A Goodbye For Now (or I Think It’s Time For A Break)

For about 11 1/2 years, I’ve been writing this blog. I’ve done over 2900 posts in that time, and most of the time, I’ve been writing 5 posts weekly. About a year ago, I decided to go down to 2 posts weekly because I felt like I was starting to struggle with what to write. It was hard to let myself be ok with not writing every day, but I’m glad I made that change a year ago. I felt like I had to find things to write about instead of just writing about what I wanted to write about. I also made changes to how I wrote about my workouts and made them more like a general post instead of going into details about my workouts. Even with the changes I made, I still had this blog as a big part of my life for over a decade.

But I’ve decided that it’s time for me to step away from this blog, at least for a little bit. I haven’t been feeling that inspired to write here. My life hasn’t been that crazy, and I’m starting to appreciate the boringness of my life at times. Yes, I still want to have excitement and I’m trying to not just live the same life every single week. But I also know that if I need a weekend at home doing a lot of nothing, there is value in that. And even with only writing one non-workout post a week, sometimes I still feel a bit of pressure to have something happening in my life so I can write about it. Or if I have a lot of things happening within a week or two, I feel the pressure to decide what thing I should write about and what thing I should skip since I don’t want to write about an event weeks after it happened.

It’s crazy to think about how I started the blog in my 20s and now I’m in my 40s. My entire 30s were documented on here and that’s something I’m so grateful for. There have been countless times when I was trying to remember something and I searched my blog for the post about it. It’s been an incredible scrapbook for a big chunk of my life. I have changed my life in so many ways since I started writing. And even with the struggles I’ve had, things have improved so much for me. I don’t think my life is perfect, but the things I have now are things that I wished for years ago. I have a much more stable living situation, which is something that I will always appreciate. I have made a lot of changes in my health but more importantly, in my fitness.

It’s because of this blog that I discovered Orangetheory. I was invited to a blogger preview and I know I wouldn’t have found it as soon as I did without that preview workout. I rarely was in the neighborhood of that first studio before working out there, so I might not have found the perfect workout for me until they opened the studio in my neighborhood. I can’t imagine what my life would be like now if I wasn’t invited to that workout. I’ve had a lot of great things come my way because of this blog, but I think that finding my workout home is easily the best thing that happened because I started this blog.

I found new communities because of my posts. I met new friends that I still keep in touch with, even though almost all of them have stopped blogging by now. I think the blogging world isn’t what it used to be and that’s ok. Things like blogs are trends that come and go and it seems like people have been using other ways to be creative and have a voice. I think I’m starting to feel that way as well. When I started writing, it was a creative outlet that I knew was missing in my life. I don’t necessarily have a new outlet that I have started to use, but I’m more active on social media and that’s a bit of creativity for me. Again, the things I needed and felt were missing in my life in my late 20s are different from what I feel like I need now.

I also find it a little poetic that the day this post will come out will be the 4th anniversary of the last normal day we had before the pandemic. I think most people think of that Friday the 13th as the last normal day even if things weren’t totally shut down right after that. And the pandemic caused such a huge shift in my life, just like it did for almost everyone. I wish that not everything had to change the way it did, but I was forced to adapt to what came my way and I’ve been trying to make the best of it. But I also know that being forced to change is sometimes the only way that change will happen, so I am grateful that I have been able to make positive changes and create a pretty awesome situation for myself.

I don’t know if this will be the last post I write on here or not. I might take a few months off and miss writing so I start things up again. I might realize that I want to write randomly when something big happens so I write a few posts a year. I’m not setting any rules or ideas for this break for now because I don’t know how I will feel during my time away. I thought going down to 2 posts a week would stress me out and I’d miss writing, but it ended up being the best choice for me. I don’t know how much longer I could have kept up 5 posts weekly. I think this last year was much less stressful because I didn’t have that pressure on myself to keep going. And I’m hoping I’ll have another positive reaction to this new break.

So I guess this is it for now. It’s not necessarily a goodbye, but I’m not sure when I’ll be back on here again. But if I come back to start writing again, it will be from a fresh perspective after having some time away. And if I decide to not write here again in the future, thank you to all of you who have been following my journey. Whether you’ve been reading since I started in July 2012 or this is somehow the first post you’ve read. I have been so grateful that people have been interested in what I have to say and what I think. This blog has given me a voice when I really needed one and I have been so lucky to have an audience for this long.

