Oh, Garmin, Wherefore Art Thou, And Another Click On The Age-ometer

So yesterday morning, I finally fought myself out of bed, got into my workout clothes, dropped the treadmill, and went to grab my Forerunner to time my intervals for my #5kin100days run.  I have the footpod, so I can actually track mileage while on the treadmill, too.

Anyway, I went to the spot where (I thought) I last left it, and it wasn’t there…  I had just pushed new workouts to it, or so I thought….  When I looked at the agent on my computer again, it was not connecting.  I spent the next half-hour looking for the damn thing before deciding to watch the timer on the treadmill.  I was resigned to the fact that I would not see the Garmin for months (yes, my house is in a state of constant transition as we move things around to work on remodeling the next bit).

After I finished the workout, I was making breakfast and putting my lunch together when I heard the distinctive beep that signals a wireless Garmin data transfer.  Still, I couldn’t find it…  I finished my breakfast and went up to shower and get ready for work.  I mentioned to my wonderful hubby that I was missing my toy; he said he would look some more after work.

When I came downstairs, it was sitting on the table – he had found my tracker in mere moments!  Somehow ended up under the sofa!

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I didn’t let it get in the way of my workout – a month ago, I would have called it a reasonable excuse for skipping it.  I’ve come a long way this summer!

On another note, my personal age-ometer clicked over another digit today.  I’ve got exactly one year left to meet my goal.

For some reason, my depression really kicks in at this time…  It’s very tough to keep focused on the things that are important to me.  This past year has been particularly rough, with family- and job-related stresses that are emotionally painful.  I did give myself a bit of leeway today, but still managed to stick fairly closely to plan – enough so that I’m still calling it a success.

Tomorrow’s another day….

Adjusting My Strategy…

After a rough couple of weeks that pretty much derailed my healthy eating and workout plans, I find it’s time to rethink my strategy for achieving my goals when work gets in the way (as it’s bound to do from time to time)…

The exercise part is easy…  I’ve got a JumpSnap (https://www.jumpsnap.com/) that I’m going to put in my backpack, for those times when I end up at a customer site on an emergency visit.  Quite often, these types of visits offer a fair amount of time where I’m simply waiting for part of a fix to complete – I can do five or ten minutes at a time of jumping rope, marching or jogging in place, and stretching here and there during these periods.

I also came to realize that I need to approach my #5kin100days program a bit differently…  Instead of automatically moving from one session to the next because I’m “supposed to”, I’m going to repeat the workouts until my metrics (heart rate and recovery time) indicate that I’m ready.  Sure, I won’t be done in the 100 days, but I’ll be much happier with myself and with running in general.  I actually started the program again from the beginning, and found that, with this new plan in mind, I was able to push myself that much harder – I managed to go over 1.75 miles in 35 minutes (after subtracting the time spent stretching).  I find I’m also looking forward to seeing myself better that on the next go-round!

The hard part is planning that will allow me to maintain my healthy eating in the event of an unexpected all-night server rebuild – in many cases, there are limited options available when dinner time rolls around, and my healthy lunch has already been eaten.  Sure, I can carry a selection of healthy snacks on these excursions, but those will only carry me so far…  I’m open to suggestions, of course!

What do you do when you find that life’s unexpected events derail all of your careful planning, and the only options for a satisfying meal feature either fast-food or completely decimating your stash of good-for-you snacks?