Sunday, February 20, 2011

Picking myself up again....

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I've posted! Almost a month...sorry, life's been beyond crazy.

Like my new background? I chose this because it reminds me of summer and that's what I'm living for right now.

Here's an update on how things have been. January and February have been the toughest months since I can remember. As I've been complaining about, school is killing me. I'm doing a triple load and working full time and it's just absolutely horrible. I go to work, stay late often, come home to hours of homework, then I go to sleep. The next day, same thing. My weekends are filled with minimal fun and tons of work. It's really been getting to me. With this stress comes lack of motivation. I've gained about 8 pounds since January and I feel horrible about everything. The winter storm knocked me off my routine and being stuck inside the house for 5 days made me want to bake cookies and eat comfort food. Then I got sick. I had a fever that wouldn't quit and it took about a week to start to feel normal again. Then I went out of town. I simply didn't give a sh*t last week and here I am today. I weighed in this past Saturday and was SHOCKED at the number. I am the heaviest I've been in about a year and a half. I almost cried. I just get so uspet that I can do so well..hell I was 26 lbs lighter last April. And then I can erase it all. I can't believe how great I looked last year...I was looking LITTLE...now it's all gone. I'm going through a depression with my stress level and life is just really hard right now. I have 11 weeks until graduation, I'm really just trying to keep it together until then.

I have a the Cowtown Half-Marathon this weekend. I always follow through with committments so I refuse to quit. I ran 3 miles tonight and I'm going to attempt 10 miles tomorrow. I have a feeling it's going to be hard.

I joined Weight Watchers this week with my mom. I've heard great things about the PointsPlus program so I'm going to give it a go, I need some kind of focus right now.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ugh...

I'm not gonna lie, this week sucked. I was so busy and stressed that I doubt I will lose any weight this week. That sucks too because I had a really great nutrition/exercise week, but my body always holds on to weight when I'm stressed. I started this new relaxation thing where I light candles and listen to spa music. Did that work? Nope. The entire time I kept thinking "Ok when do I need to get THAT done?" Ugh...I've been struggling. I need to learn to relax my MIND as well as my body. That goes along with running speed as well. The more relaxed your mind is, the faster your body can go. There's just so much to learn...

It has been established that I don't spend NEAR enough time stretching. I've always been bad about not stretching but I need to start making it a priority because I'm REALLY starting to feel the tension in my body. My back and all my muscles are really tight and hurting. I'm going to schedule that massage I got for my birthday last year. I'm in DIRE need of one.

This weekend I have my 3rd half marathon. The course is around White Rock Lake so it's relatively flat. YAY! I'm really curious to see how I do because my last half marathon, I finished 3:11 and that was a VERY good day. My goal is to hit 2:59:59 before the end of the spring, but I'm not sure I'll get there with this race. It will probably take some time to make that happen and I'm okay with that. Should be interesting!!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Woo Hoo!!!

Lost 3.1 lbs this week....ooooh yeah! I had a fantastic week with no cravings, no cheating, not going over my calories and 13 miles of running. I'm very proud of myself, especially since I was sick the entire week and missed a workout. Let's hope this week goes just as smooth.

Tomorrow I start classes, oh joy. I know I'm gonna cry when I see the syllabus. Both classes look really tough. I've already packed a healthy dinner for tomorrow on the way to class. I think as my treat for the day I'm gonna stop and get a Sonic diet coke on the way. I LOVE Sonic diet cokes.

Today I did a nice and easy slow run with Jeana. I bumped her up to 8 miles for today and she did really well. I only got 2 "I hate you"'s and some consistent complaining toward the end but she got through it. I don't care if you bitch, but you must finish. That's my 1 rule. She did and passed with flying colors. I took her up to Arbor Hills and she handled those well, they aren't easy. We have a 15K this Sunday around White Rock Lake and I'm excited that it's her first 15K! I'm so proud of her and it was awesome seeing her set that milestone for herself. It's gonna be fun!! :0)

I did 8 miles today and starting tomorrow, I will be resting every Tuesday because those are the days I have class and will be completing 14 hr days. This means I'll be in the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with one long run on the weekend. This is 4 times a week and a moderate component of my life. I feel pretty good about it.

Wish me luck...starting tomorrow, life will be twice as stressful and I'm going to need a lot of focus and energy to get me through the next 18 weeks. Here we go.... :(

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Race time comparisons....

Sometimes I get down that I'm still slow and I get really discouraged. Today, I thought I'd figure out my previous race paces and compare them to where I am now. This is what I calculated.

