Interesting Day

So far today has been interesting. It started with my alarm going off at 5:45 AM - yes I know I don't do mornings and I think I cried and died a little when I heard it go off - to go for a run. I was talking to my boyfriend last night about how today was going to be soo busy and that my normal time of 4-5pm workout on Tuesdays wasn't going to happen because I was giving a presentation from 3:30-5.  Then I couldn't do it during lunch because we had a company BBQ Grill Out and I didn't want to be anti-social and skip it to work out, and finally couldn't do it after work because I have to be at a work dinner at 6:30 and can't be late to this one. Therefore, the only time was before work and I HATE the idea of working out on the mornings. He simply just told me that obviously it was a priority of mine because I was concerned of when I would going to get it in, so if it is a priority then make it a priority and get up and get it done if that is the only time. Thanks babe!

I got up this morning slowly, got changed and out the door I went. It was only 2 miles and I think that also helped getting be out the door because if it was like 5 I think I would have turned that alarm off and rolled over, no joke. The bad part was that I was still asleep when I tried to work out which doesn't typically work. Then because I was asleep I didn't realize I didn't even stretch until I took off running and my calves lit up on fire immediately. Oops! Next I hadn't eaten anything so I was hungry and didn't really have any fuel, and finally I had to go to the bathroom which is not fun when you are running. All in all wasn't the great nor fastest run by any stretch of the imagination, but I did it - 0.25 warm-up, 2 mile run, and just a tad over 0.25 warm-down.

The good news is I don't have to worry about it now today, stress out about trying to find time, it's already taken care of and done. Now that doesn't mean that I am going to start working out in the mornings, UMM NO! I really enjoy working out during my lunch hour, it is soooo much better for me. Everyone operates better at different times and I am not a morning person at all!!! Now the problem is I am sooo tired today. I am not kidding - I feel like I got rolled over with a steam roller. I think if I closed my eyes for longer than a second I would probably fall asleep. Oh well I guess, there are worse things in life. Tonight after my work dinner I am headed home and off to bed early!

On a good note, I am finally getting my feel for the water back! I only swim twice a week so it has taken a bit for me to feel comfortable in the water again. I had to swim last night so at 5pm on the dot I jumped into my car and headed to the YMCA. We had a dinner at 6:30, but since we had a private room it was okay to be a tad late and my boss knew I would be. I was in the water by 5:27 and needed to swim 35-40 minutes. I figured 40 minutes put me at 6:07, hope out fast shower and change and since the restaurant was 5-8 minutes down the road I should be right in on time, 5 minutes late at most. Well I got swimming and felt great and created a main set in my head, IM work yesterday, but didn't really think it through and at 40 minutes I still had a bit left and said screw it I feel great I am finishing. I ended up swimming 50 minutes and did 2,600 yards! That's 12 minutes longer and 600 yards more than I have done previous. YAY ME! It felt great and I was happy I did it all. :)

Well tomorrow is a swim again, thankfully!

Crazy Week Ahead

Okay this is going to be a CRAZY week! There is all these people in for training at my company and I will be participating in some of it too. Basically I hope to write as much as possible but it will not be as routine as normal. It might be at different times, or no at all that day, I will do my best.

Thankfully this is my recovery week - YAY! - so the time commitment isn't as long as it has been lately and will become more as the weeks go on and I get closer to the Gate Rive Run. Tomorrow I am actually going to have to get up really early and go for a run in the morning because there really isn't any other time to do it! We don't get done until 5 and I know I will have to help clean up a bit and then my department is sponsoring dinner with the trainees at 6:30 and the restaurant we choose they won't seat our group until the whole party is there so trying to clean up the day, run and clean up myself in an hour and and half is just not feasible with a sane mind so looks like the alarm is going off early tomorrow - yippie! BLAH! Can't you tell I am excited?! haha!

By the way if you haven't already checked out my post yesterday - "It was a SUCCESS!!" - make sure you do so you can see how I did this weekend at my 5 mile race! :) Now all eyes are on March 10th for my 15K! Definitely nervous but in a good way and I have 6 weeks until it so I know that I will be prepared.

Have a good Monday and I will talk to you soon! :)

It was a SUCCESS!!

This weekend was a success! Saturday I completed my 1st ever 5 mile run - I have never run that far in my entire life! My goal was to go under 49 minutes and I successfully completed it in 49 minutes and 25 seconds. No it wasn't under 49 minutes but I was 26 seconds from doing that and you know what, in my book Saturday was a WIN in my book. I did something I have never done, and didn't ever really think I could do honestly. I am NOT a runner, I DON'T like running, it DOESN'T come easily to me but I am working hard and have set a goal and created a challenge and am sticking to it, I AM GOING to complete a 15K!

Saturday I proved something to myself that I haven't done in a long time, I can still race myself, I can still set competitive goals for myself and I can still push myself to do things I didn't think were possible for me! I ran 5 miles in 49 minutes and 25 seconds and I will shout it to the world as I am so proud and happy about my accomplishment! :)

Racing with Myself

Was it just me or did this week really go by quickly? I'm not complaining because everyone knows that my favorite 2 days are Saturday and Sunday! Granted I think most people would say the same thing, the weekend is just so nice - 48 hours to do whatever you want at any point of the day.

