Freedom 5000 Race Report, etc

Friday was the 4^th of July, as I’m sure everyone is fully aware of…haha.  A couple months ago I had done a google search to see if I could find a 5 or 10K to run for the 4^th.  Found one right off the bat…the Freedom 5000.  I went to the website and checked it out, but since the race was on a Friday and I work on Thursdays, I wasn’t sure how packet pick up was going to be.  I mean, was I going to be able to pick it up before work on Thursday?  Would pick up be near my work and I could go on my 20 minute lunch break?  Would they have morning of pick up if neither of those 2 options were available?  Well, turns out the answer to all 3 questions was yes.  I opted to pick up my packet before work on Thursday.  The pickup was at Luke’s Locker and I found a pair of tights I want.  But they’re $76.  But…I do have a $10 off coupon (if it’s not expired, of course), so that would make them $66.  Still pricey, but not quite as ridiculously pricey.  And they are awesome tights.

Anyway, off topic.

The packet consisted of a race specific bib (he had “Freedom 5000” printed on it…YAY!).  I LOVE bibs that have the race name on them.  I’m not a fan of generic race bibs at all.  I’m of the mind that I’m paying decent money for the privilege to run this race, I should get a pretty bib that is also commemorative.  And, my last 2 bibs (this one and the one for the Helvetia Half) were both commemorative. 

I have a bit of a hitch in my scrapbooking giddy up (I’m talking about my race scrapbook).  I like to buy at least one official race photo (or, if they’re free downloads, then I’ll download them).  If I buy the photo, I’ll scan it into my computer and print it out in wallet size.  They usually come in a 5x7 which is far too big for a scrapbook page photo (for the way I do my pages, anyway).  Well, when I went on my roadtrip last month, I took my scanner/printer with me.  I didn’t actually use it like I had meant to.  So, it was disconnected from my wifi network and my computer for 2 weeks.  Well, now it doesn’t want to work.  I try to print something and I get an error message saying the printer is offline.  I tried reinstalling the software and it’ll print the test page, but then I try to print something else and it says it’s offline.  So, until I get around to calling customer support to fix the problem, I can’t scan pictures or print anything.  So, what I did was take a picture of my Helvetia official photo with my phone and email it to myself, then I put it together with another race photo so that they could be printed out on a 4x6 and I can just cut it in half and have 2 photos the size I want.  Only problem with that is that when you print out a digital photo at the photo shop, you can tell it’s digital.  So, I’m not going to glue them into my scrapbook just yet.  I’m going to try to remember to call Canon Monday morning and see if I can’t get my printer back online.  BUT!  I did get some things accomplished with my race scrapbook.  For my Helvetia Half and Freedom 5000 pages, I wanted to splice together a couple different pages to make 2 unique background pages.  For Helvetia page, I took a red page and then a yellow page (those were the colors of the race) and I cut the yellow page into rays (like sun rays) and glued them onto the red page.  For the Freedom 5000 page I had bought a red and white striped page and a blue with white stars page (both vintage looking, so slightly weathered looking) with the intent of making a custom abstract flag page, which I succeeded in doing.

Alright…back to the race itself.  Haha.  I woke up at 6am and snoozed until 6:20.  I got up and got dressed.  I wore a fringed flag shirt, 80’s style!  I opted not to wear my usual headband as it really wasn’t hot out and it wasn’t humid and it was only a 5K.  I stopped at Einstein Bros Bagels on the way and got a chocolate chip bagel and a strawberry-banana smoothie for my pre-race “meal.”  I then made my way to Camp Mabry.  When I arrived, it was sort of arriving “late” so I didn’t get super close up parking and had to walk a little over ¼ mile to the starting area.  There was a food truck there serving coffee, however, it was not free.  And I didn’t have my debit card or any cash with me…left all that in the car.  So, no coffee for me.  I had noticed when I was looking at my bib that there was no timing chip attached to it so I was thinking the race wasn’t going to be officially timed, but as I was walking up to the start area I noticed the trailer for a timing company.  Sure enough, at the table for morning of race packet pick up there was timing chip pickup as well.  It’s the kind that straps around your ankle an velcros to itself.  It chaffed a bit by the time I crossed the finish line.

