I met some more runners!

I went to the track tonight to do my 3.5 mile run. I was rounding mile 2.5 and a group of runners were coming my direction. As they past they invited me to run with them. I said I probably couldn’t keep up, but they said “sure you can!” So, I I joined in… just a few months ago I never would have, but I guess I am getting used to opening myself up to new things. I joined them and although I was more out of breath and breathing fairly hard, it was great. I ran with them for my last mile. I was getting a little tired before I started running with them, but as soon as I joined I felt my pace pick up a bit.  Although talking was difficult, it was nice to have that distraction. They seemed like experienced runners. The two women are getting ready for half marathons and two men were gearing up for full marathons.

It turns out that they are trying to start a running club – The Tryon Running Club. They are going to start meeting on Thursday nights. I will definately be joining them.

I think my success this time around is really due a lot to the support I am getting this time. Tuesday nights for the speed training is really great. Everyone there is really encouraging and it is nice to be around other people that push each other. Now if I have that same type of support on Thursday’s, too, that will be great.

I am talking off from running until Sunday. I am going to do some cross training and let my legs rest!

Ice, Ice, Baby…

yes, that was the theme last night, this morning and tonight. Ice on the shins, on the calfs, and my left hamstring. Last night I just felt a little tight and the ice felt good. This morning my hamstring was sore. It hurt getting out of bed and took awhile to loosen up. I went down to the treadmill for my morning incline walk and it was hard. The incline didn’t bother it as much as the speed. I could barely walk 3 mph. I only did about 25 minutes – enough to burn 200 caloires. I usually shoot for 300 calories, but this will have to be good enough.

The hardest part today was getting up from a sitting position. If I was moving it seemed better so I decided to get on the ellitical for a bit. After 30 min at a moderate pace and resistance it felt MUCH better.

The plan for my running tonight was 2 miles. I hit the track and did 2 miles at 11:56 pace. I felt pretty good, but by the end I could feel my shins tighten up. I got home to mark the run off my running calendar and noticed Brian put “2 miles @15 min/mile”. I guess that means I should have WALKED. I should have paid more attention! I will be sure to read more carefully.

So, tomorrow the running plan says run 3.5 miles. I am going to do abs and upper body instead of more cardio in the morning and at lunch. Hopefully my legs will be ready for the run!

I Ran Like Crazy Tonight!

Speed training was awesome! I did all my intervals and I did them under my alloted time. The running coach said the pacing is important so I should try not to run them faster. Believe me, I was NOT TRYING to run them faster – they just about killed me. I learned after the first couple what pace I needed to be at. The first two I ran as fast as I could because I assumed that I would not meet the time alloted. When I realized I ran them faster I was SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy that I joined the running club. I really look forward to Tuesdays! I just cannot wait for the weather to warm up a bit though! Tonight was much better than last week but it was damp tonight.

Do It Again… Only Better

The theme for this week is “Do it again… only better”. Last week was a good weightloss week and if I want to continue on the downward trend I have to keep improving. I have this saying stuck in my head. It actually comes from this game that my daughter had growing up called the “Bop-it”

“An electronic toy that challenges response time to pull, twist, and bop different parts of the toy. The extreme version adds two more tasks, more sounds, and a taunting, smart-aleck announcer who directs the game. As you get better, the game moves faster until you miss a beat and lose, accompanied by a fair amount of noise and ridicule from the toy. People who don’t think they’d ever want to play Bop It Extreme won’t be able to put it down; it instills a compulsive need to bop till you drop“

At the end of the game (well, when you mess up) it says “do it again… only better”. No matter how well you do, you have to try to get better! Philosphy from the Bop-It! So, like the game I am going to move faster and challenge myself to move more. Hopefully I won’t “pull or twist” anything! And, I hope I do not have to listen to “noise or ridicule” from anyone…

That was a bit random, but hey, I am just trying to keep things interesting!

A Break Through!

My hard work this week paid off. I lost 5 pounds! That makes a total of 45 pounds that are gone forever! I am feeling better than ever and getting compliments everyday. I worked out morning and lunch today but I am taking tonight and tomorrow off from hard exercising. Maybe a walk or hike, but that is it for tomorrow.

Sunday I have to run 4 miles to stay on my running schedule. Hopefully my legs will be nice and rested by then. They are pretty burned out from all the running and ellitical trianing this week.

Tonight is pizza night but I am going to have a big salad first then a small piece or two of pizza. I am looking forward to some relaxation!

Last Chance Thursday

For me weigh-in days are Friday. So, that means Thursday is the “last chance work-out” day.  I ate clean and got all my water in. I walked for 30 min this morning, did the elliptical for 30 min at lunch and ran two miles on the treadmill followed by walking to total an hour.  I need the scale to start going down again!

As far as the rest of my challenges, they are pretty uneventful. Self has yet to give me a tip that was inspiring. Most are common sense. Martha’s theme this week is exercise – got that covered.  I actually forgot about my arm exercises from Shape.

Jillian posted the challenge this week to try to live a healthy life frugally and organically as possible.  I certainly could by more organic stuff. I really just do not think about it. I guess that is the challenge. So, this week when I am at the store I will see what is available to get. For the frugal part I am pretty much already there. I do not go out to eat, make my own soap, and basically do not spend much money at all.

