Some ranting about GPS watches and gratuitous animal pictures.

I felt pretty good this morning after my 15 miler yesterday, better than I've felt after running that type of distance in a long time.  This resulted in less mental whining than normally happens when I clean the house on Sunday and I was a little more motivated to do my upper body weight workout than I normally am.  It also helped that I had on my awesome tie-dye head scarfy thing and that large dog saw fit to horn in on my post-workout selfie.

It's not love for me.  It's love for my sweat.

And then small dog got in on the act.

Kids.  They never stay still for pictures.

Anyway, I did a three-fer today for a workout: Cathe's Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders and her Back, Biceps, and Shoulders workouts from her Ripped with HiiT series.  This was so I could get a complete upper-body workout and to generally torture my upper body since I tortured my lower body yesterday.  These days I record my strength workouts (along with every other type of workout I do) on my Garmin Vivoactive HR because, you know, if you don't record it you can't blog about it because it never really happened.  But I remember way back when I started working out, there were no watches that could do that.  I had to, like, do math and stuff to figure out how many calories I burned.

And we all know doing math when you don't have to is a big fat no-no.  At least it is in my world.

So when GPS sports watches started to be able to record things that weren't outdoor running, cycling, or swimming, I was all in.  Heck, I was all in from the whole "GPS" thing so I didn't have to manually map out a route before every run.  However, I've come to see that while these sports watches have a lot going for them, there are some drawbacks:

1) Sometimes I look at my GPS watch to check my pace during a run more than I actually look at the road.
2) Waiting for satellite signal.....complete bummer.
3) The time it takes to find that "just right" watch face to express my individuality and uniqueness.
4) When you finally get a satellite signal, hear the beep, and then take off on your run--completely forgetting to actually start the run on your watch.
5) The fact that nothing else contains nickel in the watch except for the watch band clasp, making it nearly impossible for me to actually wear a watch without huge red blisters on my wrists because, you know nickel allergy.

I'll spare you pictures of that last one, but it's the one that ticks me off the most about these fitness watches.  I pay all that money for this awesome little piece of technology that I pay more attention to than my loved ones at times, and, like some of my less-loved ones, it returns that attention with a big oozing red rash. 

Buh.  I'm about 3 seconds away from just super-gluing the actual device to my wrist and dispensing of wrist-bands altogether.  And small dog is 1 second away from telling me to suck it up, buttercup, and end this post:

Please make this post stop.

Bummed out wrist-rash learning time:

• Cathe's upper-body workouts from her Ripped with HiiT series are fast becoming my faves again.  All my muscles are feeling that workout right now.
• If you're ever running in downtown Chicago by the mag mile and all it's tall, tall buildings, your GPS watch is also completely useless.
• These nickel-induced wrist rashes suck, and must stop.
• Female cat is too busy being crazy to care about this post at all.

Too busy with crazy to care.

Tomorrow's workout:  Speed is here!  A nice weird little ladder is on tap.

A lazy 3-picture Sunday night right before bed post.

Picture #1:

It's hard to do your ab workout after your upper-body strength training when the dog is monopolizing your "I don't want to get animal hair on me from the carpet" mat.

Small dog be like "here's some fur for the top of your mat"

Picture #2:

When you're all "I am so pumped from all my weight work I don't think getting on the floor and suffering through ab exercises would actually be a bonus, Cathe"

Picture #3:

Female cat don't care.  She doesn't care about fitness, this blog, and the fact that she was in my way when I had to put the sheets back on the bed.

Nope.  Don't care one single little tiny bit.

Leaving you with some learnings:

• It's Sunday night and I have to go to bed so three pictures it is for this post.
• I know you dig that tie-dye head scarf as much as I do.  I'm trying those things out instead of headbands because I have so many headscarf-type things sitting in my gear drawer.
• My eating was better today than it has been in the past few weeks.  Thinking you look horrible in your blog post pics will do that to a girl.

Tomorrow's workout: Some speed - 4 x 1200.  Look out, treadmill, here I come.

Just a little Q&A about my day.

Q: So, how'd that 5 mile tempo run go this morning?

A: I think I may have been traumatized by it.

Q: Geez, doesn't sound good.  What went awry?