Right before we started, some of the military personnel left in some of the historical military vehicles in period costumes to go be part of a parade.  We all clapped and cheered as they drove by.  Then we could start.  YAY!  It wasn’t a live person singing the anthem, but a recording of a male acapella group singing it.  The first (well, the ONLY) water stop was right at the 1 mile mark.  I grabbed some water and walked for just a short bit.  The turnaround was pretty much exactly at the 2.5 mile mark.  When I was coming back up to the water stop and realized it was going to be right at the 3 mile mark, I knew the course wasn’t a full 5K.  Phooey.  I finished the 2.95 mile run in 30:56 minutes, per my Garmin. 

There were no official photos.  Thankfully, 2 of my friends, Pam and Eddie had also run the race!  SO, I asked this guy standing nearby if he wouldn’t mind taking a pic of the 3 of us and he happily obliged.  Since there were no official photos taken, that’s my “official” photo for this race that I will glue in my scrapbook.

with work friends Eddie and Pam post-race

not gonna lie, one of my favorite pages

Overall, I was very happy with this race and I want to do it again next year.

2014 Goals - Review & Renew

So, it’s July now and a lot of the blogs I read are revisiting their 2014 goals and resolutions, so I figure it wouldn’t hurt for me to do the same thing.   However, when I went back in my posts to find my goal list for 2014 I couldn’t find it.  I swear I did one, but now I can’t find it.  It must have been in a post I wrote and for whatever reason didn’t post.  And have now lost.  I know my list consisted of doing 3-5 workouts a week, with 3 of them being runs.  Another was to ride my bicycle more often.  Other than that, I haven’t a clue as to what goals I wanted to achieve.  But, I do have my goals that I wrote down at the start of the defunct fitness competition I had paid into this year (and am now getting a refund on because no one was really participating in it…me included).  Those goals were:

• complete 5 foot races (this was for the time period of 15 January to 15 July)

• run the Austin 10/20 in 1:55 or faster

• exercise 3-4 times a week

• get down to a 31 inch waist

• run a half marathon in 2:30 or less

Well, I have completed 7 foot races…so A+ there.  I did the Austin 10/20 in 1:54:34, so just an A there since I just barely went under my goal mark.  Exercising 3-4 days a week…we’ll go with a B because there are a few weeks where I only ran twice and one week I only ran once…but for the most part I have exercised at least 3 times a week.  A 31 inch waist?  Yea…no.  This one would be an F because I went in the opposite direction and increased my waist size.  And I ran the Biggest Loser Half Marathon in 2:28 and some change, so I’ll give myself an A for that one as well.  Overall, I’ve done pretty well…so long as you take weight loss out of the equation.  Haha.  Oh and then there’s the fact that I have only cycled once this year that I can recall, so that’s pretty much an F as well.  4 out of 6 isn’t too bad, right?

So, now that we have reviewed my goals thus far in 2014, let me lay out what I want to see myself accomplish in the second half of 2014…here we go:

• complete at least 5 more foot races

• complete my first full marathon (no time limit, just not a DNF)

• exercise at least 3 days a week (preferably 5 days with 3 running and 2 a mix of gym, swimming and cycling)

• lose 25-35 pounds

• ride my bicycle and swim more

I know it’s only 5 but, hey, those are five pretty hefty goals right there…so I think they’re more than enough.  Don’t you agree? 

What about you?  Do you make yearly goals?  Do you review them halfway through the year to see how you’re doing? 

Rule Your Mind

 Such a powerful statement.  To me, this means that I have to control the obsessive thoughts I have about whatever I’m obsessing over…and I have to get a grip on my emotions because I’m eating myself fat again.  I’m not being negative or defeatist at all.  I’m not coming down on myself either.  I’m just saying I need to get a handle on myself.  Therapy is a tool that I plan to utilize…but, because of financial reasons, I won’t be able to utilize it until after October 1^st…that’s when I’ll have money on my flexible spending account to pay for my co-pays at the therapist.  So, until then, I’m just going to do my best on my own to work on cutting down the unnecessary eating (eating when I’m not hungry and continuing to eat after I’m already full).

