Yoga Pants Life

Oops – should have posted this a few days ago, but it really doesn’t matter at this point. As usual, word of warning: this will probably be super-boring to anyone but me, as it’s just a quick recap of weekly running/training/financial stuff. Read at your own risk.

Running: I ran Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Each run was only about 3 miles long, bringing my weekly mileage total to 12. According to my fitbit, I had 76, 014 steps (includes my runs since I wear my fitbit for the vast majority of each day) I’m happy that I averaged over 10k per day (especially since I was uber lazy Monday and Saturday.) I can’t wait for that number to increase though.

As far as the quality of my runs, I had a really tough run on Tuesday, but things got better Wednesday and Thursday. It’s frustrating to not be where I want to be, but I know if I put the work in and am consistent, it will come with time. I’m also focusing on non-running things like drinking a lot more water and making sure I eat enough (I still need to work on eating the right stuff, but for now I’m just trying to make sure that my stomach isn’t growling midway through my runs, especially since I run at the end of the day, long after lunch, but way before dinner.)

Sunday was a dedicated speed work day. I did one minute run/recovery on the treadmill, starting a 6.0 mph and increasing my speed 0.1 each for each interval until I hit 7.5 mph. The good news is that despite being fairly inconsistent with speed work recently, I actually had a fairly easy time up until 7.3 mph.  Getting the treadmill to 6.0 mph would have been a struggle a few years ago and now if feels slow. Of course, I want to keep getting faster, but for now, I’ll take it!

Finances: Not much to report…didn’t save any money last week and spent more than I planned, as I caved and bought a new GPS watch. I’ve spent months and months debating on whether or not I should get one…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve added one to my Amazon cart, only to close out of the site all together to think about it more. Unfortunately, by the time I would finally decide to complete the transaction, the price would go up and I’d hold off again. However, I found one last week that was $49 and the brand I’ve been wanting (Garmin) so I bit the bullet and went with it.  Was it necessary? No. Am I glad I made the purchase? Yes. It will really help with marathon training (if seeing my paces doesn’t kill me first.)

And, in that vein, I’m a bit worried about the cost of everything lately. Like, yes I can afford to run this marathon and make the trip to Chicago…but I feel guilty for not routing every spare penny to my emergency fund. It’s weird because what’s in my emergency fund is the most money I have ever saved in a non-retirement account. EVER. I can’t tell you how good it feels to not worry about how I’m going to pay for dental work, car repairs and the like (Do I want to pay for this stuff? Of course not, but do I lose sleep over it? Not anymore.) If I didn’t get a paycheck for a few months, I’d be okay – and that’s a huge relief…I can’t wait to get to the point where I can go a year or more without (I’m a long, long way off, unfortunately.)

However, despite my recent savings success, I find myself worrying about my short-term finances more now than ever. Maybe because this is the first time I’ve known what it feels like to have some wiggle room. But now that I know how good it feels, I keep thinking about how quickly it can all be wiped out. I spent my entire 20s and the first part of my 30s in paycheck-to-paycheck mode and I don’t ever want to do it again. It’s miserable.

Even though I’ve made awesome progress, deep down, I know I’m not out of the woods yet. I’m more responsible with my finances now than I’ve ever been, but I still have a long way to go and what if it’s like my weight? I have to be extra vigilant about working out and eating (mostly) well to keep from gaining weight…I have a feeling finances are the same way – I’m not sure I’m ever going to be in ‘autopilot mode’ with my finances. I will probably always have to work hard at NOT purchasing things and making a conscious effort to only purchase things that are really high on my needs and wants list (because let’s be real – you pretty much need food, water and shelter…everything else is purely a want.)

Anyway, all of this is an awful lot of rambling…I’m over it. Hopefully I’ll be more perky about things next week (HA!) Can’t wait to post about my first week using Hal Higgdon’s ‘Spring Training’ plan – he designed it to be used for the Chicago Marathon and the timing is absolutely perfect! I’m using the ‘intermediate’ plan, with the hope that it will make me faster and stronger when official training rolls around in 12 weeks (OMG!!! 12 weeks!!!)