This weekend I have a busy Saturday and one that I am really looking forward to, even though I do have butterflies in my stomach. Tomorrow is my 5 mile race. I kinda laugh when I say race because I am not trying to place or anything like that, however, when I think about it, it's like swimming and that it's a race for yourself. I really like that since I have really missed that mental game with yourself since I stopped swimming competitively almost 5 years ago. My goal is to run faster than 49:00 minutes. It can be 48.99 and I will be thrilled, as that is all it takes to be seated at the Gate River Run in March. The run is called "Run 5 to Keep Kids Alive", it's a 5 mile race to hep benefits kids at a local children's hospital. There is also an Ultra Marathon, 55 miles the same day earlier that really is rasing money for these 55 children in need. The course is 5 miles with 2 bridges and they are doing that loop 11 times - that's 22 total bridges! Holy Cow!

I am sticking with the 5 mile race at 2pm. This will be the longest I have ever run at one time ever in my whole life. Those that know me know that I am not a runner and especially after I hurt my knee my freshman year at Texas A&M. I am looking forward to this step 1 in my personal challenge to run a 15K. I will be using my Nike+ app like I normally do when I run so between 2-2:49pm EST if you are freiends with me on Facebook please cheer for me! I really can hear it when I am running and I know I can use all the support tomorrow. Oh did I mention my boyfriend's mom is going to run with me? She is an amazing runner, has done many marathons, in fact she did the NYC Marathon back in November and did another one in September too last year. I am excited she wants to do it with me and looking forward to running with her tomorrow.

I also schedued a hair appointment at 11am. I figured it would be a good way to get me up and going on Saturday morning because I will need to eat a good breakfast before then so I am wake and ready to go at 2pm. I really can't wait to challenge myself tomorrow! Today's objectives are to drink lots of water to get myself to optimal hydration, carbo load, and to make a perfect running playlist for tomorrow. I have random running mixes, but I want to make a mix that is exactly waht I want to listen to when I know I will. I also need to do some laundry tonight so I can get the running gear I feel the most comfortable wearing clean and ready for tomorrow. I am excited because I am doing this tomorrow for me, proving to myself that I still can challenge myself and step up to the plate and do this. My boyfriend said that he has no doubt I can go under 49 minutes because he knows me and knows that I can do anything I set my mind to. He has to work all weekend, but said he will be thinking happy thoughts my way when I am running and cheering me on.

I promise I will get on either Saturday afte the race or on Sunday and let everyone know how I did! Until then have a great Friday and Saturday! :)

Snacking is my PROBLEM

Last night I got to thinking and realized that one of the reasons I have been eating out a lot is because when I am at home I over eat and snack ALL THE TIME! I am aware of this and so just have been taking myself away from the issue and not dealing with it, which doesn't do me any good. When I get home and make dinner, whether it is directly after work, after I work out, after something I had planned after work, I just snack and snack until dinner is ready. It doesn't matter what it is, pickles, chips & salsa, salad dressing, cheese, really anything at all; if I can eat it I snack on it. I have gotten really bad about it too!

I planned to have the dinner I was going to have Tuesday night, a slice of pizza and a salad. Well here is what I actually ate: as soon as I got home I opened the fridge and brought out the spicy pickle chip jar and the box of pizza and the plate of mini sandwiches I brought home from work Tuesday. I first opened the pickles and ate probably 4 or 5 chips. Next I popped 1 piece of the 2 I had into the toaster oven and opened the sandwiches and took one out. I snacked on some more pickles and then the pizza was ready. I ate the piece of pizza and the mini sandwich by the TV with a glass of wine. I finished the food on my plate and got up and popped a few more pickles. I also did drag the salad bag out with carrots and mini sweet peppers. In stead I grabbed 2 mini peppers and went and sat back down. I finished those and sat for a while. After 8 I decided I wanted the other slice of pizza and heated that up and ate that too. After I finished the slice of pizza I realized what I was doing, threw everything back into the fridge and went back to my room away from the kitchen.

You see at a restaurant I can be "good" I can order better options, have them bring a box right away or right when I get full. I only get what I order, I can't keep going back to the fridge and get more. I am not going to order more in front of people I am just not going to do that. At home I can "order" more all I want by just heading back to the fridge and taking out what looks good. I have got to get that under control! Does anyone have any good ideas on how to kick this one in the butt? It's definitely a habit which means I have to do the opposite for a bit to change it for good, its just that step in the middle that I need help with please.

