Wrapping up 2011

My favorite thing about running is that there isn’t anyone or anything around to judge me. Not that I am paranoid and people are staring at me or anything, but running is the most selfish, raw form of workout. It is just me and the street and nothing else. I don’t have to worry about waiting for a treadmill or some kind of machine to do my work out; no numbers staring me in the face on screen, tracking every move I make. Running doesn’t require me to have music in my ears to keep me distracted. The sound of my feet against the pavement and my panting (I mean, heavy breathing :P), is enough to create a kind of music of my own. The visual stimuli can keep me entertained forever, as long as I keep moving and changing my scenery. The soreness in my legs after a run is testament to myself that I will continue to challenge my body and mold it into a healthier me. Although the holidays have been a challenge as far as my diet goes, my exercising has not ceased and that is something I am more than happy to celebrate.

This year has been quite a success for me, health wise. I have lost 55 pounds, am able to run more than 3 miles at a time, and have consumed more healthy foods than ever before. I have gained so much more respect for myself and my body. I am more excited about my future and happy to live a healthy life. I hope to build upon my goals in 2012 but more importantly, continue to carry the things I have learned this year.

Goals Being Met and Moving Forward

I knew I wouldn’t be able to update this very much since school started, but I had to take the time to do so after this weekend. I will first give an update from about a month ago:

I was running around the block and after getting past the first mile I thought I could keep going and so I was able to run 2 miles. I slowed down to a walk but I felt good and I wasn’t completely out of breath like I have been before. After the weather started getting more drizzly and it got darker after my classes let out, I had to start running more at the gym on the treadmill. A couple weeks ago I finally was able to run 3.1 miles straight on the treadmill. Being able to run the full 5k straight, has been a goal of mine for a long time so I knew starting it on the treadmill was one step closer. I only did that twice on the treadmill before the Lighting the Way run I did Sunday in Redlands.

The run started at 8am and all I wanted from it was to be able to run the full thing. I didn’t care how long it would take me; I didn’t even care if it took me longer than my first 5k (37 min 37 sec). The race started and everyone seemed to bolt off. That was the first mistake I was not going to make- not to start off too fast and tire myself out. I tried to keep a nice, slow pace and as I did so, many people passed me. Every bit of me wanted to go faster and get in front of people, but I knew what my ultimate goal was and I had to keep focused on that. At around mile 1, I saw my friend Tory right next to me and she indicated that it had only been 10 minutes. A 10 minute mile!? I couldn’t believe with how slow I felt like I was going, I had just finished my fastest mile to date. It started to also make more sense why that first mile seemed so difficult to get through. Things only got easier and more empowering from there on out, though. Not only did I start to pass up all those people who outran me in the beginning, but I felt amazing. My breath had steadied and I had a nice pace going. It was extremely cold outside so as I ran, my body started to warm up and the only indication that it was cold was the breath I could see right in front of me and the tips of my fingers feeling like ice. They didn’t have the second mile marker out, so I wasn’t sure how long we had gone until I met back up with Tory at around 30 minutes. When she told me it had been 30 minutes, I knew we hadn’t only passed mile two, but we were getting close to the end. Sure enough, around the corner, I could see a crowd of people and balloons with the finish line. I thought “you just have to sprint this last part and you will be done!” As I went to sprint, I quickly noticed that the last stretch was a hill. Sprinting up that hill was one of the most exhausting things ever and I thought for sure I was going to puke if I didn’t focus on the ground in front of me. One step at a time, I thought.

My time ended up being 34 minutes and 45 seconds. I didn’t just meet my goal of running the entire thing in under 40, but I surpassed it and ran it even faster than my first 5k! The inspiration I get from other people, is the greatest motivator ever. Being able to run it in with one of my best friends, Tory, and seeing how excited she was as well, motivated me to continue doing these runs with her. Seeing my friend Kale do the 10k and how hard she pushed to run the whole thing, was inspiring and just plain incredible. Having my amazing boyfriend there to kiss me and tell me what a great job I did, made me glow with excitement and having Kale’s entire family there to support her and to even have them give me words of encouragement was extremely touching. The whole experience was moving and I couldn’t be happier as we stood there, having had our amazing results, while waiting for Kale to rock our socks off with her sprint to the end as well.

