Friday March 4 was 61 degrees when I left work. I have to thank my BF for calling me and letting me know this so I didn't miss out on taking full advantage of it.
I rushed home, ate a few peanut butter and crackers to fuel up and threw on some workout clothes and headed out. It was a little breezy but because the wind was coming from the south, it was what was giving us the warm weather so I could deal with it.
I started out on the same path I took all summer and it felt INCREDIBLE! There is such a huge difference between running a treadmill and running outside. I think the adrenaline is what kept me going for so long. I intended to run for about an hour but when I got back I found I actually ran for an hour and a half! That was about 8 miles!! Trust me, I felt every single one of them when I got done. I was totally losing steam on the last mile and knew I was going to pay for it the next day.
It's now Sunday and I'm still sore in places I haven't been sore in months. But it was so worth it.. Mother Nature is a huge tease because Saturday was about as cold and windy as ever. I did manage to run almost 5 miles on the treadmill on Saturday but it was at a leisurely pace.
I just can't wait for spring to officially get here. Everyday that passes is one day closer!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
In the best shape so far!
I've been doing p90x for little over a month now and absolutely love it! I'm doing 2 dvds almost every day or doing 65 mins of running and 1 dvd. I know I know a little overkill but it's working.
I'm not losing weight but I feel stronger and leaner. My stomach is probably the flattest it's been in a long long time and I'm really digging it. I've actually done a few workouts in just my sports bra and workout pants. Don't get me wrong, I would never do that publicly, there are no 6 pack abs in sight but the rolls have diminished greatly.
The killer is that I'm working out around 2 hours a day just about everyday! I take off about 1 day a week because I do get tired and my workouts suffer and I know my body needs a break to recover. I'm watching my calories pretty closely but I still cheat...quite a bit actually. But I do make good decisions and I have to give myself credit for that. There are so many times where I'd love to order a pizza and just maw down but I'll go to subway instead and get a turkey sandwich. I still drink regular pop but I've found pepsi max!!! OMG I love it! It doesn't have that usual diet pop taste and it's now my new fave.
I've also been on a chili kick. I should clarify, it's a canned chili kick. This is what non cookers are relegated to. But you have to definitely read the labels. A lot of canned chili has about 600 calories per can along with a lot of fat grams. I found one from Hormel that is only 440 calories per can and very low fat grams. I eat it at least 3 times per week. It's just so quick and easy. Two mins in the microwave and I'm digging in. I'm so a woman of convenience. But I figure it could be so much worse. I could be eating mcdonalds or some other crap every night. The past 6 or 7 months my diet has been pretty much subway turkey sandwiches. I'm not kidding, I'm eating this at least once if not twice a day. But I've cut back in the last month. I realized I was becoming an addict :) I started bringing a can of soup for lunch and I found the absolute best one...chicken fajita soup. OMG I can't get enough of it. I've been eating it everyday for lunch for the past 2 weeks. It's only 260 calories and barely no fat or carbs.
I know I'm obsessing about this stuff. It's part of my DNA. I calculate that eating subway for lunch is about 600 calories (give or take since I get the meal) and by eating a can of soup I've slashed those calories in half! Grant it, I am very hungry by the time I get home and this has gotten me into some binging trouble but I try to keep healthy snacks around to curb that. My other favorite is the dark chocolate almond fiber bars. For 130 calories per bar you get over half your fiber requirements and they are soooo good.
I haven't weighed myself in over a week so we'll see how well this diet and exercise regimine is going. I'm really happy with how I look right now and it's been a LOT of work just maintaining it. Only because I do eat whatever I want mostly on the weekends so that's the price I'm willing to pay.
I am getting a little nervous about my first half marathon scheduled for this year. It's on May 1st and unless the weather really turns around by March, I'm not sure I'm going to be ready for 13.1 miles. I have a hard time going over 5 miles on the treadmill. I have been changing up my treadmill training to do more high intensity running. I've been getting a lot of good training ideas from the runners world magazine. I'm anxious to get back outside to run. It's funny because when it gets into the mid 30's (which has been very rare this winter) I think this is warm enough to run outside! Versus in October/November when it was dropping below 60 I thought that was too cold. It doesn't take long to get use to the cold around here.
I will continue to press on!! I think the p90x is giving me great strength training and 2011 is looking to be a good year.
I'm not losing weight but I feel stronger and leaner. My stomach is probably the flattest it's been in a long long time and I'm really digging it. I've actually done a few workouts in just my sports bra and workout pants. Don't get me wrong, I would never do that publicly, there are no 6 pack abs in sight but the rolls have diminished greatly.
The killer is that I'm working out around 2 hours a day just about everyday! I take off about 1 day a week because I do get tired and my workouts suffer and I know my body needs a break to recover. I'm watching my calories pretty closely but I still cheat...quite a bit actually. But I do make good decisions and I have to give myself credit for that. There are so many times where I'd love to order a pizza and just maw down but I'll go to subway instead and get a turkey sandwich. I still drink regular pop but I've found pepsi max!!! OMG I love it! It doesn't have that usual diet pop taste and it's now my new fave.
