Accountability Days 25 - 27: Storms and Anxiety

Day 25.

My colleague that came in to relieve me at 7am said, "It's a good sleep day today."
It was pouring rain when I left the hospital. It was still raining when I woke up at 1 pm. There were 8 miles on the training schedule today.

There was a brief break in the weather mid-afternoon but I had some errands to run. I went to print out a gift card from my email and discovered my email had been hacked. Luckily I was able to do a password recovery and got back in... only to find that the hacker had taken the gift card. I had a sick feeling like I'd been violated but felt lucky I had gotten back into my email and everything else seemed OK. I deleted a couple emails, spent some more time online, then left for the store. I was leaving the grocery store parking lot when it started sprinkling rain again. No biggie I thought. I was still tired. My plan was to eat an early dinner and lay down until 7 pm. I'd go for an evening run after that since the sun has not been setting until 9 pm.

At 6:45 pm I woke up to tornado sirens that just WOULD. NOT. STOP.
OK, I suppose this might be serious. I turned on the TV as the skies opened up again.
There was thunder and lightening and a tornado touched down about 40 miles south of my house.
No run today!

Day 26.
Today was supposed to be a rest day on my training schedule but since I didn't run yesterday I decided to do the run today. I woke to sunshine but didn't have time to get a run in before heading out with my family for some planned Father's Day activities. We got back home late in the afternoon and I planned to do the 8 miles then... except, I decided to check my email first.

I was locked out AGAIN! This time though, I was unable to do a password recovery and the HELP page kept redirecting me to the CONTACT US page. My heart was beating out of my chest by now. Whoever was doing this had gotten back into my email after I'd changed the password and now I was locked out. My mind started racing about all the potential sensitive information that was saved in my email. I only have one active email address. EVERYTHING was in there!

Meanwhile... storm clouds started amassing outside. I could hear rumbles. I needed to run NOW of I was going to get a run in. Out the door I went, ready to have a full on anxiety attack. The wind started picking up and there were more rumbles and darkness. 8 miles was NOT happening today. I ran 3 and ducked back in the house before the rain started.

I spent the rest of the evening changing my email address on every account I could think of. Customer service for my email service was not responding. I was totally frustrated, freaked out, and anxious.

Day 27.
Needless to say, I slept like crap. I got up at 7:15 am to drive G to a dance class downtown. I still felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. I work overnight again tonight. I should be sleeping. I tried to sleep. I couldn't. I felt like crap. I got dressed and went to the fitness center to try and get the 8 mile run in. I ran 3 and I was done. I couldn't concentrate. All I could think about was all the other online accounts I needed to secure. The thing about getting locked out of your email is this... most online accounts will have you log on with your email and password. If you can't remember your password you click a link to have the website send you a password reset link TO YOUR EMAIL. If someone is in your email this means they can get into a large number of ALL your other accounts by resetting your password. While trying to secure my other accounts I discovered that this hacker had already accessed three of my online rewards accounts this way and cashed in all my points for electronic gift cards that were then emailed to my email while they were in the account. See why I'm freaked out? First thing I did was secure all my financials and travel accounts but I think I still have dozens and dozens of other accounts out there...

Accountability Days 23 and 24: Recovery

Day 23. I woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a Mack truck. Not sure if it was the four consecutive days of running or the fact that I had stayed out until 1 am. Hubs and I went to a concert. We had seats. But... no one sat down in said seats... so we remained standing for about 3.5 hours. I had on flip flops and it was a concrete floor. Afterwards we all streamed out of the venue like lemmings and hubs and I ended up going out the wrong exit so it took us FOREVER to get back to our car.

Anyhoos... today was Orange Theory day. I did have the foresight to not schedule my class until noon. I still felt like hell at noon but went anyway because I had paid for the class. I didn't die and I did feel better after class.

Yay. Workout done for the day. I spent the rest of the day laying around the house until it was time to go to work.

Day 24. I worked the night shift so I got home at 7:30 am.
I made it through the night shift without eating. Yay me!
Today is a rest day. I did some yard work and now I'm getting ready to go back to work for another night shift.

