Friends with Running

So, running and I are friends again at the moment. I had a chance to do over Monday's terrible run and I think I did pretty well.

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I think my biggest mistake in Monday's run was going too hard too soon. So, I put the incline at only .5 (the very first level after "flat") and slowed from 5.6 to 5.4.

I always divide runs into 5 minute intervals. I just think "I only have to get through 5 minutes". Somehow that makes it easier.

I made it through the first run and then walked for 3 minutes.

The second run was hard, but I did it. I told myself first "I just have to get through 5 minutes", then "I just have to make it halfway", then once I hit 15 minutes, I knew it was too late to stop and I was going to make it.

And let me tell you the feeling of making it was so great.

I was so sweaty my arms were dripping everywhere. So for the first time ever, before I cleaned off the treadmill, I wiped my arms with paper towels. #gross

Do you know why this picture is blurry? Because my phone was covered in sweat.

Here I am after the workout. Somehow I managed to clean myself up and librarian successfully the rest of the day after looking like this.

Friday the scheduled workout is *almost* the same- 2 20 minute runs- except the walking interval is 2 minutes instead of 3.

I took Friday off to finish our taxes, because I love the stress of doing things at the last minute. So after I drop off the kids at school, I'm going to go run at the lake. I'm looking forward to a run outside. I know I'm stuck on the treadmill for the lunchtime runs until October sometime when it cools down again, but the mornings are cool, so I'm going to take advantage of it.

So Tuesday was our weigh in with Weightwatchers. The week before, I weighed in at 151, so I was super excited to hopefully get back into the 140s again this week. Well, I weighed in at 152.2. Because I'm a big baby, I left right away and planned to sob at my desk.

Luckily, I pulled myself together and instead went for a 2 mile walk. I didn't bring any workout clothes or shoes with me, so it was interesting. But I'm glad I did it. I felt better.

I had my Weightwatchers settings set to swap activity points. But I'm earning 9 or 10 activity points a day. I definitely wasn't using them all, but I think I was using some. So I decided to change the settings so it doesn't swap activity points. If I have an extra long run or something I'll just use some of the weekly points. So far so good.

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By the way on my home scale this morning I was 149. So take that, Weightwatchers scale.

I'm going to a conference next week so I'll miss the weigh in, so when I next weigh in it will be 2 weeks. Surely I'll see some significant weight loss during that time (if I can manage to behave during the conference...)

Running and me- a surprise result

Something totally crazy and unexpected has happened to me. Running has started to go well.

Throughout the past several months I've been following a program designed to help me work up to running 5K with no breaks. Appropriately enough, it's called 5K Runner. I've had to rewind and repeat several weeks along the way, so it's taken me way more than 8 weeks.

It also tells you the mileage you ran and gives you little encouraging statements..

During the "training" (and I use that term loosely) for the last half marathon, I did these workouts during the week and did a "long run" (again, using that term loosely) on the weekends. Well, after the race, I was able to focus solely on these workouts and my training has really taken off.

Before the race, I was up to running 10 minutes without stopped. After the race I ran 15, then 20. I skipped a few workouts because I felt really confident and yesterday ran for 30 minutes. 30 minutes without walking you guys! The last time I did that was before I was pregnant with my second child (so like, 6 years ago!)

Me the last time I ran over 30 minutes without stopping (2009).

I've been on such a high from the last race that for a while I even considered training for the full marathon in December. I don't have to make a decision until June, but I think I've pretty much decided against it. I think what I really want to do is work on a strong half marathon.

The same company that puts out 5K Runner also has a 10K runner program and a Half marathon (21K) program as well. I've downloaded those and am going to follow them.

I have one more workout and I'm done with 5K runner. It's a 35 minute run (with walking warm up and cool down). The plan is to do it tomorrow morning.

Then I'll run 5Ks for a few weeks and then start 10K runner.

I'm confident that by December 11 (The Dallas Half Marathon), I'll be running a strong half marathon. My time goal is 2:30:00.

Oh and on the subject of things going well, I've joined Weight Watchers at work. Several of my coworkers joined last semester and a new 17 week session started on March 22. Our work pays for half of the entire cost, and then the rest comes out of the paycheck a little bit at a time. So I figured I would try it. And you know what, I really like it.

At Christmas on my home scale, I weighed 165. At the Weight Watchers weigh in on March 22 (on a different scale) I weighed 155.6. Last weigh in on Tuesday I weighed 151.0 (and at home I was 149). (That's the 140s y'all!)