Going A Little Easier On My Good Week (I Hope I Don’t Wish I Had Pushed More)

This past week of workouts was another one of my good weeks. But just like the week before, I didn’t push myself too much. I wasn’t planning on going easy for both of my good weeks and worry that this will cause me to struggle a bit more with my bad week, but that’s how things turned out this past week. I had to go a little easier due to some hip pain associated with the weather, which is something out of my control. And then I chose to go easier on Thursday for another reason.

Thursday was a benchmark workout, which I usually push myself for. This time, it was the 12-minute run/bike. This is one of the harder benchmarks since it will always take 12 minutes to complete it. With the other benchmarks, you can tell yourself if you go faster it will be done faster. That won’t work for this one. I’ve been very lucky to be able to improve on my distance on the bike the last few times, but this time I knew that pushing myself wasn’t the right choice. I was going to be at a work event that evening and I would be standing around in heels for several hours. So I needed my legs to not be exhausted after my workout. It was a little annoying to not push myself when I would have loved to see if I could beat my past distance, but I didn’t want to be miserable later that day. So I took it easy for those 12 minutes. I set the bike resistance level for between my base and push pace levels and just tried to bike as long as I could without take a break. I did still have to take a few breaks, but they weren’t that frequent. I also tried to ignore the distance I got since I knew it wouldn’t be great, but I did look at the end and it was so much worse than almost all my past benchmarks. But I just reminded myself that I wasn’t trying so I can’t compare my distance from when I was trying.

A lot of the rest of the week had a lot of endurance work, so I spent my workouts being focused on keeping things steady and not having too many hills and valleys with how I was feeling. I’m probably a lot better at power or sprints for cardio than I am for endurance, so it’s not the worst thing for me to slow down a bit more than I would like. It’s not easy for me to do since I do like to push myself, but I’m trying to understand more and more that I can have more well-rounded workouts that aren’t always pushing me to the limit.

I know that my bad week is likely to start this week, but I’m trying to stay hopeful that either it won’t happen or won’t be as bad as it can be. I don’t know if I’ll be able to push myself much this week, but I really want to try as long as other factors allow me to. I do worry that I will feel worse about my bad week, but I also know that if that happens it’s only a minor setback and I’ll be feeling more like myself again soon. But even if I know that, it can still mess with my mind when I feel like I’m not able to do what I know I can do. I hate that I get down on myself like that, but it’s just how my brain works. Maybe having an easier week when I’m feeling good will make an easy week not as emotional and tied to a bad week and that can help me feel better about it. I guess I’ll find out after the next week or two when I’m over my bad week.

Listening And Learning (or A Brand New Monthly Challenge)

Last month, I challenged myself to listen to my body more. I think many things were coming together that made me feel like I needed to do this. I was struggling a lot with sleep, but that didn’t account for everything I was feeling. I just had an odd feeling of being off. I don’t want to assume that my iron issues were causing this, but I will say that taking my new supplements has been helping with that feeling so maybe that was it. But I just knew I needed to listen to my body with so many things and I needed to find a way to feel like myself again.

I think sleep will always be an on-and-off issue for me. I naturally don’t wake up early, but I make myself do it so I can go to my workout. I make an effort to go to bed early and not stay up as late as I’d like, but that doesn’t always mean I’ll fall asleep quickly. I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, and I don’t know why I do that. It’s not that I’m thirsty or in pain, I just don’t always sleep all night. But I made sure to note when that happened and took things a bit easier the next day since I knew I’d be tired.

But I think the biggest thing I did with listening to my body was to use that with how I ate. Just like sleeping, I know food will always be an issue for me. I can’t just always eat what I want, but I know that listening to my cravings can help me manage food better. I also didn’t stress myself out as much about eating at official meal times. I did try to have 3 meals in a day, but sometimes it was more like 2 meals and 2 snacks. I don’t track calories or other nutrition like that, but I do have a general idea of how much I’m eating and I know I’m staying within the right amount of calories. And I was feeling more satisfied when I did try to indulge in my cravings a bit more. If I was craving something sweet or salty, I didn’t ignore that. I didn’t necessarily eat exactly what I would like if it wasn’t the best choice, but I tried to figure out something that would help that craving. And yes, sometimes I did eat the “bad” thing because I knew that was going to be the only thing that I wanted.

