One more day until vacation!

I am so excited to spend the next few days with my parents. We are going on a road trip to Washington DC for Dad’s USMC – India Company 3rd Battalion 3rd Regiment – Vietnam reunion. My dad was in Vietnam for 13 months on the front line – as all Marines are.He fought some very hard battles and still remembers so many details that it is unreal! I love to hear is stories and look forward to hearing more during this trip.

Here is a picture of Dad and one of his buddy’s – he is still friends with him to this day.

My dad is on the right. This was taken at Hill 55 in July 1966.

My Mom and Dad met in HIGHSCHOOL and are still very much in love and happy. Mom and Dad wrote letters to each other while he was in Vietnam. I can’t imagine how hard that was! I think Dad even proposed via mail!  They are awesome and I love being with them.

Mom and Dad!

This was taken after my first 10K – the Cooper River Bridge Run. My Mom and Dad are two of my biggest supporters! They will do anything for me and I couldn’t be more thankful. We had a wonderful time in Charleston that weekend!

So, tomorrow after work I will head over to their house and we will hit the road Wednesday morning. It is only about a 5 hour drive. We will be staying at a Holiday Inn in Dumphries, VA, just outside of Quantico. We will get a tour of Quantico – that should be very fun. We will visit with others at the reunion and do some sightseeing. It should be a really good time. If I have an internet connection I will try to log in and post some pictures! If not, I will log in on Monday when we are home.

Hiking day

Today John and I drove to Pisgah National Forest to hike the Looking Glass Rock trail. This is rated as a “moderately difficult” trail and just what I was looking for. John and I have not been hiking together since last September – before I lost 80 pounds. Needless to say my last hike was NOT GOOD. I suffered the whole time going up the hills. We did a different trail, but I am sure it was not as steep as today and I struggled every step. I also have memories of other hikes the past couple of years where I struggled. I used to love hiking but when I gained all this weight the hikes brought nothing but misery.

Today was a different story. It was almost easy!

I wanted a fairly difficult hike to see how far I have come. I am not quite ready for Mt. Mitchell yet – I think we will do this one in a month or so. I have nothing but painful memories of my last hike there! Back to today… we started off with 64 degree weather and beautiful blue skies. I felt strong from the beginning as we headed up the mountain. John was the pace setter (luckily for me he is nursing a wounded knee). I got off a bit easy today since he is recovering! The climb to the top is a series of switchbacks. It is a gradual climb all the way until the last half a mile or so when it gets very rocky and fairly steep. The switch backs are done at that point. My legs started getting tired from stepping up and over all the rocks. I was breathing hard, but never out of breath. We maintained a 23 minute per mile pace the whole time unit that last half mile (well, John maintained, but I slowed to about a 24 min per mile pace).

At the top we enjoyed the scenery for a bit before heading back down.

I wasn't really as close to the edge as it appears!!!

John's classic pose!

Our total trip was 5.5 miles and it took about 2 hours. Our total elevation gain was about 3200 feet.

I am trying to get Google Earth linked up to my blog. I got the basics, but I cannot seem to add my trail from my Garmin. I am going to keep trying!

View Larger Map

We were on top of this:

Building my base

Today started the first day of my training for my half marathon – building some base. I haven’t been running consistently since starting P90X so I did my first Long Slow Run today. I read that the long slow run should be two minutes per mile slower than race pace. Since my goal is a 10 min mile I ran at a 12 min mile pace today for 5 miles.

Since I have the fancy Garmin Forerunner I decided to try to use some of it’s features. It has a variety of workouts built in to it so I picked the “base/distance” workout. I was suppoed to do different paces, etc. every mile but I got tired of it yelling at me…. first it was “SPEED UP!!!” then shortly after that it beeped at me again and said ” HEART RATE TOO HIGH, SLOW DOWN”. After about 15 minutes of it beeping and yelling at me I decided to stop that workout and just go at it on my own.

When I got home I downloaded the workout on my Garmin software. It is pretty cool! I no longer have to remember what I did during a run!

Total distance: 5.47 miles

Total time: 1:16

Average pace: 14:00 (I walked a bit during miles 4 and 5)
Average heart rate: 146
Max Heart rate: 164
Total calories burned: 744

Tomorrow should be a good workout – John and I are going hiking!

P90X Results – Part 1

I couldn’t wait… I had to log my weight loss and measurements. The fit test will be later.

OK… first for the big news – Since I started last September I have lost 80 pounds!  My goal this week was to lose three pounds to get my to this milestone and I did. All that extra running this week has paid off!

