forty

As I sit here this morning, sipping my coffee, I am really questioning my ability to run a sub 4 hour marathon on Saturday. This happens to me all the time - tapering is the culprit. Not running for three days in a row cause me to believe that I have lost everything I have trained for in the past three-ish months.

Negativity.

I don't have room for that in my head right now.

Of course it doesn't help that I ate kind of crappy yesterday, went to bed 2 hours later than I normally do, and a huge kitchen fail last night.

Am I setting myself up for failure?

Snap out of it! Right?!

So in an effort to get myself pumped back up this morning, I plotted this lovely graph to help myself visualize how hard I have worked in the past two years.



Forty pounds of weight loss is no small feat.  I don't often share about this on the blog, a few references here and there sure, but sharing actual numbers is just not my thing.

Until today apparently.

I clearly remember stepping on the scale in college for my first cross country running weigh-in in 2002 - 132 pounds.

Two years ago, I remember being super upset with myself because I weighed more than my friend who was 9 months pregnant. Not cool, Kier.  172 pounds.


(Again Leah, sorry that this is my goto photo...I know you hate it!)

One week ago I went in for my annual physical and asked for all of my weights that they had on record.  The doc was quite impressed with my progress. That day I weighed 132.2 pounds.



Be proud, Kier.

I am proud. I never really set out to lose weight, I just set out to rediscover my love for running. Along the way I started eating better, lifting weights and ultimately lost weight.

There are still days where I feel "fat" and need someone to punch me in the face and look at myself in the mirror.

There are still days where I hate my hips and need someone to remind me that hips are bones and you can't shrink bones.

40 pounds. Been there.

Sub 4 marathon. Here I come.

cross train fail

Confession: I had planned to swim laps at the Y yesterday morning as well as this morning.  Each day, I snoozed for over an hour and never made it to the pool.

Lame, right?!  I have been looking forward to getting in the pool to really push myself and build/maintain my endurance levels.

My excuse is a poor one - just two busy days in a row, very busy days. But I totally could have gotten to the pool a minute before it opened, swam for 30 minutes (because 31 minutes is just way to hard), and returned home before 7 and could have been well on my way to having a great day with an awesome workout already under my belt.

Now, I have to find time to fit in a great workout into my already jammed packed afternoon/evening.

Looks like I have another date with the elliptical!

And this post begins my new series "Cross-Training My Way to Fargo" because I have a sneaking suspicion that I will not be able to run for a while.

So, any tips on how to successfully cross train for a marathon? (Besides not skipping my pool sessions!)  What should I do in place of my long runs?

hurts so good

What a lovely, sticky-hot day! Again, up before the sun to take Maia for a walk, which had to be shortened because of the heat and humidity - yes, even at 5:15 in the AM it was too hot for Maia! I then headed out for a 3 mile run, with an hour stop at the Y half way through for Core.

Core.is.amazing.

A class that focuses specifically on, well, strengthening the core, is just what my body ordered! The instructor - even better. You can't get away with any slacking in her class and she makes sure you are doing everything right in order to get the best workout in.  I hurt so good after each of her classes!  Not quite sure how she does it though - she teaches three classes back-to-back-to-back. I would pass out.

Anyway - that was just a post about Core and how much I love it. :)  I think Friday is the last class of this session though. I really hope she offers it again.

put thee lime in the coconut

After an amazing five days in Minnesota, it is so good to be back in Iowa, albeit only for five days - then Nic and I both head up to Minnesota for ten glorious days!

It feels good to be back home though - I like my schedule and routine!

Monday mornings are my early mornings of the week as I have to make the hour trek to Burlington for some office hours. Normally I wake up super early and get out for a walk with Maia, but this morning, some guy I know locked himself in the hallway of his workplace... :-)  I headed up to try to let him out, but didn't have an extra key. I laughed and laughed, but at 5:30AM I don't think Nic thought it was that funny.

After dressing in my amazing new dress from anthropologie (who am I?!) that Maddie made me snag for a whopping $29 (!!!) I was ready to start my day. (No worries, I plan on wearing the dress again on Tuesday {ssshhhh, don't tell} and will take a quick picture.)  No fewer than 3 minutes within getting to work, I had two ladies compliment my dress - umm done and done - guess it is time to buy some more (again, who am I??).

