Satan’s Butthole and New Shoes

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!

I Did What I Said I Wasn’t Going To Do & No Pictures

School is out for the summer! Thus ends my first year teaching junior high. After 14 in elementary my year was, for sure different! I loved it though. It reignited my spark and I was happy to go to school again. I had last week off and then went back this week for planning and professional development throughout most of the moth of June. I may have 2 weeks or so in July where I don’t have anything going on, and then I go back to begin getting ready for the 2022-2023 school year. Whoever says teachers have 3 months off is full of crap.

First of all, there are only two months out of the year when we don’t have students-June and July. The kids in our district come back to school August 3rd this year. That means our teacher contracts begin in July. There are some (a very small minority) who take the full two months off and refuse to do anything school related. Sometimes I envy those people, but they are the ones scrambling when school starts back up in the “fall” (August is still summer to me). Most of us spend the month of June planning curriculum for the next year and working on professional development courses to earn recertification hours so we can keep our certificates up to date.

Then there are those single people like me who have to carry a second job to make ends meet during the summer when we aren’t getting paid. During the summer months I open up my availability at job 2 completely. I figure they are so great about working with me during the school year with my limited availability, that I can return the favor by not having any restrictions on my schedule for the 2 months that I’m ”off”. Of course I have to finagle my schedule for my planning hours and work around my PD classes, but I still make it work so it’s satisfactory for them and me.

I joined the gym two weeks ago. I’m hoping that will keep me running this summer so I won’t lose any of my (slow) progress that I’ve made so far. Of course I will have to figure out when I can get there between work, planning hours and PD classes. Maybe I can just get up early and go before I have to be anywhere. It wouldn’t be any different than me having to get up and go for a run early in the morning before it gets too hot I suppose. Hopefully this won’t be just another gym membership that I pay for but don’t actually use haha.

I went to the chiropractor the last Friday of school to address the weird issue with my shoulder blade. He was more concerned with the fact that I get headaches 2-3 times a week, but he did tell me that I have 3 ribs out and my body moves like it’s encased in concrete on my right side. Yay me!

I told him I was nervous about getting my neck adjusted because I went to a chiropractor a few years ago and he adjusted my neck. By the time I made it out to the parking lot I had a raging headache that lasted for about a week and I was sick to my stomach for 3 days. Normally people would be a little gun-shy and say chiropractic care is not for them because that happened, but I’ve done it on and off for years, and I fully believe in it.

He was very gentle with me and told me my neck needed to be worked on, but he was going to take it slow. I don’t know if it was coincidence or not, but I woke up the next morning feeling like garbage. It was my first weekend to kick off my summer break and I had requested the whole weekend off from my second job. Luckily, I was off because I ended up spending the whole weekend in bed. I was miserable. I had body aches, by Saturday night I had a fever of almost 102. I couldn’t get comfortable and my head was just pounding so badly.

I took two covid rapid tests just to be sure because I felt like it came out of nowhere. They were both negative thankfully. I ended up calling in sick that following Monday night to my second job and I probably should have called in sick on Tuesday because I still didn’t feel that great. I didn’t have a fever anymore but I still didn’t have an appetite and my stomach was just blah. A week later I still didn’t feel 100”% when I went back for the second appointment.

I like this chiropractor because instead of just throwing me down on the table and adjusting me, he actually sits and talks to me to find out how I’m feeling, where I’m having issues, how I’m sleeping, etc. He took time to talk with me and then adjusted me. He told me I was really tight again. I tried to relax while he was doing it, but I knew when he got to my ribs there was going to be a lot of pressure. He also set me up with some physical therapy afterward. It’s basically a bunch of stretches and then I get hooked up to the tens unit (stick pads with electrodes on them that are attached to a machine that sends current into your body).

The tens unit makes my muscles contract and is supposed to be therapeutic. It’s not supposed to hurt, but if they turn it up too high it can sting a bit. They have a massage roller on the table that moves under me while I’m hooked up to the tens unit. It’s a nice little break from my day. The first time I went I was so tired I almost fell asleep.

So I did what I said I wasn’t going to do. I stopped running. I would like to fully blame it on my shoulder pain, or getting sick right after break. Here it is three weeks later though and I just haven’t been able to get my butt to the gym. One thing after another seems to happen and with how weird my schedule has been, I just keep making excuses not to go.

Today is Monday. I had honestly good intentions of getting up and going before my chiropractor’s appointment this morning. I didn’t sleep well again last night though and I was SO tired when I woke up. I thought maybe I’d go to the gym and at least run on the treadmill after the chiropractor. I even put my workout clothes on. That counts right?

After the chiropractor I had a little bit of a woozy head and wanted to wait a few minutes to see if it went away. I ended up At Target to pick a few things up and then I took myself to lunch before I went to school for more planning time. Oops. I guess I won’t be working out today after all.

There is always tomorrow right?