I am hoping her challenges get a little more exciting!

First Speed Training Session…

I would like to say that I ran like the wind, but I cannot. I did run as fast as I could and I felt like I was running like the wind. Probably more like a gentle breeze though!

Here was the plan for today:

10 min walking warm-up
2×800m in 4:30
walk/run 400 m
4×200m in 60 sec
walk/run 100m
cool down walk 5 min

So, the first interval of 800 meters (twice around the tack) I was supposed to run it in 2:15! Right! I ran both in 5:46 – far from the 4:30 I was supposed to.

By the time that was over I got to run/walk for a lap and that felt good.
Next, 4 200’s in 60 seconds! not possible at this time. I ran my hardest but had to stop and walk periodically. I was really sucking wind and that wind was freezing. It was 28 degrees and I felt every bit of that.

I met a couple of other women and we did our warm-up laps together. It was fun.

The rest of the week looks like this:
Tomorrow: 2 miles at 14:30 min pace
Thursday: 3 miles at 13:45 min pace
Friday: off
Saturday: 4 miles at 13:15 pace

He originally had my paces a bit faster but since I stuggled a bit with my times tonight he slowed it down. He said that slower paces will still give good training. I can definately do the above. I will do tomorrow and Thursday on the treadmill and Saturday outside.

The day after 5 miles…

I woke up today and my whole body hurt. The weirdest was my upper back. I cannot think of anything else I could have done to cause my back to hurt so I have to assume it was the running. Right between my shoulder blades it feels like I got hit with a bat. I have been sitting on  a heating pad on and off today and that makes it feel better.

Tomorrow is my speed work day and I read in the forums on Runnersworld.com that most people either take a day off before speed work or take an easy day. I decided to do ab and upper body work. Yes, despite my back pain I was ready for more.

I chose one of my new DVD’s to help me out. I recently bought Jackie Warner’s DVD called One-On-One Training. It is awesome and the few times I have done it I have been sore the next day. I did upper body and abs.

She’s no Jillian by any means, but she does know how to work-out. She uses a lot of the same moves that Jillian has in her DVD’s. What I do like about this one is that there is not as much jumping as Jillian has in her workouts. While I do love the jumping jacks, etc., and KNOW that they got me into shape, I just am not in the mood to jump all the time.

I was was pained to see that Jackie also is a big fan of the dreaded plank moves that I hate so much. I just hate them – every variation of them. I thought I hated jumping jacks until Jillian forced me to do the planks in level 2 of the 30 day Shred. Jillian could get me to do them… Jackie not so much. She does not shout inspirational things at me to inspire me to push myself harder. Nothing could make me do those stupid planks today.

Here is Jillian modeling a plank:

It doesn’t look too hard, does it? Add her tortourous variations with jumping and twisting and arms and legs up and down and it is evil. Such as the “Mountain Climber”:

These wouldn’t be so terrible if after each one you did have to jump right up and start doing one-leg balance moves while doing the military press. Seriously, I was so diszzy most the time from getting up and down I could barely keep up.

Yet, I still did them because she told me to.

Tomorrow is speed training at the track – provided that snow doesn’t ruin things!

The One Hour Challenge

For today’s run I wanted to see how far I could go in one hour. I set myself at a good pace and set off. At the 3.1 mile mark I was slower than my last 5K race apce  – 37.39. I felt really good – no problem to keep going. Cariovascularly I had no problem. My heart rate was in the 160’s and steady. I wasn’t winded, just breathing steady. My legs started getting a bit heavy if I thought about them so I tried to focus on the music and my breath.

I looked at my watch at the 58 minute mark and noticed I was at 4.86 miles – I was headed for 5 miles! So I ran until I got to the 5 mile mark. One hour and one minute! I was so excited. That hour came just in time becuase my toes were really starting to hurt.

Whenever I go long distances – walking or hiking usually – my thired and fourth toes feel like they are on fire. I get terrible stabbing pains in them and it makes it really difficult to move. I looked up my symptoms and there is something called Morton’’s Neuroma that matches how I feel. It is an inflamation of the nerve that runs across the bottom of the foot. I really need to find a podiatrist to get it checked out. I think the remedy is cortisone shots. I will definately get them if that what the doctor says. I feel like I can run a lot longer if it wasn’t for that pain.

I know I will be able to do my 10K with no problems – as long as I get my toes fixed!

I am so excited for the running club this week. We start our speed training. It should be fun!

Non-Scale success to the rescue!

I decided to measure myself this morning since I haven’t in about a month. Although I have not lost much weight lately I feel like I am thinner and my clothes are definately looser. Unfortunately I only measured three places – I wish mow I had measured more:

In the past month I lost -

Chest – down 2 inches!
Waist – down 2 inches!
Hips – down 2 inches!

I know my legs are thinner so I really wish I had measured them, too. I did this time so that next time I am down about not loosing I have all my measurements.

Also, since so many people made comments at work this week about my baggy pants I decided to go buy a new pair. I went down TWO sizes! How exciting!

Progress is being made despite the scale not moving.

I am a happy girl now.