Future Goals

I'm vowing to you and most importantly, to myself... that for 2012, these are my goals:

• Run at least one 5k every month in 2012
• Stay on Weight Watchers until I reach 180lbs (hopefully by July)
• Be able to run an entire 5k without stopping to walk by the end of 2012
• See Ben Davis (my inspiration) again when he does his 5k tour and comes to Washington DC

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Too long...

Wow... It's truly been too long since I posted something.

Just wanted to say this blog is going to be revamped soon... It needs it. And I'm going to attempt to be a better blogger.

So, what's been going on?

Over the summer I went on a bunch of vacations and then started to really slack off on running b/c it was so darn hot (like upper 90's with like 80% humidity or something ridiculous). Idk... but I got lazy and quit running.

Well I had already signed up for the Baltimore Running Festival 5k (Oct 15th) and the Run For Your Lives Zombie obstacle race (Oct 22nd). So, that's when I started back running. Run times were approximately: 48:10 and 1:09:00 (Will post the official times later when I look them up). Let's just say that I needed to get back where I was and better.

I just went to another 5k last weekend (Columbia Metric 5k). And I improved by 5 minutes... My time was 43:03ish (will post the actual times after looking them up).

Needless to say, I'm signed up for another 5k on December 10th b/c I got the fever and the only prescription is more 5ks! Lol. I know, I'm corny. :) But that's why you love me!

I'm Back!

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Harry Potter ...

is flipping AMAZING!!! :)

I love Harry Potter beyond belief... I especially love Ronald Weasley. I'm am the future Mrs. Ron Weasley.. haha. I wish. Last night I went to see the Deathly Hallows Part 2 midnight premiere... and it was EPIC! Then instead of going to sleep, I stay up and did laundry and came to work. I am horrible about waking up on time and I had a meeting at 11 and I didn't want to be late for it. So I figured might as well go in early. It also means that I haven't slept in 30 hours. I'm a bit tired.

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Let's try this again!

Yesterday I planned on leaving work at 8:00 and heading to the gym. Well I had to finish my FY11 Accomplishments Report before leaving work. I was here until 11:30pm working on that (a 12.5 hour day at work)... so the gym didn't happen.

Tonight I will be returning to the gym (it's raining outside or I would go to the track) and getting some run-walking in. :) I'm actually kinda looking forward to it.

Since it's been a while since I've ran, I'm going to try C25K W4D1 and see how I feel. I know I can do it! And I'm going for a total of 3 miles today. Bring it!

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New flip-flops!

Ok... so we all know how much I love flip-flops... I just couldn't live without them. So I attempted to find some with support and I got 2 pairs:

Columbia Sportswear Orla Flip

Clarks Flip Hyannis

I've had them for a week now and they have been treating me really well. I wore them while down at the ocean with lots of walking and my feet didn't hurt at all. They have cushion and some arch support. Guess I have to say good bye to my cheapo-Old Navy flip flops and start supporting my feet a little more. These are great. I'm wearing the Clarks ones right now. :)

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Where have I been???

Vacationing! :)

Sorry all for disappearing! But I'm back. I went to OC (Ocean City, MD) which was amazing. Didn't do much running since it was so hot but I did get a lot of walking and swimming in. :) And a TAN! Hehe.

I am back in running mode and I'm going after work tonight. Going to do 3 miles. Let's see how fast I can get them done! Working til 8:00 or 8:30 tonight (working on my yearly accomplishments report - blah).

Shall report back to y'all later!

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What's your favorite time of the year?

I have 3 favs. Here they are in order...

• Summer Time
• Christmas
• Halloween

But all I can do is think about how great Halloween is going to be this year and I can't wait for it. The Wicked race (on my running page) has a Halloween themed website and I was just looking at it and getting so pumped up! :)

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OMG! Race Results are in!

Ok... So Finally they posted the Army 5k Race Results... and guess what?

I did BETTER than I thought I had done on race day (by almost 2 minutes).

There are 374 runners and yes there were some kids. A lot of kids beat me which felt disheartening at the time but their parents pushed them in strollers a lot of it and carried them. And let's just face it, I'm a slow runner/walker. But I surpassed my expectations on the time and I'm so flippin' excited!

Here's my results: 46:45 and Bri's results: 41:46.

Bri beat me by almost 4 minutes exactly. Get 'em! :) I'm hoping that I will catch up to her on the next one. :)

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It's working. :)

There have been lots of times in the past few weeks where I just wanted to give up... Give up because this is too hard... give up because I'm not seeing any changes on the scale... give up because I'm tired and impatient.