Your mind is a powerful.  When they say “mind over matter,” they mean it.  You can overcome/achieve just about anything just by BELIEVING that you can.  I haven’t been applying this to anything in my life.  I have been being defeatist…sort of…I’ve been very passive in my efforts to do anything the last few months…just squeaking by.  But it hasn’t worked.  If it had worked, I wouldn’t have regained the entire 33 pounds I lost last year.  I can’t let the negative thoughts that come up in the back of my mind happen.  If I do, I’ve lost before I’ve begun and that’s really not an option for me.

I’ve got a game plan, I just need to DO it.  I need to start doing it and I need to stick to it.  I’ve said before (last week, I believe) that I want to run 3 times a week and then on the other 2 days I workout, I want to do a mix of gym, swimming and cycling.  For this week, I’ve run once (Tuesday morning) and will run one more time (Friday morning).  Tomorrow, I plan to go to the gym, do my jump box workout and hit the pool for 10 laps.  Saturday, I want to ride my bicycle to the gym and do the jump box workout again…but this time I’ll also add my TRX workout to the mix to get some upper body strength training done as well.

I’m just going to do this one week at a time.  And I’m going to remember that everything I do is a success, no matter how small it is…it’s still a success.

End Of June

Let me fill you in on my weekend.  Saturday I went with my friend Amanda for her birthday.  We went to go see Maleficent and let me tell you…it was aaaahhhh-mazing!  I will definitely be buying that movie when it comes out on DVD.  After that, we went to do a little shopping.  We went to HomeGoods first where I bought a board with a bunch of hooks on it that mounts to the wall.  I’m going to mount that behind the door in my bathroom.  Next stop was Joann’s Fabric where I bought some red, white and blue over-the-knee socks and a couple cheap scrapbook albums.  Then we went to Marshall’s where I picked up 2 tank tops for running, some wrapping paper, and a really pretty notepad (for my lists of bills for every paycheck).  Then we went back to my apartment where I gave her her birthday gifts.  I got her a comforter set, a bunch of fun knee-high socks, a picture frame and a peacock statue.  She loved all the gifts!  YAY!  Then, she headed home and I went to Burlington Coat Factory to see about some flag leggings that I had seen there when I was in Oregon that I wanted to wear for the Freedom 5000 5K I’m running on the 4^th.  I bought the leggings and a 9-opening frame to put some family photos in.  Later that night for whatever reason I decided to try on the leggings and they did NOT fit…not even close.  They wouldn’t even go over my calves.  Ugh.  So, yesterday, I went back to Burlington and returned them, then I went and grabbed the next size up along with some other leggings that were 4^th of July themed and headed to the dressing room.  Those flag leggings were just not destined to be worn by me.  When I went into the dressing room, I also grabbed a shirt that I figured if the leggings didn’t work, it would and it did.  It’s a flag shirt with fringe around the bottom…you know the style…it’s popular right now.  So, I’ll just wear that shirt with my black tights that have a red patch on the outer side of each knee.  I will probably also wear the over-the-knee red, white and blue socks I got at Joann’s too. 

I was thinking I would workout Saturday evening, but it didn’t happen.  Not entirely sure why as now I can’t remember what I was doing, but it didn’t happen.  I know part of the reason was I had to go to bed early so I could wake up at 4:30 in the morning yesterday to work the morning shift at work (overtime).  So, I worked the morning shift yesterday.  I was so tired all day long.  I got home and headed to the bank to get my money order for rent then I went to Burlington to return the leggings and such.  After that, I went to the grocery store and bought my groceries for the week, then back home.  I put away the groceries and then hit the couch for a nap.  I slept hard.  I was going to sleep for about 2-2.5 hours then get up and go for a run.  However…when the alarm went off, I felt like crap, so I just slept a little longer, got up, had some dinner, paid my bills online.  I did forget to make my oil change appointment for this coming Saturday.  Oops. 

