The heat. We’ve hit on that, I’m know, but I thought dealing with the heat was really just a mind over matter kind of thing. An excuse to NOT work out for me. Turns out, not so much. The past few days have left me gasping with that tightness in my chest, and the tightness is sustaining beyond my run a bit and I feel the strain in my lungs hours later. Today we took the run from a different direction in hopes that those trigger points wouldn’t get all uppity and freaky on me. It worked. On top of being more downhill than uphill, I didn’t get to those spots where I usually freak out. I also tried this thing called ‘listening to my body’, you know, when I feel so tired or overheated or out of breath that I can’t breathe so I just walk fast for a minute before I continue? That kind of listening to my body. Who would have thought?!
I have been thinking a lot about my burn, my aerobic vs. anaerobic workouts. Like Bradley said, the anaerobic burns both fat and muscle but it mostly just trains me to endure. I decided to dial back my effort a little and run EVEN SLOWER if you can imagine. It was super irritating then, when this lady was power walking on the opposite side of the street keeping up with us. SO annoying. I don’t allow Bradley to walk alongside me when I run slow so it was super humiliating that this woman just kept up with us. For almost a mile. No joke. It was hard because I knew I could go faster but this is about my burn and my body, not her need to prove that she could walk at my run speed. However, we eventually split away from her and my pacing was solid, slow and hopefully did some good burn work.
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Ok. The next part may be a TMI moment, but here it is anyhow.
You know how I told you that I wear compression tanks under my clothes at all times to keep my belly from flying around like a cantaloupe in a hammock?
Yeah, so the other day I was hot and I wanted to run. I thought about it and decided to forgo the compression wear to not end up as hot. As I was running I started feeling a mild stinging happening under my belly fold at my waist – you know, the crease right at my natural waist where my belly folds over. Then it started to burn. Of course I ignored it… But this is what happened:
I only thought of taking a picture three days after the run, but the result was a red, chapped line that ran all along the entirety of my waist crease.
I simultaneously had two thoughts- woohoo! This means insurance will cover my skin removal surgery (my insurance will cover a tummy tuck as long as you’ve maintained the weight for 6 months, it gets irritated/rashy and you document it).
The other thought I had was that I’ve pretty much convinced myself that I don’t care that much about skin surgery anymore. I’ve seen pictures of women who have lost piles of weight who are wearing bikinis on the beach standing next to their glowing husbands, stretch marks and saggy skin evident but no biggie. My hubs could give a hoot about the surgery. He just wants a wife who is happy with her body and sense of self, so the decision is entirely mine. I’ve decided to wait until I actually have the weight gone before I make the decision and I can see what I’m working with. But if I have to wear compression gear to workout for the rest of my life because under my belly I get all red and rashy? I will likely say yes to surgery.
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The rest of my time this summer has looked like this so far:
Not bad…
