Saturday Long Run and Sunday Decorating

I was planning on running in Elkhorn Saturday morning on a route I made on my Garmin Connect site, but decided to run from home instead. I made some steel cut oats with leftover pineapple from Thanksgiving for breakfast and it was yummy. :) I felt like I was running in place for the first half of my run; the wind didn't seem bad when I first stepped outside, but when I was trying to run against it I seemed to be standing still. I ran four miles out in the wind and turned around to do the four miles back home and it was much easier with a tailwind! My average pace doesn't show it being easier, but I felt it. 

Speaking of average pace, I'm hoping that at some point I become a little more consistent with my splits. Yesterday's run differed in over a minute per mile pace. I feel like as I run more and more it will even out more (I hope!). 

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 1:24:13.3 8.00 10:32 1 10:22.9 1.00 10:23 2 10:05.4 1.00 10:05 3 10:30.0 1.00 10:30 4 10:36.1 1.00 10:36 5 11:04.2 1.00 11:04 6 10:38.4 1.00 10:38 7 10:26.2 1.00 10:26 8 10:30.3 1.00 10:29

I forgot to take a picture before I ran and this isn't the best picture... but oh well. It was nice enough outside that I got by with just an Under Armour cold gear top and fleece, and a pair of Mizuno tights. 

Today I put my Christmas tree up! I don't put a ton of decorations up, but I have a few. It calms me to look at the tree and lights, and I'm glad I got it up early. 

I also met a friend at Panera for lunch and to help her study for a test. It is always nice to relax there and catch up. 

I have eight days left on my Dietbet! I have two pounds to lose in order to win (my share of the "pot"). I'm not sure how close other people are to hitting their goal - it looks like a few people are pretty close. I think that website is a great motivator for people to stay on track with their weight and support each other. If this one goes well, I might set up another for the rest of December. 

Black Friday Lunch

Thank goodness I didn't stress myself out at the stores today! I stayed at Tricia's last night and had my day planned out; and then Tricia had a change of her plans as of late last night so I had to reschedule some stuff. It worked out well in the end, and I think she enjoyed her day. :) I ended up helping her put up her Christmas tree this morning, and then drove home. I bundled up and went out for a quick four-miler on my favorite route. I love the bright morning runs out in the country! The snow looks so pretty and if you're bundled up well enough, the cool air feels good on your face, not freezing cold.

I'm loving the new cold gear I got for my birthday from Ellen and Robin - the shirts are a perfect fit and are keeping me warm!

I met my old college roommate, Kris, for lunch today in Rockford. The traffic was crazy and she had been shopping in the morning. She said that she got some good deals but that the wait in line wasn't worth it necessarily. I'd have to agree; most years I'd much rather skip the Black Friday craze and just stay in. We do an annual lunch date on this day, but most years I'm just making the trip to the restaurant and then back home.

I need to get busy with my Christmas decorations tomorrow; I drug my tree box upstairs today but haven't gotten it open yet. I love the first day of having the tree up - it's such a pleasant feeling to see the colors. :)

I planned a "long run" for tomorrow in a nearby town tomorrow morning. As of now I think I'll do 8; my longest run since my marathon is the 10k I did last Sunday. I had originally planned for 10, but I'll see how I feel when I'm running. I want to try running on new routes when I can, and I don't have any races this weekend.

Thanksgiving

I've had a lot happen since I last posted! I've ran many races, including my first half marathon (race) and marathon!

I want to try blogging again to stay accountable for my eating and running, as well as keeping track of my running gear so I can see what's working well and not.

I've totally fallen in love with running and everything related to it!! I've ordered snowshoes to try snowshoeing and snowshoe races in January.  They should arrive on Monday, so I'm hoping we still have some snow to try them out! I've also ordered Yaktrax to be able to run on icy sidewalks and roads. I'm gearing up for winter! I actually need to curb my running gear spending... it's getting a little out of hand! :)

Today was Thanksgiving, and I am happy and proud of my control so far today. I made a plan for the day, for running, eating and then other things I had to do. I ran four miles in Brodhead this morning.  It was a brisk morning, about 20 degrees. No wind, and sunny - a great morning for a run if you're bundled up! My hip and glute in my right leg were really stiff today (and have been since last Sunday's 10k). About 1/3 mile in it felt good, though. I ran a 2 mile out and back route to the edge of town. It was a great way to start the day.

