Time for Fall

So - summer has officially ended and fall has begun. I just finished my half marathon and its epic training plan. We are almost done with the half bath and mudroom projects. With lots of things finished or wrapping up, I am really ready shift gears and change things up. A couple thoughts:

1. Running the Navy Air Force Half Marathon 
I signed up for this race a couple months ago, in hopes that it would get me back in shape. Of course, as is always true for me, I had a hard time fitting in all the required runs and didn't end up training as well as I wanted. The more the mileage crept up, the hungrier I got - really throwing off my plans to eat well during this period. Old running injuries flared up, no doubt because I was adding miles too quickly while missing important strength training exercises - so I spent a good chunk of time on the couch, icing my knees with frozen vegetables (butternut squash is my new favorite). So - when the race day finally came, I finished it (which was my only real goal), and I did it much faster than I was expecting, but still slower than the last time I ran this distance 6 years ago. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't worked harder or run faster, but mostly I was just really happy to be done.

running into the finish line

in prior years - we went out to celebrate after a race. This year, I got a nap! 

2. New Exercise Plans
Whenever I finish a long race, I always feel torn between wanting to never move again, but not wanting to lose all my hard-earned progress. I'm thinking about making a mileage goal for the month of October - just enough to require me to run short distances pretty often so that I get into a more regular routine. I also know that all the running without additional strength training probably resulted in my leg muscles getting unbalanced and causing a couple typical running knee injuries, so I should spend more time building strength through other forms of exercise. (My brother would point out that another way to not get running injuries is to just not run). I'm also just so tired of running and anxious to try other things - so I'm thinking about making a goal to try new exercises and strength training classes, like boot camp or crossfit, or relaxing things like hiking or swimming. In short - I want to continue to get in better shape, but I would like it to hurt less. I want to exercise more often, but with more variety.

3. New Food Plans
I forgot that long runs make me super hungry so that I absolutely must eat everything in sight. Plus, when I was running into work and couldn't carry extra food with me - or just working through the weekend without time to prep food - I fell way off the bandwagon on home cooking, and ended up buying lots of crappy food for breakfast, lunch and so many afternoon snacks. I am really excited to get back in the kitchen. Making breakfast and lunch for myself is both healthier and cheaper than buying food at work, so I'm digging out my old favorite recipes to make in advance. But dinner has gotten interesting lately- not only does food need to be healthy and relatively cheap as always, but now we eat dinner with our son so food needs to be something he will eat (not super spicy or messy, fingerfoods are useful), as well as done before his bedtime - giving me roughly 15 minutes to get in the door before food is on the table. All of these constraints make things more challenging - so I'm kind of excited to figure out new options that will work. I think I'm finally going to tentatively embrace the slow cooker, in addition to lots of weekend prep. I have visions of roasting root vegetables and hearty soups and general scrumptiousness.

4. The Fun To-Do List
Because the weekends were spent either running or working on the house  - we didn't get to do many of the fun summery things I would've liked. Now that we're getting that time back - I am super excited to get out of the house, and start crossing fun things off the list.

• Go apple picking
• Go wine tasting
• Cook something on an outdoor fire
• Take a day hike
• Go to the zoo 
• See Mt. Vernon
• Celebrate Octoberfest 
• Halloween. 

5. House Maintenance

Ok, I get that no one else would be excited about this but me - but all the focus on finishing up the halfbath has left the rest of the house a bit disheveled and worse for the wear. There are a bunch of regular projects, like weeding the lawn, that have been completely ignored over the past few months. There are a bunch of new projects that were created by the construction - like piles and piles of displaced cookbooks, serving bowls, and pantry items that no longer have a permanent home or construction tools and debris that are strewn about the house and garage. It's time to make the fall capsule wardrobe and put summer clothes in storage. The whole house just needs some attention. I want to sort through all the stuff to empty out things we don't need for donations and trash, and then give everything that remains a good dusting/scrubbing/reorganizing. 

6. Learn and Teach Something New 

So - it's been years since I was a student, but the return of fall still gets me excited about the return to school. I'm anxious to learn something new - maybe I can finally commit to actually practicing the piano and learning a new piece, or even taking lessons again. I have a million podcasts that are accumulating on my phone. There are a bunch of short term classes I would love to sign up for - a weekend woodworking class, an online photography class, a blog-based baking school  - that would be a fun way to get better at something I like to do but sort of suck at. I also started volunteering back in the spring, teaching a course for GED students, which ended for the summer but is starting up again for the fall. I'm excited to get back into teaching, thinking through the material, figuring out how to present it at the right level and speed, incorporating real world examples, while figuring out how to meet standard testing requirements and other constraints. I like the challenge and am looking forward to getting back to it.

