Wednesday, September 28, 2011

weigh in wednesday

My actual weigh in's are on Tuesday but Weigh In Wednesday sounds so much better!! Thanks Meredith!

I have been going to weight watchers since April.  I was losing weight pretty consistently at first.  I wasn't running then and was afraid when i started back up i wouldn't be able to lose anymore. 

I started running/training again in June and for a while i just stayed the same or went up one week and would be down again the next during the months of June and July. :( 

But i'm happy to say that since the beginning of August it has started coming off again.  Yesterday at weigh in i was down 3.8 pounds from the week before. Making my total weight loss 21.6 pounds since April! 

I still have about 25-30 more pounds to go.  We are going to Hawaii with my husbands family at the end of January and I would like to be able to lose another 15 or so pounds by then. 

lbs +/- this week- 3.8 lbs 
Total weight loss: 21.6

Sunday, September 25, 2011

much better

Saturday I had 6 miles on the schedule.  I was a bit worried about this run since Thursday's had gone so bad.
I met Lesley at 7am and the weather was once again wonderfully cool. Maybe a little too cool since my legs were as pink as my shorts throughout most of the run.

It was pretty foggy and my glasses kept fogging up as well for the majority of the run. Anyone else have that problem that runs with glasses?  I don't do contacts! :) Any advice to keep them from fogging up when it's foggy or raining?? you spit in goggles to keep them from fogging up but i'm not sure that will help with glasses......

We did our usual route and stopped twice to refill our water bottles and once to gu.  For the first 5 miles we were at at 11:58 avg and walked for a minute or so longer than we usually do on that last mile.  We ended up finishing with a 12:07 pace for all 6 miles!  I got a new best 5 mile time again!  woo hoo!!  I was glad to redeem myself after Thursday's mishap. 

Thursday, September 22, 2011

WHAT just happened??

Today I met my friend Lesley for a 4 mile run.  The weather was warm, but nothing like it had been, upper 60's and sunny. 

When we got to our 1 minute walk, after 9 of runniing I asked why it felt so much harder than our 10 miles we did on Friday?  It was just not coming easy today.  We had planned to do 2 miles out and 2 back, but about 1.47, I had to stop and walk, even though it wasn't at my regularly scheduled walking time.  Lesley was ahead of me about and asked if it was time to walk (the battery had died on her garmin). I said no, but that i needed to slow down a minute my stomach was bothering me.  We walked to 1.5 and I stopped my watch and sat down on the brick wall.  I wasn't sure if i was going to throw up, pass out, or what.....  I hadn't eaten before I ran so I'm not sure if my blood sugar bottomed out or exactly what the cause was.   I gave her my watch and told her to go on, she needed to be back at her house at a certain time and i didnt want her to wait for me.

I didnt have my phone on me, so i couldnt call anyone to come get me. I kept hoping i would see a familiar car drive by that i could flag down.  I wasn't really near anywhere that I could go and use the bathroom. Plus, I was on one of the busiest roads in town, so I couldnt just go behind a bush!  I sat there for about 5 minutes when it started to pass and i finally started to feel better. No Pukie Award for me from BDD! Jeremy was going to be coming by me on his 5 mile run, so i waited for him. He stopped and i told him what had happened.  he was going to go on and finish his run (he still had about 2 miles to go) and then come back to me with the car.

i asked him what his running time was at that point so i could know how long i had been sitting there.  Since i was feeling better i decided to start making my way back to the car.  We took off and i did a very slow run back to the car.  Jeremy passed me about .5 mile from the car I told him I could make it to the car and to keep his watch going so i would know how long it took me to get there.

Lesley came back by me in her car when i had ..25 left and asked if i wanted a ride. i told her no that i could make it.   My last 1.5 was 2 minutes slower per mile than the first 1.5 miles but I did finish my run!!  It wasn't fast or pretty for sure!

I definitely learned to take my phone with me on all runs!! even on short ones when i dont think i'll need it!

Monday, September 19, 2011

NEW gu's!!

due to all the long runs that jeremy and i have been doing the past couple months, our gu stock pile was dwindling fast. 

jeremy and i both like chocolate and mint chocolate but we have been using the mint the past month. so we decided to get a large box of chocolate that we both can use.  jeremy likes vanilla and i dont and i like tri berry and he doesnt so we got a small box of each of those. 

we decided to try the NEW chocolate raspberry roctane and got a small box of it 1) bc it is so much more expensive and 2) bc we didnt want to get stuck with it if we ended up not liking it. 

i asked a friend if she wanted to go in on our order so we could get free shipping.. and she said yes!! woo hoo!




I used the chocolate raspberry on Friday and loved it!!!  it tastes just as good as the regular chocolate and mint chocolate!  it's definitely worth a try!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Factual Friday

Fact: Tomorrow is a busy day, thus we had to do our long run today.