Looking towards Saturday

Yesterday was a rough day let me tell you. Work was busy and crazy and then 4pm rolled around, which I was thankful but at the same time kinda nervous about it, 4 miles ouch. I had planned out a new route and thought it would be great but I was wrong. There is a lot to say about feeling comfortable on the road while running relating to how you run. I am use to running on a road by my work that has big shoulders so you feel safe running. Majority of the route yesterday didn't have that. In fact there was no shoulder so I did a lot running along the line and then into the grass/sand/rocks back onto the road, back onto the grass/sand/rocks which was just not fun. I was more worried about the cars and trucks around me that how I was running went out the window. My breathing was crap, my calves were absolute rocks and on fire, and I am sure my posture was horrid. Basically that was a cocktail for the run just not going well. I stopped just short of 2.5 miles and had to stretch my calves out again a pole they hurt soo bad. That helped for sure but they were still on fire. I also had to stop a bit further down and walk a bit because I was just struggling. I probably only walked for a minute at absolute most, but whatever. I was a bit bummed because at 4.25 (4 mile run and 0.25 warm-up) took me 45 minutes and on Sunday with the 4 bridges I did it in 44 minutes.

I thought about it all the way home and decided that the comfort awareness was different, I had to stop completely once and walked for a minute too which I didn't have any 3 of these elements on Sunday with the bridge runs. I am just going to shake it off and move on. Tomorrow I run 2 miles to taper into my run on Saturday.  know I will be fine on Saturday, it's a mental game and it starts now with not getting chopped down by yesterday's run. My calves still hurt today but the heating pad came with me to work again and is tied around my leg and I will be working on them all day! Back on track Meghan, back on Track!

Today I swim after work. The goal is to just take it easy, keep it long and just get in the distance. No fast stuff, just long and aerobic. Plus I am hoping that that will help loosen up and shake out some of the aches in my body like my legs. On top of that I am exhausted! This increase in exercise volume is starting to catch up to me. I am going to keep going but there is nothing wrong with taking it down a notch intensity and leaving the distance or time aspects in place.

Well that means today 35-40 minutes aerobic swimming, tomorrow 2 mile run, day of rest and then race on Saturday at 2pm. I am probably going to stretch like crazy on Friday, well okay not crazy but you know what I mean. I am nervous but really looking forward to this run on Saturday and that is what I am focusing on from this point forward.

New Route

Yesterday was a crazy day at work let me tell you! I was running all over the place, but the best part of my day was 11:30-12:30, well really 11:40-12:15 when I worked out! Monday's have really become my favorite day of my training program - just stretching and strength work. It's even better than the day off. It's 30-40 minutes of just quiet time to myself (a little music too) and just listening to my body. I did 20 minutes of stretching and some yoga to get into areas that were sore and tad bothersome. It really was great! I then did 15 minutes of some calf raises, squats, abs, let raises and then stretched out my calves at the end. When I left the work-out room after 35 minutes I really just felt great! It was a re-energizing session, time to reconnect with my body and just overall great ME time!

Today is a 4 miles run. I am doing it around my office like normal for a Tuesday but I am doing a different route since I have never run this far before around here. I am a bit nervous to run in a area that I am not use to. I used www.mapmyrun.com to find it and I driven all through that area before so I know I will be okay, I just have never run it, so hopefully all will go A-Okay! By the way, if you have never used MapMyRun.com I highly recommend it! It's a great tool to view ahead of time routes when you know the distance you need to run. It's also a great tool to see how far you ran if you didn't know previous to your run. I strap my iPhone to my arm and use the Nike+GPS app (AMAZING App that is worth the $1.99 hands down!!!) which tells me how far I have run, however, I am a visual person and a planner and like to know where I am going before I do it, especially if it is something new and I can control it. Definitely check out both, the website above and the Nike App if you are looking for new tools to aid in your running! :)

Happy Tuesday ALL! :)

Great Weekend - Great Momentum Forward

I have so much to tell you after this weekend that I just couldn't wait to get to my desk this morning and write up my blog today!

Friday after work was interesting how things played out but I was really proud of myself for a couple of reasons. #1 - I talked to my best friend on my way home and then more when I got home. I plopped my butt down on the couch and by the time I finished taking to her it was  6pm. I got a call from my sister who said she was out of work early and that she wanted to go to dinner with me at Maggiano's. After sitting there for a while the last thing I wanted to do was go run, but I switched with Thursday so I knew I had to. I told my sister to make an 8pm reservation because I had to run, which #1 i was proud of - I didn't let something I would rather do get in the way. #2 - I actually went for a run! haha! I know that sounds funny since I asked my sister to postpone dinner a little bit but I have done that before and just farted around doing nothing to "fill up the time" and pretend that I actually did it. I changed and out the door I went, even though it was getting dark. I had to run 2.5 miles and I hit my first wall while training. At 2 miles I had an internal battle about stopping at 2.25 miles since really according to the schedule I was only suppose to run 2 miles, but since on Tuesday I was suppose to run 3 and only did 2.5 because of my back I compromised to make up the difference on Thursday/Friday. I fought like a married couple all the way to 2.25 miles and ultimately the athlete came through again and I actually "sprinted" the last 0.25 miles (I say sprinted but really it was still slow running, it was just everything I had left). I ended up doing a bit longer warm-down to make it to 3.12 miles at 34:56 minutes. Not fast but a job well done! Definitely glad I did it after I finished that is for sure! #3 thing I was proud of myself is before I went to Maggiano's I logged exactly what I was going to eat and I stuck to it!!! I didn't stray and order something else, I didn't eat it all and say screw it, nope I stayed true to exactly what I logged so I would stay under my count! Yay me!

