long run

after georges doctor appointment this morning i drove into boise with the kids to meet jason for a long run. i told him to map 6-8 miles and off we went. there was a lot of stopping to deal with the kids, and we lost georges hat in the first 2 miles (didnt find it on the way back either. hope some kid in boise gets to look cute and stay cool wearing it this summer.) we stopped to potty around mile 3, and then mile 6 i did quite a bit of walking. i needed to have made a sports drink or something for some electrolytes in the heat with this long of a run. so my stomach was cramping because of the lack. we cut a mile off the far end of the run and added it back on with a quick down and back near the office (that isnt on the map). we survived a total of 7.7 miles in 1:36 hour. that comes out to just under twelve and a half minute miles.

now we are home, kids are sleeping, my feet are tired and i MUST get to packing. after i make georgie a new hat.

156.2 pounds

last week i was at 158.6 pounds and this morning i weigh 156.2 pounds! 2.4 pounds is a big deal. i feel back on track just in time to loose control of all my food prep again. we leave for family reunion/ camping on friday july 1 and i dont get home again until the 10th. i have plans to run while camping and while i might not get to have much say in what is offered for meals, i absolutely get a say in how much of it i choose to eat!

just 8 pounds to go!

2 mile loop

i have mapped a new 2 mile loop near the house. this solves several problems. it is close to home the whole time, and easily cut down to 1 mile for odd numbered days. it is through the neighborhood, except for the distance between greenhurst and iowa, which is familiar and feels like neighborhood more than main road.

so tonight i ran just 2 miles in 22 minutes. they felt nice and easy (if you ignore that it hadnt been long enough since i ate dinner) and i plan to use that loop for a longer run wednesday or thursday before we leave for family reunion.

another mother runner

feeling super bummed about yesterdays total fail of a run, i decided to go out again tonight. i didnt have a time or distance in mind, just wanted to run until i enjoyed it again. before i left i looked up a couple mantras to keep in mind. i found a couple that i liked. "not dead, cant quit" and "i am here now" and i also remembered a website that had some great witty ones for moms. its another mother runner and they have a great tee shirt shop called run like a mother. one of them says "the more i run, the less i want to run away". that was definitely me today.

my point: after putting emma to bed for the fourth time tonight in her fifth pull up of the day (guh) i went for a run. i stayed close to home but managed 4.6 miles in 49 minutes. pretty dang fantastic. thats just over 10.30 minute miles. i walked about 30 seconds of it. i enjoyed it. i changed my mind set.

and the mantras definitely dont hurt. my favorite? "run like a mother" and "this is the easiest part of my day".

fail

my 7 miles were a bust. i got 2 miles in and my tummy was cramping and i felt miserable and had to head home. i cut back to midland and did this route for a total of 4 miles instead of 7. i am upset, disappointed, and feeling miserable. because i walked almost all of the 3rd mile, my total time was 49 minutes.

i know i could have gone the whole distance this morning, if only i didnt so desperately need to go to the bathroom. jason is working today, and meeting with his group for one of his classes tonight at 7 in boise. i might go out again this evening, or maybe a little earlier and just take the kids if i am feeling more up to it. i know that this happens to some people, but i havent had to potty on any of my runs before today, and it just totally ruined my run this morning.

7 miles

im looking for possible 7 mi routes that arent box shaped and boring. i prefer running in neighborhoods (or the greenbelt, but we only have a couple miles of consecutive greenbelt.) and so far this looks like the best one ive come up with.

here is another, but this one keeps me on main roads.

okay, final verdict (i think) ill do the greenbelt and just double back on part of it to add enough distance. it shouldnt be too crowded early in the morning, and i wont have to deal with lots of cars since i will only be on iowa for two miles out of the 7. so thats the plan.

who knew finding a route would be so difficult? guess it would be easier if i werent so picky.

