Burnout.. Oh ya!

This sign says, "Good Karma".

I've finally been called out for not posting by my dear friend (we'll call him) Talk, Dark & Southern, or TDS. He's right. I've become lousy at blogging. I've actually become lousy at doing just about anything other than working, eating, and sleeping! And lately I've been failing pretty hard in the sleeping department as well. Though, I do have some very good news.

I finally isolated the trigger for my shin splints. Hint: they fit on your feet!

Yup, my nifty Aasics broke my legs. This is a bummer for me since they weren't cheap and they feel GREAT to run on and walk in...until my shins start to cramp up. So I'm back to my old as dirt Sauconies until I can afford to buy a new pair.
Bad shoes..

Happy Shoes!!

As far as Muay Thai and Boxing, I have to admit that I'm starting to feel the burnout. I think it's a self esteem thing combined with the general crankyness of not being able to do much more with my time other than survive.

Part of the problem is that my weight has crept back up to 145lbs due to a combination of being depressed as dirt (yes, I am human.. barely!) and not being able to run like I used to. Now I feel fat and don't want to be seen being all 'jiggly' while trying to work out. Silly, I know, but it KILLS the motivation that I was already struggling with in the first place.

On top of that, when I'm at work all I want to do is go do something else. Clean my apartment, do homework and study, paint, draw, write, knit, clean, ANYTHING ELSE but be at work. It's not the job. I love my job! I clean, I get to teach people and help them become better at what they want to do, and I work with a pretty awesome group of people. It's just that I've been so stressed, depressed, and without an outlet that all I want to do is be home, alone, and accomplishing something. Working out doesn't count for me and neither does 'doing a good job'. I need to create something. Until I do the ideas float around in my head eating at me, distracting me, keeping me from proofreading my texts and facebook posts before I hit 'send' (ya, that's it. Totally!), and just generally screwing up my ability to do anything requiring braincells.

Another funny (and sort of sad) quirk of mine is that I can't do ANYTHING until my apartment is clean. And I'm not talking 'I tidied up and vacuumed' clean. Oh no. I'm talking about busting out the carpet steam cleaner, the mop bucket, spray bottles filled with oh so many cleaners, and going to town until all dirt, grime, cat hair, ferret poop, chain grease, and dust has been vanquished! No space is safe. Hiding behind a fully stocked bookshelf? Not for long Mr Dust Bunny, your doom in nigh!

Now, as you can see, I'm writing right now. This means that I'm creating, which I think may give you an indication of how I spent yesterday. I even bleached the grout in my bathroom to a nice, crisp white. (insert big, happy deep breath right here)
Oh ya.. that's it riiiiight there..

I even took a few pictures this morning to post as Daily Pictures. Remember that? I started it almost a year ago and then promptly dropped it off my To Do list in a fit of unparalleled lazyness. Well, I haven't forgotten and I'm trying really hard to bring it back. No, REALLY!

I took a few extra pics.. cuz with models like this, who wouldn't?

So that's where things are at right now. I'm grumpy, antisocial, and lazy, but I'm starting to feel a little better.

Today's workout was a little lifting with TDS. I bailed on the thai today and managed to demotivate TDS as well (such is my gift) and he got to watch me embarass myself with heavy objects instead. What makes it worse is being a novice and being around someone who is quite good at lifting. I'm hoping people don't feel that way about me when I'm teaching them...unless we're sparring, then I want them pissing themselves in terror. >:-)

We did Chest today (I did chest, he helped). :\

Bench: 10 Warmup/ 5/ 5/ and I think 5. During this, TDS learned a very interesting fact about my muscles; they can go 100% until they're done and then they are DONE! There's no 'in between' and the failure is sudden. I was doing these at 85lbs which felt easy right up until my muscles decided they didn't, and then they were impossible.

Incline Barbell: 10 / 10 / 10?. 25lbs for the first 2 and that felt easy until my L. arm gave and I nearly gave myself a black eye. 20lbs for the last set which felt fine until the same thing happened again.

