Unplanned Half Marathon PR

Half marathon training has been a little bit up and down over the past month. In early October I was doing great, but the middle of the month was a bit tough due to work getting pretty stressful!

Only about 10 days out from the race now, and although I wish I had done a bit more training this month, I am still feeling prepared! I had one great long run a few weeks ago that definitely helped build my confidence going in to the race - I ran 13.1 miles (half marathon distance) faster than my time from the Dallas Half Marathon last year!

The run was originally scheduled to be 80 minutes at long run pace (typically 9:40-10:00 min/mile for me) and then 40 minutes at 'marathon pace', which essentially should be about 15-30 sec/mile slower than my planned half marathon pace - so around 8:45 min/mile.

The weather was so nice when we started the run (Sam was with me) that I got off to a faster start and ran the first few miles at a 9:15-9:20 pace. I think I was just really excited for it not to be so darn hot outside! And then I started thinking that if I ran the first 4 miles at 9:20, then 5 miles at 9:00, then 4 miles at 8:40, then I could beat my half marathon time from last year (9:04 min/mile average).

I didn't tell Sam what I was thinking until we were almost done with the run just in case I wimped out! The last few miles were tough but by that time I had put in multiple miles below 9 min so I wasn't going to be that close and not finish strong.

I can't wait until the weather cools off even more! I'm really glad I had that good run because the few weeks after weren't filled with too many miles. Hopefully the weather is just as nice or better for the race!

Back Again?

Hi all. Obviously it has been awhile! This summer was really busy in a fun way, but I also was totally kicked off of my routine - including blogging.  The thought of catching up on everything that has happened in the last 4 months is incredibly daunting, so I think I'll just pick up where things are today and sprinkle in some highlights from the summer (and some I still owe you guys from last spring) as I have time to get to them!

Anyway, after I finished my 1200 mile goal in June (yes, I did make it!), I took a bit of a running hiatus for a few weeks because 1) I had been running a lot and 2) it was soooo hot outside. Then in August I picked back up and started a half marathon training plan. I am signed up for a half marathon on November 8th in Port Arthur, which is just about 30 minutes from here so we won't have to travel which is nice!

The training plan I have been using is from the Garmin training website and basically I am using it out of convenience - all of the runs are time-based durations/intervals and I can download them directly to my watch which is great! The basic scheme of the training plan is:

M - rest
T - intervals
W - easy run
T - intervals or hard run
F - rest
S - random - some weeks easy run, some weeks hard
S - long run

There are also extra 30 minute recovery runs in the mornings on Tue/Thu in the plan, but I haven't been doing those because we all know I am not a morning person :) And I don't think I need that many miles anyway.

It has still been really hot out, but hopefully will cool down in the next few weeks! The interesting thing about the runs being based on time, and not distance, is that I usually don't realize how far I have gone until I look at my watch. Today's run was a good example - 15 minutes at easy pace, 15 minutes at race pace, 4 intervals at 10k pace with rest in between, then 15 minutes at race pace.

Somehow that turned into 8 miles - a pretty long run for a weekday! But since I was just running for time, I didn't pysch myself out beforehand like I would have if I had thought I was setting out to run 8 miles!

Other than running, my weight maintenance is going okay. I am up about 5-6 pounds over the summer. We did lots of traveling, which usually meant bad eating, which also meant I was more likely to eat bad even when we were home! But I'm hoping to be back down to 130 before the holidays.

Anyway, time to shower and get to bed! Hope you are all doing well.

Breaking In the New Shoes....

First of all, I had a great weekend in NC! I'll post a recap tomorrow hopefully. But I wanted to stop in with the weekly stats from last week, so here they are:

You can see my running schedule was all messed up last week, but I managed to get all the miles in eventually! I've been lucky that my legs have been feeling good enough to allow me to run 20 miles on the weekends!

I keep forgetting to weigh myself in the morning, I think because I've been extra tired in the mornings recently - probably a combination of all the running and allergy season! I haven't checked it since I've been back from NC, and I bet despite all the running I put on at least a pound or two with all the eating I did. I'm going to have to be careful with all the travel we have coming up this summer!

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I mentioned last week that I really needed new running shoes - my feet had been hurting and both of my pairs of shoes had over 450 miles on them. So on Thursday I finally went out and picked up these beauties:

They are Asics GT-2100. I've been running in Asics for awhile now - before I had the GT-2170s, but they have been replaced by the 2100s. I was a little worried because some of the online reviews said people could really tell a difference with the new model, but they feel the same to me!

I actually already ordered the exact same shoes through Sam's Mom (she has access to a discount program), but we won't be getting those for a few weeks and I just felt that I really needed new ones if I was going to make it to the 1200 mile goal without injuring my foot since it was already hurting. I tried on a bunch of other shoes to avoid ending up with two of the same pair, but in the end nothing else felt quite right. Doesn't help to have extra shoes around - plus, the bright colors are awesome, obviously, so at least I'll have two pairs of a shoe I love!

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I titled this post 'breaking in the new shoes' because I had quite an eventful run on Sunday. I ended up getting a bit turned around on my route and missed a turn. By the time I figured it out I decided just to go back the way I came rather than finish the route because it would be ~14 miles if I kept going and I had told my Mom I would be back by a certain time. So, I adjusted my route and headed back the way I came so that I could finish at ~12 miles and be home in time.

It had been kind of rainy all weekend, but the weather was pretty sunny when I left so I was hoping I wouldn't get rained on! I was out of luck though, because when I was still about 3.5 miles from the house it started pouring. As in, it was a torrential downpour. Luckily there wasn't a lot of thunder/lightning and I was wearing very bright, visible clothing so I felt safe, but I was just soaked!

I had left a map of my route up on my Mom's computer before I left, but since I had altered my route, even if they went out to try to find me they wouldn't be looking in the right place! I don't run with my phone (and if I had it would have been soaked too!) so I knew I would have to run the rest of the way back.

Luckily it wasn't a cold rain, but I was bummed about getting my new shoes totally soaked. By the end I was just running straight through 4-5 inch puddles/streams in the street because I was already so wet that it didn't matter. I was definitely motivated to run faster though:

I started picking up the pace after mile 7 when I had gotten turned around and was worried about making it home on time. But then sometime during mile 9 or 10 it started raining and I was going as fast as I could with water-logged shoes after that!