Saturday I got up around 10:45 or so and cuddled with Wrigley my Gold Retriever for a bit and then headed to the YMCA. I hit the water by 11:25 AM on a Saturday! I was soo proud of myself. I know that doesn't seem that early but the weekends but I typically don't start my day before noon I kid you not, and working out especially is not even crossed my mind until mid-afternoon. I got in and did 2,000 yards like I have been doing but did it in 35 minutes. It's been taking me 37-38 minutes lately so I was really proud of myself. My "main set" was 5x100s - 1: 25 hard, 75 easy; 2: 50 H. 50 E; 3: 75 H, 25 E; 4: easy; 5: fast then followed by a 50 very easy and a 50 fast. The fast 100 I did it in 1:09 and the 50 was 33 seconds. Years ago my coach would have yelled at me for going soo slow, but today I was proud of myself! I could feel myself breaking down and I just kept pushing through it. The 50 I concentrated on my breathing and streamlining (I noticed when I got tired it was a sad excuse of a streamline and I know that any coach I have ever had would have yelled at me up and down that pool for that poor attempt at a streamline) and that really helped! I left the YMCA feeling like I my day had to be great because it started off in good fashion!

Sunday I did something I have never done before, in fact I did 2 things I have never done before in my whole life! I ran 4 miles without stopping, which I have never run that far ever! Plus I did it while running over a bridge, which I have never run over a bridge before and I did 4 of them in 4 miles!!!! 1 of the 2 bridges was quite steep and I struggled getting up them, but I never once stopped and walked! I might have been going slow but I kept putting one foot in front of the other and made it all the way up twice! You see we did 2 bridges twice each. One was steep and the other not too bad. I ran with my sister and I was soo thankful she was there with me! it was a first for her too on running bridges and she definitely kicked my butt, but she is in better shape than me and has always been a better runner too. She would jog back to me or jog in place waiting for me at the ends of the bridges so we could stay together and I honestly couldn't thank her enough for that! Having something there to push me and keep me motivated was a blessing. I have a race this Saturday that includes each of those bridges that I ran but only one each and a total of 5 miles. I am trying to break 49 minutes so I can get seated in the 15K and I know now I can do it! We did 4.25 miles (included the 0.25 warm-up) in 44 minutes with 4 bridges. I tad off pace, but the going u pteh birdges is much slower than anything else and I was barely off pace so I know on Saturday my goal is achieviable! We then went to Mellow Mushroom and I did good because again I stuck to my plan again! Shared a greek salad with my sister and only ate 1.5 pieces of pizza! Oh ya and that 1 beer, but I wanted it and I deserved it in my book! :)

All in all I was soo happy with this weekend! I made good decisions and had great work outs. Plus I spent some time with a good friend one afternoon and had a blast, even bought a chair for my bedroom at marshall's which I have been looking for for like a year and half so that was exciting! Sunday was chores day and I got them all done which was fantastic! I am looking forward to this week with the momentum from this weekend! I hope everyone else has a great week! :)


Oh by the way I got on the scale this morning for the first time since December 18th and I was 163.8lbs!!!!! I haven't been down there since October and couldn't be happier with that news too! :) Check out my scale page to see my progress!

Bridges

TGIF!!! I am so looking forward to not having to get up early tomorrow! Sleeping in and enjoying my weekend is what I have in mind. I am going  to try and run over the bridges in downtown this weekend. There are railed off sidewalks that i am going to practice running over on Sunday. Maybe I will drag my sister with me and we can go get lunch or brunch afterwards. :) You are probably asking why am I running Sunday instead of Saturday like my training schedule says. Well you see yesterday I was supposed to run 2.5 miles and do some strength work, however I was unable to get it in and instead of today being my rest day I am switching the days. If I am going to run today instead I don't want to run 2 days back to back, so I am switching Saturday to cross training which was on Sunday and the run to Sunday that was on Saturday. I still get everything in!

I know I know why didn't I get in my run yesterday. Well I had a meeting at 11am that was only suppose to go until 11:30 but instead it went to 12:30. Normally no biggie I would run then, however yesterday I had to be downtown at 2pm so I needed to leave at 1:30 so trying to run and get lunch in and answer some emails was out of the question. I had to push it back to after work. Well after work I had something that truly was more important that working out. Unfortunately I can't talk about it yet, but I promise as soon as I can I will! I promise though it was more important that going for a run. I also had plans to meet up with an old high school friend that evening and by the time I finished around 6:45 with my important something, there just wasn't time to get in a run and be at her place between 7-7:30pm.

Life happens and when it does you just have to adjust. What I am proud of is that I just went with the flow, didn't beat myself up and adjusted things to keep myself going. Okay today is my day off and tomorrow won't be - done! Today I am not able to run during lunch, just entirely too much to finish up by today. I plan on running after work and damn it I will! haha!

Well I can't wait to tell you how the bridge runs go this weekend. Hopefully all good! :) Have a great weekend everyone.