I kept myself to one piece of dessert today - personal victory. :) I have about 12 days to lose 2 pounds for my Dietbet. I'm hoping to stay on track to make it!!

Tomorrow is tree day - both Tricia's and mine. :)

New Blog to Follow

I stumbled across a new blog that I love, it's called Run, Eat, Repeat. Monica, the blogger, is hilarious and gives great advice. I'm going back now and reading her earliest blogs, which gives me inspiration for mine. :) It won't start out at the same caliber as others who have been blogging for years, and that's okay.

Today I'm off to start my two weeks of teaching summer school. I like that I get a head start with some of my kids, and it gets me in to my room to start getting ready early. :). I still have to finish the other school work that I've been working on, and it needs to be done by Wednesday - thank goodness, 'cuz I'm sick of thinking about it!!

The scale has been stuck for about a week now... I need to get back to tracking all of my food. I'm going to attempt to track it and photograph it so I'm not as quick to scarf things down in a hurry without considering if I really want it or not. I want to lose about 13 more pounds and it's taking forever!

Breakfast today: coffee, 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 tbsp sugar, Activia Greek strawberry yogurt, 1 piece oatnut Brownberry bread, 1 tbsp No Sugar Added boysenberry preserves. = 7 PP

Snack: 2 bananas = 0 PP

Lunch: Harvest Chicken Salad wrap on Flatout Multigrain flatbread, Stacy's Naked pita chips, grapes = 11 PP

Summer school went well this morning! Everything worked well and I'm all set to go for tomorrow! :) Working on school stuff at home on the deck...

Only a couple more days of working on this before it's gotta be done!

I really would like to look into getting a health, wellness or fitness certification. I've thought this since college, but for a few years I fell out of love of the field, then back into it. I'm not sure how I would use it, other than in my daily life with family and friends, and possibly with my coaching.

Dinner tonight was one of my new favorites - turkey sausage with cheese! Two sausages (can you see the oozing cheese?!?), two corn on the cobb with blue bonnet light margarine, and applesauce. Yumm... 

For exercise today I did my third day of Insanity; so far I love it, but for some reason my activelink doesn't recognize much of the movement, so it doesn't give me much for points...grr. 

Rest Day

I am so sad that summer is coming to an end already... it's the second day of August! I have one week of non-teaching left, which is going to be spent on grad class work, and then two weeks of teaching summer school and then inservices start. Holy crap this summer went by so fast!

Today Burkie and I took a walk in the morning, and then I did laundry and did some straightening up around the house. I spent some of the day doing grad class work, and then went to school to try to get some documents that were saved on the school server - and then got there and the server was down! I am mentoring someone this year, so I have to get that person some general documents for them to use and now will have to wait until Monday.

Today was a rest day for my running program, which always feels weird. I usually spend the day wondering when I'm going to leave for my run. :) I took Burk for another walk later in the afternoon again today, so at I at least got 75% of my Activelink activity points in for the day. It connects to my Weight Watchers program and automatically gives my extra earned points to my weekly points. It kind of works like a fitbit, or a pedometer, only it measures all movement - not just steps.

Tomorrow my parents and sister are coming to visit, and we have plans to go on a boat tour and reservations to go out to eat in a nearby town where none of them have eaten before. I hope they enjoy both things. :)

MIA

Sorry, I've been missing a couple days. :) I got home late two nights ago when I had anticipated writing my blog for that day. But the good news was I found a new (to me elliptical) from Craigslist and brought it home! I had my cousin-in-law lend me the use of his truck, but he ended up driving and helping me load/unload the machine and carry it up to my house. I LOVE the new machine! It's only been used a couple times and is pretty much brand new. It sells for $999 new, and I bought it for $200! Steal of a deal! :) I love it so far.

Yesterday was kind of a boring day, and I basically just worked out on the new machine, took Burk for a walk, ran, and did laundry. I did run some errands in town, but other than that I didn't have much on the agenda.

Today I went to my local farmer's market; however when I got there, it was mostly picked over. I still bought some produce, and had it for dinner tonight. I got sweet corn, potatoes, blueberries, and tomatoes. Tomorrow I'm going to go to another local produce stand in town and get some more fruits and vegetables so I have some good stuff for this weekend. My parents and sister are visiting and we're celebrating my dad's birthday. He loves taking a boat tour of a nearby lake, so we'll do that on Saturday, and probably go out to eat.