Accountability Day 22

Easy 4 mile run this morning. I was a little stiff from yesterday's run but overall felt pretty good.
Ran 10:53, 10:44, 10:59 and 10:43 so pretty consistent pace. That is all.

Accountability Days 19-21: Training Peaks

Day 19. This was the first day of my new "training schedule" my coach put together for me. It started out easy enough. 3 shake out miles.

So... I spent most of the morning ripping my house apart trying to find the heart rate strap for my Garmin. One of the things I most dislike about training is having to wear a watch and actually timing and logging all your runs. I can't stand wearing things that strap or hang off me. Seriously. I'm a no jewelry kind of girl. Only thing worse is a heart rate strap that cinches around your chest when you run... and I always end up cinching the damn thing tight because, otherwise, I feel like it's slowing sliding down my torso and worry it will end up around my waist...

Anyway, I couldn't find the stupid thing. I finally decided I'd tell Coach that I couldn't find it and look into getting another one after this run was done. Then, as I was changing into my running clothes, I spotted a bin in my closet that I keep my running gloves and hats in, and I found it there.

Once I got finished running I had to download my Garmin info into the Garmin Connect website either via my laptop or phone. It's well established by now that I'm technologically challenged. I downloaded the Garmin app onto my iPhone. That's as far as THAT went. I couldn't figure out how to get my watch to talk to my phone.

NEXT, I tried to install Garmin Express onto my laptop. Well, since it's well known that I'm technologically challenged... hubs is the "administrator" for my laptop. I needed an administrator PIN to allow installation... and he wasn't home. Ugh!!!

Hubs finally came home and got Garmin Express installed. I got my run downloaded, then it was off to try and figure out how to upload my Garmin info to the Training Peaks website so my coach could see it. The internet was able to walk me through that one. YAY!

Once all the information was in Training Peaks I was actually a bit fascinated by all the information my watch had captured. Don't laugh. I know. Technology.

I didn't look at my watch until I was finished running because I wanted to get a good baseline on what an easy run felt like. I ran my miles in 10:52, 11:08, and 11:12. I was happy with that.

Day 19 summary - a little over 33 minutes to do my run and all freakin' day to get it documented!

Day 20. Training plan today said "day off or flex day", as I had had the option of running either yesterday or today. We actually got back from Pennsylvania a day early on account of my husband rushing back to get the dog. Anyway, I felt fine from yesterday's run so I decided to do another easy run.

Today felt just like yesterday but apparently my body was happier as my heart rate was significantly slower. Splits were about the same: 10:58, 10:47, 10:57.

Day 21. Plan today was a one mile warm up, 3 miles at a "moderate" pace, then a one mile cool down. So... based on the previous two days, I figured 11:00 warm up mile, 3 miles at 10:00 pace, then a one mile cool down at 11:00. Sounds perfectly reasonable right?

Hah! This is the Expectation vs. Reality Graph...

That big red bar is my heart rate                                                                                   

I looked at my watch when it beeped after a mile and knew I was f-*#'d.

10:16. Crap. It really did feel like my easy miles from my previous two days but now I had to show some type of increase in speed and I had just run my warm up pretty close to where I had intended to run my workout.

I sped up to what felt like a moderate pace, peeked at my watch after about a quarter mile, then cursed again. Watch was showing 8:50 pace. I knew for a FACT that that was NOT a sustainable pace at this point in my "training." I tried tried TRIED to slow down to 9:30 pace. Mile 2, 9:12.

Mile 3 was spent trying to maintain anything that seemed like a consistent pace. Effort was going up and times were climbing. 9:38.

Mile 4. This mile has what I feel like is the biggest "hill" of all my rollers (there are no flat roads by my house). I felt like death running up that hill then ran HARD until I hit the 4 mile mark. That big green dip on the chart is where I had to walk up the next little roller after I hit the 4 mile mark. Mile 4, 9:33.

Mile 5 was just struggling to get back home. 12:32. I felt like crap and NOTHING went as expected. Apparently I have lost my sense of pace.

I'm curious to see how I will feel tomorrow...

Accountability Days 14 - 18: Road Trip

Day 14 was an Orange Theory day. I took a 9:15 am class because I had to leave town that afternoon. Class was OK. Got home, dropped the dog off at the dog hotel, then it was off to the Columbus, OH airport to pick up my husband. After picking him up we spent the night in western Pennsylvania. If you want, you can read up on that nice hotel experience HERE.

