Loving your workout

Because I had skipped body pump on Tuesday, and I was starting to feel better by yesterday, I thought “I could still get a body pump in tonight at Thursday’s class.” I also had strayed away from any other workouts this week, so I wanted this one to be worth it. The weather was beautiful- nice and chilly and sprinkling just a little. I haven’t ran on wet pavement in over 6 months, so I had forgotten how refreshing it is. I knew I could save a little money by not driving to the gym and get an extra running work out in, so why not just run to the gym for body pump and back? I could feel every bit of the run: my feet as they hit the pavement and make a splashing noise, the cold air as it rushes past my arms, neck and face, and my numb hands as they try to circulate blood to keep warm. Because there is no music to listen to, the only rhythmic noise is my steady breathing and, soon, that is all I am concentrating on. I love every bit of it. These feelings are why I continue to run and have ran for the past couple years. This is why I have accomplished four 5ks, one 10k, and three mud runs.

I ran to the gym for 1.64 miles at 12.04/mile. This is not as long as my run home because I needed to warm up a little by walking some of the distance there. Once I got to body pump, the room looked different. Finally, 24 hours fitness saw how sad our gym is and were finally painting the room and getting new weights. Right now, I use these sand weights for body pump mostly because all the iron weights are taken first. Since they are now getting rid of the sand weights, I need convert from the kilograms I am used to, to pounds. Bare with me as I calculate this out loud- one kilogram is 2.2 pounds (roughly). If I have one 2.5 kg weight, one 1 kg weight on each side of the bar, that would be equivalent to 5.5 pounds plus 2.2 pounds, which is 7.7 pounds. That is warm up weight- I add one more kg after that, which would make my heavier weight at 9.9 pounds. Good to know, so I know what I am working with. I spoke to my friend, Kathleen, and asked her if she noticed results faster when she was going twice a week. After a couple texts back and forth with her (and how amazing she looks), I decided I was going to give that a shot. So starting next week, I will try and do body pump Tues and Thurs. This will not only be beneficial because I will be lifting twice a week but both nights are taught by someone different, so it will switch it up just a tad.

My run home was more enjoyable than the run there because my muscles were nice and warmed up and it helped that none of it was uphill J This made it possible to shave 40 seconds off each mile and do 1.83 miles at 11.36/mile. After an hour and 40 minute workout, I felt amazing. Even this morning I still feel amazing because I know I gave a great workout the effort and drive it needed. I will give my boy a rest today, but Saturday morning will be the day I do a longer run. I need to start tacking on more and getting my mileage back up, so I figured bumping it up to 4 miles would be sufficient.

Run there: 1.64 miles at 12.04/mile

Run home: 1.83 miles at 11.36/mile

Believe Walk 2012

The Believe walk was more than I had expected. The streets downtown were shut down and filled with thousands of people, sporting the breast cancer color of pink. People's dogs were dyed pink and wearing tutus, grown men had pink wigs on, and even the kids were getting in on the fun. I felt honored to be among all these people supporting and raising awareness to such a giant cause.

I was not feeling well when I got there but I was too determined to run to let that deter me, so I popped in a cough drop and went on my way. Somehow, I even managed to do my best 5k time yet- just under 32 minutes! This isn't too far off from what I was doing a couple months ago, but for how hilly it was and me not feeling good, I was ok with it. I recorded my times I could find for the 5ks I have done thus far... I still REALLY want to get to my goal of 30 minutes before the end of the year.

April 2012- 32 min, 8 sec
November 2011-  34 min, 35 sec
June 2011- 37 min, 37 sec

Sometimes.

Some days I just don't want to go to the gym. Sometimes, I am so exhausted that all I want to do is lie in bed. It's these same days that I know I have to go. Tuesday was long and exhausting and the last thing I wanted to do was workout. I knew I didn't want to skip a week doing body pump, because it's even harder to pick up the next week. So I dragged my lazy ass there, moping and pouting the whole time. As soon as that class started though, I was fully focused and gave it all I had. It paid off and will continue to pay off. I was sore yesterday and still am a little today and feel myself getting stronger each time.

I am making it official. Next month my birthday gift for myself will be going to the running center and buying new shoes. I am way overdue but this month's bills/activities won't allow for such a purchase. I may try and find a type of runner's utility belt. I swore I didn't want to run with my gigantic smart phone but I finally gave the Map My Run app a chance. I love it. It's accurate, it stores all my runs, and keeps track of the routes I do. Last week I ran a little over 3 miles and saw I was still at my same running average- 12 min miles. I ran with Nicholas Sunday morning and we added sprints and were able to get those miles down to a little over 11 min. Granted, when I do the sprints, my runs become shorter because I wear myself out faster.

Below is a picture from last year's Survivor mud run along with a picture of this year's. It's nice to see how far along I have come. 

This year.

Last year. 

Time to Run Again

The weather is still hot, but it's just starting to cool down enough later in the day for me to run outside. I haven't done a good run outside in months,  so when I got a small taste of it at the Survivor mud run on Saturday, I wanted more.

I have appeared nonexistent on here but I assure you,  I have been alive and well. During the summer, I was working out or doing some kind of active sport about 5 times a week. I would love to be able to boast that I have completely transformed my body; slimmed down and toned up. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The past couple months, I have remained the exact same size and shape. I can feel the muscles and I feel stronger but it's all remaining under this shell of fat, so to speak. To keep myself from going insane, I've simply chosen to not step on the scale. I wish this was good enough, but what's really bringing me down is my lack of energy. I want to sleep all the time and there are moments in my day that I have found myself completely checked out, going through the motions but having no real excitement or feelings for it is I am experiencing. 