I've also been on a chili kick. I should clarify, it's a canned chili kick. This is what non cookers are relegated to. But you have to definitely read the labels. A lot of canned chili has about 600 calories per can along with a lot of fat grams. I found one from Hormel that is only 440 calories per can and very low fat grams. I eat it at least 3 times per week. It's just so quick and easy. Two mins in the microwave and I'm digging in. I'm so a woman of convenience. But I figure it could be so much worse. I could be eating mcdonalds or some other crap every night. The past 6 or 7 months my diet has been pretty much subway turkey sandwiches. I'm not kidding, I'm eating this at least once if not twice a day. But I've cut back in the last month. I realized I was becoming an addict :) I started bringing a can of soup for lunch and I found the absolute best one...chicken fajita soup. OMG I can't get enough of it. I've been eating it everyday for lunch for the past 2 weeks. It's only 260 calories and barely no fat or carbs.
I know I'm obsessing about this stuff. It's part of my DNA. I calculate that eating subway for lunch is about 600 calories (give or take since I get the meal) and by eating a can of soup I've slashed those calories in half! Grant it, I am very hungry by the time I get home and this has gotten me into some binging trouble but I try to keep healthy snacks around to curb that. My other favorite is the dark chocolate almond fiber bars. For 130 calories per bar you get over half your fiber requirements and they are soooo good.
I haven't weighed myself in over a week so we'll see how well this diet and exercise regimine is going. I'm really happy with how I look right now and it's been a LOT of work just maintaining it. Only because I do eat whatever I want mostly on the weekends so that's the price I'm willing to pay.
I am getting a little nervous about my first half marathon scheduled for this year. It's on May 1st and unless the weather really turns around by March, I'm not sure I'm going to be ready for 13.1 miles. I have a hard time going over 5 miles on the treadmill. I have been changing up my treadmill training to do more high intensity running. I've been getting a lot of good training ideas from the runners world magazine. I'm anxious to get back outside to run. It's funny because when it gets into the mid 30's (which has been very rare this winter) I think this is warm enough to run outside! Versus in October/November when it was dropping below 60 I thought that was too cold. It doesn't take long to get use to the cold around here.
I will continue to press on!! I think the p90x is giving me great strength training and 2011 is looking to be a good year.
I survived THE BLIZZARD OF 2011
The blizzard of 2011 occurred on Feb 2. Actually it really started the afternoon of Feb 1 which was a Tuesday. By the time I left work around 2:30 the snow was starting to come down and the streets were getting messy. The weather forecasters were all about hyping this thing up to be huge so I had no plans of trying to come into work on Wed if it was as bad as they were predicting.
Before I went to bed on Tuesday night I made the decision that I was not coming into work early like I usually do so I didn't set my alarm. I figured I'll go in late or worse case I'll work from home. I woke up around 5:30 Wed morning, looked out the front window and had to give the forecasters credit, it was turning into a mother of a storm. The winds were gusting around 50 miles per hour and the snow was coming down around 2" per hour. Around 10am the snow really started coming down and it was a pure whiteout outside. Yep, definitely not going into work. The state issued an emergency so nobody was to be driving unless you were police or emergency crews.
So I jumped online to work from home. And so did just about EVERYBODY in the company because the network was painfully slow. I got as much as I could done and cuddled up on the couch to watch some of my dvr shows.
By 2:30 the snow and wind had stopped and the sun was actually coming out! I opened my front door and there was like 4 feet of snow against my door and garage door. I figured I'd better start digging my way out. The forecast was for the temps to drop to below zero that night into the next day and who knew when the HOA would have our driveways plowed. I took the shovel and started digging. The snow was light and fluffy on top but very dense and heavy as I dug deeper. Luckily my wonderful neighbors saw me and came over to help. The husband had a snow blower and managed to get the front of my garage door cleared out. I was soooo grateful. I didn't expect him to do the whole driveway so I started the long process of shoveling the rest myself.
Now my driveway is probably 4 times the length of an average driveway. It's nice to be further back from the street but it's absolutely hell when having to shovel 3 feet of snow by yourself. I managed to get about a few feet from the end of the street when I completely lost energy. The town plows pushed everything from the street to the end of my driveway so on top of the normal 2 feet of snow there was about 2 more feet of street snow. I couldn't do anymore. My arms and back were so sore at this point so I left it, hoping the HOA would get me plowed out before the next day...and they did.
So I survived! It was an awesome sight to see from the comfort of my 72 degree house snuggled on the couch looking out of my sliding glass doors. I couldn't image being stuck in it. I watched hours of news footage on Wed morning and the sights on Lake Shore Drive were astonishing. Hundreds of cars just abandoned buried in 20" of snow was like witnessing armageddon.
What I found more amazing was that by Thursday it was business as usual. Grant it the streets were still snow covered but definitely clear enough for traffic to get by. I give the state some credit. They did not waste any time trying to keep this disaster under control. Although I'd hate to know how much it cost!