I have definitely been more sore/tired after that run than usually - but that might also have something to do with being totally off my normal sleep schedule this weekend too! But my shoes are all dried out now and appear to be just fine. Here's to hoping my next few runs are much less eventful :)

Busy Summer!

Well I guess I have been a bit MIA again this week, but I am working on it! Work has been a bit hectic - I've been able to keep my running basically on track this week, although my eating definitely hasn't been the best - Outback last night & Chick-fil-a tonight. Back to back splurging on weeknights isn't typically my style, but oh well!

This weekend I am super excited to be heading to NC for my sister's prom weekend! I'll also get to see one of her band concerts Sunday afternoon since I decided to take half a day of vacation and not fly back until Monday morning. Since the band concerts are usually on a weeknight, I have not been to a single one since she has been in high school (although I have made a marching band competition every year I think!).

Last year she made her super amazing Starburst dress, but senior year she is going to go more traditional. I am super excited to see her dress, help her get ready and get to meet her boyfriend for the first time!

We're actually going to be fairly busy over the summer, so hopefully I'll have lots to blog about! I'll actually be out of town for the next three weekends - prom this weekend, then we go to Colorado to Sam's aunt/uncle/cousins over Memorial Day (very excited for that!), and then back to NC the next weekend for graduation celebrations for my sister (Sam is coming with me for that one).

The rest of June will be fairly calm, but then it's back to NC for a week to go to the Carolina Beach, and then we'll be going to Wisconsin at the beginning of August for cottage weekend with Sam's family. A few of my favorite pictures from last summer:

We were so tan! Last year at Carolina Beach

Tubing at cottage weekend in Wisconsin

Finally, we are probably going to Kansas City for Sam's cousin's wedding over Labor Day. So all in all it should be a fun summer - we aren't taking a big vacation together like last year's cruise, but I think we'll have enough going on to keep us happy!

Also, it is ridiculous that I am up blogging at this time of night. This is how I get wild and crazy when Sam goes to Houston for work - up after midnight! Time to get some sleep to I am ready for the weekend. And for once, I am going to try to take some pictures with my family - I don't seem to have any good recent pictures and it is driving me crazy! So hopefully I'll be back with a prom update soon :)

Weekly Stats & Weekend Recap

Instead of just doing a weekly weigh in, I thought it might be fun to post a weekly stat sheet on Sundays or Mondays. Weight maintenance isn't the most exciting thing ever - I don't get to talk about a bunch of lost pounds each week anymore, so I thought I could spice it up by including some running data too? So, without further ado, here were my stats for last week -

Obviously I didn't do a great job of writing down my weight last week, but it was consistently in the right range so that was good! Also, I missed a weekday run because I was lazy and because my foot was hurting, but I made up for it on the weekend. Both of my pairs of running shoes have over 400 miles on them, so it is time for some new ones for sure! I can definitely tell me feet are hurting more over the past few weeks.

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In other news, I forgot to mention that on Thursday I was able to attend a local conference with the women's network from my office. I went to several different sessions throughout the day, but by far the best part was the keynote speaker - Jewel!

I wish I could have gotten a better picture but the lighting was terrible for a phone pic, obviously. She was an amazing speaker and she sang quite a few songs also so it was a double whammy! In telling her life story, she was absolutely hilarious at times and had us all close to tears at other times. She talked a lot about being responsible for your own happiness and working for it (rather than expecting it) as well as concentrating on the things we can control - our own thoughts and actions. And of course her voice was amazing and she even did her trademark yodeling too.

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We had a pretty relaxing but fun weekend. On Friday night, I went to a party at a co-workers house to celebrate the upcoming weddings of two girls that I work with. There were about 15 of us there and we had a fun time drinking wine, chatting and giving a few gifts to the ladies of honor or course!

Saturday night, Sam & I had our friends Daniel & Mallory over for dinner and games. We haven't seen them as much recently, so it was good to hang out. Sam even made chocolate lava cakes (should have taken a picture!) and they were delicious.

Otherwise, I mostly took care of the typical weekend stuff - grocery shopping, running and watching Netflix! I did make some casseroles to freeze since we are going to be traveling a good amount over the next few weeks. I've never frozen casseroles before, but I figured it might come in handy so hopefully it will turn out well! I made Chicken & Wild Rice (we had this Saturday night too, it was delicious but no necessarily low cal...) and Chicken Tetrazzini, which I haven't tried out yet.

Of course I didn't manage to take any pictures of the fun stuff, but I did snap this one at the grocery store to document the mayhem. I don't usually shop on Saturday afternoon and now I remember why!! There were 9-10 checkout lines open and all of them had 4-5 people lined up - boo.

Luckily I made it out alive! Today is a rest day to recovery from yesterday's long (and hot!) run, so I think I am off to run some errands and maybe buy new running shoes. Maybe ones that won't get holes in the toes like all my other pairs??

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Running: The 1200 Mile Goal

So in addition to the races (including my big goal for the year to run a marathon), I also set a goal to run 1200 miles in my 26th year (or I guess my 27th year? whatever, the whole year that I am 26!). This seemed like a tough but reasonable goal at the time - essentially 100 miles/month. I had planned out my training plans from my birthday (June 15th) through the marathon (Feb 17th) and then I would just continue running ~4 times per week until June.

In reality, I had some issues with my knee and several other things here and there, so by the time I finished the marathon, I was 70 miles behind on my plan! That meant there were a lot of miles to go in March, April, May and the first half of June.

The chart below shows my monthly mileage - you can see I really picked it up in December with marathon training, but January was a little lower after my knee issues, and February a was a little lower since I rested a bit after the marathon.

So March and April mileage were basically like marathon training, and my plan for May is pretty similar! And then you can see the plan for June is to just as many miles in half a month as I did in a full month in July-November. So obviously I did not do a great job of pacing myself through the year!!

Overall through, I think it has been really good to have this goal to keep me motivated without a big upcoming race. I've been running 5 miles on the weekdays (3 days/week) and I have consistently been running around 15 miles as a long run on the weekends - that's more than a half marathon! I am going to cut that back to 10-12 miles as it gets hotter outside, but I'm hoping to keep myself consistently in half marathon shape. In my experience it is always so hard to build the mileage back up, so I don't want to cut back too far and then have to start all over again.

