Falling off the wagon, and back on with a vengeance

Last week was awful. Since my last post, we did not run until two nights ago. We ate out at least once on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday was not too awful bad, we shared two rolls at sushi. On Saturday we went out to California Pizza Kitchen with some of our best friends (hi guys, we LOVE hanging out with you and I have to admit that this was the most fun eating excessive calories!!). On Sunday somehow we wound up at McDonalds for lunch and then at pizza for dinner for our family August birthday celebration. Yikes, no wonder we felt like crap!!

On Monday we were bound and determined to get out there and run. So run we did. We decided on the same route to complete the 5 mile loop. I went out and bought a snazzy Nathan LED light a few days ago and it made it's debut. As we are scooting along Jacob puffs behind me, 'hey you, you think just because you have a fancy armband that you're fast or something?' He also had a new watch which does splits and stuff which we have never had on a run before so he was prepared to holler at me our time along the way. We finished our first two miles feeling great and averaging 12:15 miles. Quick enough for us. Sometime around the midway mark I started having some discomfort in my knees. Not unexpected, but then something new popped up- a pain in my inner left leg, just above my ankle. We slowed it down drastically for miles three and four but picked up as best we could for the last mile. It took us one hour and four minutes. (Did I tell you that the last run we did my map was wrong? It was only 4.8 and not 5.) So it only took us two more minutes to cover almost a quarter mile longer. I was very happy with our time. A little sad that it felt so rough, but happy that we were able to maintain a little quicker pace even with a short stretch of walking in the middle. One of the coolest things about the run was that we saw another solo runner heading toward us as we were coming into our four mile marker. At that time of night and in that part of town I was pleasantly surprised and he seemed happy to see us too. =o)

Unfortunately the pain in my leg seems to have translated to a bigger issue. The outer edge of my left foot has sharp pain off and on throughout the day even though we took yesterday off. Jacob wants to go out for another five miler tonight but I just don't think I can do it....I hate to let him down but I'd also hate to really hurt myself and put me out of comission to a point where I can't train at all. =/ I will keep you posted!

High FIVE for us!!!

On our plates last night, a five miler. At this point in the game, every long run mileage increase is scary because each one can be classified as a PR in distance. Three miles, then four, and now five. Five for some reason, seemed so much more daunting. So after letting our tummies settle from dinner, and putting the babies to bed, off we went. (Don't worry we don't just leave them home sleeping alone. My youngest sister lives with us and she was in her room, probably talking on her cell phone and texting the whole time.)

I'm not gonna lie. I was scared. Would I make it? Did I hydrate enough during the day? Did we wait too long after eating? Did I use my inhaler at the appropriate time before leaving? My prior fail run left me with way too many worries, and I could tell Jacob was worried about me pooping out too. He won't leave me in the dark so if I don't make the run, he doesn't make the run. He has a lot more weight to lose so a little more is on the line for him than finishing the training run and getting to the point where he can run a half marathon. He is super hard on himself and if we run into any hiccups in our training plan I am worried that it could be a disaster. It has been in the past...I can only hope that since I am on board with him this time I can pull him through any rough patches that make him want to give up.

Mile one, he asks me our time. Thirteen minutes. Slow for the normal hard-core runner, but for us that was making good time. We still hadn't technically run a full four miles yet so we weren't sure how five miles would be. Since we have been averaging twelve minute miles, I wasn't going to complain at thirteen, considering we had to sustain it for over a mile longer than we are accustomed to. We continued on. I didn't remember where on the map the other mile markers were so we just started looking for our own milestones. First it was, I see Whitey's. Than it was I see Stone. Then I see Industrial....followed by Harbor. And finally we were in the home stretch. It took us 62 minutes, so somehow we picked it up at some point and wound up finishing with an average twelve minute mile, give or take a few seconds.

I felt amazing. Tired, but amazing. There was a little bit of shin and knee discomfort toward the end, but nothing that was anywhere near pain. Things I noticed on our run: 1)Jacob's head is pretty shiny and he has the sexiest calves I have ever seen. 2)My shadow is changing. In my midsection, in the area that used to be just a big blob of thickness. I am trimming down and the muffin top has more definition instead of just extending the entirety of my waist to underarms. (I'm not being negative here, that's actually really exciting because I can see that I am trimming down!!) 3)It truly is mind over matter. Your body really CAN go further than it alone will allow you to. You have to engage your body and your mind to push yourself past the limits.

