Hitting the Reset Button

This was the week that I got my life back on track, or at least tried to! It was all about trying to reset my equilibrium. I'm ready to find my new normal. My assessment? I think it was a good start.

I'll save the details for the Ultimate Coffee Date later this week, but I'll share that I went back to work on Monday. I never realized it before I was diagnosed with RA, but my job is a workout in itself, both physical and mental. I am on my feet all day but before now, I've never really paid much attention to how much time I spend on my feet. My Apple Watch does, and for the first time ever, I looked at the data. I found that on the 4 days I worked this week, I had 8731 steps. This is my work data only--I subtracted out my running steps, which more than doubles this total. My daily average for all activities this week was 7434. You step people, tell me, is that a lot of steps? I was pretty tired by the end of the week so it feels like a lot!

My sister and I tentatively planned a bike ride for Saturday, watching the weather all week. Saturday morning the sun was shining and the ride was a go. I skipped my run and we biked to the Chicago Botanical Gardens at a leisurely pace from her house. It was a gorgeous day. What's nice about biking there is that there is no entry fee. We had lunch and strolled the gardens. It was really crowded, though. I'd love to go back during the week when there weren't so many people, just to soak in all the beauty.

Here we are in the Japanese Gardens.

My ride was not without a few mishaps, though. On the way there, my tire went into a deep rut, and in an attempt not to fall to the pavement, I drove into a chain link fence. On the way home, a truck came up behind me while we were pedaling up a hill and as I attempted to move to the right, I fell off the road--the shoulder was non-existent--and into a ditch! It was a slow motion fall and I was not hurt. Lisa and I giggled about this all the way home. This is so not like me! It looks like I have to be more mindful on the road. Or maybe the towns need to do a little road maintenance. Or maybe it's me. The roads were in terrible shape. Oh, and I forgot to start my Garmin. I do know that we rode about 16 miles.

I don't know if it was fatigue from RA or from returning to work, but running was a little bit more of a challenge this week. My knees ached, which is something I've never experienced before. I had to throw in a few run/walk intervals in all my runs. The theme of cloudy, windy, cool, rainy weather didn't help either.

It finally warmed up for Sunday's run and I headed out wearing my new InknBurn Sarasa singlet. Really, there is nothing better than having running clothes that make you feel good. When I saw this top, I immediately purchased it. I'm glad I did because it sold out in one day. Have your ever heard of such a thing with running gear? It's gorgeous, and it was pretty much the only good thing about my run. I headed to the bike path, using my 4:1 run/walk ratio. This week, the tunnel was covered in graffiti. Usually, the park district paints over it as fast as the taggers can cover it with messages, but today was an exception. I stopped to take a selfie in front of the "fix me" message--it seemed appropriate, right? After I took the picture, I looked at it and busted out laughing. I guess I didn't look closely enough at where I was standing. There is nothing better than a good laugh to make a crummy run more tolerable. Oh yes, there was a potty stop on this one too. I always say that there's something good about every run, and I have to say that this picture was it.

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Yoga was just what I needed. I went to the studio twice. Except that when I got to class on Wednesday, almost every spot was taken. So guess who was in front, next to the instructor? It didn't help that said instructor had us doing lots of high lunges as part of the flows! No pressure. Just breathe. Damn you woman who took my spot in the back corner!

On Thursday, Steph and I literally got our booties kicked by Becky. We did squats using a 30# medicine ball, lifting them to the box and controlling them down. There were single arm KB swings, goblet squats, and lunges. Resistance band work too. My booty hurt so bad when I went to bed that night!

Overall, I'm happy that my week went as well as it did. We'll see if I can keep up with the pace at my job and continue to do my workouts. I'm grateful I had the time off work to hit the reset button. I'm figuring out how to make this disease fit into my life, not the other way around.

How was your week? How was your weather? Do you plan your workouts around the weather? Do you track your steps? Running makes the steps add up!

I'm linking up with Holly, Tricia, and their guest host for the Weekly Wrap! Be sure to support the guest host. It was a lot of fun reading some new blogs last week!