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!

Source

I should tell you...

Hey there. It's been a while.

I had a couple of goals during the holiday break: run a lot and get used to morning workouts. I think I've succeeded.

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I restarted 21 Day Fix on December 28. I then proceeded to continue eating and drinking whatever I wanted until January 2, so that first week wasn't super successful. But I'm back on track now.

I was taking a certain medication that was notorious for weight gain. I knew this but I still wasn't quite sure. My eating was out of control. I was bingeing daily and felt completely hopeless. So, I thought it was worth a try to get off the medication. I saw my doctor a few days before Christmas and we weaned me off over a period of 8 days and started a new medication. I can't believe the difference! I'm having no problem sticking to my "diet"! I've lost a couple of pounds. I just don't feel as out of control as I did. So that's a good thing. I'm very excited to finally make some progress with the weight loss.

I've kept up with the morning workouts. I set the alarm for 4 am and am usually out of bed by 4:15 or 4:30. My 2 year old, though, rarely lets me get up by myself. So, I bribe her with time on the Ipad so I can prep food and workout. So far it's working. I feel like I've got a pretty good habit going.

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Running is actually (knock wood) going well. I decided several weeks ago to start a 5K training program using this app. For my short runs I've been using it (for my "long" runs I'm still doing the run 3/walk 2 intervals). I sped through the first few weeks but now that I'm back at work I'm pretty much doing 3 short runs with this app (which is what it has scheduled) and then a long run on Sundays. I just love how it tells me "Slow down and walk" or "Start running". And occasionally "Hey awesome runner!" And at the end it gives you the distance you covered with a motivational note.

 The semester is about to start, and I've decided not to take classes during the Spring semester. Part of it is the fact that we just can't afford it. But I also am pretty burned out and need a break. I'm excited because I'll have lots of time to read non-academic books and binge watch TV shows.

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Another goal is to blog more often than once every three weeks. Let's see how that goes...

No, really, I have a plan...

If you remember, I finished my first* half marathon on December 13 (*first half marathon since having 3 kids and first since 2011). I finished it a lot slower than the ones I ran in 2011, but I finished:

I signed up for another one on March 20, hoping I can improve my time a little. It shouldn't be too hard since my time was 3:04.

So, my new goal is to finish the race in the time it takes to listen to the Hamltion OCR (It's about 2:45).

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I have enough time to complete another round of training using the Hal Higdon method. I'm going to use the Novice 1 training program again because I just want to be stronger in my long runs. I knew last time I was really barely ready. I also think that finishing 30 minutes slower than my last half could be due to the fact that I'm about 20 pounds heavier than I was in 2011. So we're going to work on that as well.

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So, what I started doing this week was the 5K Runner Pro program designed to go from nothing to 5K.The first few days have been easy-ish so I've been doing them back to back. Yesterday I did Week 2 Days 2 and 3 for my workout to make it more of a "long" run. So my goal is to get my 5K back to constant running, but for the long runs, I'll still run 3/walk 2 (just hopefully my run intervals will be a little faster).

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I'm having some issues with my diet, but I'll talk about that later. I'm working on it. I'm optimistic.

I ran a half marathon (well, "ran" is maybe an exaggeration)

This past Sunday was the Dallas (Half)Marathon. I signed up for this over 6 months ago. But, my training didn't always go great. I hobbled through a 10 mile run a week before and really wondered if I had it in me to complete 13.1 miles.

When I woke up Sunday morning, it was pouring down rain. I would be lying if I didn't admit I considered just staying home. But no, I made a commitment, so I got up and got out the door.

I was optimistic at the start. I peed 3 times before the race even started. Look at this poor girl- she has no idea what the next 3 hours will do to her:

It was raining so much right then.

At the starting line, I started to take a selfie as I crossed, and these guys photobombed me:

They were super cool. They were from Gambia. They were just so happy and excited it rubbed off on everyone.

I knew I had to pee at around mile 2. Not fair. The lines at the port-a-potties were so long and I just didn't want to give up that much time. So I kept going.

I listened to Hamilton as I ran, but occasionally there was live music on the course.

At around mile 6 I hit the wall. I started to think I couldn't do it. I stopped, stretched, and considered sitting down on the curb and crying. But I didn't. Here I am at mile 7:

I started updating Facebook at every mile. That helped a little bit. Plus, my husband was following my route on the app, and was posting where I was and how I was doing.

At one point, just after I considered stopping, there were people handing out beer and powdered sugar donuts. I totally took them up on that. That cheered me up quite a bit.

I finished Hamilton with a couple miles left. My new half marathon goal is to finish before the musical ends.

At around mile 10 I ran into the guys from Gambia. One of them was singing "No woman no cry"... They were so cool and cheered me up.

Eventually, I did finish. And it was a great moment. I might even say it was worth all the crying, all the pain, the feeling that I was going to collapse and die right there in downtown Dallas... And thankfully I got a picture of the moment:

My time was 3:04:02.

I wasn't real thrilled with that time, but I kind of expected it. 4 years ago when I ran 3 half marathons in one season, my best time was 2:30. So, I have a ways to go to get that back. But I have 3 months until the next half marathon and I think I can improve on that.

Here's some more pictures:

"Look, I'm in shock. I've got a blanket."

Oh and I finally got to pee. Wow that was a long 3 hours. And I ended up walking about 2 miles to find my car. Ouch.

I don't think I'll ever be a person who can run 26.2 miles in a race. I'm perfectly happy to keep doing half marathons though and see how much I can improve my time. And maybe soon I'll lose a little weight too- that will surely make running easier...