My running has gone well this week; it's been a pretty easy mileage week so far. Sunday was Insanity, Monday was a rest day, Tuesday was 3 miles, Wednesday was 4 miles, today was 3 miles, tomorrow is a rest day, and Saturday is the kicker - 9 mile long run. I haven't ran that far since I did my half on the treadmill, and I have to make sure I get it done early in the morning that day since my family is coming.

Burkie and I took a walk somewhat late tonight after dinner. He was so excited to go that it's hard to not take him every day! :) He loves being outside and seeing things around the neighborhood, and I love getting to exercise peacefully and listening to my podcasts on my ipod. Recently I've been listening to a lot of Adam Carolla's and Dr. Drew Pinsky's podcasts (separate ones and ones of them together).

Insanity

The weather definitely feels like mid to late September this weekend. This morning I ran some errands and came back to eat lunch. I've been looking around for a used elliptical on Craigslist, as mine has recently broken. It has been a great machine, and I originally bought it from someone that I found on Craigslist, too. I like using my elliptical sporadically throughout the day, or just on days when I need to do some cardio. I feel better when I've used it. :) 

This afternoon I snoozed a little with the windows open, which felt amazing. Then I went and got groceries and picked up a couple things for school clothes at Kohls. I love the clearance racks at Kohls. If you are patient, you can get some great clothes - dresses, skirts, jackets, shirts - for 70 or 80% off. I love getting great deals!

When I got back from getting groceries, I started going insane...

                       

       

Just kidding! I tried out my new Insanity program. The first day you just do a baseline "Fit Test" to measure your progress throughout the program. It was a good workout, and I'm anxious to see how the next few workouts go. :)

I was in the mood to take my bike out for a spin after that, so I ran down and got it out - and then had to bring it back to the garage. My tires were flat! So I drove to the gas station and put air in the tires, then finally got back and went out for a short ride. I'd definitely like to get out every day now if I can. :) I love riding my bike!

Tonight was a great night for tv - Kardashians, Real Housewives, Big Brother - many episodes to get in in one night! The clouds looked cool tonight when I took Burkie out for the last time. 

                         

Trail Run and Amish Auction

This morning I did my first trail run! I went to a Kettle Moraine state park trail for a five mile run and loved it! It felt like I was back home in the woods at my parents' house, which I liked. It was a beautiful morning to run, as it was about 60 degrees! It felt like fall today for sure. I would like to try to do my long runs somewhere other than my regular routes from my house each week if possible. I really liked the atmosphere of the trail and not having to worry about traffic. 

                         

  

After my run today, I went to meet my sister at an Amish auction. They have an annual auction near her house and there is an entire field that it takes up. There are multiple event tents set up for separate auctions. One tent was entirely for quilts and other bedding. They also sold things like furniture, plants, yard ornaments, horse equipment, etc. She got to the sale around 10 and we left around 3:30, so she sat for quite a while! 

After the auction we went to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, La Casa Grande. One of her coworkers lives in that city and was out at another restaurant, so she and her husband stopped by to visit with us when we were finished eating. We had a great conversation about movies and books. :) Now I have a few more books to add to my "to read" list!

Rainy Morning

After a late night at the race, I slept in this morning and woke up to a calming summer rain. 

I need to finish two grad classes this summer, and today was a perfect day to work on them...however, that didn't happen. I had one of those days where you know you have a list of things that should get done, but all you want to do is nap! So, Burkie and I took a couple naps today, along with watching some Big Brother live feeds. I did get a good amount of laundry done today, though, which always makes me feel better. :)

I ordered a running belt today, and it's called a Flip Belt. I'm supposed to be able to keep multiple things along the entire waistline, and then flip it so the openings are worn on the inside as to keep anything from sneaking out. I'm excited to try it out when it gets here! I realized last night that I need something for when I need to keep my car keys, phone, or ID with me during a run - particularly during a race. It would have saved a lot of confusion last night.

Today was a rest day on my training program, which was probably why I felt so groggy and tired. I feel really lazy on these days lately, but that makes me want to run more on running days. Tomorrow I'm going to try a new running trail for my "long" run. It's only 5 miles, so it shouldn't be bad. :) I'm also supposed to meet my sister tomorrow to go to an auction, so hopefully the weather cooperates. 

Germanfest 5K

Another beautiful morning! :) I started my day off with the quick yoga vodcast again; I hope that I'm able to continue with that, as it's a great way to wake up. I so love my mornings during this weather. I can sit out on my deck with my dog, laptop and coffee and enjoy the peacefulness.