Overall, I’m happy with what I did with my challenge in February. I feel much more like myself now. I still have some physical ailments that I know won’t be resolved by listening to my body, but things are much easier on me when I don’t have extra things I have to work through.

And for March, I decided to go back to the type of challenge I did when I started doing these. I recently got a new-to-me camera from a friend. It’s a very nice camera and so far I’ve only used it with all the auto settings. But because it’s the first camera I’ve owned that has all these settings and ways you can take amazing photos, I want to learn how to do that. So I’ve decided this month that I’d like to take some online photography classes.

I’ve already saved a few different free classes I found online and I’m going to work through them. I don’t think I’ll be able to get through them all within the month, but I’d like to have some idea about how to use more than just the auto setting on the camera by the end of the month. I don’t know how often I might use this new camera since the main reason I got it from my friend is to do self-tape auditions, but I think it would be fun to be able to take nice photos from time to time. I don’t want to get myself in a situation where I regret not learning how to use the different features before having an opportunity to use it.

I’m hoping by the end of the month, I will feel more comfortable using the new camera and I’ll start to have some fun with it. I don’t know if I’ll pick up photography as a new hobby, but you never know. New hobbies start after trying something, so maybe I’ll end up finding a new creative way to express myself!

Having A Bit Of A Reset Week (or Not Feeling Like I Need To Push Myself)

I was feeling much more like my normal self this past week. This is always good, but it’s extra nice for my workouts. I will always have the potential to not feel great between the pain I sometimes have with my hip and the nausea I get with my injection, but when I know there’s a chance to have a good week it automatically puts me in a much better mood. I did have a little bit of hip pain this past week, but it wasn’t much worse than what I deal with daily. And I must have gotten my injection in the right spot because I didn’t have much nausea. I did inject myself in a spot that caused the worst bruise I’ve ever gotten from a shot, but that pain is a lot easier to deal with since I only have to be careful about how I bend down so I don’t make it hurt.

Typically, when I have a good week like I had this past week, I use it to push myself really hard. I feel like I need to make up for having to go easy the week or two prior. But this past week, even though the workouts always have a mix of endurance, strength, and power they felt more like they focused on endurance. A lot of the workouts focused on being steady with what you were doing in the block or repeating the same thing several times so you could work on improving what you were doing the time before.

For cardio, we had some workouts that were focused on longer hills that didn’t go as high as some of the inclines/resistance levels normally go. We also had some workouts that were long push paces followed by base paces and that pattern repeated itself for the entire cardio block. It allowed me to not feel like I needed to go too crazy on the bike and by not pushing myself I also didn’t need to take as many breaks to deal with my hip pain.

On the rower, we had a lot of repeating rows. Sometimes it was about repeating a specific distance and sometimes it was about repeating a specific time. But it was a lot of repetition and I used that to play around with different rowing styles to see how I could maximize my speed and wattage but not burn myself out too quickly. I know that whenever I do the Dri-Tri next, I will want to make sure that I get through the row quickly but I also know the risks of burning out and having to go slowly for the last part of the row. I don’t think I’ve found the perfect combination of rowing techniques for me yet, but I was happy with how much better my wattage was during this past week’s workouts compared to what I normally do.

On the floor, I didn’t feel like I had the same type of success as I did on the bike or rower. But I was able to play around with some heavier weights for some of the upper body work, which was fun. I learned pretty quickly that I’m not really ready to increase my weights just yet, but I’m so glad I tried. And I felt like they weren’t as much of a struggle as they have been in the past, so I know I’m getting stronger and closer to being able to go heavier with what I use on the floor. I also allowed myself to take a bit more time on the floor and not feel as rushed about getting in as many rounds done so I could make sure my form was ok and I took the time to stretch when necessary. Because of some of the hip pain I have, stretching can be hit or miss with me. Sometimes it doesn’t help me feel better so I’m careful about stretching during the workout. But this past week, it was the type of pain that got a bit less intense with some stretching so I did that when necessary on the floor.

Overall, this wasn’t my typical good week of workouts, but I think this was exactly the type of week I needed. I felt like I found some new baselines for myself that I could use moving forward. I do still like to push myself in my workouts so I’ll probably try to do that this week, but this past week was a good alternative option for me when I’m feeling good and probably a good idea to do from time to time to check in with myself and how my progress with endurance is going.