Fact: The weather was phenominal!!!  started at 9:40am and it was 50 degrees and sunny!!

Fact: Ran with friend Lesley and didnt' wear earphones

Fact: Hadn't run since Monday, had fresh legs for today!

Fact: Ran the first 5 miles at a 12:00 pace!!!  Fastest 5 mile time for me!

Fact: Finished all 10 miles with a 12:45 pace!! Fastest 10 mile time for me!

Fact: We did stop at mile 3 and had a 15+ minute chat, then stopped a couple more times for gu and water

Fact: The last 3 miles my back hurt... tight and sore from so much running, not couch moving related.

Fact: Cannot wait for Bourbon Chase and WV Marshall Half Marathon

Fact: Going to see Lion King 3D tonight.....Best Disney movie ever!!!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

weekend recap and a day of remembrance

Before I go into detail about my weekend run and our quick out of town I do want to remember where I was when i heard about the towers. I was in college, in my apartment. I had just woken up to get ready for an 11am class. i turned on the tv and saw the news. i was shocked. i didnt know what to do, if i should go to class. i called my bf at the time and my parents to make sure they were ok. even though they were in ky/cincy i had to hear their voices. i checked my email and there was nothing from the teacher about cancelling class. so i watched tv until it was time to go. people were talking about it in class and everyone was surprised we were having class. when i got home i turned the tv back on and watched it for the rest of the day.

in less than a month me and 11 others will be running in the bourbon chase. the chase is a 203 mile relay run across central ky, past 6 bourbon distillaries, through our home town (twice) and ending in downtown lexington for a huge party. i have one of the shortest distances to run in the chase bc i'm the slowest runner. :) dont get me wrong, that is not a complaint. i am lucky to have such fast friends to do this with. to prepare for the race i have been planning on running 3 times, every 12 hours, within a 36 hour window. friday and saturday i had planned on running 3 miles friday am, 3 miles friday pm and 3 miles saturday am. but due to doing other things friday morning (buying a couch) friday's am run did not happen. so instead of bagging the whole thing like i had done the last time i had planned on doing this: i did 4 miles friday pm and 4 miles saturday am. which gave me 8 miles, only 1 off my planned 9 miles of 3, 3, and 3. i only got 3 hours of sleep between the two runs, which is actually probably what will really happen come race weekend. :) my 4 miles friday pm were on the treadmill and saturdays am run outside felt good. it was cool and just a great day for a run. my pace was slower than what it had been on the treadmill but i expected that!

as soon as jeremy got back from his run we ate breakfast, showered, dropped off deuce at mom and dad's and went to the louisville zoo for jeremy's company picnic. i was super excited about this bc the zoo has recently acquired a 7 month old polar bear that had been rescued from alaska in april. it was only 2 months old when it was found. they can't guarantee that you will be able to view it as they are trying to get it used to being in captivity. luckily though we were able to see it and it is just the cutest little thing!! go here to read about the bear cub and how it was found http://www.louisvillezoo.com/glacierrun/cubs.htm

after the zoo we went to the brown hotel, took a much needed nap, and then headed downstairs to get a hot brown at the place where they were invented. for those of you who have never heard of a hot brown, it is basically an open faced turkey sandwich, covered in a mornay sauce, with bacon and tomatoes on it and it is delicious!!!




Then we headed downtown a couple blocks to 4th street live. it's a couple blocks of 4th street that are blo
cked off to traffic and they have several places to eat, drink, and listen to music. we went to the hard rock, where i bought my customary tshirt. i buy one in every city, but somehow had never been to the one in louisville until last night. we got a table outside and ordered dessert while we listened to 80's and 90's music! it was great! there was only one song they played that i didnt know!! loved it!!

today, we went to another famous place in louisville to eat Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Both it and the Brown Hotel have been featured on Man vs. Food Nation and one of Bobby Flay's tv shows. At Lynn's I got french toast and jeremy got a fritata. the atmosphere in the there is very unique and inviting!!




















Friday, September 9, 2011

Ready for the Weekend

I work Sunday - Thursday, so today is my "Saturday".

Jeremy and I have had our eye on a couch for some time now. I had bought a new couch about 4 years ago but it did not hold up to every day use. The couch we have been watching went on sale a couple weeks ago and the last day for it to be on sale is tomorrow. We have a furniture envelope (thanks to Dave Ramsey) and plan on using our birthday money (his in august, mine is oct) to pay for the rest of it. So this morning we took our old couch out to the garage, til we can figure out what to do with it. We probably should have gotten someone to come help us bc it was very heavy and hard to maneuver in and out of the house. Our backs are both a little achey right now.... :(





But it was worth it. The couch is bigger than our last one and looks much nicer. Now the hard part of not ever allowing Deuce on it. The couch was his favorite place to lay.


yes that is a sock. we had a lot of fun dropping them from the balcony on him. he wouldnt even flich.