Before I went to bed on Tuesday night I made the decision that I was not coming into work early like I usually do so I didn't set my alarm. I figured I'll go in late or worse case I'll work from home. I woke up around 5:30 Wed morning, looked out the front window and had to give the forecasters credit, it was turning into a mother of a storm. The winds were gusting around 50 miles per hour and the snow was coming down around 2" per hour. Around 10am the snow really started coming down and it was a pure whiteout outside. Yep, definitely not going into work. The state issued an emergency so nobody was to be driving unless you were police or emergency crews.
So I jumped online to work from home. And so did just about EVERYBODY in the company because the network was painfully slow. I got as much as I could done and cuddled up on the couch to watch some of my dvr shows.
By 2:30 the snow and wind had stopped and the sun was actually coming out! I opened my front door and there was like 4 feet of snow against my door and garage door. I figured I'd better start digging my way out. The forecast was for the temps to drop to below zero that night into the next day and who knew when the HOA would have our driveways plowed. I took the shovel and started digging. The snow was light and fluffy on top but very dense and heavy as I dug deeper. Luckily my wonderful neighbors saw me and came over to help. The husband had a snow blower and managed to get the front of my garage door cleared out. I was soooo grateful. I didn't expect him to do the whole driveway so I started the long process of shoveling the rest myself.
Now my driveway is probably 4 times the length of an average driveway. It's nice to be further back from the street but it's absolutely hell when having to shovel 3 feet of snow by yourself. I managed to get about a few feet from the end of the street when I completely lost energy. The town plows pushed everything from the street to the end of my driveway so on top of the normal 2 feet of snow there was about 2 more feet of street snow. I couldn't do anymore. My arms and back were so sore at this point so I left it, hoping the HOA would get me plowed out before the next day...and they did.
So I survived! It was an awesome sight to see from the comfort of my 72 degree house snuggled on the couch looking out of my sliding glass doors. I couldn't image being stuck in it. I watched hours of news footage on Wed morning and the sights on Lake Shore Drive were astonishing. Hundreds of cars just abandoned buried in 20" of snow was like witnessing armageddon.
What I found more amazing was that by Thursday it was business as usual. Grant it the streets were still snow covered but definitely clear enough for traffic to get by. I give the state some credit. They did not waste any time trying to keep this disaster under control. Although I'd hate to know how much it cost!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
New Year - New Me
I managed to live through Christmas without gaining any weight, which is actually surprising since I felt like I was eating all day long the days leading up to Christmas. Mission accomplished.
Now we're in the home stretch to the new year. Tomorrow is NYE. For some reason I decided to get nostalgic and rummaged through an old box of pictures that was out in the garage.
A couple of things that I noticed:
1) I've come a long way when it comes to my weight. But more importantly, in looking back at old pics of myself from high school, through college, with my first love, and through my marriage I never once remember caring or rather obsessing with how I looked. I was anorexic thin in 8th grade, remained muscular/stocky throughout high school, gained some weight in college and just packed on the pounds when I was married. But I never let the weight stop me from wanting my picture taken. It's not until I got divorced did I really take stock of myself and my health did I start obsessing about it. Then losing close to 50 lbs and landing my now boyfriend who at the time was one of the hottest guys I've ever met, and knowing that he would never have considered me 50 lbs ago just reinforced my obsession. But just like most long term relationships, you get comfortable and slowly the weight crept back on and I gained about 30 lbs back. As soon as that weight came back, I didn't want my picture taken and I really didn't want to socialize with his friends because I was ashamed. They only knew me as being relatively thin so to be fat was embarrassing. Not that they even cared about that, but that was how I felt so I isolated myself and my boyfriend from his friends. The sad thing is that by doing that, I feel like I lost 4 years of my life, our life. I just really need to work on not making my weight define who I am.
2) I realize that I've changed so much over the years, to the point where I can't remember how I was back then. It's actually pretty scary because I can't remember a lot of things from my college years (and I didn't drink so I can't blame it on that). I see pictures of the people I went to school with and can't even remember their names or anything about when the picture was taken. Then I see pictures of my wedding and my ex and our dog and first house and feel like it was like a different lifetime. I use to cook, I was the submissive wife and I looked happy. But I was HUGE! I wasn't taking care of myself whatsoever so the smile on the outside was really hiding the misery inside. The only thing I miss from that relationship is my yellow lab Willy and seeing pictures of him as a puppy and then as a young dog makes my heart ache. He really was my baby and he will always have a place in my heart.
3) I also realize that I need to start taking more pictures to document points of time in my life. Case in point, I have only have 1 picture of me after losing 30 lbs. I mean really?! I hope to maintain this weight for a long time but there are no guarantees. I bought my boyfriend a small handheld video recorder for Christmas so we can start filming things, especially our dogs. Simba is 11 years old now and as much as I want him to live forever, I know he won't. I don't know if I'd be able to watch old videos of him after he passes but it would be nice to have.