4 beautiful miles

4 miles tonight. i left the house around 815 this evening and it was the perfect time of day to run. shaded, breezy 75 degrees. ill take about 100 more just like today.

my time was 43:19 minutes for 10:50 miles. (except i know my first mile was a 10 minute mile.) i ran carrying a water bottle. it was nice to have the water, but a little awkward too. and i wore a pair of running shorts (all day today) and (milestone) did not chafe all day, including mowing the lawn, yard work and 4 mile run. my work out clothes just doubled. i can wear normal shorts now!

saturday i am supposed to do 7 miles. i know i can, i just need to get over the obligation of it so that i WANT to.

a walk in the park- well, not quite

i took the kids for a walk this morning. (in the opposite direction i had planned because emma asked to slide. greenbelt became park.) we played at the park and then walked to a potty and back home again.

jason is swamped right now, but if he gets home by 9 i am leaving to run when he gets here. otherwise i will have to move my days around so that today is a rest and do the 4 miles tomorrow.

the good news is, i am feeling much more capable and i think the race is doable again. the distraction of other runners on race day should keep me from getting too bored, which seems to be my biggest struggle on runs that last more than a half hour.

down down down

down two weeks in a row! its a miracle! (translate that to: i put in the effort and it paid off!)

last week i weighed 160 pounds and this morning i weigh 158.6 for a loss of 1.4 pounds. 10 pounds to go.

i have never liked to follow the rules

530 became 6. i got a full 7 hours of sleep and it was wonderful.

i had planned to run the 5 mile rectangle of greenhurst, 12th, iowa, and middleton. after jumping over 5 road kills in my path in the first 3/4 mile i decided i was not in the mood to run on main roads. (5 mile road kill total:8.) so this route is what i ended up with. i kept in mind the distances i was skipping and tried to add in the distance with curves and loops. and not a bad job id say! 5.1 miles total in 56 minutes. 11 minute miles. that is just perfect.

also, the morning run felt SO MUCH BETTER than any afternoon run ive had lately. the heat just kills me. (so what if im a tender little flower that needs perfect conditions to bloom. at least eventually ll bloom, right?) schedule change take 2 is going to happen soon i think. we will still be getting up early, but i will go run and jason can do jillian and/or homework till i get home- then head to work. that way he doesnt have to rush home so i can run in the evening, and he gets a chance to study when hes feeling more alert than at 1130pm.

tomorrow i am on for 4 miles. today the kids and i are going to settlers park for some water play and then ill do my jillian dvd during naps. and maybe mow the lawn. depends on how hot it actually gets today.

i dont think im a morning person either.

jason did 30 day shred with me at 530 this morning. he had to quit a couple of times before the move was over. made me feel pretty strong.

tomorrow i run. havent decided if i should get up really early and try to go (think with the heat that would be the MUCH wiser choice) or wait until later in the evening. i just talked to jason, morning it is. so im off to bed. 530 comes really early.

training

i am running this route when jason gets home from work this evening for my 4 mile run today.

this is my equivalent of telling someone so that i am accountable for doing it.

4 miles in 46 minutes. i thought i made a wrong turn at one point, so i was slow and disorientated for most of the 3rd mile. once i figured out where i was in my route again, i was just slow and not disorientated anymore. but still, an eleven and a half minute average is quite enough for me.

my next run is scheduled for wednesday and i am going 5 miles.

230pm

this time every day i am hungry. every day. i feel like im eating either two lunches or two dinners. today i had a snack. im still really hungry. any of you afternoon munchers, or partaking of the second lunch?

also, i am not a runner. i have found that i dont really miss running when i dont do it. i enjoy it just fine when i run, but i dont track my pace and miles, and try to improve and challenge myself. im not a runner.

as a non-runner, training for this half has been nearly non existent. (but you knew that already.) this morning jason and i started a new schedule to try and make more time for me to run and really get prepared for this race. right now, i am very unprepared and it makes me very anxious about those 13 miles, no matter how easy they are supposed to be.

update on work outs and food

this morning i was sore, but not as much as i expected. (im pretty good at expecting the worst so that anything isnt quite so bad. :) my arm pit muscles (whatever those are called) and my quads are the worst. but not bad enough to stop me from shopping the outlet mall with mom and carrying a kid or two all morning.

