New Trail

Today's Running Goal: 4 miles
Modified Running Goal: 3 miles
Accomplished: 3 miles in 38:04
I made a great pact with myself that I would take my workout clothes to work, change into them at 6:00 there, walk down to the trail that is only two blocks from the library, and run four miles. I would then have time to drive home just in time for The Biggest Loser. Then I got Erin talked into running with me. She wanted to do only three miles since she hasn't run in two months. I figured that since I haven't run three miles in a row in two months either, that was probably plenty. So we did. We did walk about .12 miles right in the middle. And we didn't set any speed records, but we did the workout. My dad, who is by no means an athlete, but calls me three times a week since he has nothing else to do, claims that even though you lose your running skills so incredibly fast, you gain them back just as fast. So I am confident that even though I can only run three miles in 38 minutes, I will be down to 33 or 34 in just a few weeks.

I have never run on that trail next to work. It was beautiful and it was obviously a wonderful evening for an outdoor workout. I really should take advantage of that trail and walk on it during my lunch break. Or take more run opprotunities right after work. Too bad it will be cold soon.

My Salsa Chicken and Black Bean soup was so incredibly good. It had black beans, chicken, broth, salsa, corn and fat free sour cream. Delicious and Nutritious. It was so good that I ate two helpings; still only 500 calories though! And I will have enough left overs for three or four meals.

Not too Shabby

After a great week of weight loss and a weekend of being away from home I was still able to lose three pounds and maintain it throughout the weekend. Being down to 12 pounds to lose in six weeks gives me a lot more optimism. However, I know that there are going to be weeks of no loss. And it seems that all this wedding preparation involves eating un-healthfully. Fortunately, this week truly is a week that I have nothing "official" to do. I will be in my own house all week; eating my own meals, having time to workout. That is the recipe for good weight loss!

Tonight I went to Spinning; I am really starting to enjoy the Monday spinning routine. Nobody showed up for Kickboxing, which makes me feel a little bad for the instructor. But I hope that the gym realizes that Turbo Kick is NOT what we're interested in, and will bring back an instructor that can teach Combat. My knee hurt a little bit again in Spinning, but nothing that I couldn't work through. My thighs were sore from running yesterday and we seemed to concentrate a lot on thighs tonight. But I want to work my legs, and this is the answer. BodyPower seemed pretty easy this evening. I need to get back to using a large on the warm up. That seems to make the entire session seem just a little better.

I was craving Chinese food today, so I decided to make something at home. Chinese food is so fattening and bad for me, so I have to keep myself from indulging. When I want Chinese food, I am not hoping for lots of veggies in a light sauce. I am thinking deep-fried Orange/Sesame/General's Chicken. So I found a recipe for grilled Orange Chicken. It was easy, but didn't fill the craving. I also bought the ingredients for a healthy Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. It will cooking all day in my crockpot tomorrow. I can't wait!

Running With Jen

Amazingly today was only the second time that I have ever had the chance to run with Jen. Once, quite a while ago, we both went to Gold's and ran on the treadmill, but that hardly counted. Today, Jen was in town to work things for Jennifer's wedding, and while she was in town, we took advantage of the workout-partnership. Jen is on a six-week return to running plan. She was technically a day behind. So first we did her Friday run: 1 minute run, 1 minute walk. We ran really fast and I was really proud of us. I think we were doing 9-minute miles at one point. You can go almost all out when you know that it's only gonna last one minute. We finished that day's plan easily and then moved on to her assigned Sunday run. Now realize that we were already a little more tired that we might have been, but this workout was hard. Sunday's goal was: run two minutes, walk two minutes. Again we started running pretty fast. But I soon lost steam; my 9 minute-miles soon turned into 11:30 minute-miles. Still it was a great workout. It was a beautiful day for running and I had great company!

However, each time I run, I grow more and more hesitant of this 31 minute goal that I have set up for myself in just three weeks. Maybe I should just run it for fun and try to do the best I can and not worry about breaking any records. I had to skip my four mile easy run this weekend because I was out of town for 'Aunt and Niece days'. When I stay with my aunt I tend to eat really healthy for most meals (she does let us eat much at all) but then we end up having two desserts later in the night. On Friday morning when I left I had made a great dent on my weight loss for last week (from 15 to 12) but we'll see what I am at tomorrow morning. Besides running with Jen, today was filled with Pizza, breadsticks, brownies and Cheetoes.