So with the new year upon me, I have no resolutions. I don't believe in them. I just want to continue to live healthy both inside and out. There is no winning when it comes to the battle of the bulge. It will be a constant battle for me and I can accept that. I just bought some resistance bands and got the P90X workout dvds and the Physique 57 dvds to change up my workouts. I did the P90X cardio, plyometrics, and yoga dvds and they are incredibly intense which is good. I'm in excruciating pain today but I know that it's a good pain. I did find out that I have terrible balance and weak core strength and not much flexibility but I know that I just have to keep working on that. I also signed up for 2 half marathons in 2011 already to keep me motivated.
I do realize that I'm probably the best shape I have been in years and I am relishing in that. Knowing how hard I worked to get to this point a second time has made it all the more rewarding. I hope that I never forget it!!
Now we're in the home stretch to the new year. Tomorrow is NYE. For some reason I decided to get nostalgic and rummaged through an old box of pictures that was out in the garage.
A couple of things that I noticed:
1) I've come a long way when it comes to my weight. But more importantly, in looking back at old pics of myself from high school, through college, with my first love, and through my marriage I never once remember caring or rather obsessing with how I looked. I was anorexic thin in 8th grade, remained muscular/stocky throughout high school, gained some weight in college and just packed on the pounds when I was married. But I never let the weight stop me from wanting my picture taken. It's not until I got divorced did I really take stock of myself and my health did I start obsessing about it. Then losing close to 50 lbs and landing my now boyfriend who at the time was one of the hottest guys I've ever met, and knowing that he would never have considered me 50 lbs ago just reinforced my obsession. But just like most long term relationships, you get comfortable and slowly the weight crept back on and I gained about 30 lbs back. As soon as that weight came back, I didn't want my picture taken and I really didn't want to socialize with his friends because I was ashamed. They only knew me as being relatively thin so to be fat was embarrassing. Not that they even cared about that, but that was how I felt so I isolated myself and my boyfriend from his friends. The sad thing is that by doing that, I feel like I lost 4 years of my life, our life. I just really need to work on not making my weight define who I am.
2) I realize that I've changed so much over the years, to the point where I can't remember how I was back then. It's actually pretty scary because I can't remember a lot of things from my college years (and I didn't drink so I can't blame it on that). I see pictures of the people I went to school with and can't even remember their names or anything about when the picture was taken. Then I see pictures of my wedding and my ex and our dog and first house and feel like it was like a different lifetime. I use to cook, I was the submissive wife and I looked happy. But I was HUGE! I wasn't taking care of myself whatsoever so the smile on the outside was really hiding the misery inside. The only thing I miss from that relationship is my yellow lab Willy and seeing pictures of him as a puppy and then as a young dog makes my heart ache. He really was my baby and he will always have a place in my heart.
3) I also realize that I need to start taking more pictures to document points of time in my life. Case in point, I have only have 1 picture of me after losing 30 lbs. I mean really?! I hope to maintain this weight for a long time but there are no guarantees. I bought my boyfriend a small handheld video recorder for Christmas so we can start filming things, especially our dogs. Simba is 11 years old now and as much as I want him to live forever, I know he won't. I don't know if I'd be able to watch old videos of him after he passes but it would be nice to have.
So with the new year upon me, I have no resolutions. I don't believe in them. I just want to continue to live healthy both inside and out. There is no winning when it comes to the battle of the bulge. It will be a constant battle for me and I can accept that. I just bought some resistance bands and got the P90X workout dvds and the Physique 57 dvds to change up my workouts. I did the P90X cardio, plyometrics, and yoga dvds and they are incredibly intense which is good. I'm in excruciating pain today but I know that it's a good pain. I did find out that I have terrible balance and weak core strength and not much flexibility but I know that I just have to keep working on that. I also signed up for 2 half marathons in 2011 already to keep me motivated.
I do realize that I'm probably the best shape I have been in years and I am relishing in that. Knowing how hard I worked to get to this point a second time has made it all the more rewarding. I hope that I never forget it!!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tis the Season
Well I survived Thanksgiving...for the most part. I thought I did enough exercising to allow me to splurge a little on my food consumption but by Monday my pants were feeling a little snug. Maybe it was all in my head but it did get me down.
I know the next 3-4 months are going to be a huge challenge for me in terms of keeping the weight off. I've been running on the treadmill for about 65 mins a day (well running most of the time). I've increased my speed to try and change it up since I'm not running as long as I use to. It's a challenge just to do an hour on that thing. Even watching my tv shows doesn't pass the time quick enough. My calorie burn according to the treadmill is around 600-650 but I guess I'm still eating too much. Ugh it's just so exhausting to consistently monitor what you eat.
I pretty much live on Subway. I eat a 6" turkey sandwich meal everyday. I calculate it to be around 500-600 calories with the chips and pop. I have two 6 oz protein shakes before lunch which is close to 300-350 calories. So by the time I get home, I've consumed almost 1000 calories. Then I work off 600 so I'm down to 400 before I eat dinner. I've concluded that dinner MUST be the problem. Honestly by dinner time I am pretty hungry. I know my problem is making my own dinner. Yeah how sad is that. I've realized I have no self control.
