Falling Down the Stairs Part 2

No, I did not fall down the stairs again.

But yes, I am still having trouble with my right knee 2.5 weeks after I fell down the stairs with Petey. So much trouble in fact that I ended up having to take a ride home today from my run, with a total stranger because I couldn't walk home and no cabs I could find would take a credit card (and apparently running with cash today didn't seem like a thing to do.)

Today's post was supposed to say 12.5 miles! Except it doesn't, because I ran exactly 4 miles before my knee hurt so bad that I had to stop random strangers in Weehawken to ask if I can use their cell phone to try and call Jeff to have him come pick me up. Unfortunately Jeff was hanging out with Petey on the deck, so he didn't hear the phone which meant that I ended up letting a random stranger drive me home. Maybe not the smartest thing I've ever done. But I made it home in one piece so alls well that ends well right? Right.

But this doesn't end well, because I think that after 2.5 weeks of heavily lessened training, lots of rest and icing of my knee I should be feeling better than this if there was nothing actually wrong with my knee. Now I'm starting to think there is something actually wrong with my knee, which is troubling for lots of reasons, not the least of which that I signed up to run the NYC marathon in three months and have asked for financial support to do so, which means that I won't just be letting myself down if I'm truly injured, but I'll be letting others down as well. Awesome.

Oh and did I mention I don't have health insurance again until Sept 6th when I start my new job? Cause I don't. Double awesome.

Alright, maybe this post is a little heavy on the drama. I'm walking around and my knee hasn't hurt THAT much over the last 2.5 weeks so maybe all I need is more time. And taking a step back in training doesn't ruin everything right? I hope not. I'm biting the bullet and calling a doctor tomorrow to see if I can at least get an opinion on what's going on without it costing me an arm and a leg. And I'm crossing my fingers that the opinion comes back as give it another week and you'll be good as gold. Or uh, something like that.

Until then, I suppose I better find other ways to keep up with my training that don't hurt my knee. I'm thinking the elliptical machine might be a good place to start. Or maybe the pool. Or both.

Here's hoping the next post has some better news than this one :-)

Summer Goals Update #2

Well I made some progress on the goals I posted two Fridays ago, last Friday I was in Vegas!

I've included my updates in colors:

Green = success

Blue = plan

Red = failure

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100% - Weeks 2/3 - 75%, missed two runs due to knee injury

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.) - Week 2/3 - done! Yoga and a ton of walking - need to do better with things other than walking, but Vegas was a good chunk of this time so I'm giving myself a break

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership - 1 more time gone, 24 left to go (yikes may need to rethink this goal or get a move on!)

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do today/tomorrow

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do next week

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day - Stretching yes, foam rolling no, but I did find my foam roller

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness - still haven't done, need to set up for Sunday or Monday after my next long run

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day - week 2/3 half check, yes for every day I wasn't in Vegas

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week - no, not if you include Vegas!

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks - got one cookbook in the mail! had veggie lasagna today and it was excellent, also been experimenting with veggie burgers, YUM

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible - complete FAIL, ate more meat than I'm proud of in Vegas

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks - got a tape measure today and will start tomorrow with my weigh in

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures - FAIL, need to do better with this

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time - sucked here, need to get back on the ball

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill - still on my to do list

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out - Check!! DONE!

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with - did find a dog walker, but still need to find a trainer

6. Read Harry Potter Books 1-7 (new! started on book #1 yesterday) - already halfway through book 4

7. Download and read books recommended to me for "self improvement" - still on my to do list

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French - purchased, now need to download and get started

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety - haven't watched one class yet

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?) - haven't done anything with

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?) - haven't done anything with

5. Read Joyful Wisdom - on page 230, 30 pages to go, should be done by next Friday

6. Review the level 1 CFA books - found a friend I can borrow them from, now just need to actually get them (same status)

Well, you win some you lose some. I'm not as far along with some of these goals as I'd hoped, but am hopeful that I can make a pretty good stand at getting most of them done before I start work in 5.5 weeks. I'm making a promise right now to myself to at least try as hard as I can (even if I know I won't quite make it, ahem 30 visits to the gym) and log in every Friday to track my progress. Until then...

Viva Las Vegas!

Four days in Las Vegas with some fantastic girlfriends. What more can you ask for??? The weather was fantastic (it was actually cooler in Vegas than in Manhattan the entire time we were there), the company was great, hotel was nice and comfy and the food was spectacular. Oh and the shows were great and the clubs were pretty fun too.