With my new training program, I have one day a week that is dedicated to "cross training." On my last program I used the machines in my house for cardio work - a treadmill, elliptical, and upright stationary bike. I do love using those because they're set up in front of a tv and I get caught up on my dvr recordings. :) However, I know I need to work on strength exercises, too, so my legs are strong enough to make it through my long runs. I'd been doing a Jillian Michaels beginners video once a week and enjoyed that. I'm starting to feel like it's a little too easy, though, at times. So I thought I'd bite the bullet and... order Insanity. It's so expensive for the package, so I ordered a used one on Amazon at half the price, and am (not so) patiently awaiting its arrival this week. :) I'm a little nervous about trying it because of all the hype about it being so hard, but I figure I'll just do what I can. A friend of mine also does a boot camp at a nearby fitness studio that is known for its difficulty, and she invited me to join her. I might give that a try sometime in the next few weeks.

Another great morning for a walk today! :) With the weather in the 70's and the sun out, I wish I could just walk all day. Burk loves the walks, too, and it's funny to see people in cars or in their yards who notice him in the stroller and smile at him. They don't expect to see a puppy pop his head up! More picture practice today, as well.

My friend, Emily invited me to run with her at a 5K race in Milwaukee for Germanfest. I've never been to Germanfest before, but I know it's one of Milwaukee's bigger festivals over the summer. I figured I may as well join her, and I'm glad I did. We had such a great time catching up and it was a perfect evening to run along Lake Michigan. :) Emily wanted to PR under 21 minutes, and I was just happy to be going. She asked me what my time goal was, and I said that I guessed somewhere around 32 or 33 minutes, and I came in at 29:03! I felt so great by the last half mile that all of a sudden it occurred to me - I can kick it in and finish fast! I was kind of shocked by that feeling! A few months ago I was just excited to not be dead by mile 3. Emily made her PR, won our age group and came in 9th overall! We were so happy with the event, and then even saw some local people we knew playing in a band at one of the stages at the festival, so we listened to a few of their songs. At the end of the night we went out for dinner at The Wicked Hop in the Third Ward. I'm so glad that she invited me and am happy to keep working on my running program. :)

A Walk, a Run and a Hairdo

What a beautiful morning! I started my morning again with some Tara Stiles' yoga from iTunes. I love that it's free, quick, and easy to do. The vodcast that I did today was "Morning Yoga Fix," which was only 7 minutes 41 seconds long. I think it's going to help with my stretching that I need to be doing more of to prevent injury... :)

I took a long walk this morning with my dog, Burk. He has a bone deformity in his front leg, so he can't walk far before his legs get sore. However, I found a way to include him in the walks...

He loves his "buggy" as my dad calls it. I found it on eBay, as a jogger dog stroller. It's pretty fun to take out, because it's very light, yet durable. It also has cup holders and a tray to hold my morning coffee and phone, plus a basket underneath where I stow rain gear (I got caught out two miles from home in a storm this spring and don't want that to happen again!).

A coworker of mine started posting some amazing pictures on Facebook this summer, and I've been picking her brain about how to get the pictures to look the way she does. Turns out I just need to keep playing around with the filters (I didn't know that's what the different settings were called), both on my phone and on Instagram. You can really do some cool things with color. She also gave me some tips about how to hold the camera and crop the images. I'm practicing a lot lately with things around the house, and I thought this morning would be a great time to try some outdoor shots.

I like using the blur/focus option on Instagram, and adjusting the color exposure on my phone's camera. Those two things are pretty cool and manageable for me so far. :)

I got my hair done today! I am kind of trying to grow my hair out right now, so I haven't gotten it trimmed in a while. I always go back and forth between medium-length and short hair, but eventually run out of patience with long hair. I'm finding that it's easier with running to have longer hair so I don't have to pin as much of the hair out of my face. I'm also planning to not have to shower in the morning when school starts, which I can do when my hair is long. If my hair is short, I have bed head in the morning and have to shower to style it. Now I'll get to sleep a little later.

My hair turned out well, she tried a new coloring technique on me, called "ombre," which should be better to manage than plain coloring, as it looks like hair that was lightened that has grown out -  to start with. :) Loving it so far!

I had a four mile run today. As usual, did an out and back route. Tomorrow I'm running in a 5K race at Germanfest with a friend. I can tell that I'm running slightly less slow when I'm doing shorter distances. I'm actually under the 11 minute mile mark, which is astounding for me! :) 

Holy crap I'm going to run a marathon!