Half Marathon #1: 16:10 pace (last year)
Half Marathon #2: 14:39 pace (this year)

15K #1: 16:07 pace (last year)
15K #2: 13:56 pace (this year)

Those are the only races I've done 2 of but it just showed me that I HAVE in fact grown in a year's time. I need to keep these numbers in mind when I get down about speed.

My first 10K

I ran my first 10K yesterday with Christina and Carie. It was probably one of my favorite races to date. Definitely doing that one again. My goal time was 1:38:00 and I finished in 1:23:28...I'd say I crushed that goal. Oh yeah! I'm feeling lighter and according to my scale, I have dropped a significant amount of weight this week. I'll know just how much tomorrow on my official weigh-in day.

I had some temptations this week but I overcame them with no problem. The pizza was kinda tempting at the TAKS night that I worked, but overall I had no problem staying away from it. I just kept thinking how gross it would make me feel afterwards. Then yesterday, I had to really turn up my will power. My family came into town and we were having a late lunch around 4pm and then I had another dinner at my running banquet at 7. I chose to eat very little that morning so I'd be hungry and then I ate a few chips and a little bit of soup at the family dinner and then when I got to the banquet, I had one fajita with a spoonful of refried beans and I didn't eat the brownie. I was completely satisfied and didn't feel like I was missing out. It was a great balance for me.

This week, life is going to get a lot more stressful. I'm starting school and will have a lot of homework on top of work and internship hours. I'm really dreading it but I guess the best thing I can do for myself is to keep working out in the mornings and keep going to bed early and eating right. It's going to fly by and I'm already down almost 10 lbs from when I started back mid Dec. so if I keep going, maybe I can look really good by the time it's all over and time for summer! That's the plan anyway...

This upcoming weekend, I'm running with Jeana for her first 15K. It's the 2nd 15K I have done with a friend so I'm pretty excited about it. Then the next weekend, my
3rd Half Marathon!! My goal by the end of May is to break the 3 hour mark and get in the 2's. I have a feeling that it will be a couple months before I'm able to and I'm okay with that. All I can do is the best I can. Should be interesting to see where I turn out concerning time.

Overall I'm doing exceptionally well at this whole workout/eating right thing. I'd say the thing that's pulling me through is not 100% depriving myself. If I want fries or chips, I'll eat 1 or 2 and then stop and make sure the rest of the meal is really healthy. It's so much healthier to just eat 1 or 2 bites of whatever it is that's bad than eating a ton of it later from deprivation. When I'm not really wanting it, I choose not to eat it and save those bites for when I feel it's a serious craving. So far it's working!

That's all I have for now. I will post my weigh-in results tomorrow. Thanks for reading! :0)

Friday, January 14, 2011

Tomorrow's race...

Tomorrow I'm running a 10K and my goal is 1:38:00. It's ambitious...let's see if I can do it. I'm actually pretty pumped, it's my first 10K! :0)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Doin' great!

I'm pretty pumped, I am doing so well!! I haven't had any real cravings or temptations yet and I've been very stable on my mental process of staying healthy. All the running helps. If I run 3 miles in the morning, I don't want to ruin it because I don't want to undo all that sweat. I weighed this morning and am down yet another pound! YAY! Also, today I am wearing the 3rd pair of one size smaller pants.

This weekend I have a 10K with my friends Christina and Carie. They are doing the 5K and I am doing the 10K. Although it sucks to not be able to talk with them, I'm really excited about pushing myself. I want to see how fast I can go. I've been talking with a friend about technique and I'm going to try some new things on this race and see if it helps improve my time.

My first temptation is probably going to be tomorrow night. I'm working this TAKS night at work and they are serving pizza. I love pizza. REALLY love pizza. So, it's going to be an act of will power and I'm just praying they don't make me work the pizza table. I might just have to scream.

Everything is going well. I have to go back to work for a couple hours tonight to help with ESL parent classes and then I'm coming home to crash. Tomorrow I have a 3 mile run at 5:00AM and it's a tempo run...hopefully will set another personal record. I'll let you know! :0)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Week 1 Weigh-In!

DUDE! I am loving this new background!! Anyway...had a good week and was expecting a little bit of a loss. Weighed this morning and am down 2.1 lbs! I am happy with that. I told myself I would like to lose 2 lbs a week during this process. So far, I'm on track!

I am back in 1 pair of smaller size pants! Oh how I've missed them. 3 more in that size to go and then I'll officially be a size smaller. I'm predicting 1 week for one pair and 2 weeks for the other 2. Can't wait!

Cheers to cute clothes!! :0)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Week 1 and a 15K!

So I made it through the first speed training week. Was a good week. No cheats, great nutrition and lots and lots of running! I clocked 20 miles this week, and that's great! I've found that I love running in the morning. It's over at 6:00AM and I feel so great during the day. I'm really glad I've started this habit.

