Welcome to the Infirmary

I took my first ever sick day today. To be honest, I should have called in sick every other day this week, too, but I had lots of stuff to get done. I have several meetings next week, and I needed to finish up testing for a couple of them. So, I took today off and missed a day full of students instead…. *sigh* As soon as I called in my sick day, I felt so guilty. I almost called back and canceled it. Seriously? Why do I feel so bad about staying home and taking care of myself?

Paul stayed home sick today, too. I might have gotten him sick. Oops. Sorry, husband. I blame it all on my nephew. He sneezed on me Sunday night. He’s lucky he’s so stinking cute…and only 2 months old. Otherwise, I might be mad.

You’ve got to be kidding

Yesterday afternoon, I started to feel that familiar tickle in the back of my throat. The tickle that indicates a cold is trying to break through my body’s defenses…. “No,” I thought, “it’ll go away by tomorrow. I’ll just get a good night’s sleep….” Flash forward to this morning, when that feeling was still there. Grrrr.

Now, pre-Active August Carly would have taken that feeling as a sign that running was not in the stars for the day, and that I should spend the day alternating between laying in bed or lounging on the couch. But I made myself get up and run. And I’m glad I did. It was a great run (it was super cool this morning–I almost wished I had put on long sleeves), and while I still feel that cold coming on, I feel good that I powered through and got a workout in. Now I won’t feel as bad about hanging out on the couch for the rest of the day, consuming massive amounts of Cold-EEZE and tea. It’s bad enough that I was sick for the first week of my summer break, but do I really have to be sick for the last week, too?

For lack of a better title…Memorial Day, 2010

Happy Memorial Day. I spent my day off sick on the couch with a fever. No other symptoms really. A little achy in the morning, a dull headache most of the day, and some soreness in my soft palate. But, no congestion or sore throat. Hmm.

I was starting to feel a little funky earlier in the week (had that tell-tale tickling feeling in my soft palate), but ignored it, citing allergies as the cause. And then yesterday that feeling was back, but again I ignored it. I knew that if I had told Paul I was feeling sick, he’d tell me I was just making excuses not to go running (partly true…I’ve cried wolf a few times). So I pushed myself into my running clothes and headed to the park. Oh, yeah, it was also 90 degrees and humid. All together, a winning combination.

What I really wanted to write about was the run itself. Never mind that it was hot and sucky, but I just got so mad at myself. I’m working on increasing my endurance, and so I run for X minutes, walk for Y minutes, run for X minutes, etc. In my final stretch of running, halfway through, I just got bored and quit. I probably could have gone at least a little further. My legs weren’t that tired, I wasn’t breathing too hard. I had started to get some cramps in my side, but nothing that I hadn’t run through before. That sicky feeling in the back of my throat was getting worse, but not too bad. I just got bored.

After waking up with a fever of 100 degrees this morning, I’ve stopped beating myself up over it, as I’ve realized I was probably sicker than I thought I was yesterday, but I just have to wonder…when am I going to stop getting bored with running? Right now it’s fine because I’ve got some good short-term goals for each run (meeting the program’s runs, decreasing my time, etc.), but what happens when I’m done with this program? Am I just going to get bored and quit every time? What keeps you from getting sick of it all?

Work-out Wednesday: Lent

Just to update you on the running, it’s still coming along slowly. Along with new running pants, I also desperately  need new running shoes. My legs ache when I run (and it’s not for lack of stretching or lack of practice…it’s due to the fact that my shoes are at least 2 years old), and at the end of my run Friday, I had shooting pains up my left leg. Awesome. I’m willing to spend the money on new shoes–I know it’s necessary. I just need to know where to go. I need to go somewhere where the look at my feet and my gait and tell me what shoes to buy. Any suggestions for places to go in the Chicago suburbs?

Now, I know that the rest of this post is not really work-out related, but I just feel the need to get it out there. Two years ago, I joined Weight Watchers to get my weight under control and to begin feeling good about myself for the first time maybe ever. I made committing to WW part of my Lenten promise that year, because I knew that if I was offering it up, that I would actually follow through. I knew cheating would be easy, and so I didn’t give myself a way out. I lost a total of about 30 pounds over the course of 9 months. For the most part, I have maintained that loss. But once the summer started, things started to slip. I moved home and wasn’t working out regularly (or at all, for that matter). Then I moved to the suburbs and started a new job and was planning a wedding. Then the wedding was over, but Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Super Bowl, and Valentine’s Day all hit with a vengeance. I had been monitoring my weight throughout all of the transitions and holidays, and though it was about 5 pounds above where I wanted it to be, I was comfortable with it. My clothes fit fine, and aside from feeling a little flabby, I was mostly okay. But I’ve started to feel worse and worse about myself again. And then today was a bad day. My kids were being mouthy with me, and parents were being frustrating. And I made excuses for myself, saying it was Mardi Gras, and so it was okay that I had 2 (3, 4) cookies and a couple (few) bites of cake at lunch and Panda Express for dinner and other random snacks throughout the day. And tonight I stepped on the scale and I was 10 pounds over where I want to be. So to make myself feel better, I tried on a skirt that I thought was my vanity size, only to find out that it was, in fact, a size bigger than that…and it was a little snug. Lent starts today (Happy Ash Wednesday), and again, as a part of my penance for this season, I am recommitting myself to WW (among other things), which will include working out regularly (3-5x per week). While joining WW was originally about losing weight, this time I’m hoping that it’ll be more about maintaining a better lifestyle–getting myself into the habit of working out regularly, not eating when I’m not hungry, being able to avoid junky foods at work, etc. In general, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to realize how important it is to take care of my body, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Here’s hoping.

Motivated

Towards the end of December, Paul decided that our resolution ought to be getting in shape to the point where we wouldn’t feel (too) self-conscious going to the beach this summer. We haven’t been so great about keeping that resolution (see: previous Work-out Wednesday posts…or lack there-of). However, I realized today that we are planning a vacation to Orlando this summer…which means hanging out by the swimming pool most days, and walking around in shorts when not at the pool. So, this is my motivation now. I WILL buy a swimsuit this year, since I haven’t bought a new one since my senior year of high school. I NEED to buy a swimsuit this year, seeing as I don’t currently own any, having lost ~30 pounds since the purchase of the previously mentioned swimsuit. Let’s hope I can keep this motivation going.