Hello!

This is the first day of writing a blog... and coincidentally the first day of my first marathon training! I'm stoked! I've been reading a lot of fitness and health blogs for the past seven months, so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

I have always been overweight; I've fluctuated between slightly overweight and forty to fifty pounds overweight. I consider myself "athletic," which juxtaposes the fact that I'm overweight. I coach three sports at the middle school that I teach at, but have felt like a hypocrite when I haven't been consistently healthy myself.

This past January I was home for my holiday break, and feeling pretty crappy. I'd been feeling extremely tired, cranky, and just plain fat. The awful cycle of overeating, not fitting into clothes, being tired, and sitting on the couch was getting to be too much to handle, both physically and emotionally. I've done many weight loss plans before, which have helped when I did them - the kicker was that I couldn't consistently DO them.

I decided to rejoin Weight Watchers, and to try the online program. My sister was going to try it with me, and I figured that since I love everything technology, I would be able to find the support using the online tools. I just needed some motivation to MOVE!

I went to lunch with some college friends, and we got talking about food and diets. One friend told me that I should check out a blog that she was enjoying recently, Runs for Cookies. I decided to take a glance at it when I got home, and immediately knew that I would connect with Katie's (the blogger's) posts - she was honest about her struggles with food and exercise, and wasn't arrogant about her accomplishments. She truly cared about her readers and was very relate-able. From reading a few hour's worth of posts, I was inspired to try running!

I started with the Couch to 5K program by using an app on my phone. I liked the program because there was a lot of walking in the first couple weeks, that was alternated with jogging. I also liked that I didn't have to keep track of the time on my own - I just listened to the trainer for the signal to walk or jog. I could also play my music through the app, as well, which helped as a distraction from the freezing cold weather. :)

When I finished my first 5K race, I was even more motivated and thought I could handle three more miles, so I tried the 5K to 10K program, which was just an extension of the previous program. It had all of the perks of the program that I had liked before, and I knew I was getting better every week. :) It focused on time spent running, not distance, so it didn't matter how slow I was.

I finished the training for the 10K before my race, so I wanted to continue to challenge myself by starting a training program for a half marathon. I took the advice of some coworkers and the blogs that I'd been reading and used one of Hal Higdon's training programs. I had plans to run in a half marathon in Chicago in July. I joked about doing a full marathon, but didn't really think that it would be something I'd try.

One day when I was joking about doing a full marathon, one of my friends said, "You'll do it. You're joking about it, but you'll do it." For some reason, something went off in my head when she said that, and I thought to myself, "If she thinks I can do it, I will."

During this time I have been continuing my Weight Watchers program and have lost 47 pounds to date. I haven't been tracking my food consistently since about May, and haven't lost much in the last two months. At this time my weight goal is to get down 13 more pounds. With my marathon training starting today, I told myself that I'm going to get back to tracking my food again. I know that it will be easier to lose the last 13 pounds if I'm tracking my points.

On Sunday I ran my half marathon on my treadmill, as some scheduling issues changed my plan for the Chicago race. I enjoyed the 13.1 miles on the 'mill, surprisingly. :) I plugged my earbuds into my iPad and watched Big Brother Live Feeds (my obsession with Big Brother is a huge bonus for eating time) and took off! I was so happy and proud when I finished! I sent in a "Motivational Monday" email to Runs for Cookies, and she needed a picture to go with my entry, so I took a picture on Monday morning (as opposed to immediately after running the half). I did not look this sweat-free after finishing the run!

Last night I chose a marathon - for some reason I was super excited about registering for it, even though I haven't ran it! The registration let me put a post on Facebook that I had registered for the marathon, so I figured that way I HAVE to finish the training and do the race. It's in writing! The race that I chose is the Madison Marathon on November 10th. It's a week before my birthday, so I figured it's a great present to give myself. :) I'm again using a Hal Higdon program, the Novice 1 program, and due to the date of the race I'm starting on the third week of the program. I think it's okay (it's still 16 weeks of training), and I trust the program to get me where I need to be.

Today I had an easy 3 miles to run, so I did an out and back route from my house. It was an easy run, and I did a short iTunes yoga podcast to stretch afterwards. I also used one of the podcaster's morning yoga podcasts this morning. It's called "Yoga and Other Useful Stuff with Tara Stiles." They're very short (5-10 minutes each), and I think I'll like using them for stretching. I'd like to try some new running routes with my new program, also... I'll have to do some investigating. :)