Here is the hotel that we stayed at - highly reccomend the Plazzo, it easily fit the four of us quite comfortably in one suite:

The only real downsides of the trip were one, that none of us won any money and two that the plane right there and subsequent treadmill run made my knee hurt so bad I hard time walking the first half of the trip. That said, I never plan to run on a treadmill again if I can help it. I don't know if it was the treadmill or the 6 hours of sitting in the same place on the plane that aggravated my knee, but either way, I'm not planning on taking that risk again anytime soon if I can help it.

I had been to vegas before, but it had been a few years, and this trip definitely exceeded my expectations. I thought for a minute about counting calories and sticking to my new vegetarian ways, but that quickly went out the window pretty much the minute we landed:

If you're ever in Vegas try Hash House a Go Go. It was a real crowd pleaser. The service kinda sucked, but the food more than made up for it.

Luckily though it doesn't look like I gained any weight on the trip. I'm sure walking for miles every day up and down the strip in the 100+ degree heat had something to do with it. Official weigh in is tomorrow and I plan on giving a weight update then.

Weight Loss (or Lack Thereof Update)

I think the best way to start this post is by saying UGH. So UGH.

My lowest weight right before I left my job was 159.8. My lowest weight since being off was 159.8 a few days ago. After 44 days of watching what I eat and working out like a crazy person (more details on that below) I've lost ZERO POUNDS.

And the thing is, I'm not thin! I'm overweight by anyone's standards. The highest acceptable weight for my height is 154.9 pounds. I'm still 5-7 pounds above that on any given day. And it's not like I have some crazy body type or something, I don't. I'm just overweight and there is no way around it.

In the last 44 days I have logged a total of 160 miles of both walking and running. This milage doesn't count the 2+ miles I walk every single time I go into the city or the miles I walk running errands. These are just exercise specific miles. And I RAN 88 of those miles. 88!! I ran 88 miles in the last 44 days (ha, an average of 2 a day) and walked an additional 70+ miles and haven't lost a pound. I've also practiced yoga, swam and done strength training. And I've logged every damn calorie I've eaten.

All I can think is that I need to eat less. Or workout even more and eat the same. A few days ago I changed myfitnesspal to a goal of losing 1.5 pounds a week which took my calorie count goal down even more, so I'm hoping that by staying close to that every day (and most days under it) that I can start to see some movement on this whole $&*(#$& weight loss thing.

I'm also going to buy a fabric tape measure this weekend to start taking measurements, because honestly, something has to give, for my sanity.

Lastly, as added motivation, I really want to start my new job wearing much more professional clothes than I have worn at my previous jobs. I think I'm finally at an age and a level where I need to start not only acting the part but looking the part. I'd really really really love to be able to purchase some staples for my wardrobe before I start that are in sizes I can be proud of and not ashamed of. I really don't want to have to buy nice clothes in the size I'm in right now, and I really don't want to buy anymore clothes from target or old navy because I'm chubby.

I have 51 more days to make some serious progress. I'm in a teeeny bit snug size 10. I'd really love to be a solid size 8 by the time I go back to work, and my dream goal is to be a size 6 (I was at one time a size 4 but I'm going to leave that as my super duper dream goal for now.)

Wish me luck. I really need to see some progress or I'm going to lose my mind.

95 Days of Summer - Day 44

I've said it before and I'll say it again, time is flying! I honestly never realized that I'd be THIS happy being off of work. I knew I'd be happy, but I never expected this. I'm not sure if it's just that I really needed a break (I did) or if it's that I was really unhappy in my job (I was) or some combination of factors, but these days I'm the happiest I ever remember being in my life.

Granted, that's a little scary when I think about the fact that this lifestyle isn't permanent for me. I've been giving a lot of thought of how to keep this type of happiness in my life even when I do go back to work and things get crazy again. That has to be possible right? I hope so. I really really do.

Ok, enough serious stuff for one day!

In happy news, I went to yoga today for the first time at this gym and I'm very very proud of myself for going. It was tough but I lasted and didn't get up and leave 10 minutes in (I did think about it though!) My muscles were even tighter than normal due to the long run yesterday, BUT it was obvious to me that yoga does so much good for me (stretching my poor overtired running legs and helping with stability) that I need to practice more consistently. Problem is, I don't really enjoy it. I want to enjoy it, and I enjoy the IDEA of it, but I don't love the practice. But, the teacher told us newbies to give it five times before we give up, so that's what I'm going to do. Planning to try and hit a class on Monday or Tuesday again. I'd like to hit two more classes before we leave for Vegas. VEGAS! Wahoo!

