49 days to go before the marathon. 52 (well, 51.8 to be technical but I'm also a fan of rounding) pounds gone. I hit that benchmark this week, friends.
The excitement I think was almost more than the Onederland mark. I don't really know why but it seemed like saying "I've lost over 50 pounds" is a lot more exciting than saying "I've lost more than 40 pounds". Whatever. I'm excited about my tattoo, which I've decided to not get until after the marathon just because I'm the person that would get it infected or I'd be a big baby and it would be too swollen or hurt and I'd miss some training. I certainly don't want to do that and I've got the rest of my life to get it now that I've hit the goal. I kind of want two now but that's just crazy talk, right? I mean the original idea means so much to me but then again I've spent this very significant part of my life over the last 8 months training for something that like less than 5% of the population does. So I also feel like I really want a marathon tattoo but I haven't fully made up my mind. And no Mom, I'm not going to end up covered in them like I just got out of prison or something so don't worry. That's not how I operate.
I was contacted this past week by a PR person from the Columbus Marathon about a social media project via Instagram. Cool - I tag #cbusmarathon in all of my pictures (and there are a lot of them) that have to do with my training so I figured they found me and I'd be one of several people they would highlight as we went along. I mean, 18,000 people participate in this thing and I know I'm not the only one using Instagram here. So I was surprised on Friday knowing they were announcing "us", and I didn't exactly know who all "us" would be, to the world and more importantly those training for the events as well when there were only 6 of us. And most of the others are serious runners. I mean, yes, I consider myself a runner at this point but I don't travel around the country doing races or am anyone you'd be able to pick out of the crowd (unless I'm wearing my pink striped pants maybe). These other people are and I am amazed to be in this group. Little old me. First timer. Formerly obese girl. Barely getting by over here. But they chose ME and I am forever greatful. Not only does it encourage me and keep me going knowing my face is out there on the cover of this marathon but that I can bring more light to Huntington's disease in doing so. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, Columbus Marathon, you guys rock. I can't wait to spend my 26th birthday with you and 17,999 of my friends and all of their friends. Best. Birthday. Ever.
I will be featured on the Runaway Bridal Planner's blog on September 5th - she highlights runners on her page and is a fellow Sweat Pink ambassador and I am excited to be making an appearance! Check Kristy out at www.runawaybridalplanner.blogspot.com
I will also be September's featured Charity Athlete on www.InsaneMarathon.com which in itself is INSANE! Thank you so much to James who runs the site for the spotlight and also for doing the highlights of charity athletes in general. Awesome!
I spent my very first week completely 100% on my own at work out of orientation. Dudes - I'm an ICU nurse. Like, a real life, totally responsible for little tiny pediatric cardiac babies nurse. I am their guardian and I am their advocate while they are in my care and while that's pretty scary it's also very, very cool. It is such an honor to do this job and I know it is where I was meant to be. I posted an article on my facebook this week called Just a Nurse (you can find it here: http://accordingtokateri.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/just-a-nurse/) and it really, really hit home. Yes, for a little while I was pre-med. I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to save lives. Life happened and it turns out that was not what I was supposed to do and I'm so glad that I'm a nurse. Literally I cannot see myself being anything else. The letters behind my name are more than a title to me and more than years of education. RN, BSN defines me. In a few years I will have more letters and more responsibility that comes with them but again, it is a privilege to earn them. I am more than *just* a nurse.
Did I mention that I fit into my size 14 bridesmaid dress? Because I do. The last dress I bought for such an occasion was a 20. Boo-ya.
I did my first giveaway on my Training Lindsay page this evening and it was so much fun! I hate to call it a "fan page" but instead of bombarding my friends with insane amounts of training/weight loss posts I figured I'd just make the page and allow those who want to see them be able to. Fair enough. I am giving away samples of Advocare's Spark and Slam pre-workout drinks and hope the three that won will love them as much as I do!
Since it is August 31st my mileage for this month alone totaled 105.1 miles! Holy smokes! This month will be more since I've got a 16, 18, and 20 miler to do and my mid-week miles creep up ever so slightly along the way too. I cannot believe I've lost more weight than I have days left before the marathon being 6 weeks from tomorrow. I did 15 miles last weekend and it was awful. Seriously, very, very terrible. It took me 45 minutes more to run 1.9 miles further than my half the previous weekend. Outrageous! I have been mentally focused all week on this 16 miles in the morning ahead of me going better. I will start strong. I will eat a plain bagel before I go - just to see if that's going to help since I haven't been eating before hand. The local running group ran very close by today and I have the route they ran for their 12 miles and my 2 miles to and from the metro park would put me right at my 16 for the day. However, some of their route is on the road and not sidewalks and I don't know about bathroom stops and things along the way so I'm not 100% on if I will follow it or not. I'm planning on getting out the door by 5:30-5:45 to get done before it gets too hot but they are calling for intermittent rain/storms so I'm charging my Garmin watch and iPod nano that I can use in the rain so I don't ruin my phone that I usually use for tracking my distance. My iPod will be protected by the ever classic sandwich baggie :) so it will be safe as well. I was considering going out this morning with the group but I had run the last 3 days in a row and decided I should sleep in today and give myself a day break of running before my longest distance to date. I keep saying it every week but I've only got 2 longer ones after tomorrow before the marathon so that's also kind of weird to think.
I'm off to get some shut eye - the alarm clock goes off early on Sundays for this running girl.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Onederland - Little Miami race recap.
Yep, you read that right. As most of you already know from my excessiveness last week on Wednesday when it happened - I hit Onederland that day. I hopped on the scale and pumped my arms Rocky style when I read the scale: 199.0.
I had been thinking over the last several weeks what it would feel like. I couldn't recall exactly when I last saw a 1 to start my weight but I remember as a sophomore in high school being 175 and feeling fat and upset about it. Next thing I remember is being a college freshman in 2005 weighing in somewhere between 215-220. I don't really know when I tipped the next manual scale bar over to the 200 mark but even if it was sometime in 2005 that means it's been at least 8 years.
I was home by myself that morning as Kyle had already left for work so I had to settle for turning on some booty-shaking music and dancing with Penny (the dog) in the living room. I. Had. Done. It. I was elated... over the moon even. I had so many positive "likes" and comments between my Facebook Training Lindsay page and Instagram that I didn't know what to do with myself. So many others who had done the same thing as me or wanting so desperately to get there as I had looking at me as inspiration. Me. The thought of that alone was overwhelming. I sobbed over my protein shake between drinks and felt this great catharsis of emotion come out. The last several months and all the pain, sweat and time put into all of this had paid off.
