I’m tired, but it’s all good...

I have some catching up to do! I haven’t written since before Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving morning I was up early to go to the gym for a run. As I tweeted that morning, “Is that something a normal person does on this holiday that’s become known for gluttony and sloth?” The day’s run was the once-a-week sprint workout that my trainer prescribed. It was the first time for the sprint workout, and as funny as it may sound, it has since become my preferred run! It’s way less boring than just running…I walk briskly (4 mph) for 1.5 minutes, then I crank up the speed to 8+ mph for 30 seconds and repeat and repeat and repeat for 30 minutes.

After my workout, I headed over to Mom and Dad’s for a midday Thanksgiving dinner. We did a very low-key Thanksgiving, as I had to leave my house at the crack of dawn on “black Friday” for a trip to National 4-H Congress and I still had laundry and packing to tend to! Mom prepared Thanksgiving dinner, and Aunt Mary and Uncle John joined Mom, Dad, and me for a nice afternoon. Then, I booked it back to my place to finish my pre-trip to-do list!

National 4-H Congress was pretty awesome. My friend and co-worker Randy and I were the two chaperones for the 10 Indiana 4-Hers who were selected to attend. We met up with our 4-Hers at the Indianapolis airport for the trek to Atlanta, Georgia. Once in Atlanta, we joined approximately 1000 4-H members representing 44 states and Puerto Rico. Even though our Indiana delegation was just 1% of the total attendance, I’m pretty sure they were the most awesome group of young people there!  (And I think they'd agree that they had the coolest two chaperones there!)

While at Congress, we enjoyed some powerful keynote speakers, neat special events, and the 4-Hers had the opportunity to attend some terrific workshops. One morning was devoted to community service and we were all pre-assigned to various sites. I was part of a group that filled two busses that went to a cemetery to rake leaves. The cemetery relies entirely on volunteers and donors to maintain the grounds. In a short time, or group made a big difference!

One highlight for the Indiana delegation was a special “meet and greet” with Katie Stam, Indiana 4-H alumna and 2009 Miss America! It’s been a 40+ year tradition that Miss America addresses the delegates at the National 4-H Congress, and we were just fortunate that this year’s Miss America was not only a 4-H alum, but also from Indiana.

But did I make time to work out while at Congress? It wasn’t long before my trip to Atlanta that I had met with a trainer to establish a strength/cardio regimen for the days I wasn’t running. Prior to the trip I made the decision that I would continue to run every other day in the hotel fitness center, but would put off getting the strength/cardio days on my calendar until I got back home. Being a fancy downtown Hyatt, it had a very nice fitness center, complete with refrigerated towels. That’s class! Anyhow, I’m proud of myself for sticking with the running while away from home, as it would’ve been really easy to blow it off!

Since I’ve been back I’ve been hitting the gym daily. I run at least three times a week. The first run of the week I just run without an incline with my normal interval plan I’ve been following (I’m up to 2 minutes walking to 8 minutes running). The second run of the week I do a program on the treadmill that incorporates some “hills”. The third run of the week is the sprint one that is the least boring of them all!

The days I’m not running, I do what I call my strength/cardio workout. I start with 10-15 minutes on a bike, then do my lifting, then 15 minutes or so on an elliptical machine, and I finish up with 10 minutes or so on a bike. The elliptical took some getting used to…it was really awkward and it hurt my knees and killed my quads. However, since I’ve been doing the strength training, my quads must be improving, because I’ve gradually adjusted to conquering the elliptical without pain!

With hitting the gym on a daily basis, combined with my job, the occasional evening meetings associated with my job, my gig as a high school basketball scoreboard operator for all JV and Varsity Boys and Girls games at my alma mater, I feel like I never have any time to relax anymore! This past Tuesday, the only window of time I would’ve had to work out would’ve been at 5:00 a.m., and I really just needed sleep, so I looked at my workout calendar and realized I had been at the gym for six consecutive days, so I awarded myself a day off! Though the “day off” didn’t really result in any actual rest…I worked all day, delivered an etiquette program to some students in Marshall County after school, and then took my seat behind the scoreboard controls for a pair of basketball games!

Long story short, I’m tired, but it’s all good.