Holy CRAP I did it!

12 glorious miles....12...can you believe it?!? And I averaged a 12:09 and that was with walking part of the way! My final time was 2:25:52! Not to freaking bad. I ran 7 miles, walked 1, ran 2, waled 1.3, ran .7! I burned 1392 calories!

I can't believe how far I have come. I am sooooo proud of myself. And I am proud that I can say that I am proud of myself. I have only ever been able to say that one other time in my life and that is when I graduated from college the first time!

My DH is the greatest. He was out there giving me water at every mile. He had his bike and would ride to the "check points" and stand there with water and cheer me on...it was so great... He really does look out for me. Sometimes I get so focused that I don't think about things...that is what he is there for!

Today is a free food day for me. Why you ask...because on Friday I weighed 152 and thought it was a fluke. When I weighed in yesterday 153, but I ate RIGHT before I went to bed. This morning back down to 152. I can't go any lower. And on days like today when I have already burned 1392 calories before 10AM I figure I can't have any FF or LF stuff. I am not going hog wild and sitting down with ice cream (cause that would have me spending the entire day in the bathroom) or candy, fast food, chips, or crap like that. It just means that we are bbq'ing hamburgers tonight and I am actually going to have ground beef. I am even going to put mayo on it...though that will have to be light mayo because that is all we have. I don't know what we are having for lunch, but I am sure DH will make sure that it is reasonable but higher calories than I would normally eat. I don't want to get to the point that I have to put weight ON, so I just have to have these days when I do the long miles. I guess you could say this is a bonus to maintaining (though it makes me nervous!)

Well I hope everyone has a splendid Sunday. I need to do my cooking for the week...once I sit for a while...my legs are sore...wonder why?!?!

What does dehydration look like?

Well I think my nike+ graph will adequately give you a picture.

I only had 1 bottle of water because I had to cover someone elses class during my prep which is when I normally get all of my water in so that I don't have to go to the bathroom during the day. Well I didn't get my water in. I didn't really think anything of it...until I started running. About 3 miles into the run...I cramped up. I tried to run through it but I couldn't I stopped and walked and then ran...cramped up again...walked...ran...walk...ran...walk...called DH to ask him to bring me some water. By the time he got there I was almost ready to pass out. Oh...I didn't mention that it was 90 degrees outside today...probably about 80 when I started running. So basically I only got 8 miles done...4 miles running and 4 miles pretty slow walking. My legs, stomach, back and even feet were cramping up from the dehydration. The heat got to me. I didn't hardly sweat at all...NOT a good sign. So instead of beating myself up I am just moving my LONG run/walk days to Sunday so that I can do them in the morning when it is cool outside. So no 12 miles today...but on Sunday. 8 miles is still nothing to sniff at...that is a long ways. According to my new nike+ I had an average pace of 4.3 miles per hour and burned 930 calories...not too shabby for being crippled the last 2 miles!

It's all mental

Now I have said this more than once, but today, in my scientific endeavor, I discoverd just how mental it is. I set out to do 4 miles today...which I accomplished quite easily. Then I decided that I was going to walk 2 miles because it was nice out today and I figure my legs need the miles. But after walking about 3/4 of the first mile I decided I would run back. Now I had not mentally prepared my self to run another mile today. SO 20 steps into the run...I stopped. My brain decided since I had not thoroughly informed my legs that I would be running an additional mile, that they did not have perform their duties. WHEN THE HELL DID MY LEGS JOIN THE UNION OR GET A LAW DEGREE!!! Seriously I couldn't run.

SO from now on I just need to REALLY think about what I want to run so that I can give them "proper notice" so that they don't revolt! I finally know what those ultra union teachers feel when they have to work outside their contracted hours. (As you can tell my teacher's union pissed me off today! Whole different story).

But I do have fancy graphs to insert here. Hopefully! So the drastic drop in the graph is from the hill that I encounter on my way back! It totally interrupts the flow of my run. They need to remedy that for me!

Not a fun run

Ugh...6 miles SUCKED! I just didn't want to run today. I was supposed to go out to the Canyon this morning and run. But then my DH's sister called and wanted us to meet up with them. Plus I wanted to get the Nike+ so I could be cool like Losing Jusme and post my runs on the website. So we went into the next town, went shopping, went to the musical we were planning to see and then I came home and ran. Well the wind was whipping at home so I can't even imagine what it would have been like in the canyon so I went to the gym for a 6 mile run on the treadmill. If nothing else it is giving me a mental workout...the treadmill is BOORRRINNG! A 1hour 9 minute run and burned 650 calories. Then I had to come home and eat strawberries and granola to try and get my calories up. I had only eaten 1150 for the day and I need to be at around 1800 to try and maintain. I lost another pound this week which isn't necessarily a good thing. My PS really does not want me below 150 going into surgery. I am at 154 now. So I am good and ready to embrace maintenance now. I figure there is no way I am going to gain weight if I stay at 1800 calories and run/walk over 20 miles per week, plus have 2 days of cross training...both which burn around 600 calories.