So for now I've found something that works. For cross training I've started another round of 21 Day Fix in the mornings. I'm going to try to work up to doing 21 Day Fix Extreme. It's always seemed too hard for me, but since things are going well at the moment, this is probably the best time to try it.

I'm actually really looking forward to tomorrow's 35 minute run. I can't wait to say I completed it. Stay tuned!

I'm still going to tell everyone.

So, I ran a half marathon this weekend...

Last Sunday was the Rock n Roll Dallas Half Marathon. I wrote previously about how I had initially hoped to do better than I had in the Dallas Half Marathon in December, then I got really burned out on long runs and decided to quit training and just walk it.


Well, as the day got closer, I got more nervous.

I was pretty confident that I could finish the distance, even if I just walked for 13.1 miles. But see my ego kept getting in the way. I knew if I walked at a pace of 15 minutes/mile, I would be walking for 3 and a quarter hours (at least). So I thought, maybe I should run part of it. Maybe I should run the first half (well, run walk intervals) and then walk the rest?

Here I am before the start of the race:

Let's not talk about what I did with my hair here..

But it went way better than I expected.

For one thing, it was cold!

It was in the 30s. This was a pleasant surprise, as we had been in the low 80s for a few weeks. I knew I would do much better in the cold.

I crossed the starting line and jogged. You can't really run very fast at that point anyway because it's so crowded. Knowing myself and my (lack of) speed, I had signed up to be in one of the last corrals. This meant we crossed the starting line about 30 minutes after the race officially started. (We each got our own official start though).

I thought, "Ok, I can run 1 minute then walk 4. Let's do that." But I found myself wanting to run longer, so I increased it to 2 minutes running/ 3 minutes walking.

This was going pretty well. I managed to stay with this pattern for most of the race. I adjusted a little based on water stations (I took water and gatorade every chance I got). I also modified a little bit depending on hills. If I was coming to the end of my running interval but was still going downhill, I kept running. I tried to run up the hills when the coincided with my running intervals but sometimes I shortened them a little bit.

In the middle of the race I turned my phone off because I was worried I would get to the end and my phone would be dead. So I really got to enjoy the environment. It was a beautiful day, there was music, a guy rapping about port-o-potties ("Port-o-potties to your left, y'all..."), even Teletubbies. In fact, I had to turn my phone back on just to take a picture of the Teletubbies. It was worth it.

Around mile 10 I started to realize I might actually surpass my goal. See, my last race time in December was 3:04:02. I was discouraged by this and really hoped to beat it. Then my training didn't happen and I kind of gave up on my time goal and decided to just finish. But with around 3 miles left, I realized I could possibly finish in under 3 hours. I got pretty excited. I got motivated. I may have run the running intervals a little faster.

I turned my phone back on when I got here. I was pretty excited.

Towards the end of the race- thankfully- there was a nice long downhill. I came to the end of my running interval but continued to run. I didn't know exactly how much further the end was but I wanted to try to run to the end. I had enough left in me to pick it up a little. I pushed really hard for those last few minutes.

In the end my official time was 2:53:41. I finished over 10 minutes faster than I did in December!!!

After finishing!

I am not sure why it went so much better than I expected. I know I weighed about 13 pounds less than I did in December. Plus, even though I didn't have as many long runs, I definitely logged more miles this time around. My running intervals were up to 8-10 minutes, so running 2 minutes and then walking 3 seemed almost easy. (Ok, not *easy*, I did start to hurt towards the end).

My plan for the summer is get my 5K under 30 minutes. Then I'll increase the distance to 10K. Then in September or October or whenever it's time to start training, that 10 mile run won't be so out of reach. And I may even do a practice half before the race rather than just working up to 10 miles. But my goal for the December race is to get it down to 2:45:00 and I think that's pretty reasonable.

Almost finished with 21 Day Fix, Running, Work, and What Comes Next?

After a pretty lazy holiday break, I feel like I'm back with a vengeance..

Me during the break... (I found this here)

A few days before the New Year, I started a round of 21 Day Fix. I finish on Sunday and I'm pretty proud of myself. I had a few goals:

1. Get used to waking up early and working out again.
2. Run regularly and work up to 5K without walk breaks.
3. Lose some weight too.

