Beach Vacation...

Hola! I had great intentions of blogging while I was away at the beach for a week, but instead, my computer decided not to work thus leaving me internet-less for an entire week. I would be lying if I didn't say it was kind of nice. Sure I missed the distraction of all things internet related, but it was nice to be away from it for a whole week, even if not by my choice!

I started out my week with a lofty goal of walking (and running) 70 miles during the eight days we were there. I quickly realized that goal was a little unattainable and decided instead on a goal of 50 miles. I spent every day walking for hours and hours along the beach. It was wonderful. I ran four of the days as well with my long run being 8 miles (almost pain free!) There is nothing in the world better than strolling along the beach alone with your thoughts and the sound of the crashing waves. It was just so relaxing and wonderful.

I'm sad that it's over and am trying to psyche myself up for real life to begin tomorrow. UGH. I think I should have taken a two week vacation!

On the weight loss front things are still the same. I haven't lost a single pound in months. I had a week (two weeks ago) where I weighed in at 173.4 and I was thrilled to be rid of 175, but then I was quickly back to 175.4 this week. So frustrating! I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to take drastic measures in order to actually lose these thirty (or a dream forty) pounds. I'm not sure what those drastic measures are yet though, I feel like I'm already being really "good" - working out like crazy, running, doing weight watchers, eating a gluten free diet, etc. The only things left to do would be to cut out sugar, work out more, and add more vegetables to my diet. Other than that I'm at a complete loss.

I just hope that once I do lose the weight my body is as stubborn at staying at say 145 or 135 (dream!) pounds as it is at staying at 175.

New shoes, FAIL

Ok, so two runs in and the new shoes are no better than the old shoes! Freaking crap. Granted, they aren't giving me blisters, but they are causing me other problems, so I get to try and return them and get a third pair. After that I'm saying goodbye to Asics and am going to have to try a new brand.

Maybe two posts about shoes is overkill? Yeah, probably.

What else is going on?? Well, I had my final for my summer class last night and it's a relief to be done with it! Granted, I still have to go to class on Thursday, but I don't have to study anymore and that is fantastic. Only 12 more credits to go after Thursday. I can hardly believe it! In some ways it seems like just yesterday that I started, and in some ways it seems that I've been in school forever.

Once I get done with class I'm going to have one and a half glorious months off from school before I go back (except for one weekend class thrown in there, but it hopefully won't be any big deal.)

I'm contemplating studying for the GRE during my time off and/or start studying French. Also I'm planning on ramping up my workouts to try and actually get some of this weight off. I'm holding steady at 11 pounds down and it's annoying the crap out of me.

Onwards and downwards (I hope!)

New shoes (take 2!)

When I started training for the half marathon (or rather, when I started running more than 25 feet) I bought new shoes. I went to the local running store, showed them my old worn shoes and got fitted for new shoes. I've worn the same shoes for years now (Asics 2150s) and the running store employee told me they were the best shoes for me, except I needed to buy the wide version. Granted, the same running store employee also asked me if I had given birth to a child recently, so maybe I shouldn't have listened to him.

They didn't have the shoes in stock, so I bought them offline, for a hefty discount (!!) and they were delivered straight to my desk at work in two days. I should have known I was in trouble when after my first run I started getting blisters, but I told myself I was just breaking the shoes in. FAIL. Blisters are a signal that your shoes don't fit! Argh. I should never have listened to that employee!

So last night, I go to the Asics store in my building, and they spend a half an hour determining which shoes are the best fit for me. Amazing. And they'll take them back if they cause me any trouble within the next two weeks. Granted, now I'm out 130 bucks that I never intended to spend, but hopefully I can kiss my blisters goodbye.

Next up, trying to convince shoes.com to take back my blister causing too big pair of shoes. I don't have high hopes for that one!

Moral of the story? If an employee of any store ever asks you if you have recently had a child and you are not in fact holding your newborn, run in the other direction out of the store, because not only do they lack in common sense, but they probably won't have the best advice on what you should buy.

Seven miles!

This Saturday marks my longest run yet! SEVEN MILES. SEVEN! I can't believe it. I really can't. I started out today only planning to run six miles (I'm laughing to myself that I just wrote "only" and "six miles" in the same sentence) because last weeks six miler was so tough. But as fate may have it, the weather was so gorgeous and I felt great, so I went for the seventh mile, and I felt great! Like, really great. Like great enough I could have kept going. But, in my plan to NOT GET HURT this time, I didn't keep running. I will thank myself for that later!

So yes, today was glorious. A run to remember for sure.

I swear, if you would have told me two months ago that I'd be getting up at 7:30am on a Saturday morning to run I would have told you that you were crazy. And if you'd told me I'd actually look forward to doing so, I'd probably have recommended you check yourself into the looney bin, because I hate getting up early with a passion, and I can't run to save my life. Ha. How quickly things change.

In other news, my afternoon included a trip to a massage therapist to try and work out the extremely sore and tight calf muscles I've been battling (yes, we've determined the pain I've been having in my shins is my calf muscle and nothing else, which is great news!) Turns out, my new massage lady runs ironman triathlons. Here I am feeling all fantastic that I ran seven miles, and this lady does ironmans. 2.4 miles of swimming, 100+ miles of biking and a marathon. All in the same day! I can't even imagine.

She was fantastic though, so I'll be going back to her from now on. She did confirm my fear that my calf muscles are unreasonably tight and I am kind of a walking time bomb for a more serious injury. In fact, she said the current condition of my calves would be considered a calf injury, which makes me a little sad and makes me feel a little hard core at the same time. I promised to stretch, ice, get to yoga as much as I can and come back in two weeks. Again, I am going to do whatever it takes not to get hurt!

