How Far Can I Run???

Today is Sunday and, therefore, long run day for me.  I had some afternoon plans with some people from work to go out and eat at this fantastic Latin cuisine restaurant in Austin called Gloria’s.  As a result, it wasn’t going to work for me to do my Sunday long run in the evening so I woke up early this morning and left the house by 8am and was at Town Lake trail by 8:30.  I headed out on my run and it felt good.  I stuck with how I refueled last week and was eating my first gel at mile 3.5-ish.  At around mile 5 there are some baseball fields that I decided I would run around to keep myself from having to do so much of an overlap there and back at the end to end at 11 miles.  Well, there is a whole ‘nother trail behind the ball fields, so I ran down that for a little bit and then turned around and came back to the main trail and continued on my way. 

As I was making my way along the last half of my run, I realized I was feeling good…really good.  In fact, I started thinking maybe I would run more than 11 miles.  I went back and forth with this thought as I ran along.  Again, mile 8 was a fast one…it wasn’t the fastest this time, though.  It was 2 seconds slower than mile 1.  Anyway, I continued to run and I continued to feel really, really good.  As I neared the end, I realized that I had run behind the ball field more than was necessary and hit the 11 mile mark very early.  By that time, however I need to use the bathroom…and not for tinkle, if you know what I mean.  There is a bathroom near where I park my car, but it’s across a pedestrian bridge on the other side of the river (about 2/10ths away from the car).  At this point, I add up the mileage and realize I’m going to be at almost 12 miles when I get to the bathroom.  Sooooo…I figured, what the heck, I’ll just go ahead and run extra mileage.  And not just any arbitrary mileage.  I decided on going 13.1 miles.  Yea, you read that right.  I PR’d big time today.  I went 13.1 miles!!!  And I did it in 2:24:30…that’s an 11:02 min/mi pace!!!  My mom asked me if I had to put out the flames on my shoes!  Hahahaha!

So, today was set up perfectly for me to do this.  It has been OVER 100 degrees for the past week.  Yesterday it was 108 degrees.  Oh. My. God.  That’s freaking hot!  So, a “cold” (more like a “not-so-hot”) front blew in last night.  It rained too.  So, when I ran this morning, it was cool, mid 70’s to low 80’s, and there was nice cloud cover (I was actually wishing I had left my sunglasses in the car for 95% of the run…until the last ¾ of a mile when the sun made an appearance) and there was a very nice breeze.  It was the perfect summer day for running…and PR’ing. 

Okay, last Sunday, I ran 11 miles in 2:04:17.  I had to do some very difficult and confusing time math when I got home because I wasn’t looking at my Garmin when I hit the 11 mile mark today.  Anyway, I came up with today’s 11 mile time--2:01:48.  That’s almost exactly 3.5 minutes faster!!!  I’m so incredibly happy with today’s run.

Oh and I would have run even further (because I literally felt like I could have run all day…that’s how good I felt), except I didn’t have any extra gels to refuel with me.  So, I’m going to start doing my Sunday long runs early in the morning aaaaaaand I’m going to be taking 2 extra gels with me as well…just in case.

The only thing that went awry with today’s run was that at mile 2.5 I realized what I had forgotten when getting ready this morning.  My calf compression sleeves.  Ugh.  So, my calves are a little achy right now.  I’m going to wear the sleeves to sleep in and hope I don’t have achy restless calves all day tomorrow.

So, now I’ve have 2 awesome, rockin’ Sunday long runs in a row!  I look forward to every single one of my runs, but I’m now SUPER excited for next Sunday’s long run.  It’s scheduled as 11.5 miles, but who knows how far I’ll actually run!!!

Oh, also, I decided the other day I should take a picture of what I do to stay chafe-free on my long runs.  Band-aids and gauze pads do the trick for me.  Hahahaha!

 

Weekly Weigh In 6/29/13

I knew I was excited for this morning’s weigh in for a good reason.  I lost 2.4 pounds this week!!!  I was just hoping for a 1 to 1.5 pound loss.  My hard work in making sure I “behaved” myself with food all week really paid off.  It just goes to prove that weight loss is mostly about what and how you eat and just a little bit about exercise because I only burned 400 more calories this week than I did last week.  I’m so very proud of myself right now.  I just proved to myself that I can do this and that even though I had that 3 month slump where I didn’t lose anything and even gained a few pounds at the end, that all hope is not lost.  So, if you guys have a similar experience, remember this and just keep telling yourself that it’s just temporary and it will pass.  Just don’t give up.

Proud of Myself

This week has been a good week.  There have been many moments where I have been proud of myself.  For instance, there was FREE PIZZA at work Tuesday night.  I *love* pizza…especially free pizza.  And how many pieces did I eat?  ZERO.  Yep, you read that right…I had absolutely no pizza.  It helped that the pizza was in a different area than where I was working, so it wasn’t all in my face or anything like that.  Another thing that helped was that I had just finished eating my 0% Greek yogurt with fruit, so I wasn’t hungry at all.  Then, on Wednesday, there was chips and queso in the breakroom left over from the morning shift.  No, I did not resist this treat, but I didn’t binge on it either.  I had a reasonable amount and then felt satisfied and walked away.  That never happens.  On Thursday, a coworker brought in a bunch of fried food…fried catfish (which I can’t eat because I have an intolerance to it and will vomit for hours if I eat it), fried green tomatoes and fried mushrooms.  I had one of the tomatoes and 3 of the mushrooms.  And that was it. 

