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 I've been running in Asics for awhile now - before I had the GT-2170s, but they have been replaced by the 2100s.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.