Another Quick Santa Barbara Day (or Celebrating My Niece)

I don’t go to Santa Barbara too often, even though it’s not that long of a drive. But I do go up at least a few times a year to see my family. I go up for my niece’s and nephew’s birthdays, and I’ll continue to do that as long as their birthday parties are family parties. I don’t know how many years that will go on so I have to take advantage of them when I can.

Since it’s an easy drive, I only go up for the day so I don’t need to pack an overnight bag. I really can’t remember the last time I stayed overnight in Santa Barbara since I’d rather not have to bring all that stuff and like to sleep in my bed. I still end up feeling like I bring a lot of stuff with me, but it’s usually because I’m bringing stuff to give to my parents so I don’t have to ship things to them. And my parents usually have a bag of things to give to me as well. Typically, my dad is bringing me some tools or things that I mentioned would be helpful to have. This last time, I mentioned not having clamps to hold things down when I glue them, so he got me a set of clamps.

I went up recently for my niece’s birthday party and I really didn’t have much to bring with me this time. I did have her birthday present, but that was all I had to remember to put in my car. But I did get a new-to-me camera recently (it was a trade with a friend), so I brought that too so I could practice taking some photos with it since it had been a while since I had used anything other than my phone to take photos. I got the camera mainly to do self-tape auditions, but learning how to do more on it is a good idea in case I want to use it for photos and other things.

The drive up was pretty easy, and I felt lucky about that. The day of the party was supposed to be a very stormy day, but I didn’t have much rain on my drive. I lucked out with the storm because it only rained a little bit going up so I didn’t have to worry about extra traffic caused by people who aren’t good drivers in the rain.

Most of the birthday parties that my niece and nephew have had before only had a few friends there. This time, there were a few more friends than at their past parties (I’m guessing my nephew will have a lot of friends at his birthday in about a month). It made things a bit more hectic, but I ended up talking to my parents most of the time. The kids were doing different crafts like decorating cookie boxes (which had glitter so I was trying to stay away from that) and playing with all the toys they have. Once my niece opened her presents, they started to play with those things too. I got her a dress-up set, but she got a lot of dress-up stuff so she had a lot of new things to open up and try on.

The party only lasted a few hours before all my niece’s friends started to head home. I stuck around a little longer to talk with my parents about a few random things, but once it looked like the rain was about to start, I knew I needed to leave too so I could try to avoid driving in a crazy rainstorm. I don’t love to drive in the rain anyway, but to drive 90 minutes or more in the rain sounded awful. Just like with my drive up, my drive back down home only had a few minutes of rain and then it was easy for me the rest of the way. I’ve done the drive up and back enough to have experienced a lot of random situations that make the drive harder or longer, but this ended up being one of the easier drives I’ve had.

Hopefully, when I go back up in a little over a month for my nephew’s party, it will be just as easy of a drive. And I hope it won’t have the threat of rain so the party can take advantage of the bounce house they have been using for other parties since that is always a big hit with everyone!

An Up And Down Workout Week (or Still Feeling Ok With How Things Went)

Even though I wasn’t feeling physically great the week before during my workouts, I was feeling mentally good about the efforts I was able to make. That week went a lot better than a lot of my bad weeks in the past have gone, and I think a lot of it was because I had so many amazing workouts leading up to it. After that week, I was a little concerned that this past week wouldn’t go the same way because it would be a bad week after a bad week, so I might not have the same high from the good workouts as I had the week before.

I had a mixed week this past week with my workouts. Some days were pretty bad with a lot of pain and nausea. I had my usual monthly pain plus I had a lot of extra hip pain this past week because of the weather. But I feel lucky that I wasn’t feeling really horrible every day or throughout the entire workout. I had bad moments, but I didn’t have any day that was all bad without some moments of relief. And when I had moments that I was feeling normal or closer to normal, I tried to take advantage of those and do little bursts of working harder.

For most of the workout, I wasn’t pedaling or rowing hard, but when I could do a little sprint I did that. We’ve had workouts before that were focused on a base pace with little surges in them, and that’s pretty much what I did on my own. And when I was on the floor, I tried to lift heavier weights when I was feeling a little better and then used lighter weights when necessary. But that was a bit harder to do because I was worried I would have a really bad cramp while holding heavier weights and possibly drop them. So that wasn’t done as often as the increases on the bike or rower. I also wasn’t getting as much sleep this past week so I was feeling a bit more fatigued, so even if I was feeling good I probably wouldn’t have lifted heavy weights.

