Unfortunately, my destination of choice was the gym, which then preceded to thoroughly dominate me. Towards the end of the school year, I was getting serious about running and training for a 10k. Life was good. I could run 5.5 miles, even if a bear wasn't chasing me. (Unlike Kara, I do not regularly BYOBear.) Then I started having severe, persistent pain in the arch of my left foot, which left me limping around, definitely not running. A visit to the UHS suggested that it was an overuse injury, either plantar fasciitis (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/plantar-fasciitis/ds00508) or a stress fracture. Treatment: no running for 4-6 weeks, and then we would reevaluate.
Much to Jacklyn's amusement, I spent 5 weeks pedaling away on the stationary bike (exercise purgatory) and occasionally testing my foot on the elliptical. Quite honestly, I didn't get much exercise the last two weeks of rest - between finals and traveling, I let it slide.
Big mistake. Last Wednesday, officially 5 weeks of rest, I decided it was time to start running again. I was expecting it to be tough, to have lost some distance and maybe a little speed. I was not expecting 2 miles flat to feel like I was scaling Everest for 50 miles or so. I was literally so sweaty that my shirt was a solid (wet) color and you couldn't really tell I'd been sweating. Upon further examination, it was also revealed that any upper body strength I once had was simply gone. Tonight was my third run since starting back up again, and it hadn't gotten any easier. Push ups had gotten slightly easier, although they brought back fond memories of CJ screaming at us in the Rec. Ok, another goal for the summer: get back in shape!
Side note - any fathers out there that happen to be reading this:
I do not recommend bringing your small children to the gym and setting them loose to swing on the weight machines and/or harass other patrons by bouncing the exercise balls in their personal space while you run obliviously on the treadmill. I swear I almost had to call 911 for any number of potential accidents.
Earlier this afternoon, I made some homemade ranch dressing and hard boiled eggs, planning to make a Cobb salad for dinner. When I returned from my session at the gym, however, I wasn't in the mood for bacon (shocking!) and creamy dressing. Instead, I made a sweet rice wine vinaigrette, reminiscent of Cafe Intermezzo's (one of my FAVORITE places to eat in Berkeley) to top this chopped salad of romaine, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, beets and hard boiled egg. (Today I learned on True Life: I Want the Perfect Body II that eggs are an excellent source of protein.)
Salad was delicious, as was the New York Super Fudge Chunk I ate out of the carton after. I think I'm finally starting to tire of the hermit lifestyle and seriously missing my girls. Some Skype in the very near future, please? Miss you all! XOXO
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