I've done great at waking up. In fact, I wake up at 4:15 every day and don't even hit snooze. It's so nice to have a little quiet time in the morning. Some days, the baby (who is 2 and probably should not be referred to as "The Baby" anymore) wakes up, and I give her the Ipad so she can watch Barbie videos on YouTube, and in exchange she lets me workout.

Here is where this came from

The running has been going pretty well, actually. For "long" runs, I've stayed with my run 3/walk 2 plan. I've gotten up to 6 miles doing that, and I'm 60+ days from the race so I think I'm doing pretty well. For my short runs I've been following 5K runner. I'm just addicted to it. It's so encouraging.

I worked up to the Week 6, Day 1 workout, which is a 10 minute run, 5 minute walk, and 10 minute run. I did that successfully in the neighborhood near my house. But then I tried to do the next workout- run 10/walk 3/run 10- in the neighborhood around my work. There is an extreme hill on the path I take. Actually, there is a mild hill starting off and then STEEP downhill, so for the first 10-13 minutes I feel pretty good. Then when it's time to turn around I have to climb this ridiculous hill. I have yet to make it the full second 10 minutes. So, I went back to an earlier workout -run 5/walk 3/run 6/walk 3/run 5- and did that yesterday. Tomorrow I'll change the middle running interval from 6 to 8. Then the last workout of Week 5 is two 8 minute runs with 5 minutes of walking in between. So I'm working back up to that Week 6 workout. I will conquer that hill!

This was here. 

As for weight loss- well, I didn't really follow the eating plan the first week. I went a little off plan on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. But for the last 2 weeks I've been following the 21 Day Fix eating plan with the little containers. So far I've lost about 5 pounds. I think that's pretty reasonable. Not sure what my final numbers will be. I didn't measure or take before pictures (yes, I know I should have), so unfortunately I'm just going by the scale and how my pants fit (good news, they fit better!)

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I'm pretty lucky in that I love my job. The only thing I don't love is I don't really get paid enough for us to live on. So, I've been considering getting a second job for a while. That's tricky because with most jobs, you can't just tell them when you want to work. It's been a little scary. But, I've started to get some accompanying gigs which is awesome. Yes, it means late nights and early mornings, but I've got my Thrive to help me get through. I think I'll be ok. Plus I really have missed it.

So, on Monday I'm starting a new program since I'll be done with 21 Day Fix. It's called The Master's Hammer and Chisel. It's got the gal from 21 Day Fix in it (who I love, although I recently heard from several people that they think she's annoying) and the guy from Body Beast (who I also love). This program is a little more hardcore than 21 Day Fix. There are pull ups in most of the workouts. I'm going to have to dig out my pull up bar. But I think this will be good. I do plan to continue training for my race. In fact, this is a 60 day program so the end coincides almost exactly with the race. I may sub some Sunday workouts for long runs, but other than that I'll stick to the schedule and do these workouts in the morning, and run at lunch. It seems to be working for me.

They look pretty serious. I'm actually scared.

I also get to follow the 21 Day Fix eating plan, so that's cool. I have a pretty good handle on it.

I started taking Thrive in May, and saw some results. I was pretty excited about it. But around October, I felt like it had quit working. My energy was low. I was relying on coffee again. And my appetite was ridiculous. I ate everything. And I didn't just eat one cookie- I had to eat ALL THE COOKIES! Turns out this medication is notorious for weight gain. I know it was affecting me. So, I asked to be switched to a different medication and the difference is amazing. I think the Thrive is finally working the way it's supposed to. I wake up early even if I didn't get my 8 hours. I'm motivated. I just feel capable. That's the word- capable. Like I can handle things.

Overall, things are going great. I'm excited that I made it through the 21 days, and I'm excited about starting another new program. I'm just excited about everything at the moment!

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This just in: Running is hard when it's hot...

I have held on and held on to my outdoor runs, but it's barely June and it's already getting too hot. Yesterday I tried to run outside for 2 miles and at about 1.5 miles I gave up and walked back to my office, defeated. Weather.com said it was 84 degrees but felt like 90.

Today when it was time to run, I wasn't super excited. I didn't want a replay of yesterday's depressing experience. The heat was just too much. So, I moved indoors to the track at the gym. To my surprise and delight, my Nike running app still works indoors! This was the main thing keeping me from moving indoors- I want to track everything on the Nike app.