It did help this past week that on Monday I did get to sleep in a bit since I didn’t have work and I could take a later workout. In a perfect world, I would take a class a little later than what I do now. But since my only other option is to work out after work (and I don’t want to go at 7pm), I just have to continue with my early mornings. But it was nice to have a little extra sleep on Monday since that was one of the worst days for me with nausea.

We also didn’t have any signature workouts or benchmarks this past week, so I didn’t have to feel like I needed to push myself more than I knew I could do. It was good to not have that pressure on myself and to just allow myself to do what felt tolerable. That goes along with my challenge for this month with listening to my body more. I really paid attention to how I was feeling and if things started to get bad, I eased off. I know I can’t control when my nausea gets severe, but it was nice to not feel as bad as I have before and not need to leave class because I was worried I was about to be sick. So I’m choosing to believe that by listening to my body and not being upset about what I can or can’t do, I made my bad week a little bit easier on me.

I’m hoping that this week will be good, but I know that’s not always something I can predict. Everything should be in my favor to have a good week, and as long as I’m feeling ok I plan on pushing myself again in my workouts. I know that maximizing my good weeks before these past 2 weeks really helped me get through the tough times. And if I can repeat that and make my next round of bad weeks just a little better, that will be a huge victory for me!

A Weekday Show (or A Pre-Broadway Adventure)

Since I started getting season tickets for the Pantages, my tickets have been on Sunday evenings. The group that I joined at first previously had done Sunday evenings so when I was added to the group things just stayed the same. And while the group has changed multiple times over the years, we’ve always just kept the shows on Sundays. Even when we’ve had to change the date, they usually stay on Sundays. It’s just easiest to do that and keep the routine the same since that’s what we’ve gotten used to.

I’m sure that there has been another time that I’ve seen a show at the Pantages on a weeknight, I just don’t remember it. So when we had to change our most recent tickets to a weeknight, it felt like something new. We had to change from a Sunday to a weeknight for a few reasons. The show we were seeing was “The Wiz”, and this production was a pre-Broadway run. So the cast was the cast that was expected to be on Broadway, which meant we had some names in the cast when we usually don’t get that. So all the dates were a lot more crowded than normal. So for us to change our date (which we needed to do because of my schedule), we had to search for a night that would have tickets for us together in our section. And we had another friend who was going to join us, so we needed to find 3 seats together. We ended up finding 3 tickets in the last row of the balcony, but it was in the center so they were actually considered a higher level of seating than we normally have. And being in the center was nice since normally we sit off to the side.

Before the show, we met up for dinner at RDen. I’m so glad they reopened so we could return to our pre-show tradition. We had looked at other places to eat before the show, but no other place has good reviews, decent food/prices, or is so close to the theater. It’s honestly the best place I can imagine going for dinner before the show. It was a bit more of a rush for me to get there since I was working before the show, but I made it work and wasn’t late. But I do prefer going on a Sunday when I don’t have to stress as much about rush hour traffic. But once we were all seated for dinner, it wasn’t a rush and we were able to have a nice dinner before going across the street for the show.

I don’t think I’ve seen a pre-Broadway show before. I know others who have but I think they have all seen brand new shows that were doing a tryout before going to Broadway to see if they needed to change the show at all. This time, the show was an established show so I can’t imagine they would make many changes at all. They wouldn’t change the script or the songs, but there were a few moments that I think weren’t as strong as others so I hope those are fixed before their premiere in New York. But the actors were incredible and I thought the actress who played Dorothy was so good! The closing number of the show was so powerful and that had the show end so strong! I think because I’ve seen so many shows over the years, I just notice the little things so the things I picked up on that I hope will be fixed were not things that others would notice. For example, the way the screens were used as a background was awesome in the second act, but I didn’t like how they were used in the first act. But it was still a good show and I’m so glad that we were able to find another night we could go and we were able to bring another friend with us.

The next season for Pantages will be announced in a few days. I can’t imagine that we won’t be renewing our season since my friend and I both agree that we just like having a reason to get out and enjoy theater. We might change where we sit because now we have been able to experience what it’s like when you are closer to the center of the theater. We won’t be doing super close and center tickets since those are out of both of our budgets. But upgrading a bit depending on cost might work.