Knowing I was just shy of my 50 pound loss that I've promised myself a tattoo for, I was getting excited about that. Looking around for names and places locally to get my ink done was the next task. I started losing my excitement about the whole Onederland business and feeling kind of empty about it. Okay. I'm here. I know this isn't my end goal but... but.... I sort of lost momentum. I ate mostly by plan, kept my macros together and fought a really yucky blister and some plantar fasciitis the rest of the week. I was scared for the weekend's half marathon because my foot was aching. I worked Wednesday and Thursday nights and I was running around like a crazy person and I was limping out of the hospital Friday morning. Oh crap. I didn't do my 4 mile run Thursday needing the rest, I went to bed Friday morning, got up at 1:15 for a hair appointment for a cut at 2pm and met Kyle at home after. He got a quick nap in and then we headed out for my cheat meal of pizza and a Redbox movie to bring home. I scarfed down that pizza and fell asleep 45 minutes into Life of Pi (what I saw was really good and Kyle liked it a lot - I'll have to try again!) and woke up at 8pm when it was over and went straight to bed. On a Friday night.
I slept in total 14 hours. I was going to get a Zumba class in Saturday morning before I drove to Columbus for my favorite bride-to-be, Amanda's, shower that we were throwing for her. I didn't do it as my foot was still a little sore and decided to just sleep til 8 and go from there. The shower was beautiful thanks to Miss Karley and I stopped by the Columbus Running Company on my way out of town to look into something for the blister that just wouldn't quit. I ended up with Injinji toe socks to wear for the half Sunday to see if that would help my cause. I drove home, Kyle had made my usual pasta dinner before a race meal to go along with my cupcake and fruit I had at the shower. Or maybe to go with the chicken fingers I had on the way. Or the Frosty on the ride home. NO GOOD. Saturday was a terrible food day. I didn't have to make those choices. I did them and I'm owning up to it. I felt cute in a dress I picked up from Target on the way (I was going to be severely underdressed for the occasion otherwise) and got so many gracious complements on how I was looking and how cute the dress was but I was cringing knowing what I had just eaten. Yes, I've spent this entire year working very hard. But, I was feeling lousy and mad at myself for going so far off track that whole day I could hardly accept the nice things people were saying. I've been having a few extra carbs the day or two before my long runs but it was just plain overboard. Carrie showed up late Saturday night and we kind of went over race day plans and called it a night.
I kept waking up Sunday morning like those nights before clinicals in school when you knew you just couldn't be late. I had literally just run this distance the week before but I think a crowd and the medal and the finish line were psyching me up a little. We didn't get our packets picked up Saturday so we were getting them the morning of the race. I was out of bed at 5AM and we weren't running til 7:30 and somehow I was starving after the previous days binge. I have found that not eating anything is best for me when I do my long runs but I decided I had enough time to eat a rice cake with peanut butter to hold me over. We got ready and headed out around 6:20.
This race, the Little Miami Half Marathon and 10K had greatly increased in numbers from the previous year and I was worried about parking because the pre-race information said we would just be parking in the neighborhood around the race site. The course was a small loop through town then out and back on the Little Miami bike path. There were probably 600-700 people between the two events I would guess and not enough bathrooms at the start. A small band was playing some music and there was a decent line for packet pick up. We were in that line and I reeeeeally needed to pee and the lines for the bathroom were getting longer and longer as we waited. When we got our stuff I told Carrie I'd take our extra stuff to the car so I could grab my fuel belt and iPhone arm band(I saw Kendra on the way and I got a great big hug! yay!) and couldn't wait anymore once I got there. We parked at a school and the parking lot backed up to some trees and I looked around, made sure no one was watching, and in true runner form I just did my business behind a random strangers car. Great. So that's taken care of, I meet Carrie back in the bathroom line and she was almost to the front so I got in with her and just went again for good measure. I met another Instagrammer - Kelly in the bathroom of all places and that was another thing I really wanted to do yesterday so I was super glad we met!
Carrie and I headed down a few blocks to the starting area and Kendra met us there since we were the only other people she knew which was fine with me. We chatted a bit waiting for the start and then off we went. I knew she ran a lot faster than me and warned her of that and wished her a good race. Carrie and I started off strong with our first mile at 11:52. I was in the 11 min/mile range for 4 of the miles with 11:38 being my best. Around mile 6 we FINALLY saw a port-a-potty and I had to make a quick pit stop. Fuel belt on, fuel belt off and getting back on the trail cost me some time. Last week I could pause the time when I went in for my potty break but not this week! When my heart rate goes up to 180 I know I need to slow down so we took 2 brief walking breaks to slow my rate back down between miles 6-8. Still kept a good pace and overall I'd say we only walked a half of a mile in total between the two. Miles 8 and on I ran the whole way. Carrie convinced me to slow my pace down a bit, not worry about my finish time but more about finishing strong and running instead of this crazy "run til my heart rate is too high so then I have to walk" business. I was frustrated by it but knew she was right. As usual. We finished with our last few miles right around 13:00 min/miles but I finished as a runner and that's what was more important. I was 3 minutes off my PR time from the previous week but I did more walking than this time so I still consider it a victory. My friend Jenn that I work with who herself has lost 130 pounds and is a marathon runner saw us at the beginning (it's her normal trail she runs on and there just so happened to be a race this weekend too so she just did her thing and ran with us part of the way) and waited for me and my crazy pants at the end. She's one of my biggest cheerleaders in all of this and it was so awesome of her to hang out. Along the way I got a sweaty high 5 from Kendra and one from Kelly as well. It was Kelly's first half and she was cruising! I was so proud of her! We'll be seeing each other again in Columbus in 8 short weeks so I'm excited for that! I felt even better knowing especially since we slowed our pace down that I could finish strong and even moreso that I felt like I could have kept going.
Overall the race was good. The bike path was pretty shady and cool. There were ample water stations but I'm still glad I wore my fuel belt to carry my wafers in to munch on since they gave out GU at mile 7 and I don't really like that stuff. The finish had a few muffins and cookies, warm bottles of water and the big coolers of Gatorade but I was starving so we just got out of there.
We came back home and got ourselves together and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and I again didn't make awesome choices but I had just burned 2500 calories and ended up burning 4930 for the day according to my Body Media. After lunch we tried to nap but I just couldn't sleep. We ended up spending the evening with my sister and brother-in-law and our niece and nephew. Love, love, love them. We went to a park to play and grilled out for dinner on the patio.
