Friend Making Monday +

Random Questions

1. Did you watch the Super Bowl?  If so, what was your favorite part?  yes, my favorite part was when the Seahawks won!

2. What is the weather like where you live?  today it was in the low to mid 40's

3. When is your birthday? December 14th

4. Do you prefer sparkling water or flat water?  I love sparkling water, but when I'm working out, just plain water

5. How many hours did you sleep last night?  probably about 10 because i had only slept like 4.5-5 the night before and was completely exhausted when i went to bed

6. What is your favorite day of the week?  any day that i am running!  (or working out with my trainer...hehe)

7. If you had to choose between riding a bike or swimming, which would you choose?  riding a bike.  i completely suck at swimming right now so it's not a pleasant experience for me

8. How often do you eat red meat?  not very often at all

9. What time did you wake up this morning?  8:30

10. Do you have any goals for the week?  get 4 workouts in, 3 of them as runs...already got 2 workouts down

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Sorry I didn’t post yesterday.  Lots happened, but I was just too exhausted and cold to sit at the computer and type up a blog entry. 

What happened yesterday?  Well, first, I worked the early morning shift at work (6am to 2pm) for some overtime.  I got home around 2:20 and relaxed for a little bit before layering up and heading out for my run.  Layering up?  Why yes, it was quite chilly here in central Texas yesterday (it is again today, but not as much as it was yesterday).

So, I layered up with 2 pairs of running tights.  I didn’t need to layer my socks because it was a long run so I was already wearing something to cover my calves: my compression calf sleeves!  I wore a short-sleeved running top with a long-sleeved running pullover on top.  I wore my windbreaking running mittens and my new ponytail beanie.  I wish I had worn the thin long-sleeved cotton shirt I wore under all my layers when I ran the Brown Santa 5K in December.  Or, I was thinking, some arm warmers would have been nice…could have worn them under my pull over.  My arms were cold.  Anyway, depending on the foliage and the amount or lack of structures (ie-houses), I kept having to take my gloves off and then put them back on. 

I had mapped my route out for this 11.2 mile run the other day.  When I did so, I had myself going down a certain road (Heatherwilde Blvd).  I thought that where I would be connecting with this road had a sidewalk, however when I got to the connection with that road, I realized my mistake.  Thankfully there was a runnable “ditch” because this part of the road has absolutely NO shoulder so running on the road itself was not an option.  Now, I did have to run in the road (against traffic, of course) here and there because there was water or a drop-off that I couldn’t run through in the “ditch” but the traffic wasn’t heavy so it wasn’t too bad.  If I had realized I would have been running like this for any portion of my run, I would have worn one of my brand new and BRIGHTLY colored running tanks over the top of my pullover to make sure I was highly visible. 

At about mile 3, I realized my efforts with the laxatives and stool softeners over the last few days were starting to pay off.  I felt the need to find a restroom…but not urgently.  There is a 7-11 a little over the halfway point in the route I ran yesterday and it was perfectly placed because when I reached it, I did NEED to go.  After the pit stop, I ate the gel I took with me and continued on my way.  Other than being very cold, I felt REALLY good on this run.  I just felt like I wasn’t going “slow” (well…MY idea of slow…hahaha).  I did feel like the last ½ mile of the run I started to slow down from the fatigue of running so long in the cold.  Also, probably fatigue from holding up a 10:46 average pace for the ENTIRE run!!!  My slowest mile was 11:15…and that was mile 4!  For a long run pace, for me, this is pretty fast.  Usually I’m right at 11 min/mi or a little slower.  So, I was running AT LEAST 15 seconds per mile faster than my normal long run pace.  I’m pretty sure it was because it was cold and my body was trying to keep itself warm.  At mile 9, I had to stop to wait for a traffic light before I could cross a major road and when it changed in my favor and I started to run again, I was a little stiff and I was afraid that today I would be SUPER sore, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.

Anyway, I reached my stopping point of 11.2 miles and hit stop on my Garmin and then checked my stats

Wow!  I am super pleased with these stats.  I know that I pushed myself a little bit and I know that I wouldn’t have pushed myself that much if it hadn’t been so cold out.  I’m also glad this was a long run day and not a short, weekday run.  There’s no way I’m going to reschedule a long run and if I can avoid it, I am NOT running a long run on a treadmill.  So, I left myself no options except to just suck it up and do the run.  I’m glad I did.  That being said, it took me over an hour to warm up.  When I was taking my shower, the warm water hurt my fingers, they were so cold!