I totaled up my mileage for June and I ran 43.6 miles.

Not as many miles as I was wanting to log, but, considering I completely missed 4 planned runs, that’s not too bad.  If I had run those planned runs, I would have logged about 15 more miles for the month of June.  My goal for July is to run at least 50 miles.  That’s a totally achievable goal.  Well, that’s not my ONLY goal for July.  My other goal is to try to do at least one session at the gym each week, along with some swimming or cycling once a week.  Plus, I want to get the Fast Metabolism Diet started in July also.  I won’t set any weight loss goal to start off; I just want to get to the point where my clothes aren’t tight and uncomfortable anymore.

I had my annual physical today.  My blood pressure was 120/62…excellent.  My pulse was 76…very nice.  All my labs were within normal ranges.  My weight…well…I knew I had regained a good portion of the weight I lost last year.  I thought it was a 25 pound gain…nope…I gained back the ENTIRE 33 pounds I lost.  Great.  But, I’m not devastated…just disappointed.  But, I’m also relieved.  A weight (yuck yuck) has been lifted off of me.  I’m not longer in the dark about how much I weigh and how much I gained back.  Now I know and I know where I have to go from here.  So, it’s freeing, even though I’m sad to know I regained every single pound I worked so hard to lose.  But, it is what it is and I just have to move forward and restart my journey.  I’ve lost the weight before, I know I can do it again.  I just hope I can make it last this time.  So, my new starting point is 205.  I have to own to own it and accept it if I’m going to move forward.  I have 35 pounds to lose to get to 170…so that’s my end goal.

Friend Making Monday...on Saturday...hahaha!

I got an email last week promoting a new race Austin, TX the first weekend of September.  It’s called the Frozen Hot Chocolate 5K/10K.  The 10K comes with a finisher’s medal!  The medal looks like a partially unwrapped chocolate bar with a bite taken out of it.  Cute!  My only issue with this race is that it costs $64 to register.  Eek!  Not cheap.  That’s getting up there with half marathon registration fees!  I’ve never paid more than $40 for a 10K, so if I do this (and I most likely will), it’ll be the most expensive 10K I’ve ever done.  But, I would really like the bling.  Haha!

Speaking of race bling…last week I received my medal for the Boston Wicked Strong virtual race I did.

I had originally planned to do it as a half marathon, a long run, but wanted to hurry up and do it, so I just did it as a 5K.  I’m really happy about this medal because I am super supportive of things that support the Boston survivors and, like any runner, I just love Boston.  Boston just proves that we, as runners, are so resilient and are such a close-knit community and that we are also one big family.  You can’t keep us down! 

I really am getting sick of being “fluffier” than I’m comfortable with.  I follow all these blogs and people on Facebook and Instagram who are on weight loss and fitness journeys.  A LOT of these people are full time mothers who also work, part time or even full time and yet…and YET they’re still able to not only lose some weight but to lose some drastic amounts of weight and have epic success!  I have no children.  I work full time and then some…I work anywhere from 40-64 hours a week.  Why exactly has that translated into lack of motivation and lack of effort?  Why have I allowed myself to feel defeated and that I have no choice and that I have no time for workouts other than running?  No time for eating other than just stuffing my face with whatever is convenient?  Lies.  All lies.  I have more than enough time.  Sure there are going to be up to 2 days a week where I literally cannot workout because I’ll have less than 8 hours from when I get off work until the time I have to be back at work, but that leaves FIVE DAYS that I do have time to workout.  I can run on 3 days and on the other 2 days I can do a mix of gym workouts, cycling and swimming.  There are really no good excuses here…just cop outs and, frankly, I’m so tired of my played out cop outs.  So tired.  

