An attempt at interval(s)

I hate the day after my stretch at work. I'm exhausted and all turned around and feel incredibly lazy. I was not made for midnights my friends. This is why I'm excited that I am moving to a day/night rotating shift later in August. I will work 3 weeks of day shift and one week (or weekend as I'll plan it) of night shift. Since PJ works nights, it will definitely alter our lives, but I think once I feel straightened out and on a "normal" schedule it will all work itself out.

So on to what I've done since I woke up at...7pm. Not a whole lot! Since I posted early this morning that I was going to run today I couldn't wimp out. As much as I wanted to just sit on the couch all night long, I made a commitment to myself. That being said...I also waited until the very last minute to get down to it. At 8:30pm I had a choice to make...outside or gym. I HATE the treadmill. I'll use it when it's really, really, hot out; but I'm not a fan. At 8:30 tonight the sun was just starting to go down and it was drizzling outside. So...treadmill or rainy run?

I chose rainy run. Last week I drove around my entire block and clocked it in at 1 mile exactly. So with that in mind I decided to run laps around the block so that if it started to pour or if it just got to dark I could come back in. I ran a warm up lap and saw it was getting dark pretty quickly so instead of running an easy 4 miles, I changed to some speedwork. This is an area I need a lot of work on. I tend to wimp out early and have a hard time pushing myself. So after the warm up mile, I ran 800 meters (1/2mile) at a pretty hard effort. It ended up being a 11:02 pace which I'm pretty happy with. I recovered for the remaining 800 meters. By this time I was rounding my house again and it started really raining. And it was dark. And I'm kind of a wimp. So I called it quits for the night.

All in all - 2 miles in today with one interval. Next time I'm going to allow for more time and do a little more research into interval training and try, try again.

Tomorrow is my long run. I'm getting up early (for me) to go walk with a friend and her newborn in the park and then have some lunch, so my run will be later in the day. Here's to hoping it cools off tomorrow evening!!

Back to the grind

After my wonderful mini weekend getaway to Grand Haven for our races, I hopped right back into work mode. Working 3 12 hour shifts a week has some nice benefits, but man does it screw up my weeks sometimes when they are stacked up together. Especially when I pick up overtime, like I did this week. I picked up Sunday night so PJ and I could go into work together and that started my stretch. When I'm working these stretches all I do is sleep in between shifts and because its daytime sleeping I often don't sleep well. So yesterday I took a Benadryl right before bed and I was out like a light. I woke up disoriented and later than normal so I had to rush to get ready!

Tonight however starts my 2 nights off between stretches! I am going to get in some good running! Since my body feels much better with a couple days rest since the 10K I plan on doing an easy 4 mlies Wednesday, my long run on Thursday and an easy 2-3 on Friday before work. I think I'm going to make my long run this week 7-8 miles depending on how the 4 later today go. 

The Coast Guard Run sent me an email today with a link to pictures! I was pretty excited!

I loved that the beach is in the background! I think I'll buy the digital copy. Eventually I'd like to make a scrapbook of race stuff. I've kept my bibs and medals and even the timing chips. ;-)

I'll update later on how my easy 4 miles go. 

10K Race Report (long post)

Yesterday I ran my first 10K race in Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Run at the YMCA. PJ and I drove up to Grand Haven the night before and spent the night at his brother's apartment. His sister also met us there so we could have a sibling weekend. Since we arrived at close to 6 we went right to the YMCA to pick up our race packets. PJ and his brother Kyle were running the 5K; their very first races!
After picking up our packets we went to dinner at the Kirby House in downtown Grand Haven. Their food is fantastic! We got the Spinach and Goat Cheese Dip and the Thai Lettuce Wraps to share as appetizers and then I followed them up with a Chicken Caesar salad. I substituted the Caesar dressing with balsamic vinaigrette and it was delicious! After dinner we made a trip to Wal-Mart so PJ could pick out some ear buds to wear since he only had full headphones. I've been using the Yurbuds for a couple months now and I have loved them! PJ tried them out a couple of times for runs at home and was pretty set on buying them as well.
Later we went back to Kyle's apartment and watched Les Miserables (or tried to) but all fell asleep before it ended so we tried to call it an "early night." Only it was about midnight when we finally all attempted to sleep. PJ and I were on our air mattress in the living room with his sister on the couch. I tossed and turned ALL night! It was probably the worst sleep I've ever had. The 6:15 wake up call came very early for this girl!
The three runners got ready and headed out to the races! The 5K was starting at 7:30 and the 10K at 8:30. We arrived at the starting line at 7:15 (a little later than I normally am used to) and anxiously waited for the gun!


