Friday, August 30, 2013

Drained

That's been the best description for the past few days of my life. Between working 3 very busy in a row, working out all of those days and just keeping up with life it was very draining.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were my three 12 hour work nights this week, I ran Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and had a personal training session on Tuesday and Thursday. Maintenance had to come work on the apartment on Thursday so I managed to stay awake for 21 hours, while I was waiting for the maintenance people to come and go I went out for a Mani/Pedi, then gave blood and had lunch with my boyfriend. After all of that I came home and finally crashed. Apparently I really needed sleep since I slept for 18 hours.

Today I have a fairly relaxing day, I'm spending the day hanging out with the bonus kid since he is off of school and I'm off of work. I have a phone interview at 11 and then I think the bonus kid and I might go do some running around. I really need a pair of cross trainers, lifting in my running shoes is starting to get difficult.

I'm planning on running tonight after my boyfriend gets home from work and other than that it's just me and the kiddo hanging out at the house.

Fun Foto Friday


Amen! Not quite 2 weeks in but almost!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Weigh In Wednesday

I'm running late for work so i don't have a lot of time to explain this post.  However I'm very disappointed with the number this morning I weighed 198.6 at the gym. It's very hard todo the amount work the doing lately and see a 4 pound weight gain. 

So while I was typing this at red lights on my drive to work some little old lady rear ended me! Then drove away!!!!! Luckily no damage my car but still are you kidding me?

Edit so wow that's horrible picture quality huh? 200.4 is what it says. Sorry folks

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Another Run in the Books

Sunday went better than planned, with the exception of my diet. Boyfriend and I got up, went to church, had lunch at Fuzzy's Taco Shop, went grocery shopping at Sam's Club to stock up on lots of healthy things to eat and cooked up a bunch of stuff, then we headed to the gym. Sunday's run was fabulous, I felt great and got the 2.08 miles done in 30 minutes with fuel left in the tank. After bonus kid got dropped off from his mom's we had dinner and hung out for a bit before heading to bed.

I really messed up my sleep schedule over the weekend and ended up sleeping all night and not being able to sleep all day before working all night Monday night. I of course woke up to walk bonus kid to the bus stop so I figured since I was awake I might as well get my run in. Another 2.08 miles in 30 minutes, felt ok, some mild calf soreness and a little abdominal cramping, next round of running should increase my mileage just a smidge. I'm entirely to eager to be busting out 10 min miles every time. I'll get there eventually and surpass, my goal is 8 minute miles FYI.

Anyway, after all my glorious working out, I got absolutely no sleep before heading to work for my first shift of 3. This morning however will be dedicated to a personal training appointment, which will be focused on squats according to the calendar she keeps for me. Next appointment will be a reassessment which I'm a little nervous about, I'm sure that most of the measurable exercises have improved but I'm not sure that my weight will have dropped much since last month.

I think that tomorrow will be my hardest day to motivate myself to keep going with this. I will have to work, then run, then sleep, then work. Those days are mentally and physically tough for me. I'm going to break through though, I am going to do this.

In other news, my boyfriend is thinking about doing the 5K event at the Quad Cities. It will be the first race he has run that I wasn't running with him so I hope he does it cause I'll be all proud of him. Also he asked me if I wanted to do the Halloween 5K in town in October, I said sure but we could do the 10K instead, cause you know I'm evil like that. He said he would think about it, which since he reads my blog, you need to decide soon before registration fees increase. Also my best friend has decided he to wants to join me on my crazy dream of running. He asked me to do a 5K with him in December - it is a 15K and a 5K the same day, being the mean, evil person that I am was like sure we can do that, oh and here's a link to a 10 week training plan for a 15K that you should totally do and just run the 15K with me, then in April you'll be ready for a 21K. I'm mean to my boys. :) I managed, after multiple attempts, to finally get my latest gadgets to work on the blog. I have updated the map on my Race the States page, it is much nicer. Also I now have a new page that shows my workout and race plan.

Monday, August 26, 2013

PFTW 8/26 - 9/1


  • Monday - C210K W1D3
    • 5 min warmup, alternate 60 sec of running and 90 sec of walking x 8, 5 min cool down
    • I'm moving my cardio to Monday instead of Tuesday because I work Monday and Tuesday night and I have a personal training appointment Tuesday morning. I enjoy my sleep entirely to much to work until 630 am do an hour personal training and a half an hour run, then wake up at 4 pm to head back to work.
  • Tuesday - Personal Training Appointment
  • Wednesday - C210K W2D1
    • 5 min warmup, alternate 90 sec of running and 2 min walking x 6, 5 min cool down
  • Thursday - Personal Training Appointment & C210K W2D2
    • 5 min warmup, alternate 90 sec of running and 2 mins walking x 6, 5 min cool down
    • I work the night before so my plan is to train in the morning, go home and sleep and run in the evening but if not I might push the run to Friday.
  • Friday - Rest or Makeup Run 
  • Saturday - C210K W2D3
    • 5 min warmup, alternate 90 sec of running and 2 mins walking x 6, 5 min cool down 
  • Sunday - C210K W3D1
    • 5 min warmup, jog 90 sec, walk 90 sec, jog 3 mins, walk 3 mins x 2, 5 min cool down

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Reality Check

Well my grand plan for yesterday ended up as a bust. I've been having a fair amount of trouble sleeping lately and Saturday was no exception to that. My boyfriend and I ended up deciding to get breakfast and head out to the new outlet mall that opened up this week. We spent most of the morning walking around checking out the shops. It was really nice and although we only really purchased one thing it was a really nice day.