So the Nike+ seems pretty cool, but I didn't seem to have luck with it this afternoon. I think it was because it was on its side in my shoe. We are going to modify it by attaching some velcro to it tomorrow. That is my DH's job. We are going a little Macgyver on the shoe. I can't wear Nike's and I just bought a 100$ pair of shoes so I was not going to buy the ones that the little transmitter fits into. I think this is going to be a big help when running. Though I did have to break down and buy an ipod. After dealing with these things in class everyday I was totally opposed to them...however this gadget looked like it would really help the running. I think in the long run it will be more useful to me than the body bugg that I was trying to decide if I was going to buy. I am hoping that I will become more and more comfortable with food in the next few months and with the bodybugg I think that I will eventually not need it. The nike+ is something that will be helpful to me wherever I go. I will be able to run in foreign places and not have to worry about how far I have run. Thanks for the heads up LJM!

Don't Adjust Your Monitor

Your eyes do not decieve you...My running ticker DID in fact move 10 miles today. I ran 4, walked 5 and ran the last one...Yes that is right you don't need contacts...I ran the last mile.

My legs hurt like HELL. But I feel on top of the world. I am convinced that while this half-marathon will not be EASY, it is most certainly doable. The worst part of the entire thing was how long it took. (2 hours 9 minutes). The best part of the entire thing was that according to the machines I burned over 1000 calories. I had to start the treadmill 3 times!

I Hate Licorice

Okay not really...that is the problem. I broke down and ate licorice today. My first unfilled band misstep! I would NEVER have tried licorice when filled for fear that it would get stuck and feel like I swallowed a golf ball, but since everything goes down with ease now, I ate it. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

However I am still with in my caloric limit so I didn't totally blow it. Even though I was exhausted tonight I still went out for my 4 mile run. No records set but it felt really great to finish the entire thing. I LOVE SWEATING!

How Did I Get Start

So I have been asked many times how I got started and I thought I would just post this as a main post so that other people could see.

I had lap-band surgery in August 2007 and from that time until January I was BROKE and couldn't afford to go to a gym so I used things that I could cheaply aquire at Wal-Mart. I did the exercise ball, weights, and the Biggest Loser DVD. Then in January I joined the local gym and started by walking 1/2 hour a day. At the end of the first week I knew that walking was not going to cut it if I wanted to really start dropping the weight. So I added running to the mix. The treadmill that I use has a "track" that you can virtually watch yourself walk/run around so I would do everything in .25 mile increments.

Walk comfortably for .25 miles
Speed up for the next segment
Increase incline
Slow down
Speed up

And then I started jogging. The first time I couldn't do more than 0.1 miles. I was so dissappointed, but I kept trying. And soon I had finished .25 miles straight. Then by the end of the next week I was at 0.5 miles. I remember coming home and be so AMAZED because I had just completed my first straight mile. At this point I had NO intention of doing much more. My goal was to run 2 straight miles by my "bandiversary". (Kinda blew that one out of the water!) Finally I was running 1.75 miles at a time, but I got bored of running. I think I have cardio ADD. I don't like doing cardio for long periods of time. (Yes this is posing a challenge for the half-marathon!). Anyways I switched to the eliptical and weights and figured I would pretty much leave running behind. That was actually only about 1 month ago! Then the elipticals were full at the gym when I got there so I got back on the treadmill and decided to try and see if I could run 2 miles and I did. Then the next day it 2.5 miles. Finally I said...I am going to run a 5K or at least die trying. When I did it I got such a high. Then a co-worker told me about the Redmond 5K that I ran in and after that I was TOTALLY hooked. I knew that by running in races I had something to TRAIN for. I have never trained for anything in my life. By having the goal and not just "working out" I get a lot more out of my exercise session. I am a very goal oriented person.

Now I have done this without a trainer, but I don't know that I would recommend that, especially if you have BIG dreams of running a marathon. I am not going to use a trainer for the half-marathon, but I may consider getting one after I have recovered from the TT and start training for the full marathon.

Okay...gotta get to work!