i did the work out again late this afternoon when emma was sleeping and george was feeding himself. it went SO MUCH BETTER. so a sleeping emma is key.

food wise, i have been adding and adding veggies to my meals. this way i am feeling full with a lot fewer calories. examples: whole wheat sugar free waffles with strawberries instead of syrup and a banana for breakfast, egg on toast with a large bowl of salad and minimal dressing for dinner, grilled pineapple, chicken, pepper and onion kabobs over rice for dinner, bowl of cereal and banana for breakfast. so im pretty happy with my meals right now, i feel like i have control again.


i cant believe i forgot to mention i bought a running skirt, and a fantastic dress this week. dont believe me? take a look:

its really a great dress. and the skirt- super cute.

i have not dropped off the edge of the planet

but, my mom is here and i have not had my computer around for more than a couple minutes at a time. yesterday was wednesday and i weighed 160 pounds. i had to check just now because i couldnt remember, but that is down 0.4 pounds. i am still bouncing back and forth these couple of pounds, but it is nice to see im not gaining.

also, my jillian dvds came yesterday and i did the shred this morning for the first time. verdict? i love that they are simple exercises. no coordination needed. but, i need to do it before emmas awake because she is super needy in the mornings. also, i need to put my shoes on and i need to get a mat. so, we will see how tomorrow goes with fewer kid interruptions.

motivation tags

i have 10 pounds to loose to hit my initial goal. it is not a lot of weight but i have had ten pounds to loose for three months.

this week ive been searching for some motivation and new tactics at attaining this goal. ive journaled foods that ive eaten (and noticed that i really need to make some healthy cookies again- that seems to be my 2-300 calorie suck every day) and started using work out videos to get some calories burned on days i cant/ or dont want to run. this morning i re-read all the posts tagged "motivation." its been almost a year and my life has dramatically changed. sometimes in the rut i forget that.

eleven months ago i weighed 213.4 pounds and last wednesday i weighed 160.4 pounds. thats 53 pounds that i have lost and maintained for nearly a year. i have gained a couple of times, but i have not gained any amount that stayed on. each time the scale went back up- i made the choice to do what i needed to and loose those pounds a second time. that is an accomplishment. that is a life style change. even if it takes me a while still to loose those ten pounds (not that i want it to) i know i can because my life has changed.

breakfast: coffee with sf peppermint and fat free 1/2 and 1/2, two pieces of bountiful basket toast with cream cheese and sf raspberry jam, bowl of cantaloupe

9 month before and after

im in the need of a little extra motivation. (some sunshine would also be nice, but ill take what i can get right now.) so here are two photos, taken september 3, 2010 and june 3, 2011

check in

i started this morning with that joy bauer video again, this time using both weights when they tell you too (i missed that last time) and boy an i still sore from two days ago.

breakfast: one piece of toast with fake cream cheese, sf raspberry jam and a banana. ice tea to drink (i didnt make coffee last night and jason was up too late to do it this morning.)
lunch: chips, cheese, taco meat and a small salad of lettuce, broccoli, celery, carrots, cabbage, onions
snack: very small bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream
dinner: small bowl of home made mac and cheese (colby jack, whole wheat shells), steamed asparagus with butter
dessert: two dark chocolate peanut butter smores

work out videos

i opted to skip a run yesterday and find a work out on hulu instead. (im glad i did, because at the end of the video a storm blew in, and jason ran when i would have, and got soaked!) i chose this joy bauer video and actually really liked it. i was usually a step behind, and several times my coordination was just so off, but i kept moving. i really enjoyed that weights were incorporated. (i wore my wrist weights for the first 15 minutes, and fifteen minutes later a weight circuit was introduced. so i got them twice!)

emma enjoyed the video too. for full mental picture, she was wearing her pj tee shirt, panties, and fuzzy pink boots, and she kept sticking her toy phone in her panties (because she didnt have a pocket) then taking it out and calling someone to say "were dancing! im dancing with mommy! yeah, im dancing, ill talk to you later!" too funny. i tried to teach her a jumping jack. no go. and she did okay with the bird dog, but kept lifting the arm and leg on the same side instead of opposite. :)oh- and jasons favorite when i told him, when i was doing push ups emma tried to climb on my back to "ride mommy". i thought i was going to die.

