Hump Day - Cardio Boxing

Aargh! It has now been several days since I ran.

I'm having one of my off weeks. Every night, I go to bed earlier and earlier. Every morning, I wake up completely exhausted. Then, I spend the day in a groggy haze.

Luckily, I haven't been letting this keep me from the gym after work. At least I am not a complete slug. Wednesday evening, my gym has a Cardio Boxing class. Last week, my daughter and I tried this class for the first time. It was a LOT of fun, but I was certainly sore the next day. We are planning to go again tonight. I just have to decide who I will imagine beating the crap out of tonight whilst pummeling the bag. That should be an easy decision.

This week, they announced a 5K that will take place the day before the Boston Marathon. The 5K finish will be the same finish line as the marathon. We will definitely be in town that day, but we won't be there in time the night before to pick up my race number if I decide to participate. I do have some colleagues in Boston, so I could probably get past that. I'm undecided about whether or not I will sign up for the 5K. It will be about a week after my marathon, so I know I'll be able to run it, but I'm not sure if I want to deal with one more thing that weekend.

Our next marathon (yes, already looking ahead) will probably be the St Jude's Marathon in Memphis. I have never ran that one before, but I love all things Memphis. Who doesn't love Elvis, Beale Street, and singin' the blues?
A fall marathon would give me time to take off a few more pounds and actually complete the training like I should (including the dreaded speedwork that I'm skipping this time around).

I KNEW IT!

Well, I'm late to the party on this one...

I was just checking out some other blogs and found that the Biggest Loser contestant Dane DID NOT finish a marathon in 3:53. He did not finish a marathon at all. He and his wife hitched a ride for 3 miles so that they could get the dramatic finish line shot in time, at a clock time of 5:53.

WHEW!

I knew there had to be something screwy going on with that story.
So, now I feel just a little better about my marathon times. For this April, I'm not expecting to PR what with the extra weight and all, but I do hope that I don't run slower than my first marathon. I think my first one was 4:58 and change. I know it was just barely under the 5-hour mark.

Other than that, I got nothing. I had a very un-productive weekend, unless you call sitting in a recliner and alternating reading and watching TV whilst eating peanut butter cookies productive. No? All righty then.

Now, I have to un-do the damage before my 4 weeks is up.

Happy Friday!

Today, it has been one full week that I've been off the scale.

I got up this morning and put on a pair of my least favorite pants, thinking they were going to be just falling off of me. Hoping they would be falling off of me, so I could pack them away and get out some of my smaller pants.
Ummm, nope not yet. If I reallly try, I can convince myself that they are looser. But, it may just be in my head. I feel great, and that's the most important thing. I'm not beating myself up on a daily basis over the number on the scale.

Last week, when I was on the scale, it was upsetting me so much that I was skipping a lot of workouts. I felt like the workouts weren't really getting me what I wanted so why bother. This week, I have been at the gym every. single. night, in addition to running 3 days in the morning. Maybe the number on the scale is good, maybe it's not. But, in 3 more weeks I think the scale will catch up with the workouts and show me some good news.

This weekend is a cutback weekend for my marathon training. I only have to run 8 miles on Saturday morning. I'm actually looking forward to tomorrows "long" run.
That being said, do any of you watch the Biggest Loser? I was BLOWN AWAY that the guy who was eliminated this week ran a marathon in 3:53. A couple of weeks ago, I watched "Marathon Love" where the guy pushed his wife in a HOSPITAL WHEELCHAIR through the Chicago Marathon in 3:15.
I guess the question at hand here is, WHY am I so SLOW?? Am I holding myself back because I don't "think" I can run any faster? Or, are those guys just that gifted? I really want to BQ, and my friends all think that I am capable if I am consistent in my diet and running. I would have to run a 3:45 marathon. I am planning a fall marathon this year, maybe going to Boston with my friends will inspire me to do the work for this fall's marathon.

