Finding Balance

I am a middle child, perhaps that is why I find myself constantly craving a sense of balance in all things (except my faith...that is a constant). So I am reevaluating my goals for the year and deciding how many running events I will do after all. I registered for a half for March and April which I will run, and I will run AFC in August to earn my Triple Crown. But even though it would be super cool to run a half every month, it is also kind of a bummer to take a weekend every month and devote it to a run. Right now I am working a ton, something that I desperately need to find balance in. As a new nurse, gaining experience is important. Not to mention we are paying off lots of bills and reaching financial goals which is great! But that means I have very little time off.  Today I was randomly looking up local events and seeing what I might be able to do with my kids in the coming weeks (on my rare days off), and the ones I saw that I wanted to take them to are on race days! It is so irritating! I know I can't do it all- I know that. But it does not stop me from trying. Then I get frustrated, mad at myself for not being more realistic, and I step back and reevaluate. That is where I am now. I might run a half marathon every month. But I might not. I might decide that I would rather have weekend adventures through May rather than get up at 5am to run 13-1 miles. It has to be something you really want to do. It won't be a great accomplishment if you end up dreading it throughout the process. Anyway, I am just working it out. It's not that I haven't been running or that I'm in a slump, it's just that there is more to life than running and I want to experience it :)

Yoga Does a Sick Body Good

More yoga! While I'm not feeling super awesome, somehow yoga makes me feel so much better!

 

Side Angle Pose

 

 Bird of Paradise! A recently successful pose! I was actually surprised with how easily I was able to get into this pose and then bring my foot to the sky

Don't mind my face here...I have a 10 second delay to stick the pose before my camera goes off...

Child's Pose...everyone's favorite

 Crescent Lunge with Twist

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Dolphin Pose

 Working on Lotus...I have a long way to go before my knees flatten out

 Gorrilla-Love this one

 And last but not least...Happy Baby Pose, another relaxing pose

Sick Day

Wed night I was kind of sore. I had ran 4.2 miles and done a ton of backbreaking weeding in the front yard. I figured I was just tired and needed a nap. But even after my nap my muscles were just aching. I took some Aleve and assumed I just needed some rest after all of the activity. Then Thursday came. I trudged through the morning getting everyone off to school and myself off to work, not really thinking about how I felt until I was well into the whirlwind of activity at work. Somewhere around 11am it hit me-I did not feel good. I felt awful in fact. So I took some aspirin then later Tylenol and when I still felt crappy I left work an hour early. After that I pulled out all the leftovers and made sure everyone was settled, took a bath and climbed into bed, still super achy. I was sick.

So today is my day off. It sucks to spend your day off sick but it also sucks to have to call in sick for multiple days. So far I called in sick for tomorrow but we'll see about Sunday.

Bummer is that this means I will be missing the Mermaid Half Marathon on Saturday morning. The shirts and finishers medals are so cute I'm bummed! But my body would kill me if I tried to get out and run 13.1 miles while feeling this bad. So I'm going to let it go. I am going to try to run a virtual half marathon later in the month when I am feeling healthy enough. I don't want to quit on my goal of a half every month this soon!

One thing I can do while sick is yoga.  I took some Aleve and Ibuprofen and did some yoga and started to feel better. I'm not sure why but yoga just makes me feel good.

Yoga is awesome. It challenges me so much. When I first started taking a yoga class a few years ago I remember how great it felt to get into Dancer Pose or Tree Pose. I also remember how hard it was to twist my arms into Eagle Pose and how surprised I was when I could not do everything. But it is a process and the process is pretty cool itself. It's great to see a progression. Best of all it all feels good, exhilarating.

Camel Pose-one of my favorite back-bend exercises

Working on Mermaid Pose. I am still learning how to do these poses. The second picture is a better example since I am in more of a backbend. My back and hips are not very flexible yet and I'm not comfortable enough yet to release my anchor arm off of the ground.

Eagle, R

Eagle, L

Wide-Legged Forward Bend...for some reason my clasped hands always want to go to "imaginary gun"

Baby Grasshopper is a new pose that I saw on someone's Instagram feed and thought I would try it (I do that a lot and usually end up putting the pose on my "Ones to Work On" List). This one is a challenge but I can do it! Next is to work on grabbing toward my heel rather than my toes.

Baby Grasshopper, L

Baby Grasshopper, R

Iron Mountain (Ellie Lane Trail) Hike

Monday was one of those rare days my husband and I had a whole 1/2 of a day off together! Neither of us wanted to work around the house so we went hiking instead. It worked out perfectly too because I have felt a bit of plantar fasciitis creeping in on my L foot. Hiking would be a great cross-training activity to strengthen the muscles around my foot.

A bit of yoga for good measure. I love outdoor yoga photos

See why I love yoga? To me this picture is beautiful.

My handsome guy. I love that he is as adventurous (or moreso) than I am.

Mission Beach Boardwalk Run

A few days ago (I can't remember precisely when...my days are so jumbled lately) I packed my running bag and made a concrete goal-I would run after work. This day's work happened to be my job in Pacific Beach so I was planning on a great evening-perhaps sunset run. It was better than I imagined!

