s l o w. d o w n.

where oh where has jenna been? oh where oh where can she be?

well, for starters, i'm on the couch today. :( i have been on extreme overload. it started poking at me about a week before my half marathon. my body was starting to give me sinus headaches.. saying "slow down jenna, you need some rest!" and what did i do? i kept pushing. i kept going because i had a huge vacation coming up and a big half marathon that i needed to run. so i went to norcal, took naps, and tried to sleep off the headache and the afternoon after my half what happens? jenna got a knock-down, drag-out sinus infection that kept her in bed in her hotel room from 4:30pm sunday - 7am monday. thankfully i was able to "sleep it off" and continue to go go go on monday. i had a blast in san francisco. but i drove home tuesday and got home at 10pm just to wake up and get to work by 8am the next day. :/ when do i get to sleep??

i BARELY finished my week of work (two days). then i went out that friday night, then coached VBL saturday and miserably laid in bed all saturday evening because i was exhausted. after that, i continued my usual sunday routine, went to work monday and by tuesday i started to feel sick again. i started stressing about all the things going on in my life and then i started feeling a little bit like a breakdown was on the verge. once again, workout - skipped - came home, got to bed late. then wednesday rolled around and i just wanted to run! so i went to work, came straight home and ran the business park loop before i coached VBL. went home feeling great that night. woke up thursday, sick. went to work, came home, didn't go to the gym again but decided to wake up early friday to workout. after the friday morning workout i made the decision to go to the doctor.

doctor's verdict = bronchitis. antibiotics and some ear drops. went home, slept, went to vbl, came home, slept, went to the vbl 5k, then i had to MOVE. oh yeah, forgot to mention, jenna has to move in the middle of all this chaos in her life. so what did i do? i moved enough to live off of for the week. went to bed, went to work monday. what happened at work monday? total. mental. breakdown. sitting at my desk, texting my mom, crying my eyes out so i had to run to the bathroom. mom called me later, i started bawling. i couldn't hold tears in for more than two seconds whenever i talked to my mom. why though?

i'm overwhelmed.

i bit off more than i can chew and i didn't leave any time for rest, relaxation, reflection and room for things that just come up. with that, i get sick, and i cant get better. i've been trying not to think about everything going on and stress but there's so much to do. so after a couple days (monday and tuesday) of crying, stressing, feeling sick, and feeling sorry for myself, i made the decision to take charge of my life again.

today, i'm on the couch. i'm not at work, i'm not going to run errands even though i know i have a billion to run, i'm relaxing. i'm getting better. taking my meds, sleeping, watching tv, blogging, reading. tomorrow, i'm not going to work either, if i feel better enough i might run a few much needed errands but nothing too strenuous. to make myself feel better i'm going to type up a list of things that i need to accomplish:

• oil change/find out why my tire pressure light won't go off
• buy new running shoes
• homework/reading/studying for my NASM class
• start to seriously train for my half in 4 weeks (yikes)
• pay for the turkey trot
• buy my plane ticket home from SF
• pay for my VEGAS hotel room
• move the rest of my things
• help my mom organize her house for me to move the rest of my things

so yes, a lot is going on. it's crazy! even typing this list made my shoulders tense up. but guess what? i'm going to take out my day planner, and make things happen. sometimes life can get extremely overwhelming. but it's up to you to take charge and not let it get the best of you. when you feel like giving up, take the time to reflect and see what needs to change in your life to make it better. sometimes you will still be busy, but don't go go go until you shut down completely.

as for my sickness, i called the doctor today because the ear drops weren't working and he wrote me a new prescription. laying on the couch watching tv is making me feel a lot better, and lots of fluids, of course.

my goal for the rest of the week is to coach the VBL tonight (i absolutely love doing it, it relieves my mind of stress completely), rest tomorrow, i have training at work on friday, if i'm feeling better enough, i will start packing up the rest of my stuff to move friday night. then saturday morning, i'm going to coach the vbl and i'd love to get a run in. saunday, rest, relax and prepare for the week ahead. it'll be nice to plan out my life but my first and foremost goal right now is to not be sick! so back to the positive, uplifting jenna that has time to write fun blog posts (i hope). ;)

i'm leaving you with some pictures of someone that puts it all into perspective for me. and is now my new roommate!! :)