Other than the easy 8 miles, this weekend will be a kid-hauling weekend. My DD wants to see "Friday the 13th". Joy. So, I'll be taking her and her friends to that after the gym tonight. Tomorrow night, she wants to go to a local teen hangout where they are having a band that she likes. I'll be hauling her and her friends to that tomorrow. Maybe Sunday, I can talk her into going with me to see a chic flick.

Hey, Tam, Don't you also have a son? Why don't we ever hear anything about him?
Why, yes, yes I do have a son. He's 14 years old. He is in his room.

Unencumbered...

Jeez, it seems like these days all I have to post about is running. It's almost as if my life revolves around it or something.

Ummm, OK. I admit it. It sorta does.

This week, I've been struggling with that silly alarm clock again. Today is the first day that I managed to get out of bed and go for a run since my long run on Saturday. I have, however, gone to a couple of classes at the gym. I went to step aerobics on Monday night and boot camp on Tuesday night.

Regarding the boot camp, it was my first time doing that particular torture. Let me just say "Ouch!" The lower body stuff, squats, jumping, etc was EASY. The upper body stuff, situps, pushups... not so much. My upper body is WEAK! I need to work on that.

Anyhow, I got up this morning after trying to talk myself out of it and got dressed for a run. It's been warming up again this week, so it was 40 degrees when I got up. I got dressed in long sleeves and NO jacket! Yay! Then, I went to turn on my Garmin. Low battery. WHAT? I just charged this thing after my 20 miles and haven't ran since. How could the battery be low?
Ah, well. I'll just run without it. So, I took off out the door, feeling naked without all the electronic gadgetry and got about a half mile when I realized that I forgot my ipod, too! UGH!

How did I get this way? I didn't start running with an ipod until 2 or 3 years ago, which means that I ran for 6 or 7 years without music. I suppose the bigger question is, how did I ever run without it?

I was faster then... I wonder how fast I would have been if I had used music back then? The world may never know...

I thought of a lot of these conundrums during my run, without the music to keep my mind diverted. Don't let me run without that thing again. UGH!

TGI... M??

Marathon training continues...

I ran my first 20 miler of the year on Saturday morning. I knew when I woke up that it wasn't going to be the carefree, meandering, sunny 20 miles that I had dreamed. Nope, it was grey and gloomy when I woke up Saturday morning, with temperatures in the mid-30's and a strong wind. I kept getting text messages from a friend telling me to get out the door and run.

So, I got dressed and ready to go. Then I went to turn on my fully charged Garmin. Nothing. I started freaking out. I finally realized that it probably just needed to be reset. Duh!
I reset Garmin and headed out the door.

By that time, the snow had started. Snow and heavy wind out of the northwest. My first 10 miles were north and west. There were so many times that I considered just turning around and cutting my run short. It was SO miserable. The best thing I can say about my first 10 miles is that they are over.

I begged and pleaded, PLEASE snow OR wind, one or the other.

I got my wish. It stopped snowing. It started sleeting.

NOT what I had in mind.

About 8 miles into my run, the sleet stopped. I had another 2 miles into the wind, then I got to turn around and run the 10 miles home with the wind at my back.

When my run was over, I drove up to Barbie's to drink some wine and relax for a bit.
Later, I took my daughter and her friend to see "Coraline". Very cute movie, good for young girls.

Sunday was housework day. I feel like I was on my feet all day.
I never thought I'd be so thankful for Monday.

Oh, and I still haven't stepped on the scale. I have 25 more days in my 4 week hiatus from the scale. The not knowing is driving me crazy. But, I will not step on that thing.

Out with the Scale!!

I've been trying to keep as much whining about my weight out of my blog as possible, but this is the last straw. Let's recap, shall we?

I'll start from when I began this journey of becoming a runner.