As we started our cooldown, Jacob looked back and me and said very simply, "I'm proud of you. I couldn't have asked for you to do a better job tonight. Everything was perfect." I'm proud of you....at that particular moment, with sweat dripping down my face and my heart racing...I had never heard sweeter words coming from his mouth. Other than "I do" of course. =o)

Today-Random Rambling

I woke up this morning in a terrible mood. A don't-touch-me, don't-talk-to-me, best you don't even look at me kind of mood. Don't know what did it, don't know who, don't know why. My husband, ever the antagonist, pokes at me when I'm in moods like this. But this time, I'm not just barely in the mood where his poking actually makes me grin and get over it. I'm full blown pissed at the world. Which is rare for me, and why he really doesn't know how to handle himself when it happens. One of my other bloggy buddies Shutupandrun posted something yesterday about her mood and how it just creeps up and you have a meltdown where you're yelling at everyone and taking away privileges and crap like that. That's the kind of day I'm having.



At around noon, my husband I'm sure was thanking his lucky stars that he had to leave to run the Child ID booth in Dixon. So now I'm home alone with the kiddos, waiting not so patiently for them to both fall asleep. Luckily for me, we ran out of toilet paper and I had to get some other dinner items for our guests tonight (fun, I'm in such the mood for guests, bleh) so I had the distinct pleasure of carting both children to the grocery store by myself. They did pretty well, considering. I think Isaiah really tried hard, thank goodness for that. While we were there, I kept getting this nagging feeling that today means something- August 1st....what was it? OMG, I came to a halt in front of the meat department which the kids complained about because "it's toooooo coooooold". Today marks twelve years from the day my husband asked me to be his girlfriend and I actually said yes. See, he discourages the celebrating of any anniversaries other than the one that "counts"- our wedding anniversary. Otherwise, he gets too many dates confused. It's bad enough that he has to remember TWO kids birthdays now lol. Whatever. Anyway, so yeah....makes it even worse that I am in this terrible mood on this very auspicious day. I feel like a total ass. And that's all I have to say about that.



Yesterday we had an event in the morning to go to which I had no idea how long would take and then we had double booked ourselves so that we had a housewarming party to attend at five. We got out of the first thing super early and had over two hours before we had to be at the housewarming so Jacob got this great idea that we should go for our four mile run right then. It was freakin HOT. After the first mile and a half I felt like I had to puke. It was at that point I realized that in all the running around we did yesterday, I had only drank maaaybe 16 oz of water. No bueno. So we walked for a little while and picked it back up after stopping in at the police station to use the water fountain in the lobby. After running for about another mile and a half, my body felt like quitting. I was overheating bad and feeling so crappy. My legs didn't hurt, my lungs were working fine, but my body just wanted to melt into a puddle on the ground. Damn the city of West Sac for not having any trees!! There was barely any shade and we were running in temps a good 40 degrees hotter than we are accustomed to. All in all, it was a fail run. We didn't run nearly enough out of the whole 4.8 or so we traveled (including cool-down and warm-up) but I now understand the importance of fully hydrating allllll day long. Good grief. I guess all runners have their off days. Yesterday was definitely one of mine.

On a more positive note, I started reading ChiRunning yesterday which is a totally fantastic book. I'm not totally practicing all of the methods it talks about, but I have made conscious effort to alter and improve my running posture for better running efficiency. Even with the minor changes that I have made, the four miles that we ran a few days prior to the fail hot run were so much easier than any previous run. I felt good, and even after the four miles were over I kind of wanted to keep going! So, more to follow on that and how it works out for me. I have high hopes!

Oh yeah, please keep my iPod in your thoughts today....somehow (I'm sure one of the kids is the culprit) when I plugged it in today, I got an error message that it was corrupted and I am currently in the process of restoring it. Fingers crossed that it works! I don't know what I'm going to do if it goes out on me. =(

I know I'm a sissy but....that water was COLD

Whew what a busy week we have had! I have had the distinct pleasure of visiting with one of my bestest friends during one her few and far between visits to Northern California. See, we have been friends since our freshman year in high school (at this point, too long ago for me to want to admit. OK, it's been fourteen years.) and although she lives in Texas she remains one of my best friends. We can go six months without seeing each other and pick up a conversation like we just left off five minutes ago. I love her. Since she has been here, we have eaten pizza twice. I'm a superhero athlete now though, so those things don't tempt me like they used to. I lie. I really really really wanted that damn pizza. After slice 2 when I'm supposed to cut myself off I found myself longingly staring at that delicious round goodness sitting mere feet away fom my face. But I win, and the pizza stayed right where it belonged- on it's pan for someone else to shove in their mouth.

We worked out in the Church of Work aka my garage twice last week. Lots of crunches, jump rope, stretching, and knee ups. Lots of weights lifted. Lots of sweat dripped. We ran twice at three miles each. I feel like I'm getting slower, not faster, which is completely a buzzkill but at this point I'm just happy that I was able to finish. With each run that we do, I feel like it's going a little bit smoother and I feel a little bit better. I also feel like quitting completely a little further on in the run so I take that to mean that my endurance is building.