And there is definitely something empowering about going out to run 15 miles for no real reason! I think I will probably keep the 1200 mile goal again for next year. My body has been feeling good lately, so I don't feel like I'm overdoing it. I definitely need some new shoes soon though since I've been packing on the miles!

It will be a challenge to keep up the mileage for May and June since I have quite a few weekend trips coming up, but I am so close to finishing now that (barring an injury) I don't think I'll let anything keep my from reaching the goal! It will definitely be satisfying to accomplish a plan that has been a year in the making :)

And speaking of, now I'm off to get in 5 miles today, hopefully before the rain hits!

Back in Action!

Well, clearly I have fallen off of the blogging wagon as of late. But I am happy to say that I am back! Hope you like the new look of the blog - I'm working on updating the other pages at the top for quick reference also!

I wrote a post earlier today about priority setting and why I have been MIA for a bit, but I also wanted to give you a taste of what is coming up as I get back in to the swing of things!

Running

• Over the past two months I've run 3 races that I am excited to tell you guys about!
• How am I doing with hitting my 1200 mile in 1 year goal by June 15th?
• Race/running plans for the rest of the year - still in brainstorming phase here

Weight Maintenance

• General update on how things are going with maintenance - struggles, successes, etc.
• Goals going forward - is 130lbs my forever happy weight?
• Recent low-cal recipes and changes to my meal planning process (thrilling, right?)

Life

• Recap of my brother's visit to Beaumont, including a trip to the Houston Rodeo
• Canoe trip, Houston Dynamo game & a new haircut (cliffhanger!!)
• What's coming up for the summer - lots of fun stuff planned...

Dogs

• Nothing really to update, except that they are still super cute, obviously.

I'll be posting links pretty frequently on facebook, but if you are a frequent reader then bookmark or subscribe to the RSS reader or follow me or whatever to make sure you get the most recent updates!

Priority Management

Well, it is no coincidence that my last blog post was in early March - things at work went crazy the week of March 4th. Someone in my group resigned, and I was tasked with covering both my job and their job over the next 6 weeks or so until a replacement was named. Most of the time it was fairly manageable, but it definitely did mess up my blogging schedule!

Usually I blog right when I get home from work - which had been around 5:15 or 5:30, leaving plenty of time to exercise, eat and relax afterwards. While I was covering both jobs I was getting home closer to 6:30 or 7, so something had to go!

Which brings me to the topic of priorities. If you want to start losing weight and/or exercising, of course the first step is having a plan - you guys know I love plans! But even the best plan only works if you consistently prioritize and execute it. One of the biggest challenges with weight loss/maintenance and with exercising is sticking with it when something changes in your life (such as a schedule adjustment like I had).

When it comes to sticking with a plan, I think it is helpful to literally list out your priorities. For me, the list looks like this:

1) Cover living expenses- put in enough time to cover basic job responsibilities (aka don't get fired!)
2) Maintain my relationships with my family & Sam, give the dogs some love each day
3) Maintain my health - namely weight maintenance via diet and/or exercise, getting enough sleep
4) Excel at my job - putting in extra time to be a high performer, take on extra work, etc.
5) Meeting running/exercise goals I have set for myself (beyond just weight maintenance)
6) Take time to relax - manage stress by reading or watching TV or browsing Pinterest or whatever!
7) Maintain relationships with my friends, attend social events, etc.

And the list would go on... (somewhere way down the list is blogging... which would still be slightly above 'doing the dishes' if I had it my way!)

Everyone's list is going to be different. For me, a very important distinction is that #1 and #4 are separate. I work in a competitive environment where lots of people work long hours, and most of us constantly feel behind. I've learned over the past few years to get more comfortable with that feeling, and if I need to leave work before everything is done in order to make sure I get a healthy dinner and time to exercise then I do. The work can get done the next day. Having a priorities list is a reality check - as long as I've done enough each day to stay employed, everything else is down at priority #4!

Not only can a list give you a reality check, but it can also serve as an affirmation. Over the past few months I felt guilty at times about not keeping up with friends or the blog, etc. But when I thought about it more, instead I felt proud - I realized that I was using my time consistent with my priorities to the best I could. I didn't gain any weight and kept up my running even through a stressful time at work, although my social life/relaxation time and the blog definitely suffered!

Priority setting is a personal thing, so be honest with yourself about what makes you happy and brings you satisfaction. Then, live your life accordingly! When things get too busy, instead of dropping the hardest/most inconvenient thing from the list (like exercising), drop off the lowest priority items. Later you will be proud of yourself for prioritizing well, not disappointed that you didn't meet your goals.

Visitors!!

First up, today's Wednesday weigh-in was 131lbs - not too bad considering all the eating I did this weekend!!

And speaking of the weekend, we had a really awesome time with Sam's parents while they were here. It was Sam's mom's first time to Beaumont, and Sam's dad's first time since Sam & I starting dating and Sam moved into the house. They flew in to Houston on friday afternoon after spending a few days skiing in New Mexico (a bit of a downgrade to come to Beaumont after that!) and were sweet enough to rent a car so we didn't have to drive all the way back and forth to the airport twice in one weekend.

Friday night Sam made ribs, which were awesome! We also had some dips and hummus beforehand. Then we watched the movie Joyful Noise, which was really cute (although predictable!). Saturday morning Sam's parents joined him in his Saturday morning ritual of getting up early and watching a movie over coffee. Call me crazy, but I prefer to stay in bed! Although they did watch 'Flight' which I had kind of been wanting to see, but not enough to get up before 7 for no real reason :)

We set out for a day our and about Beaumont around 10 and first stop was the Kolache Factory for breakfast. I had never heard of kolaches before I came to Beaumont, but basically they are sweet dough stuffed with various fillings (bacon, egg and cheese for example). The most traditional form has polish sausage inside. Anyway, they are delicious.

Then we made a few stops around Beaumont before lunch:

Fancy old car at the McFaddin Ward House

Downtown Beaumont - in front of Julie Rogers Theatre

Huge fire hydrant near the Texas Fire Museum.

For lunch we ate a Fuzzy's Tacos and then headed to a matinee performance of "The Importance of Being Ernest" put on by the Beaumont Community Players. I knew I had seen or read the play before, but I didn't really remember what is was about. It ended up being pretty funny and the quality of the acting was great considering it is local theatre in a relatively small city! We go there fairly often and we are usually impressed with the production quality.