Overall there will be some changes I'm making as I continue with only 8 weeks to go til the main event - my birthday! Just kidding, kind of :)
I'm not going to be following my meal plan. I think I have learned a TON about nutrition and what I need to be successful as far as nutrition goes with losing weight and where my macros need to be in doing that. That being said, I also am realizing what I need to fuel myself for these ever increasing miles I'm putting in as we go through these last 8 weeks of training. I will be incorporating healthy choices with some increased carbs and going from there. I am also going to be reducing my weight training and sticking mainly to my running schedule with a day of cross training and maybe some Zumba thrown in there just because I love it. Not that I don't love my weight training and my trainer, Sara. I do. I just know that I was successful doing that but was not being so successful in my personal life. Kyle is home alone all the time. I work 12+ hours and go to the gym, get home after 10pm and shower and go right back to bed and get up at 4:30 for the next work day. We barely saw each other and he was getting the short end of the stick and that just wasn't fair. It is important to me to continue to lose weight and be healthy but it's also even more important to me to find a balance and that's what the next 8 weeks are about for me. Getting done what I need to and being able to finish these 26.2 miles without dying and maintaining my weight (198.4 on race morning) til then. If I continue to lose and hit my 50 pound mark, great. I will indeed get my tattoo and celebrate that huge accomplishment. As long as I am able to maintain, even better. My end goals have not changed but my short term "what is more important" focus has just a bit. I will continue to work with Sara but am putting marathoning and being a better girlfriend/sister/daughter up higher on the list than working out/running/Lindsay then everything else.
As always I cannot express my gratitude for the overwhelming support I have received. I am forever grateful.
On another note... tonight is my first night on my own out of orientation at work. I'm officially a solo flying ICU nurse!
L
I had been thinking over the last several weeks what it would feel like. I couldn't recall exactly when I last saw a 1 to start my weight but I remember as a sophomore in high school being 175 and feeling fat and upset about it. Next thing I remember is being a college freshman in 2005 weighing in somewhere between 215-220. I don't really know when I tipped the next manual scale bar over to the 200 mark but even if it was sometime in 2005 that means it's been at least 8 years.
I was home by myself that morning as Kyle had already left for work so I had to settle for turning on some booty-shaking music and dancing with Penny (the dog) in the living room. I. Had. Done. It. I was elated... over the moon even. I had so many positive "likes" and comments between my Facebook Training Lindsay page and Instagram that I didn't know what to do with myself. So many others who had done the same thing as me or wanting so desperately to get there as I had looking at me as inspiration. Me. The thought of that alone was overwhelming. I sobbed over my protein shake between drinks and felt this great catharsis of emotion come out. The last several months and all the pain, sweat and time put into all of this had paid off.
Knowing I was just shy of my 50 pound loss that I've promised myself a tattoo for, I was getting excited about that. Looking around for names and places locally to get my ink done was the next task. I started losing my excitement about the whole Onederland business and feeling kind of empty about it. Okay. I'm here. I know this isn't my end goal but... but.... I sort of lost momentum. I ate mostly by plan, kept my macros together and fought a really yucky blister and some plantar fasciitis the rest of the week. I was scared for the weekend's half marathon because my foot was aching. I worked Wednesday and Thursday nights and I was running around like a crazy person and I was limping out of the hospital Friday morning. Oh crap. I didn't do my 4 mile run Thursday needing the rest, I went to bed Friday morning, got up at 1:15 for a hair appointment for a cut at 2pm and met Kyle at home after. He got a quick nap in and then we headed out for my cheat meal of pizza and a Redbox movie to bring home. I scarfed down that pizza and fell asleep 45 minutes into Life of Pi (what I saw was really good and Kyle liked it a lot - I'll have to try again!) and woke up at 8pm when it was over and went straight to bed. On a Friday night.
I slept in total 14 hours. I was going to get a Zumba class in Saturday morning before I drove to Columbus for my favorite bride-to-be, Amanda's, shower that we were throwing for her. I didn't do it as my foot was still a little sore and decided to just sleep til 8 and go from there. The shower was beautiful thanks to Miss Karley and I stopped by the Columbus Running Company on my way out of town to look into something for the blister that just wouldn't quit. I ended up with Injinji toe socks to wear for the half Sunday to see if that would help my cause. I drove home, Kyle had made my usual pasta dinner before a race meal to go along with my cupcake and fruit I had at the shower. Or maybe to go with the chicken fingers I had on the way. Or the Frosty on the ride home. NO GOOD. Saturday was a terrible food day. I didn't have to make those choices. I did them and I'm owning up to it. I felt cute in a dress I picked up from Target on the way (I was going to be severely underdressed for the occasion otherwise) and got so many gracious complements on how I was looking and how cute the dress was but I was cringing knowing what I had just eaten. Yes, I've spent this entire year working very hard. But, I was feeling lousy and mad at myself for going so far off track that whole day I could hardly accept the nice things people were saying. I've been having a few extra carbs the day or two before my long runs but it was just plain overboard. Carrie showed up late Saturday night and we kind of went over race day plans and called it a night.
I kept waking up Sunday morning like those nights before clinicals in school when you knew you just couldn't be late. I had literally just run this distance the week before but I think a crowd and the medal and the finish line were psyching me up a little. We didn't get our packets picked up Saturday so we were getting them the morning of the race. I was out of bed at 5AM and we weren't running til 7:30 and somehow I was starving after the previous days binge. I have found that not eating anything is best for me when I do my long runs but I decided I had enough time to eat a rice cake with peanut butter to hold me over. We got ready and headed out around 6:20.
This race, the Little Miami Half Marathon and 10K had greatly increased in numbers from the previous year and I was worried about parking because the pre-race information said we would just be parking in the neighborhood around the race site. The course was a small loop through town then out and back on the Little Miami bike path. There were probably 600-700 people between the two events I would guess and not enough bathrooms at the start. A small band was playing some music and there was a decent line for packet pick up. We were in that line and I reeeeeally needed to pee and the lines for the bathroom were getting longer and longer as we waited. When we got our stuff I told Carrie I'd take our extra stuff to the car so I could grab my fuel belt and iPhone arm band(I saw Kendra on the way and I got a great big hug! yay!) and couldn't wait anymore once I got there. We parked at a school and the parking lot backed up to some trees and I looked around, made sure no one was watching, and in true runner form I just did my business behind a random strangers car. Great. So that's taken care of, I meet Carrie back in the bathroom line and she was almost to the front so I got in with her and just went again for good measure. I met another Instagrammer - Kelly in the bathroom of all places and that was another thing I really wanted to do yesterday so I was super glad we met!