Ab-solutely Not

After 2.5 hours of gym time on Monday I felt like a train had rolled over me on Tuesday. Every muscle in my body hurt. But my abs were on fire. You don't realize how much you use your ab muscles until the pain is so excruciating that you decide okay, I don't really need to take a deep breath anymore. It hurts to cough, eat, twist, roll over in bed and walk. So you can imagine how much it hurt to run. But I don't even think that was the reason I failed.

Yesterday's Running Goal: 3 miles in 35 minutes
Accomplished: 3 miles in something like 43 minutes
I have a million excuses. 1) See the above muscle ache complaint. 2) I tripped over something that a customer had left on the floor and my foot really hurt. 3) I forgot how much harder it is to run while watching TV rather than listening to music. 4) I forgot how much more difficult it is to run on a treadmill. 5) I hit the wrong thing on my Ipod about half way through and it stopped timing me. So I didn't know exactly how far I had run or how long it had taken me. 6) I haven't run three miles since early August. 7) I haven't run three miles faster than 5mph since July. So trying to run three miles all of a sudden at 11:40 minute miles was near impossible. The first mile went alright, but then I just sort of fell apart. I took a drink break. Ran a little more. Then I let myself walk a little. Ran a little more. Decided to just finish with uphill walking.

Now I am pretty sure I won't be running ten-minute-miles in four weeks. So do I re-evaluate my training plan and aim for 11 minute miles. But I probably need a week to get into running again, before I load all of this on. I also need someone to push me. I wonder what Brandy is up to. She's training for the Omaha half Marathon right now, but after that is over next Sunday, she might be needing a few 'slow' three mile runs!

The 4 Week Plan

Four weeks from Sunday I want to run a 5k in 31 minutes. Two years ago I ran my first 5k (this same one) in 41:10. What a huge improvement this would be if I could actually pull it off. However, I don't have a lot of time to train. I am going to follow an aggressive plan, and we'll see if it leads to record breaking races. I will run three times a week:

Speed: Run three miles (Week 1 - 35 mins. Week 2 - 33 mins. Week 3 - 32 mins. Week 4 - 31 mins.)

Distance: Run 4 miles at an easy pace

Intervals: Run intervals at 6.0mph (Week 1 - 3/1, Week 2 - 4/1, Week 3 - 5/1, Week 4 - 6/1)

Abs of Steel

I tried something new this evening: Abs class! This class begins right at 5:00 so generally I can't make it when I get off work at 5. I was able to make it today though, so I took the opportunity. It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't easy either. I bet if I took it once a week I would really see improvements. Unfortunately my schedule won't allow that. It might allow me to take the Butts and Gutts class on Thursday evenings though.

After that I went to spinning. As I mentioned last week, I do not like the new Kickboxing class or instructor on Monday night. The Wednesday instructor is better, although it's the same aerobic (jazzersize) type class. I also like the Monday spinning teacher quite a bit. Again, it was a really good class. I was sweating and my legs were burning. My knee had a little tension in it, but didn't really hurt until I started doing squats in BodyPower. Because my legs were so tired I let myself go a little easy on squats. I will need a few weeks to work up to spinning and high leg weights. Overall an excellent evening of 2.5 hours of working out. Hopefully that will get the scale to shift down a little.

Good news: I don't have to work on Oct. 18th, so I am going to register for the Governor's Cup Race around downtown Lincoln and the Capital. My goal is to do the whole 5k in 31 minutes (10 minute miles). That is really lofty though, and I would settle for something like 33 minutes. My training begins tomorrow.

Good Food

Technically I haven't been home for a whole week since the 10th of August. Since then I have been doing a lot of dog-sitting mixed with the week and a half that was grandma's funeral and family time. Finally, I am home again with nothing on the horizon. So it was time I went out and bought some food. I spent an hour at Walmart and came away with only $41 worth of stuff (seven of which was toilet paper). Still, it was all nutrious things like yogurt and fruit and chicken and special K bars. I am ready to get back on the right path tomorrow. And begin my four-week-run-faster 5k plan. More to follow...