Since I don't like to cook or really know how to, I end up making things that are easy. Like grilled cheese sandwiches, mac n cheese. I am also obsessed with the harvest cheddar sunchips and find myself eating the whole bag in about 3 days. So I think even though it may be cheaper to go to the store and buy food in bulk, I tend to overeat when I do this. I need to just go out and buy Subway or something healthy and limit myself to that meal. Once it's gone it's gone. I'm not tempted to eat the entire bag of chips or make myself another sandwich.
I've also been adding weight training to my exercise routine. I'm using the all in one weight set that Brett has in his basement and incorporating 20 jumping jacks in between my sets to keep my heart rate up. Then I started jump roping! I bought a jump rope about 2 or 3 years ago and found that when I was heavier it hurt my knees too much to jump. But now that I've lost close to 30 pounds I could do it without the pain! But OMG! I forgot how exhausting it is to jump rope. I could only do about 30 seconds at a time before I had to stop and rest. Seriously I don't remember being this out of breath when I use to do it as a kid. Talk about a workout.
I went outside in front of Brett's house to jump. I knew everyone in the world would see me but figured they'd probably be envious that I could still jump rope (at least that's what I told myself. They were probably laughing at me). It was maybe 40 degrees out and breezy and I was only in my sweaty workout clothes. After 15 mins I was totally soaked in sweat and wiped out. I vowed to continue this routine on the weekends but suddenly last weekend my jump rope actually split in two! I guess it was made of like plastic so after constant poundings on the sidewalk it just gave. So now I need to find a new one, preferable of better quality.
Today is our first snowfall. It started last night and this morning everything is blanketed in this pretty white snow. It's still coming down. The forecast is for 2-4 inches. As pretty as it is, it's just a reminder that this is the beginning of winter. I wish I could be like a bear and pig out for a few months before I get to hibernate until spring. Oh well. I need to keep my spirits up and try my best at keeping up my battle of the bulge!
I know the next 3-4 months are going to be a huge challenge for me in terms of keeping the weight off. I've been running on the treadmill for about 65 mins a day (well running most of the time). I've increased my speed to try and change it up since I'm not running as long as I use to. It's a challenge just to do an hour on that thing. Even watching my tv shows doesn't pass the time quick enough. My calorie burn according to the treadmill is around 600-650 but I guess I'm still eating too much. Ugh it's just so exhausting to consistently monitor what you eat.
I pretty much live on Subway. I eat a 6" turkey sandwich meal everyday. I calculate it to be around 500-600 calories with the chips and pop. I have two 6 oz protein shakes before lunch which is close to 300-350 calories. So by the time I get home, I've consumed almost 1000 calories. Then I work off 600 so I'm down to 400 before I eat dinner. I've concluded that dinner MUST be the problem. Honestly by dinner time I am pretty hungry. I know my problem is making my own dinner. Yeah how sad is that. I've realized I have no self control.
Since I don't like to cook or really know how to, I end up making things that are easy. Like grilled cheese sandwiches, mac n cheese. I am also obsessed with the harvest cheddar sunchips and find myself eating the whole bag in about 3 days. So I think even though it may be cheaper to go to the store and buy food in bulk, I tend to overeat when I do this. I need to just go out and buy Subway or something healthy and limit myself to that meal. Once it's gone it's gone. I'm not tempted to eat the entire bag of chips or make myself another sandwich.
I've also been adding weight training to my exercise routine. I'm using the all in one weight set that Brett has in his basement and incorporating 20 jumping jacks in between my sets to keep my heart rate up. Then I started jump roping! I bought a jump rope about 2 or 3 years ago and found that when I was heavier it hurt my knees too much to jump. But now that I've lost close to 30 pounds I could do it without the pain! But OMG! I forgot how exhausting it is to jump rope. I could only do about 30 seconds at a time before I had to stop and rest. Seriously I don't remember being this out of breath when I use to do it as a kid. Talk about a workout.
I went outside in front of Brett's house to jump. I knew everyone in the world would see me but figured they'd probably be envious that I could still jump rope (at least that's what I told myself. They were probably laughing at me). It was maybe 40 degrees out and breezy and I was only in my sweaty workout clothes. After 15 mins I was totally soaked in sweat and wiped out. I vowed to continue this routine on the weekends but suddenly last weekend my jump rope actually split in two! I guess it was made of like plastic so after constant poundings on the sidewalk it just gave. So now I need to find a new one, preferable of better quality.
Today is our first snowfall. It started last night and this morning everything is blanketed in this pretty white snow. It's still coming down. The forecast is for 2-4 inches. As pretty as it is, it's just a reminder that this is the beginning of winter. I wish I could be like a bear and pig out for a few months before I get to hibernate until spring. Oh well. I need to keep my spirits up and try my best at keeping up my battle of the bulge!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Feeling pretty good!