The Good and the Ugly

Yesterday was an interesting day to say the very least. I had 2 doctor appointments, the 2nd was the Chiropractor and he fixed me. The X-rays showed that my left hip and shifted forward causing the bottom of my spine to curve right and twist so it wouldn't break. That is what I was feeling and where the pain came from. You see I have "funny hips", in fact the chiropractor said he had never seen hips like mine where I had complete control over subluxing them in and out. That just shouldn't happen he said. he said that is probably why i had no pain in my hip when it shifted. Anyway, he reset my hip which OMG OUCH but amazing relief immediately afterwards. He also popped my spine back into place and popped my neck too. I felt great when I left.

Next stop was the YMCA for a 35-40 minute swim. Typically I get there at 5:30 and there is masters that starts at 6 so I am just overlapping with them barely. It's a joke of a masters team in my book and they take up 4-5 of the 6 lanes. So yesterday when I got there at 6 I had to wait a bit for an open space. The "coach" (she gets quotes because she is probably 24 and just stands there, writes the practice on the board and doesn't do anything except socialize with the boys on the team) finally let me split a lane that only 1 of the master swimmers were in since she knew I knew what I was doing in the pool and wouldn't disturb the other swimmer. As I was swimming I thought to myself that maybe I would flirt with the idea that on Wednesdays ONLY I would get up early and swim before work. We will see though, you know I don't do mornings! Otherwise the swim went well and in fact I got 2,000 in again in 38 minutes and did a tad bit more kick so getting better in the water! :) YAY!

Then the bad part of yesterday that I am paying for now. I got home around 7:15 or so and was starving! I took my dog out to the bathroom, fed both my animals, tinkered with the Internet since it wasn't working and my recipe for the Pad Thai I was making was online, finally got it up and running and started to prep dinner, cooked and next thing I knew it was 8:45pm. The problem I had snacked on sooooo much that I wasn't even hungry for dinner! I separated the Pad Thai in 4 containers like the recipe stated and cleaned up. this morning I am paying for my snacking decision. Lots of chips and salsa, 5 pepperoncinis, a handful of salted peanuts, handful or so of the overcooked noodles (followed the package and they got over cooked, thankfully I only did half the package) and some carrots. This morning my stomach is hating me and doing flip turns and yelling back at me. It's been a regular breakfast day with a side of pepto and a straw! haha!

Oh well you live and learn I guess. Today is another day and running is in store today with a little bit of strength work. Today's goal - drink at least 8 glasses of water and stay under my calorie count!

Inner Athlete - Nice to see her again!

Yesterday I went to see a Chiropractor for the first time in probably 5 years. My back has been killing me and there is a spot that is not straight and needs to be realigned. Thankfully my insurance covers 100% after my co-pay and I don't need a referral. Thank Goodness! I made an appointment yesterday as fast as I could when I found that out.

I was supposed to work out at 4pm yesterday and run 3 miles. As the day went by and my back was still hurting I decided that running before I went to the doctor probably wasn't the smartest idea and that I would do it afterwards, plus I wanted to talk to him to make sure that I wasn't hurting myself by running. By the time I got there it felt better to stand than sit. He did an exam and decided because there was one soft spot that unbelievably painful for him to touch that he wouldn't align me that evening but instead take an X-ray, get the results this morning and have me come back tonight to get realigned if everything checks out okay. He also discovered that I have what I call "funny hips". They completely sublux (pop basically completely out and in) so since the X-ray was my lower back he got my hips too in the picture to make sure there was nothing connected between the hips and lower back pain.

Then I felt like I was back in the training room at Texas A&M before practice doing stem and message and stretches to help out with the pain and tension in my back. It was great because I felt so much better when I left. I discussed with him that I am training for a 15K and have a 5 mile run on the 28th too. I was supposed to run that evening 3 miles and wondered if I could still do that or if I should take a break day. He told me that I should be okay to run just to take it easy. If I felt any pain to stop immediately (walk back home if I was running or if on a treadmill drop to running to cool down and get off).

I got into my car and drove towards the YMCA which I had to pass to get home from where I was. The probably 5 minutes in my car to the YMCA I had a whole conversation with myself trying to convince myself that I should take the evening off. I then argued back that no I would be fine; you would have thought it was an old married couple fighting. Ultimately my inner athlete won and I pulled into the YMCA. I changed and hopped on the treadmill. I was suppose to run 3 miles yesterday and then on Thursday I drop to 2 miles with strength work. Well I decided that I would "take it easy" and only run 2.5 miles and do a 0.25 warm-up and down totaling 3 miles and in return I would up Thursday to 2.5 miles so I still get the total miles needed this week in. Compromise! I make a good married couple! hehe! It was difficult and hot in there, but I powered through and got in my miles. Afterwards I felt great and even treated myself to Chipotle for dinner. YUMM-O!

I really was proud that my inner athlete came out and my motivation prevailed. I have been struggling with that lately and it was nice to see that I made the decision that I knew I should make without anyone's help. I know that if I would have gone home I would have regretted that decision and probably beaten myself up a little bit for it. It was definitely great to see that athlete side of me take control once again. I have miss her!