Carrie and I headed down a few blocks to the starting area and Kendra met us there since we were the only other people she knew which was fine with me. We chatted a bit waiting for the start and then off we went. I knew she ran a lot faster than me and warned her of that and wished her a good race. Carrie and I started off strong with our first mile at 11:52. I was in the 11 min/mile range for 4 of the miles with 11:38 being my best. Around mile 6 we FINALLY saw a port-a-potty and I had to make a quick pit stop. Fuel belt on, fuel belt off and getting back on the trail cost me some time. Last week I could pause the time when I went in for my potty break but not this week! When my heart rate goes up to 180 I know I need to slow down so we took 2 brief walking breaks to slow my rate back down between miles 6-8. Still kept a good pace and overall I'd say we only walked a half of a mile in total between the two. Miles 8 and on I ran the whole way. Carrie convinced me to slow my pace down a bit, not worry about my finish time but more about finishing strong and running instead of this crazy "run til my heart rate is too high so then I have to walk" business. I was frustrated by it but knew she was right. As usual. We finished with our last few miles right around 13:00 min/miles but I finished as a runner and that's what was more important. I was 3 minutes off my PR time from the previous week but I did more walking than this time so I still consider it a victory. My friend Jenn that I work with who herself has lost 130 pounds and is a marathon runner saw us at the beginning (it's her normal trail she runs on and there just so happened to be a race this weekend too so she just did her thing and ran with us part of the way) and waited for me and my crazy pants at the end. She's one of my biggest cheerleaders in all of this and it was so awesome of her to hang out. Along the way I got a sweaty high 5 from Kendra and one from Kelly as well. It was Kelly's first half and she was cruising! I was so proud of her! We'll be seeing each other again in Columbus in 8 short weeks so I'm excited for that! I felt even better knowing especially since we slowed our pace down that I could finish strong and even moreso that I felt like I could have kept going.
Overall the race was good. The bike path was pretty shady and cool. There were ample water stations but I'm still glad I wore my fuel belt to carry my wafers in to munch on since they gave out GU at mile 7 and I don't really like that stuff. The finish had a few muffins and cookies, warm bottles of water and the big coolers of Gatorade but I was starving so we just got out of there.
We came back home and got ourselves together and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and I again didn't make awesome choices but I had just burned 2500 calories and ended up burning 4930 for the day according to my Body Media. After lunch we tried to nap but I just couldn't sleep. We ended up spending the evening with my sister and brother-in-law and our niece and nephew. Love, love, love them. We went to a park to play and grilled out for dinner on the patio.
Overall there will be some changes I'm making as I continue with only 8 weeks to go til the main event - my birthday! Just kidding, kind of :)
I'm not going to be following my meal plan. I think I have learned a TON about nutrition and what I need to be successful as far as nutrition goes with losing weight and where my macros need to be in doing that. That being said, I also am realizing what I need to fuel myself for these ever increasing miles I'm putting in as we go through these last 8 weeks of training. I will be incorporating healthy choices with some increased carbs and going from there. I am also going to be reducing my weight training and sticking mainly to my running schedule with a day of cross training and maybe some Zumba thrown in there just because I love it. Not that I don't love my weight training and my trainer, Sara. I do. I just know that I was successful doing that but was not being so successful in my personal life. Kyle is home alone all the time. I work 12+ hours and go to the gym, get home after 10pm and shower and go right back to bed and get up at 4:30 for the next work day. We barely saw each other and he was getting the short end of the stick and that just wasn't fair. It is important to me to continue to lose weight and be healthy but it's also even more important to me to find a balance and that's what the next 8 weeks are about for me. Getting done what I need to and being able to finish these 26.2 miles without dying and maintaining my weight (198.4 on race morning) til then. If I continue to lose and hit my 50 pound mark, great. I will indeed get my tattoo and celebrate that huge accomplishment. As long as I am able to maintain, even better. My end goals have not changed but my short term "what is more important" focus has just a bit. I will continue to work with Sara but am putting marathoning and being a better girlfriend/sister/daughter up higher on the list than working out/running/Lindsay then everything else.
As always I cannot express my gratitude for the overwhelming support I have received. I am forever grateful.
On another note... tonight is my first night on my own out of orientation at work. I'm officially a solo flying ICU nurse!
L
Sunday, August 11, 2013
One half down, another half to go. Virtual 1/2 marathon race recap!
Disclaimer: this post started out simply to talk about this weekends half marathon and turned into a 2 year belated race recap of my first half marathon as well. Funny how things have changed.
October 16th, 2011 I started and somehow finished my first half marathon. I had trained to do a timed walk/run over the course of a few months with Kyle's sister, Carrie. She talked me into the whole thing so you bet I was counting on her to get me through. I had gotten a new pair of running shoes and she convinced me the way to go was to sign up through a training group. A local running store - Front Runner - had a Sunday morning group and she said she was told it was good for beginners and they even had a walk/run pace group. Awesome. I told her I'd go and she said she'd drive.
She picked me up that Saturday morning and I had no idea what to expect. We were going to check it out before we paid to sign up and I was okay with testing the water that way. What was a running group going to be like? Crazy people who run 5 minute miles and do marathons probably every other weekend with 10K's during the week. That's what I thought anyway. I was glad to see a mixture of people coming to the group and they were kind of explaining how things would work and pace groups. We thought we'd try the 13 minute mile group - sounded easy enough to me.
Woah - wait. I forgot to ask how many mile(s) we were supposed to go. I hadn't been too active in awhile. I could walk for a good amount of time but I was committing to a pace group and I didn't know how this would go. OH, and the answer to my question was that the half marathoners were going 4 MILES. ON THE FIRST DAY. Oh my gosh. I was going to die.
"Suck it up, buttercup" is what I told myself as we set off. We made it about 0.1 miles before I was huffing and puffing and it was obvious we needed to fall back to the walk/run group if I had a chance of surviving this. Soon after we did it was obvious that we had fallen behind the group. Kicking and pouting and huffing and puffing, I finished those 4 miles and I didn't want to go back ever again.
Carrie convinced me she'd help me along the way and that I could do this. I got a gym membership and worked out with her a few times a week either there or at a trail/park area near her house. I hated every second and celebrated every workout with Chipotle or Dairy Queen or Taco Bell. I deserved that much for working so hard, right?
Weeks came and went. We kept showing up and she kept being my #1 cheerleader and pushing me through the miles. When I found out about a month from the half that she was going to be gone on a 3 week belated honeymoon I was not happy for me but super pumped for her trip, it sounded amazing! Panic immediately set in and I didn't know how I was going to cross that finish line alone. I was freaking out but luckily a friend from nursing school, Tiffany, said she had signed up as a run/walker too and we'd be race buddies. I was so relieved! I hadn't been training with her and I hoped I wasn't going to hold her back because there were so many times I wanted to quit and I walked even when Carrie said to run. I struggled through every mile of those training weekends. Tiffany and I did a walk or two together before race day and I thought everything would go smoothly with us as a team out there because we were going the same pace and at that point just wanted to finish.