But before we worry about the next season, we still have a bunch of shows this season! It’s pretty much a show a month from now until August. That’s a lot of nights out to look forward to!

Not Feeling As Bad About My Bad Week (or I Hope This Week Is About The Same)

I was prepared to go into this past week of workouts that this week would likely be bad. I never know if I’ll be feeling horrible for the entire week or just for some of the workouts. And I never know how extreme it might be. Unfortunately, I’ve been having a lot of significantly worse weeks in the recent past. I never used to have to leave the workout to let my nausea pass or to be sick, and that happens from time to time now. It’s not as bad as it can be at home, and I still have no idea why I’m not as bad in my workouts as I am at home. Maybe it’s the fear of knowing how much worse things can be that somewhat keeps things under control.

I had just had some really amazing workouts the past few weeks, so I was on a bit of a high in general about how I was feeling about my fitness. And I’m glad I had those good workouts leading up to this past week because I didn’t get as down on myself as I have in the past with my bad weeks. I did wish that I had been able to do better with different exercises, but I was more forgiving with myself and the limitations that I had.

The only workout I was worried about this past week was the one we had on Valentine’s Day. That happened to be a partnered signature workout and I didn’t want to have to stress about doing a workout with partners. This signature workout was Capture The Flag and I feel like I have been trying to do this workout without a partner the last few times we had it. For this workout, you have one partner on cardio, one on the rower, and one on the floor. The person on the floor controls when the group switches. They complete a round of the floor exercises and go to tag the cardio person. Then the cardio person goes to the rower, and the rower goes to the floor. The goal of the workout is to get as far as possible on the row so you are supposed to really push yourself there. And for different distances that your group gets to, you can earn different colored flags.

The morning of that workout, I was pretty nauseous. I knew that I would be going slowly on the floor and the rower, which were the spots that would affect the entire group the most. Fortunately, there was going to be an odd man out after the groups were formed so I got to do the workout alone. I wasn’t able to do all the floor exercises because of my nausea, so I did the ones that I could do. And I just did the bike for about 2 1/2 minutes and the rower for the same amount of time so I was doing my own rotations. I didn’t count how many times I got through it on my own, but I did get about 1300 meters on the rower. Most people who were in groups of 3 got between 5,000 and 6,000, so I wasn’t too upset with my distance knowing I wasn’t able to row that hard.

The rest of the workouts this past week went pretty much like my bad weeks usually go. I biked and rowed slower than normal and I modified a bunch of things on the floor. But mentally, I was doing a lot better and that made me happy. There’s a very good chance that this week will go pretty much like last week did, and I’m just hoping that I finish out the week with the same mindset that I had after this past week.

Still Having Easy Therapy Check-Ins (or A Few New Things To Do)

My therapy appointments haven’t felt like appointments for a long time. They feel more like a check-in to make sure everything is going ok and I don’t need to change anything. I think I’m on a good dosage of the medication this doctor prescribed and I don’t see the need to change things up. I know there are other medications that I could try that might help me, but every time I’ve added something new I have new side effects. And I’m already dealing with enough side effects at this point so I don’t need to add any more. I’m glad my therapist is fine with these appointments turning into check-ins as well so they can be easy and quick. Plus, they are still virtual appointments, so they are even quicker for me since I don’t have to drive there and back.

I only have appointments every 6 months now, so they aren’t that often. I’m ok with that and know I could always schedule an additional appointment if I felt like I needed one. But since things have been pretty steady for a while, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

I actually brought up in my appointment this week how I feel like I just keep telling her the same thing every time, how things are going well and I feel like I’m on a good path. She thinks that it’s fine that I haven’t wanted to change what I’ve been doing and what the plan has been. But even though we don’t want to change anything, there are some new regulations for controlled substances (which my medication is) that I now have to go through.

Some of the new regulations have been things I’ve been working with. I can only get a month of medication at a time when in the past I could get 90 days at a time. It’s not that bad that I have to go in every month because I have to do that for another one of my medications. But it was nice to not have to worry about a refill for a few months. And now, I can’t request a refill as early as I used to. In the past, I could request a refill when I had about a week of medication left. That allowed for time for it to be filled since it can take a day or two. Now, I have to wait until I have only 2 days of medication left to put in my refill request, and that means that I can go a day or two without it. There’s also a shortage of the medication, so that can add even more delays with getting my refill. It’s frustrating because I know I’m not doing anything wrong, but I understand why there are regulations in place.