Back Hurts

Well it's Tuesday and that means 4pm workout. Today according to my training schedule I am suppose to run 3 miles. I did that on Saturday and the previous Tuesday so it should be no problem. Well that's just the thing, it should be but I did something to my back on Friday. That evening it started hurting and has gotten worse since. It did settle down a bit yesterday but I think I need to see a chiropractor to get realigned. I think I have a vertebrae that needs to be popped back into place and what is causing all the pain. Everything is trying to compensate for the wacked out alignment and it just doesn't feel very good. I am going to go run today, but definitely take it easy. I have been trying to hold my average running pace to under 9:45 per mile, and actually more like 9:15 since on the 28th I am running a 5 mile race and need to go under 49 minutes, which is just under 10 minutes a mile, however, there are 2 bridges so to compensate I have been trying to hold a tad faster pace. Today though I am going to just jog easily, get the distance in, but not push myself. At the same time if I need to stop and turn around, even if it isn't "half way" I am going to do that too! It is important to me to not hurt myself so I can accomplish my goal. I have my heating pad with me at work and plan on having it on all day to keep myself lose and feeling better. I used it a lot this weekend and it really helped a lot. Plus a couple of times while it is warm today I am going to go and stretch it out because that too has helped when I did it this past weekend.

On a good note I have to say I am proud of myself for running on Saturday even though my boyfriend was in town. I got out there around 4:30pm and ran 3 miles outside; 3.55 total with warm-up/down. Sunday though I was suppose to do 30 minutes of cross training, however, my back was hurting and I decided to rest it in the hopes that I would be able to run this week. All in all I was very impressed with myself for running on Saturday.

Need to Eat IN

Looking back over this week on MyFitnessPal.com I have realized that even though I have made good choices while eating out, I have been over on calories a lot and I have even worked out! Eating out really kills you, it's amazing! Next week I am definitely going to be eating in more, I have to. The goal is on Monday to have the week planned out. I need to stick with a plan and get back on track with eating. I know that I will eat out Thursday night with a friend and maybe another night with another friend, but the other times I need to be good and make good food at home!

the funny thing is that I really enjoy cooking. I just lately have been lazy I guess. Hopefully by recognizing this, by bringing it to my attention and calling awareness to it I will get my butt back into gear and be better.

Today is my day off from working out! YAY! haha. I really have been tired this week and I think it is because I have really stepped it up in the amount of exercise I have been doing and on top of that I haven't gotten the sleep I really need for varies reasons. Next week I will be paying attention more to sleeping, that is the goal. However, this week isn't quite over on working out. I have to run 3 miles on Saturday and do 30 minutes of cross training on Sunday. Even though my boyfriend is coming into town (YIPPIE) I still HAVE to be good and get it done. I already told him he has to help me make sure that I get it done. I will get it done! haha!

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend. :) Maybe since I only got 3 blogs in this week I'll blog once this weekend?! Who knows just keep checking back!

Holding Strong

I know I have been quiet for the past 2 days but this time it doesn't mean I was "bad"! It was because the last 2 days have been CRAZY BUSY at work! Yesterday Marketing gave an ALL DAY training/ informational session to a group of internal employees that came in for training. Then of course Tuesday was last minutes prep all day. I am glad it is over because it took a lot of time and energy to get it all done.

I have however had 2 really good days regardless of the craziness. On Tuesday I went for a run and ran 3 miles straight! I don't know if I have ever run that far before without stopping. Maybe once before. I did a 0.25 warm-up before the run and so when I got to a 5K total (0.25 warm-up + 2.87 run) I was at 29:26 minutes! The fastest I have ever done in a race was 33.18! Yay Me! I finished out the whole thing and did 3.55 miles in 35 minutes. I was really happy with that! I felt good while I was running and had a good hurt so I am chalking it up as a "win"! Then yesterday I went and swam and did 2,000 yards in 37 minutes. It was hard both in the physical aspect, but also the mental aspect too because I knew what I was suppose to do, but I couldn't make my body do it. I have been out of the water again for a while and yes I swam Sunday too but that feel of the water is gone. It made me chuckle a bit when this girl I was sharing a lane with asked me how I go so fast?! I didn't even know how to reply to her because I felt soooo slow! haha!

The other reason I was proud of those 2 work outs was because we have this group of people in for work. On Tuesday night Marketing took them out to dinner at 6:30 and last night I got invited to go to dinner again at 6:30. Both evenings I made the time and worked in the work out! I didn't let myself "get out of it" because of dinner with colleagues. Then at dinner both nights I choose good options. The first night was Carne Asada with Chimichurri sauce and grilled onions and I substituted the rice for grilled veggies instead. I also got the skinny margarita and it was delicious. Last night I ordered off the "Healthy Menu" where everything was 575 calories or less. I got a side salad and didn't eat too much of the appetizer that was mostly fried food. I had to have a couple of things - I was starving because I swam and it looked too good! :)

Today is another run but only 2 miles and then some strength. I am dead tired today so I am hoping somehow that will wake me up. We'll see but I am holding strong this week. Well have a good Thursday and talk to you tomorrow.

GREAT weekend!