Something else I have to do on Monday or Tuesday? Get a new drivers license. UGH. I flipping hate the BMV. But then again, who doesn't.

And speaking of a new drivers license, I am going to look at new cars this afternoon on our way down to Philly! I'm a little excited about it. The last car I bought was back in 2001, a two door silver honda civic that my sister now owns and it still runs great. I'm a honda girl through and through so I'll be upgrading to either a civic hybrid or the insight hybrid. Need a hybrid to deal with the 50 mile (EACH WAY) commute I am going to have before long. Should be interesting!

Summer Goals Update #1

Well I made some progress on the goals I posted last Friday...I've included my updates in colors:

Green = success

Blue = plan

Red = failure

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100% - Week 1, done!

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.) - Week 1, done! 2 Elliptical sessions, 1 swimming and lots of walking!

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership - 2 more times this week, 25 left to go (yikes!)

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do after Vegas

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do after Vegas

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day - stretching yes but foam rolling no (can't find it?)

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness - need to call today for appointment tomorrow

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day - week 1, check!

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week - only was under 4 days this week (but I did change my calories to target 1.5 pounds lost a week from 1 pound, so I'm still eating less than I was - need to do better this week!)

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks - made spaghetti with fake meat sauce, vegan chocolate chip cookies and cookie dough bites, and stir fry with tempeh, also pre-ordered one vegan cookbook, just need to find another

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible - did pretty well here, just ate pepperoni on my pizza today, I was meat free every other day

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks - FAIL, need to buy a tape measure for tomorrow!

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures - FAIL, need to do better with this

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time - blogging yes but pictures no

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill - need to do before Vegas

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out - need to make genius bar appointment (this weekend?)

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with - in contact with local dog walkers who also do training, might kill two birds with one stone there until he's ready to go to group classes (in about a month)

6. Read Harry Potter Books 1-7 (new! started on book #1 yesterday)

7. Download and read books recommended to me for "self improvement"

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French - need to fix computer first

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety - haven't watched one class yet

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?) - haven't done anything with

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?) - haven't done anything with

5. Read Joyful Wisdom - on page 110, want to finish before Vegas (too ambitious?)

6. Review the level 1 CFA books - found a friend I can borrow them from, now just need to actually get them

So not too bad for the first week eh? I have 6 more weeks to accomplish everything on this list - at this pace I'm sure I can do it, as long as I keep it up. And if I don't accomplish everything on the list, that's ok to, even accomplishing most everything would make me feel pretty productive. Until next week...

11 MILES!!!!!

I believe running 11 miles deserves to be in all caps don't you? I'll say it again, 11 MILES! I ran 11 miles today and I did not die! I ran for 2 hours and 20 minutes and lived to tell about it. My first double digit run and my longest distance to date. I may or may not be quite proud of this fact!

Very similar to my run two weeks ago (9.5 miles) I got less than 8 hours of sleep and was exhausted and felt like crap and didn't want to run. I was also intimidated by the distance ahead of me and worried that my sore knee wouldn't let me accomplish it. But I'm thrilled to report that while my knee was a little sore (but nothing bad at all!) and I did feel like crap when I was getting ready, I got my butt outside and ran those 11 miles. And I feel awesome!

Here are my stats from the run:

11.01 miles

2:20:09

12:44 min/mile

1253 calories

150 avg bpm

As my reward for conquering the distance I ordered myself a gluten free pizza from my favorite pizza place here in town. I even got pepperoni on it, which goes against my new vegetarian ways, but it was a treat and I enjoyed every bite of it. I did give Jeff two of the 8 slices, so I didn't eat the whole thing myself, but I'm pretty sure I polished off at least 1000 calories worth of pizza after that run.

Today was one of those runs where I really do feel like I'll have what it takes to finish the half marathon in a little over 6 weeks. I love runs like this, they really are so much better than the 3 mile runs where every single step feels like torture. Maybe there is something to getting up early in the morning and running??? Food for thought!

Falling Down the Stairs is a Humbling Experience

Thursday started off as a great day (well minus the whole Petey peeing on the bed thing, but that's another story for another blog entry titled "Adventures in Potty Training a Puppy from a Fourth Floor Walkup"), the weather was great, I got an excellent workout in at the gym, 3 miles on the elliptical and 30 minutes of swimming laps, and I have the whole day ahead of me to look forward to. Truly an awesome day.

