New Year's Double

I just signed up for the New Year's Double! It's a Half Marathon on New Year's Eve and a Half Marathon on New Year's Day! I'm so excited, I love new challenges!!

Progress!

I had a really hard workout in the gym today and I'm excited to report that I am seeing progress! SCORE! I've been starting this new strength training program, which if I'm honest, I've never done before. My doctor told me strength training would help tremendously with my Fibromyalgia. He is right! I am starting to feel GOOD! Anyway, today when I was doing the kettlebell, I realized I am ready to up my weight. I am currently doing a 15lb bell and I think I'm ready for a 20. On the dumb bells, I'm ready for 10 lbs instead of 8. WOO HOO!

Then I went to cardio and I've noticed that my last three treadmill runs have increased in pace by 15 seconds each run. I'm getting faster! These are the intervals I used today:

1:1's 2x
90:60 2x
2:1 2x
Repeat

That interval sequence adds up to exactly 30 minutes so it works out! I think by next week I will be ready to increase my intervals even more. I'm excited!

Princess Half and a MEAN scale!

I have always wanted to run Disney and HORRAY...it's happening!! My new friend Jenny and I are doing it together. She's super sweet and fun and I know we will have a blast! I cannot believe it...I've dreamed of this for so long! I cannot wait to run those 13 magical miles! The race weekend is Feb. 22nd-24th, 2013. We will most likely fly down Friday and come back Monday. I need to get skinny because I need to look cute in all the pics. YAY!!!

On a more downer note, I lost ZERO weight this week. I was uber bummed. I did lose 4 inches, though so I know I'm making progress. I worked hard so I was surprised to see no loss, but the inches don't lie so I'm trying to stay positive.

I *WILL* reach my goal. NOTHING will stop me!!!

About Me

I'm Lindsey, 31 years old and am currently living in Plano, TX. You know, growing up, I never thought I'd ever be a runner. I still can't believe it when I think about it. But I've always had something inside of me that craves extreme success in any form, and I've been this way since I can remember. I am very much a goal setter, and I like to learn new things and perfect the art, whichever it may be. I'm also a perfectionist and demand the very best from myself at all times. I'm pretty sure I get this from my father.

Anyway, I have played softball, did some strength training in college, and became a pro at the elliptical machine but to be honest, I never, EVER enjoyed working out and the mere realization of that is why I never pushed myself to do something great.

THEN...one day I was watching Biggest Loser. At that time I was very unhealthy, sad, depressed, and ready for a new challenge. On that night's episode, they were having the Biggest Loser Half-Marathon. Watching the finish of the participants inspired me and I just bursted into tears. It hit me like a bolt of lightning...I said, "I'm going to do that!" And I did!! I started big...of course. I'm very extreme so I did a half way before I ever did a 5K, 10K or 15K. But it was great. I trained on my own, starting with Couch to 5K. I will NEVER forget my first week of this program. Never running a day of my life, naturally I was dying. And I will never forget day 3. I was on the treadmill and completing the 60 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking intervals for 20 minutes. The guy next to me says, "Are you okay? Maybe you should sit for a second." HAHA yeah, that happened. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my LIFE. To this day, I still say running up to 3 miles for the first time is still harder than going long. The work it takes to condition the body up to that is huge, and I will always respect that process.
MOVING ON, once I got to where I could run 3 miles straight, I created a customized half-marathon training program for myself and I chose the Big D Half to be my first race. During training, I discovered my love for running. I can honestly say running my little heart out every Saturday, upping my miles one week at a time was one of the best times of my life! Every week, I hit a "that's the longest I've ever run in my life" milestone. Talk about a high! I loved it. And then race day came. My first Half-Marathon finish was amazing. I cried of course and got my first medal. It was *AWESOME*! At that time I thought it would be a check it off the list kind of thing. Nope! I love new challenges and thought, "Well if I can do a half, then I can do a full!" So I signed myself up for the Jeff Galloway Running Program. This program was different because it was 1 min walking/1 min running. I was running straight on my own, but my body was feeling it, and I figured this could be great for going really long and preventing injury. So I tried it and found that the support of a running group made all the difference in those upper mileages. We trained for 30 weeks and I completed my first Full Marathon in December of 2010. Yes I was very proud of myself but I'm not going to glamour it up. It was awful and I was in tears the last 6 miles. But once I recovered, I could enjoy the reward of finishing and accomplishing that insane goal.

Since then, I've completed 11 Half Marathons and 3 Full Marathons. I'm also now a Pace Group Leader for my running team and I absolutely love it. I have found my running family and I am so grateful this has turned out to be such a passion for me.

So now only one question remains...

Should I do an Ultra? :0) Maybe one of these days...

~Lindsey

Keepin' On!

I'm so pumped because Marathon training has officially started and I'm fully motivated to have a great PR this year! It is also the first week of a new UG challenge and I'm motivated to do well! My goal is to lose 15-20 lbs this summer. I know that will make a huge difference in my PR in December.

I'm also re-vamping my blog! My friend Jenny totally inspired me with hers, so I'm on a mission to make mine better and up to date! Hopefully this will help me stay focused through the course of my journey.

Last night I had a great workout at the gym. I did a 30 minute run with much longer running intervals, 20 flights of stairs, serious upper body weights, and my fibro stretches. This totaled to be 90 minutes. A great day 1 with a calorie deficit of 1,185. Woo Hoo!

Upcoming Races

2013 DRC Breakfast Bash 5 Mile
2013 Electric Zombie Run
2013 Tower of Terror Happy Trail 5K
2013 Tower of Terror 10 Mile
2013 Bad Prom 5K
2013 McKinney Mini
2013 Dallas Marathon Relay
2013 New Years Eve Double 5K
2014 New Years Day Double 5K
2014 Blacklight Run
2014 Hot Chocolate 15K

I am up to 33 races so far! Woo Hoo!!!

2013 Disney Mickey's Haunted 5K
2013 Disney Tower of Terror 10 Miler
2013 Moo Cow Mini Marathon
2013 Firefly 5K
2013 Rock N Roll Half Marathon
2013 Disney's Princess Half Marathon
2013 Hot Chocolate 15K
2013 New Years Day Double 5K
2012 New Years Eve Double Half Marathon
2012 Dallas Marathon
2012 DRC Half Marathon
2012 Heels and Hills and Him Half Marathon
2012 DRC Breakfast Bash 5 mile
2012 Hottest Half Marathon
2012 Miller64 6.4K
2012 Hotcake Hustle 10K
2012 Dallas White Rock Marathon
2011 DRC Half Marathon
2011 Hottest Half Marathon
2011 Heels and Hills Half Marathon
2011 Big D Half Marathon
2011 St. Paddy's Day Dash Down Greenville 5K
2011 Cowtown Half Marathon
2011 Texas Half Marathon
2011 Too Cold To Hold 15K
2011 Hot Chocolate Run 10K
2011 Bold In The Cold 15K
2010 Dallas White Rock Marathon
2010 DRC Half Marathon
2010 Red Balloon 5K
2010 DRC Breakfast Bash 5 mile
2010 Too Hot To Handle 15K
2010 Big D Half Marathon

Shoes

Shoes are the most important piece of equipment for running. I use Brooks' Ghost 3 for Women and I absolutely *LOVE* them. I was fitted at a running store and they are pretty close to perfect. My only wish is that they had them in pink. :0)