Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Seven miles down!
The marathon training is moving along great. Jen and I skipped the three mile run last weekend and opted to walk instead. So instead of doing just a 30 minute run last Tuesday night, I ran three miles because I felt guilty for skipping (even though Jen and I were both still full from dinner the night before). I also ran at my fastest pace ever...11:18 was my average! Thursday I ran at the gym and mixed in some sprints. Sunday morning--at the ass crack of dawn--Jen and I headed out for our seven miles. We did the same route we ran for six miles but added in a one mile loop around a nearby lake. Miles 2.5 to 4 were the hardest for me. We had our water and Gu stop at mile 4, so that kept me going from mile 3 until we got there. What a difference the water and Gu made, I felt like a new woman. We had another water stop at mile 5 and we ended up carrying those bottles with us for the rest of the time. Even though it was early it was still getting hot. As usual the last 0.10 miles was the worst. I swear I check my total distance every 30 seconds at that point because I'm so ready to be done. In reviewing my times per mile my fastest was mile 4 at a pace of 11:10! Pretty good, I think. I also walked less this run than any other run I've done. All in all I felt pretty awesome after we were done. I was really excited the night before the run and then got nervous the morning of the run, but once we were going I felt fine. I'm pretty amazed that I can run seven miles. Go, me!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Lose 25 pounds - CHECK!
As of this morning I have lost 25 pounds since September.
I'm beyond pleased. Initially I did the South Beach Diet on the recommendation of my doctor. Lately I've just been exercising a lot and keeping track of my calories. I use an app on my phone called Lose It. You can do the same thing on LoseIt.com.
Now I can't decide how much more to lose. Honestly I was going to be happy three pounds ago, but I figured I'd go for five more. Now that I'm two away from that goal I think of tacking on another five. That would put me at 155. I think I weighed around 150 in college, so 155 would be pretty awesome. Honestly for awhile I never thought I'd even get down to 175 or even break under 180, so to even be considering 155--and for it to be attainable--is pretty huge.
I'm beyond pleased. Initially I did the South Beach Diet on the recommendation of my doctor. Lately I've just been exercising a lot and keeping track of my calories. I use an app on my phone called Lose It. You can do the same thing on LoseIt.com.
Now I can't decide how much more to lose. Honestly I was going to be happy three pounds ago, but I figured I'd go for five more. Now that I'm two away from that goal I think of tacking on another five. That would put me at 155. I think I weighed around 150 in college, so 155 would be pretty awesome. Honestly for awhile I never thought I'd even get down to 175 or even break under 180, so to even be considering 155--and for it to be attainable--is pretty huge.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Longest run EVER
Well, not ever since in two weeks I'll do a longer run then another longer run two weeks after that and so on and so on, but today on our Disneyland Half Marathon training calendar was a six mile run. I did a five mile run two weeks ago and it wasn't too bad. I did it alone since Jen was busy doing the Warrior Dash with Michelle and Dani that day. The last 0.3 miles was insanely hard, but I pushed through. Did I blog about that run? I don't think I ever did.
Anyway, I was actually looking forward to today's run which I never thought I'd say. Jen got here at 6:30. I had mapped out our route using a pretty cool website, MapMyRun.com. We hopped in Jen's car to stash some water along the route so we didn't have to take it with us, then once we were back at my house we were off. The first 2.5 miles were along a route I'd done before and wasn't too bad. I had some breathing issues around 1.5 miles but after walking about 15 seconds I was fine and kept going. I walked one more short time before getting to our first water stop that was right around mile 3. Man did that water taste awesome. And it felt great to pour some all over me, although it was kind of gross how quickly it dried while running at 7:30 AM. Summer is arriving in AZ, that's for sure. I had taken along a packet of Gu but didn't think to have it at our water stop, so I had it around mile 3.5 or so. Ugh. It was my first time ever using it and the texture of it was NASTY. I was kicking myself for not having taken it at our water stop so I could have at least gotten the slimy texture out of my mouth. The last 2 miles (our second water stop was at mile 4) weren't too bad, surprisingly. I kept thinking how awesome it would be to jump in my pool when I got home and debated if I should do it with running clothes on or strip to my sports bra and panties. Seriously, that was what kept me going. You know what's amazing? How long the very last 0.10 mile of your run can take. I kept checking the GPS running app on my phone once we hit 5.90 miles to see if we were almost there.
Our total time was 1:10:53 with an average pace of 11:49. I think it was actually a bit faster than that because I forgot to hit pause right away when we stopped for our second water break. I was pleased with it...I figured anything under 12:00 was pretty decent for my first time running that far.
