Monday Part 3

Wow, what a week it has been, and it's only Wednesday! Monday was a typically horrible Monday, then Tuesday was Monday Part 2, and today was Monday Part 3! I really hope tomorrow is not Monday Part 4!

We had our Wednesday night Start2Finish group run. My run was freaking fantastic! I ran 2.34 miles in 28 minutes, which calculated (by My Daily Mile) to 12:10 pace! I have never run that fast before! Maybe taking the last 3 days as lazy rest days has paid off!

I also did really good with eating today as well. I started off doing WW points, then I recently switched to calorie counting. I have gotten really lax lately and haven't really been tracking at all. I weighed in at WW on Sunday and I had a 0.4lb gain, so I decided to go back to counting points and counting everything! I hope to someday, not have to track, but today is not the day!

Tomorrow I have boot camp. I'm NOT looking forward to it!

I don't know if I've talked about how Elliott started at a new sitter last week or not. I absolutely adore her though! I wish we'd have found her long ago! I hope she will not have to change sitters again, and will be here until she starts school!

Also, I'm going to participate in the Get Fit: Coast to Coast Challenge and I'm so excited! It's just what I need right now!

Okay, that's all for now!

Reflecting

This morning I woke up and I felt good. The inside of my knees are a little sore, which I've never experienced, and oddly enough, my shoulders are sore! My legs feel great though!

As I was reflecting on the race last night, I thought a lot about how far I've come. Just 2 months ago, I had never run a full mile. Running for 4 minutes felt like an eternity! I'm starting to actually believe that I'm going to be able to run the Prairie Fire Half Marathon in October.

Race Day!

This morning was the Run2Believe 5k! My first ever 5k that I ran! We got there at about 830am and met with the Start2Finish Group for a group picture. WAY more people showed up to this than ever at our group runs!

Start2Finish Group Photo

The race started at 9am. It was a rough start. It started on the High School track, then went to a gravel road, then onto the pavement. At first there were several things that slowed us down: a narrow gate, some puddles, etc. But once we got on the pavement, we got a good pace going. The first 2k were probably the worst. I remember feeling like I couldn't do it when someone said we were 0.8 miles in. That's a little over 1k, I think. I didn't even see a 1k sign, so I figured that they weren't going to have markers. But then we passed a 2k marker, and I figured I just missed the first one. There was a water station a bit after 2k and we got water. It was super cold and I spilled a lot down my shirt, but it was getting hot, so it felt good! There were a few hills between 2-3k, but they weren't too bad. When we passed 3k, I was thinking "Yes! We are over half done!" There were these two women (at least one was from our program) and they were so annoying. They kept saying "Okay, we'll run from here to the water station" or "We'll run from here until we get to that yellow sign." I kept thinking "I'm going to run from the starting line to the finish line!" I don't think they get the point of distance running... They would run and pass me and start walking again and it was driving me crazy! At one point between 3-4k, they were about to pass me, so I started running super fast! I just could not let them pass me again! That finally took me up to where they couldn't pass again.... When we passed 4k I was so excited that I only had 1k left to go! We ended back on the track and it felt so good to be close to the finish line. The last 200 meters or so Kim, Stephanie, and I gave it our all for the finish! I finished the whole thing without walking any! My goal was to finish sub-45:00. I didn't see a clock when we finished, but I was guessing my time was about 47 minutes or so... When they posted the results, I was surprised to see that my time was 44:54! Barely made the sub-45:00! If I hadn't given it my all those last meters or been annoyed by the "here to there" girls, I don't think I would've made it!

I'm glad it's over! I'm glad I made my goal! And I can't wait for the next one! Our next race will be a 2-miler on April 22.

Before the race: Me, Kim, Steph

After the race: Steph, Me, Kim

Afterward, they had a pancake feed. Kim went home, but Stephanie, her boyfriend, and I went and had pancakes!

Race Eve

Tomorrow morning is our first 5k race. I'm pretty nervous! Kim went and picked up our packets today and brought mine to me at work! The shirt fits! It's white, so I'm not sure how it'll look, but I think I'm going to wear it.

Paul went to Texas for a fun trip with his bud. I miss him already. Elliott is staying with my SIL tomorrow, and was going to spend the night there tonight, but they had a birthday party tonight, so I said I'd keep her home and drop her off in the morning. I'm kind of glad. I don't really want to be here all night by myself!

I haven't eaten dinner yet....

I hope tomorrow goes well!

Large!

I am finally out of my funk! I ran Mondays' run on Tuesday. By myself, outside, in the rain. And it was freaking fantastic! I loved running in the rain! I had downloaded a new running mix and I had a great run! Probably my best run yet!

Yesterday was our group run. Stephanie didn't go, but Kim got to since she is on Spring Break. It was raining again, and it was a great run again!

After the run, there was a presentation about the Alter-G Anti-Gravity treadmill. I read about this recently and I was interested to hear about it! It's a treadmill that can take you down to as much as 20% of your body weight. The guy told us that we could come by any time to try it out! I'm SO going to! I even had a dream about last night!