After the play, we played hearts and hung out around the house. I got thoroughly beat by the end, although it was definitely one of the most competitive games of hearts I have played. (I got my revenge on Sunday though!)

Kind of holding my own for the first half!?!

We went to Pappadeaux for dinner and stuffed our faces with seafood, and then went to Dairy Queen afterwards (because we just hadn't eaten enough). We were all pretty pooped after that and just watched a bit of tv before bed.

Sunday we had planned a more relaxing day since Saturday was pretty busy. I did get up and fit in a 10 mile run, which was much needed after everything we had been eating! Then I made a pancake breakfast and we mostly hung out around the house. We had originally planned on going bowling, but we ended up having a Wii bowling tournament that was really fun (and much cheaper) so we decided to pass. We played hearts again and a few other games also. For dinner, Sam made pizza - so much that we are still eating it!! It has definitely been nice not to cook this week though!

We did take one outing to Rao's Bakery to pick out desserts and enjoyed them later on in the evening. It was also a bit of a late birthday celebration for Sam's dad, whose birthday was a few weeks ago (same day as my brother's, small world!).

Singing Happy Birthday!

We had such a nice time with them and I think they really enjoyed visiting us too! I think they were definitely impressed that Sam is 'all grown up' - he's more responsible than me around the house and a great cook to boot!! (he's a keeper I think!).

And to top it all off, we  got a special delivery of Wisconsin cheese! Icing on the cake if you ask me.

No one tell Kelly that we are supposed to share some with her, okay?

Anyone else want to come visit? I promise Sam will cook you something delicious! :)

Final Guest Room Prep

We had a great time with Sam's parents over the weekend! I'll work on a recap for tomorrow, but first I wanted to share the final touches I put on the guest room. Nothing like visitors to finally give me some motivation to tackle a few overdue projects!

I worked on the frame collage for awhile last week, but I finally decided to give it up for the time being since it wouldn't be ready in time. I had originally picked things out for most of the frames, but they just didn't look right once the frames were painted white. Maybe I was being too much of a perfectionist, but anything dark just looked too dark and anything slightly off-white just didn't look nice in the crisp white frame. So sadly, the frame collage continues to be on hold...

But the good news is, I might not even need it. I did get a chance to work on my corkboard map project, and I had forgotten how big it was! I originally intended to put it above the bed, but it was so big that it actually fit better on the opposite wall. This was a late night project and I didn't take any pictures of the process, but the short story is: cork board + map + staple gun = corkboard map!

I was quite excited with the end result! I want to get some of the long skinny vintage-y push pins, but the ones I have will do for now. Sam parent's got to put in a purple pin next to the green one I had already added. (Purple = visitors. Green = places Sam & I have been together.)

I also hung up a mirror next to the door that I bought at Home Goods forever ago and hadn't done anything with. Felt good to finally hang it up! Annnnnd all of the doors finally got painted!! Both the bedroom and the long forgotten hallway doors finally match the trim for once. I couldn't get a good picture of the hallways doors since the lighting is bad in there and I take terrible iPhone pictures anyway, but you can imagine :)

And finally, we changed out the bedding! I already had this comforter set form Target, but we hadn't been using it. The other bedspread we have is actually a higher quality, but since we let the dogs hang out on the bed fairly often it had gotten a little beat up. Plus this one is light and fluffy, which I think is nice for guests!

All together I was happy with how the guest room turned out. Altogether we painted, bought new lamps, changed out the bedding and added some wall decor. A decent amount of effort, but not too bad and mostly things I had been wanted to do anyway. I would still like to find something to put over the bed, but in general I was just glad that I got anything on the walls at all!

Now we have my brother coming this weekend and then Sam's sister Kelly and a few friends coming through next week on their way to New Orleans for spring break. So at least the room will get some use!

Interval Training

Today was another Wednesday weigh-in and I am happy to say that my weight was 130.2 this morning after a couple of weeks closer to 132. I'm still sticking with the calorie counting, and although I was over several days last week, I was under on the weekend due to my long run, so I was on plan for the week.

Speaking of the weekend, it has been a couple of days since my last post! Not too much has been going on, we spent most of the weekend working on the yard. I didn't take any before and after pictures because the before was pretty shameful and the after is just average! Not that we didn't work hard, but at this point it was mostly clean up, getting rid of fire ants and the spreading fertilizer/weed killer so hopefully things will grow well in the spring!

I had planned to run 10 miles on Sunday, but I got a bit of a late start so it was pretty warm out (TX winter does not exist, it has been 75 for the past week or so!) and then my left ankle and knee still had some nagging pain so I headed home early and just did 8.5 miles, which I still thought was pretty good the week after the marathon! My right hamstring had also been bothering me, but I think that has mostly worked itself out now.

In addition to working towards my goal of 1200 miles before by birthday in June, I'm also trying to work on my speed ahead of the 5k I am running next weekend. I haven't been trying to run fast for awhile now, so I'm hoping to gain some speed back over the next few weeks! One thing I learned last summer is that interval training is key to getting faster.

Before I started running intervals I had a really hard time running any faster than 10 min/mile - maybe sometimes 9:30 min/mile if I really focused on maintaining my pace, but my body's natural rhythm was at 10:00 it seemed.

When I started my 5k training plan last summer it included interval runs every Wednesday so instead of running the prescribed distance at a consistent pace, I would run as fast as I could for 0.25mi and then recover at a slow jog or walk for 0.15mi. Nothing special about those distances, but the training plan called for 400m (which is about 0.25mi) and the loop in my neighborhood is 0.40mi, so I figured I'd recover for the rest of the loop and then start again. You can also do time based intervals (fast  run for 2 mins, recover for 1 min, for example).

Either way, the whole point is to force your body to do something uncomfortable and get away from its 'default pace'. Once I started doing intervals my other runs got faster too because my body no longer thought that running was only one speed! If that makes any sense :)

Anyway, for today's workout I did 12 repeats of the 0.25/0.15 intervals, with a 0.2 mile warm up for a total of 5 miles. That was the most repeats I have ever done, so I figured the last ones would be tough, but I was hoping to be under 7 min/mi for at least the first half! I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to do them all under 7 min/mi! I always think the charts look fun after I upload the data from my Garmin:

You can see I also wore my heart rate strap. It is not the most comfortable thing for sprints since it straps across my rib cage and makes it a bit harder to catch my breath, but I like to have the data so I can see how fast I might be able to run the 5k. Since my heart rate got up to 190 after a quarter of a mile at a 6:30 pace, I definitely can't run that fast for 3 miles! But hopefully a little slower (near 7:15 maybe?) will do the trick!

