Hi! Remember me? The girl that made the commitment to keep writing? Well I did take some time off from writing, but I did NOT take all this time off from running. (I took some off from running though). I’ve been doing a hybrid of gym running and outdoor running. In case you forgot, I’m in Arizona and it’s that time of year weather wise. It’s not quite as hot as Satan’s butthole yet, but it’s getting there. I’ve just had a lot going on that made it difficult for me to run for a little while. This past year has been…eventful to say the least.
I joined EOS Fitness because a few of the girls from school workout there, and so do a bunch of people from job 2. There are also MULTIPLE locations of said gym so I have no excuse not to go. The plan was/is to go with them before school some days. You know what they say though, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plan”.
Now that it’s summer and I’m off from school (not job 2), I haven’t seen many of my school friends. Granted it’s only 3 weeks into summer and I was in Vegas for the first week. We have texted and made plans to hang out, go to lunch, workout, whatever, but so far I think we’ve all just kind of been recovering from the school year.
Sadly, my other friend group that I had from my old school…imploded (for lack of a better word) and I’m not hanging with them anymore. (It’s a long story that I’m not going to go into). So the friend that I used to work out with the most constantly, is no longer in my life. I do have another friend who happens to go to my same gym, but we can’t get our schedules lined up to get a workout in together. When I do go there, I usually just use the treadmill and leave. It’s generally too crowded and to be honest, and more than a little intimidating. I am not super comfortable there alone.
But I digress. I have been running steadily for the last few weeks. I even went and bought new shoes because my other new shoes (that I got in January) seem to be giving me shin splints. I was getting very frustrated with all of the rest days I was having to take. I was worried that maybe I was going to be stuck running one day a week, taking a week off to recover and then running when my legs felt better; but I’ve been able to run for the last two weeks with the new shoes and have not had issues! I went to my favorite local running store (Sole Sports in Tempe Arizona!) and I ended up going from the Brooks Ghost, to the Brooks Adrenaline for a little added extra support. That must’ve been what I needed!
So the last two weeks I’ve been running pretty steadily. It helps that we are doing a healthy, “activity” challenge at my second job. It’s company-wide (so basically globally there are thousands of people employed). We are in teams of 4 and we push each other to complete several goals for calories burned, time in said healthy activity, and a stand goal. My goal is moving enough to burn 370 calories, exercising for 30 minutes, and standing once an hour for 12 hours (the goals are set by the app we use based on our individual biometrics). I still use my Garmin Forerunner 745 when I run, but I also put my Apple Watch on my other wrist to help monitor and to see how similar the information is from both devices.
Sidebar….I mean, I like my Garmin, but I’m not super into all the stats and everything that I can get from the Garmin and I know for a fact I don’t know half of what it’s capable of because I don’t utilize it. I don’t even know what half of the information I can get from my run even means. When I got my first Apple Watch back when I was running all the time, (I think it was the first generation watch). I didn’t love it because it didn’t have the data that I want and it ended up dying about 3/4 of the way through a marathon I ran with my friend Chris. There have been SO many improvements on the Apple Watch since the first iteration I’m hoping I can ditch the Garmin eventually and just use my Apple Watch!
Okay back to the original post…. So for the month of June we are competing to meet those healthy activity goals. Honestly there isn’t a huge prize and there are so many people competing I don’t expect to end up in the top 30% much less the top 5. For me it’s more about the motivation and the camaraderie of encouraging a teammate to get their ass in gear.
It’s definitely encouraged me to be more active this summer. Even on the days where I am still just utterly exhausted and feel like I just need a rest day, I try to get at least some activity in to make my goals. I may not exceed my goals on those days (like I do on run days) but at least I’m getting moving. I also started lifting weights again and found that my apartment gym has a nice selection of free weights as well as a lot of other equipment (yes-I moved! This will be part of my next post so stay tuned!)
Just as a side note I have to keep going back and editing this post to remove specific details about workouts/runs as it’s been a couple of days working on it. I go back to read it and find I’ve written, “Today I ran x amount of miles” when it’s not actually today anymore. I’m actually writing this post and another one simultaneously because it’s been so long since I’ve written and I have so much going on in my head that’s demanding to come out-haha.
On that note I think I’ll sign off for now because the next post will be jam-packed and I want to focus on that! Catch you on the flip-side!
Runs Through Sprinklers 