Ok- so re-reading through this post makes me sound sort of crazy/overly ambitious. I know that the end of the half marathon will free up a couple hours on Sundays, but not infinite additional hours. Even so - I am excited to do more of all of these things, and look forward to figuring out how to juggle all the competing interests, as always, in order to squeeze just a bit more into the day.  

31 Miles in 31 Days - Results

So, at the beginning of the month I boldly laid out my plans to run 31 miles in 31 days. The plan was not to kill myself with a super intense, boot camp-esque approach to rocket myself into shape; rather, the goal was just to try to consistently run a couple miles every few days in order to start getting used to running again and begin to get back into shape.

Since I picked 31 miles as a reasonable and achievable number, it should be no surprise that I successfully met my goal. Well- actually, I am kind of surprised. I usually don't quite achieve my running goals and tend to wimp out of a couple runs or trim a few miles off of every training plan. (See this post on my failed training for the last marathon.) This time I did it - I ran 3 miles a day, for 2 or 3 days a week, consistently all month long for a grand total of 31 miles. (Technically, it was a grand total of 30.6 miles, but we round in this family.)

compared to the dotted line (which represents running 1 mile per day), I was pretty close.

The first thing I noticed was that every day it got a little easier to get started. There are so many really small hurdles to getting started, but I managed to eliminate them one-by-one. I started out each week by putting appointments to run on my calendar, and then scheduling other things around those appointments. When the reminders popped up, it was easier to just get up and go - knowing that I had given myself enough time to run, shower, and get back to my desk. Each time I ran, I would realize that I'd forgotten to bring something - glasses, headphones, whatever - and then I would remember to bring in the missing item the next day. So slowly over the course of the month, I eventually had all the gear I needed, where I needed it. Eliminating little hurdles made it easier to just get out the door and get started.

Then I noticed I was getting faster and stronger, so running was less miserable. The first time I ran, I allowed myself to go as slow as I needed to finish the 3 mile loop. Then, every day after that, I tried to walk a little less and finish a little sooner than the time before. When I could easily run past a spot where I previously needed to stop and walk - it was an awesome boost of confidence (even if I just stopped to walk a little further down the road). Sure enough, my total time to complete the distance started dropping as I walked less and less - going from an average of almost 16-minute miles down to 13-minute miles. (I'm still really slow, but that's a huge improvement). I also managed to throw in 2 yoga classes during the month, which I assumes helps with strength and flexibility and whatnot. Over the month, I also noticed that I got less winded climbing stairs and doing other exercise - which means I'm getting stronger too.

the more I ran- the faster I got. 

While the goal was really just to get moving, and hopefully to get a bit faster - I also kind of hoped to lose some weight while I was at it. Sure enough, as I covered more mileage and got faster, I started losing weight too. I'm down 3 pounds since the beginning of the month, and my pants seem to fit better. I'm also down 2% body fat, which seems like a good thing.

I still have a long way to get to get back into shape - but I'm pretty happy with my results. Clearly, setting concrete goals for myself that are both ambitious and achievable works for me. 1 month was the perfect timeline - long enough to create a new habit and see results, but short enough to stay motivated.

So, new goals for November:

• Run 40 miles (10 miles per week)
• Focus on speed, try to get to 11.5 minutes per mile
• Go to at least one weights/yoga class per week

So - the question everyone is asking - what is my current running spirit animal? Well, I'm not quite a gazelle yet, but I'm no hungry hungry hippo either. After much consideration - I think my current spirit animal is a city bus. I can pick up some speed and have some power, but I never get moving all that fast and have to make several stops. Fingers crossed - maybe I'll be a greyhound or even a chinatown bus someday!!

31 Miles in 31 Days

Despite being a fairly consistent runner and generally active person for my adult life, I really slowed down during pregnancy for obvious reasons. By the end, I was massive and mostly sedentary, and really anxious to get moving again. So, when I was about 40 weeks pregnant, I boldly signed myself up to run a 10 mile race this October, thinking it would be a great opportunity to get back in shape. Based on the rule of thumb that you need one week to train for every mile you want to race (which has worked pretty well for me in the past) - I had plenty of time.

