Last week I had to make some major changes to my health plans, some for the better and some that are more disappointing for the short term. I’ve fallen into my common ADHD-brain trap of trying to change too many things at once, and then bigger priorities show up and all those plans go by the wayside.

My dietary plans, the need to change to vegetarianism, needs to be put on the back burner a while longer. I’m basically just having to eat whatever is available and not get choosy about going fully vegetarian now. I can’t afford to, and it’s not like I’m saving money by cutting out steak dinners (haven’t had one of those in years), but if some cheap dish has some meat in it, I’m just going to eat. When I get more grocery-budget flexibility, I’ll be able to follow it more precisely. But I’m already NATURALLY eating much less meat because of my broke-ness, so at least I’m on the right path.

My ideal when doing my walking, then jogging, then running training was to do all those virtual race miles on real terrain versus my elliptical. But that plan quickly became impractical for many reasons:

1. The weather’s going to turn soon, and that usually means a pretty slick and rainy fall through early winter. That’ll make it VERY hard to get the miles in if I have to spend days avoiding the outdoors.
2. My current job is awesome, yet I can’t get enough work hours. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll need a second job (part OR full time) to pay the bills, and that means a LOT of variety regarding scheduling.
3. I managed to get some money saved that will give me the chance (especially if I get that 2nd job soon) to keep my elliptical longer and be able to pay for the iFit program access that makes it so worth using… & since nobody is very keen on buying my exercise equipment, I figure I might as well use it as much as possible, adding it to my routine again.

To keep myself accountable, there are a few other stipulations I’m putting in place to make sure this Virtual Race Across Texas is fun, challenging, and would actually prepare me for a 10K, half-marathon, and marathon in the future:

1. Whenever I get a day off, if the weather’s cooperative, I’ll be using real terrain running by default. When I get a 2nd job and have a shift off of one of them, that will leave a nice block of time I can still use for terrain running. If it’s a morning that’s off, I’ll be on roads near my house. If afternoon, I’ll be at the nice park I started training at. This will help stave off boredom.
2. Because the elliptical trainer is much gentler on my joints (and good to use for recovery days/getting back into a running routine after injury), I am NOT counting any miles logged there as full miles. I decided I would count then as half the amount for my timeline and map (and I’m making a spreadsheet to keep it all accountable). This way, I can build up the stamina and long-distance training routine without hurting myself, but also encourage myself to do more real-terrain running to get those numbers up quicker.

For instance, today I did some elliptical walks/hike programs that totaled 4.15 miles. Cutting that in half for the sake of the Virtual Run would mean about 2.075 (I’d round it up to 2.08 to make it easier to make the map line and calculate at the end of the week). Considering how far off the training path I’ve gone the past few months, those two walks were pretty good workouts & not too easy, but had I taken half the time and done it on real terrain, it easily would’ve felt about the same.

Lots to learn, but I’m good with it. I had to wait until today to actually start because of the upheaval of the past week (grand re-opening of the entertainment complex & training to get through, along with my “needing another job” realization). But as I get stronger, adding more miles will become easier and be most welcome to do.

I’m just glad I figured out a better solution. Not what I initially wanted, but far more practical for my needs. My biggest worry is letting that training fall by the wayside because I let myself get lax thanks to weather issues or crazy schedules. Now I have more options, which will keep me accountable.

I just hope I get word on other jobs soon because I’m gonna need that peace of mind before long… and it will help more with my planning and scheduling. I spent a good chunk of time on my day off today trying to work in my yard and get rid of some debris. Made a small dent in it (which helped burn some calories), but lets face it… I wanna run.