Race day came and Tiffany and I met up and set out for the start line. We took photos with the running group and got our 13.1 stickers out for a picture too. Two days prior I had finished my last day of my first nursing job and I was going to be moving to Cincinnati the next week on my birthday. That same last day of work was the day I got my genetic test results telling me I did not have Huntington's Disease. It was a huge week for a heck of a lot of reasons and I felt good going into the race. I had a shirt made that said "Doin' it for Dad" on the front and "Ask me about HD" on the back since I was fundraising for the Huntington's Disease Society of America for this event too. You can't back out if people have given you money to do it! We set off at the start of the race and the adrenaline was flowing. Our run portions were pretty fast, faster than I was used to and I was tiring out well before our walk periods. I didn't train drinking too much water and definitely not with Gatorade so when I drank at every water stop along the way it was no wonder I felt miserably sick just after the 6 mile marker and told Tiffany I needed to walk the rest of the way. I was dizzy and thought I was going to pass out. I kept moving my feet and knew we were about half way done and I just wanted to finish what we had started. I told her to keep going without me but she didn't and to this day I'm so thankful for that because I might honestly have quit going right then and there. I never said it - but thank you for staying with me, Tiffany. I thought I was the stronger one going into the race and I was wrong and was more than glad you were there with me the whole time.
We finally finished in around 3 hours and 30 minutes. I saw Kyle at the 13 mile marker and just about broke down in tears. I get very emotional crossing the finish line and the closer I got the more people I had yelling my name from seeing my race bib and my shirt and telling me how proud of me my dad would be. When they put the medal around my neck the tears were flowing and for a moment I was the most proud of myself I had ever been. Then, realizing I had stopped moving, my body went into freak out mode and all I wanted to do was sit or lay or something to get off my feet. I found Kyle and we had to walk up 2 sets of stairs and across the road on a skywalk to the car and I about had a melt down because I did not feel like I could move one more step. I finally got to the car and we went to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse (a tradition that continued after my second half) and went home for a well deserved shower and a nap. I distinctly remember telling him the moment we got in the car after the race - "I am NEVER doing that again." Two weeks later I registered for the Cincinnati Flying Pig half marathon that next May.
Moving on to almost 2 years later and 20 weeks into marathon training I was up for a 13 miler. I'm apart of several running and fitness groups on Facebook and through Scrambled Legs Running I signed up for a "virtual" half marathon. Virtual races are held for several different distances and you pay your entry fee and usually get a bib, race shirt and medal in the mail from the host of the event. Most all of the proceeds go to a charity and in this case it was the Wounded Warrior Project. I submitted my fundraiser for this marathon as an option for the donation and came in a close second to the WWP and it too is such a great cause. Even though sign ups for the race were still open for a few more days I figured I'd just use this training run as the perfect time to go ahead and do the extra 0.1 mile and call it a half.
I'm back on night shift now and thankfully was off Friday to get back on a pseudo day time schedule for Saturday because that's when I'd planned on doing my run. I worked Saturday night shift and knew today wouldn't be a great option. I've figured out over the last several weeks that I simply cannot eat before I run or else it's bathroom city within the first few miles and I just don't feel good at all while I'm out there. I forgot to do laundry when I woke up from my short sleep early Friday afternoon and we had gone to go see Planes and have a date night at Bravo for my cheat meal. We got home around 9 and I wanted to get back to bed so I could get up early and get my run in and have time for another good nap before working last night (my life is a series of naps when I work nights!). So, laundry situation averted by an old sports bra and a pair of Under Armor tights that I'd had but never actually fit into to wear before but I tried them on and - TA DA! - they fit perfectly. I had an outfit ready for the morning so I decided to get to bed. I'm realizing now I should fill up my Fuel Belt little water bottles and have whatever energy snacks I'm taking with me, keys, phone armband, headphones and sunglasses all laid out too but that never occured to me until it was taking me 40 minutes to get out the door. I forgot my gum and sunglasses but finally got started around 6:20AM after a short video to let you all know I was out there kicking butt :) Next week - be more prepared both with laundry and with race "gear".
The sun had just started to come up, it was 68 degrees with 98% humidity and I thought I was going to dehydrate from sweating so much by the time I was 5 steps out of my apartment building. I hit Start on my RunKeeper app (making sure to turn off the screen on my phone because I learned the hard way the previous week when my battery died RIGHT when I got home), start on my heart rate monitor and felt that my Slam had kicked in and I was on the move.
I went my typical route for my long runs - out the back of the apartment complex, through the housing development to the main road, down to the end of the main road thats by the front of my apartment, and back the other way down the hill, UP the hill and through another neighborhood. That neighborhood takes me to a roundabout that I go straight through and I dead end into the town of Mason where I make a left hand turn. I follow the main street until I hit route 42, 42 to Tylersville Rd and down it until it's time to turn around at the halfway point. It's a lot easier for me to say to myself "just go 6.5 miles" then "okay.. just make it back home!" It keeps it from seeming so crazy far if I can break it up. My RunKeeper app updates me every 5 minutes as to how many minutes I've been going, my distance and average pace. It comes in over my music and it keeps me where I want to be. I was running through the second neighborhood mentioned and a guy passed me, then down Tylersville he passed me again and I lost him for a bit. When I had turned around after about 10 minutes here he comes again passing me. Where had he gone and where the heck was he going?! This guy was fast! He waved every time and it was kind of funny by that last time. It's also a big deal to me to wave and say "good morning!" to everyone I come across because I couldn't do that while training for that first half marathon 2 years ago. I hated everyone running around me all fast and peppy while I'm struggling to get a single breath let alone be able to say anything at all to anyone.
The first several miles I was cruising. I didn't want to start too fast and get tired but my legs wanted to go a certain speed and I decided to let them. My goal pace for race day as I've said before is 12:30-13:00 minutes/mile. I ran 4 of my miles in the 11:00 min/mile range and my average pace going into mile 8 was right at 12:00 minutes/mile. I was so pumped! I felt great! I knew I was beating my 3 hour goal by a landslide so I started eating my sport beans then to save a bit of energy and gather a bit more to finish strong. I had had a vanilla honey stinger gel around mile 5 (an hour in) and kept my pace after that so I was pleased. Not my favorite form of energy but it worked. The sport beans were good but they took me awhile to get down and required a lot of water because they were super sweet tasting. I ran after I got those down until I got to the big hill about a mile from home. This thing is pretty big and I hate it. I love running down it at the beginning of my run to get good momentum for the smaller hill after that I always make myself run up. That smaller hill is the same hill that I fell down in week 2 and hurt myself. I'm always very hyper aware on that hill going up and down and I even pause my music and just 100% focus on my steps and where my feet are because I'm still pretty terrified of that spot. After I got up the big hill and got my heart rate back down I finished with a slower jog until I hit that glorious 13.1 mark on my phone. I had done it. I felt amazing the whole time and I felt even more ready for next weeks Little Miami Half Marathon about 20 minutes east of where we live just past Kings Island. It's on the bike path that's supposed to be "fast and flat" so I hope for an even better time than the 2:43 time I got this weekend. I am determined to beat that time! Carrie is finally joining me in my half this time around and she's even just recently told me she's doing the full in Columbus too! It'll be her 5th full marathon and I think that's pretty awesome.