However - I didn't have much luck exercising during maternity leave. When I got back to work, I was really excited to get moving again, though I was now behind schedule for the race. I started walking at least 10,000 steps a day (huge improvement over the average 4,000 steps a day during maternity leave). I started going to the gym and ran several times, but just couldn't get back to my normal speed and really couldn't add additional distance like I could in the past. I was so winded and exhausted by everything. Clearly, training this time would be a lot harder than in the past because I had a whole lot more work to do.

So, sadly, I decided to give up on the 10 miler because it was just way too ambitious. I am still fighting to get back in shape, and generally do better with a goal or thing to train for. So, here's my new plan-- I'm going to run 31 miles in 31 days (aka, October). [Several years ago, I set the goal of running 100 miles in a month and almost did it (knee pain at the end grounded me)]. I think this will be a more reasonable but still ambitious goal, that should help me gain the strength and rebuild the muscles I lost during pregnancy.

October is an excellent month for running - which is why all the big races happen now. It's cooler but not cold, turning leaves give you something to look at, and the approaching winter makes you want to soak up every minute outside. Plus, I'm already having visions of Thanksgiving pies and Christmas cookies- so now's the time to get moving. To hit an average of 1 mile per day, my plan is to run 2 or 3 miles several days during the week, so that I don't have to run on the weekends. Since the baby isn't old enough for a running stroller yet, it's kind of difficult to run on the weekends.

DC is a fantastic city for running

If I lose weight - great. If I get faster - great. But my primary goal here is to get stronger and start feeling more like my running spirit animal -- the gazelle-- and less like my current spirit animal - the hungry hungry hippo.  [Sidenote - I'm focusing on getting in shape to be stronger and healthier - but baby weight sucks, so it would be nice if I could lose some of that too.]

fantastic day for an afternoon jog

Today is the 5th day of the month, and I'm currently 3 miles done. A little behind schedule, but totally feeling optimistic and on track. Feeling good about this goal - will check in soon with progress.

2013 Marine Corps Marathon

The marathon this year was really different than last year, and yet, almost exactly the same. Last year was my first, and so I was filled with doubt that I could even finish, worried that I wouldn't be fast enough to beat the max time limits, and afraid that some terrible thing would happen that would injure me for life. This year I was much more confident- I knew I could finish. I knew I had trained as well if not better than the previous year, so I thought I would be faster. I knew the course and where the tough spots would be, so I planned and prepared to have my support team located strategically to help me get through.

Though I originally set out with a goal of running in 4 hours, I quickly revised to 4:30. Just before the race, I hoped that 5 would be possible, which would still be faster than last year's time. Oh, sweet optimism.

Just before the start- feeling great.

The morning of the race day started out well. We arrived in time to drop off our bags and swing by the portopotties before joining the massive line of runners. This race, like most big ones, has different corrals to group people by estimated finish time. We didn't have enough time to join our respective corrals, so we both waited together at the end with the other people who either expected to finish post 6 hours or also showed up a little late. The good news was that we got to start together and didn't have to stand around freezing for long, the bad news was that we weren't in a group of other people at each of our own paces.

My first ten miles were great. I averaged a 12 min mile pace (as needed to finish in 5 hours) and felt really strong. I wrote my name on my shirt, which made all the spectators cheer for me. It was amazing- I felt like such a celebrity. I passed my sister in law around mile 5 or 6, which was a huge boost - and powered ahead. Everything was going great.

Around mile 11, my brother joined me  and things started turning downhill. I wanted him to run that section because I knew it was where I started struggling last year, and right on cue my knee started to hurt again. We did a little walking, but mostly kept running until mile 15.

At mile 15, I found my mother in law, brother in law and nephews all cheering with signs. I picked up some aspirin from the fabulous Kim, dropped off my brother and picked up my mom. My knee was hurting a lot, but the drugs kicked in quickly, so I sped right back up. By 17, my friend Molly joined us, and the three of us were just running along steadily. The sun came out, making it a bit warm but really beautiful. The pace really picked up and I felt great. I was shocked to discover that I only barely beat the time cut off at mile 20, because I felt like I was just flying along.