I know there will be plenty more of those times but I just have to push through it. I can slowly tell that I'm getting better at running. I'm a little less out of breath when I run. My recovery intervals (when I'm walking) are much shorter and I can catch my breath faster. I can run longer distances (though not a whole mile yet - it's coming). It's really hard to notice these things when you are running... but after you do it and look back you can tell that all this training is slowly but surely working. It's a good feeling.

I am in a plateau with weight loss and it has been driving me nuts for the past 2 months... but I haven't done anything to change my eating habits. I need to break through this plateau so that I can have the weight loss that goes along with my increasing fitness level. I am going to sit down this weekend and come up with a plan of action on cracking through this barrier! :)

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06/28/11 - Attempting to run on shin splints

I forgot to post this on Tuesday but here it is...

I met Sarah B at the gym today. My shins had been killing me earlier today but I thought I'd try and work through the pain. By the time I got to the gym it was just a dull throb so I figured why not try.

We got on the treadmill and started walking a few mins to warm up. We decided to only do a mile since my legs were hurting. I walked .1 miles then decided to see how far I could run. I got to .75 mile before walking and I did it at a 1% incline (to simulate running outside). I was surprised at how far I ran since it was more than my 1/2 mile straight last Thursday. :) Then I altered run/walk for the last lap of the mile and did a cool down. Then we walked around the mall (my gym is attached to a mall). So I did 1.25 miles in about 25 mins... not too shabby.

Found out later that I shouldn't run with shin splints and should let them heal all the way before attempting to run (it just makes them worse).

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Flip-flops and broken hearts!

My favorite time of year is when it's warm enough to wear flip-flops. I absolutely love them. Anytime it's over 60 degrees calls for flip-flops in my opinion. I wear them to work (I'm a coder and they don't care what I wear I've heard over the years how bad flip-flops and going barefoot could be for me but I never really cared b/c I love the freedom my feet felt in them.

I've had shin splints for about a week now and a lot of people are telling me that flip-flops could be one of the problems with it not healing so fast. Of course, I get all defensive and support flip-flops... but it made me wonder.

So for all of you flip-flop fanatics out there... here's a little info on how bad flip flops really can be. There will be broken hearts all over the place now!

I found this article called "Flip Flop Flaws" at News Week : http://www.newsweek.com/2008/06/09/flip-flop-flaws.html

Here are some important points (with my comments below each section)...

"... flip-flop wearers take shorter steps. The result is more stress on the body because you have to move more to go the same distance as people wearing other kinds of shoes. That could mean a higher risk of muscle and joint pain in the legs."

This is probably why old people can walk so much faster than me... I do take small-ish steps.

"By engaging the muscles that scrunch your toes, you are turning off the muscles that would bring your toes up." That also means that you can't lift your foot up as much when you walk—hence the characteristic flip-flop shuffle."

I'm thinking this could lead to other problems since you are working out different parts of your leg muscles. Like using your calfs or shins more than you really should?

"Being overweight and wearing ill-fitting shoes make it much more likely that you will suffer from plantar fasciitis. Thin-soled flip-flops without arch support aggravate the effects of any existing sources of strain on the legs and feet (such as too much weight or weak muscle tone)."

Great... 2 strikes against me... fat and flip-flop-lover! But this does explain a lot... If your legs are already straining or trying to recover (as in my case), flip flops are not helping the problem.

Today I decided to wear tennis shoes to work and my compression sleeve since my right shin was still in pain this morning around 10am (and I mean it was still pretty darn sore). It's now 5:30pm and my shin doesn't hurt at all anymore. I think these people might know what they are talking about. Proper feet support makes all the difference. I will be going out hunting for sandals with proper support. :)

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Water water everywhere.. you're gonna get wet!

Water is the primal essence of all life. About 55-60% of our bodies are made up of water. You would think it is a natural instinct to replenish that water supply every day… and in some people it is. But not me. I don't know how people drink so much water everyday. After about 2 bottles (around 32 ounces), I'm done.

I know water is an extremely important part of diet and exercise. It keeps you hydrated and washes all the crap you eat out of your body.

My goal is to start drinking 72 ounces of water a day. I just bought a 24oz Tritan Bottle from Nathan Sports and I plan on drinking at least 3 of these filled with water a day.