On Sunday, we were supposed to do our first long run. Long runs in this training plan start at four miles and gradually progress up to ten. We are supposed to run ten miles on the last weekend in September. <--Knees shaking about this one, seriously. Anyway, we didn't do the long run on Sunday. We wound up heading out to the lake that afternoon with the canoe. We paddled around for a decent amount of time and pulled up to the shore to let the kids play around. It was really a beautiful day, perfect for hanging out lakeside and people watching. The kids had so much fun digging up rocks and clamshells. Before heading home, we decided to meander out onto the lake again. While out in the middle of the lake, hubs thought it would be a great idea to let our son jump out of the canoe and into the lake. I protested- loudly. But it didn't seem like I was going to win this one so I opted to compromise. Fine, I said, but only if we get a little closer to shore. If we tip this dang thing over, I want to be a little closer in. So Hub prepared my son for the fact that the water would be very cold and told him to go over the edge- easy. Easy does not come naturally to a six year old ball of energy so he went bailing out over the edge. Needless to say, we ALL felt how cold the water was. Hub's popped out of the water first and flipped the canoe back over, at the same time pushing our two-year-old daughter back into it. She was completely ballistic, poor thing. Our son was laughing hysterically, he thought it was the funnest thing ever. Hub retrieved his hat and a flip flop that was floating near us and we proceeded to swim back to shore, towing our canoe with us. At this point, the canoe was full to the brim with lake water, our gear, and both kids. Poor babygirl was screaming bloody murder and littleman was completely hysterical the whole way in. The water was cooooold and even though we were swimming pretty hard, I was shivering. I can see why the swimmers I see going across the lake wear wetsuits. Looking back, it really wasn't that bad. I just felt really bad for babygirl who at that point was overtired and the shock of tipping over was just too much for her to handle. She fell asleep before we even turned out of the parking lot, but we were all burnt out from being in the sun all day. We skipped the long run.

So last night, we made up for it. Four miles, measured from our house....is pretty much all the way around one side of town. West Cap down Harbor to Reed to Jefferson and up West Cap back home seems like a really long way...but somehow it's just barely over four miles. I have no idea how long it took us since we didn't look at the clock before we left. All I know is that we finished it, and I FELT the extra mile. My knees are aching today but otherwise I feel great. We are going to need to get some reflective gear, because we have been running a lot at night and as these runs get longer and longer we are finding that there are less and less streetlights. I think that some of the knee pain is from running on the sidewalk as opposed to the asphalt but I am not running on the streets without reflectors on. I found myself in disbelief while we were running- this was the longest run we have done to date. And then found myself in further disbelief that we would be over doubling this by our last training run and even further, running this over THREE TIMES for our race in just a few weeks. I am speechless every time I think about this. Speechless but hopeful.

So we have another three miles on the slate for tonight. I hope my knees can hold out for it. I'm sure that it will feel like a walk in the park after last night......here's hopin.

Officially, officially week ONE

This week officially kicks off training week one. I thought it was last week, but after I went through my calendar and wrote my training plan in starting from race day and working backwards, I discovered that it is in fact this week. Woooohooo!! Last week I did my highest mileage week yet, coming in at just under 11 miles. Small potatoes compared to what it will be these next few weeks.

Monday: stretch and strengthen. Jacob had a great plan that we would alternate, one would do sit-ups while the other jump roped. It kept us moving and our heart rate up, definitely up. I wound up doing 125 sit ups and lost track of jumps. Moving on to lunges. I haven't done lunges in forEVER and Jacob suggested I try them with weights. Big mistake. Bad form and weak leg muscles lead to a slight leg bicep pull. Ouch. Time to lay off. Then we moved on to bench press. I feel so weak, but I know that time will improve everything. Stretching felt great after that, and we did a loooong stretch which he usually doesn't partake in. Something about feeling like a jackass. I don't know.

Tuesday: Three mile run. After locking up the house, I realized that my iPod was safely tucked away inside the locked vehicle. Oh noes!! Jacob said, "it's not a big deal, try running with out it. You might like it." I have never partaken in naked running like that, but I figured why not? Turns out that I LOVED it. I could converse with Jacob (kinda) which was a great indicator of how much I was pushing myself. Also, surprisingly enough, I felt like the miles were passing faster than they felt when I was plugged into my headphones. Maybe because I wasn't constantly irritated by the cords and the earbuds almost falling out. Whatever it was, it was great. We talked about our goals for the running and our get-fit weight-loss plans. We kept moving the whole time except for at stop lights and I somehow had enough gas at the end to sprint to the finish.

Last night was a cross training night. Since we only have one bicycle (not for long, I hope) we wound up doing another weight training night. Back and biceps, accompanied by jump rope and 100 knee ups on the tower of power. I was sweating bullets by the time we finished and it felt AMAZING.