Somewhere between mile 20 and 21, I totally hit the wall. My aspirin had completely worn off. My knee was excruciatingly painful and felt like it was about to fall off. I pictured the parts of my leg being held together with scotch tape. I couldn't handle the pain. From time to time I would try to run again, fighting the tears, only to give up again quickly. It was also much hotter than expected, which started draining my energy.

My mom and my friend tried their hardest to keep me moving, but I just couldn't do it. I walked as fast as I could, trying to run every now and then, but mostly hobbling for the remaining 5 miles. I was constantly watching my watch, recalculating my expected finish time. For the last mile, I realized I wasn't going to beat my old time and gave it everything I had. I pushed through the miserable pain and charged up the last hill- grimacing and crying as I crossed the finish. I ended up finishing almost the exact time as last year. [Sidenote- whoever thought it would be a good idea to put a steep hill at the end of a marathon course needs to be replaced, and/or forced to run it].

Because I love me some charts - here is the comparison in my speeds between the two years.

 

Both years I started at a 12 minute mile, and slowly crept up to a 15 minute mile. Both lines show a similar trend- I start out strong, get slower as I approach mile 10, and then get slightly faster to cross the half marathon line. Both years I slowed down a lot around mile 15 (when my knee really started hurting), and sped back up between 15 and 20 with the help of some aspirin and my friend Molly joining me for the more picturesque part. Once I crossed the bridge at mile 20 in both years, I started slowing back down, hitting the wall, until right before the end when I gave my last kick. Generally this year was slightly slower than last year, with two exceptions. My brother gets credit for the improvement you can see between miles 10 and 15. My mom was with me for the dramatic improvement in the last mile.

 

After the race, wanting to sit down.

 

After the race, I met back up with R, who finished at an exceptional time, and all of our family that had come out to support us. We headed back to a local bar and celebrated with beers and burgers and traded stories until I inevitably fell asleep. I did not get a chance to eat my celebratory brownie sundae that I was running for.

Now, five days later, things are slowly getting back to normal. My knee still hurts a bit, but gets better every day. Even though I haven't moved, I'm still starving and eating way too much. I'm also just disappointed and filled with regrets.

Instead of vowing to try again next year, I have decided to take a break from running. Maybe I'll try another marathon in a few years, but I think for now, I'm done. I tried. I did it, twice, which is still pretty awesome. Now it's time to focus on getting my knee healthy and strong to make sure I don't have any permanent damage and can run again sometime in the future.

My new goal for the next two months is to try as many different types of exercise as I can to break the rut of running, strengthen my legs and maybe find something fun and new. I'm going to take a full break from running for a while, to let my knee rest and because I just don't want to run right now. The spring is full of shorter races (10 milers and half marathons) that I may think about, but for now, I'm done.

Training for a Marathon- 2 days to go.

We are in the homestretch. The race is in 2 days. There is very little for me to do now, so I thought it would be a good time to recap.

Looking Back:
In general, there are a lot of marathon training plans out there. They all have a few things in common, like long runs on the weekends that increase slowly each week. But there's a lot of variety in the stuff  during the week-- some have you run lots and lots almost every day, others are less intense. I cobbled together a plan with two mid-week short runs and two strength training / stretching days. Even though this is less running than some other plans out there, I still had a really hard time getting them all in. We had a wedding one weekend that threw off the long run. Work has been crazy all month, so I had to miss a few of the midweek runs. Generally, it's really hard / not possible to put your life completely on hold for 5 months for something. I tried to focus and make this my first priority just for the last month and couldn't even do that. I don't know how other people do it. Training was a priority, but not my only priority.

Note the major upswing in October when I clearly started trying harder. 

I did try though. I successfully ran the long runs and at least one mid-week run every week.  I think I have trained better this year than last, but I can't find my tracker from last year to prove it.  Last year I finished in almost exactly 6 hours - my goal this year is 5:30, which is over 1 minute faster for each mile.

I'm disappointed again that I didn't train harder. I wish I could have run all the miles I was supposed to, and I think I also needed to start training earlier. I'm just a slow runner and will never be a contender to actually win one of these things- but I was hoping to get faster as I trained. Instead, the training allowed me to run longer distances over time, but generally at the same average speed. So, I'm still slow. I will not be finishing in 4 hours or likely even 5 hours. Maybe next time (but probably not).