I kinda wish I had some wiggle room in between "hey! this is CAKE" and "Arms. Like. NOODLES!!" Just sayin'.

Then Machine Fly: Felt easy, have NO IDEA what it was set on. I didn't think to look. 8-I Left arm started to give a touch at the end as well but it wasn't a 100% failure, just 90% or so. (shrug)

So now that I'm home I think I'm gonna kick around, draw, and relax in my nice clean place. I switched out today's run for a 10 mile bike ride in the Aves due to knee pain.

Look at this hoodie.. LOOK AT IT!!

Oh yes.. I got a cool new hoodie today. Thank you Jeff and Kerrie! And all I did to get it was nap on their couch and watch their TV all day. WOOT!!

Today was a tired training day for me. I think I might have overdone it a little bit with the circuit training and the running yesterday. (maybe... maybe not.) Though I COULD chalk it up to getting really poor sleep last night. I've been napping in the afternoons and then sleeping about 4 to 5 hours at night lately and though I'm getting 8 hours total I'm feeling fatigued.

Tonight's plan is no nap and in bed by 9pm. Since I don't have to be back to the gym until 9am tomorrow I HOPE that will have a better result. This morning I was so tired I ended up sleeping for an hour and a half on the couch as soon as I opened the gym AND I drank a cup of coffee.

Both of these things make me a little disappointed in myself. (sigh)

The GOOD news is that I held pads today for Sierra and Deanna (FUN!) AND I ran my two miles today with only a little cramping and joint pain. The first .25 mile warm up was making me nervous because my legs felt so fried. I thought for SURE I was going to have a painful go of things.

After the gym this morning I rode around with Jeff in an effort to find a new road bike for my coworker, (we'll call her Belle). Belle is very little and is looking for a road bike in a 44cm to a 46cm. We narrowed it down to the following 5 bikes...(Drum Roll Plz)

The Trek WSD 1.2

The Bianchi C2C Via Nirone 7 Alu

The Lapierre R Lite 300
The Cannondale Synapse Feminine 7

And the Specialized Dolce Triple.

If it were ME I'd pry go with the Bianchi or the Lapierre. The Lapierre maybe a bit more since it's actually AT the bike shop and it's pretty well pimped out with much nicer components than the Bianchi.

..But that's just me. Last I talked to her she was digging the Bianchi but I think that may have been because I have one and since she's seen it almost weekly I think she may be used to the appearance of the bike. She DID warm to the blue colour on a couple of other bikes we looked at so the Cannondale may come out the winner.

They're all great bikes and they're all under a grand so no matter what she gets I'm sure she'll be happy. Right now her bike is VERY heavy and it's about 2cm to 4cm too big for her.

Well, enough bike talk and BACK TO ME! (cuz it's all about me in the end.. right? Hey! Where're you goin'!?!)

I don't think I ate enough this morning or yesterday because today I was STARVING!!!

Half way through my run this morning all I could think about was food.. ANY FOOD! Jeff and I rode to the Whole Foods before bike shopping and I ate a Vega bar, an apple, and 16oz of water and felt much better until I got on my bike again. Once I got going I was FAMISHED!

We shopped for a bit then stopped at his house where I ate ANOTHER Vega bar. Then we rode to my house where I was famished AGAIN! I downed a banana and we rode up the Aves (think incline!) to check out the last bike shop and once again I was STARVING!

I got home, drank a two scoop Vega shake and ate a whole bag of Sugar Snap Peas.

I feel a little better now but MAN I was hungry. On top of it my legs felt like rubber on the ride to my house. I was almost certain I was going to have to walk the hill to Wild Rose. I'm honestly surprised I made it. I got a last little push of energy on the last three blocks of hill before we got to the shop.

Thank God.

So today's workout was an easy one:

Thai Training: 3min rounds and 60sec rests all the way through. 3 rounds shadow box with weights, 3 rounds jump rope, 6 rounds holding pads and technique work. Mostly Jab drills today with the light Jab sparring.

Then a 2 mile run at 5.5mph which Felt GREAT! Heart rate was nice and low in comparison to yesterday and while my legs ached the run felt much easier.