PJ, Kyle, and Kali ready for the start of the 5K!

 The boys got ready and warmed up and then the race started. I stalked them at the start and finish for lots of photo ops!


Go PJ go!

 Kyle and PJ stayed together for the whole race. I tracked them both on the "find my friends" app on my phone so I'd know when to really look for them at the finish. Meanwhile I cheered for all of the other runners and had a great time yelling and clapping and slapping the hands of the racers. It makes me want to volunteer at a race, and I may do that for one that is in my town coming up in September. After they crossed the finish line they grabbed a few yummy treats and walked me the block to my starting line. Soon after we got there and I warmed up the gun went off and I began my run! PJ was able to snap a couple pictures of me.

Happy at the beginning of the race :)

I started out in the middle to back of the pack. I picked a couple of runners and tried to keep pace with them. I looked at my garmin about half a mile in and realized I was running way faster than my normal pace. The couple I was running next to were running about a 10 min mile and I'm more used to a 12, so I started slowing down a little. The coarse took us through some neighborhoods and then up and onto Harbor Island where we did a little lollipop turn at mile 2. I was getting a little tired at this point so I grabbed some Gatorade at the water station and tried to keep running at a good pace. I was getting really frustrated because I was needing to walk about 100 yards here and there. I had started out way too fast and it was catching up with me. Once we got back into the neighborhoods we came upon a HUGE hill! There were all these signs posted along the way saying "Run Hard" and "It's Just a Hill." There were a lot of volunteers along this hill cheering people on and getting spirits up which is exactly what I needed.
At about mile 4 I started to feel a little twinge in my left ankle. It hurt whether I was running or walking so I kept up a pretty good pace with some 200 yard walk breaks added here and there. At about mile 5.5 I was really hurting. I was averaging about 200 yards running and 200 yards walking. I had fallen to the back of the pack and was feeling really discouraged. The volunteers were wonderful because they were cheering so hard and it made me realize that just because I'm slower than most of the other runners, I was still managing to run and I wasn't dead last. Finally I ran up the last big incline to the finish line and stopped my garmin at 1:16:05. When I looked at my times I realized I ran the first 5K in 37min and beat my previous PR by 19secs! I also had run 6 miles on the treadmill a week before the race and ran those in 1:25:00 so I was pleased that even through the pain I managed a PR!

Splits (GPS Interval)
	Type	Distance	Duration	Total Duration	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	Interval	1 mi	10:45.15	10:45.15	10:46	175	182
2	Interval	1 mi	11:57.62	22:42.77	11:58	179	184
3	Interval	1 mi	12:49.22	35:31.99	12:50	168	182
4	Interval	1 mi	12:42.81	48:14.80	12:43	167	182
5	Interval	1 mi	12:35.48	1:00:50.28	12:36	177	187
6	Interval	1 mi	13:11.98	1:14:02.26	13:12	174	181
7	Interval	0.17 mi	2:03.47	1:16:05.73	12:07	182	189


I was SO happy to be done! My left ankle and both first toes were hurting pretty bad. I walked back to the car with PJ and his siblings and we went back to Kyle's apartment to get ready for the beach!

Ugly black toenail

Both nights we were in Grand Haven we treated ourselves to Ice Cream! Here's a picture of one of my treats :)

YUM!

I had such a wonderful time watching my husband and his brother run their first races and I had a great time running my first 10K. Definately a successful trip to Grand Haven for their Coast Guard Festival Run. Maybe next summer I'll do both the 5K and 10K...you can do them both for the cost of one race!

Rest up

After a 4 day stretch I'm exhausted. It's common for me to spend all day in bed after a stretch like this; and that's exactly what I did. I woke up at 6:30 pm and since have done absolutely nothing but lay in bed with the hubby and catch up on the DVR. PJ made chef boy-ar-dee pizza which works to cure my pizza cravings in a much healthier way. I'd really like to start experimenting in making my own dough soon and making it even healthier. 

I watched the new episode of Extreme Weight Loss tonight and felt inspired. Here is a woman who, like me, is a nurse in SE MI. I actually recognized some of the faces of the other nurses on the show and it made it even more real to me. The woman on the show yo you'd her weight but was able to lose significant amounts of weight in short periods of time. It made me think about my goals and where I want to be. 

My goal date for everything I've been doing this year is October 20, 2013. This is the date of my half marathon, and the race that has started it all. My goal weight is 135. This weight is right within the normal BMI range for my 5'3.75" height ;) Currently I weighed in today at 158.8. I have 23.8 pounds to goal. This means that in the 12.5 weeks to race day I have to lose about 2 pounds a weeks, allowing for a couple less than perfect weeks. 

So... time to step up my game!

