I was almost giddy on my way home today. The reason? I have the next 3 days off. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have a few days of vacation! Let’s break out the happy dance!! It’s a good thing, too. I think my brain needs a break, my body needs a change of scenery, and my empathy needs a little rest.
Work has actually been going very well recently. I’ve been productive and have been learning to juggle my new responsibilities. It’s still not without challenges but I do feel – most days – like I’m getting a handle on it. I’m also learning to work within my limits and that some things need to give a bit. Remarkably, the addition of new responsibilities at the end of May has spurred me to do better finding balance. First, I’ve started getting up every day at 6. Some days I go for a run; the other days I go into work early. That 45 minutes to an hour that I’m there before everyone else gets there tend to be my most productive. Getting there early also allows me to leave early and – get this! – I’ve actually been doing just that! I’m finding that I have more time at home (and more energy while I’m there) if I leave work at 4:30 rather than 5:30 or 6:00. It’s been kind of nice. Second, I’ve been doing better about not bringing work home with me. Not letting it invade the twilight moments before I fall asleep at night and when I’m waking in the morning. I’m not sure if I’m learning the skill of work/home separation or it’s a sanity preservation skill. Either way, I’m glad for it.
My current challenge is figuring out what I do with the extra time. Sure, wedding planning takes up some of that, as does catching up on my blog reading. However, there are still lots of hours waiting to be filled. Some of it gets taken up by evening walks and phone calls to friends. Still trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of it…
The next few days we’ll be staying at a place in the Poconos. Pete’s aunt and uncle are loaning us their home up there. It will be fun. We’re taking both bikes, as well as my kayak and our hiking boots, so we’ll be doing lots of outdoors stuff. I think, though, that there may be a fair amount of sitting around, reading, playing cards, sleeping, and stuff. It’s taken a lot of discipline lately to keep getting up at 6 a.m. I’m looking forward to a little self-indulgence with sleeping in and all.
As I write about sleeping in I’m thinking about my friends that just had a beautiful baby boy. It’s reminded me that having the luxury of sleeping in is not something that will be in my life forever. Guess I should take full advantage now! 
Back to the running… I’ve successfully completed 2 weeks of the 4th podcast in the Couch to 5K program and am working my way through the 5th podcast. I continue to be kind of amazed about the changes I’m feeling in my body. On Monday I did 3 5-minute runs broken up by 2 3-minute recovery walks. I was amazed to find that, by the end of the run, I was still feeling pretty good. Even better, for the first time since I started exercising my heart rate did not go over 180 while I was running.
I have been figuring out my target heart rate over the past few years and realized that it got really high really easily. The general rule of thumb is that 100% of your heart rate is 220 – your age. For me that would be 189 or so. However, when I first started running my heart rate would get to 191 when I was really tired. It regularly got into the high 180s and stayed there.
In the past, I got headaches that lasted all day if I exercised too hard. I didn’t understand why and went to see a neurologist. She confirmed I have a brain and there’s nothing significantly wrong with it. (Hallelujah!) It was Pete that wondered if my heart rate might be causing the problem. 2 Christmases ago he bought me a heart monitor and that has been tremendously useful. It’s the way that I found out that my heart rate went way too high. I pretty quickly learned that I got the headaches if my heart rate went above 188 or so for any length of time. I’ve been learning how to slow my heart rate without necessarily stopping the exercise I’m doing (slowing on my breathing and slowing my intensity work nicely). Even with this, though, my heart rate has regularly been in the 180s. So you see why keeping my heart rate in the 170s while doing 3 5-minute runs is kind of amazing for me.
I guess the lesson I’m learning is that I do need to do more regular cardiac exercise in order to keep the ticker in shape. Cardiac disease (specifically high blood pressure) runs in my mother’s family so I’ve been thinking about heart health more as I get older. I don’t want to wake up at 50 and realize that I’m out of shape and have shortened my lifespan because of inactivity. I’m not old now but 40 and 50 have appeared on the horizon; they may be teeny little specks that are way far away but they’re there!
Other than cardiac capacity, I’ve been enjoying the way that my muscles feel as they tone up with the running. Since I’ve never been a particularly active person, I’ve never really experienced what it’s like to have decent muscle tone. It’s kind of funny… I find myself poking my thighs on a disturbingly regular basis. They’ve gotten so… firm. I know, I know that’s to be expected but you have to understand that this has never happened to me so it’s kind of wild to see (and feel) it happen. The other thing that’s surprised me is difference I’ve felt in my abs and my arms thanks to the running. I wouldn’t have expected it – and it’s not as dramatic as the change in my legs – but it’s still there. Maybe if I keep this up I’ll be able to morph my self image from “out of shape and kind of squishy” to “in healthy shape and only a little squishy.”