1999-2002: Best shape of my life, running is a breeze.
Nov 2002: Laid off from my job, promptly gained 20 lbs, running is keeping me sane.
Aug 2003: Started my current job, lost 10 lbs- running is fun again.
Oct 2006: Decided to buckle down and lose the last 10, back in the best shape of my life.
2008: Gained 40 lbs. Ugh! 15 of them were in December.

OK, this seems like a minor setback, right? Right?

Wrong.

I have been busting my hump since New Year's and still haven't lost the 15 lbs that I gained in December! Ugh!

After my 18 mile run on Saturday, I got on the scale the next day, hopeful. I had eaten healthy all day Saturday, and burned over 2500 calories.

I was up 4 lbs.

This fact caused me to spiral out of control all week. It just put me into a funk that I have not been able to shake. I say out of control, but it's more my mood. My eating has been different, but not completely out of control. This morning, back on the scale again.

No Change. Still up 4 lbs.

I think that the best thing I can do at this point is just stay away from that thing. I'm considering just throwing my current scale out and weighing myself later on down the road when my clothes start fitting me again. Back in the days when I was in my best shape, I wasn't obsessing about every morsel of food the way I have been this past 2 months.

OK, OK... /whining over. I'm going to start focusing on the positive again.

On tap for this weekend, my first 20 miler of the year.
I'll be glad to get that run under my belt, and get the monkey off my back.

Fly with the Eagles Half / Long Run

I had the best 18 mile run ever on Saturday. It had been 3 years since I've run 18 miles, but I've committed to the Illinois Marathon, so I had to get out there. Barbie and I had registered for the Fly with the Eagles Half Marathon on Saturday, with the understanding that we would each get our extra miles beforehand.

In order to make this easier, we stayed over at her son's house on Friday evening, which was closer to the start of the Half. There, we got the long run preparations underway early:

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!! We wound up drinking one bottle of wine and then a martini after dinner, not too bad.

The next morning, we got to the race an hour and a half early, no small feat for us. We're usually the ones who come squealing in 10 minutes before the start. The race started at a visitor center for the wildlife refuge. The door was still locked when we got there. Registration was supposed to start at 7am. So, there we were, waiting for somebody to come and unlock the door (we desperately needed a restroom before starting to run). Luckily, the race director got our race numbers and sweatshirts (very nice sweatshirts for this race) out of his trunk so we wouldn't have to deal with that later.

We wound up driving up the road to a gas station to use the restroom, then came back and started running. I had to get 5 miles prior to the race, and Barbie had to run 7. I think they waited for Barbie to start the race, since we got such a late start. We didn't start running until 50-55 minutes before the scheduled start of the race.

Here we are between our pre-race miles and the start of the race, along with a couple of other friends:

My early miles went great, I had a hard time keeping it slow enough. I have developed a blister on my big toe (this is a first), so Carol helped me get it sorted out before the start of the Half Marathon. My Half Marathon went surprisingly well also. I felt fantastic the entire time. I even picked off some runners in my last mile! Mile 17 of my long run, and I'm passing people. Amazing.

I did slow down for 2-3 miles. I met a runner before the race who was fairly new to running and was talking about my training run that day. As I was passing her around mile 7, she asked me to stay with her for a while and chat. I gladly slowed my pace to do that. There were only about 100-150 runners in this race, so it wasn't like there were people around the entire time. We had just come out of the wildlife sanctuary, which for some reason was BRUTAL for this race, it's usually my favorite part.

Eventually, she needed to slow down, and I wanted to get going, so I broke away from her around the 10 mile mark.

My overall pace for the 18 miles was 11:25. I think I could have kept it under 11 min/mile if I would have pushed a bit more. The run was extremely easy for me. My Half Marathon time was 2:31.

I felt so great the next day, I think I could have ran. I didn't, but I did go shopping with the kids all Sunday afternoon. My plan was to run this morning, but I woke up with some stomach issues. I haven't been able to keep anything in my stomach all day. UGH! Hopefully, I feel better by morning, I need to get running!