Overall, this weekend's half was 200% better than my first. I didn't feel like I was going to die. I didn't say "I never want to do this again" at the end. Heck, I even worked a 12 hour shift after I did it! I'll admit that it wasn't my best or most productive shift but everything worked out. I've got 2 other virtual races in mind and one even benefits for Huntington's!
I've already ran 40 miles this month and we're only 1/3 of the way through - this is crazy! I got a new meal plan and new workouts from my awesome trainer and I am ONE POUND away from Onederland. This will be my week. I will crush this half and I will make it to Onederland.
I also got my own Facebook page called Training Lindsay and I've got over 100 fans already! When I hit 200 I'm doing an Advocare Spark and Slam giveaway - so stay tuned.
As always, I cannot thank you all enough for your never ending love and support of me and this process/journey that I have been working so hard towards. Here's to another week and another race report next weekend! Have an amazing week!
L
October 16th, 2011 I started and somehow finished my first half marathon. I had trained to do a timed walk/run over the course of a few months with Kyle's sister, Carrie. She talked me into the whole thing so you bet I was counting on her to get me through. I had gotten a new pair of running shoes and she convinced me the way to go was to sign up through a training group. A local running store - Front Runner - had a Sunday morning group and she said she was told it was good for beginners and they even had a walk/run pace group. Awesome. I told her I'd go and she said she'd drive.
She picked me up that Saturday morning and I had no idea what to expect. We were going to check it out before we paid to sign up and I was okay with testing the water that way. What was a running group going to be like? Crazy people who run 5 minute miles and do marathons probably every other weekend with 10K's during the week. That's what I thought anyway. I was glad to see a mixture of people coming to the group and they were kind of explaining how things would work and pace groups. We thought we'd try the 13 minute mile group - sounded easy enough to me.
Woah - wait. I forgot to ask how many mile(s) we were supposed to go. I hadn't been too active in awhile. I could walk for a good amount of time but I was committing to a pace group and I didn't know how this would go. OH, and the answer to my question was that the half marathoners were going 4 MILES. ON THE FIRST DAY. Oh my gosh. I was going to die.
"Suck it up, buttercup" is what I told myself as we set off. We made it about 0.1 miles before I was huffing and puffing and it was obvious we needed to fall back to the walk/run group if I had a chance of surviving this. Soon after we did it was obvious that we had fallen behind the group. Kicking and pouting and huffing and puffing, I finished those 4 miles and I didn't want to go back ever again.
Carrie convinced me she'd help me along the way and that I could do this. I got a gym membership and worked out with her a few times a week either there or at a trail/park area near her house. I hated every second and celebrated every workout with Chipotle or Dairy Queen or Taco Bell. I deserved that much for working so hard, right?
Weeks came and went. We kept showing up and she kept being my #1 cheerleader and pushing me through the miles. When I found out about a month from the half that she was going to be gone on a 3 week belated honeymoon I was not happy for me but super pumped for her trip, it sounded amazing! Panic immediately set in and I didn't know how I was going to cross that finish line alone. I was freaking out but luckily a friend from nursing school, Tiffany, said she had signed up as a run/walker too and we'd be race buddies. I was so relieved! I hadn't been training with her and I hoped I wasn't going to hold her back because there were so many times I wanted to quit and I walked even when Carrie said to run. I struggled through every mile of those training weekends. Tiffany and I did a walk or two together before race day and I thought everything would go smoothly with us as a team out there because we were going the same pace and at that point just wanted to finish.
Race day came and Tiffany and I met up and set out for the start line. We took photos with the running group and got our 13.1 stickers out for a picture too. Two days prior I had finished my last day of my first nursing job and I was going to be moving to Cincinnati the next week on my birthday. That same last day of work was the day I got my genetic test results telling me I did not have Huntington's Disease. It was a huge week for a heck of a lot of reasons and I felt good going into the race. I had a shirt made that said "Doin' it for Dad" on the front and "Ask me about HD" on the back since I was fundraising for the Huntington's Disease Society of America for this event too. You can't back out if people have given you money to do it! We set off at the start of the race and the adrenaline was flowing. Our run portions were pretty fast, faster than I was used to and I was tiring out well before our walk periods. I didn't train drinking too much water and definitely not with Gatorade so when I drank at every water stop along the way it was no wonder I felt miserably sick just after the 6 mile marker and told Tiffany I needed to walk the rest of the way. I was dizzy and thought I was going to pass out. I kept moving my feet and knew we were about half way done and I just wanted to finish what we had started. I told her to keep going without me but she didn't and to this day I'm so thankful for that because I might honestly have quit going right then and there. I never said it - but thank you for staying with me, Tiffany. I thought I was the stronger one going into the race and I was wrong and was more than glad you were there with me the whole time.
We finally finished in around 3 hours and 30 minutes. I saw Kyle at the 13 mile marker and just about broke down in tears. I get very emotional crossing the finish line and the closer I got the more people I had yelling my name from seeing my race bib and my shirt and telling me how proud of me my dad would be. When they put the medal around my neck the tears were flowing and for a moment I was the most proud of myself I had ever been. Then, realizing I had stopped moving, my body went into freak out mode and all I wanted to do was sit or lay or something to get off my feet. I found Kyle and we had to walk up 2 sets of stairs and across the road on a skywalk to the car and I about had a melt down because I did not feel like I could move one more step. I finally got to the car and we went to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse (a tradition that continued after my second half) and went home for a well deserved shower and a nap. I distinctly remember telling him the moment we got in the car after the race - "I am NEVER doing that again." Two weeks later I registered for the Cincinnati Flying Pig half marathon that next May.
Moving on to almost 2 years later and 20 weeks into marathon training I was up for a 13 miler. I'm apart of several running and fitness groups on Facebook and through Scrambled Legs Running I signed up for a "virtual" half marathon. Virtual races are held for several different distances and you pay your entry fee and usually get a bib, race shirt and medal in the mail from the host of the event. Most all of the proceeds go to a charity and in this case it was the Wounded Warrior Project. I submitted my fundraiser for this marathon as an option for the donation and came in a close second to the WWP and it too is such a great cause. Even though sign ups for the race were still open for a few more days I figured I'd just use this training run as the perfect time to go ahead and do the extra 0.1 mile and call it a half.
I'm back on night shift now and thankfully was off Friday to get back on a pseudo day time schedule for Saturday because that's when I'd planned on doing my run. I worked Saturday night shift and knew today wouldn't be a great option. I've figured out over the last several weeks that I simply cannot eat before I run or else it's bathroom city within the first few miles and I just don't feel good at all while I'm out there. I forgot to do laundry when I woke up from my short sleep early Friday afternoon and we had gone to go see Planes and have a date night at Bravo for my cheat meal. We got home around 9 and I wanted to get back to bed so I could get up early and get my run in and have time for another good nap before working last night (my life is a series of naps when I work nights!). So, laundry situation averted by an old sports bra and a pair of Under Armor tights that I'd had but never actually fit into to wear before but I tried them on and - TA DA! - they fit perfectly. I had an outfit ready for the morning so I decided to get to bed. I'm realizing now I should fill up my Fuel Belt little water bottles and have whatever energy snacks I'm taking with me, keys, phone armband, headphones and sunglasses all laid out too but that never occured to me until it was taking me 40 minutes to get out the door. I forgot my gum and sunglasses but finally got started around 6:20AM after a short video to let you all know I was out there kicking butt :) Next week - be more prepared both with laundry and with race "gear".