Tomorrow I need to do 5 miles again and I am not sure what my plan is for the run. I will probably try to make it a fast run since I'll take a couple of days off before running again on Sunday. Might as well wear myself out!

In Other News...

I feel like all I have posted about recently is running! And although that's been pretty all consuming, there have been a few other things going on in my life in the past few weeks.

For starters, we've been sprucing up the house a bit since we have a string of visitors coming in March. I started by painting the guest room a nice, boring tan color to go with the rest of the house. The big change is painting the trim a nice crisp white - before both the walls and the trim were the same off white color (which you can still see on the door.... I swear all those doors are getting painted this week!)

I am working on a couple of projects for the walls, since as you can see they are quite empty. First up was the frame collage that I have been 'planning' for about 2 years now. Those frames are getting a nice coat of paint, and at some point I just have to find time to hang them.

Sam says I always talk about spray painting but never do - proof!

I'm also hoping to work on a pinboard map, but we'll see if that happens - don't want to get too optimistic since we also have a lot of yard work to get to this weekend!

We also decided to finally replace the fans in both the guest room and the master bedroom. I don't know why I didn't think to take any before pictures, since the fan in the master was especially atrocious, but oh well. Replacing the fans was definitely a two person job and took a lot longer than we expected (at least 1.5 hours each) - although I'm sure we were not the most efficient since we really didn't know what we were doing!

New master bedroom fan - the guest room fan is similar.

Other than the housework, we went out for sushi on Valentine's Day, which after 2 years in a row I suppose is officially a tradition! We started off taking a few normal pictures, which quickly digressed when they brought out long stemmed roses to all the women in the restaurant. I was laughing so hard at all of Sam's faces:

I was also too hungry by the time the food got there to take any pictures before eating apparently!

We had a nice night, ate too much sushi and mostly bought each other candy. We are serious candy lovers around here! Sam also got me an entire box of Madagascar 3 valentine's rather than just a normal card and scattered them around the house with silly things written on them like "To: Will Smith, From: Aliens" and "To: Tootsie, From: Roll" - it made me laugh a lot and kept me entertained as I kept finding them!

Other than that, I did make this lasagna this week that was really good and only 350 calories for a fairly large serving. I increased the recipe to make 8 servings and we have been eating on it for several days.

Recipe from Cooking Light March 2013, you can find the recipe online here. I realized I haven't been posting many recipes lately, and since we typically try 3-4 new recipes each week around here, I definitely have a lot to pull from! So I'll try to start including that more often.

Hope you guys are having a good weekend! Are you watching the Oscar's tonight? We developing a voting ballot and scoring system to make it a little competition, and Sam is making mushroom risotto so dinner so that sounds fancy and Oscar-like right?

No More "I Could Never..."

Yesterday I alluded to the 'one big takeway' I had from the marathon. The major realization basically boils down to this: if you want to, you can. Now obviously there are limits to this (having x-ray vision, growing money on trees, turning water into cookie dough, etc.) but I have spent a good portion of my life thinking that "I could never...." - fill in the blank with any fitness or weight loss accomplishment. What I have learned is that if you want it bad enough, you can make it happen.

So my charge to you is to stop saying to yourself "I'm not the type of person who could ever run a marathon" or "I could never have the discipline to cut/count calories and lose weight" because it is not true! It might not be easy or convenient, but (unless you have a legitimate medical concern) you can lose weight and you can exercise (and even finish a marathon!) if you really want it. It might take 3 months or 5 years  but you can do it. The question is not whether you can, but whether you want it enough to work for it and make sacrifices if needed along the way.

I hope that is encouraging for some of you! Sometimes it is also a harsh realization - usually it is only you who is standing in your own way. You'll have to sort out discipline and scheduling and motivation and sacrifice along the way and those are hard things too. But don't let fear of failure or low self confidence stop you from even starting! Because if I can do it, so can you.

Here's my thoughts on how to get from where you are now to finishing a marathon (or any other goal you have - if you are at all sane, you probably aren't interested in 26.2 miles!)

Decide What You Want (And Prioritize!)

To ever get started you need to have a goal. And you need to be realistic in what you are willing to give  up to get there. If your goal is to go to an exercise class three times/week, are you willing to give up two dinners out to eat a month to pay for a gym membership? Yes sounds like the obvious answer, but it might not be the right one for you. Be realistic with yourself on your priorities. Maybe you need that time out with friends to decompress from stress at work and you would be better off not joining a gym at all. You can always exercise for free at home just by walking or jogging. It might be less fun than the exercise class, but you don't have to give up your nights out.

The same thing goes for weight loss - would you rather go all out and cut back to 1200-1300 daily calories and lose the weight fairly quickly just to get it over with? Or would you rather not suffer through those 3-6 months of not eating out, no dessert, etc. (it is pretty rough)? Maybe you would be better off cutting back your calories slightly and losing weight over 1-2 years. Do what will work best for you.

Weight loss and exercise are not the only things in our lives for sure! Don't set a goal of working out five times a week if you know that your family schedule won't allow it - constantly failing at your goal will not make you feel good. Instead start with two dedicated times a week and move heaven and earth to meet that commitment to yourself. It will be far more effective in the long run than trying to fit in five and constantly having to skip workouts.

You have to start somewhere, so make sure your goal is manageable and fits with your priorities.

Set Small Goals Along the Way

If your ultimate goal is a long way off from your starting point, then set milestones along the way. Way back in 2010 when I started exercising I didn't have a goal of running a marathon 3 years later, but if I had, 3 years probably would have been the right time frame from my couch potato starting point!

Setting smaller goals not only helps you stay motivated since the payoff is more immediate, but it also helps you build confidence along the way. Start with something small like "I will walk a 5k by the end of June" or "I will run a mile without stopping within 8 weeks" and go from there. Each success will make you more excited for the next milestone.

This applies to weight loss too - if you want to lose 50 lbs, make sure to celebrate every 10 pounds with a reward or at least an conscious acknowledgment of how far you have come. Always focus on how well you have done so far, and it makes how far you have left to go much less scary!

