Exercising for Energy

The other day when I was kvetching to my friend Ruth about how tired I was, she said, "Isn't exercise supposed to give you energy?"
That stopped me. If exercise gives me energy, then I should be a whirling dervish. Instead, I wake up tired, catch a 20-minute nap when the day allows and move like I share joints with the Tin Man on the Wizard of Oz.
Most exercise gives people extra energy, it's true. But not my kind of exercise. This summer, I decided to follow the marathon training schedule. That means I ran 10 miles on Saturday.
Creak, creak, creak -- those are my joints as I pull myself out of a chair.
Now, let me be clear, as I have to everyone who asks, including the 20-year-old guy at the running shoe store and the young lady at Starbucks, I do not plan to run the marathon this fall. Running the marathon was the most miserable I have ever been. But, I decided I wanted to get in good shape this summer, and training for the marathon seemed like the way to do it.
Maybe if I got up at 5:30 and ran 5 miles before going to work, like today, then I wouldn't be so exhausted.
Twing, twang, that's the achilles tendon in my left foot when I hobble down the stairs.
But after I ran, I did about a 45-minute core exercise from P90X. Grace and I have been doing this together all summer, but she wouldn't get out of bed this morning.
Jab, jab. That's the shooting pain from shin splints shooting up the front of my legs.
And somedays, when the heat index isn't 100, I might hop on my bike and ride the half hour to work in the morning and back again in the afternoon.
My goal is to get in really good shape. I don't weigh myself and stress about numbers. I determine if I look good and if my clothes fit well. I'm pumped about the number of miles I can run without collapsing or begging my friends to walk.
But maybe the exhaustion is not the fault of the exercising. Maybe I need to go to bed at 10 like I did during the school year. In bed at 10, up at 5:30 -- 7 and a half hours of sleep seems like a good amount.
Instead, most nights, I drag myself to bed around 11 after Tucker gets home and then when Grace or Spencer gets home they come in to kiss me goodnight and tell me about their evenings. Then I may wake up when Earl gets home from work at 12 or 12:30 or 1 a.m. and again when he comes to bed at 2 or 3 a.m.
Last night around 3:15, Spencer wandered into the bedroom and asked whether he could have a pillow because he fell asleep on the couch and didn't want to go to his bed. I woke up Earl and took his extra pillow. Then I felt guilty and got up to get Earl an extra pillow.
At 5:30 the alarm went off and I started over again.
So maybe, it's not exercise making me tired. Maybe it's lack of sleep.
How about you? Does exercising give you energy?

Gravity

This morning, when the alarm went off at 5:40, I did not want to run. As I got dressed, I did not want to run. As I lay on the living room floor stretching my back, I did not want to run. As I checked my mileage for the day on the computer and the Weather Bug chirped about a heat advisory, I did not want to run. And as I walked out the back door, latching my water bottle belt, I did not want to run.
I moved slowly through the thick, humid air.
The breaths did not seem to fill up my lungs.
In grad school, I had a friend, who was probably depressed, but on some days she wouldn't get out of bed. She would say, "The gravity is simply too strong today."
That's how I felt. Gravity encouraged me to lie down and rest rather than running or working.
I walked to warm up and considered whether I could walk the entire route for today's schedule -- 4 miles. It would probably take me forever to walk 4 miles. I'd better run. So I did, but when the light changed and cars crossed at the half mile mark, I stood gratefully breathing. At the mile marker, I took another break and walked some. I ran most of the way interspersing some walks to catch my breath.
My running friend Pam pointed out that I "get into" running in the spring. She notices these kinds of things and I'm oblivious to fluctuations and schedules. I should ask her when I usually lose my enthusiasm. I'm guessing about July 11th.
My body does feel battered and bruised. Not just from the running and the new shoes that rubbed the wrong way.
Grace and I started doing P90X again, so, on many days, I have two work outs.
Last week, I rode my bike to work one day, and "laid it down" with me on it. It couldn't really count as a wreck because it was in slow motion. I forgot I had my foot clipped to one of the pedals and when an 18-wheeler turned right on red, I had to stop, not too quickly, but quickly enough to make me forget I couldn't put my left foot down. I ended up with some bruises and scrapes on my legs.
Getting in shape requires taking the road through battered and bruised while avoiding the turn off to broken.
So hopefully I'll keep running, and doing P90X, and occassionally, like today, riding my bike to work.
I'll try not let gravity win today.

Overactive Morning

Man, am I feeling the aches and pains of age, or maybe it's just overexercising. When I got up this morning at 5:30, I could feel the muscles in my booty and thighs groaning. I've been devoted to P90X again this week and yesterday's "Legs and Back" workout took its toll.