I had a successful run. My goal was to run 2 minutes/walk 1 minute 8 times. I added a tiny bit of running at the end (about 30 seconds) just to get me to 2 miles, because I'm a little OCD. But I felt pretty good.

It was amazing how different and BETTER my run was when I did it inside.

I promise I'll go back to running outdoors as soon as it's below 75 degrees...

And I don't have any pictures. Not of myself looking like a drowned rat in the heat. Not of my Nike app. Not the track. Not the pretty water I'm not running next to anymore. But I'm just so excited that I may finally surpass Week 4 of the 12 week plan that I don't care too much...

So I'm almost a runner... and other life events...

Well I've once again fallen off the face of the earth blogwise, so I guess I need to post what's been happening in my life. Lots of activity, lots of events. Lots of crying too. Let's see, where do I start?

The bad things:
1. I stopped taking my medication. This was a bad move. I thought I could function without it. I was on three different medications for depression. It was coming time for me to see the nurse practitioner and get my refills. My visits to the nurse practitioner cost $45 (copay). My medication copays add up to $70. I didn't want to spend that money, so I stopped. I thought I could just power through.

That was a mistake. I spent about a month spiraling into depression that rivaled the post-partum depression I had after my third child. I'm still climbing my way out of it.

In desperation, I held a GoFundMe fundraiser so I could afford to get going again. I was surprised and touched at how many friends care and want to help. I hope someday to be in a position where I can actually help other people. Right now I'm not.

2. I'm in a career rut. I don't love my job. I've been afraid to admit that. But it's true. I feel like my career has been a series of bad decisions. I see other people whose careers started around the same time as mine, and I feel like I've failed. Of course, I started my library career 4 weeks after giving birth to my first child, and since then I've had 2 more. So I guess I haven't completely failed at life. But sometimes I feel like I have. Sometimes I feel like if I didn't have kids I would be further in my career. That's probably true. But then I wouldn't have my kids. That would be even worse...

I look at where I am currently, and I feel stuck. There is no tenure/promotion system. There is nowhere for me to "work up to." I can't get a raise. I can't move up to anything. It feels like a dead end job. I'm not sure what my role is in the organization. I do what I'm supposed to, but the title "Reference/information literacy librarian" feels hollow, without purpose.

3. I want to be a stay at home mom. I realized lately that I absolutely hate leaving my children and going to work. My husband is not working during the day, so he has become the stay at home parent most days. And I am extremely jealous. I want to be the one to stay home with the kids.

But, there are also some good things happening.
4. I finished the semester. I decided about halfway through the semester to drop both classes. Well, my professors talked me out of it. One professor said, "Don't drop, just take an Incomplete." So that was my plan. Well, 3 days before grades were due, she said, "I would really like you to try to finish the semester. I know you can do it." So I completed about 75% of my coursework in about 3 days. I got an A. I can't believe it. I'm so thankful she pushed me, because it feels awesome not to have that hanging over me.

5. I'm running again. To deal with some of the depression, I started running again. I'm working back up to running 30 minutes. I have a ways to go, but I've also come a long way in the past 4 weeks. I've been running 4 times a week. It's pretty great. So great, that I decided to sign up for a half marathon. A friend helped me pay for registration, because she believes in me. So, in about 6 months and 3 weeks, I'm running the Dallas Half Marathon. It feels good to have a goal.

6. It's going to be ok. My quality of life has improved considerably over the past 2 weeks. Medication is helping. A product called "Thrive" is helping. I feel hope for the future for the first time in a long time. I've got supportive friends, a great husband, and 3 wonderful children. I think it will be ok.

Let's see if I can be a better blogger from now on....

Progress

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I've been working out consistently for a few months now, and I'm so excited because I'm finally starting to see some results.

First of all, the scale is consistently moving DOWNWARD.

For a long time it didn't do this. For a long time I was stuck. My eating was not strict enough. My workouts weren't intense enough. But now I'm seeing it go down every time I weigh.

My jeans are loose OUT OF THE DRYER! You know how you dread putting them on when they have been freshly washed/dried? I usually do too. But now they fit. And, as they stretch out throughout the day, they get crazy loose. It may be time to put on the next smaller size soon!

For a long time I dreaded getting dressed because the clothes I wanted to wear were all too tight. Now it's fun again!

I have more energy (and it's not just the coffee). I am stronger to get through my workouts. They are getting easier (or I am getting better).