Continual Brain Damage

I have embarked on a new fitness fiasco: Strength and Muscle Training. I am not sure who to blame, perhaps my damaged brain. I want muscles. And not tiny little girl muscles - but hardcore (smallish) back, arm, calf, ab muscles. I don't want to look like a skinny, no-muscle, girl. And so I have adopted The 4 Day Power Muscle Burn Workout Split. If for no other reason than the kick-ass name. Seriously - who doesn't look good doing something titled The 4 Day Power Muscle Burn Workout Split? That's what I thought!

4 days a week you hit about 2 muscle groups. I am going to mix in some running and possibly swimming or biking as well, keeping cardio in the mix. The swimming and biking cause some knee dislocation these days, so we will see how that goes. I really have no desire to keep dislocating my knee after all.

Yesterday was running. Today was Chest and Biceps. Tomorrow is Quads and Hamstrings. Thursday brings another run followed by Shoulders and Triceps on Friday. Saturday is supposed to be Back, Calves and Abs, although I am not sure I can manage that because we have a hell of a busy weekend. Sunday is another run. I may have to double up on Sunday or scrap the weekend altogether.

I think the big push is the fact that I head back to work on the 24th of May and I really want to start a routine I can stick to moving forward. I need to see if there is a participating health club near the office so that I can work out at lunch or in the morning - otherwise it is going to be difficult to get these workouts in. I would have to resort to working out after the boys go to bed, and honestly - I don't know that the gym is opened that late. If only we had weights at the house...

So - the brain damage continues...

Brain Damage

I have sort of turned into a running fool. People who know me would argue that I am already a fool. I don't listen to those people anymore.

I started running 2-3 miles one or two days a week and it was not very motivating. I extended it to 4 miles and realized that it wasn't any more difficult than the shorter runs. Apparently the first few miles are horrible no matter how far I am going. My knee held up, so I increased mileage. I have run a few long runs, and seem to really love the 6-8 mile range. It is difficult enough to make me feel good about what I am doing, yet not so long that I am hurting too much the next day.

Then there is the knee. My left knee is a rebel. I need to get it fixed (or removed for bad behavior...whatever) yet I don't want to deal with that right now. So I continue to abuse it and hope they can repair the damage when I give in and go back to the doctor. For now, I find it quite useful to medicate before and after a run with copious amounts of advil and the occasional vicodin - the latter only after a run and typically at night to sleep after a long run. I feel 80 years old on the days that it hurts, and yet I keep running.

I think I have brain damage.

I have been looking into half marathons and marathons again. I have run a few in the past and I cannot quiet the voice that wants to do it again.

See? Brain damage.

I have my eye on a marathon this December in Dallas.

Tents and Time

The little Vegas vacation didn't happen. The whole losing-the-job activity sort of put a damper on many plans. Instead - we went camping for a night. Mother in law has not exactly been anything close to self-sufficient so it was pretty much all we could manage without putting her in respite care, which is quite expensive.

We chose a primitive camping area that required a fairly good hike out, leaving civilization behind. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However we failed to check the weather report and ended up in a tornado. That was an experience I do not soon want to relive. I would be fairly happy never having lived it the first time around.

It was nice to spend time alone - no kids, no mother in law (yet another kid really), no pets, no work, no computer, no cell phone. Just us, wine and conversation and it was wonderful (all the way up to the part where the wind split a tree, it fell on the tent, and broke the tent poles - resulting in a flood in our beds).

I really think conversation is one of the first things to go in marriage when there is an abundance of things going on all around. Soccer and baseball and bills and baseball and work and school and a million other things flying around making it hard to dedicate time to working on a relationship. And the funny thing is that you don't always realize it until you have time to spend together and suddenly WHAM! It hits you right smack in the face - you have not really completed a full sentence without being interrupted by a 4 year old in MONTHS. How does that slip by without being noticed?

Parenting is work. So is marriage. Both are totally worth the work mind you. But damn, are they work. Even when they are great, they take care and commitment and sometimes it is hard to find time to feed that part of our lives...don't you think?