Back in the Game - Again

Okay, today I completed week 1 of c25k - again.  I will say, it was much easier this time around compared to last April.  I didn't have to resort to any granny shuffling and it was nice to be familiar with the neighborhood so I could vary my route.  Especially since the track is so incredibly muddy and squishy right now.

I checked my time compared to when I first did c25k.  When I started the first time I was averaging about a 17 min mile.  This week I've steadily reduced my time to an average of 15 min/mile.  Two minutes faster the second time around sounds good to me.  I noticed that the hardest part about week one was all the starting and stopping.  About the time I would get into a grove with jogging it would be time to walk again.

I knew the weather was going to be nasty later on in the week and was tempted to run yesterday, but even though I've felt like I could do more I want to be careful to not burn myself out early on.  I went to Target instead to buy more running clothes.  :)

I noticed they were having a sale this week on active wear, and I don't have any dedicated wear for cooler/cold weather.  I wound up buying two wicking tees ($5 each - holy moly) two long sleeve wicking tees ($10 each), a pair of "running tights" which are fitted capri pants (that after running in today totally love and not a bad deal at $19), a sports bra (that I'll be returning) and some wicking socks.  Now I know a lot of people put a lot of stock in investing in good socks, that they make a world of difference regarding blisters and such but I just haven't bought into it.  Luckily I haven't had any problem with blisters (yet), but seeing as how I desperately needed new socks, and they were on sale I gave in

Good gracious, holy moly, I'm in love with these socks.  I don't think I've ever put anything on my feet before that felt so lovely.  That was before I even got shoes on.  I'm sold.  I don't know if I can ever wear my plain, thin cotton socks ever again.  They're dreamy.  For reals.  *Edit* - They are C9 by Champion Duo Dry no show socks from Target.  They came in a pack of four, two black, one pink and one blue.

The sports bra I'll have to take back, after trying one on in the dressing room I just couldn't make myself take all my clothes off and do it again.  Lazy.  Yup.  So I grabbed a different one and the first being too small, this one was too large.  Hopefully I'll remember to take it with me when I go to town tomorrow.

The food situation this week has gone pretty well.  Dearest and I had a "movie night" Saturday where he corrupted me, and I let him - to a degree.  There was popcorn (but I made sure to get the 98% FF Healthy Pop stuff), there was Pepsi - throw back full frontal assault sugar loaded Pepsi at that, but we shared it and I only had a third of the bottle.  Thankfully I cut out to bed before he brought out the ice cream.  When I got up the next morning he had polished off the whole carton!  I made sure to log everything - I have all week, and I even still have plenty of my weekly allowance points left.  I'm feeling pretty good over all about my choices.  We'll see how Weigh in Wednesday goes tomorrow...

Hitting With the Double Whammy

Okay today's accomplishment:  I went running.

Woot!  I haven't gone since June-ish I think, when it got so unbearably hot and I wussed out.  Then of course... it got cold.  I'm an even bigger wuss in the cold than I am in the heat, but you know what?  I actually really enjoyed myself.  I even learned that given the choice, I'd rather run in the cold than in the heat.  Now when I say cold, remember I do live in the south, so 35-45 degrees is indeed cold.  ;)

Thankfully my very enjoyable run made me realize that it's time to double team this weight loss.  In the past several years I've tried either dieting or exercise, but not both.  I blamed it on a lack of time and/or resources when in reality it was just a lack of motivation and determination.

Things are going well with Weight Watchers, I've yet to feel deprived and in fact on several occasions have had a hard time getting in all my points for the day (we even ate out twice today!).  I'm sorry but I just feel completely wrong about eating a deep dish pizza just because I have the "points".  Granted it is nice to have the option should I go into a carb breakdown.  I started out wanting to just lose weight, but I'm in this to get healthier, to feel better, and well the weight loss - it'll be a great side effect.

I re-started the C25k program today.  Back on week 1.  I was curious to see how I did in comparison with the last time I started the program.  I am proud to say I started off much stronger this time and I don't think I granny shuffled once!  I did however really run out of steam towards the end.  Then I realized that somehow I had managed to finish the week 1 podcast and get mid-way into week 2.  Oops.

The other nice thing about running in cooler weather - there are fewer people out, by far.  Score again! Especially since my pants kept wanting to fall down - but I'm counting that as yet another good thing.

Turning Failures Into Successes

Okay guys, I have a confession to make.  I'm a geek.  Full fledged OMGEE geek.  I even have the tan lines to prove it.  Seems the longer I stick with running the more geek gear I collect.  I don't run "naked".  I run with an ipod, a Garmin wrist top GPS, a Road ID, and today I added a camelbak to the mix.  Yes I'm aware that I look silly.  I have all this crapola and I'm barely out running for an hour.  *sigh* I can't help it.  I try to blame my family.  My brother, bless his heart is a geek too.  He works on computers, he reads, laughs at and enjoys comic strips about physics, and is the root of my geeky-ness.   Dearest is also a geek.  He has a lexicon on Star Trek, collects military "action figures", and spends hours on end on zombie message boards preparing for doomsday.  Hum.  Maybe I'm the normal one....

