A Confession, Reality Check and Recommitment

This is from my blog on SparkPeople, which some of you may know is a site I've been using for my weight loss journey. Some of it I've already posted here but I wanted to put the whole thing out there to make sure I'm documenting my full story here, sorry about anything that I've duplicated from prior posts here:


So, I had a setback during Summer 2010 where I was just worn out from my Winter/Spring training and races and had to take a break...during which I hardly exercised and didn't eat very well. At the end of July when I last blogged here, I thought I had only gained back 11 pounds…turns out my scale was messed up and it was actually 20.2 pounds. I was not only shocked when I saw that but upset and to be honest, embarrassed. Had I really indulged that much? Was I really that inactive? When I first started using SparkPeople, I lost 45 pounds. In just under four months I’d undone almost half of what I had accomplished.

I didn’t want to log my weight on SparkPeople and see my weight loss ticker jump so far the wrong way-I’ve even been using an app on my iPhone to track my weight recently instead, figuring I’d start doing it here again once I’d lost all the weight I had gained back. I thought of all the people on here who had told me I’d inspired them and felt like I’d be disappointing them if I tracked the reality here where they could see the huge backslide. But I’ve already disappointed myself and really, that’s what hurts. The past week I’ve been trying to get back into my good eating and exercising rhythm so I can fix my mistakes...and thankfully when I got on the scale this morning, two of those pounds were gone. When I got on the computer this morning and started doing my daily SparkPeople stuff, I decided to just own up to it and chalk it up to lessons learned.

Maybe I just did too much too fast-not the initial weight loss but the training/racing part-and pushed myself too much...this past Spring I did do two half marathons two weeks apart, followed by a 5K two weeks later and a 10K three weeks after that. For some people that may seem like nothing, but afterward I felt burned out and like I deserved a rest-I just took it too far. So today I’m publicly admitting I messed up BIG TIME and moving on. I’ve already gotten back to my training, going slowly here at first (speed-wise and number of weekly sessions), planning my training to gradually build myself back up-with all the huffing and puffing like when I first started.

The big thing-I have signed up for my first full marathon in January, the Walt Disney World Marathon. I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I first started adding running intervals to my walking and know if I do it properly, I will be able to cross that finish line without burning myself out. I do have a half marathon on Halloween and another mid-December that I signed up for before the whole backsliding thing happened. These fall on training weeks that have approximately that distance on the schedule so they are really like training runs; I won’t be putting any pressure on myself to PR...well, not for the Halloween one anyway. The one in December has a 3-hour time limit before opening the streets back up (although they will have the mats down for 3.5 hours) so I may push just a little on that one-my PR is currently 3:16. I was considering another half marathon for November but I think that might be too much pressure and might drain me again so I’m not going to do that.

I hope my friends out there keep up with me this fall...I plan on blogging as much as possible during my training to help keep me honest and from falling by the wayside. After all, as much as a cheapskate as I am, I’d be really ticked off after spending $135 plus Active fees (plus another $12.79 for a Disney marathon pin-total $150 and change) just to get swept in January LOL. So come along for the next chapter in my journey...I’d love to have you along!

9/9/2010-It's official!

Yup, now that I'm gainfully employed again and still have plenty of my parting money from my last job left, I officially registered for the Disney Full Marathon this morning. So on January 9,2011 I'll be participating in my first full marathon. I've already begun my training (in week 3 right now) as I wanted to be prepared if I did get a job in a decent amount of time so I could afford the trip...and now it will become a reality. I do have 2 half marathons on my fall schedule-the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon (on Halloween of course) and the Weston Rotary Run for Tomorrow Half Marathon on 12/12/10 (couldn't pass it up-right here in my suburb, only $20 and we get a spinning medal, such a deal!). I may also add another half for the 2nd weekend in November, still thinking on it and will make a decision in the next couple of weeks.

So now I REALLY need to put my nose to that ole grindstone and whip my bootie into shape. Getting the miles in is not my issue...I start to get lazy when it comes to my cross and strength training. I've already got my training calendar set up, it's just a matter of sticking to those non-run/walk days like I should. I know strengthening my core will really help me out, I just need to override the part of my brain that says "Hey, is that a couch? It looks so comfy...and just look at that stack of DVDs waiting to be watched...and those books waiting to be read...oh, look-a soft, fuzzy blanket too!" *sigh* Someone kick me in the butt, will ya?

7/25/10-Getting back to it again

So, once I did my 10K race back in April I started to get tired. Worn out. I think I pushed too much...and so I crashed for a long while. Only 37.35 miles in May and a whopping 4.5 miles in June; so far for July I've only gotten out there twice (that includes today) for 5.7 miles. I just was so worn out and my motivation tanked big time-not just for the running but for all my exercising. And when that happened, guess what followed? Yup, you guessed it, the food. Not so much the types of food (although there were many more added "goodies") but more so the portions and such. And so I've gained weight back...now, couple that with the fact that my position at work was eliminated and my last day was-get this-my 40th birthday, and my downward spiral is complete. I wound up gaining back 11 pounds of the 45 I lost.