Of course, I was up at 5:30 so I could meet my friends for our Saturday morning run.
We ran our 7.5 miles, although a cramped calf about half a mile from the end caused us to walk a bit. That wasn't my cramped calf, it was Dream Girl.
Dream Girl had her last chemotherapy session for breast cancer last Friday. She plans to run the half marathon next week to celebrate. Her hair is starting to grow in wispy and light, as opposed to the dark lustrous locks she had before she shaved it off. She looks like a downy baby duck with the hair standing in a short, fuzzy ball around her head. Now that the chemo is finished, it should start to grow back in full force. She's the only woman I know who actually looks good bald.
Running with my friends doesn't even feel like running. They listen to my stories and they say the wisest things. Pam points out that Grace processes all these experiences as they happen, rather than waiting 10 years and learning the lesson afterwards. They just put a good spin on what some might see as failures.
On the drive home, about 15 minutes, I flexed my hands trying to get feeling in them again. It wasn't that cold this morning -- 50 degrees when I left the house, so I wore shorts rather than the running pants I had laid out last night. We could see our breath throughout the run and I left my fleece on.
I've learned that the only way to warm my hands after a cold run is to hop in the shower. Even a cup of hot coffee doesn't help, but I wasn't finished exercising yet.
When I walked in the house where the men were still sleeping, husband and elder son, I put in the CD and started to do the Kenpo workout for P90X. I skipped the warmup, figuring that a 7.5 mile run was enough of a warm up. Kenpo is sort of like kickboxing or martial arts. Lots of kicks and punches. My hands finally started to warm up about half way through that workout. Then I turned on Ab Ripper X. I only made it through about 10 minutes of that before I decided I'd hit the wall on exercise.
Earl and I walked downtown to the farmer's market where we bought apples and tomatoes then stopped for a coffe.
I don't think I'm leaving my chair for the rest of the day while I grade papers.
Oh, shoot. I forgot that I have to take Tucker to a swim meet this evening. Midnight Madness. I am definitely not lasting until midnight!

Eating Changes

Well, I, and some commenters, have mentioned changes in my eating plan, and since it has actually lasted more than four days, I guess it's safe to write about.
Grace and I have been doing P90X this summer. P90X is an intensive exercise program We do a different exercise six days a week. They usually last an hour but sometimes an hour and a half. We're on Week 7 now. We're feeling stronger and more flexible but some of those muscles are still hiding beneath fat. So we decided to eat better.
We were going to start two weeks before our trip to Florida, but Grace had swim meets through last Thursday. We knew we couldn't diet while training and competing was still going on. We marked Friday as the day to begin.
Friday morning, I woke up with a headache. Now, keep in mind that I hadn't actually begun this new eating plan, so I couldn't blame the headache on that. Our plan was to try the Fat Flush Diet that, some of you may recall, I tried last spring and ended up with a migraine and throwing up.
Just call me a glutton for punishment because on Friday morning, I poured the cranberry juice (unsweeted) and flax seed into a cup and downed it. Then I spent a few minutes leaning over the toilet puking it up. Apparently flax seed and I don't agree.
The Fat Flush Diet encourages cranberry juice, a few proteins, unlimited vegetables (on the list), and some fruits. As Sheila commented, the diet doesn't promote exercise the first few weeks. I think that's crazy! Why would I give up exercising to diet? Won't I get better results if I combine them?
The other thing that I don't realize most of the time is that other people don't exercise nearly the amount that I do. I should have realized when Dream Girl went for cancer treatment and they said she was in too good a shape to participate in the exercise and chemotherapy treatment. If I looked around me, beyond my running friends, I'd realize that most of my friends don't do hard-core exercise. I've slacked off on my running this summer and run three to four days a week. But I've added the P90X. So I exercise a minimum of an hour a day and sometimes more than two hours a day. How can I even need to lose weight? I'm convinced that all the exercise, especially training for the marathons, messed up my metabolism.
Because of all the exercise, and after feeling too tired to move the first few days, Grace and I have changed the eating plan a little bit. We are now eating proteins -- grilled chicken, cattled-fed beef, eggs; veggies -- zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce; and fruits -- pineapple, peaches, melon, strawberries, blueberries. Grace is not a big vegetable lover, so she eats more fruits. We also added a baked sweet potato the other night that made a big difference in our energy level.
We have done away with sugar, fats, dairy and grains. We both feel like we've slimmed down and I can't complain about the food I'm eating. Most mornings I have an omelette with tomatoes and spinach. Lunch is usually a salad with some left over chicken added, along with walnuts, tomatoes, cucumber and dried fruit. Last night for dinner, Earl grilled some yellowfin tuna steaks with a kind of vinaigrette, and we ate it along with asparagus and canteloupe. I cheated and had a glass of wine to relax with my husband.
See, that's all good food and when we get hungry we grab a banana or a peach.
We plan to stick with it until we leave for Florida and then it's vacation food all the way.

Passions

Sometimes it's hard to keep all the balls in the air at the same time.
If I decide to focus on writing, my running slips. If I decide to really train for running, my writing falls off a cliff. I won't even tell you where mothering and teaching fit in.
One of the problems is that I am most productive early in the morning. At 5 or 6 a.m. I am usually either at the computer writing or on the road running. And that is my window of opportunity.
If I write for an hour or two, I'm not likely to then go for a run. I might head out the door, but I don't make it too far.
If I go for a nice run, when I return dripping sweat, I'm more likely to sit on the front porch and read the newspaper than I am to sit at the computer and write.
Many days these past few weeks, my early morning hours have been spent preparing for class or grading papers. I'm teaching four online classes this summer, but once everyone is out of bed, if Mom is home, the expectations are that I'm not really working. I can make lunches and run to Target, and all those other little errands that eat into my day instead of grading and preparing for the classes I do have to go to teach.
Grace and I have also been following an exercise program that takes an hour to an hour and a half everyday with only one day of rest each week. We've finished five weeks of it so far. Grace is not an early riser, although I may roust her out of bed at 8 on mornings when she has to work. So this is another thing that is eating up my time.
There's always the evening, someone might suggest. But they haven't seen me in the evenings. I'm wiped out. Whether I've been teaching, grading papers, running kids to doctors appointments or meeting friends for lunch, come 8 p.m., I'm useless and am lucky to hold a book in front of my face or lift up the remote to change the channel until I lurch to bed at 10.
I guess I'm kind of the opposite of ADD, people who can't pay attention to one thing. Instead, I end up focusing on one passion at a time and the others fall to the wayside.