I just wanted to document real quick that I think I'm back to where I was 7 years ago when I lost a lot of weight. I bounce around between 166 and 167 lbs which is a good 30+ lbs less than where I started in May. I drink about 40+ ounces of water from 5:30 to 7am (on my way to work and when I get into work) and I think that has helped tremendously. I believe it kicks my matabolism in gear and flushes me out. My skin looks and feels awesome. Overall I feel awesome!
I still have about 20 more lbs to lose. The belly fat is still there although there is less of it but I'm nowhere near flat abs. I'm sure this is because all I've been doing since May is running and no weight training. Yesterday I did pushups and crunches for the first time in about a year and I'm feeling it today. With the weather getting cold (too cold to motivate me into running outside), I plan on changing up my routine and doing more resistance training.
I'm trying to do it without joining a gym only because I don't want to spend the money. I saw an ad for Cardinal Fitness for $10/month. Now that may be worth it because there is one close to both my house and Brett's. I prefer using the machines. So we'll see. I know I need to do something because I could only handle running about an hour on the treadmill (about 5 miles) before I get bored. Although I am changing up the pace on the treadmill. I run outside at about 5 mph so I've been increasing it to 5.5 to 6 mph on the treadmill for short spurts.
My biggest fear is putting back on the weight because I won't be running as much for the next 3 months or so. And my diet isn't the best. I drink 12 ounces of my protein shake before lunch and pretty much have a 6" turkey or tuna subway meal for lunch and pretty much the same for dinner. I know I am not eating enough veggies and pretty much no fruit and probably drinking too much pop. It hasn't been affecting my weight because I was burning close to 1000 calories during my runs. Now I'm only burning about 600-650 calories. So I know I need to watch my diet. I just don't look forward to it at all. This is where I falter. With the cold weather and it getting dark by 4pm, my motivation is zapped. I am trying to sign up for some races in the spring to keep me motivated. I'm worried that I'll get out of this awesome place that I'm in and not get back. This is the second time I've gotten back in shape but it was a bitch to do. Lots of food deprivation. I don't want to go through that again.
I just need to keep all this in front of me so that I don't lose the battle!!
I still have about 20 more lbs to lose. The belly fat is still there although there is less of it but I'm nowhere near flat abs. I'm sure this is because all I've been doing since May is running and no weight training. Yesterday I did pushups and crunches for the first time in about a year and I'm feeling it today. With the weather getting cold (too cold to motivate me into running outside), I plan on changing up my routine and doing more resistance training.
I'm trying to do it without joining a gym only because I don't want to spend the money. I saw an ad for Cardinal Fitness for $10/month. Now that may be worth it because there is one close to both my house and Brett's. I prefer using the machines. So we'll see. I know I need to do something because I could only handle running about an hour on the treadmill (about 5 miles) before I get bored. Although I am changing up the pace on the treadmill. I run outside at about 5 mph so I've been increasing it to 5.5 to 6 mph on the treadmill for short spurts.
My biggest fear is putting back on the weight because I won't be running as much for the next 3 months or so. And my diet isn't the best. I drink 12 ounces of my protein shake before lunch and pretty much have a 6" turkey or tuna subway meal for lunch and pretty much the same for dinner. I know I am not eating enough veggies and pretty much no fruit and probably drinking too much pop. It hasn't been affecting my weight because I was burning close to 1000 calories during my runs. Now I'm only burning about 600-650 calories. So I know I need to watch my diet. I just don't look forward to it at all. This is where I falter. With the cold weather and it getting dark by 4pm, my motivation is zapped. I am trying to sign up for some races in the spring to keep me motivated. I'm worried that I'll get out of this awesome place that I'm in and not get back. This is the second time I've gotten back in shape but it was a bitch to do. Lots of food deprivation. I don't want to go through that again.
I just need to keep all this in front of me so that I don't lose the battle!!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monster Dash 1/2 Marathon Results
All I could say was WOW as I walked from the North Garage at Soldiers Field across the museum campus to the start of the race at Grant Park. I was worried that the weather would be frigid considering we had 50-60 mph wind gusts the last few days and knew that kind of wind off the lake would not be pleasant. So when I woke up at 5:15 and checked my iphone for the current temps I was very happy to see it was around 48-49 degrees and the wind was only 5-9 mph coming out of the NNE. THAT was doable. And the forecast called for mostly sunny skies. Even better.
It was about 7:15 when I came up to Shedd Aquarium and caught a glimpse of the sun rising above the lake and shining off the beautiful Chicago skyline. I mean it was picture perfect. There is no other city that captures that beauty. It put me in a great mood to start this race.
As I waited at my pace area I saw a friend of mine that was doing her first half. She has lost close to 80 lbs and looks awesome. She warned me that she'll be walking most of it and for me not to stick with her. Which secretly I was happy because I really wanted to challenge myself and see if I could beat my time at Indy.