I was up celebrating (meaning gambling: the only way Grandma would want us to mourn her death) with my family until 2:30am last night. I rolled out of bed at 10:10 so I could make it to work this morning. I worked until 8:00 and went to the grocery store. Needless to say, I did not workout. But all starts anew tomorrow. Now I must catch up on some sleep!

Even Worse

I was at my mom's house all week but I thought that I was doing fairly well on my eat-healthy plan. And I knew that I was doing better at working out than I had been. But somehow I failed. I am blaming the three times I ate out between Thursday evening and Friday evening. And I will also blame the very decadent dessert I got Friday night at The Blue Orchid just because Shannon always gets dessert and it looks so good. Either way, my weight was up two pounds this week. Now I am looking at fifteen pounds that I want gone in just seven weeks. That's discouraging, and much worse than the thirteen in eight I was facing last week. I need to make a very good effort this week and it needs to start with eating well. I know that I work out well and have got the exercise part of weight-loss under control. It's the healthy eating, and eating out that I need to work on. It's so hard when people put chocolate and chips in front of my face. But sometime I must have known how to say no.

I have decided that I need a new workout goal, so I am going to run the Governor's Cup Race in October. This was the 5k that I did two years ago with Curtis. I have high goals for this time around. First, I will probably be running it alone, unless there are any running buddies out there wanting to sign up with me. Second, I hope to knock about 10 minutes off of my time. I will have to check, but I am pretty sure it took me 41 minutes last time, and I would be so proud of myself if I could do this next one in 31-33 minutes. However, it is just four weeks from tomorrow. No worries though; I am developing a plan. I already know that I can run three miles. And if I went out today and did it I could probably do it in 36 minutes easy. Not too long ago I did it in 32:50. I just need to work on running over and over and over. of course, this all depends on if I have that Sunday off of work. It's too late to ask for it, and too soon to know if I am scheduled. I will begin training anyway.

Changes

I knew that change was coming but I had taken a week and a half off and hadn't realized that the month was half over already. Mary can't make it to the gym by 5:30 so she isn't teaching Kickboxing any more. So now we have two new instructors, Liz on Mondays and Denise on Wednesdays. I guess what I didn't think about is that Mary does BodyCombat. These other people don't. They teach something called TurboKick. I think that you will remember this from my days of taking Kickboxing with Katie. It was alright, but it is very aerobic. It's hard to explain how that is different than Combat, which is very aerobic as well. But I felt like I was in an Aerobics class last night. There were steps to learn, no different songs for different workouts, and Oh-My-Goodness, there were claps. I don't know how much of that I can stand. Combat is about building muscle definition while sweating, and getting out your aggression. Also, the instructor was bad. She was more out of shape than me, and I need an instructor who inspires me, not who takes the low-impact route because she's out of breathe. I am going to give Denise a try tomorrow, and then I may re-evaluate which days I leave work early to workout. There is a Bootcamp class that I have never been able to attend because it's at 5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. Perhaps I could convince my boss that I need to be off at 5:00 on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays.

BodyPower was very difficult as well. I lowered my weights on a few tracks: squats, triceps and biceps. I knew that it would be hard after taking a week and a half off. But it was really hard. Even with easier weights I was struggling through it all. But as I was lying there during the Chest routine, I was thinking how much better I felt about myself when I was active. All last week I couldn't get my behind off of the couch to workout and that just fueled my non-active lifestyle. I love how powerful exercise is.

Tonight I am watching The Biggest Loser and loving every minute of it. And it encouraged me to stop grazing on the strange snack foods my mom has around her house. And as soon as it is over Hannah and I are going out for a run. I'm posting it here so we actually have to do it.

Unlucky Thirteen

I am getting serious about this now. I was serious about it two weeks ago as well, but then dog-sitting and family deaths put a hijinks in that plan. When I stepped on the scale Saturday morning I was still at 13 pounds. It amazes me that that's the number my body gravitates towards. I can eat a lot of junk or work out a ton, but unlucky thirteen is right where it likes to stay. You might be thinking that this is my "happy-weight"; the place where I can maintain without killing myself. But you are wrong. In fact, I am pretty sure that I have more than 13 pounds to lose, but I won't know until I EVER get to that point. Again, I am dog-sitting for the week, but I am making sure to eat right and workout. I had a granola bar and water for Breakfast. For lunch I met Erin at Subway (always a good place to start) and I am headed to kickboxing and bodypower after work. My mom's house is stocked with fruits and lettuce and grilled chicken, and there seem to be no chips or chocolate in sight -- the perfect combination. The weather should be great as well, which should encourage Hannah and I to take plenty of walks and the occasional run. Jennifer's wedding is just eight weeks away. I might as well use that as my goal to finish. I am serious... here I come.

