Inspiration

What inspires you to run?

I have lots of inspirations. 

One of the things that inspires me is my memory of how healthy and great I felt as I was training for my half marathon right before I had my third child. I was like 5 pounds from my goal weight, had lots of energy, and had no clothes in my closet I couldn't fit into. *Sigh* That was the life

I also am inspired, or maybe driven, by wanting to be an example to my kids. If they've got my genes they definitely need to learn to embrace exercise because being naturally skinny does not happen here.

A big inspiration for me lately has been a friend of mine from college. I haven't spoken to her in 10+ years but have followed her on her blog and admired her determination. When I first found her blog a few years ago, I just admired her fitness level after having twins and then a third child less that 2 years later and looking great, you have to respect that! Then one of her twins was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, was treated aggressively for a about a year, then passed away. At the time he was diagnosed she was training and qualifying for the Boston marathon. She put the actual race on hold, but continued to train and was able to run it this year, 6 months after she lost her son. The Oregonian did a story about her and I really was inspired by her talking about being exhausted from being up all night caring for her sweet sick boy, then still going for her runs early in the morning. Because she was going to be beat anyway, so why not just run?

Wow.

I want that kind of control and motivation. If she didn't use the excuse of her son being so ill, none of my excuses are valid at all!

So I'm still pushing through and drawing on these inspirations to help me keep going. I'm planning on doing a local 5K on May 11th and will  look forward to running that hopefully with my husband and 11 year old son!

Outside at last!

I had my first outdoor run of 2013! It was great to get out in the sun, smell the cows, and have them stare at me creepily while I ran by. We recently moved to a more rural spot, so I am really in the country now. I love it! I think I have secretly been a country/farm girl deep down for my whole life.

Anyway, back to the running. I started off great, no endurance issues at all! Then I hit the half way point, turned around, and realized I had been running at a slight decline the whole time. Which turned into a HUGE incline on the way back. Well...not huge, but I sure felt it! I also was contending with southern Idaho's ever present wind. Still, it was great and I enjoyed it very much.

I have a little tip to share! Maybe you already do this, but I have started running with a half a piece of gum and I am hooked. It keeps my mouth from feeling dry and (obviously) tastes great! 

I am looking for my first 5K of the year, can't wait to get back into the swing of things!

Starting over...again

Do you ever feel like your whole life is a series of restarts? I am constantly recommitting myself to get in better shape, eat better, be a better mother, be more organized, be more consistent with church goals, the  list goes on and on!

I achieved my goal of running a 5K, then just kind of tapered off and got distracted and lost the endurance I had built up. (insert palm to forehead here)

Boo! So here I am again, recommitting myself to getting my distance running going. Part of my lack of running was caused by winter and getting sidetracked in a Zumba class (which I actually loved until my teacher moved!). 

Now I'm back at it...again! I'm on the treadmill at the gym since it's still too cold in the mornings to run here and I can't go later until my older kids get out of school for the summer.

I am now on week 6 of the couch to 5K app that I used last time. I'm feeling pretty good, but I know once I start outside again it will be an adjustment. 

I keep reminding myself of this:

 

and I will keep plugging away!

5K...check!

I finished the 5K! Whew! I had a few snafus, but pushed through and had a great run.

Here's the low down:

Snafu #1: My family was supposed to see me off and was late!

I was expecting this big group consisting of my sweet hubby, my 5 kids, my mom visiting from AZ, and my step brother sending me off with cheers and encouragement, snapping pictures and in general celebrating my awesomeness for taking on this challenge. What actually happened was I ended up leaving by myself for the race since no one was ready to go yet, then starting alone and my husband drove into a parking lot about 1/4 of a mile along the trail and snapping some pictures. Eh, not too big of a deal,  the end is the exciting part, right?

Snafu #2: Pandora would not work on my phone. "What?" you say..."Problems with Pandora? That's crazy!" Oh wait, it's not crazy and it happens to me all the time. I guess I should be a little diplomatic, it could have been my phone. Either way, NO music! Ouch.

Snafu #3: My family was not at the finish! That was kind of a let down, but I was so excited to finish it didn't bother me. I ran faster than I thought and so they thought they had about 5 more minute to wrestle kids into car seats and what not, but me being the speed demon that I am, they missed it. No sweat, we reenacted the finish for a pic and had our oranges and yogurt.