It's Monday and I am doing well - I know it's amazing I am not dragging or dread this Monday morning. I don't remember the last time that happened! haha! This weekend was great. I got a lot of cleaning and organizing done and that made me feel soo much better. I still have a little bit left to do, but the huge chunk of it is done which is fantastic! It's amazing how purging stuff you don't need and organizing the stuff you do can just calm and de-stresses you. I also got all my laundry done which was amazing, 5 loads later! 3 loads of clothes, one of misc stuff, and one with sheets and some of my sister's stuff. All of it is put away and I started the week off on a fresh start. It really is amazing how that works, starting off of the right foot.
Other than organizing and cleaning this weekend I got in some great relaxing time on Sunday. I sat in bed with my cat curled between my legs on top of the blankets, my dog snuggled up next to me, cooking channel on tv and my laptop in my lap just messing around. It was fantastically relaxing! I think this part along was one of the reasons I feel great today. Giving yourself some time to yourself, some time to just relax, not worry about anything and just kick back really helps to recharge the batteries and put you in a good mood. Being in a good mood can change everything in your life!

The other great note from this weekend is that I worked out twice this weekend! I mean my training schedule calls for it so I glad I followed it. I was suppose to run on Saturday and swim on Sunday, but since I missed Thursday's run and did it instead on Friday, I switched Saturday and Sunday to space everything out. Saturday I was suppose to do cross training for 30 minutes. I of course am choosing swimming for my cross training. I got int the water for the first time in months and did 2,000 yards. It took me about 37 minutes and I was really happy with the end results. It was hard but I pushed through and even challenged myself. I originally was going to do 8x50s free on 45 seconds (okay that is hard now people leave me alone! haha!) and instead I got to 6 and thought to myself lets do 12 instead and I pushed through. I was holding 38-39 seconds and my heart was pounding. It was a good work out. Then on Sunday it took me until 5pm to get out and run but once I got out there I felt great. I was suppose to run 2 miles but instead I ran 2.45 miles and with the warm-up of 0.25 miles and warm-down of 0.4ish I ended up doing a 5K - 3.12 miles! I did it too in 33:58 minutes and my best time ever is 33:18 minutes! I was really proud of myself for doing so well. All in all a good weekend for working out!

This week's work out schedule:
Monday - Stretching and Strengthening
Tuesday - 3 mile run
Wednesday - 30 minutes swim
Thursday - 2 mile run and strengthening
Friday - rest
Saturday - 3 mile run
Sunday - 30 minute swim
***My boyfriend will be in town this weekend so it will b hard to get want to get this in but I will be determined!!!

Have a  great week everyone!

 

Looking Forward

It's Friday Thank Goodness!!! I am definitely looking forward to this weekend. i don't have any big plans, just get myself back into order at my house. I got back Monday night from vacation and my bathroom was a disaster! The complex was suppose to tear apart my shower and find the leak and replace the carpet in my bathroom (I know right who puts carpet in a bathroom!) with tile or whatever, just not carpet. I ended up taking 1 sleeping pill because I started getting anxiety and knew I wouldn't sleep otherwise. They said it would be a 3 days job max. Well last night I get home and it appears my shower is done but there is still carpet. This is driving me nuts because I can't really unpack because my closet is in my bathroom and i just don't even want to go in there right now. Hopefully this weekend it will all be done and I can put myself back into order. This week has been crazy a bit and my room not being in order just stresses me out more.

I am also looking forward to getting on track again. Today is suppose to be my "rest" day on my training schedule. I didn't work out the past 2 days so today I am going to run like I was suppose to yesterday. I am suppose to run tomorrow and cross training on Sunday, but I think I am going to switch the 2 so I don't have to run 2 days back to back. No more playing around! I am signed up and running 5 miles on January 28th, 3 weeks from tomorrow so I need to get my ass into gear and start moving. I am also going to be planning out my meals better like I use to. This weekend I already have some ideas in mind and am excited about organizing my life again. I know that is a bid weird, to be excited about organization but that is just me. It keeps me less stressed and in a happy mood.

This week was bumpy I know, but I am getting there slowly. I know I can't be perfect right away so as long as I just don't dwell on the downs and keep looking forward I know everything will be great for 2012 and this point forward!

Disgusted

I have been dreading writing this blog all morning, okay that's a lie, I have been dreading it since last night. You see I was bad yesterday and well flat out lazy which I am disappointed in myself about. You see I was suppose to swim yesterday after work. I can at least say I made the effort to do that. I left work 30 minutes late and still went straight to the YMCA, however, when I get there I find that there is no power at all so the YMCA is closed! So I decided to head home and get on the stationary bike or elliptical at my apartment little gym. Well the 15-20 minutes it took to get home because the lights weren't working and it was crazy traffic I decided I was really hungry and the pizza in my backseat (yes I will get to that in a minute) smelt really good. By the time I got home I decided to heat up dinner right away and then in 2 hours after it's settled a bit I would go work out. I bet you can guess how that story ended - yup my lazy butt sat right on that couch all night watching TV and looking stuff up on my laptop. Not once did I get up and even attempt to try to make it out. I told myself it was too cold outside and I didn't want to get cold walking to and from my car, I also told myself that I wouldn't sleep because I would get my endorphins up and have a hard time falling asleep, finally I would have to take a shower afterwards and since mine it under construction and I would have to use my sister's (which I might point out I have been doing anyway in the mornings) it was too much of a hassle. I used every possible way to convenience myself that sitting on the couch was a much better option. I even told my boyfriend that I was going to work out later and would call him then after we spoke around 6. I actually didn't want to call him because I didn't want to tell him I didn't work out. I wasn't going to lie either, so I put that phone call off till like 11pm, so not I am tired too. BLAH! Then this morning I realized I can't work out during lunch and run because I have a doctor appointment at 3:30pm and am leaving work for the day at 3 so I don't want to take advantage of the fact that I am not "losing hours" for the time I won't be at work. I work through lunch so I only miss 1 hour instead of 2. damn it!