The sun had just started to come up, it was 68 degrees with 98% humidity and I thought I was going to dehydrate from sweating so much by the time I was 5 steps out of my apartment building. I hit Start on my RunKeeper app (making sure to turn off the screen on my phone because I learned the hard way the previous week when my battery died RIGHT when I got home), start on my heart rate monitor and felt that my Slam had kicked in and I was on the move.
I went my typical route for my long runs - out the back of the apartment complex, through the housing development to the main road, down to the end of the main road thats by the front of my apartment, and back the other way down the hill, UP the hill and through another neighborhood. That neighborhood takes me to a roundabout that I go straight through and I dead end into the town of Mason where I make a left hand turn. I follow the main street until I hit route 42, 42 to Tylersville Rd and down it until it's time to turn around at the halfway point. It's a lot easier for me to say to myself "just go 6.5 miles" then "okay.. just make it back home!" It keeps it from seeming so crazy far if I can break it up. My RunKeeper app updates me every 5 minutes as to how many minutes I've been going, my distance and average pace. It comes in over my music and it keeps me where I want to be. I was running through the second neighborhood mentioned and a guy passed me, then down Tylersville he passed me again and I lost him for a bit. When I had turned around after about 10 minutes here he comes again passing me. Where had he gone and where the heck was he going?! This guy was fast! He waved every time and it was kind of funny by that last time. It's also a big deal to me to wave and say "good morning!" to everyone I come across because I couldn't do that while training for that first half marathon 2 years ago. I hated everyone running around me all fast and peppy while I'm struggling to get a single breath let alone be able to say anything at all to anyone.
The first several miles I was cruising. I didn't want to start too fast and get tired but my legs wanted to go a certain speed and I decided to let them. My goal pace for race day as I've said before is 12:30-13:00 minutes/mile. I ran 4 of my miles in the 11:00 min/mile range and my average pace going into mile 8 was right at 12:00 minutes/mile. I was so pumped! I felt great! I knew I was beating my 3 hour goal by a landslide so I started eating my sport beans then to save a bit of energy and gather a bit more to finish strong. I had had a vanilla honey stinger gel around mile 5 (an hour in) and kept my pace after that so I was pleased. Not my favorite form of energy but it worked. The sport beans were good but they took me awhile to get down and required a lot of water because they were super sweet tasting. I ran after I got those down until I got to the big hill about a mile from home. This thing is pretty big and I hate it. I love running down it at the beginning of my run to get good momentum for the smaller hill after that I always make myself run up. That smaller hill is the same hill that I fell down in week 2 and hurt myself. I'm always very hyper aware on that hill going up and down and I even pause my music and just 100% focus on my steps and where my feet are because I'm still pretty terrified of that spot. After I got up the big hill and got my heart rate back down I finished with a slower jog until I hit that glorious 13.1 mark on my phone. I had done it. I felt amazing the whole time and I felt even more ready for next weeks Little Miami Half Marathon about 20 minutes east of where we live just past Kings Island. It's on the bike path that's supposed to be "fast and flat" so I hope for an even better time than the 2:43 time I got this weekend. I am determined to beat that time! Carrie is finally joining me in my half this time around and she's even just recently told me she's doing the full in Columbus too! It'll be her 5th full marathon and I think that's pretty awesome.
Overall, this weekend's half was 200% better than my first. I didn't feel like I was going to die. I didn't say "I never want to do this again" at the end. Heck, I even worked a 12 hour shift after I did it! I'll admit that it wasn't my best or most productive shift but everything worked out. I've got 2 other virtual races in mind and one even benefits for Huntington's!
I've already ran 40 miles this month and we're only 1/3 of the way through - this is crazy! I got a new meal plan and new workouts from my awesome trainer and I am ONE POUND away from Onederland. This will be my week. I will crush this half and I will make it to Onederland.
I also got my own Facebook page called Training Lindsay and I've got over 100 fans already! When I hit 200 I'm doing an Advocare Spark and Slam giveaway - so stay tuned.
As always, I cannot thank you all enough for your never ending love and support of me and this process/journey that I have been working so hard towards. Here's to another week and another race report next weekend! Have an amazing week!
L
Sunday, August 4, 2013
76 days, 16 hours, 51 minutes to go.
I can't believe I'm 2/3 of the way done with marathon training. It's been a long 5 months in some respects but in others it has flown by. I've started a new job, little brother has graduated, my niece and nephews are growing like weeds and I've lost a fairly significant amount of weight and hired a coach in the process.
I've learned so much about what I am capable of, how to properly feed my body what it needs in order for me to be the most successful and how much will power I didn't realize I had. I always said when I'd see someone be able to resist the piece of cake "boy, I wish I could do that. It's just sooo good!". Well, I'm that person now. I'm able to turn things down that I know aren't the best options. For goodness sakes, I ran 12 miles this morning! Who would have really thought 19 weeks ago that I was a) really going to follow through with this, and b) I would actually be running 90% of each weeks long run instead of my walk/run method I used before. Let me tell you, it's easier to run when you're 41 pounds lighter than you used to be. I attribute my increased pace per mile to a combination of obviously being more physically fit at this point and also to the weight loss. I have always had a lower resting heart rate but I was wearing my heart rate monitor before I left for the gym the other day and I happened to be wearing it and noticed my resting heart rate was in the high 40's. Pretty darn good.
I had a good week of work and saw some truly incredible things happen this week. I obviously cannot share what all happened but lets just say I have always believed in miracles and I saw a few this week. I work with some incredibly talented people and I'm so proud of what we/I do. I go back to night shift this week and I have 3 more weeks of orientation and then I'm on my own. Yikes. I'm scared, which I should be, but I definitely feel more confident than I did when I started. My preceptor, Emily, is amazing and a wonderful resource. She's so smart and I'm so glad we've gotten to work so closely together. I'm a better nurse because she taught me to be.
I had a great day yesterday driving to Marion (for the first time since I've graduated) and seeing friends for Kylynne's baby shower! I'm so excited for baby Brek/Breck when he arrives! I'm hoping he makes his arrival on my birthday - that's my guess! I went to Marysville to spend some time with Jody and her extended side of the family. I got so many complements on how well I was doing from people I hardly see but are still family. I had a nice time and made good food choices while I was there. I was driving through the teeny town of Milford Center when I was on my way to Marion and I randomly see my grandmother and great aunt pull into the town's single gas station and I whip around and pull up beside them. They were lost and I got to give hugs and point them in the right direction. It was the strangest thing but everything works out for a reason.