I cannot wait for the next run and I know I will only do even better. My love for running, especially outside in the cold, was definitely renewed that day.

Endurance vs Speed

I decided to take a step back and re-evaluate what I want with my running. I enjoy doing 5Ks and mud runs and little activities that make me push myself but what I want most during these activities is to last through the whole thing. I would love to be able to run a full 5K straight through. Once I am able to do something like that, I will then focus on my speed and improve my time. With this in mind, I went running last Tuesday (since my professor lets us out late, I may not be able to do body pump on these days anymore), and was able to run a mile and a half without stopping. Even when I stopped to take a break and walk, I only did so because I wanted to cool down before going inside. Since my days are so long now, I cannot do 3 mile runs as often because of the time it takes up that I now lack. I was stoked about the distance. It was a very slow run and I probably averaged a 12-13 mile but I didn't let that bother me because I need to keep my main goal in focus now. On Friday I woke up early to do another quick 2 mile run and, this time, I was able to go 1.75 miles! I thought, "oh I will be at 2 miles in no time."

Tonight, I went with Kale and we ran about 1.5 miles and most of that is up-hill and by far the most difficult part. After we got to a corner before turning, we had to stop for a couple seconds to drink some water. After maybe 7 seconds of stopping, we continued on for about another mile. Besides that 7 seconds or so, we ran almost 2.5 miles. I couldn't believe it. I felt fantastic and I tried to keep my breath steady the whole time and not make myself sick or anything too intense. It was just a steady, nice, cool run. Absolutely perfect.

I believe that by Nov 6th, I will be able to run my whole 5K. I don't think I mentioned that before but there is another 5K in Redlands on that date that I would like to sign up for. So that is my newest goal- run the whole 5K without stopping. I will not worry too much about my time, but I am thinking that if I am able to run at a slow speed, that I still may beat my first time of 37 minutes and 37 seconds. Even if I don't though, I will still be able to say that I ran the whole thing and that alone will be amazing.

Mud Run

School has started, so posts will probably be even more infrequent but I wanted to document my first mud run!

As I said before, it was in Lake Elsinore, so Nicholas and I woke up early to get there in plenty of time to pick up our bibs. We met up with my friend Kale but, sadly, were never able to find Tory. The run started off and I tried to keep a steady pace with both Nicholas and Kale. The beginning was the worst because it was hot as hell , it took a while to actually get to any obstacles to cool ourselves off with mud, and I forgot to drink water that day (whoops!).

The first obstacle was hurdling over concrete barriers, which wasn't too bad (especially since it was the first one). We then came to a hill with tires that we had to run up and that was a tad tricky since I wasn't sure whether to put my foot in the hole of the tire or step directly on them. I tried both ways and neither one was easy.

We had another long run (at least a half mile) and we came to a pyramid of haystacks which, again, were not bad. We ran more. You're probably thinking, "where the hell is the mud?" Trust me, I was thinking the same thing. We then rounded a corner and came to some wooden walls that came up to about my chest. These were by far the hardest obstacle. I didn't think I could get my large body over them but I did! I took a running start at each one, used my arms to lift myself up, and swung my right leg over, and jumped down (I have bruises on the inside of my thigh to prove this). There were four of these walls and I miraculously got over them but was completely exhausted and it was still just the beginning.

We then just went through back to back obstacles, mostly mud pits. The first time I stepped into the mud pit, my foot got stuck. I had no clue how fast my shoes would fill with mud and how heavy they would become. Did I also mention that most of the running portion was in sand? Running in sand with shoes filled with mud is not the easiest feat. We continued on to some other obstacles and then came to the BEST one. An inflatable water slide that leads you into a lake! We all jumped in headfirst and it was the greatest relief ever. We were able to clean off some of the mud and cool down.