On the fitness front, I exercised every day this week with the exception of Tuesday when I literally didn’t have time to workout because I had worked from 2pm Monday afternoon until 6am Tuesday morning and then had to be back to work by 2pm Tuesday afternoon.  I met a goal on Wednesday when I woke up at 6:30am and was out the door to run by 8am.  Thursday morning I tried to wake up early again to workout.  However, that didn’t go as planned.  Apparently I was very tired from the 2 previous days of less than usual sleep because when the alarm went off I kept hitting snooze and resetting the alarm in the hopes of when it went off again that I would feel rested.  But, that didn’t happen until almost 10am.  At that time, I no longer had time to go to the gym and do my planned 45-ish minute strength training workout and ride my bicycle on the trak stand for an hour.  Instead, I just rode the bicycle for 30 minutes.  Better than nothing. 

Today, I woke up an hour before my alarm went off.  I had planned to be up at 6am so I could be out the door for my 5.5 mile run between 7 and 7:30, however I woke up at 5.  I laid in bed, trying to go back to sleep until 5:30 when I just gave up and started the coffee.  Tomorrow, I’ll get up around 7:30 or 8 and hit the gym for about an hour for a full body strength training session.  Sunday, I have plans with some people from work for most of the afternoon and it involves eating so I won’t be able to do my long run in the evening like I usually do.  So, I’ll be getting up early Sunday morning to get it done before it gets too warm.

July's Running Schedule

Friend Making Monday...a day late

Ten Simple Questions

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?  I didn’t have time to look at myself in the mirror today…I got off work at 6 am and had to be back to work at 2 pm.

2. Do you prefer to pay for things with cash or plastic?  I usually use my debit card because it’s easier

3. What is one word that you use too often? Meow 

4. Who is the last person outside of your family who said “I love you” to you?  My best friend Patricia

 

5. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone and mailed it? A few weeks ago…one of my grandmas doesn’t have a computer so we write snail mail to each other

6. Have you ever been called upon for jury duty?  Yes, but I’ve never been selected

7.  How many keys are on your key ring?  4 – car, front door, mailbox and safe

8.  List two characteristics that you want to change about yourself.  My tendency to overeat when feeling vulnerable and nothing else, I am pretty happy with the person I am right now in my life

9.  Do you bring your own shampoo and conditioner when you travel, or do you use what the hotel provides?  I bring my own

10. What is your birthstone?  Do you like it?  Blue topaz…yes, in fact I have a ring with a trillion cut blue topaz and it’s my favorite ring ever

A Trak Stand

For about a week now I’ve had this Blackburn Trak Stand in my apartment.  If you don’t know what this is, it’s a nifty little contraption that you hook up to the rear wheel of your road bicycle and it turns it into an indoor stationary bicycle!  Anyway, a co-worker was selling it and said for me to try it out before committing to buying it from him.  Well, this last week has been a busy week for me.  I wasn’t able to give it a try until yesterday morning.  I hooked it up to the rear wheel of my bicycle, propped the front wheel up on my little fireproof safe (you could use a brick or a cinder block) so I wasn’t aimed in a downhill direction and therefore putting extra pressure on my hands on the handlebars.  I set it on the medium resistance (that’s what the guy selling it said he set it on and was most comfortable with) and hopped on and started pedaling.  Well, I hopped back off and set it on the high resistance and that was better.  Then, I bumped up the gears so I’d have more resistance while pedaling and was quite happy.  I strapped on my heartrate monitor and pedaled for 40 minutes while watching the news.  I burned 251 calories.  Felt great!  What a fantastic way to watch tv and get a workout in at the same time!  So, when I went into work yesterday, I brought him the $40 he was asking for and voila, it’s mine!

I will now have no problem getting my 2 cycling sessions in each week that are in my new weekly workout routine.    Well, except for when I pick up overtime like I did last night.  As it is, I have to do this morning’s 8 mile run tomorrow instead.  I have to decide if I’m going to cycle with my Trak Stand or if I’m going to go to the gym and strength train…which I haven’t done in almost a month now…so maybe that would be the way to go.

Well, I sort of made up for not pulling that overtime shift Saturday night last night.  When I went into work yesterday afternoon, my supervisor said the night shift was looking for someone to stay over and I said that I would gladly stay over.  I mean, I still lost out on that $190 (after taxes amount) from Saturday.  Oh well, I just need to get over it.  And I’m working a shift of overtime this Saturday on my normal shift (evening).  I’m hoping I can pick up another shift between now and the night shift on Saturday.  That would be really nice.  That would be 4 shifts of overtime on my mid-July paycheck (around $760 extra!!!).  After Saturday, however, any overtime I get is up in the air.  There was none to be scheduled when I asked…they said they had filled their vacancies.  So, anything I get will be at the last minute like last night’s was.