Getting the food under control.

There are two sides to weight loss. There's the activity part - which I don't seem to have too much problem with. I can get out there and run my prescribed amount of days and stay fairly active. Then there's the nutritional part. I've allotted myself 1400 calories. A month ago I was only taking in 1280 and realized that my weight loss was stalling. I had a bad week where I ate over my calorie goal every day and ended up LOSING 2 pounds! It was then that I realized I wasn't eating enough...enter 120 more calories per day. I do not log my activity in my calorie counter so that I don't eat all of the calories I've worked so hard to burn.

Eating right seems to be (and has always been) my main problem. Especially on days that I'm working. I will snack and snack and snack until all of a sudden I've realized that all I'm eating is snacks. This means that all of those calories that I've budgeted for the day have been wasted on food with no nutritional value whatsoever. This is usually when I start feeling frustrated and have to really try not to just throw it all away.  I'm also not much of a veggie eater and struggle to get this daily nutritional requirement in.

To add more of a problem, I'm a mindless eater. If there's food sitting out, I'll grab some here and there and eat it without savoring it therefore making me go back for more. I end up eating way too much and then going over my calorie goal. This must stop.

My goals:

I'd like to begin eating MEALS and not only snacks. I need to allow myself one small snack a day and realize my food can't only be made up of snack food.

I'd like to stay within my calorie allotment every day with very few exceptions (very very special events).

I'd like to continue running 4-5 days a week and add in strength training a couple times a week as well.

I'm hoping that by making small adjustments I can change things around soon. I am part of 4 diet bets on dietbet.com  and I have 4 pounds to loose in 14 days. Crossing my fingers I can do this!

Down to Business

So now that I've successfully posted my first time, its time to get down to business. Yesterday I went to the gym (because it's wayyyyy to hot out to be running, and because I'm kind of a wimp about hot weather) and ran on the treadmill before a workout class I was signed up for with my sister-in-law. I had planned to do an easy couple miles and that's exactly what it was. I ran at a 4.5mph/13:20 pace (I'm super slow!) for 2.25 miles and it was wonderful. I felt like I could have kept going...except it was time for our class. My sister-in-law wanted to go to a body scupt/tone class which I was ok with since I've been neglecting my strength training. I felt like the class was super easy...until I woke up today that is. I was so sore today, mostly my arms which are super not in shape. It was nice to feel that sore though, because I was feeling so high and mighty about not feeling like it was a tough work out.

Today I had intended to run 6-7 miles for a long run. Except I slept in way too late and then chit chatted to my husband a little too much. This left me with enough time for 4 easy miles. Yes...I ran easy runs two days in a row. Ugh total disappointment. And besides that; I hate the treadmill so it felt like the longest 4 miles of my life.

Now I'm at work. I'm a midnight nurse working in an ICU at a large hospital in southeastern Michigan. I love my job, hate the hours. I am working 4 days in a row, so that means no running for me until Tuesday. I am going to try to get up a tiny bit early to work out to a Jillian Michaels DVD, but we'll see what really happens.

I think I mentioned in my last post I'm training for the Detroit Free Press International Half  Marathon. I'm super excited about it and started training early so I have time to work my way up and not feel overwhelmed. I don't seem to have much problem getting the running and miles in. The problem I have is the strength training. This is where Jillian Michaels will hopefully help me out! ;-)

The Beginning

I've been inspired. That sums up a lot of what the last few months of my life have been like. I'm the girl who's constantly on a diet. I'm the girl who's always been a little overweight. I'm the girl with the low self esteem. These are all things that I've been trying to change for years. I don't know what makes this time different: but it is.

On April 8th I weighed in at 178.2lbs. This is not my highest weight, but it was high enough for me to feel miserable and not fit into any of the clothes I wore. At nearly 27 years old I was wearing a lot of sweat pants and large scrubs to hide my body. On that day I made it my goal to run several times a week and consume way fewer calories in order to achieve a goal weight of 135. I signed up for the Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon (thanks to much prodding from a friend) which will take place October 20, 2013. Having never run more than 30 seconds at a time I set out on my first run. Since that day I have lost 18 pounds and am now able to run 6 miles continuously (at a slow pace).

After reading many, many, many blogs about running and weight loss, and after boring my friends and family to death about all of my knowledge and questions and accomplishments with running, I've decided to take a big step and put myself out there on the internet. This is huge for me so I hope you'll have the patience to see me through! It's bound to be a good ride!

In the coming posts I'll backtrack and talk about what the last few months have been like as well as discuss what's happening currently. Whether this ends up as just a diary or a blog someone follows, it's all done to help me stay inspired and motivated on this journey.