Then Bike riding here and there doing errands and bike shopping with Jeff. All told I think I did maybe 9 miles biking today. Not too much but it felt like a lot after running and Thai.

Tomorrow is a running rest day and I'll just be doing some light Thai and Jiu Jitsu with some lifting in between.

Oh, and I'm slowly warming to the Brendan Brazier book so far even though he DOES talk about toxins, which I think is an overrated concept.

We'll see. :)

3 miles and a new book!

Today has been awesome. I was able to run a slow three miles with very little discomfort AND I got a new book today!

I'm all about Vegan Nutrition for Athletes and this is the first book I've seen that seems to address the concept head on.

I found out about the author, Brendan Brazier, through his Vega Supplement at Food Fight.com. I was looking into protein powder alternatives to Soy protein. I already ate a ton of soy and felt the need to vary my diet.

At first I thought the Vega Supplement was kinda gimicky and all hype, plus it was SUPER expensive but when I started to read the reviews on it they all came back looking pretty positive. (Though there was some definite griping about the price! LOL!)

So, on an impulse I bought a big old tub of Vega and decided to give it a go. At first the taste was offsetting (seaweed plus chocolate equals weird!) but after a few days of using it I noticed that I wasn't getting the post workout crash nap time that I was used to.

Cool!

But it was expensive and I didn't feel like dropping another $80 + Shipping for another tub so once it was out it was out.

Then a few months ago I started having blood sugar problems. I was tired all the time, I started putting on weight again no matter HOW hard I worked out, I felt emotionally drained. I thought I had overtrained but when I did my waking heart rate test there was no real change.

So I struggled and put on 20 lbs. Then got sick with a nasty little norwalk virus and ended up in the doctor's office run down and sick as a dog. Well, the virus was easy. Drink fluids. LOL! BUT, after he heard all my symptoms leading up to the event he had my blood tested. I came up Prediabetic. Well CRAP!

So the answer was to modify my diet. I'm a bread, potato, energy bar, cookie and cupcake junky and it was hard to let those things go but I definitely felt better once I did. Then I started REALLY looking at the carb and sugar amounts and glycemic loads of all the things I was eating. The Clif Bars were SCARY! Then I found out that all the coffee I was drinking was also probably messing with my blood sugar.

I kinda got bummed out. I went to Whole Foods and found that they were selling Vega and though it's still priced like it's gold I flipped over the back and started reading the nutritional facts (something I'm ashamed to say I didn't pay too much attention to the first time around).

The Vega is gluten and soy free along with having a really high fiber and protein count. Looked good! So I bought some.

I have to admit. It gave me even more energy. That's when I started to read through all of Mr Brazier's stuff on line and I found a few books.

They could be gimicky and such but at least it will be an interesting read and he's got some interesting recipes for vegan energy gels and bars which would save me a lot of money AND wouldn't kill my blood sugar.

So, I'm reading one now, I have another one coming, and I'll let you know how it works. He makes a lot of 'claims' in his book that I find a little out there but if I feel better trying some of the stuff then I plan on sharing the wealth.

Sometime next week I'll hunt down a 5k goal run and will be posting a counter for it along with a full training schedule.

Today's Run: Half Mile Warm Up, 3 Mile Run and 5.5 mph 5 minute cool down. Slight twitches in left calf and right foot at the joint of the big toe. Tomorrow I'm going to mod my running arch supports to give me more/higher arch support and am going to extend the arch support out toward the front of my foot.

Today's workout: 3min rounds, 60 sec rest. 3 rounds Jump Rope, 3 Rounds Shadow Box; two rounds with 10lbs weights and 1 round no weight form and speed.

Interval Training: 1 minute intervals as follows: Weighted punch up/out/down, pushup to mountain climber to jumping squat, heavy bag footwork, left tepes, right tepes, elbows, knees, left kick, right kick, jabs, right crosses, sledge hammer. Twice through.

Then Abs and neck workout.

Total time: 2.5 hours.