1 Year 2 Month Update: Consistency at Last!

In this Update:

• Sticking to my Workouts
• Birthday Surprise
• Biking at Charles Bronson (second try)

Sticking to my Workouts

I have mentioned this numerous times during the past year, and the struggle of sticking to a workout routine while working full-time in an ER, coupled with the demands of graduate school, are still an ongoing issue. However, I am finally able to say that I have worked out 2-to-3 times per week over the past seven weeks! Thanks to my personal coach Angela, I was able to follow a progressive workout routine that enables me to get strong and fit in a safe and consistent way. I am slowly increasing weights, moving from the baby-kettle bell (18 lbs) to the heavier version of 26 lbs for my goblet squats, or from the 35 lbs barbell hip-thrusters to 65 lbs. I can even do hand-stands again, lol!

At this point I want to mention that I have had some lower back aching (!) going on that was quite persistent. I blame this on sitting in my chair for hours on end, hunched over my laptop, writing my masters’ thesis on healthcare simulation, whenever I wasn’t working. This is still going to be the case until the end of July, when I will finish my LAST class of graduate school. With that being said, I also think that my training with Angela is the reason that this backache has not taken over, and I am fully convinced that this will go away, especially after those marathons at the computer will have come to an end. That shows you, though, how important it is to KEEP MOVING!

I assembled a view pictures of my workouts to document what I have been doing. In the near future, Angela will add running to the mix, which I am really excited about!

Birthday Surprise

Even though I have been super-extremely stressed, I made sure to be off work on my birthday weekend at the end of May to spend some quality time with Ralf. To my surprise, he booked us a trip to Vero Beach in a 5-Star resort hotel, with a room facing the ocean so we can see the sun rise in the morning! We even had our own cabana at the beach – with beach service! I guess I can say that I turned 44 in style… You did great, sweetie!

And we scored two very nice dinners, one paid for by his mom, and the other paid for by my mom as a birthday gift.

Biking at Charles Bronson (second try)

I can clearly remember when we attempted to bike at this place last year. Epic fail! The trails were so muddy that it was like riding through syrup, and since I still had my old bike with the regular tires, I didn’t even make it past the 2-mile mark.

So, now we returned to do a re-trial: I now have my new mountain bike with plus tires, and due to lack of rain, the trails were mostly dry. HOWEVER, that apparently didn’t mean that riding those trails was any easier! The first part that was so muddy the last time was now all torn up and deeply rutted all over the place, which made it hard at times to see where I should be going.

One cool encounter was with a tortoise we crossed path with at the beginning of our ride. It was sitting right in the middle of the path, so we stopped to not startle it. Normally, tortoises will go the other way or retreat into their shell, but not this one! In fact, as I was deciding if I should just dismount and push my bike slowly past the (pretty big) guy, it started running towards me! And I mean, running! I have never seen a tortoise move so fast, and as it got closer I could actually hear him breathing. All I was thinking was “is he coming for me? I guess he is…”. And sure enough, the tortoise came all the way over and then stopped next to my foot. Maybe he was trying to say “happy birthday”? Well, this will remain a mystery…

Then we entered a segment of trails on a more hard-packed, level surface where we first encountered a free roaming bull (which made me worry about how he liked my bright-orange bike) and then a big flock of wild turkey that crossed the path by cutting us off. I found a gorgeous feather that may have belonged to an eagle. After miles of all this, we decided to explore one more segment of the forest, which ended up being loose sand. Considering that it was close to 100 degrees, this turned out to be major work, and we had to turn around and abort mission at that point. But overall, this time was a lot more fun than being “stuck in the mud”!