One more thing, I signed up for a 4th of July 5K that happens next Friday on the 4th call the Freedom 5000.  I've already bought the leggings I want to wear to run in.  So excited for you guys to see the pics when I get them.  I waited until the last minute to sign up for this race because I wasn't sure about the packet pickup.  Thankfully packet pickup the day before starts 45 minutes before I have to be at work, so I'll have time to pick it up then...if not, they also offer race morning pickup.


And now, time for Friend Makin’ Monday…in the middle of the week!  Hahaha!  I rare get these done on time due to my work schedule.  So, only 6 questions this week, each of them you need to answer using lyrics from a song, feel free to post the you tube link to the song also.  Since I frequently bust out song lyrics at work in response to what other people say, I figured this one would be a breeze for me…however, not so.  I had to resort to googling things like “songs about dessert” and “songs about life goals,” etc.

1. What's your life goal?

♪♫Around the world around the world♫♪  …I want to travel, travel, travel!!!

2. What's your favorite food?

There’s so many foods that I love that I really can’t pick a favorite…so therefore I can’t pick a song for my favorite food :/  sorry

3. What do you like to do on weekends?

♪♫I keep burnin’ and doin’ the neutron dance♫♪ …I really just like to have fun on the weekends, whether it be running, working out, doing crafts, going out with friends, or doing a little dance in my living room

4. What do you want to do today?

♪♫on the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again♫♪ …even though I JUST drove over 5000 miles in a 2 week time frame, I’m itching to go on another road trip

5. What would you say to the man/woman of your dreams?

♪♫get out of my dreams and into my car♫♪  …we can take a road trip together and if I don’t want to kill him by the time we’re done, then we’re a match!

6. What's your favorite dessert?

♪♫It might rain tomorrow, better get some before I die, rhubarb pie, rhubarb pie♫♪  Frankly, I’m amazed there is a song about rhubarb pie, which is truly my absolute favorite dessert I the world

Stop, Continue & Start

I recently read a blog post by Diane Carbonell on her blog Fit to the Finish where she discussed hearing something that had nothing to do with weight loss in the context it was being talked about, but making a connection to weight loss with what was said regardless.  She was specifically referring to something she heard on a radio talk show.  What she heard was the concept of Stop, Continue and Start.  She explained it like this:

STOP represents those behaviors we need to stop doing because they are detrimental to our health and weight loss.

CONTINUE represents those behaviors we have that are good for our weight loss efforts.

START represents the behaviors we need to start doing to make ourselves healthier and lose weight.

I really like this concept a LOT.  I think it’s a very useful and helpful tool for weight loss.  She went on in her post to list out the things she needed to stop, continue and start (at her starting point of over 300 pounds, that is).  I then was inspired to make my own lists for these 3 actions…here they are:

I need to STOP:

• eating when I’m not hungry

• eating so many processed foods

• eating large amounts of food

• eating fast food

I need to CONTINUE:

• running

I need to START:

• eating more whole foods

• exercise more/more consistently

• cooking more often

• being accountable

This really lays it out for me.  It’s pretty sad that running is the only thing I see that I’m doing that is something I need to continue.  Really?  That’s the only thing I’m doing right?  And even then, really, I’m not doing it the way I should be.  I should be doing a of speed-work/hills run, a tempo run, and then the third run should be my long run.  However, I’m lacking the motivation to put forth the effort to do these things that would improve my running so very much.  And then, right now in Texas, the humidity makes being outside so oppressive and barely tolerable to be in.  And I hate running on the treadmill.  But, maybe, despite hating the treadmill, maybe I should do speed-work on the treadmill.  It would be really easy, I can just up the speed and go in ¼ mile splits…1/4 mile normal speed, ¼ mile fast and back and forth for 2-3 miles.  I absolutely cannot mentally handle being on the treadmill for much more than 3 miles, so doing more than just speed-work (I can do hill work with the incline on a treadmill too) on the treadmill is pretty much a no-go.  I do have a 10-inch tablet now, though, so maybe if there’s a wifi connection in my gym I can watch some of my DVR’ed programs while I run for 45 minutes to an hour for a tempo run and then just do my long run outside.  If I can make that work, that would make these next few months of running a little better for me. 