I'm also disappointed I didn't do a better job at strength training. My knee hurts almost every time I run, some days worse than others. I'm worried that it will start hurting early in the race and it will be too painful to manage. I'm also worried that I'm causing long-term damage that I'll regret when I'm 32 and can't go up and down stairs.

Last Minute Prep:

There isn't a whole lot you can do in the final days. It's a lot like the night before your final exam- you either studied and did your homework, or you didn't and you can't make it up now. Over the past few days, we've been doing everything we can to be as healthy as possible.  I made lots of pasta-based meals planned for dinner. I'm taking the leftovers in for lunch, so that everything I eat has been home-cooked and carb-alicious. We're taking a break from all alcohol, and trying to drink 2 liters of water a day to be super hydrated. We're also trying to go to sleep early and be well-rested. We have a few very short runs planned, just to keep the legs moving, but are otherwise taking it very easy.

We have both been reaching out to friends and family for support. Last year, R was my support coordinator- he carried all of my stuff and ran with me for several important sections. Unfortunately, he's running, so I won't have him this year. Instead, we'll both have to mess with the bag check and figure out how to stay warm until the starting bell. We'll both have to carry our own supplies. It looks like his family will be there to cheer us on. I have thankfully lined up my friend and my brother to run again with me. My mom is flying up for the race to run some key parts too. Altogether, I think I can patch them together to cover most of the last 10 miles, which is obviously the harder part when I will start seriously questioning why I'm doing this.

Why am I doing this?

• I'm looking forward to finishing. I don't want to run this thing, so finishing it is a huge triumph over my own laziness. [Also known as the joy of doing something awful, so that you can enjoy stopping it.] 

• I'm looking forward to getting my medal. Not only do I not want to do this- most people don't want to do this. Finishing a marathon is very rare. So it's a huge badge of honor to do it. At the Marine Corps Marathon, actual marines in uniform give you your medal at the finish line and solute you. It's pretty intensely awesome and makes me proud.

• I'm looking forward to the huge burger and fries I'm going to eat at the victory party. We've been really careful about food lately, so junk food has been totally nixed. After the race we get to have burgers and fries a) because we're no longer in training so it's ok and b) because I will have just burned almost 3000 calories. There will also be dessert.

• I'm looking forward to eating like a normal person again. The plus side of the running is that you burn more calories so you can eat more. The down side is that you have to eat more because you are constantly starving. Every day I would like to eat an entire cow. An entire cow dipped in chocolate. This is, of course, where runners get into trouble and eat more than they can run off, gaining weight, so you have to be really careful.  (I successfully lost 3 pounds. Woot Woot).

• I'm looking forward to next Sunday, when I don't have to run and don't have to feel bad about it. Running a marathon is really intense, but it's a lot more than a one day thing. For months now I've been training, which means that every Sunday we had to wake up early and during the week after work I had to run. There's a lot of constant guilt (for me) while training, because I always feel like I'm skipping something or being lazy (because I often was).

• I'm looking forward to getting all of my weekends back. When I did the runs I was supposed to, I felt great, but also exhausted and frustrated because they consumed my weekends. We couldn't do a lot of things on Saturdays (like hiking or staying out late) because it would mess up the Sunday run. On Sunday, we would have to wake up early, prep, run, stretch, shower, and often nap - so that a long run ended up taking over the whole day. We have a lot of house projects I'm anxious to tackle, as well as friends I feel like I haven't gotten to hang out with.

• I'm looking forward to doing other activities. On the same note as above, running has consumed my ability to do anything else. I am really excited to do other exercise things again that aren't running. We pay for a gym membership that neither of us have used in since we got started. I want to try lots and lots of classes. I want to hike before the fall is completely over. I want to try a barre class and wear all of the yoga clothes I own in a yoga studio (instead of the living room). I want to do things that are slightly more interesting and entertaining than trying to decide which foot comes next.

So- homestretch. Next post will hopefully be my amazing success story. Keep your fingers crossed.

Training For a Marathon - 5 weeks to go

I just want to start out by saying I'm an excellent planner--a really excellent planner. When there's something big coming up, I can plan up a storm. I'll give you tables and printouts, with rules and themes. It's the execution that I'm not great at.