So the training continues. I'm pretty pleased with myself that I ran six miles today. SIX MILES!!! That's freakin' awesome!! [insert pat on back here] Our next long run will be more than half the distance of the half marathon!
Anyway, I was actually looking forward to today's run which I never thought I'd say. Jen got here at 6:30. I had mapped out our route using a pretty cool website, MapMyRun.com. We hopped in Jen's car to stash some water along the route so we didn't have to take it with us, then once we were back at my house we were off. The first 2.5 miles were along a route I'd done before and wasn't too bad. I had some breathing issues around 1.5 miles but after walking about 15 seconds I was fine and kept going. I walked one more short time before getting to our first water stop that was right around mile 3. Man did that water taste awesome. And it felt great to pour some all over me, although it was kind of gross how quickly it dried while running at 7:30 AM. Summer is arriving in AZ, that's for sure. I had taken along a packet of Gu but didn't think to have it at our water stop, so I had it around mile 3.5 or so. Ugh. It was my first time ever using it and the texture of it was NASTY. I was kicking myself for not having taken it at our water stop so I could have at least gotten the slimy texture out of my mouth. The last 2 miles (our second water stop was at mile 4) weren't too bad, surprisingly. I kept thinking how awesome it would be to jump in my pool when I got home and debated if I should do it with running clothes on or strip to my sports bra and panties. Seriously, that was what kept me going. You know what's amazing? How long the very last 0.10 mile of your run can take. I kept checking the GPS running app on my phone once we hit 5.90 miles to see if we were almost there.
Our total time was 1:10:53 with an average pace of 11:49. I think it was actually a bit faster than that because I forgot to hit pause right away when we stopped for our second water break. I was pleased with it...I figured anything under 12:00 was pretty decent for my first time running that far.
So the training continues. I'm pretty pleased with myself that I ran six miles today. SIX MILES!!! That's freakin' awesome!! [insert pat on back here] Our next long run will be more than half the distance of the half marathon!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Run a 5K - CHECK!
Well, I've done it. Thanks to the awesome Couch to 5K program, I have gone from not being a runner--nay, abhorring running--to having finished a 5K. This past Saturday morning I got up bright and early (the day itself was bright...me, not so much) with my friend Jess who was here visiting from Seattle. We went and picked up Jen and then headed to Kiwanis Park in Tempe for the Girls on the Run 5K. My friend Benah met us there. She's such a rockstar...she got up early on her birthday to run this!!
I wasn't really familiar with Girls on the Run prior to the race. A friend of mine is a teacher at a local school and helps run a chapter there, and we saw her at the race with her team. She filled us in on the program, and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed. Actually I'm so impressed that Jen and I are talking about seeing if we can start a chapter of it at the school our boys are going to for kindergarten next year because I don't think they have one there. I really struggled with body image when I was growing up, and I think this would be a great way to educate girls so they don't have to go through that.
Anyway, the race looped around the park twice. It kind of sucked to be quite honest. The area where I live (and run) is flat. Really flat. The course was not flat. It wasn't hilly, but there were small hills here and there, and I'm just not used to that. Plus it got hot really fast. It was supposed to be around 100 for the high on Saturday, but I figured an 8:00 race would be okay. Yeah...it wasn't really. Especially for poor Jess who lives in Seattle and hasn't really seen the sun since last September. But it was cool to see all the parents and coaches of all these young girls along the race route cheering them on. It was a pretty good first race experience.
I have a couple pictures on my phone, but I currently am not sure where I last put it down in my house. So Benah posted this one on her Facebook page, so I just copied it from there. I also have one of Jess and me.
Awesome running mommies!! Me, Benah, and Jen before the race.
I told Jen on New Years Eve that 2011 would be the year I become a runner!
I wasn't really familiar with Girls on the Run prior to the race. A friend of mine is a teacher at a local school and helps run a chapter there, and we saw her at the race with her team. She filled us in on the program, and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed. Actually I'm so impressed that Jen and I are talking about seeing if we can start a chapter of it at the school our boys are going to for kindergarten next year because I don't think they have one there. I really struggled with body image when I was growing up, and I think this would be a great way to educate girls so they don't have to go through that.
Anyway, the race looped around the park twice. It kind of sucked to be quite honest. The area where I live (and run) is flat. Really flat. The course was not flat. It wasn't hilly, but there were small hills here and there, and I'm just not used to that. Plus it got hot really fast. It was supposed to be around 100 for the high on Saturday, but I figured an 8:00 race would be okay. Yeah...it wasn't really. Especially for poor Jess who lives in Seattle and hasn't really seen the sun since last September. But it was cool to see all the parents and coaches of all these young girls along the race route cheering them on. It was a pretty good first race experience.
