Progress…3 Day Weekend…

I like my job, but I love me a three day weekend. Thoroughly enjoyed not setting an alarm, even though I’ve been up early every day. I ran hill sprints on Thursday, a solid 5k on Friday after work, another solid 5k on Saturday, and yesterday I didn’t run but did a yoga DVD and my ITB rehab/core/jump rope/squats routine. Yesterday might have been a mistake–I’m a little more sore than I’d like to be going into a long run, BUT…clearly I hit muscles in a different way than I do when I run, so I should still be fine. Pop an IB and get it done. 8 miles on tap for today, longest since the half in May and I’m looking forward to it. Got a new FlipBelt with water bottles, so I won’t be quite as limited to running locations, which is fun as I get to longer distances.

Finally hit the 20 pounds lost mark over the weekend as well. Obviously not in time for the ‘official’ weigh-in on Friday, but I’ve been sitting at the 18.5 mark for a couple weeks and it was making me nuts. Nice to have reassurance that pushing just a little harder was the right thing to do. I’m starting to look and feel like myself again, and I’m definitely getting more comfortable in my body, which is great. The more I push myself, the more I want to push myself, to see what I’m capable of.

My husband commented the other day what a difference running makes in me. The decline in my mood and personality had been gradual so neither of us really realized it until it was bad, or we chalked it up to other things. But the shift back to me being happy and emotionally stable has been much faster. Running balances me. I still have bad days, I’m human, but much fewer and farther between.

And on that note I’m going to start prepping for my long run. Happy Monday.