5k a day -- Day 14

I took my boards today.  400 questions.  9 hours total.  I don't have much more to say, because just mentioning it has me exhausted.

We went to Presque Isle park to walk on the beach and catch the sunset.  It was beautiful, but not conducive to a 3 mile walk, though we did walk almost a mile.  The sand there is deep and rough, and it was painful to walk in.

See how rough the sand is?  And how much I need a pedicure?

I tried again at the hotel -- another lady walking on the treadmill (well, alternating that and yelling at her kids who were in the pool), and the other equipment still broken, so yet another biking 5k for me.

(Side note:  Really, Hilton Garden Inn?  2 broken exercise machines and a broken hot tub?  Sad panda, and since these amenities were some of the reasons I picked your hotel, unhappy-money-panda, too.)

Can't wait to get back to the "real thing", believe it or not.

The 5k:

Yeah.

Yay bike.

The Workout:

66 squats

90 seconds plank

23 modified push ups

My arms seem to alternate days.  Yesterday's 22 MPUs were miserable to do.  Today, the 23 weren't bad.  Who knows?

I'm spent, emotionally, physically, mentally.  So that's all.

5k a day -- Day 9

The past couple days the stress has been getting to me.  Boards are on Thursday.  Also planning a wedding.  Also rotations.  Also PMS.  My diet has been craving-filled, as it becomes when I'm stressful, so it's nice to have the knowledge that I'm meeting my 5k a day challenge to give me a little boost in sense of self.

Tonight, I waited until long after the sun went down before heading out for my 5k.  It's been super hot and humid, to the point that I've started scheduling my day around when the hourly forecast predicts driest, coolest, least humid temperatures.  I managed to catch a nice breeze tonight and it wasn't bad!

I decided to do 5:2 intervals.  I wish I could tell you there's some sort of rhyme or reason to how I decided to run/walk the 5k each day, but it's really just a gut decision that I don't think lots about.  I decided I should have some good jogging time today, but I knew I wouldn't be able to work on my speed too much -- it's too dark with not enough street lights to really run quickly.  I'd be flat on my face within the first half mile.  Anyhow, I looked down on the first 5 minute section and was doing a 9 minute pace!  I certainly didn't keep that up, but it's nice to know the walking has been keeping me loose.

Unfortunately, I didn't successfully manage to turn off my MapMyRun tracker, so my distance/time includes stopping to a slow walk and doing some stretching when I saw I had done the 5k distance.

The 5k

3.13 miles in 42:37

13:35 min/mile average pace

Splits:  13:13/13:42/13:40/14:55 (<-- See?)

I mean, just look at that max pace.  That I hit for about 5 seconds.

The Workout

56 squats

65 seconds plank

18 modified push ups

My upper body strength is really lacking.  I'm glad I'm making myself do the push ups, but boy, I'm not good at them.

Till tomorrow, good reader(s).

5k a day -- Day 7

Tonight was a pseudo date night for Paul and me.  I've been studying for boards and work has been super crazy for him, so we decided my 5k would be a good excuse to go for a walk together tonight and catch up.  I'm so glad we did it -- I've been incredibly stressed (the life of a senior medical student applying for residencies could fill a whole other blog) and the walk really helped me recenter and unwind.

The 5k:

5k in 1:11:55

23:01 min/mile average pace

Splits:  22:45/22:45/22:38/29:08

The Workout:

52 squats

55 seconds plank

16 modified push ups

Note to self: don't wait until after dinner to do that many squats.  Oy vey.  

Dinner, just to brag, was delicious:  steaks with bleu cheese crumbles, broccoli, garlic bread . . . mmm

By the way, Paul says he can already see the difference the squats are making in my butt.  I have no idea if he's just saying that to be nice or what, but any excuse for my fiancé to look at my butt is fine with me. :)

5k a day -- Day 4

Last night's blissful and much needed sleep was broken by quite the storm.  Freakout out my cat, woke me up for an hour, and wreaked (wrought?) havoc on trees and power lines in the area.

Paul told me to skip my run this morning and he'd walk with me tonight, and after the crazy night, I was happy to agree.  Too bad one of his machines at work decided to malfunction and he (as of 9:30pm) was still at work.  So I took a walk this evening, alone.

I was the only one who wasn't walking their:
a)  freaking adorable baby
b)  freaking adorable dog
c)  newly acquired Pokémon via Pokémon go
d)  a combination of the above

In between bouts of cursing him in my head (I mean, come on, my uterus is pinging here watching all this and he left me to do it alone when I could have had a nice cool run in the dark this morning?!?) I was dodging cables, branches, twigs, and half-trees that were on the ground.

Okay, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't try to run in the wee hours and end up tripping over electrical obstacles.  As it was, I enjoyed the stroll and spent time alternating avoiding and inspecting the damage, and had a nice, relaxing walk.

Except for some family down the street that decided their pitbull doesn't need to be on a leash.

( . . . )

Anyhow.

The Walk:

5k in 1:06:56

21:33 min/mile average pace

Splits:  21:45/21:55/20:50/22:33 

And the Workout:

46 squats

40 seconds plank

13 modified push ups

Today also gave me a chance to compare the distance calculated by my fitbit to my GPS.  When my GPS hit 3.1, my fitbit was at 2.9something.  I guess I'll have to calibrate stride length.