Day 9 - November 2

Welcome to Day 9!

I had a GREAT day yesterday which is carrying over into today, and I am in such a good mood!  Just one of the many wonderful benefits of exercising.

I stepped on the scale this morning and had great weigh-in

181.5

SO close to saying goodbye to the 180s!

My run last night went really well, and for the first time since moving to our new place, I was able to run ALL the way up the hill!  

I'll take a step back and explain what that means.

At the end of June, we moved to a new house on a dead end road, in a subdivision in the country.  The road is just under a mile long from end to end, and gradually climbs about 200 feet in elevation from the start to the dead end.  Our house is almost exactly halfway up the road.  My runs have usually had me ending a running stretch and beginning to walk near our driveway, about half way up the hill, and I could not have been happier!  At that point, I have been more than ready for walking breaks.  

My run last night was R5:00, W3:00, R8:00, W3:00, R5:00.  I started by running out of our driveway and down the hill, which meant the 8 minutes of running began right at the base of the steepest part of the hill which meant I experienced the joy of running allll the way up the hill, to the dead end and heading back towards the bottom.  

I was cursing myself for not starting the run by going up the hill first so I could maybe get lucky and have the long running chunk going downhill and walk the incline. 

Surprisingly though, I felt GREAT running the hill.  Yes, it was tough, but not as tough as I was dreading it to be.  As soon as I finished my run and got back home, I burst into the house to brag to Nick that I actually ran the entire hill! 

Not only did I conquer the hill last night, I did my farthest distance (2.30 miles) since the beginning of May (half marathon...I have SO MUCH work to do to get back to 13 miles!!).

The first day of 30 Day Shred also went really well.  I like 30 Day Shred better than the 21 Day Fix workouts because I like not seeing the timer counting down.  I tend to focus too much on the countdown which makes the moves seem to take even longer, like watching the timer on a microwave!

I had also forgotten the 30 Day Shred is split into 3 different levels.  I have never been consistent enough to get out of level 1 before so I am looking forward to the new moves the other levels will bring.

Wow, this turned into a lengthy post.  I'll nip it in the bud by ending with my plan for today.

Meal Plan

B: 2 hard boiled eggs & banana

S: apple with pb

L: butternut squash & apple soup with pumpkin seeds

S: yogurt & orange

D: orange shrimp stir-fry

(I wasn't able to make this last night because I was missing a key ingredient...oj.  Instead, I made a grilled chicken and pesto tortellini skillet.)

Workouts

30 Day Shred (Day 2)

Lower: 12 squats, 12 lunges, 12 calf-raises

Upper: 11 standing rows, 11 hammer curls, 11 rear deltoid raises 

Abs: 10 roll-ups, 10 ankle reaches, 10 leg lifts, 7 reverse crunches