I'll be honest, I'm not expecting a huge loss this week and I think it's going to be because I've been doing pretty well overall before this, so my body is somewhat used to all this and not as reactive. It's kind of sad. I remember when I would run 20 minutes 3 times a week and eat great and I would drop weight like crazy! Not now, I really have to work for it now. I weigh in tomorrow morning, so I'll let you know how it goes!

I've been thinking of ways to improve the diet and honestly, I did really well this week. One thing I know I can improve on is preparing more veggie type foods. My issue is being busy and exhausted with these new long hours that I don't want to cook chicken and salad; I'll just get a WW dinner instead. While I know those dinners are fine and you can lose weight eating those, it's ultimately better for you to prepare real food. I need to spend more time making a salad with that meal and eating more veggies. Oh and water, that's a big one. Still feel like I can't get enough of that in. So I'm going to work on that for this next week and see if it makes a difference on the scale!

I ran another 15K this past Saturday! It was in Grapevine and it was called BOLD IN THE COLD! I really liked the course! It was very pretty and peaceful but damn, those runners were fast! My time was 2:11:44 which was 18 minutes and 13 seconds faster than my last 15K. My overall pace was 13:57 which is the fastest I've ever gone outside. It was a good time for me but the slowest pace of the race was 14:02! 14:02!!!!! That's crazy!! The last 15K I did, TOO HOT TO HANDLE...the slowest time was over a 17 minute pace so I was really surprised at that 14. Gotta give credit to those Grapevine peeps, they are fast! Speaking of fast, I went with my friend Casey and he's crazy fast. I think he finished at like a 7:35 pace or something. That's so amazing and he's just starting long distance! I felt really bad that he had to wait almost an hour for me to finish. Yeah, how much does that suck that he could have gone out to eat and come back and still been back before I finished. Oh yes, gotta love being slow.

I have high hopes for this week! I don't really feel deprived and am looking forward to losing more weight and hitting more speed records. I'm bumping up to level 2 of my 16 levels in my speed training plan. I'm pumped!! I might not make it to the gym tomorrow because I'm not feeling very well right now. I feel like something is coming on so I might take tomorrow morning and rest. I'm really praying for a snow day but we won't know if that'll happen till the morning. I normally schedule Tuesday as a rest day and I'll just switch out Monday for Tuesday this week so I won't be losing any running days.

So far I feel really focused and ready for the next challenge! This weekend is the Hot Chocolate 10K in Addison. We get a shirt, a 10K finisher mug and we get to fill it with hot chocolate. I'm pretty excited about it!

Ok I'm off to get some rest to force myself to feel better. Goodnight!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Will Power!

I did NOT want to get up for the gym this morning. My alarm went off at 4:50am and I thought to myself, "Noo!!! I could just not go." Then I thought, "But then I'd have to do it after work." and that was enough for me to get up. I can honestly say that I LOVE it being over at 6am. It's so nice knowing that when I come home after work, I'm done for the day. Anyway, I went and completed a hill training 3 miles run. I was happy to feel that it was the easiest run of the week, which surprised me considering it was hills. Tomorrow will be a 2 mile tempo run so that means that I get to sleep in for 15 minutes...holla! And Friday....OFF!

Oh and I found these awesome new cracker chips from Special K. I really like the potato chips called Munchos except I find them a little too salty for me. These Special K chips have the same flavor of Munchos but aren't as salty so they are the perfect taste for me. My favorite flavor is Sea Salt but I also saw that they have Sour Cream and Onion. I'll have to try those next time.

I'm still doing great this week. No cheating, haven't missed a workout, and haven't gone over my daily calories. I should have a good weigh-in on Monday. I would say that I need to drink more water so I'm gonna work on that.

Nutrition for today:

BREAKFAST
Fiber One muffin
Banana

SNACK
Yogurt

LUNCH
Lean Cuisine Pizza
Fruit cup

DINNER
Potato soup (lowfat)
Weight Watchers quesadilla

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Day 2...much better!

Today was great! I went to bed at 8:30 last night and with those 8 hours of sleep, had no problem getting up at 4:45am to get my 3 miles in. I felt really good today. I've about figured out that getting sleep is the key here. I'm going to attempt to go to bed as close to 9 as possible tonight, but Biggest Loser is on until 9 so I make no promises. I'm really excited about the premiere!

I had a great nutrition day as well. Was not hungry at all and that was pretty awesome! I got to work really early and stayed late today and staying busy helps! I'm finally getting in the swing of things and I'm feeling pretty good. Had some hip pain this morning and that sucked and it REALLY started hurting around 10am but it's finally dulled to an annoyance pain and I can live with that. Looks like it's time to bust out the pain patches...haven't needed to use them in about 3 months...grr!