Now for the P90X results – 90 days of hard work!

Total weight lost in 90 days: 16 pounds

Inches lost:
Chest: 3 inches
Waist: 5 inches
Lower belly: 5 inches
Hips: 5 inches
Each thigh: 3 inches
Each bicep: 1 inch

Total inches lost! 22 inches!!! WOW!

Body fat – I lost 9% body fat! I have finally made it into the “normal” range – 24%!

Bring It, Brought It, Brung it!

That’s it! 90 days have come and gone. I did my final P90X workout tonight and it was SUCH a great feeling to know that I completed the “Extreme Home Fitness” plan! I have worked so hard these past few months and I feel great. I will have my last weigh in, measure, pictures, and fit test tomorrow. I will probably do most of the stuff in the morning and then fitness test at night so I will be posting all the final stats tomorrow evening. I am looking forward to seeing the totals.

Today I have a nice lunch time workout. My friend Marie joined me for a walk/run around the property. We went 2.5 miles in 38 minutes. I was pretty hot outside, but it felt good to be out in the sun and fresh air. I have been really loving getting outside to workout this week. I wish I had been doing it all along. I feel so refreshed and energetic afterwards. The gym is great, but it started to feel like an extension of work rather than a break. I will definitely keep up the outside workout as much as possible.

Tomorrow is Friday and rest day and a bit of a free day. I am not going to go too crazy (I hope!) but decided long ago (well, 90 days ago) that I will have some gin on the 91st day. I have a lovely bottle of Tanqueray waiting for me. I cannot wait to have some. I have given up a good bit of food over the past three months and I really do not crave anything except gin and wine. That probably doesn’t sound too good, but true!

I have really gotten used to not eating anything processed or bad… I am really not interested in putting that garbage back in my body. I feel great and I am so close to my first goal that I really do not want to do anything to jeopardize my results. Plus, I will be starting my half marathon training soon. I am going to give myself a little time off from structure for about a week. I will still be running and probably continuing some core work, but nothing to rigid. September 7th starts my next challenge so I think I want to take a little breather.

Plotting the course

I did a lot of running today. Nobody joined me at lunch, but that was ok – I decided to run and use the Garmin to plot the distance around the property. I headed out the front door and down to DC1, back up to my building and then I decided to take the leap and go on the road down the road to DC2. I have been avoiding the road, but it turned out to be just fine. There is plenty of shoulder and very light traffic.  I ran around DC2 then back up to my building for one last loop. The complete circuit is 3 miles. How perfect is that? It was a really good run – I ran most of the time, but did walk a few feet in front of the windows. I felt weird running by people working. I think I will get over that soon. The only thing I have to do different next time is wear a hat. It was very hot and sunny and I could have used a little more protection than my sunglasses. I should probably have brought a little water bottle, too. I forgot that I was running at high noon!

Today was also my first running group experience. Only two people showed up but we had a lot of fun. We ended up doing a run/walk for 2.5 miles.

Hopefully I will be able to get another run in tomorrow at lunch. I have some meetings tomorrow so hopefully work will not interfere!! haha

Core Synergetics – DONE

I did my last attempt at a stupid Dreya Roll tonight. After all these weeks I could STILL not get up!  The rest of the workout was good and I burned a lot of calories.  I was really dripping sweat in the plank/chaturanga hold. For one minute you have to alternate between plank and the chaturanga – it is the hardest move! (well, I guess besides the Dreya Roll!) I cannot really do the chaturanga well – I end up on my knees most of the time, but it is still hard.

Tomorrow is our first night with the running group. I hope people show up! I had one person meet me to walk at lunch today. That was nice – it was more fun talking and walking. We ended up doing two miles in 30 minutes. I plotted a pretty nice course between the two parking lots. I eventually want to make it down to the third parking lot and make one big loop. I will need to run to get it all in. I have to admit that I feel a bit funny about running around the parking lots while everyone is working and can watch through the windows. I am sure they do not even know I am out there, but it feels odd.  I need to get over it becuase I have a lot of miles to log this fall and it would be nice to get them out of the way at lunch rather than at night.

Last Kenpo!

I just knocked out my very last Kenpo! Yippee!!  I really brought it knowing that I WILL NEVER HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN! This in not one that will do again. If I want that type of workout I will do Tae Bo. I think Tae Bo is harder and more fun.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Stretching, but I am going to skip it and do Core Synergetics. Core is supposed to be Wednesday, but I have my first running group to go to. I have been skipping Stretch since the first week so I might as well skip it the last week! There is nothing exciting about stretching for a solid hour!