So the pizza. yesterday at work the Marketing Department, along with some other people cleaned out and organized the back isle of the warehouse which is the marketing materials, engineered products, and accounting (left their stuff alone). We knew it would take a while so we ordered pizza for everyone as a thank you. I placed the order with Papa Johns online which was so fantastically easy and simple and it was delivered when we needed it. Well there was almost a whole pie left and I took it home with me. Did I mention I had 4, yes 4 slices of pizza at lunch?! Then for dinner I heated up 3. I got through the 1st 2 and took at bite of the 3rd and was like no my eyes were bigger than my stomach I am full. I sat there for a bit and didn't move the piece of pizza so about 15 minutes later I ate it! Did I mention I had a small thing of Ranch (at least it was Light Ranch) to dip the pizza in?! It's a Texas thing I pickedup while there if it sounds weird to you. I was really disguested with myself that I did that and finished the 3rd piece when I said out loud that I was full and didn't need that 3rd piece after I took 1 bite of it. I woke up this morning sluggish and upset with myself.

I also haven't been good about tracking. I am going to go in today and take care of everything from this week! Even yesterday with the very bad eating of pizza. Oh well there is nothing I can do I guess now except make better decisions today. I am going to go see Wicked tonight with some girlfriends from work (SOOOO EXCITED!) but we are going to Hooter's first. I am going to get online and find out what I am going to eat before hand and log it in so I can't change my order when I get there. Hopefully today will be better and the rest of the week.

Hope you day is much much much better than my yesterday!

Moving Along

So yesterday was Day #1 of my training program. I ran my 2 miles on the treadmill at a 5.7 pace. I did some warm-up/down too so overall it was around 2.4 miles. Nothing big but what i was proud of was I was hurting around 1 mile but the 2nd mile didn't seem nearly as bad. I found something inside myself and just bit down and kept going. I really wanted to run outside yesterday but being that it was 40 degrees I decided not to get sick and stayed indoors.

Today is Cross-Training. Basically that means I can do whatever I want such as cycling, swimming, walking, even running again if I want. Obviously I am going to swim. It's only suppose to be for 30 minutes according to the training program but I am going to see how I feel and go from there. What I am excited about is to use my new heart rate monitor while swimming. My boyfriend got me this heart rate monitor stuff for Christmas that I wanted and it will be my first time using it while swimming. Granted this is the first time I am going to go swim in quite some time. I will let you know tomorrow how it goes.

By the way I am signing up today for a 5 mile race on January 28th. It falls within my training schedule so it works out great. I am nervous but since it has 2 bridges in the run, 1 of which is 1 of the 2 bridges in the 15K later in March I thought it would be a good idea. I went by the running store last night to sign up and pay for it, but since all the money goes to charity you have to sign up online only. Mark your calendars because that will be the longest run of my life thus far!

One last shout out - yesterday a friend of mine "cheered" for me while I was running and it was AMAZING! What this means is I have Nike +GPS and it posts to Facebook. It shows when I start running and that I am running. You can "cheer" for me and write me comments that I get while I am running. She did both and they couldn't have come at a better time. It was right at the beginning which is perfect because I wasn't to thrilled about running inside and she made me smile and put me in a good mood - THANK YOU!!!!

Have a great hump day everyone!!!

Determination

Everyone always sets these ridiculous New Year's Resolutions, stick with them for maybe a month, 2 at best and then they fall by the way side. I talked about mine in my blog on December 30th (New Year Resolution), which basically I am going to control what I can control and no worry about those things I can not control. This applies to all aspects of my life, not just exercising and eating right, but making the time to spend more time with friends and family, being a better person in every way I know how basically. Back in August/September of 2011 something happened that was out of my control and I did a decent job of not letting what I couldn't control get to me, however, I could have done a better job. This is just an example of what I am talking about.
Today marks the 1st day of running on my new program. If you are interested here is the link to what I am doing - Hal Higdon's 15-K Training Guide. It is a novice program for someone training for their 1st 15-K. today is a 2 mile run which is good because that is what I have been doing so I know I can do it!

Today is the start of my re-motivation even if I have to "trick" myself into doing it. The goal is by the end of the end of the month to have a positive attitude about exercising and tracking. It takes 30 days to change a habit so here we go!!!

Happy 2012!