I have a couple pictures on my phone, but I currently am not sure where I last put it down in my house. So Benah posted this one on her Facebook page, so I just copied it from there. I also have one of Jess and me.
Awesome running mommies!! Me, Benah, and Jen before the race.
I told Jen on New Years Eve that 2011 would be the year I become a runner!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
20 Biggest Health Excuses That Hold You Back
This article was posted on my Facebook news feed (I don't remember by whom...Active.com, maybe? Anyway, I thought it was pretty interesting and worth sharing.
20 Biggest Health Excuses That Hold You Back
It's so easy to come up with excuses why we don't want to eat healthy, go to the gym, etc. but in the end we're just hurting ourselves by doing (or not doing, as the case may be) those things. No one else cares if you make it to the gym or sneak a bag of Cheetos. I'm fairly certain that if you have an excuse for not doing something health/fitness related, it's covered in this article and therefore worth reading.
I love reason #2 about craving something sweet. There's nothing wrong with eating something sweet and no reason to deny yourself that if it's what your body wants, but be smart about your choices. There are healthy sweets out there...it doesn't have to be a box of Twinkies or a pint of ice cream. Same with #12...I'm a firm believer in everything in moderation. It does no good to completely deny myself something because then when I let myself have it chances are I'm going balls to the wall with it. If I let myself have a little bit of something on occasion, I satisfy the craving but won't go completely overboard with it. In fact, my whole "moderation" mentality came about my freshman year of college. There was cake in the dining hall EVERY NIGHT. I love cake. But eventually I didn't love what it was doing to me, so if I wanted cake, I'd take a piece and have a bite and leave it at that. Or more often a friend and I would share a piece and each take a bite or two so as to not be completely wasteful about it. I managed to avoid the dreaded "freshman 15" with my simple moderation strategy.
As for exercising, I find it's so much easier if I do it with a friend. I'm less likely to quit or phone it in, and they'll help push me when I want to quit. honestly I rarely work out alone. I much prefer to run with Jen than I do by myself, and when I go to the gym I have 3-4 friends (depending on the day) that I work out with. Two of them come up with awesome workouts for us to do that are tough and challenging and really really sucky, but they work. And they don't let me quit. Okay, sometimes Michelle lets me slide on some of the ab work using the Swiss ball that I'm flat out just not coordinated enough to pull off on my own, but that doesn't mean I just sit there while the rest of them exercise--I do something similar that won't potentially have me rolling off the ball and breaking a limb.
If you read the article feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on it. Do you have a particular excuse that keeps you from doing something you know you should be doing? What can you do to work past the excuse and really get down to it?
20 Biggest Health Excuses That Hold You Back
It's so easy to come up with excuses why we don't want to eat healthy, go to the gym, etc. but in the end we're just hurting ourselves by doing (or not doing, as the case may be) those things. No one else cares if you make it to the gym or sneak a bag of Cheetos. I'm fairly certain that if you have an excuse for not doing something health/fitness related, it's covered in this article and therefore worth reading.
I love reason #2 about craving something sweet. There's nothing wrong with eating something sweet and no reason to deny yourself that if it's what your body wants, but be smart about your choices. There are healthy sweets out there...it doesn't have to be a box of Twinkies or a pint of ice cream. Same with #12...I'm a firm believer in everything in moderation. It does no good to completely deny myself something because then when I let myself have it chances are I'm going balls to the wall with it. If I let myself have a little bit of something on occasion, I satisfy the craving but won't go completely overboard with it. In fact, my whole "moderation" mentality came about my freshman year of college. There was cake in the dining hall EVERY NIGHT. I love cake. But eventually I didn't love what it was doing to me, so if I wanted cake, I'd take a piece and have a bite and leave it at that. Or more often a friend and I would share a piece and each take a bite or two so as to not be completely wasteful about it. I managed to avoid the dreaded "freshman 15" with my simple moderation strategy.
As for exercising, I find it's so much easier if I do it with a friend. I'm less likely to quit or phone it in, and they'll help push me when I want to quit. honestly I rarely work out alone. I much prefer to run with Jen than I do by myself, and when I go to the gym I have 3-4 friends (depending on the day) that I work out with. Two of them come up with awesome workouts for us to do that are tough and challenging and really really sucky, but they work. And they don't let me quit. Okay, sometimes Michelle lets me slide on some of the ab work using the Swiss ball that I'm flat out just not coordinated enough to pull off on my own, but that doesn't mean I just sit there while the rest of them exercise--I do something similar that won't potentially have me rolling off the ball and breaking a limb.
If you read the article feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on it. Do you have a particular excuse that keeps you from doing something you know you should be doing? What can you do to work past the excuse and really get down to it?
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