Day 15. I was motivated. I got up at 7 am feeling quite well. I hit the hotel fitness center and ran 3 miles on the dreadmill. After that hubs and I went to check out a local wild animal park before hitting the Pennsylvania Turnpike again to Philadelphia.

We got into our next hotel at the Philadelphia Airport around 4:30 pm. It gave us just enough time to change clothes and freshen up before driving into downtown Philadelphia to watch my younger daughter dance in her year-end show.

Day 16. Hubs and I got up early and left the hotel to pick up our daughter and drive to a restaurant in downtown Philly by 9 am to have breakfast with my daughter's friend and her friend's parents. After that it was back to my daughter's apartment where we spent the next couple hours moving her out. So no running today but I did get plenty of exercise moving boxes and bags out of her second floor apartment.

My daughter spent the next few hours at graduation watching some of her friends graduate. Hubs and I went back to the hotel and to clean up and lay down! I also had time to check my email and saw that Coach Ebersole had sent me my training plan for the next 3 weeks. Day 1 was this coming Sunday June 9th and it was only 2 miles. This made me feel a bit more relaxed about my lack of running.

Graduation was done around 6 pm. We drove back downtown to pick my daughter up, then hit the road again. We spent the night about 2 hours outside of Philadelphia in Carlisle, PA.

Day 17. Hubs roused all of us out of bed at 7:30 am, which I thought was a TOTALLY unreasonable hour. I was exhausted by then. He wanted to hit the road early in hopes of making it back home in time to pick up our dog from the dog hotel.

We hit construction... of course! We finally flew into town at 7 pm and got the dog. Whew! I thought hubs was going to have a nervous breakdown. Again, another day without a run.

Day 18. Today. I slept in. My daughter and I got groceries and we are going to a show tonight.

I'll run tomorrow!

IHG Platinum Perks

"As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

                                         - Scarlett O'Hara, Gone with the Wind

 

Two years ago I recall standing in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Manhattan with a similar thought, albeit I was substituting "DO THIS" in place of "be hungry"...

 

I felt just like Scarlett though.

 

Our family of four had just arrived in New York City after a long morning of moving my younger daughter out of her summer intensive housing in Philadelphia where she had been for the past 5 weeks then driving in traffic to New York City. We were looking forward to checking into our hotel and relaxing for a couple hours before going to see Cats on Broadway. I had yet to dive full on into the travel hacking world but had scored a seemingly great deal on Expedia using my Expedia points by booking a room for 4 in downtown Manhattan, within walking distance of Times Square, for a weekend in August for about $50 a night.

 

We got to the hotel about an hour early. My husband dropped us off at the door and went to park the car at a lot we had pre-selected down the street which had less expensive prices than the exorbitant hotel parking fees. I went to check in... then the nightmare began.

 

The front desk staff clicked and clicked on her keyboard, then went to get a supervisor. The supervisor clicked and clicked. They looked at the monitor for an eternity. Finally the hotel manager came over and told me they did not have a room for us.

 

WHAT!!!! I mean WTF!!!!

I had booked and prepaid for the room 3 months ahead of time. I had a confirmation number. We had even shown up early. What did they mean they didn't have a room?

 

The manager explained that sometimes, especially with third party sites like Expedia, the rooms get over sold and they have no control over that. It didn't seem to matter that we were actually there early and other people hadn't even checked into their rooms yet. The best they could do is provide a room with a double bed for the FOUR of us for the night, then move us to the room I booked the next day. Had I booked through Hilton they might have been able to see if there was room at a nearby property, however, since my booking was through Expedia we were on our own. It didn't matter that I was a Hilton Honors member. It didn't count if I booked through a third party website. We were free to find another hotel if we wanted... but seriously... it was a Saturday night in August in downtown Manhattan! What the hell was I supposed to do? I already knew calling Expedia would be worthless. I had used points and had already paid for the room. I had no recourse. It looked like we could either sleep on the streets or take this room. They said they would provide extra blankets and pillows and gave us free bottles of water and said we could have anything from the bar while our new room was getting cleaned. They also offered free parking but our car was already parked. This was hardly just compensation. Had we not had Broadway show tickets that night I think we would have just left.