Move at Your Own Pace

It is easy to go look up a training plan online and think "perfect, I can be marathon ready in 18 weeks"! But in reality, everyone improves at their own rate and there is no cookie cutter training plan for everyone. When I trained for my first half marathon last year I (luckily) left a few extra weeks in my training plan because I knew that I had always had a hard time building distance quickly - I ended up repeating an 8 mile long run three times before I felt ready to move on to 9 miles. Don't feel pressure to meet a certain timeframe - if you sign up for a 5k and you have never run one before, then start your 8 week training plan 12 weeks before the race. That will allow you to repeat weeks if needed, and there's no downside to being over prepared!

Lose Weight (If You Need To)

Running/exercise may or may not help you lose weight. If you keep your eating habits the same, then adding exercise will definitely burn off the pounds. But if you eat more because you treat yourself for exercising, or just because you are more hungry from working out, you may not lose any weight at all. That happened to me with triathlon training in 2010.

BUT, losing weight will definitely help you run. I can hardly think of a running or exercise goal where losing weight would not help (sumo wrestling?). Not only will you likely have more energy, but it is much less of a strain on your joints! I do not think I could have completed marathon training injury-free while I was overweight. Everyone is different, but my joints don't seem extremely strong as is! And I definitely noticed an increase in speed after I lost about 30 pounds. I was consistently running 10 minute miles and struggling to run even a single mile faster than that, but over the summer after about 30 pounds lost, I was really able to pick up the pace.

So, if you have an exercise goal, particularly with running or walking, consider losing weight to help you meet it! And if you goal is losing weight, don't count on just exercising to get you there without also paying attention to what you are eating.

Don't Expect It To Be Fun (At First)

Exercising is generally not fun. Especially when you are first starting out and your body is screaming "WHYYYY!!" Continually remind yourself that you are doing it because it is good for your health. Do you brush your teeth because it is fun? Probably not. Exercising is a part of taking good care of your body too. The minutes or hours you spend working out might not feel fun, but the satisfaction you get from the results will be worth it.

Plus, there are lots of ways to make exercise more fun. Do it with a friend, join a class that you love, buy bright, fun workout clothes, make awesome playlists on your iPod that you only listen to while working out, etc. You may or may not get the "endorphin high" people talk about while running, but always keep in mind - most people don't work out because they love it, they work out because the love the results and it is good for them. That can be you too!

If you want to, you can. That was my big takeaway and I hope you will take some time to think about it. Lifestyle changes can be really difficult, but they are one of the only things in life that we have complete control over! Don't stand in your own way due to fear or self-doubt. If you want something bad enough, make a plan and make it happen!!

Marathon Training FAQs (kind of...)

First, I owe you a Wednesday weigh-in - today's weight was 132, so I am flat from last week. It actually had come down to 130.8, but I've been extra hungry in the few days after the marathon so I've been eating a little above my calorie goal. I'm not really worried about it, but if it keeps going up I will have to reevaluate things!!

I mentioned yesterday that I would write up some of my thoughts on the marathon process. I had one big overall takeaway that I'll save for it's own post tomorrow. For today I'm going to answer what I assume would be the most frequently asked questions about my marathon experience (if you guys had asked haha).

What was the best part about the marathon experience?

First of all, of course finishing was the best part - seeing all of my hard work pay off! But I think in general the best part was constantly reaching a new milestone. Nearly every time I did a long run it was the farthest I had ever run before. Unless I go crazy and decide to run farther than 26 miles, I'll never have that feeling again, so I think getting to have that experience of being constantly amazed at what my body can do was the best part. And that all culminated in the race itself, which of course was a new 'longest distance ever run' for me.

What was the worst part about the marathon experience?

Beforehand, I would have expected that my answer would be the time required for the long runs. But I'll get to that in later section. The absolute worst part was dealing with the self doubt after my bad run. Maybe I need to get better at handling failure, but it took me longer to mentally recover from that than it probably should have. But I'm proud to say I was able to turn it around and think positive and the race went great even after all that worrying! I guess in general, the fear of the training not paying off was the worst part. Hopefully now that I've been through it once, if I decide to do another I can  go in with more confidence and not be thrown off my game by one bad run.

What is one thing that you wish you knew before you started marathon training?

This is definitely where the time commitment factor comes into play. I knew before I started that training for a marathon meant 2-3 hour training runs for several weeks in a row. What I underestimated is that the weekend long run essentially takes up three days of your week. The day before the long run, you don't want to do anything too strenuous, need to get a good night of sleep and need to not eat anything to greasy, no alcohol, etc. Of course there are exceptions, but the run might be pretty brutal. Then, after the long run you are pretty wiped out. And the day after the long run you are sore, so you don't want to do too much then. Add that to running 7-8 miles on Wednesday's and it definitely becomes a big time commitment.

That's not to say that I wasn't able to maintain my normal life while training, but it did mean that I needed to do a lot of planning in advance (you guys know I love having a plan!) and be willing to sacrifice some things for my training. I don't say this to scare any of you off - it was unexpected but manageable!

Do you feel like your training plan worked?

I definitely thought my training plan was appropriate in terms of total mileage, how fast the mileage built up, etc. You definitely need to consider your starting point, but for me it worked out well. I essentially started training in June, and at the time I had completed a half marathon (in March) and was running around 3-4 miles on a routine basis. I used Hal Higdon's training plans after reviewing plans online, I think I picked them someone randomly, but I did like that it was usually 4 days a week of running, not 5 days.

6/11 - 8/19:     Intermediate 5k Training Plan - I repeated weeks 7 & 8 to make a 10 week plan
8/20 - 10/14:   Intermediate 10k Training Plan - Did not do strength training or cross training, oops.
10/15 - 2/17:   Novice 2 Marathon Training Plan - Did not to do cross training, oops again.

So, as you can see, it was a long process! But I knew from previous running experience that it takes me a while to build up mileage, and I also wanted to work some on my speed. So it made sense to work through those 5k and 10k training plans first. I got faster, which helped me set and meet my goal for the Dallas Half Marathon (under 2 hours!), and by the time I finished the 10k plan, I could run 8 miles pretty easily, which was a great starting point for marathon training.

What would you do differently?