Lastly, my poor little feet are covered in blisters. Ok, little feet isn't really true, so more truthfully, my big feet are covered in blisters. I got new shoes right when I started training, and they were the wide version of the shoes I've always worn and I'm afraid that they are just a bit too big. I'm going to get new (non cotton) socks and go to a running store in the city to see if they can offer any help (i.e. an insert or a new way to tie my shoes.) I'm also giving some real consideration to buying another pair of shoes to cover all of the walking I do, and use my running shoes for solely running. I realize that's what you're supposed to do, but I walk everywhere and I was trying to avoid walking in one pair of shoes and carrying another. But, as the theme of this post seems to be, if it keeps me from getting hurt, I'll do it.

No Injuries Please!

Ok, so I'm training to run a half marathon in October. Honestly, I still feel like I'm jinxing myself by saying that. Like if I say that I'm training out loud then suddenly the running gods will frown upon me and I'll either lose my motivation or get injured or something else will happen to me that will keep me from meeting my goal.

But, so far it's been smooth sailing. Granted, I'm only a little over a month in, but still, so far so good. Until this week. This week my old troubled area (my calves and shins) started to complain a little. Nothing major, and I'm hoping I can keep this from being something major, but I'm nervous. The pain I'm feeling is the same beginning pain I've felt every other time I've committed to a training plan, and always always ended up in disaster (or in other words, stress fractures.)

My muscles just get so tight, and it seems no matter how much I stretch or rub or how much yoga I do, they stay tight. I tried to go for a short run today and the muscle beside my shin hurt so badly I had to stop at two miles because I am afraid of making it worse.

I'm trying not to get frustrated or discouraged. I'm planning on doing another 6 miles this weekend and I really want to accomplish it. I'm going to stretch a lot more tonight and tomorrow and then hope for the best on Saturday morning.

I'm also going to try and get in with a massage therapist to see if she can help loosen up my crazy tight muscles. I refuse to get hurt again. Do you hear that universe? I'm not getting hurt! I'm strength training, I have good shoes, I'm stretching, I'm working out with a trainer and I'm taking it slow. These things are not a recipe for an injury!

So I'm just writing all this to remind myself that I am dedicated, and I am going to do everything I can not to get hurt. Because come October, I'm running that race!!!

Sunday morning long run...

In the five months between blog posts, a lot of things have changed, and one of them is that I picked up running again. Ok, running might not be the right word for it, walking/jogging is a better term, but I feel better saying running, so I'm going to stick with it!

I've actually committed to running a half marathon in October, which is extremely scary for me, but also gives me something to shoot for, so hopefully it'll help keep me committed. This isn't actually the first time I've tried to train for a half marathon, but I've always gotten hurt in the very early stages before, so I'm hoping this time is different.

To that end - today was my longest ever run! I've officially made it farther in my half marathon training than I ever have before. SIX MILES! Now while that probably doesn't sound like a lot to most, to me it was huge. I never made it farther than 5 miles in the past so today was a big day for me. Now granted, mile six was brutal and I barely ran any of it, but it still counts because I didn't stop and I didn't give up. I'll probably end up repeating a six miler again next weekend, just because today was so tough, but I'm ok with that and have plenty of time in my training schedule for some duplicate weeks.

It's been insanely hot here, and every time I go outside to run I think to myself, man maybe I should have waited until fall to start training. Getting up super early to get in a run before it's in the mid/high 90s and with humidity so high you can practically see it, well, that's my life these days. But I figure it's just good practice, and it'll make me appreciate the better weather, whenever it is that we get to see better weather anyway.

I'm contemplating signing up for some smaller races before the October half just to give me some confidence that I can actually run in races and not just by myself! Yeah, maybe that's a good idea.

Also, and I can't believe I'm writing this, but all of this running has me wondering about doing a full marathon. Granted, I'm going to see how training goes and how my first half marathon goes, but the idea just won't leave me alone. I've been on this kick of coming up with a thirty things to do before I turn thirty list, and running a marathon just might make the list. We'll see...

Long time, no blog...

So it's been five months since my last blog post. Yikes. It feels kind of like every time I would start a journal when I was younger - it would be my new years resolution to start writing and I'd always say "this year I'm going to write in my journal every day!" Except it never happened. The only thing I ever ended up with was a bunch of journals with five entries from the beginning of the year. Not exactly the kind of life documentation I was looking for.

And here I am, starting an electronic type journal and I did the same gosh darn thing. I guess some habits die hard eh?

But I'm back! And vowing (once again) to try and keep a better record of the happenings of my life.

So where to begin? Probably with the saga that is my weight loss journey. Over the last five months I haven't given up, but I have had my series of setbacks, which I figure is normal in the journey to lose forty (fifty?) pounds.

Today I weighed in at 174.8. I've been plateaued around the 174 mark for about three months now. It's beyond frustrating. But I just keep on keeping on.

I'm still following weight watchers and have been working out on a very regular basis. In fact, I've hired myself a trainer and have been working with her for the last month twice a week. I'm also training for a half marathon (or uh, trying to) and have recently started practicing yoga again. I've been averaging between 4-5 workouts a week. In fact, many mornings I get up at 6am to hit the gym or the streets for a run. Had I told myself that 5 months ago (when I last blogged) I would have laughed at myself. So I guess this is proof that gradual changes can lead to huge changes over time!

I've also been working on making some big changes in my life, but again, like everything else, they are slow in coming. I'll leave this post about my weight loss (or lack thereof) today, with hopes that I'll actually write again tomorrow, or sometime soon.