Yesterday I also spent some time updating my running log that I use a small daily planner calendar to keep track of.  I had started the month off wanting to shoot for 50 miles in January.  I then followed this goal up with the act of writing up a running schedule.  Then, the next day, I trashed the idea of the predetermined run schedule because I didn’t want to fall into the same “trap” I fell into last summer/fall where I felt compelled to make up miles I missed for whatever reason and felt that I just absolutely HAD to run what I had scheduled myself to run.  So, I scrapped the running schedule I had made for January and just decided to run what I felt like running, with the exception of long training runs on Sundays.  It worked really well for me to do it this way.  And you know what?  I hit that goal of running 50 miles in January.  It’s nowhere near what I was running regularly per month last year before my hiatus, but it’s still a number I can be proud of.

My runs for the rest of the week will be in cool weather.  I have plans to run 3 or so miles tomorrow morning and then 3 miles Thursday morning and, if I feel like it, 2 miles on Saturday (to be followed by yoga).

Of course, it's not going to be 70 until about 4pm.  So, when I'm running tomorrow morning, it will still be in the low 40's and I'm perfectly fine with that.

The Austin Marathon & Half Marathon people released pictures of the finishers’ shirts today.  I’m only posting the one for the half because that’s the one I’ll be getting.  I like it!  It’s not as cool as last year’s finishers’ shirts, but they’re still pretty nice and they’re Brooks shirts, same as the RNR shirts, so you know they’re quality!

I went to get my cavity filled this morning and was told that I don’t have A cavity, I have 2 cavities.  Great.  I didn’t have the money available to get them both filled today so they filled the one that was more “decayed” and scheduled me to come back to get the other one filled.  Now my tooth feels weird where the filling is.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but for now it’s a mild irritant to my tongue.  Haha.  Then, I went to Walmart to get my nails done but there was only one nail tech there and she was in the middle of doing someone else’s nails, so I grabbed a few things that I needed and managed to find yet another running pullover that I just couldn’t live without (haha) and went home to eat. 

I was going to do a 7-10 vegan “cleanse” to help reset my digestive tract.  However, the “cleanse” I’m going to do requires you to make your own soups and I just don’t have the time to do that this week, so I’ll do another week of the Shred Diet and then next week I’ll start the “cleanse.”  Besides, things seem to have started moving along, if you know what I mean, so it’s not so urgent anymore.  But I still want to do it.  Next week I have no overtime scheduled and I’ll have my entire 2 days off to do food prep, so next week just works better all around.

I think I mentioned the other day that I registered for my second half marathon for 2014: the Biggest Loser Half Marathon.  With my next paycheck, I’m going to register for the Capital 10K and the Austin 10/20 which happen the 2 Sundays following the BL half.  Craziness!  I toyed with the idea of registering for the Alamo 13.1 which happens the Sunday after the 10/20…but I figured that’d just be asking too much of myself.  So, I’ll save that race for next year.  

I showed up for my workout with Samy this afternoon...I walked into the gym (it's a boxing gym, in case I've never said so) and he had all this equipment and weights set out.  He was ready for me!  I started off with the jump rope, of course.  Then he had me do the heavy rope...and today it was the BIG rope, so it was heavier.  After that was 15 reps of squats, free weights.  Then lunges carrying 2 30lb dumbbells with farmer's walk back.  Then a weighted jump lunge, 20 reps.  Then repeat 4 times through.  After that it was 2 sets of suicide sprints and squat walks.  Then we did about 13 minutes of kickboxing...and let me tell you, I can notice how much I've improved.  I don't need anywhere NEAR as many breaks and breathers as I did before.  After that, abs and then done.  Something I noticed today...when I start my workouts with Samy, it's usually just me and him and sometimes John, the owner, in the gym.  During my workout, all these other people start showing up.  There's a boxer that's training for an upcoming match (he's already done his official weigh in) and if he's not there when I show up, he's there within the first 30 minutes of me arriving.  They run an after school program most afternoons, so a lot of kids show up about half way through my workout, along with the lady that watches the kids.  Toward the end of my workout, another instructor arrives along with a bunch more kids.  As I'm leaving the gym at the end of my workout, those kids have all changed into their gees and are warming up for their martial arts session (I'm not sure which one they're doing, guess I could ask some time).  Anyway, my point is that all of these people that I don't know come in and see me working out and I don't care!  I know that they're there, but I don't pay them any mind.  I just focus on my workouts.  The "old me" definitely would have cared and would have made it a point to schedule my sessions with Samy during a time when no one else would be there and could see my fat flying all over the place.  But, I'm in a place where I'm proud of my body...maybe not fully happy with it, but I'm proud of it nonetheless.