 

We waited 3 hours for our new room. When we finally got in, it was the smallest hotel room I have ever seen. It was basically all bed. My eighteen year old daughter looked at us and said, "I'm not sleeping in that bed with you." My husband, my fourteen year old daughter, and myself ended up trying to sleep in a double bed that night. Needless to say, no one got any sleep. Oh, and the extra blankets... housekeeping came up and gave us two SHEETS! Told us they were out of blankets...

 

I am NEVER going

to be treated like THAT again!

 

 

I have learned through travel hacking that status matters. You can get many nice things with status. Plus, you can hack your way to status. There are many different families of hotels. I discovered though that if you have status at one, you can almost always get equal status at another.

This is my current status strategy...

I got the Chase IHG Premier Rewards Club Mastercard. The card has an annual fee of $89 a year but it gives you automatic Platinum Elite status. Other notables included a bonus of 80,000 IHG points for spending $2000 in the first 3 months with another 40,000 points if I spent $5000 total in the first three months, plus a $100 credit for either TSA pre-check or Global Entry. I got this card because we are going on a trip later this year. I used the TSA pre-check credit to get pre-check for my daughter (as I already had it through another credit card). I have also booked four free hotel nights for our trip so far with the sign up bonus points so this card has more than paid for itself. I still have enough points for at least two more hotel nights but those points will never expire as long as I have this card.

Some of the benefits of having Platinum Elite status...
* Complimentary Room Upgrades
* Guaranteed Room Availability
* Extended (Late) Check Out
* Priority Check In
* Complimentary Internet
* Welcome Amenity
* 50% Bonus Earning on Top of Base Points
* No Blackout Dates for Reward Nights
* Free Anniversary Night (with annual card renewal)

If you were to actually "earn" Platinum status by staying at IHG properties you would have to either stay 40 nights in a year or earn 40,000 Elite qualifying points by spending money. Again, the card has more than paid for itself.

Now back to Hilton...

I have been a Hilton Honors member for a very long time but have never held any meaningful status. This year I also got the no fee AMEX Hilton Honors credit card as it offered a sign up bonus of 100,000 points for spending $2000 in 3 months. I got the bonus and booked two more rooms for my upcoming vacation. The credit card gives me automatic Silver status which is better than nothing but really doesn't get you anything great.

On the other hand here are the benefits of Hilton Diamond status...

You can "earn" Diamond status with either 30 stays, 60 nights, or 120,000 base points in a calendar year.

I wanted Diamond status because I booked some higher end Hiltons for free and these did not include breakfast and heck, I want to see what the free food and drinks look like in the Executive Lounge!

Isn't it ironic too that the nicer the hotel the less you get included in the price? I mean, the Super 8 gives you free parking, internet, breakfast, internet and the fitness center. If you stay at a higher end hotel you have to pay extra for all of these!

So here's the beauty of having status at one hotel. Other hotels will status match you. Hilton will status match my IGH Platinum Elite status with their Diamond status. All I have to do is fill out THIS FORM. It requires proof of my competing hotel status, plus, I have to show that I actually paid for a stay at that hotel sometime within the last 12 months.

This brings me to my latest hotel stay. I haven't paid for a stay at an IHG property in the last 12 months. We drove to Philadelphia this week to move my younger daughter back home for the summer and we needed an inexpensive hotel off the Pennsylvania Turnpike for one night. I could have used more IHG points for another free night but decided to stay at a Holiday Inn Express for $94 so I could submit for the Hilton status match. The Hilton Diamond status I was going for is only good for 90 days unless you meet some more Hilton qualifying stays. I have no intention of trying to keep the Diamond status; I just want it long enough that it will be active while we are traveling later this summer.

So, booked the Holiday Inn Express in Donegal, PA with no expectations except for a cheap place to stay for the night and free breakfast in the morning.

Hubs and I straggled in in the evening. And I mean straggled! I had on a concert T-shirt and was totally rumpley. I had to send hubs back out to get the license plate number off his parents' mini-van that we had borrowed and then even managed to spell the make of the car "Odyssey" wrong. Front desk checked me in and handed me a key. I never asked for an upgrade because, heck, we were at the Holiday Inn Express.