So far today… I'm on my last bottle of water right now and I have had to pee a million times. Hopefully my bladder gets better. I know, it's TMI but whatevs! :)

Random things I learned about water today:

• Babies have the highest percentage of water in their bodies… most being born with 78%
• Adult men have about 60% water
• Women have about 55%
• Fat tissue doesn't have as much water as lean tissue… so fat people have less water in their bodies than thin people
• Water is the only natural substance that is found in all 3 states: liquid, solid, and gas.
• There is the same amount of water on earth as there was when the earth was formed. The water that came from your faucet could contain molecules that Neanderthals drank…
• In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.

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Shin splints SUCK!

Just bought these today to help with my shin splints that I got on Friday. I've heard good things about them but who know... we shall find out! :)

Unfortunately my store only had black and white so I couldn't get pink ones (which would have been awesome)!

I'm back at work now and wearing them. Gym tonight with Sarah B! :) Let's see how these puppies work!

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Cousin-in-law's B-day party in the morning

at Cascade Lake, MD. Excited and I get to take my niece and nephew so that's even more exciting. And I think both of my sisters and my mom are coming too! :) Yay!

Gonna be fun.

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1 day 22 hours...

Until season premiere of True Blood! :) Get excited b/c this sexy viking is coming back:

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Today...

Still pumped from yesterday's run, I thought I'd go for an easy run this evening. I'm doing C25K over again since I switched to outside and I have decided I can move to week 2. So I tried W2D1. My plan was to do my run intervals and then go to Shoppers to pick up stuff for my friend's cook-out tomorrow. This is my route (I back-tracked some spots so it's kinda hard to read... but mapmyrun.com said it was 2.15 miles.



This was not very successful. I had shin splints out the wahzooo! I thought I've had them before but there is no way that my slight pain before was a shin splint. I was able to do 3 run intervals before it got too bad. It hurt so bad, I could barely walk the rest of the way to the store and then home.

1. How many times people yelled at me out of their car
2. # of excruciating shin splints I had
3. # of running intervals
4. I saw this many frogs or toads on the sidewalks
5. # of times I tripped on un-even payment. Lol.

I am taking tomorrow off then an easy-ish day on Sunday and then running at Fort Meade with JJ and Cindy on Monday (Boot camp is canceled next week)

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8/23/11 Fort Meade Run

I was dreading this run with JJ and Cindy. Halfway through the work day I got to thinking where my shoes were b/c I couldn't remember packing them. I secretly was wishing I left them at home so I wouldn't have to run... plus it was super muggy Thursday morning.

Well I got off work at 5:30 and my shoes were in the back seat of my car so I went to the parade field at the fort. For warm-up Cindy had me run a lap (each lap is a mile). I was able to run 1/2 of it before I had to make a pit stop at the bathroom (I must have the bladder of a 4 year old child). Then I ran the second half with 2 short walks in there.

Let me just say that the first half mile run was a huge accomplishment... I didn't think I could do it and I felt like stopping many times. What kept me going was Cindy talking to me and a full bladder... the porta-potties were at the half mile mark. Lol. I knew I'd feel better after I could pee... Probably TMI but whatevs.

After my mile "warm-up" she had me doing sprints for the next 2 miles. We'd do about 5 sprints each mile.

I felt so much better after this run than I did the first time. I didn't feel like I was going to pass out and I wasn't gasping for air so much. This made me so excited. I also think I ran a little faster on the sprints. I didn't think I had improved at all but afterwards I felt it.

Got me sooooo excited! :)

Then we went to DSW and I found the coolest pair of shoes they were so sparkly!

After we went to On The Border. First time I've ever been there and it was amazing! :) I got Enchiladas Suizas (sp?)... fantastic!

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Do Life Tour in Washington DC

Was AMAZING!!! I'm in love with the Davis men! :) They are a great group of people.

We walked the 5k with Pa Davis from BenDoesLife.com and Ben Davis joined us for 1/2 of it. I was so nervous and didn't know what to say to him but got some great pics. I'm going to try and figure out how to make a slide show and put it on here tomorrow.

They are such a great inspiration and I felt like a 'tween at a Bieber concert... so excited!

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OMG! Getting SUPER excited right about now!

8 hours until the Do Life Tour is in DC. Can't wait to meet Ben, Jed, and Pa!

:)

Did good today. I'm semi-restarting C25K but doing it outside to make me a stronger runner.

I did good today. Also I did 40 lunges and 40 squats. Followed by sprints up and down 2 sets of stairs. It was fun (surprisingly).

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