At work today I ventured outside for my lunch time workout. I had lots of requests last week from people wanting to walk at lunch so this morning I sent an e-mail to everyone stating that I would be walking at 11:30 everyday. Nobody showed. It was a bit disappointing, but that’s fine. I will continue plugging along just like I have for the past 11 months. I brought the Garmin to plot the distance. The first parking lot loop is a third of a mile. Then a combination of one loop of the first parking lot and the parking lot of DC1 is almost a mile exactly. There are two more lots that I can make loops out of but I would really like to have someone with as one is back behind a warehouse and the other is down the road a bit. Maybe tomorrow!

I was starving most of the day today. I can’t seem to get my calories down low like they need to be. I feel like when I go to 1250, like I am supposed to eat, I am so hungry and my stomach is growling all day and all I think about is when I get my next meal! I need more bulk in my food but I cannot bear to eat a salad and meat is just does not appeal to me right now. I am out of yogurt so tomorrow is going to be rough unless I can make it to the store before work and get some. I am officially addicated to greek yogurt. Today I had the plain greek yogurt with a fresh peach sliced over the top. It was SO amazing. I wish I had some now!

Weekend with my brother

My brother and nephew came over for the weekend and he had a blast. Jeff is very healthy always looking to improve his lifestyle we had some great conversations and I learned a lot. He has gotten into juicing and now I really want to invest in a good juicer. He brought John and me some of his “Cabala juice”. It sounds odd, but the word is simply acronym, for what is in the juice:

It simply stands for Carrot Apple Beetroot Apple Lemon Apple. Three apples because the ideal mix is to inculde one of each colour – red, yellow, green. Juice a heap of carrots, one of each apple, a whole (skin included) lemon, and a third of a beetroot. Organic ingredients are definitely needed.

Jeff includes ginger and kale in his recipe and it is a pretty spicy drink. It is very good and refreshing. I could get used to drinking it everyday.

Today we went hiking at Bradley Falls – we didn’t go down to the base of the falls – just to the overlook. I hiked to the base with John years ago when Katheryn was little. I HATED that hike. It is extremely steep and and there is a cliff that you have to scale to get back up. It was probably one of the scariest hikes of my life and I am not ready to go back. John said that I should face my fears – that it is not really as bad as I am remembering. I really do not want to do it again. The fear of falling of the cliff and dying their is not at the top of my list of things to do!

After the hike we went to a local park where there is a mini obstacle course. Jeff, Dylan and I all did it and it was fun. I could not do the pole climb – like a rope climb, but with a pole. And, of course, I could still not do pull-ups.  Today and yesterday I have tried SO HARD to do them – I just do not have the upper body strength yet.  Yesterday I had Johna dn Jeff both coaching me and encouraging me but I just couldn’t. I am going to keep practicing. Maybe one day!

This afternoon after they left I did my P90X – Core Synergetics – my favorite.  I am really good at the “banana/supermans” and the “bow to boats”.

Here are some pictures from today’s hike – we had a blast!

Dylan, Sake (the dog), and me

My borhter Jeff and Dylan on the overlook.

What good-looking siblings!

Sake and me waiting for the boys to come back

Glorious rest day!

I love rest day because I am not obligated to do anything. It is good to know that after dinner I can just sit there and not worry about exercising! Today was also weigh-in day. I lost one pound and another half of body fat percentage. I am one percent away from being normal weight range – not overweight.

Work today was fun – it was slow and no major issues. Many of us talked about the Race for the Cure. I found training plans for everyone. I was just going to make plans for the people that wanted to run their first 5K but many of the walkers asked if there was a plan. I googled 5K walk training plan and there are many! Everyone seemed really motivated to start with their training so I hope they stick with it. We are going to start meeting every Wednesday night to walk/run as a group and I will try to gather everyone a couple of times a week to walk outside at lunch. This will help keep me motivated and get me the sunshine that I keep meaning to get at lunch!

Tomorrow starts recovery week! It is funny to have a “recovery” week on the last week and then it is over! I am really going to try to get in all my extra cardio next week. That is really the key for me – I just cannot bear to go into the exercise room at work lately. I think if I can get outside at lunch it will be better. I am going to bring the Garmin Monday so I can measure the routes and let everyone know. I think that will get people out… I think people like to know the distance they are walking.