I was thinking about what I was going to do with my awesome day while carrying Petey down the stairs to go out (yes, we have to carry him down the stairs because he's still too little to climb them), next thing I know I'm falling down the stairs and all I can think about is not landing on the 8 pound dog I'm carrying because I'm pretty sure it might have killed him. I didn't for one second think about how I was going to land and ended up doing a very awkward throwing the dog in front of me so I don't crush him thing.

I then landed directly on my right knee cap. Not one other part of my body took the impact. It was shockingly painful. And of course, Petey was no worse for the wear, he just stared at me with his head cocked to one side while I yelled for Jeff to come and help me because I just wasn't sure if I could get up. Of course then I burst into tears. Not because it hurt (it did) but because I was terrified that I had injured myself and I would no longer be able to train for the half or the full marathon and all of the goals I'd been working towards would be shattered. Dramatic much? Ha.

I spent the next 5 or so hours on the couch wallowing in my own pity and icing my knee. I couldn't believe how upset I was or how vulnerable I felt. It really hit home for me just how important all of this training is to me and how important my goals are to me. It also really hit home just how quickly things can change in an instant. I was lucky, I don't think I'm seriously injured but I could have been and that scared the crap out of me.

I will try and be more careful when carrying the little guy down the stairs. The next time I might not be so lucky to end up with only some rug burn and a couple of good bruises!

I Love the Shore

I feel like that is my constant theme this summer, and we've only been down twice. The shore is simply one of my favorite (if not my favorite!) place on earth. I've always been a beach person and for some reason I've fallen in love with this beach in particular.

The only real working out I do while I'm down here is running (just following my training plan) and walking miles and miles along the shoreline. I swear I could walk forever with my toes in the ocean. Although I have to admit, I'm starting to think it's kind of hard on my calf muscles, all of the barefoot walking, because they do tend to bother me when we're down here. I might have to start doing some walking on the beach in my tennis shoes, which will obviously make me look really cool. Ha.

Running down here is miserable though. Or at least it has been so far. Granted, I've made the mistake of not getting up early to run so I'm hoping that's a big part of my problem. I've been running anywhere from 9:45am to noon and each one has been as bad as the next. It kind of kills my confidence for running 13.1 miles down here at the end of August. If I'm barely making it through 3 miles, how the heck will I make it through 10.1 more miles???

I'm trying not to let it get me down, and hoping that 7 more weeks of training will get me ready. I'm also hoping that since the race starts at 8am (or 7am) that it'll be a bit cooler and more manageable than my runs down here have been so far. Hopefully. Otherwise I'm in for a world of hurt come August 28th.

In other news, I'm in my 6th week of being off and feeling the urge to ramp it up in terms of what I'm accomplishing with that time. I need to really focus on the goals I wrote about a few days ago and figure out how to go about accomplishing them with my time off. Of course I'll keep a nice balance of being lazy and reading and hanging out with Pete to make sure I don't overdo it :-)

Why I'm Running the NYC Marathon with Fred's Team

The NYC Marathon is notoriously hard to get into. They have a lottery and the odds aren't great, in fact, I don't know a single person that has actually gotten in via the lottery that lives in the NYC area. The only people I know that have gotten in were from out of town (they have two separate lotteries, one for those of us who live in the area and one for those that don't - the one for those that don't has better odds.)

There are of course other ways to get in besides the lottery, if you lottery three years in a row and don't get in you can get in on the 4th year automatically, or you can run 9 races with the NYRR throughout the year and volunteer for one race and you can get in the next year, or you can be really fast and get a qualifying time (never going to happen), OR you can run for charity which is obviously the option I chose.

I've wanted to run a marathon for a long time, and I've really wanted to run the NYC marathon and do it for cancer in both memory of and in support of people I love in my life who have or are fighting a battle with cancer. Since I'm turning 30 next year (GULP) I figure doing it before I turned 30 was a good goal to set for myself. So I signed up to run with Fred's Team and opted to put my donations towards strategic need research as the people in my life have been affected by many different types of cancer so I didn't feel like I could choose just one type.