After some more obstacles, and continued support from Kale and Nicholas, we came to the finally stretch. The first portion of this stretch was a web of bungy cords. It took every last bit of my energy to get through this web. By this time, I was dragging myself to the high net that we had to climb up and down (which wasn't as bad as I thought it was), ran through some more tires, went in another mud pit, and tip toed past the finish line (I was afraid of sliding and falling in the slippery mud in front of a huge crowd), so there was no running for me in that section!

Some pics are below. Mud runs rock. Can't wait to do one again. Specials thanks to my dear friend Kale and my wonderful boyfriend for motivating me the entire way. They could have finished far ahead of me, but stuck by me the whole time <3 I couldn't have asked for a more perfect first mud run.

Addicted and Tired

That's right. I am addicted to running. Kale and I added a little to our loop today and it came out to 4.17 miles. We ran about 3 miles of that. I was concerned about how much my muscles hurt from body pump yesterday, mostly my hamstrings. Well by the time we started, that was the last muscle I was thinking about. My abs and triceps started BURNING. I loved it though and I still loved the way I felt after, even though it was mostly pain. I am looking forward to my two days of rest. I am exhausted though and will stop this early. Goodnight!

Biggest Loser Inspiration

The biggest loser competition has officially started at work and it's pretty amazing to see so many people eating healthy and giving each other advice. Some of us are a little competitive but in a playful, fun way. It's turning out to be a pretty pleasant experience and has kicked my butt back into shape again. I keep getting healthy recipe ideas and putting them into play as much as possible. Some are not so exciting like the plain salad I had today with plain tuna. Something about plain tuna just makes me want to gag. Oh well, some things work and others don't and I never know it until I try it.

As far as my running, my friend and I are still running our loop in Yucaipa and doing a darn good job at it. We ran yesterday and were able to run most of the 2.5 miles that we went (not counting the mile or so that we walk both before and after we start running). Today I did my body pump class and tomorrow, my friend and I are going to try running again. As long as we go about 6:30 or 7, the sun is going down enough that it is nice and cool and makes running more fun for us. I will give myself a break Thursday (since I am starting school) and Friday, because on Saturday...

I have my first mud run! I am nervous but so excited because I was able to go see my friend do one a couple weeks ago and every person who came through the finish line, looked genuinely happy. I will give more details and, of course, pictures after Saturday. Wish me luck!

Making the mile my bitch

I went to the gym today after being out of commission for about 4 days, so I knew I needed a good workout. My goal in mind was to run at least a mile, so after 1.16 I finally stopped (hell yeah). I then increased my incline and kept making it higher until I got to 8.5... yes, it goes higher... all the way to 15 or something! I don't know how people do it that high but... whatever. Oh I forgot to mention that as I walked into the gym I saw my good friend Tory working away and made sure to stop by and give her a high five. We got weird looks for sure, but it made the start of my workout more enjoyable. I plan on implementing the high five more often. Moving on though- I ended my 40 minutes on the treadmill having burned 271 calories, with a distance of 2.5 miles. I was actually very surprised at the amount of calories. With how bad my ass was burning, I thought for sure I would burn more calories than what I did. Don't you fret though, because I then moved on to the elliptical.

The elliptical shocked the hell out of me. I could not believe how much I was sweating on that thing and I burned just as many calories on that as I did on the treadmill and I was only on the elliptical for half the amount of time! I then got off the elliptical and dragged my droopy, exhausted body over to the mats to stretch. As soon as I started, I got a cramp in my leg. I thought cramps were a sign that you weren't stretching enough or didn't have enough potassium. My leg didn't even give me a chance! I was in the middle of trying to stretch it and I had a banana at home waiting for me. Oh well, it went away and I continued to stretch and will continue to tonight.

Other than that, not sure if I mentioned this before but I finally ran a straight mile on the street last Thursday. I have now accomplished that mile 3 different times- once on the street (in 11 minutes might I add) and twice on the treadmill. I am also starting a "biggest loser" contest at work that I am pretty stoked about it. More to come about that later though. Tomorrow I plan on busting my ass again and it will be a good feeling all over again.