After we got it home and in the living room, we headed downtown to the local arts festival. All the items are made in KY and are very neat to look at. Of course they have "festival food" and we had to see what kind of fried items they had. There was one place that was called "Stuff on a Stick". It had fried cheesecake, snickers, bologna, pizza, you name it they had it. We decided to split a smores on a stick. Not fried, but very good. it was 6 marshmellows on a stick, covered in chocolate and graham cracker crust.







Tomorrow we are going to the Louisville Zoo where Jeremy's company picnic will be and then are staying the night in an old famous hotel "The Brown" where they invented the KY Hotbrown. If you have never had a hotbrown or heard of one, look it up, they are phenominal!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

track attack

today i had planned on going to the local college track and running 1 mile for speed and then running 1-2 miles more at an easier pace.  i have gotten faster and was sure that i could break 10 min on my mile.  the weather has dropped tremendously and i thought i could definitely do it today. it was cool and very humid. it has been raining since sunday.  even though it wasn't raining this morning, it looked like it could open up at any time. 

there was a man walking on the track, about half way around. i figured i wouldnt catch up to him and hoped he would be done soon so he wouldn't see me.  not sure what i would have done if there had been more than one person there....  luckily he left after he finished that lap. 

i started off and felt fast but i couldnt catch my breath.  i couldnt get my breathing regulated until about the 2nd to 3rd lap. lap 1-  i was under the time i needed, lap 2 - i was a hair over, lap 3 - a little more over, but i really tried to push on lap 4.  it just didnt happen. i was actually 30 seconds off my best 1 mile time from july :(  major bummer.

let me just say that i DO NOT like running on a track.  when i swam people would say all the time "you just go back and forth, it's so boring".  i never thought that, but many people do.  well, running on a track to me is like all those people that say you just go back and forth.  only i think it's worse bc you can actually see how much farther you have to go.  in a pool you are never that far from the wall, even though you turn and go the other way, you can't see THAT much in front of you so it seems like it's not as long.  on a track that's not the case. you can see the whole thing and think "gosh, i have to do this x amount of times...." :( 

i took a break after mile 1. i walked for a minute or so and decided what my game plan would be for the rest of the run. would i stay on the track or go run on the street around the track. i decided to stay on the track and that i would do 2 easy laps, then do 2 laps fast, 2 more easy, then the last 2 fast.  after my first 2 easy laps i had to stop and stretch my calves, they were tight and starting to cramp.  

i got through 2.25 miles when jeremy (who had gone to run in town) entered the track. he was almost finished. i told him i would do 1 more lap around and then i'd be done.  i ended up doing 2.5 miles, rather than 3 but that's ok with me.  even though the weather was cool, the humidity was not my friend today. 

Sunday, September 4, 2011

long run sunday

what a difference a week makes. last week was the perfect weather, the perfect run. this weekend it was upper 90's and super humid.  we put off our run from Saturday to Sunday because the high on Sunday was only supposed to be upper 80's, whereas the high saturday was over 100, the hottest day of the year!!

we started at 6:00am to beat the heat.  luckily it was dark for the first hour and then a little cloudy after sunrise.  the heat wasn't too bad but this run was awful from the start. i was plagued with stomach issues the entire time. i tried to make it though but had to stop several times so my stomach would stop rolling.  i made it to the speedway gas station and felt a little better afterwards. i was almost at 4 miles so i figured i'd go on. sure i could get to 5 and then start heading back.  i got to 4.3 and it hit again.  i was on the college campus where i work but didnt have my key to get in the building with me.  (next long run it will be in my spibelt!!)  i ran to two buildings i thought might be open but no such luck. so back to speedway i went.


my pace was off two-three minutes and i decided to go straight back to the car. i was almost at mile 6 at this point and decided i would do 8 rather than 10.  i made a deal with myself that if i could make it to the car at or under the pace i was supposed to go for today then i wouldn't make myself get on the treadmill and finish the 2 miles out after i got home.  it was going to be tough, since miles 2 on had been over my pace. 

i had to stop several times during those two miles.... every time i noticed my pace creeping back up.  i know this is cheating and obviously know i can't do it in a real race.  i was trying to make it through and in fact ran the last 2 miles faster than any of the previous 6!!

i finished the 8 miles with an average pace of 5 seconds faster than my goal!  it was close but i did it!  tomorrow the high is supposed to be 69 degrees and in the low 70's the rest of the week.  i just hope that the weather man is actually correct! hoping for a good run next saturday!