So we slowly make out way to the start line and I start jogging when all of a sudden the toe of my right shoe snags one of the mats (I think these mats have sensors in them to monitor your time) and I began the humiliating tumble to the ground. It felt like minutes passed and all I could think of as it was happening was NO!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING TO ME!! Nothing like eating humble pie in front of thousands of people. I tried my best not to create a domino effect and luckily I didn't get trampled on by the runners behind me. I guess it was good that I was close to the back of the pack so there were mostly walkers and slow runners. One of the guys working the race helped me up. A guy behind me joked that I was suppose to fall at the end of the race, not the beginning. That allowed me to laugh at myself and not to beat myself up over it for the next 13 miles. Which I did for about 1 mile and then figured most people didn't see it happen and have probably forgotten about it already. But in the back of my mind, I feared the scene being sent viral on youtube or facebook since EVERYTHING nowadays is up for publicity. So far, I haven't seen anything, thank goodness.
I really enjoyed the run. The scenery was beautiful. Most of the run was along the lakefront which at first I was confused because the course map showed the race south along the lakefront but we were running north (as felt by that nice north wind). At the time I didn't realize that the race coordinators had to change the route at the last minute because President Obama was in town campaigning for a IL senate candidate on Saturday night. Not sure what that had to do with Sunday unless he was still in town. But I was fine with that. We ran through Lincoln Park and other nice neighborhoods. The only complaint I had was that a lot of the course was through unlevel and cracked sidewalks which is a hazard for runners. I was careful not to sprang my ankle. Running along the lake was fabulous. If I lived downtown I'd so do that everyday. There are no words to describe how beautiful the lakefront is. The other downside was that this was not a closed course so naturally on a beautiful fall day, there are A LOT of people walking/running/biking along the lakefront so sometimes you had to dodge pedestrians.
The last half of the race was nice because the wind was at your back. Trust me, that helped beyond belief when coming up to mile 10/11. The last mile of a half marathon is the longest mile EVER!! I can't imagine the last mile in a full marathon. FORGET THAT!! It takes every last bit of stamina in me to cross that finish line and it's only my determination that gets me there. I did not stop running the entire race except to use the bathroom around mile 6 or 7. Naturally there were only two portapotties so I lost about 5 mins getting that taken care of.
I've noticed a couple things in these two races. One, there are people of every size who participate in half marathons. Now I am definitely not a world class athlete and acknowledge that I have about 10 more pounds of body fat to lose but when I see people who appear heavier or more out of shape than I am crossing the finish line ahead of me, I really wonder if I'm not as good as I think I am. I mean, I think running a half marathon is challenging. My pace is a little under 12 min/mile or 5 miles per hour. It's not fast but certainly not slow. The average time for women to complete 13.1 miles is between 2 hrs 15 mins and 2 hrs 21 mins. I do it in around 2 hrs 33 mins. That's about a 10 1/2 min mile pace or a full minute faster. It doesn't sound like much but try doing it for 13 miles.
I think my issue is my strategy. I try to run at a consistent pace throughout the race. This leads me to the second thing I noticed. There was a couple who were running for a few minutes, then walking. They beat me through the finish line. It was funny because I'd pass them as they were walking, then they'd pass me when they started running and just when I thought I was well ahead of them, they pass me and cross the finish line first. That got me thinking that maybe I need to change my strategy. Either train to run faster or maybe incorporate the run/walk. But in my mind I feel it's more of a challenge to run the whole thing :)
Another lesson learned is not to drink pop the night before a race. I had pizza (it's a good source of carbs right?) and a can of pop. I think the issue was that I didn't drink any water afterward and because I pee constantly when I drink water, I barely drank any water before the race. Needless to say, around mile 3 or 4 my left calf about locked up in a cramp. I was so worried because I was determined to finish this race since it cost me close to $100. So I ran through the pain and could barely walk when I crossed the finish line. No pain, no gain!! I did drink a TON of water and ate 3 bananas after the race. Luckily there's no permanent damage.
I did not know my official time when I finished the race. I don't keep track of it during the race since really my goal is just to enjoy the race and to finish it. I figured it had to be around the 2:30 mark since I had a general idea of what time it was when I finished. So on Monday I checked the official time and found that I actually finished in 2:36:03. About 3 mins worse than Indy. I was a little bummed but still felt good about it. I figured it was due to the 5 min potty break. Then I read a post on facebook that the course was actually 13.35 miles! So I did the math and calculated that if the course was the standard 13.1 miles I would have finished exactly at 2:33!! Not that this matters to anybody but me :)
I would definitely do this race again. A lot of people dressed up in halloween costumes which was surprising. Not that I'd dress up but you can't beat running along the lake in Chicago. I would just hope the weather is as perfect. I have been extremely lucky that my first two half marathons have been in relatively warm sunny weather. I don't plan on running anymore half marathons until next Spring. I need a break :)
It was about 7:15 when I came up to Shedd Aquarium and caught a glimpse of the sun rising above the lake and shining off the beautiful Chicago skyline. I mean it was picture perfect. There is no other city that captures that beauty. It put me in a great mood to start this race.