on those work out video lines, yesterday i bought two jillian michaels videos. (i bought comic book boards to make mini fabric bolts to organize things upstairs, and needed to spend another 15$ to save 7$ in shipping or whatever amazons flat rate is. anyways... ) i went with 30 day shred and shred-it with weights. i am looking for ways to incorporate weights and that second one looked like a good way to do it. both have a bajillion good reviews... so thats the plan for days i dont get in a run, or just want a little something extra.

todays meals
breakfast: cup of coffee with sf irish cream and a little 1/2 and 1/2, banana
lunch: salad (lettuce, celery, carrots, onion, broccoli, red cabbage) and bean, cheese and green jalapeno salsa quesadilla
snack: i CRAVED something sweet, so i made a couple dark chocolate peanut butter smores.
dinner: (at nearly 10pm, ugh) one big taco with lots of salad and salsa and a little meat and cheese

my life is getting in the way. of my life.

i am up one pound this morning at 160.4 pounds. why? portion control. veggies did not take up half my plate this week. what am i going to do about it? food journal.

in the past (years) when i have tried a food journal i have found myself paying so much attention to what im eating that i didnt eat enough. i dont expect to have that issue this time around. what i think will happen is instead of just munching whatever it is im hungry for, i will have to weigh the effort of reporting it. and im generally a pretty lazy person so i think that will be enough to keep me from snacks and extra portions.

breakfast: one large poland mug of coffee with sf macadamia nut syrup and some fat free 1/2 and 1/2, 1 glass of chocolate slim fast shake in 1% milk (this is my go to when i feel i cannot be trusted to make a wise choice on my own.)

(edit: lunch: one carb balance whole wheat tortilla filled with three cubes of steak, half cup black beans, and once slice pepper jack cheese, one orange from grandpa george.

snack: bowl of strawberries

dinner:

two peices of 9 grain health nut bread, one large roasted tomato, two poached eggs, a hand full of steamed asparagus with a little melted fake butter. delicious.
i also ate a couple handfuls of jasons popcorn just before bed.)

also, i think i might do a work out video today. just sounds like a good idea.

bad food good run

i felt ill last night. we have had so much greasy food this weekend that last night i felt so sick. it has been good good food, and not good for my tummy. (greasy foods have always made me sick, but doesnt stop me from eating some yummy salty fries!) i felt so yucky yesterday that i didnt go run.

this morning after breakfast though i got changed and left. i headed to oakmont sub off iowa and just kept left. heres the loop i ran. it totals 2.4 miles in 27 minutes for 11.15 miles. i kept a slow jog pace and managed to jog the whole distance.

159.4 pounds

its wednesday.

last week i weighed 161 pounds. this morning (at 530, but thats another story) i weigh 159.4 for a loss of 1.6 pounds. 150s. wow. that feels as good as i expected it to.

things that have changed this week. im snacking a lot. on fruit. ive started buying a bountiful basket and because jason doesnt eat most of the fruits (pineapple, mangoes, apricots, blackberries, cantaloupe...) the kids and i do. also, dinner is earlier. like, 430 or 5 early. im not as hungry this way, so i eat less. and the last two days ive started getting up early.

in order to eat breakfast, drink one whole cup of coffee, and read my bible a bit before emma wakes up, i have to be up by 530. usually. this morning she was up at 532. id say she typically wakes around 645 though. i think. days that i have peace in the house before i begin parenting go SO MUCH BETTER. especially with things like zombie emma happening. id much rather wake up to an early alarm than the zombie baby and her mess. then when i have to clean poop off the rails of georgies crib (pooped out the leg of the diaper, then played in the crib a while. walked all the way around it apparently. that is, if i can read poo tracks as well as i think i can.) or spend twenty minutes laying down with emma to put her to sleep while my lunch gets cold, im at least in better spirits about it.

looking forward to next week. feeling encouraged. also, will post about The Race a bit later. (i need to squeeze in some grocery shopping before bed time.)