Fitness, punching people in the face & stuff

No, look closer there is a muscle there

Is anybody out there? Anyone? Bueller? It's interesting my analytics seem down from a year ago, I have few comments and I haven't gained a follower in months. Still every now and then I'll hear from someone saying they read my blog and yet I had no idea. In any case it would be so very nice to get a shout out from you if you are reading and following, sometime it feels as if I am speaking to no one. Not that it really matters, I would probably keep this little blog/journal anyways.

I can't decide the direction of this post. I have a lot of people I would like to punch in the face today and in all honesty I am in a pretty foul mood, yet I don't know that I have the energy for a full on rant.

So here goes a half-hearted punch-in-the-face post and fitness update. Don't get too excited.

It's no secret that I am on a workout kick. It was actually unexpected. After several years of lame attempts at exercise, (mostly jogging a weak 2.5 miles on  weekends) I went in full throttle. During my ankle injury I took up strength training at the YMCA. I have settled into a class called "Body Sculpt" which focuses on light-weight, high-repetition lifting. It turns out I love it, particularly since I have actually noticed a real difference in my body. My arms have some definition for the first time in my life, and everything else is tighter and stronger. I have received unsolicited compliments from family and even strangers. Talk about an ego boost! The real bonus is that it is great for my tiny bones. Getting my little gym class in has become a major priority. 

In addition I am also in full on training for my half marathon, coming up May 5! Tomorrow I'm scheduled to run eleven miles. Eleven. That is a lot of freaking running, thank you very much. I went to the running store today and purchased a water bottle belt and some sort of energy chew to give me a little boost if needed. I'm  officially a runner!

So on to the punch in the face portion of this long boring post. Today I arranged my whole afternoon so I could attend a 5:00 body sculpt class at the Y. I was having one of those frustrating days where every single damn thing seemed to go wrong. I needed a good workout. I made arrangements with a friend to watch Evan while Zack was at soccer, and I was going to take Julian to childcare at the gym. He loves it there, well at least he always has in the past.

I dropped the little guy off 10 minutes before class, and he seemed as happy as can be. The woman working there seemed clueless and asked if this was my kid's first time. No, I informed her, in fact she had watched him just last week and raved about him, said he was an angel. She looked confused. She started asking if I had paid. I answered yes, just last week I purchased six hours. She insisted that she could not find my payment card. Annoyed, I informed her that I had handed it to her last week and let her know that I needed to get to my class. I looked over my shoulder and saw my happy toddler playing trucks with another little boy.

I got to the gym room, set up my bench and weights, and just as the instructor arrived the loud speaker boomed: "Rachel, please return to Child Watch." For the love of God. This never happens. Was this woman totally incompetent? I wasn't even gone five minutes. I huffed on back to the child care center to find Julian sitting on the floor crying. The woman explained that he had fought over a toy with the other little boy and then became inconsolable. Inconsolable? It had only been five minutes, she hadn't even tried, it was obvious. It was also obvious that now that I was back, Julian wasn't letting me go. I could already feel my muscles atrophy.

Man did I want to slap that child watch employee across the face. There were only two kids in the center, and she was kicking one out for crying. Didn't she see that she was pushing me to tears as well? I needed that workout. I needed that fifty minutes of sanity.

So here I am. Knowing that while I won't wake up with sore muscles tomorrow, I will be back again, I'm not returning to the old Rachel. I got me some tiny little arm muscles and I'm keeping them. And as for Sunday... I'm quiet sure after my 11 miles on Saturday, my legs will be plenty sore.

Have a great weekend!