Both of my grandparents on my mom's side died within 3 months of each other back in 2007, my grandfather from liver cancer and my grandmother from a decade plus battle with a rare form of intestinal cancer. Since then my stepmother has been battling breast cancer and my great uncle has battled prostate cancer. Of course, these are just a few of the people in my life who have been affected by the disease. And they are the people I think of when I am a quarter mile into a hot and miserable 3 mile run and don't what to run another step. They are also the people I think of when I don't want to get out of bed and train. Training for the marathon is more than just about a goal for me, it's also about honoring people in my life who have been affected by cancer.

I will admit that fundraising is incredibly intimidating for me. Asking people for money is scary and not something I find comfortable at all. But being out of my comfort zone is a good thing! And quite frankly, the more people I have supporting me the more people I feel like I would let down if I don't end up crossing the finish line on November 6th which is much needed extra motivation.

I'm still working on coming up with idea of how to fundraise. I've thought about getting back into painting and selling the paintings to raise money towards my goal. I've also thought about trying to partner with a local restaurant and hosting a dinner with a percentage of proceeds to go towards my fundraising goal. I'm not sure how feasible either of these ideas is, but at least they are thoughts in the right direction. And if all else fails, Fred's Team has my credit card number and they will graciously charge me the balance of the goal if I don't make it. Ha. Just another type of motivation for this girl!

In training news, I had another tough run today. I don't know what it is about running down at the shore but it's much harder for me than running around good old Hoboken. Today I just had three miles on the schedule and it took me an embarrassingly long time to finish them so I'm not even going to post my stats because I'd just like to forget them. All I can hope is that come half marathon time down here in August I'll be in better shape than I am today or I might be crawling across the finish line.

Back to the Beach we Go!

Have I mentioned I love the beach? (or rather, the shore as it's affectionately called in Jersey) One of the things I looked forward to most in taking these three months off is the ability to get down to the shore as much as possible. Jeff's parents have a house down there and they graciously let us stay down there with them. Talk about lucky!

I'm looking forward to another weekend full of walks along the beach, playing fetch with Petey and just relaxing. Life doesn't get any better than that I don't think.

But, while I'm down there I do plan to focus on some of the goals I mentioned in a previous post. I'm taking down the book Joyful Wisdom so I can read it while I'm on the beach. I'll of course do one or two training runs while I'm down there just depending on how long we are there for. I'm vowing right here on the interwebs that I will also spend time strength training (planks/pushups/squats/etc.) and doing some serious stretching. So in between all that relaxing I plan on making some progress towards those goals of mine.

In exciting goal related news I DID make it to the gym today even though I really really really did not want to go. So that's 4 trips so far this summer. Only 26 more to go. Yikes. I'm going to have to start going a lot more often if I want to make that goal even a possibility.

My cross training workout today was as follows:

2 miles on the elliptical - resistance between 6-10, average of 8

3 sets of 10 on the abductor machine with 60 pounds (trying to work on my hip/glute strength)

3 planks for 30 seconds

3 sets of one legged balancing on the bosu ball, 30 seconds on each leg

Ok, so maybe not the most hard core workout out there, but it was something. And I plan to take a long walk on the beach tonight when we get there and spend some quality time playing fetch with the little guy - so not an all together shabby day workout wise. Tomorrow I've got a 3 mile run on tap, and I'm just hoping it's a bit easier than my runs were last time I was down the shore...

To the beach we go!

Goals for the Next Two Months...

I have two months left of my sabbatical. Two months of nothing dictating my schedule but me (and Petey since puppy training is a lot of work!) I want to make the most of it. I feel like I've done a really good job of making the most of my first month off, so I want to make even more out of the next few months if that's possible.

I figure since I'm a pretty goal oriented person that setting out some goals for myself might help me to feel like I've accomplished what I want to this summer when it's all said and done. So here goes.

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100%

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.)

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #3!)

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #3!)

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?)

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?)

5. Read Joyful Wisdom

6. Review the level 1 CFA books

That's a lot eh? And I didn't even mention my biggest goal, to lose weight, because that should happen if I keep to my goals above. I plan to check in once a week, on Fridays to chat about my progress on the goals above, and as time goes on I'll try and add more specifics to some of the goals so they are easy to track!

Week 10 of Training - Complete!

I can't believe I've been training for 10 weeks. I really thought I was on week 7 or 8 when I went to fill in my training schedule today and was shocked when I saw that I was actually finishing week 10 and my next run will be the beginning of week 11. Where has the time gone???