I got a bit excited when I got to the door and saw this...

I was not aware there were suites at a Holiday Inn Express!

 

We opened the door to this...

 

Living area

 

Jacuzzi tub in corner of living area

 

Cute kitchenette with a Keurig, refrigerator and microwave

 

This was the bedroom...

King size bed

 

Connected was a huge bathroom. I think the bathroom was huge because this was also a handicap accessible suite. Best of all, this is what made my day...

 

Sometimes it's the little things!

 

Sitting on the desk was a cute little box with a bow. Inside was some fun sized candy. It wasn't expensive food but it sure made our day after a long day in the car.

 

Oh, and the photo at the beginning of this post, that's from the lobby.

 

I could totally get used to this!

 

 

 

Accountability Day 12 and 13: Down and Up

Day 12 was another day down the exercise drain.

I tried to go to bed "early" around 10:30 pm the night before but for some reason I could not get to sleep. I tossed and turned and remember looking at the clock and it saying 2:30 am. Well... when my alarm went off at 4 am I was dead tired and could NOT get up. I finally peeled myself out of bed at 4:30 am so I could throw on some clothes and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch before running out the door at 5am. Breakfast was McDonald's drive thru. I did manage to eat my sandwich during my shift at work. I got off work on time at 3 pm and also managed to make it all the way home without hitting another drive thru.

All I really wanted to do was SLEEP! However I had to pick my husband up at the airport at 5:30 pm so I made myself a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner and got back in the car again to go pick him up. After we got home we both just laid on the couch and caught up on our week. He had flown in from Seattle so he was tired too. Before we knew it it was pitch black outside so I called it a night.

Day 13, today, was better.

I slept for 11 hours and finally felt like a real person. The morning was spent mowing grass. Most of the rest of the day was spent planning out a color way for a new crochet project I'm working on. I wanted to get a yarn order in today so I had to figure out what colors I needed. This took HOURS... and I had to take my husband to the airport again. I finally got everything done around 8 pm. I considered blowing off running again as crocheting seemed like more fun... but, I changed clothes and went for a run.

Once I got running it felt great. It was one of those nights I felt like I could run forever. I stopped after 5 miles though as it was getting dark. I stayed out as long as I dared. I've had enough runs where I've had to dive into farm fields for on coming traffic in the dark (as my roads have no lights and no shoulder and I don't wear lights either) and I was not in any mood to play chicken tonight.

Onward.

Accountability Day 11: Still a Struggle

Not a good fitness day today. My "bad day" started last night.

I didn't eat dinner at home because I went to my niece's high school graduation Open House at 7 pm. There was snack food there - make your own nacho type stuff and sweets - so I ate some. Driving home though I felt like I really hadn't had any dinner so I drove through McDonald's for a Daily Double and fries. It was after 9:30 pm and I didn't feel like cooking. So... I wasn't really as hungry as I thought I was. Halfway through the burger I realized I was full... but then I ate most of it anyway... then I felt sick. Blah!! Why do I do that?!

I was full to the point of being uncomfortable and had problems falling asleep. Finally got to sleep around midnight.

Alarm was set for 4 am. I surprisingly woke up before my alarm and didn't feel too bad. I still felt full so I skipped breakfast and opted for a wake-me-up Diet Coke instead.

I should have prepped some food yesterday for my lunch today but I didn't so I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I worked from 6 am to 3 pm. Not horrible but steadily busy. I never touched my lunch.

Sooo... we all know how this ends. I ate my sandwich as I started driving home. Then I got sleepy. Then I decided I was still hungry. Then I picked up another burger driving through Martinsville.

I fell asleep as soon as I got home. I briefly thought about running after I woke up 2 hours later but decided I didn't feel like it. I fixed a big container of Southwest style pico de gallo - corn, black beans, tomatoes, red onion, cilantro with some lime, red wine vinegar and spices - but then decided I wasn't in the mood for it... then heated up a can of Chunky clam chowder instead. Again, got full after one bowel but finished the rest of the can anyway. Crap.

So that was my day. Bad food and no running.