And while I was in my therapy appointment, I found out another regulation that I have to do so I can continue getting my medications. I have to go to cardiology to get an EKG to make sure that my heart is ok and there’s nothing weird going on with my medication. I’m not worried about my heart because I know I’m taking everything as prescribed and not abusing my medications. And I’m pretty aware of my heart rate since I wear a heart rate monitor in my workouts. But it is something that I will have to pay for to get done and I will have to find the time to go in to get it done. It’s a minor inconvenience for me so I’m aware that things could be much worse. And I don’t think I will have to do the EKGs regularly, so I’m hoping that I will just do it this one time and then I won’t have to worry about it again.

I’ll have my next therapy check-in in 6 months, right after my birthday. I’m not expecting anything to be different then and the plan will continue to be to keep doing what I’ve been doing. And hopefully, there won’t be any additional regulations with my medication that I will need to worry about. But if there are, I’ll just do what I need to do so that I can continue to make and see progress.

Building Upon Another Good Week (or PR Weeks Are So Much Fun)

I really got lucky this past week with having another good week. I didn’t have the pain and nausea I deal with each month and my weekly injection didn’t make me feel sick. I don’t know if I’m getting used to the new dosage or if I lucked out with injected it in the right spot. I did have some extra hip pain this past week due to the weather, but that is minor compared to what I am normally used to. I know that I will be having another bad week either this week or the week after with pain and nausea, but I was just so happy to have a good week this past week and I really took advantage of that.

I think because we have the Transformation Challenge going on right now, we are getting a lot of benchmarks and specialty workouts. And I know I can’t always get a PR or have an incredible workout, but I was still on a bit of a high from my PR the week before and wanted to continue my streak. This past week, we had Catch Me If You Can. This challenge has been a tough one for me in the past. I was always getting caught at the same checkpoint each time. I knew it wasn’t impossible to get past, but I was always shy of the distance I needed to be on the bike to continue going.

But the last time we had this challenge, I somehow made it to the distance I had to get to so I could continue going. I felt so proud that I finally made it and I got past another checkpoint after that. I wasn’t able to get to the end, but very few people make it to that point so I was ok with not completing it. I was just so happy that I finally got past the point that I was always caught at and felt so accomplished. When I knew we were going to do this challenge again this past week, I reviewed what I did in the past. I wasn’t sure if I’d get a PR again this time, but I was really hoping I would beat the past checkpoint that I was always getting stuck at.

When we had the challenge, we had a little paper in front of us that showed what the various checkpoints were. But I noticed that the one I had for the bike wasn’t accurate (there are 2 types of bikes at Orangetheory and the paper was the distances for the other type of bike). I was able to get my coach to give me the one that had the distances for the treadmill and I just had to do the math and multiply those by 4 to get the bike distance. Yes, doing a little bit of math at 6am isn’t fun, but it was fine.

I kept the resistance level on the bike at my normal base pace level because I knew I needed to pedal really quickly to get past the checkpoints I wanted to beat. I felt like I was cutting things close to the checkpoint where I’ve gotten caught in the past, but I managed to get to that distance right before the time cutoff. And just like the last time I got past that one, the checkpoint after that was a lot easier for me, and the one after that was another close call. But I was at the spot where I was the last time and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the distance for the next checkpoint. Even though I was certain I was going to get caught at the same checkpoint as my last PR, I was hoping I would be able to at least get a little bit further than I did the last time. It’s not as easy to do that on the bike since the distance tracker isn’t as precise as the treadmills. But when we got to that checkpoint and I was caught, I managed to squeak by with an extra .1 miles compared to my last PR.

It wasn’t easy to get that done and I was exhausted for the rest of the workout, but I was still so happy that I got another PR. I wasn’t expecting the one I got the week before and I wasn’t certain I would be able to do this one. But to get PRs on back-to-back weeks was so incredible. I know that not every week or every challenge can be like this, so I celebrate them when they happen.

We have another challenge coming up this week, but I’m not expecting another PR. It is a team challenge and I usually do them solo so I don’t track how I do. And I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling so I don’t want to set myself up to be disappointed if it doesn’t go well. I’ll see how I feel when that day happens and maybe I’ll surprise myself again. But no matter what happens, I will still be so happy with how the past 2 weeks went with my workouts and I’ll continue to celebrate those wins!