Last night we signed up for a 2-miler on April 22. We had talked about wanting to do it, and then they were offering a, one night only, $10 discount, so we signed up! I got a size Large race shirt, and I tried it on when I got home, and it fits!

Also, this morning I put on a top that I have that is a size Large and it fits too! A large, a regular large! Not an extra large, not an extra extra large, a regular old large! A friend of mine gave me several tops about 6 months ago and I couldn't fit a single one of them on my body. They were size L and XL, and now the XL are getting lose and the L fit!!!!! That is a huge NSV for me!

I missed weigh in day again. I think I'm going to weigh in on Sunday.

I feel so so great! I'm so glad I'm out of the funk!!!!!

Postponed

I'm at the point where I feel like I've had enough. Yesterday I skipped postponed my scheduled run. I just wasn't up to it. Not only that, but I went out to lunch with co-workers and had mexican food, fajitas. I didn't even look up the calories at all. I came home from work and ate a huge piece of cookie bark. Then I went to dinner with Paul and Elliott to Chik-fil-a and had nuggets, french fries, and lemonade. I'm trying not to feel horribly guilty.

So here is my pity party: I've been at this for over 5 months now. I've changed my eating habits, my exercise habits, I have lost weight, but I'm not anywhere near where I want to be. I'm realizing that this is a freaking journey. I still have a LONG way to go, and I just needed a day off. So I took it. I'm going to do my scheduled 30 minute run tonight. We have another run tomorrow. I have bootcamp on Thursday. And the race is Saturday.

Til Next Year

Yesterday was completely exhausting! It started with my 730a group run, which sucked again! I don't know what is wrong with me. I feel like I'm getting worse instead of getting better. I actually started crying towards the middle of the run. And not just a few tears, I was ugly crying! I was crying because it was so hard! I hope I have a better running week next week. Especially with the race on the horizon.

After the run, I came home to finish the cookies and cookie bark I was making for Elliott's party. That's when my SIL, Jennifer, called. She was going to meet me out the building to set up. I had told her 9am, but I was thinking 930a. I had Paul load my car. While he was doing that, the dog got out! Ahh!

I finally got there to meet Jennifer close to 10a. We had been talking on the phone because she couldn't find the building. It was supposed to be building #5, it had green trim. I reserved it online, so I didn't know much else about it. She said that she went to one with a #5 on it, but it didn't have green trim, and it was locked. When I got there, we found one with green trim that I thought looked like the picture AND it was unlocked, so it must be the one... We took the food inside and set up tables. The park called me to confirm my reservation on Friday. They left a voicemail that they would unlock the building at 8a, and if that didn't work, then call them. Well, that was fine, but when we got there, I figured that someone would've left a key, which they did not. I figured it would be fine, so we left the food and stuff. Her daughter had a soccer game at 1130a and Paul and I were taking Elliott to the St. Patrick's Day Parade at 12p, so we left around 11ish.

I went home and got Paul and Elle and we went to the parade. We watched the parade for about an hour, and then left. We went and got some lunch at Wendy's (I had a grilled chicken sandwich, no side...) and went to Party City to get a few last minute things.

Paul and Elliott at the parade

Stephanie was meeting me at the park at 145p to finish setting up. Also, my MIL wanted to take Easter pictures with all of the cousins so she had everyone meeting there an hour early. So they all went out to take pictures and Stephanie, Jennifer and I were finishing set up. I went to put the food out on the table and I couldn't find the cookies I had made. Then I started to realize there were several things missing. The cookies, the chocolate button pretzels, a box of Lucky Charms, and the cups. I realized someone must have come in and stolen my stuff. I was SO MAD! I wanted to cry, but I didn't. We called my FIL and asked him to bring some cups and some mint oreos. Jennifer's husband, Mark (Paul's brother) brought some girl scout cookies. They left the stuff to make punch and the smaller container of the pretzels. I was so angry. I worked so hard on all of that stuff.

After my FIL got there, the party pretty much started. Everyone ate and then Elliott opened her gifts. She had a good time. We were starting to wrap up the party when an older man came into the building and said that he needed to talk to the person who had rented this building. So I went outside with him and apparently I was not in the correct building. He was kind of accusing me of doing it on purpose. I told him that the lady called me and told me it would be unlocked. Jennifer said that she had gone to the other one and it was not unlocked. He tried to call the lady, but got her voicemail. He finally started to be nice and realized that I wasn't trying to cheat them (the building we were in by accident cost 2x more) and said that it was okay.

There was kind of a lot of horrible things that happened, but it was my girls birthday, so it was a great day! She had a lot of fun! We came home and she played with her new toys and then we pretty much collapsed on the couch at about 830p. I'm glad it's over until next year!

I also have an updated progress picture. I had Kim take this yesterday morning after our run!

March 17, 2012: 213#