This week was an easy week - the way the training schedule I'm using goes you basically alternate between easy weeks and "hard" weeks. I use them term "hard" lightly as I'm following a very conservative training plan with pretty low miles and only three days a week of running, so the word hard might be a stretch. I do, however, reserve the right to use the word hard later on in my training when the weekly milage starts to get in the 20-30 miles per week range.

The only real cross training I did this week was walking which is not necessarily a good thing. While I got a lot of miles in walking, I really need to get more actual cross training in. I need to add more yoga, swimming, elliptical and strength training into my weekly workouts. There is a yoga class this evening that I'm currently trying to talk myself into going to, but I've already done my 4 mile run for the day so I'm going to need some serious convincing to do a second workout!

If I don't end up going to the gym again tonight (and even if I do) I need to get to the gym tomorrow morning. I freaking paid $300 to join the gym for the summer and my goal is to get there 30 times before I start my new job on September 6th. I've made it THREE times so far. so that's uh, 27 more to go. Yikes.

Running on the Beach is Hard

The beach is my favorite place on earth. Always has been. There is nothing I love more than walking along the shoreline, letting the waves hit my feet, feeling the sand between my toes and looking out at the ocean. I feel completely at peace when I'm at the beach, no matter what is going on in my life.

We made our first trip down to the shore this past weekend to celebrate the fourth of July. It was amazing. The weather was perfect, the company was great and little Petey loved the shore just as much as I do...

Obviously I had a bit of marathon training to do while we were down the shore. Luckily I did my longest run before we left. But I still had a few runs to do while we were there. Let me just say, they were BRUTAL. Honestly, probably some of the worst runs I've had while I've been training. Despite the beautiful weather and scenery the runs were awful which was honestly really frustrating.

I did one run on the sidewalk and one on the beach and they were both hard. There is really no way to describe them other than that. Just hard. I don't know if my legs are still tired from the long run I did, or if they are tired from all of the walking I did on the beach, or it if is some combination of the two, but my training this past weekend was anything but easy.

I'm taking today off from anything other than walking and am planning to do a short run and an hour long yoga class tomorrow in hopes of helping my tired muscles. I'm also thinking about trying to schedule a sports massage to see if that might help. It's a little discouraging to be having trouble with 3 mile runs at this point in my training, but I'm sure its just one of many obstacles I'll face along the way.

The Hardest Day to Get Up = The Best Day to Get Up

I woke up this morning all out of sorts. I had a headache, I felt dehydrated and like I could sleep for another 4 hours and still not feel rested. I also had the longest run of my life (to date) on my training schedule. It felt like a recipe for disaster.

I honestly contemplated bagging it. Pushing the run off until Sunday. But then I thought about how bad I'd feel about myself all day long if I didn't go, and how good I'd feel if I did. Those thoughts plus quite a bit of water and some advil got me out the door 45 minutes later. A little less than two hours after that, I had done it! I ran 9.5 miles! 1.5 miles longer than I'd ever run before.

It really was a perfect morning to run. Bright blue skys, coolish breeze, not humid and beautifully sunny. I ran along the pier for most of the time and the water was sparkling, it was really beautiful.

I will admit to feeling pretty overwhelmed both before and during this run. I ran slowly and never pushed myself too hard, but I wouldn't say it was completely easy mentally either. About 4 miles in I realized I still had to run that distance again plus some more and I wanted to give up. But I just kept telling myself to think about the time/distance/calories burned in small increments because the amount left felt unmanageable. And it worked. Not to say it wasn't hard, it was, but I did it, and I didn't die at the end. In fact the last few miles were the easiest because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and everything seemed a whole lot easier.

Here are the stats:

9.5 miles

1:59:01 total time

12:32 min/mile

149 avg heart rate

1104 calories burned

I seem to be keeping pretty steady with my 12:30(ish) runs for my long runs. But truthfully, I don't look at my time when I run other than when my garmin beeps to tell me another mile has past. I use my heart rate as a guide for the most part, and when things get really mentally tough (like they did on this run) I also use calories burned - i.e. run for 15 calories burned, walk for 10 calories burned. It helps to break up the monotony. When I run like this on long runs I seem to be fairly steady with my 12:30 pace, but I have to prepare myself that it might get slower as things go on, because the long runs just keep getting longer, and not hurting myself is infinitely more important than keeping any given pace.

I am planning to treat myself to some vegan chocolate chip cookie dough this evening as a reward for burning so many calories (and for getting myself out of bed this morning) - and yes, it's good, I would consider myself a cookie dough connoisseur and this stuff passes the test (and no eggs, so it won't make me sick!)