Sunday, April 26, 2009

Hell Week

I am preparing for hell week. In college, hell week referred to the week before finals. Typically you were to spend all week studying and preparing for tests. I was never much of a studier so my previous hell weeks involved a lot of sleeping in and hanging out at the coffee shop. This week will put me to the test. Beginning bright and early tomorrow morning (4 am) I will pack in 6 days of working 9 1/2 hour shifts, 2 physical therapy sessions, 14 workouts, and still hopefully 8 or 9 hours of sleep a night. Thankfully next week will be a rest week so I can recover from this nightmare. I spent the better part of today preping meals for the rest of the week. I roasted a whole chicken, grilled 4 chicken breasts (ok actually Dan did that but I defrosted them), cut raw veggies, chopped red leaf for salad, chopped cabbage for a side dish, chopped chard and beet greens for turnovers, blanched spinach for freezing, boiled beets for salad, and whipped up a dinner of bruschetta, steamed green beans, potato and leek cakes which we ate with some roasted chicken. I shouldn't have to do more than throw things in a saute pan for the rest of the week.

On another note, I had a decent workout today. Yesterday morning I swam 3500 before work, was on my feet at work for 4 hours, then came home and cleaned my house for 3 1/2 hours (again, in preparation for hell week). I think being on my feet and active all day helped to loosen up my hips and I actually felt OK for the first time in 2 weeks. This morning I did a 2 1/2 hour bike ride through Usery and then I tempted the fates with a transition run. I put my shoes on and ran out the back gate of the neighborhood thinking that at any point I could turn around if I felt bad. At 5 minutes into the run I was at the end of the dirt path and decided I felt decent so I finished the 3 mile loop around the neighborhood. I even passed another runner! I didn't wear my garmin but I felt like I was keeping a pretty decent pace- maybe 9 min/ mile or slightly faster. I was so glad to be running I almost cried. Tomorrow I'll be up for a swim before heading to rehab at 7 am. It's going to be a long week... time to buy stock in Starbucks.

2 comments:

Jackie said...

my mouth is watering with your cooking...can I please come to live with you ??????

Good luck for the week ahead......

Aldi26 said...

That sounds like an absolutely crazy week! Good luck making it through! :)