This is why I finally made a dr appointment. I went in today and he said I should do some blood work. I hope I can get that done soon and figure out what the heck is wrong with me. Even if I don't start loosing weight, I just want to have energy and feel alive again. 

So tired and much homework to do, so I shall post more later in regards to pictures from the mud run and (possibly?) results from the blood work. 

Til then...

Update on the 10k

So I made a decision not to do the Run through Redlands because a more exciting (at least I think so) opportunity presented itself. I received an email from Angels Baseball about their 5k. The race included a shirt, a free ticket to a game, and most importantly, the chance to run on the field! Since I hadn’t signed up for the 10k Run Through Redlands yet, this was perfect. It was like everything was set just right for me to do the Angels run. The only thing was that the Angels run was only a 5k and I still wanted to prove to myself that I could do a 10k.

So on Saturday the 14^th, I routed out what the Run Through Redlands would entail and… I ran it. I ran the whole way and I felt really good until about the last mile or so. I started to get tired (and a little bored, I have to say). I decided to run past where the finish line would be and continued home, making the total run about 6.5 miles. The longest run I have done yet! Not to mention, this accomplishes one of my goals for the year. The next day, however, I was having a little pain in my hips. The next Monday I was sick, but feeling antsy at night, so I did some squats. I was starting to really feel my right hip by then. The rest of that week, I took a break from running so that I could be prepared for the 5k on Sunday. All the way up until the race my leg (I discovered the pain wasn’t actually coming from my hip), was still there. I ran through it and as soon as I was done, I knew that maybe running wasn’t the best idea.

I am still in pain and still taking a break. I hope to be back to normal soon, because I really want to focus in on one of my other goals, and that was to do a 5k in 30 minutes. My time on this one was 32.08, which is pretty decent, considering where I started. On April 4^th of last year, I had recorded that my fastest 5k was 37 minutes (and some-odd seconds), so I have shaved over 5 minutes off! Keeping my fingers crossed that this recovery time is speedy.

Until then!

Feels Like I am Starting From Scratch

The Run Through Redlands is quickly approaching. I have wanted to do the 10k for the last couple months now, but got side tracked with other obligations and responsibilities (and well, laziness). Now it is about 3 weeks away and I need to get on it. I ran with Kale on Monday for 3 miles and I struggled the whole way. Getting back into running is not easy, but luckily the miles add up fairly quickly. I ran yesterday too and that was more work. With an insane work/school schedule, just finding the energy to expend is difficult enough. Every minute of my day is accounted for and it’s these school quarters where my planner quickly fills up with things to do. Finding the time for exercise is not an option though; I have to keep it a priority like I do with work and school.

In order to “train” for this run, I am going to have Nicholas help me with running 6 miles this Saturday and next Saturday. If I can accomplish it by next Saturday, then I should be good to go on the 22^nd  (day of the run). We used to be able to run about 5 miles and if I would have kept on that pace, this would be a piece of cake but we all know that other things get in the way. To be honest, I started doing other exercises besides running and with all my daylight being used at work and school the last couple months, I didn’t try to run in the dark. Instead, I went to the gym and started doing the elliptical and bike (and weights). Running on a treadmill is always a choice but it’s awfully boring. I can only make it a couple miles on the treadmill before I get bored and move on.

I will try not to put too much pressure on myself, because running should still be fun for me and it is, as long as I don’t stress myself out about it. I would like to do this 10k and be able to consistently run 6 miles. In a couple months, once I have that down, I will start on my speedwork for a 5k. This will come in perfect time for the hot weather that is approaching. If I am only running 5ks and working to increase my speed, then I won’t be out in the sun as long. See, it’s a win/win situation!

More to come later (including pictures) about the recent mud run I did.

Another Year, Another Competition

It’s the beginning of the year, so people like to make new years resolutions and start fresh with a clean slate. Many people have a common goal of wanting to get in shape and/or lose weight during the new year. This is no different at work, so we have decided to do another “Biggest Loser” competition. This one will be slightly shorter (6 weeks rather than 8), from Jan 3^rd to Feb 14^th. I made it through the holidays without gaining weight, so now I will jumpstart the new year with a good kick in the butt from my competitive side. Without the temptations from all the good foods that the holidays bring, this should make it a little easier to eat better.

Because I set my health goals last year, I would like to do a re-cap of those and see where I am at and make new ones or extend the goals I had previously.

Previous Goals:

-          Lose 30 pounds (done and done! I have lost 55 so far)

-          Run a full mile (the most I have ran without stopping is about 5 miles)

-          Try a new healthy recipe at least once a month (this was very difficult to maintain due to lack of time.)

-          Activate Gym membership (done!)

-          Get magazine and start taking advantage of the great tips they have to offer. (done but I could probably read this magazine a little more)

-          Continue to do my work-out video on Thursdays and find new ones (I believe this was a video I found on Netflix. I did not continue that one but I have found lots of other work-outs, including games on my Wii console)

-          Look at getting new running shoes (this has been done and I love them. However, with how much I run, I will probably need new ones in a couple months)

-          Buy an alarm clock (this is done but I think the purpose of this was to get up in the morning to run. This has proven to be difficult because the sun isn’t rising early enough for me to run. I might need to come up with another game plan for morning work-outs).

New Goals:

-          Lose 35 pounds by the end of the year

-          For Distance- be able to run a 10k without stopping.

-          For Speed- be able to run a 5k in 30 minutes

-          Try a new healthy recipe once a month (I am putting this one back on here and hope I can do it this time)

-          Get new running shoes by June 1^st

-          Schedule and accomplish 4 races (either a 5k, 10k, or mud run. I am doing a mud run at the end of March so far)

I think these are all doable and I am proud that I accomplished and exceeded most of my goals last year. 2012 is going to be just as good, if not better, than 2011!