Forward to yesterday. I finally sat down to map out my training plan for this fall to prepare for my first full marathon-hopefully, participating depends on the job situation as I am about to start my fourth week of being unemployed. I decided that regardless of the job thing I will follow my training plan so I will be prepared no matter what. I do already have two half marathons (10/31 and 12/12) that I'm already registered for so I'd need to be training anyway so I figure I should be prepared. Anyway, as I saw the amount of training I'll be doing I thought to myself, "You're nuts-you are back out of shape, you've gotta get a hold of yourself or you'll never pull this off. Now get up off your butt and get back to work!" And so I am.

Yesterday I tried out the warm up and cool down of my new Heavyweight Yoga DVD (boy did that feel good stretching everything out) and I am looking forward to doing a lot more of that, probably using it as part of my cross training regimen in addition to the elliptical and stationary bike. It's a great DVD by Abby Lentz doing yoga as a "big" person. Then I made myself go to bed at a decent time last night so I could get up early today and go for a walk/run before it got too hot out. I had to really push myself out the door, and once out there I finally got going...unfortunately even at 8am it was already 85 degrees with 75% humidity giving a "feels like" of 93. Thank goodness the clouds were obscuring the sun most of the way or my outing would have been way shorter than the 3.03 miles I was able to pull off.

I started out doing 3 min walk/1 min run but after 4 run intervals just walked the rest as my heart rate was in the 160s just walking...like I said, I've been out of it quite a while and as a result am almost back to square one fitness-wise. I felt totally exhausted afterward but I'm glad I got back out there. Now I'm off to plot my return plan...my official "training" for the marathon in January that I hope to do starts in four weeks and I need to start getting back into the swing of things because I will NOT disappoint myself. I WILL be ready for January. I have come too far not to make it.

4/24/2010-Back to basics

The last few weeks I've been taking time off. I think with 5 races within a two month time period and the training to go along with them just kind of burned me out. One day I would like to make it to the point where a half marathon every other weekend is like nothing, but that's still a while away. So now that I've rested and taken some time off, I'm ready to slowly build back up again. That also includes getting back to my normal eating because for the last few weeks along with the taking time off I've also been eating not-so-great. I know I've gained some pounds back (not sure how many as I'm hiding from my scale for now)...not the right direction to go in. So enough of the slacking off, time to ease back into my exercise schedule and walk/run schedule and to restock the fridge and cabinets the right way. I want to be back under 200 well before my 40th birthday in a little over 2 months so no more goofing off.

I'll be getting back to my schedule:
Mon...short miles (3-5)
Tues...gym for cross training (elliptical/bike/weights)
Wed...rest with possibility of Wii Fit
Thu...short miles (3-5)
Fri...gym for cross training again
Sat...long miles (will start at 6 and go from there until my base is built up again)
Sun...rest (unless Saturday is rained out, then long miles can go here)

Come hell or high water I'll be at Disney in January to do the full marathon. I'll be starting my "official" training plan toward the end of August. I plan to use Marathoning for Mortals again since it worked so well for my first half marathon. Between now and the start of that training I'll be working on transitioning from my 3 minute walk/2 minute run toward a 3 minute walk/1 minute run (or something like that; more running than walking anyway, we'll see how things play out). I do already have a half marathon scheduled for Halloween (Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon) and will hopefully be able to register for a few more things for the fall and maybe December.

Tomorrow will be mapping out some plans for upping my miles again and my walk/run to run/walk transition as well as fall training. I'm also going to program my Garmin to do the beeps every minute so I can start playing with my walk/run ratios like that. If you've never checked one out, I highly recommend it...ever since I received mine (gift from DH this last holiday season), I've absolutely loved it. Accurate and gives you tons of great info regarding your pace, heart rate, distance and more.

Happy Running!

4/11/2010-10K results

Today was the Gumbo Limbo Green Turtle Gallop 10K in Boca Raton. First time I've done a race at this distance, all others have been 5K or half marathon. Day was overcast and humid. Wind wasn't really a factor until the last couple of miles when it was right in your face (but it sure helped cool things a little, temps were mid-70s but with the humidity the sweat was pouring down). Quiet route for the most part, some down A1A and then into a little community for a lot of it, then back out onto A1A again. Wound up finishing in 1:33:27, a 14:58 pace. However, my "official" time was 1:33:44 since it was based on "gun time"...no timing mat at the start (I started my Garmin at the cone that marked the start line). I'm not too fond of these kinds of starts, it is not accurate based on the distance you are doing. Yes, it was only a 17 second difference but at my speed I need to take whatever I can get LOL. Think I'll stick to the D-tag timed races so I get accurate results based on the actual distance of the event.