park lamps were lit, and as I crossed the bridge, I noticed tiny bats flying about, replacing the birds that sang all through the bright sunlit day.

And by the time I was done (not including the cool down), I realized something: I'd increased again, from 14.5 minutes, to 15.

It's weird, but a couple of co-workers (who don't know what I'm doing vis a vis this) asked me if I'm losing weight, while another tapped my arm, then tapped again. "Girl, that's getting hard!" I laughed, but felt for myself a few moments later. Whoa. Sure enough, she's right. I asked Shane (just in case I was hallucinating from the second double shot or something) and she said, "Yeah, I noticed that Tuesday." Which explains a few other things.

Maybe it's dehydration, and maybe it really is the double shots. Or maybe, it's what Shane (and a few others) said, that running strips you down fast.

Whatever it is, I'm not complaining, not one bit.

To be honest, I've been expecting to find my weight go up as this progresses, not down, since muscle weighs 4x as much as fat--but I'm not checking that again until next week.

No pain (well, not really) and all gain. I can definitely live with that.