I think one thing that would have benefitted my training is to actually do the strength training and cross training that I left out of my training plans. It would have been hard to fit in strength training to my marathon plan, but if I had done some during the 5k and 10k time periods, when my distance was less and I had more time, then I would have been stronger for my marathon training. And stronger = less knee pain most likely! And I do think the cross training would have helped to keep my legs from wearing out towards the end of my training. In the last few weeks I definitely felt slower on my training runs and overall just more physically worn down. The cross training would have helped loosen up my muscles by working out using different muscle groups than running, and still would have been easier on the joints that running.

Will you do another marathon?

I think so, but I'm not sure when. I definitely will do a half marathon again next fall/winter and I want to work on improving my time event further. But I'm not sure if I'll be ready for another marathon next year - it probably depends on what is going on in the rest of my life. But I definitely think I will want to do another one in the next 2-3 years, and maybe even with a goal this time. Under 4 hours would be awesome!

What's next for you with running?

I have a few things coming up - first I am running a 5k here in Beaumont on March 9th - my brother is coming to visit and he is running it too. I would love to beat my previous 5k record, which was a 7:19 pace, but I don't know if that is in the cards since I am just coming off the marathon! But I did a fast run today and it felt pretty good so we will see. Since it is a small race, I probably have a chance of placing in my age group, which would be awesome, but it all depends on who is there that day! My time is fast, but not that fast!

After that we have the Texas Independence Relay, which is shaping up to be super fun since our good friends Declan & Christine decided to do it too. It will certainly be an experience as 12 of us cover 200 miles of Texas roads, running all through the night! Overall, we'll probably run about 16 miles each over 3 different legs, so not too bad compared to the marathon.

The after that, my last  goal is to hit 1200 miles by my birthday on June 15th! I have to stay pretty active to get there, so right now I'm targeting about 25 miles/week. Then maybe I'll start all over again with the 5k and 10k training plans? We'll see!

I'm also looking forward to getting back to other forms of exercise - biking, and maybe some of that strength training I've been needing! We actually have a few fitness classes offered at the office gym now, so I'll try to take advantage of that some too.

We'll thats all of the made-up FAQs I can think of - if you guys have any other questions definitely let me know!!

Austin Marathon Recap

So I am thrilled to say that I am now officially a marathoner! Most of you probably saw on facebook, but the short story is that I accomplished nearly all of my goals from this post:

1. Finish the race. Done!
2. Finish the race on my own terms. Check, since I accomplished #3!
3. Run the whole race (except for walking through water stations and such). Unbelievably, yes! 
4. Finish at a 10 min/mile pace. Almost, my Garmin said 10:10 min/mile - close enough for me!!

This post will probably get a bit long, but I want to document my race experience!

Before the Race

The race started at 7AM, so we got up at 4:45 to have enough time to eat breakfast and digest a bit before running. I ate my english muffin with peanut butter, which was my plan, and then took some Gu  Chomps (basically energy fruit snacks) with me to eat once we got downtown. Turns out the buses weren't running from outside Kelly's apartment, but we were able to drive down and find a parking spot not too far out of the way. By the time we checked our bags in and stood in line to use the bathroom one last time (very important if you are going to be running for 4 hours!) it was basically time for the race to start!

Hard to get a good picture in the dark!

Sam & I got up to the 'corrals' right as the race was starting, but it was no rush since it takes a long time to get thousands of people moving. The way it works is that you line up based on your expected pace, from fastest to slowest, so I was fairly far back and perfectly okay with that. Sam probably should have started a little farther up, but no matter what you end up weaving through people for the first few miles so it didn't really matter. We finally got moving and crossed the start line at about 7:09.

Miles 1-10: Don't Start Too Fast!

For the first few miles I was just focused on keeping and even pace and not starting out too fast! I wore my heart rate monitor that syncs with my Garmin watch, so I was able to keep and eye on my pace and my exertion level. My 'max heart rate' is 190, and I didn't want to end up much above 180 by the end, so I decided to target around 170 for the first half of the race. That meant I had to take it easy on the uphills on miles 4-6, but I cruised a little faster on miles 7-9, which were mostly downhill.

By about mile 10, I felt pretty confident that I would be able to run the whole race. My knees were hurting, but it was a normal level of ache, not the 'my knee can't support my weight anymore' type pain that made me stop a few weeks ago. So I started psyching myself up for that and also focusing on my pace a little bit. I was averaging around 10:02 per mile through the first 10 miles so I thought maybe I could keep it up the whole way.

Miles 10-20: Gummy Bears & Trying to Enjoy It!

I took my energy gel at mile 9, and by mile 12 I was starting to feel hungry! I knew they weren't giving out energy gels until mile 17 so I was a little bit worried. Luckily the race spectators in Austin were awesome and lots of them were handing out food! I grabbed a whole handful of gummy bears from a tray around mile 13, and that hit the spot! By mile 15, my pace had slipped to 10:08 or so, so I knew that I wouldn't be able to get it back down to 10 min/mile, but I was still pretty happy with my pace so far!

I would say that around mile 15-19 is when I started to really enjoy the race. The first 15 miles I was so focused on pacing myself so that I wouldn't burn out early, and worrying about whether or not my knee would start hurting worse, etc. that I really wasn't taking time to just relax and enjoy it! Once it hit mile 20, I was pretty excited that I had now run farther than ever before, but I also started worrying about "hitting the wall" - I've always heard that happens around mile 20!

Miles 20-26: Setting a Random New Goal

I made it through miles 20-23 a little slower (about a 10:30 pace) and at that point I knew I wouldn't be able to hit a 10 min/mile average pace, so I started hoping that I would make it in under 4 hours, 30 minutes. I didn't know exactly what pace that would be, but I figured if I stayed around the same pace I could make it. Then around mile 23 was when I finally 'hit the wall' I suppose. My ankles started hurting, my left one in particular, which I have never had happen before. But at that point I knew there was only 3 miles left and there was no way I was stopping! I checked my watch with about 2.8 miles left and it was 11:09, so I knew there was about 30 more minutes and I could probably still make it!

At this point, my dialogue with myself was getting pretty entertaining. I kept trying to pump myself up with things like "it's okay if you totally ruin your knees - this isn't a training run, it IS the race - who cares if you need surgery later!" (even though my pain was never that bad) and "Rachel, actually lifting your legs is going to be a requirement for finishing the race" (after I dragged my toes a few times and almost tripped). But mostly I just focused on the fact that I was so close to the finish and to my goal of running the whole race, and that I would be so disappointed if I stopped to walk now!