My view at the start-then at the end at sunset

I remember now, it was Saturday night. I remember because as I was gearing up to run I became aware of how many people were around-more than I expected. Pacific Beach is a college-y area and gets pretty busy on the weekend evenings.

The run was pretty great. It wasn't an effortless run, but I was so distracted by people and scenery around that it did feel pretty natural-just my mode of transportation.

 I have been to the boardwalk before but I have never measured it. It turned out that from where I started on the bluff to the jetty where the park/picnic area was was a perfect 6-mile out-and-back. So that's what I did. The sun started to set around 4.5 miles.

It made me miss living by the beach in Seaside, OR. Sure Oregon wasn't nearly as warm as SoCal, but I miss the beautiful beach sunsets. I watched them all of the time in OR. This night they were very familiar.

It was cool to be one of the only runners on a social night. I felt alive. Strong. I felt like I was going the extra mile and making the extra sacrifice. There's something to that.

After the run I ate my almond butter/banana sandwich that was left in my lunch and started to trudge through beach traffic on my way home. First I stopped at the PB Fish Shop first for some fish tacos, which I brought to my hubby at work. Not exactly a date night, but one of sorts. It was a great end to the day ;)

The Evening Run

Yesterday I had a great run. It was after work, something I have only done twice recently. Usually I get home from a long day of being on my feet for 8 hours and all I want to do is eat and collapse. Sometimes I will fit some yoga in before bed just because it feels great. But it takes a lot of oomph to get me out the door for a run on my tired feet! Yesterday was a great example of why I need to do this more often. First, I am not great at getting up early, especially not when I'm in a long stretch of work-days. Sleep is very important and there must be balance in that area. You can't constantly be sacrificing one area for the sake of another, because the former will begin to suffer. Balance :)

So last night on my way home from work I just told myself over and over, "I'm going for a run. I'm GOING for a run. When I get home, I'm going for a run." If I don't do that, it's not concrete. It's an option, instead of the plan. So mentally I erase the maybe, and I say I AM GOING.

The run went well. The first mile was torture. My quads were burning, they felt like cinder blocks. I had programmed my Nike+ app for a Basic Run with a course in my mind instead of my usual distance goal. I just wanted to go. I had 4-miles in mind. The first mile looped back around past my house and I made it a goal to get to a certain light where I would stretch. Stretching released a ton of tension in my legs and the run started to feel lighter.

I was rewarded with a gorgeous pink sky as the sun began to set. Unfortunately I had not factored the sunset into my run very well and with my grey tights and black vest I all but blended into the black asphalt. Not doing that again. I did have bright green sleeves. I also had these cool little LED light clips for your shoes that blink with each step but someone in my house swiped them...grrrrrr. I was just extra diligent at every intersection, assuming the cars would not see me. Anyway, I survived.

After the run I  did some strength moves up and down my super long driveway (various lunges, tip-toes, push-ups, etc.) and ate a much lighter, healthier dinner of an egg, ham and kale scramble with some cheese and a side of fresh strawberries. Later I had a bowl of Quaker Oatmeal Squares with FF milk. But other than that I did not crave anything but water which is 180 degrees from my usual evening cravings.

Well long story short, the evening run is a very good option as it turns out. Getting myself out there is one of the hardest things for me but once I do the rewards are there.

Yoga

Since Yoga is my #1 favorite cross-training exercise and since I'm becoming quite addicted...I thought I would start posting a few pictures from time to time and track my progress...so if you're only into reading about running skip this post. It will be quite boring for you!

So what do I want to achieve  by working on my yoga practice? I want to increase flexibility and strength and explore what my body can do.  I am not into the "new age" part of yoga related to manipulating energy or anything like that, but I am into stretching and challenging my muscles. It feels good too!

Plank

Leg flexibility...I am definitely uneven but I will keep working on this. I am able to get my R leg stretched much higher and into a more advanced place than my L, but I was happy to see my L leg is in a nice straight line with my spine. With this pose you are feeling your leg in space and without a picture or mirror, you really cannot see how well aligned you are.

Three-Legged Dog, L...and I was cheating a bit with my heel off the floor

Three-Legged Dog, R

Ragdoll...one of my faves-this picture shows how I should lean forward a bit to get my legs in a good verticle line

I will mention my tree pose situation. I have never been able to fully tuck my flat foot up into my groin, and it drove me nuts! I have muscular thighs and calves so I always felt that there was too much in the way. Well then I had Achilles surgery and some calf atrophy later...bam, I can do it. I was right! But I'm going to keep working on both sides and hopefully my R side will find its way there too. As I strengthen my legs I will be able to get my knee up higher, making more of a space for my foot.

Tree, L

Tree, R-getting my foot up as high as I can without pressing into my knee

Half Moon Pose, L

Half Moon Pose, R

Chaturanga

Downward Facing Dog

Butterfly pose

Raised Goddess-and I will work on getting my arms in good 90-degree angles

Side Crow, R

Outtakes! When the crow falls...(to be fair my camera delay is only 10 seconds so I have to be fast!)

Side Crow, L

I am also excited about working on spine flexibility, something I have never really focused on before.

Camel Pose

More will come, perhaps weekly if I have time! I love the beauty and grace of yoga and I like pictures because I get to see what my body is doing and how I am progressing.