Now for the great part: the run! I felt at a good pace pretty much the whole time and not having music didn't cripple me as much as I thought it would. The race started at a little park, then went down a very steep long ramp into a beautiful canyon, then turned around to come back up the evil ramp and finish where we began. I walked for a minute down in the canyon and for sure up that crazy ramp. But I finished strong and my time was 40 minutes and 19 seconds, 67th place. Yay! The scenery was gorgeous, following a lazy river and it was overall a great experience. I have taken a little running break to do a step class, but I am excited to get back to running and improving my time!

2 days out!

I am now 2 days away from my first official 5K as I try to get back into real running shape. Whew, I am nervous! I decided I should do a little test run today. I finished all 9 weeks of my couch 2 5K program, but that gets you running 30 minutes and doesn't really keep track of distance, so I wanted to run a course I knew was 3 miles. It went pretty well. My 10 year old son followed me a bit on his bike. And by follow I mean rode in circles around me, went far ahead and came back, lagged behind to try and feed some cows, you know, the usual. Except for some Pandora problems (explicit lyrics just should not be on there!) it went very smoothly. And I got to absorb this view the whole time:

You can't ask for more than that! For some reason, scenery plays a big part in my enjoyment of running. Lucky for me I LOVE pastoral farm sights, so I obviously live in just the right place. :)

 My legs were having some endurance issues, so I may have taken this photo op to camoflage needed a teeny rest...but I ran again after and finished strong!

(the poor calves my son tried to feed grass but just scared the heck out of)

I am all registered and feel pretty ready for the run. My fam is coming to cheer me on and that is a great motivator for me. I defninitely want my kids seeing me do hard things and finish them.

I won't be first, but I will finish!

Venting (or whining...)

My runs have been getting way harder lately and it's getting difficult to not be discouraged. I am running outside exclusively and it is so SO different from treadmill running. Why did this not occur to me before? Duh! But I have not given up and I am still planning on my June 2nd 5K. I think sometimes we all just get into a self sabotaging frame of mind and set ourselves up to fail. At least I do! Here's a good example.

Today I put my run off till lunch time on THE hottest day of the year so far! It was 90 degrees today in lovely southern Idaho, and instead of taking my camelback like a smart person, I ate a Yakisoba (aka 25 lbs of salt shoved into one bowl of noodles) for BREAKFAST and decided 30 minutes wasn't that long and I didn't need water. Hello! Salt...heat...thirst...this is not rocket science.

I started of pretty well, even on the inclines, then my mouth became a dry, pasty pit of thirst and I really felt how hot it was getting. I still was plowing through until I started getting dizzy and since I was running in a rural area on the side of the road with no sidewalk, I decided passing out on the road was a bad idea. So I kept walking, then running again, repeat for the last 10 minutes.

Lesson learned: you can't have a good run unless you prepare for a good run.

Here are the things I need to do to have a good run:

1. Go to sleep at a decent time

2. Eat for fuel, THINK about what I am eating and how it will effect my workout

3. Plan for the temp! If it's going to be hot go in the AM

4. Water, when in doubt bring some

There you have it.   

As an update to my sugar challenge, I feel like some sort of traitor but I am not noticing a huge difference! We'll see if that changes...

To sugar or not to sugar, that is the question

Running is, of course, only one side of my trying to be healthy and lose weight. Eating, in my case, has a much bigger effect on my body than exercise. I have gained weight in the past while going to the gym every day just because I haven't kept track of my eating. Currently I am rocking my c25k thang, but my eating...not so much. I go to weight watchers and am a semi good tracker, but I need a little kick in the tush. So when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join in a 10 days with no sugar challenge I readily said, "Count me in!"

Then later that day I went to the store and bought chocolate chips.

Oops.

I will save them for after the challenge.

Buying them kind of made me realize how much sugar is a part of my daily life. I don't even think about it. Not so healthy. So I look forward to avoiding it and gaining a little self awareness. 

I was also thinking about how this might effect my running. I have heard that sugar is a big cause of muscle and joint pain so I plan on paying very close attention to how I feel these next 10 days and maybe making this permanent. Well...not permanent because I'm not crazy like that, but maybe really limit the sweet stuff.

In other news, I am on week 8 of my training and am running 28 minutes with 5 minutes of walking before and after. It is going great! I am still going to the gym and doing it on the treadmill, mostly out of habit. I think I will try for a few outside runs over the next 2 weeks so I can get ready for a real live 5k. I even found one in my area to do on June 2nd. Wahoo!! I am really looking forward to it!