Jacob has lost 12 lbs in the past two weeks and is fitting into his "skinny jeans" lol. (They aren't really skinny, just his smaller size that he has been agonizing over fitting into for over a year.) I haven't really lost anything in the past two weeks, but I am feeling great!! Only downside? My jeans are disgustingly baggy in the booty area. Not cute. Can't wait to buy new, smaller ones!!!

Late night runs = true romance

My husband and I have been working really hard on our garage, trying to get it situated for our home gym. He has always dreamed of having one, and after several months of buying pieces here and there, we have everything to start off. Here's where we left off two nights ago. We still want to get the rubber floor mats and maybe some mirrors to go along that blank wall, but we are pretty happy with it so far. (PS- Did you know that mirrors cost roughly $7/sq.ft?? Yikes!) About two hours before this picture was taken, that wall was completely covered with floor to ceiling shelving that was full. Yes, we had that much crap. Getting that taken down and moving everything around was a workout in itself.

I have been pretty irritated the past few days because it's been so hot and the only suitable running bottoms that I have are black pants that make my legs feel like they are on fire. I knew I had a pair at some point that went to just below the knee...if only I knew where they were. How does someone lose a pair of shorts? I used them a few months ago, and then they disappeared. I was mourning the loss of them, when I just happened to open my sock drawer last night for the first time in over two months (because all I've been wearing lately are sandals and slippers and my running socks get stored in my gym bag), and there they were! Shoved into the back of the drawer were my beloved running capris. I don't really know the technical term, they are shorter than capris, but whatever. Woohoo, I have two pairs of running bottoms now!

Yesterday was a pretty mild summer day for us so once the sun went down it cooled down very quickly. It was beautiful by 10:30 when we finally made it out the door. I wound up throwing on my long sleeved top, it was actually a little bit cold for a tank top. Off we went, down West Capitol. Now you would think that since Ironman is moving almost 300 lbs and hasn't run in over a month, that he would be slow and stiff. Not my man, he left me in the dust! I had a little bit of shin discomfort for the first mile but it smoothed out for me. Overall, a really nice run. I love running with Ironman because he really pushes me and keeps me going. If I had been by myself, I most certainly would have started walking. Three miles under our belts. Twelve weeks and three days to go until our half marathon debut!!!

Seen on my run:

• Scary creepy guy in car lot. Ironman saw him but I didn't until I turned my head and he was rightthere. I think I cussed when I saw him.
• Three cops sitting in a parking lot chatting. They were there on the way out and back.
• Stolen speed limit sign in the back of parked truck. I giggled when I saw this; I certainly wasn't breaking any speed laws!
  
• Ironman's concerned glances back at me every time someone would walk or bike by. Awwww....he loves me, he really loves me.

Tonight, another three!!

The heat is on...

Literally, and figuratively. This week Saturday is the twelve week mark from our half marathon. This means to me that I really need to kick it into gear and get to following the training plan that I have scribbled all over my calendar. Twelve weeks to train myself and increase my stamina to be able to complete 13.1 miles. Right now, my longest outing is 3 miles. Lame. And to top it all off, I've strategically planned my training in the middle of the hottest quarter in Sacramento. At least the actual event in October will seem like a piece of cake temperature-wise.

I went out yesterday at around noon for a quick 2 mile jaunt. It had been over two weeks since I had last ran, so I was a little stiff starting out, but that passed pretty quickly. For my birthday last year, my lovely in-laws gave me a pair of running pants, jacket, and training tank. The jacket is completely out of the question at this point, but I ventured out in the pants and tank. Unfortunately for me, my two mile loop is on the road with not a tree in sight. And the running 'fit is black. I was burning up by the end of the first mile. I was really wishing that I had bought those capris that I had my eye on at Sports Authority a few days ago. I was completely dry-mouthed and could feel the steam coming off of my head. For a split second, I considered losing the tank and running in just my sports bra...for a split second only. I'm certainly not that brave yet. And plus, my tummy has not seen the light of day in approximately six years since my lovely son was born. I would certainly cause an accident with the sunlight reflecting off of the sheer whiteness of it all.

I am happy that I finished the full two miles but was completely wiped out at the end. The combination of the dry heat, the dry mouth, and altogether too much clothing left me dripping wet and tomato-faced by the time I walked in the door. I read an article a few weeks ago that recommended driving your path and leaving partially frozen bottles of water hidden along the way so that you can stop and hydrate. It seems ridiculous for such a short run, but it really would've been helpful yesterday. Maybe next time I'll suck it up and hop into the Eppie's for a minute and see if they would be willing to give me a glass of water.

I'm pretty upset with myself that I haven't been following the training plan thus far. I really wanted to get a head start and be ready well in advance. But nope! I like to wait until the absolute last minute to do stuff. So here goes. Hopefully you will start to see my mileage increase consistently over the next twelve weeks.