Dollar a Day & Monterrey

I don't think that my friend Chrissy reads my blog (I don't think ANYONE reads my blog to be honest), but I do think that she read my mind. It must be a mark of true friendship since she is all the way in Chicago and we haven't gotten to talk nearly as regularly as we should.
Anyways - just two days after my last post she messaged me on Facebook proposing a challenge. She was my accountablity buddy in grad school and would jog with me around the Bear Trail. Well, I think I was only able to jog the 2.something miles once at a snail's pace. Instead, we would do 1 mile as fast as we could and walk the rest. Our goal was to do 1 mile in 9:30 minutes. FYI - The closest I ever got was 10 minutes. Since graduate school we have both recommitted ourselves to jogging and general health-related eating habits. We jogged our very first 5k together in October, 2010. I have since jogged what will most likely be my only 10k and she has competed in a variety of 5k events. Most recently she signed up for a Tough Mudder event that is pure insanity. This is what inspired her to issue me the challange: Every day we do not jog/work out we must put $1 in a jar. Sometime next year we will go on a long overdue trip. On this trip we will either be hotties on a budget or fatties with spending money. :)
Today is April 2nd. In the 15 days since the challenge was issued, I have deposited $10 in the jar. Not a great start I must admit. In my defense on the first day of the challenge, March 19th, I spent the evening losing my breakfast and trying to force myself to eat Saltines and broth.
Then I went on my ery first ever trip outside of the U.S.! Normally, vacation is one of the hardest times for people on a diet or exercise routine. However, my boyfriend is a very active man and helped to ensure that my sightseeing also burned calories. On our first full day there, we started the day by hiking in Chipinque National Park. For those who haven't been there, basically I climbed approxiametely 4 miles of stair cases up the side of the Seirra Madre Mountain Range. I honestly thought that I was going to collapse at one point. I can walk a meandering trail for several miles no problem. But steep stairs up a mountain while literally losing oxygen really kicked my butt. On the bright side - I DID IT! And, the view from the top of the trail was spectactular. There was a little lookout point that had a panaramic view of the city and a cafe with fresh squeezed orange juice. I caught my breathe and regained enough strength to jog up the stairs to the giant slide several times too. Its amazing how easy it is to revert back to childhood when presented the opportunity to slide. :) The way down was much easier on my legs, but I had to be slow and step carefully to prevent slipping and breaking my ankle.
Our second day's afternoon was spent walking up and down the city's newly finished Riverwalk Park. It was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water, brightly colored flowerbeds, a perfect view of the Saddle Mountain and sandia palettas (watermelon popscicles) that are by far the BEST popscicles in the world! It was also approximetly 5 miles of trapsing.
The next morning we hung around the house so that David could study for his test. Tired of being trapped inside on such a gorgeous day, I decided to go jogging in the park by his parent's house. He walked into the room with the same idea as I was lacing up my shoes. :) It was HOT and I was worn out from the previous two days of work, so I was only able to jog 7 laps around the 500 meter track and walk 2 more. I had hoped to jog 10 laps which would roughly translate to 3 miles, but just couldn't do it. Either way - This was by far the most physically active vacation I have ever been on. :)
Once home though I pretty much gave myself a week off. It wasn't really intentional, but I had to grocery shop, made a date to watch Hunger Games with my Mom, and other things that were important at the time, but my head hurts too bad right now to remember. (I have been fighting a headache for a majority of the day.) I had planned to make up for that over the weekend, but.... yeah....
Yesterday I decided that it was time to get back on the trail and off my couch. So, after spending the morning and early afternoon in Chapel Hill looking at the bluebonnets (one of my FAVORITE things to do), I took advantage of the beautiful weather to jog at Frankie Carter Park.

1 mile - 11:40 mins - jogged
2 mile - 24:41 mins - walked 1/4 jogged 3/4
3 mile - 38:05 mins - walked 1/4 jogged 3/4
4 mile - 53:03 mins - walked 1/4, jogged 1/2, walked 1/4

Today, I took to the parking lot of my apartment complex despite the nasty, humid overcast weather leftover from this morning's downpour. I was proud of myself for going when I didn't really want to, but am not super impressed with my performance. I jogged one lap (half a mile) and couldn't do more. I think I need to devote more time to stretching (my legs have been sore all day from yesterday). Anyways I still managed to do 3 laps, but wish I could have jogged more of it.

.5 mile - 5:20mins - jogged
1 mile - 12:39 mins - walked
1.5 miles - 18:08 mins - jogged 3/4, walked 1/4