Back in the Running

I have taken an entire week off from working out. Last Sunday I took my dad's dog, Jeanie running. But since she's not used to it there was a lot of stopping to smell things along the way. So mostly it was just a walk. And it included a time when she stepped on a sticker and I had to pull them out of her paw, while she was trying to limp along, and I thought that I as going to have to carry a 90-pound dog back a mile. Anyway after a week of not working out and a week of eating poorly, I finally got back to it this morning. I am dog-sitting for my mom all week so Hannah and I got up (pretty) early this morning and went for a run/walk. I knew that I wouldn't be able to run for 30 whole minutes, since I haven't run successfully in such a long time. So my goal was to run/walk for 30 minutes one song at a time. I made it 28 minutes before I was home again and decided to stop. But I was still pretty tired. I averaged 15 minute miles, so I must have been going pretty fast both in running and walking. The few times I checked my mph I was going between 10:45 minute-miles and 11:20 minute-miles while running. I still burned slightly over 200 calories, so it was a fine workout. I had planned to go to Gold's later in the day to do some weight-lifting, but then it got later and later, and I plan on taking BodyPower tomorrow and don't need to be sore for that. I guess 30 minutes of exercise is better than none.

Grandma Wouldn't Want Me to Get Fat

I feel like I have been eating non-stop for the last week. Funerals and everything that go with it are depressing. And not being in my normal routine has thrown my eating and workout habits way off. And now I am having trouble (emotionally) getting back to my real life. But I need to remember that my grandmother would not want me to get fat for her. For most of my life my grandma was on a diet. Every summer that I would go up to visit her we would talk about how we were going to lose weight together. Seeing as I was 11, it was probably really sick and wrong! But the woman cared about vanity more than most things: she wouldn't go out of the house without a full application of makeup and designer clothes. So it's no surprise that as soon as she started gaining "grandma-weight" she had a difficult time dealing with it. Since I have recently lost weight, she was always so impressed and encouraged me to keep going. I am very proud of the fact that the last time she went out of the house (besides to the hospital) was the day I ran the Columbus Downtown RunAround, and she wheeled out to cheer me on! I need to get back to it. And that includes throwing away the brownies and muffins that my family sent home with me. And hitting the gym this evening.

Remembering Grandma

Because I was the baby of the family and born at least ten years after all my cousins, I sometimes feel like I missed out on a lot of family memories. I never knew my Grandpa Simpson and I never got to partake in the fun family memories they made while he was around. But I still able to know my Grandma for 29 years. And in the style of one of my favorite children's books: The Tenth Great Thing about Barney, I am going to list 29 things I learned and admired from my grandma!

1) Life is about having fun.

2) Everything tastes better with Chocolate.

3) It's perfectly fine to own two cabins on two different lakes.

4) At the same time you have a house with a pool.

5) Never leave the house without your makeup on.

6) A real woman never dies her hair.

7) But she bleaches her mustache.

8) Your toe nails should ALWAYS be painted.

9) Napping in the afternoon is mandatory.

10) Always wipe the top of your soda can; you don't know where that has been.

11) Marry the man of your dreams.

12) But make sure you have enough girlfriends to get you through the 34 years after he passes away.

13) Always play the same numbers in Keno.

14) If pants don't fit in the size you think you are, find different pants, don't ever change sizes.

15) It's easier to go to bed if you have a snack first.

16) Two words: Shag carpet!

17) Make sure to have a drink in your hands whenever a photo is taken of you.

18) Being a Rollerskating Princess in your teens is a pretty cool legacy.

19) Always keep bread by the door for the ducks.

20) Everybody loves cash for Christmas.

21) And their birthdays.

22) Call your best friend every morning at 10:30.