As I waited at my pace area I saw a friend of mine that was doing her first half. She has lost close to 80 lbs and looks awesome. She warned me that she'll be walking most of it and for me not to stick with her. Which secretly I was happy because I really wanted to challenge myself and see if I could beat my time at Indy.
So we slowly make out way to the start line and I start jogging when all of a sudden the toe of my right shoe snags one of the mats (I think these mats have sensors in them to monitor your time) and I began the humiliating tumble to the ground. It felt like minutes passed and all I could think of as it was happening was NO!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING TO ME!! Nothing like eating humble pie in front of thousands of people. I tried my best not to create a domino effect and luckily I didn't get trampled on by the runners behind me. I guess it was good that I was close to the back of the pack so there were mostly walkers and slow runners. One of the guys working the race helped me up. A guy behind me joked that I was suppose to fall at the end of the race, not the beginning. That allowed me to laugh at myself and not to beat myself up over it for the next 13 miles. Which I did for about 1 mile and then figured most people didn't see it happen and have probably forgotten about it already. But in the back of my mind, I feared the scene being sent viral on youtube or facebook since EVERYTHING nowadays is up for publicity. So far, I haven't seen anything, thank goodness.
I really enjoyed the run. The scenery was beautiful. Most of the run was along the lakefront which at first I was confused because the course map showed the race south along the lakefront but we were running north (as felt by that nice north wind). At the time I didn't realize that the race coordinators had to change the route at the last minute because President Obama was in town campaigning for a IL senate candidate on Saturday night. Not sure what that had to do with Sunday unless he was still in town. But I was fine with that. We ran through Lincoln Park and other nice neighborhoods. The only complaint I had was that a lot of the course was through unlevel and cracked sidewalks which is a hazard for runners. I was careful not to sprang my ankle. Running along the lake was fabulous. If I lived downtown I'd so do that everyday. There are no words to describe how beautiful the lakefront is. The other downside was that this was not a closed course so naturally on a beautiful fall day, there are A LOT of people walking/running/biking along the lakefront so sometimes you had to dodge pedestrians.
The last half of the race was nice because the wind was at your back. Trust me, that helped beyond belief when coming up to mile 10/11. The last mile of a half marathon is the longest mile EVER!! I can't imagine the last mile in a full marathon. FORGET THAT!! It takes every last bit of stamina in me to cross that finish line and it's only my determination that gets me there. I did not stop running the entire race except to use the bathroom around mile 6 or 7. Naturally there were only two portapotties so I lost about 5 mins getting that taken care of.
I've noticed a couple things in these two races. One, there are people of every size who participate in half marathons. Now I am definitely not a world class athlete and acknowledge that I have about 10 more pounds of body fat to lose but when I see people who appear heavier or more out of shape than I am crossing the finish line ahead of me, I really wonder if I'm not as good as I think I am. I mean, I think running a half marathon is challenging. My pace is a little under 12 min/mile or 5 miles per hour. It's not fast but certainly not slow. The average time for women to complete 13.1 miles is between 2 hrs 15 mins and 2 hrs 21 mins. I do it in around 2 hrs 33 mins. That's about a 10 1/2 min mile pace or a full minute faster. It doesn't sound like much but try doing it for 13 miles.
I think my issue is my strategy. I try to run at a consistent pace throughout the race. This leads me to the second thing I noticed. There was a couple who were running for a few minutes, then walking. They beat me through the finish line. It was funny because I'd pass them as they were walking, then they'd pass me when they started running and just when I thought I was well ahead of them, they pass me and cross the finish line first. That got me thinking that maybe I need to change my strategy. Either train to run faster or maybe incorporate the run/walk. But in my mind I feel it's more of a challenge to run the whole thing :)
Another lesson learned is not to drink pop the night before a race. I had pizza (it's a good source of carbs right?) and a can of pop. I think the issue was that I didn't drink any water afterward and because I pee constantly when I drink water, I barely drank any water before the race. Needless to say, around mile 3 or 4 my left calf about locked up in a cramp. I was so worried because I was determined to finish this race since it cost me close to $100. So I ran through the pain and could barely walk when I crossed the finish line. No pain, no gain!! I did drink a TON of water and ate 3 bananas after the race. Luckily there's no permanent damage.
I did not know my official time when I finished the race. I don't keep track of it during the race since really my goal is just to enjoy the race and to finish it. I figured it had to be around the 2:30 mark since I had a general idea of what time it was when I finished. So on Monday I checked the official time and found that I actually finished in 2:36:03. About 3 mins worse than Indy. I was a little bummed but still felt good about it. I figured it was due to the 5 min potty break. Then I read a post on facebook that the course was actually 13.35 miles! So I did the math and calculated that if the course was the standard 13.1 miles I would have finished exactly at 2:33!! Not that this matters to anybody but me :)
I would definitely do this race again. A lot of people dressed up in halloween costumes which was surprising. Not that I'd dress up but you can't beat running along the lake in Chicago. I would just hope the weather is as perfect. I have been extremely lucky that my first two half marathons have been in relatively warm sunny weather. I don't plan on running anymore half marathons until next Spring. I need a break :)
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