Fitness Breakthroughs

Good morning runners! I hope Wednesday is off to a good start!

Mine is going well, except for that my thutt (thigh/butt area) hurts a little. I am guessing it is my Piriformis. It's this dull kind of pain... not even pain, just uncomfortableness. I massaged the heck out of it last night and Stretched, and that seems to help. What's really the problem is that I sit for 8 hours a day at my job. Last week, when my job had me literally running around all week, it didn't hurt at all. This week, I'm back at my desk, and by the end of Monday, my Piriformis hurt again. I take walking breaks and stretching breaks, which both help, but I really wish I didn't have to be sitting down for such a long portion of my day. I don't know what else to do?

Thought you might enjoy some musica.....



But on the bright side, I had two fitness breakthroughs yesterday!

1. As I was brushing my hair to put it up into a bun, I noticed my biceps in the mirror! Not only that, but the Bingo arms were not flapping around! Woo hoo! Seriously, I've NEVER had strong arms. It's awesome to see my noodle arms improving!
2. I went for my "easy" run yesterday, and I ran 3.27 miles in around 24 minutes! (don't know exact running time, because I had to stop at red lights, take a sip of water, etc) That's my fastest time yet, and I wasn't even trying hard! I'm glad to see I am getting faster :)

My run yesterday was awesome, because I was in an awesome mood. I feel like my mood is directly correlated with the weather. I mean, it's hard to feel bad when it looks like this outside:

I took this photo during my lunch break, and I totally wanted to be there running with them!
This evening I set off for a 3 mile run, but ended up running 4 because it felt so good. I still need to learn how to slow it down and go for a truly "easy" run though.
The reason I have difficulty slowing down is because I get embarrassed. See, I have this paranoia that if I run slow, everyone passing me on the street, or in their cars, are going to be chuckling to themselves thinking "my oh my, what a terribly slow runner!" So I feel this necessity to run faster. I know it's stupid, and I know no one's out there judging my speed, but I can't get over it. Oh well, I will keep workin on it.

I don't know what I am going to do today in terms of workout. It's my "rest day", so maybe I will go for a walk and do some core work and stretching. And baking. I have bananas that need to be used up ASAP. I foresee some banana bread in my future...... But please don't let me eat the entire loaf. I really am trying to watch my nutrition and not get the majority of my calories from baked goods. I tried and tried, and am finally successful at weaning myself away from candy bars, but baked goods are my weakness! (gah I hate what you do to me, chocolate chip cookies!) haha.