 

So I realized today that I have just 5 weeks until the marathon. I somehow thought I had lots more time than that, which is to say, I haven't been training well at all. I haven't done ANY of the weight training and yoga classes I wanted to. I haven't done most of the midweek runs, and I have missed a few of the long runs. Total weekly mileage, as shown below, is WAY below where it needs to be.

 

 

I started out ok, sort of.

 

 

I believe there were a couple reasons that led to this failure:

1. After the wedding, I lost a serious incentive to keep moving.
2. My job was really bumming me out.
3. I might have broken a toe, we'll never know for sure.
4. It was really hard to do any exercise on the trip.
5. It's really freaking hot here in the summer, and easy to lose the energy to do anything at all.

So now that we have 5 weeks to go, it's time for me to get this show on the road--literally. If' I'm going to run this thing, I have to get ready for it or I will hurt myself-- and I really don't want to do that again.

This reminds me actually, of something I went through every single term in undergrad and grad school. All term, I would go to class and mostly do my homework, but then a week before finals I would panic and realize I wasn't ready. I would decide to re-read everything in order do basically do-over the term. It's not as bad as panicking the night before the exam, when all you can really do is go to sleep. It's not as good as being on top of things from the beginning. I'm at the point when I can still mostly save this, but it's going to be a lot more painful than if I'd done a better job all along.

 

Things in my favor:

1. Fall weather is great for running.
2. I definitely don't have any broken bones or injuries at the moment.
3. I just started a new job and am full of optimism. 

My new plan:

1. Be better at following the old plan.
2. Learn to be a morning person.
3. Cook more-- eat out less.
4. Lose 5 pounds.

 

I'm excited. Feels like the getting-in-shape montage part of any athletic movie with girl power music. Yah.



Training for a Marathon - 16 weeks to go

A quick history of me as a runner:

I have never been an athlete. I was on a soccer team as a kindergardener, and that's about it. However, in college one semester, I met a friend who was a runner, and convinced me to give it a try. For me at least, as soon as I started running, I wanted to race.  I'm super slow, so it's not about winning, it's about the excitement of running with other people when you have a cheering audience watching. It's exciting and fun! I started with a 5k in graduate school, and then started signing up for longer and longer races. First 5ks, then 10ks, then my first half marathon. After the half, it was clear I needed to run a full.

I knew I would be really slow, so I just wanted to run to finish. For me, it was all about the sense of accomplishment, knowing that I had done something so difficult that few people have done it. So last year, to celebrate my last year being single and turning 30- I signed up for the marine corps marathon. This is a huge marathon that attracts thousands of runners, which is perfect, because it means there are lots and lots of people there to cheer the runners on, and bands all along the way.

I didn't train very well, often skipping midweek short runs and some of the miles for my long runs. I also didn't adequately strength train, which is considered the cause of runner's knee and other knee injuries. 

A quick recap of last year: 

I started out happy but nervous. I knew I hadn't trained well enough and was worried I wouldn't finish.

Around mile 15, I really hit a wall. I had serious knee pain, which made it just excruciating to walk, and running was worse. Plus- it was the empty part of the course, where there was no one to cheer- which is just awful. This is what I looked like, which I think generally conveys the pathetic-ness that was me.  This is me trying to decide if I can just quit and take the metro home. 

 

 

 

I didn't think I would make it, until I found Matthew and Kim. Then I found R, who ran with me for a while, until I ran into Molly, who ran with me for a couple more miles. I began to think I could make it, and I started to look like this. 

 

 

Then - after running with Matthew for a while, and with R by my side for nearly 10 miles- I finally made it to the finish, where I looked like this and felt like I'd been run over by a truck. 

 

Then I got a beer and a burger and I quickly forgot everything, and looked like this and felt amazing.

Even though I only raced to finish, when I hit the finish line, I was filled with pride that I'd done it- and also a sense of disappointment that I was so slow. Inevitably, after a few months of sitting around, I decided I wanted to run it again to see if I could improve my time. 

The Plan:

My goal is to run again this fall, and complete the race in 4.5 hours. I've been running a bit for the last month or so, but now is time to get serious. From now on, I will run 3 times a week, including one long run on Sundays. The mileage will slowly increase for my long runs, until I reach a max of 20 miles. To avoid knee pain, I'm also going to do one weight lifting session and one yoga class every week to keep my muscles strong and stretched. Since it's exactly 1 million degrees outside now, none of this sounds great. But I'm excited to get started! 

Here we go again!