I do fully intend and plan to start eating better, hopefully the beginning of July.  Hold on, before you balk at me for waiting to start eating better and why don’t I just do it now?  Well, let me explain.  I’m going to do a published diet (this diet has worked extremely well for a friend, so I know it works), however I’m not done reading the book yet and hope to be done with it by the end of this week so I can then go grocery shopping and do food prep both on Sunday so that Monday I can start it.  It’s called the Fast Metabolism Diet and it cycles through 3 phases in order to boost your metabolism and up your fat burning power.  I’m hoping that during the month that I do this diet that I can get together a healthy eating plan so when the 4 weeks of the diet is done and over I can not gain the weight back and can stay on track with my weight loss.  I’m thinking of giving paleo a try at the end of the diet.  Not sure yet.  I’ll buy a book on it and do my research and see if it would be a good lifestyle for me.  If nothing else, I’d like to at least just give it a fair shake and see what happens.

How many awesome things can happen in one day?

First off, I would like to say I actually followed through with plans to go to the gym this morning!  Yesterday, I made the plan to go to the gym and do my jump box workout (in a somewhat diminished capacity…instead of 3-4 sets of 15 reps of all but box jumps where I would only do 10, I did 3 sets of 10 reps of all but box jumps…those I did 10, 8 and 6 reps) and then swim as many laps as I could in the lap pool.  I did a total of 5 laps (5 down-and-backs) in the pool.  I didn’t do it anywhere near fast.  In fact, it took me 10 minutes to do those 5 laps.  The first lap I did without stopping, but after that, when I made it to each end of the pool, I had to stop and catch my breath.  But I did it and that’s the important part!  I even stopped on the way to the gym to buy a new swim cap since the one I bought last year tore.

When I was going from my gym workout and getting ready to hit the pool, I discovered that it is really hard to slip on a really tight swimsuit over super sweaty legs.  Almost didn’t happen.  Maybe I should go to the store this weekend and buy a better fitting swimsuit?  Ha!  Yea, I’ll do that this weekend.  I mean, the suit I have right now fits fine if I’m putting it on when I’m dry.  But then, sort of not because there’s a fastener between the shoulder blades and I had one heck of a time fastening it this morning.  There was all sorts of contorting going on in the locker room.

When I got to work this afternoon I had 2 emails waiting for me.  One was from a supervisor that edits and publishes the quarterly “Fit For Duty” newsletter that I have been featured in 2 times and will be featured in for a 3^rd time when the summer edition comes out.  Well, she knows I’ve been super active and working on bettering myself and wants me to share my story!!!  I’m super excited about this, but a little nervous because I have gained back some of the weight I lost.  I wish she had asked me like 2 months from now.  Or that she wasn’t going to need the information for another 2 months.  Why?  Because then I could kick myself in the pants and lose about 15 or so pounds.  Oh well.  I mean, I don’t look bad right now, but I definitely don’t look as great as I did last year.  Sigh.  It’ll work out though.  This is something I’ve wanted for a long time.  For someone to take interest in my journey and want to share it with others to inspire them!  This is definitely an opportunity I do not plan to pass up.  I’ve still be hugely successful.  I’m still about 70 pounds down from where I started and that’s a really awesome accomplishment.  I should in no way put down what I’ve done just because I’ve gained back some of the weight.

The second email was from one of the counselors inviting me to be on her team for the Austin NAMI 5K walk in September.  Registration is free, but if you want a shirt beyond your team shirt, you have to raise a minimum of $100 in donations (I’ve already had 3 people tell me they would donate something and one more tell me maybe!).  Plus, that minimum of $100 in donations also gains you access to the post walk BBQ party.  I’m totally going to reach that $100 goal…hopefully I’ll surpass it.  NAMI stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness.  They are a grassroots organization that advocates for mental health reform and offers help to mental health consumers and their families.

So, that’s 3 awesome things that happened in one day!