When we finally made it home I'd been awake for nearly 24 hours so we ate some dinner and I finally fell asleep. I ended up sleeping for a good 8 hours, which meant I woke up at midnight. Not only is this a really weird sleep schedule for a normal person but it's a weird one for a night shifter, so I don't know how I'm going to get this straightened out for when I go back to work on Monday. Plus I skipped my run, in favor of sleep.

I had a particularly rough morning Saturday when I decided to change from my work clothes into regular clothes. Back when I started this decision to lose weight and become healthier I originally weighed 209 and had been near that weight for a long time, however I lost about 35-40 pounds over the course of about 18 months and was looking and feeling much better. My clothes were to big and I never thought I was going back to that size so I took my, 'I'm out of college and earning a really paycheck' bank account and my slimmer self out for a little clothes shopping and got rid of everything that was much to big. It felt great and I loved it. Fast forward to now when I have regained all but about 5 pounds and I find that I have nothing to wear that fits or flatters my body. I know that with hard work and a little time I'll be back into those clothes and someday to little to wear them but it can be very discouraging.

I realize that my weight should not be tied to my enjoyment of events but it does have an impact in ways. I have a few things coming up that I really wish I could just get back down to that 170 range. I want to see the progress but I don't want to do the work though.

I'm going to change my plan for the next week to try to eat up the missed run and I have 2 personal training sessions next week so it's a start. However it's meal time that is truly killing my hope of weight loss. Weight Watchers doesn't seem to work, neither does counting calories. I think that after I run today that in order to really change things, the boyfriend and I are going grocery shopping and I'm going to make all 21 meals and 14 snacks on Sunday and that's exactly what I'll eat for the week.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Back on the Run

This week I started back on my couch to 5K, Thursday was week 1 day 1. I ran it on the treadmill, mostly for motivation for time and speed, since I was still recovering from my sinus infection. Warm up, cool down and the walk periods were all at 3.5 mph and the run was at a 6.0 mph, I kept the incline at 1.0 and I completed the run as directed. 2.07 miles in 30 minutes, not the greatest time ever but it is a start.

After my run I headed home to get some sleep before I headed back to work. I was still not feeling great, my throat was starting to hurt but I had thus far avoided the bronchitis that usually follows any case of sinusitis I have. Medication on board and I still couldn't sleep, I was just miserable and starving. I ate anything that sounded good and was readily available which landed me a pretty nasty stomach ache.

Friday was my rest day, although I don't know how much rest I actually got. After working my overnight shift, I had to stay over for a training class. I of course didn't get to bed right away, I spent some time chatting with the boyfriend and watching my new obsession, Amish Mafia! Have I mentioned I am addicted to this show! I love me some Lebanon Levi, sorry baby... I was also super excited to see 18 visitors to my blog before noon on Friday, and my very first comment made me feel excited and special, so thanks to everyone that stopped by to take a look!

After I finally made myself turn the TV off and got some sleep it was back to work for one more shift before the weekend and while the busy night and running my butt off around that ER should count as a workout it sadly doesn't so I'm home for the day and planning on getting some sleep before getting week 1 day 2 of Couch to 5K checked off my training list for today and week 1 day 3 tomorrow.

Also I laughed to hard when I read this The Awful Truth about Jogging over at CAUTION: Redhead Running. You should definitely read this article and checkout the Friday Faves at Redhead Running!

What's your training look like this weekend? Any races on your calendar?

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Half Marathon Ready in 30 Days?

Well, I'm still recovering from a nasty sinus infection but I did go to my personal training appointment yesterday and I'm hoping to make my return to cardio today. I've been so sporadic with my return to running and with the Couch to 5K plan that I've decided to completely start it over. I haven't been able to keep up with the intervals that the program is expecting me to be able to run, so I highly doubt that in just a few short weeks I'll be running a full 3 miles.

If I start the Couch to 5K plan today and stick with it, and with 30 days until the Quad Cities Half Marathon and planning on 4 days of running per week I should be at a point in the training plan where I am running 2 miles without stopping. I feel that with my cardio and weight lifting I should be able to complete the HM without injury and with a reasonable time. If I can accomplish those 2 goals then I will be perfectly happy at the finish.

I signed up for the Quad Cities half marathon a long time ago when I was also still planning to do the Go! St. Louis Marathon, I expected that my health and running would be significantly better at this point but I've let it go so much in this year that I'm practically starting over. I'm hoping that the 30 days of training will prepare me well enough for this half marathon and that I can move forward from there.

I'm currently using a Couch to 5K app on my iPhone and am planning on using the Couch to 10K app to build from there. After that I'd like to move onto a half marathon or marathon training plan. I'd like to have something that I can use on my iPhone but I wouldn't mind something that I could type into my calendar and that doesn't require me to be outside but also doesn't limit me to the treadmill. I'd love to hear your opinions on training plans for the 21K and 42K distance.