23) Don't touch the windows with your hands, they're a bitch to clean.

24) There something to learn by reading People, Us Weekly and In Touch every week.

25) Every penny counts.

26) Don't be afraid to beat your ten-year-old granddaughter in Gin Rummy, she'll never learn the value of winning otherwise.

27) People are impressed with a clean house.

28) When it's windy, wear a scarf over your hair.

29) Always eat Dessert first!

Ugh

This week is a prime example of how not having to work does not equate more time left over for working out. I ran once with Jeanie on Sunday. Then I was home Monday and Tuesday and didn't workout or go to the gym once. I am heading out of town soon, and won't be making it the gym this morning. As I go more and more days without working out it makes it harder and harder to make it a priority. And as I spend more and more time away away from the gym, I eat worse and worse. I have only gained two pounds which is impressive with the amount of junk food I feel like I have eaten since Friday. I have this "the viewing" tonight and will not be home in time to workout (unless I could get my dad to go for a walk with me, but that is a 0% chance). Tomorrow morning is the funeral; we have to be there at 9:00, and about eight of us have to get ready in the same house. So unless I get up at 5am, I probably won't get a workout in. I have no idea how the day will go. I assume after the funeral there will be a lot of relatives at my dad's house and excusing myself to go for a run might not be the most tasteful. These are relatives that I have not seen in at least eight years.

I talked to Jen last night. She is back from her Honeymoon and is now on her lose-the-wedding-weight-diet. Once this funeral/family crisis is over I will have to go on one of those.

Bad News

I received some bad news on Friday afternoon: my grandmother passed away. So that derailed my workout plans for Friday evening. I spent the time trying to find something black to wear to the funeral. And when that didn't work out I turned to some really bad food to comfort me: Qdoba. I made sure to get up this morning and get a workout in. I did 30 minutes on the Elliptical and then headed up to the weight room. I did about 4 arm-exercises (of 7) and then got pretty tired of waiting for all the new people ahead of me trying to figure out the machines, so I left. I guess that's better than nothing. I did get nine inches of my hair cut off today. It still falls right below my shoulders. How did it ever get that long. If only it was heavier, and would make some difference in the scale.

Today I am headed up to my dad's to be with my family and help him buy a suit. I am sure that there will be a lot of food that people feel we need to eat when there is a death in the family. But I am taking my running shoes and hoping to sneak out a few times to take my dad's dog for a run. We'll both need the break. Spending five days with my family could cause a mental breakdown; even more than a death.

Fair Weather

Tuesday evening I ate more than I had planned at the State Fair. And somewhere along the line I need to remind myself that losing weight is about sacrifices and making smart decisions. It is not about allowing myself to have treats because I am celebrating something, or because I deserved them. So although I told myself that I could splurge on the corn dog (and a third of it ended up falling on the ground) I also let myself have half the platter of spiral-potatoes-dripping-in-fat and half of a caramel apple (but hey, it's fruit!). Along with a glass of wine, since we were in the beer and wine pavilion listening to music. I did a lot of walking though, not fast enough to count as exercise, but more than I do when I am sitting on my couch eating potato chips and hot dogs and apples and drinking wine!

Wednesday, because of circumstances beyond my control, I had to miss Kickboxing. I was feeling discouraged and wanted to skip bodypower as well when I remembered that Brandy was scheduled to be joining me for Wednesday classes again. I'm glad I made myself go because it was a really good class. Mary was gone and we had a substitute; Katie, the old Kickboxing instructor. I always love to have subs because they make me think about things I'm not use to, and they often mix up the music. I finally remembered to increase my warm-up weight to a large. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but sickness, and vacations and just plain forgetting have kept me from doing so. The only thing I had trouble getting through was the bicep warm-up. I can't even do sixteen bicep curls with the large. Maybe someday. I think it made the rest of my workout seem easy, which was a nice addition, and hopefully the result will be that I can increase my weights faster.

I went home and took Hannah for a run. Unfortunately, the trail we normally ran in last spring had grown over with large weeds and grasses. We ran for 15 minutes, and then turned around and walked home. It was getting to dark to be tripping over branches and breaking my neck. I had wanted to get up and run another half-an-hour this morning but it was rainy and miserable. We slept in instead.