This week and next I'm running two half marathons and after today's 2 hour and 32 minute 12 miler I am confident that I can finish my half's in less than 3 hours by a long shot. Next week's is a virtual race and the week after is the Little Miami 10k/Half marathon that goes out and back (my favorite) on a paved, shaded bike path that I've never run before so that should be good to change up the scenery a bit. That will definitely PR me because my previous two half's I walked most of it and finished around 3 hours and 30 minutes for both. I set 3 hours as my goal for being more prepared. Today's run was great - I did not have stomach troubles for the first time (I had a few extra carbs the past 2 days and got up and had a small glass of water with my Slam and out the door I went. I tried the Honey Stinger chocolate waffles that I broke into small pieces after an hour and every 30 minutes after that with some water and I did great). I ran up a hill past someone and powerwalked the last really big hill close to the house on the way home and passed someone power walking too. Carrie knows how it's a big deal when I pass people! I ran about 90% of the distance and I'm happy with that. I'm really more concerned about keeping my desired average race pace of 12:30-13:00 min/mile. I finished at 12:42 today and it's the best I've done in a few weeks on my longer runs. Even better because it was my very longest run!
I weighed in this morning but it was stupidly after my run so I know it was probably more due to dehydration than anything but I did get eeeeeeven closer to Onederland today. SO close in fact that I'm not keeping my hopes up and will wait a few days to recheck if what I saw was true. I lost a total of 14.4 pounds from July 1st to the 31st incorporating my meal plan and weight training to my running thanks to my amazing coach Sara. I'm so glad we found each other and I love the support I get from her and the other girls who are all apart of the team (hey Shelby!). I have to modify and throw a few things around in my training schedule to make sure I'm in a good place for all my runs and with my work schedule. I do the best of everything I can to get the most out of each weeks workouts and never go less than 100%. I'm feeling stronger, losing inches (my before and current pictures are insane - I won't share those here because I'm not one to put that out there but the day I feel confident enough to wear a bikini to the pool - I'll show you guys). It's reassuring that I'm not doing all this for nothing. It's reassuring that the one day a week cheat meal is worth it (and every bite of that cheat meal is so much better than it ever was before). I'm proud of how far I've come and I know these are baby steps towards the final product I'm working for. I'm forever a work in progress.
I've learned so much about what I am capable of, how to properly feed my body what it needs in order for me to be the most successful and how much will power I didn't realize I had. I always said when I'd see someone be able to resist the piece of cake "boy, I wish I could do that. It's just sooo good!". Well, I'm that person now. I'm able to turn things down that I know aren't the best options. For goodness sakes, I ran 12 miles this morning! Who would have really thought 19 weeks ago that I was a) really going to follow through with this, and b) I would actually be running 90% of each weeks long run instead of my walk/run method I used before. Let me tell you, it's easier to run when you're 41 pounds lighter than you used to be. I attribute my increased pace per mile to a combination of obviously being more physically fit at this point and also to the weight loss. I have always had a lower resting heart rate but I was wearing my heart rate monitor before I left for the gym the other day and I happened to be wearing it and noticed my resting heart rate was in the high 40's. Pretty darn good.
I had a good week of work and saw some truly incredible things happen this week. I obviously cannot share what all happened but lets just say I have always believed in miracles and I saw a few this week. I work with some incredibly talented people and I'm so proud of what we/I do. I go back to night shift this week and I have 3 more weeks of orientation and then I'm on my own. Yikes. I'm scared, which I should be, but I definitely feel more confident than I did when I started. My preceptor, Emily, is amazing and a wonderful resource. She's so smart and I'm so glad we've gotten to work so closely together. I'm a better nurse because she taught me to be.
I had a great day yesterday driving to Marion (for the first time since I've graduated) and seeing friends for Kylynne's baby shower! I'm so excited for baby Brek/Breck when he arrives! I'm hoping he makes his arrival on my birthday - that's my guess! I went to Marysville to spend some time with Jody and her extended side of the family. I got so many complements on how well I was doing from people I hardly see but are still family. I had a nice time and made good food choices while I was there. I was driving through the teeny town of Milford Center when I was on my way to Marion and I randomly see my grandmother and great aunt pull into the town's single gas station and I whip around and pull up beside them. They were lost and I got to give hugs and point them in the right direction. It was the strangest thing but everything works out for a reason.
This week and next I'm running two half marathons and after today's 2 hour and 32 minute 12 miler I am confident that I can finish my half's in less than 3 hours by a long shot. Next week's is a virtual race and the week after is the Little Miami 10k/Half marathon that goes out and back (my favorite) on a paved, shaded bike path that I've never run before so that should be good to change up the scenery a bit. That will definitely PR me because my previous two half's I walked most of it and finished around 3 hours and 30 minutes for both. I set 3 hours as my goal for being more prepared. Today's run was great - I did not have stomach troubles for the first time (I had a few extra carbs the past 2 days and got up and had a small glass of water with my Slam and out the door I went. I tried the Honey Stinger chocolate waffles that I broke into small pieces after an hour and every 30 minutes after that with some water and I did great). I ran up a hill past someone and powerwalked the last really big hill close to the house on the way home and passed someone power walking too. Carrie knows how it's a big deal when I pass people! I ran about 90% of the distance and I'm happy with that. I'm really more concerned about keeping my desired average race pace of 12:30-13:00 min/mile. I finished at 12:42 today and it's the best I've done in a few weeks on my longer runs. Even better because it was my very longest run!
I weighed in this morning but it was stupidly after my run so I know it was probably more due to dehydration than anything but I did get eeeeeeven closer to Onederland today. SO close in fact that I'm not keeping my hopes up and will wait a few days to recheck if what I saw was true. I lost a total of 14.4 pounds from July 1st to the 31st incorporating my meal plan and weight training to my running thanks to my amazing coach Sara. I'm so glad we found each other and I love the support I get from her and the other girls who are all apart of the team (hey Shelby!). I have to modify and throw a few things around in my training schedule to make sure I'm in a good place for all my runs and with my work schedule. I do the best of everything I can to get the most out of each weeks workouts and never go less than 100%. I'm feeling stronger, losing inches (my before and current pictures are insane - I won't share those here because I'm not one to put that out there but the day I feel confident enough to wear a bikini to the pool - I'll show you guys). It's reassuring that I'm not doing all this for nothing. It's reassuring that the one day a week cheat meal is worth it (and every bite of that cheat meal is so much better than it ever was before). I'm proud of how far I've come and I know these are baby steps towards the final product I'm working for. I'm forever a work in progress.
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