(I should probably mention at this point that I don't think there is anything wrong or shameful about walking during a race - I know a lot of people even employ a run/walk strategy on purpose. In fact, during those last few miles there were numerous people that I passed while they were walking who came running past me a few minutes later - they were able to run faster by taking short walk breaks. It's a great strategy for some people. But for me personally, I had set a goal to run the whole thing and that was more important to me even than my finish time. Plus I knew that for me, starting to walk would make it really hard to start running again!)

The Finish!!

Within the last half mile there was a pretty steep hill (cruel!) but at the top Sam & Kelly & Will (Kelly's roommate) were there cheering so that pumped me up for the last little bit! Sam tried to grab a few pictures, but of course I wouldn't be capable of giving them a normal, smiling face:

I was in the middle of raising my arms to cheer, but I guess Sam took the picture a bit early, so I look ridiculous!

Should have just smiled for this one and it would have been good! But I was in the middle of yelling "I haven't
 stopped yet" as if I couldn't believe it... I look like I'm either lost or mad that someone is taking my picture! Oh well.

As I rounded the corner to the finish line I could see the race clock showing 4 hours and 38 minutes, and since I started 9 minutes after the clock started, my new 4:30 time goal was still in reach! I crossed the finish line after it hit 4:39, but I didn't know if I had made it because I couldn't remember how many seconds into the 9th minute we had crossed the start line!

After I crossed the finish line and stopped, all of a sudden I could barely walk. It's kind of hilarious when you think about it, because literally 2 minutes earlier I was running and now I could hardly move my legs! I guess that's what the adrenaline does for you! I hobbled through the medal area and got a water bottle and a banana and went to get my bag. I sat down on the curb (that felt nice!) and I called my Mom right away. She had been tracking my progress online and told me that I had finished in 4:29:41 - just barely under!!! I was definitely excited about that! All together it was an interesting mix of emotions at the finish - I was so proud and excited but also so tired and relieved to be done that it kind of all balanced out to neutral, or maybe I was just stunned!

Here's a couple of the "official race photos" I haven't purchased them yet (and probably won't), so sorry for the low quality and the copyright watermark - I guess they don't want you taking the pics off the internet (like I just did haha).

I hobbled over to meet up with Sam, Will & Kelly and headed out to lunch after much-needed showers!   We headed back to Beaumont right after lunch, and we were home by 8 so that wasn't too bad. On Sunday my joints were so sore - I waddled more than walked for the rest of the day! But Monday and today and I have had more general muscle soreness, but not too much lingering knee/joint pain. My ankle still feels strained, but I think it just needs a few more days to rest and recover. All together, not too bad for running 26.2 miles! I've had fun recounting the whole thing to family and friends and now you guys - it's hard to believe it really happened!!

It was also awesome fill in a blank spot on my personal records on the Garmin Connect website where I track all of my runs! Note that I actually ran more than 26.2 miles - pretty typical that a race ends up a little longer than advertised. My watch said 10:10 pace for those 26.3 miles, but if you divide my total time by 26.2 miles the pace would have been 10:17.

Well I think that is enough for today, I have some more thoughts on the whole marathon process in general but I will save those for tomorrow! All in all it was an awesome race and I am just grateful that I didn't experience any bad knee pain or any other pain that made me stop. I know it is mostly due to my training but I feel like there is some amount of luck involved - any day can randomly be an 'off-day' so I am thankful that this was not one of those! Thanks to all of you guys for your words of support - as I was running I knew I wanted to be able to report a good race back to everyone!!

Race Prep: Nutrition

Well the marathon countdown is now at 17 hours!! We are in Austin staying with Sam's sister Kelly and trying to keep it low key today. The weather looks like it is going to be perfect tomorrow so that's a plus! Today we went to the expo and picked up our shirts & our bibs with our numbers on them, so I guess this is really happening! I also snagged a free 5x7 print that I think is pretty cute and will look good in some sort of frame collage in the house:

I talked the other day about mentally preparing for a race, which has been my biggest challenge so far. But another important component of race prep is nutrition. Of course it is important to eat healthy foods while you are training, but the last few days before the race are extra important. I am not an expert in this area at all, so I've been looking for articles to help making a plan.

Basically, the articles I have read online (such as this one) suggest the following principles:

1. Don't try to just load up on carbs the night before the race. Instead, increase your daily carb intake gradually in the week before the race up to about 70% on the last few days before.
2. Do the same thing with hydration - don't just try to drink a lot of water the day before or you may feel bloated. Ensure you stay well hydrated the week before the race rather than just chugging water the day before.
3. On the morning of the race, eat what you usually eat! Presumably you have done numerous trainings runs, so you know what worked and what didn't as far as breakfast before a run. Don't try something new just because it is race day.

And obviously, it is wise to avoid greasy foods or lots of sugar right before the race also. We have definitely been eating Valentine's candy this week, so at least for today I am trying to hold off!

I already track my calories daily on MyFitnessPal and the app also shows a chart of % carbs, protein and fat. So my plan was to use that to make sure I ramped up my carb intake over the week. Typically I eat 50-55% carbs, so Wednesday and Thursday and did about 60%. I was planning to do 70% yesterday and today but I somehow ended up back down around 55% yesterday - oops.

Today I have no idea where I stand - we ate lunch at Whole Foods and I just got a wide assortment of things from the salad bar so that will be a challenge to add up, but I did try to make sure I got a decent amount of carbs in. We are going to have pasta for dinner, so hopefully I end up closer to 70% today? Regardless, I think I will be fine since I never really bothered "carb-loading" for my long training runs!

I've definitely tried to be conscious of staying hydrated this week, which just reminded me I need to be drinking more today than I have been. So I think I've got that one covered.

In the morning I am planning to eat an english muffin with peanut butter and a banana, which is what I pretty much always eat before long runs. Hopefully that means no digestive issues on the course since it is tried and true! I'll probably eat a couple of energy gel chews before the race starts too - sounds weird but they are basically just big fruit snacks! And then during the run I will refuel every 8-9 miles with either an energy gel or more chews, which is also what I have done in training so I think that will work out well.

I have tried enough different things in my training that I think I know what works for me. Next time, if I'm targeting a fast pace or something of the sort I might pay a little more attention to what I eat for the entire week before, but for now, it is what it is!

Anyway, we are off to hit up some thrift stores I think. Hopefully next time I write I will be a marathon finisher!!