I'm ready for my first weigh-in next Monday! Here's my nutrition for today:

BREAKFAST
Fiber One muffin and banana

SNACK
Light yogurt

LUNCH
Weight Watchers Chicken Quessadilla
60 calorie pudding
Fruit cup

SNACK
100 calorie popcorn

DINNER
Peanut butter sandwich
Cup of chili
(Weird combo, I know. But I had to get in the calories)

And that's it! Good night, all!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Day 1....exhaustion!

Woke up at 5:00am and met Christina at the gym. I planned on getting 3 miles in but because we had to be at work early and I heard the tollway was closed and there was going to be crazy traffic, I decided to only complete 2 miles. It sucks but, can't be late! I'll make sure and get 3 in from now on. I did 2 miles @ 11:57 pace. I'm actually pretty pumped about starting off a speed training season in the 11's pace range. I'm curious to see how fast I can get by May.

Today was rough. Didn't fall asleep till after 11pm last night so I was going on about 6 hours sleep. This is usually no big deal but keep in mind that I've been getting 10-14 hours of sleep the past 2 weeks so it was an adjustment. (Yes, I'm a bum). I felt great this morning but about 10:30am, I was getting really tired. Was pretty much a zombie all day and still feel like crap. I'm going to go to bed super-early tonight and then I'll have to get up at 4:45am tomorrow to hit an earlier workout because I have to be at work even earlier tomorrow. There's just something messed up about getting up when there is a 4 in the time! GRRR!!! My eating has been great and I got my workout in so I'd say it was a good day. Hopefully by tomorrow I will feel much better and in more of a routine.

Nutrition for today:

BREAKFAST
Fiber one muffin
Banana

SNACK
Apple
Lowfat cheese

LUNCH
1/2 cup of lean meat chili
Fruit cup

SNACK
Baked cheetos

DINNER
2 lean pockets
(I know this is a lot, but I had the calories and was starving so why not?)

SNACK
100 calorie cheezits


Hit my perfect calories for today! :)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Last Day of Freedom!!

The hell starts tomorrow! Ok, it won't be hell, but I'm REALLY gonna hate getting up at 5am...I am NOT a morning person! But I keep telling myself, how great is it going to be at 6am when it's over? Yay!

This semester is going to be extra challenging because of my stress level. If I fit in the runs in the morning, I won't have an excuse and I'm hoping that losing weight will keep me mentally balanced during this stressful semester. I have many races planned this month and I'm hoping that'll keep me stable and motivated.

Monday will be my weigh-in day and I have strong speed training and nutrition plans in place. I'm ready to get started! I'll be blogging as much as I can fit in, and will hopefully be skinny just in time for summer! Ya know, the summer I will have OFF?! I am SO excited about this, I will be graduated and relaxin' in the sun...it's been so long since I've done that! COME ON, MAY!!!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Year, New Goals...

New Years Day is kind of cool for me because Jan. 1 of last year was the first time I'd ever run 3 miles. It was pretty awesome. Now I can do so much more than that and I feel like my hard work has finally paid off. Now, if you know me...I always have to aim higher so I've set quite a few goals for myself this spring. I've created a running schedule that starts Monday, January 3rd and the focus is primarily speed. I start at a reasonable speed and get faster and faster each week. It's a 16 week plan which will consist of one half-marathon a month. I am going to try and beat my time each month and I will track my progress. I cannot WAIT! By the end of the summer, I should not be slow...well, not AS slow if you will. I'm excited!

I'm beginning my final principal internship with work so I will be working really late hours all the time so I've decided to do my workouts in the morning...5am! Yep, that's gonna suck. But I can imagine it's like anything else, once you get in a habit, it'll get easier. And I bet having it done by 6am is going to be awesome. I'm returning to my great nutrition on Monday as well and my weight loss goal for this spring is 30 lbs. That's totally doable if I stick with it. I'm feeling pretty confident in that. I did it once, I can do it again.

Here are the races I plan to do this spring:

Jan. 8th: Bold in the Cold 15K
Jan. 15th: Hot Chocolate 10K
Jan. 23rd: Too Cold to Hold 15K
Jan. 29th: Texas Half Marathon
Feb. 27th: Cowtown Half Marathon
Mar. 27th: Rock N Roll Half Marathon
Apr. 10th: Big D Half Marathon
May 1st : Heels and Hills Half Marathon

Hopefully by May, my medal rack will be full! I'm pretty excited about it :0)

Here's to 2011: The year for strength and accomplishment!!!