A: I had to do it on the treadmill, first of all, because it had the nerve to freaking snow a few inches overnight and the roads weren't plowed when I needed to get my run on.  Secondly, my lungs are still giving me crap and making easier tempo paces (8:45) seem way harder than they are, so I had to stop a few times and I felt like a total wimp.  Finished the entire run, though.


Q: Hmm...that run gave you a run for your money.  You going to throw that run some attitude?

A: Yep.

mmmm HMMMM take that sucky tempo run

Q: Very attitudinous.  Well, was your eating any better today? Did you track your food?

A:  I don't know if my eating was "better," but I did manage to remember to record everything.  And here's the proof:

Q: How'd you like using that app?

A: I dug it.  I really dug that you could just scan the bar code on whatever it is you're eating (if it comes with a bar code, that is--good luck finding one on a banana) and it would pop up for you without having to search so you could add it to your food diary.  Although, like anything with a pay wall, I hated that BS "upgrade so you can see things you should be able to see for free" thing that kept appearing everywhere.  Greedy greedy app developers; you're supposed to HELP people, not gouge them, dammit.  Why can't everything be free and we don't have to use money like in Star Trek?!?!


Q: Alrighty, that's enough - can you calm yourself and stifle your app indignation?

A: Yes.


Q: Now that you're calm, any profound eating takeaways from today's food tracking adventure?

A: Nope.  Other than the fact that the app reassured me I was getting more than my fair share of fiber during the day.  That's the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.


Q: Really?

A: Not really.  What keeps me awake at night are all the scary stories I listen to on my horror story podcasts.  And staying up blogging when I should be asleep seeing as how I get up at 3:30 AM every morning.


Q: Oh....right.  Well, can you at least leave us with some stupid pictures of your animals?

A: Absolutely.

Hyooman.  Stop hogging my side of your bed.

Hyooman.  No one cares about your sucky tempo runs.

Q: Will there be your normal end-of-post nonsensical learnings that are really just random commentary about what you wrote in your post?

A. You bet your sweet sucky tempo run there will be.  And here they are:

• It was all I could do to get through that run.  I think I may have to go to a doctor about this whole "perpetual sore throat and shortness of breath" thing I have going on.
• Tracking my food was actually very informative.  And the calorie goal it set kept me from having too many snacks this afternoon.  Because snacking is my jam, ya'll.
• I would have posted pictures of the dog, but they would have all been of their blurry heads moving because they were not about me taking pictures of them this morning.
• I'd write another stupid learning, but hey-it's 8:30 and it's time for bed for this little runner.

Tomorrow's workout: Easy 3-miler.  On the treadmill, most likely.

Mile repeats? Put on a happy face.

It figures that mile repeats, my most hated speed workout, comes up after my sickness and my not running because of the sickness and my whining calves.

It freaking figures.

But I still got up and put on a happy face before I hopped on the treadmill to embrace the pain.

The happy face didn't last long.  Well, it lasted through the warm-up, where my calves screamed at me at every step.  But I decided to do as much as I could, even if I had to later cut some of the repeats to 1200s or 800s.

So how much was "as much as I could do?"  Well, the workout called for 3 x 1 mile repeats, and here's how they went:

• Repeat #1: Oh look I finished the first two quarters...only 2 more to go....wait--what's that ringing?  Oh, it's nature calling.  BRB.

• Repeat #2: Ran that whole thing and my lungs only felt like they were going to die 95% of the time instead of 100%.

• Repeat #3: OK, last one...I got this...only a 1200 more to go....*ring* *ring* Nature....is that you again?!?

Buh.  This workout is what it is.  Or what it was, I guess, since it was in the past. Specifically, it was the cause of my calves being even more sore than they were yesterday.  And then I wore high heels to work because I'm a moron.  Female cat would agree if she wasn't asleep.  Or even cared.

Hyooman-this way I can't see your stupid blog
pictures.

Ready for learnings?  I know you are:

• Mile repeats.  Buh.
• Nature needs to get a life and start bothering someone else during their runs.  So needy.
• Some workout is better than no workout.  Or at least that's what I tell myself.
• I think my calves may be permanently traumatized. 
• I also think my calves would appreciate me not wearing high heels to work, no matter how super cute they are.
• By the way, I'm still eating my veggies.  And it's still all VEGGIES BUH.

Tomorrow's workout: Probably some of Cathe's PHA.  I think I'll switch back to the Strong & Sweaty series this week.