C25K Update - Two Weeks Left - WOOT!

Yesterday was the most fun running I've had.  Ever.  It was wonderous, stupendous, and awesome.

The weather wasn't bad, it was overcast and cooler than it has been, about 81 degrees or so.  I received a Garmin Forerunner for my birthday a few weeks ago and decided today that maybe I should step off the beaten path.

For the past seven weeks I've been running a pea gravel track at a local park, it's a 1/2 mile loop so after a while, it gets old.  I think that running in the same circles for seven weeks had attributed to the begining of my burnout.  There are however two entrances to local neighborhoods and I decided today that I would take the first one, and just make a lap, see what was back there.

It was a very nice, very quiet little neighborhood.  That just kept going and going and going.  After about a mile I started to get worried.  I realized that I hadn't paid any attention to the road signs or how to get back to where I came from.  Normally this wouldn't be such a problem, it was a safe neighborhood.  It's just that I was late getting out the door and I had to go to work.  I mean I had to shower... then go to work, but before that I still had to stretch and ice my knees!  Well I decided I'd keep going, the road I was on had to end eventually, it was a neighborhood afterall, I figured it had to go somewhere... right?  Finally I came back around full circle right from where I jumped off the track in the park.  *whew*  That was a relief.  All that worry really did help the time go by though!  I felt great throughout the whole run and towards the end I even decided to try and go a bit faster.

I'm not granny shuffling anymore, but I'm still pretty slow.  Right now I'm averaging about a 14 minute mile.  I wanted to see what a 10 minute mile felt like.  I still don't know.  :P  I do however know what a 10:58 mile feels like, so maybe I'll get there yet.

Afterwards I felt wonderful, and felt great for the rest of the night.  A lot of times I'm really sluggish the rest of the night after a run.

Oh and Dearest also told me I looked cute in spandex.  Bonus!  I <3 him.  :)

Looking foward to tomorrow's run.  I'll have to get up extra early because we are also celebrating my Dad's birthday before I go to work, but that's okay.  Hopefully it won't be pouring down rain!

Who Are You Calling a Nazi??

As I was out on my run this afternoon I had so many things running through my head of what to blog about today. Sadly that was almost twelve hours ago and I fear it has all left me.

Today was W7D2 of C25K and I'll be honest, the past two weeks I just haven't been feeling it. I've gone longer between runs and put them off more often. Today was looking to be no exception. The past couple of days have been.. well eventful.

My mom and dad just got a puppy at Easter. She's a cute pup, a chocolate lab. However, she's a pain in the tookus. She's a vaccum cleaner. She sucks everything and anything up into her mouth. Rocks, mulch, shoes, toes, she even tries to chew the brick on the side of the house. So being, she needs near constant supervision. My mom went to the beach last week and I volunteered to stop in and check on the pup mid day. After getting in a nice long walk - puppy style (a completely random route) I got back home, took a nice long bath... and let the water drain...
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.
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"What's that noise?? It sounds like trickling water? Humm" I walk downstairs "Wow, the sump pump is really loud.. and isn't stoping.." I went to check it out - Our sump pump is in a secret hidden closet inside my walk-in closet. I stood there with eyes bulging, looking at the closet door afraid to open it, for it sounded as if water was gushing against the door. I slowly opened it, (for fear of drowning) and I was knocked flat out - by the smell. There was water, but not as bad as I thought it would be - the smell however, was unforgivable and it was filling up my house.

Bazinga!

Week five day three - completed!  I was slow as molasses but I did it.  I ran for actually a little more than twenty minutes, non stop.  I decided I wanted to be able to say I ran a mile and a half, so I went just a little longer.  

The nice part is when my brain shuts off and I forget I'm running.  Those are the "weee" moments.  You know, when you revert just a little bit and you want to throw your hands in the air with a goofy grin on your face and go "WEEEE!"  

I'll definitely say that today was a good test of how to push myself.  ... 

                   wait wait I have to go turn the light off and type in the dark because 

                   my boyfriend just walked in the room wearing his helmet, night vision 

                   and carrying a BB Gun.  No, he's not completely insane.. maybe just

                   a little... different.  ... okay now where was I??

Hooked - I hope...

Okay, so I think I'm hooked now. I hope so at least. Today was only day 3 of my C25K program, but I'm loving it so far. I actually didn't use my podcast today - I met up with two of the other girls that I'm doing the 5K with and we worked out together. We wound up walking/jogging with the jogging intervals being 2 to 3 minutes long. I was stoked that I could actually run 3 minutes without stopping! Okay so maybe I was "running" like a grandma, but I'm totally okay with that.

We worked out for about 45 minutes or so and wound up going just a little over 3 miles. Mary Beth ran an extra mile, to see if she could run one mile straight without stopping.

After we finished up and made a quick stop by work (and Qudoba - SHAME I KNOW!!)