Work absolutely flew by and we are having such glorious weather that I decided to get in a 5.5 mile run when I got home, with a pit stop at the Y.




Workout

Run:
mile 1 - 7:48
mile 2 - 7:59
mile 3 - 8:00
mile 4 - 7:44
mile 5 - 8:12
mile 5 - 5.5 - ummm, guess I forgot to stop my watch.
Total distance - 5.5 miles

Weights:
Shoulders & arms

I got home and refueled with a coconut mocktail. Coconut water is apparently great when it comes to replenishing fluids and minerals lost during exercise. My mocktail included 3/4 glass of plain coconut water (it comes in a variety of flavors), a splash of club soda and a wedge of lime. Delish!





Today's eats:


Alrighty - time to hit the hay {with the windows open - it is soooo nice out!}, I have an early and loooong day tomorrow! (Like a 12+ hour day!)

18 inches

Our last official day of hYped was last night. :(  Over the past 16 weeks, Nic and I have been loving our 4-night-a-week workout sessions at the Y. Not only have the workouts been great, but working out with the group of people was a lot of fun - and motivating.

I loved working out with Nic, but my favorite days were working out with some of the other guys and giving them a run for their money. Sure makes a girl feel good!

Speaking of feeling good, I woke up bright and early today to have my measurements taken by one of the personal trainers. Holy wow - working out consistently AND eating a balanced diet really does pay off! Since January 30 this year, I've lost a total of 18 inches, about 15 pounds and  3.5% body fat. WOOT! (Since March 2009 I've lost 27 pounds).

Ok - looking at that 27 pounds is pretty crazy. I don't think I was ever that fat...and I guess I wasn't really fat, but I for sure wasn't happy with how I looked. Now, I might consider wearing a swimsuit for the first time in ages this summer (harhahr), and much to Nic's delight, I don't utter the statement "I am sooo fat" every night before we go to bed. :)

I've still got a few pounds to go before I reach this goal...

Speaking of that goal...we are actually going to be working on our basement this summer. That means we are two steps closer to maybe, possibly, giving Jackson and Alexa a cousin. :)  Wait - I don't remember that "backpack in Alaska for two weeks" goal being included on the list...  Oh well, guess Jackson and Alexa can wait a few more years, right!?

Oh, hYped - it's really not over. Just taking a few weeks off before we start up the summer session. And guess who is going to be the instructor? That's right - this girl!

our weekend

This weekend was pretty uneventful...which was nice.  It went waaaay too fast, but whenever is that not the case?

Nic worked on Saturday, so I had a pretty lazy morning of doing nothing and walking the dog.  After a quick run and workout at the Y with Nic, we decided to head up to Iowa City to check out some bikes for Nic.  We've been using bikes that Ike, Maddie and I got a long time ago - the year when Tim Allen's The Santa Clause came out (that was in 1994 people - middle school!!).  Our intent was not to buy a bike since we have a 20% off coupon to use at REI, but after test riding two different model for an hour or so, we decided to get a bright shiny new Trek for Nic.

Besides getting a bike because ours were way old, I told Nic he could get a new bike if I could run a marathon this year (and multiple other races).  Which really means, Nic HAD to get a new bike because I EXPECT him to bike along side me carrying water, food, ect,  while I do all my long runs. :)

Although that arrangement might be going out the window soon because I've decided that I want to do a triathlon this summer, and in that case, will need a new bike myself.  So, we are going to head up to Minnesota (YEAH!) in a few weekends, to see if we can't find a bike at REI and use our 20% off coupon.

I guess this means Nic might be getting a new gun...???

There was one eventful/scary thing that happened this weekend...

On our way up to Iowa City, an oncoming car veered into our lane.  Nic honked, swerved onto the shoulder and all was well....until we looked back and saw that the car had swerved back into his lane, over corrected and ended up in the ditch on the wrong side of the rode - upside down.  We quick called 9-1-1 and headed back to asses the situation.

Thank goodness another car stopped because when I approached the car, I freaked and was scared to check on the driver.  The front end of the car was pretty well smushed, and I couldn't see into the windows because the car was literally full of garbage.  Nic and another guy were able to help the guy out of the back door - he was fine.  Nic and I stuck around to talk with the sheriff and had to write statements.  Most likely the driver dozed off (that is what he told the sheriff), but he also might have been on something.

I did feel bad for the driver because the cops were making him walk in a straight line and other sobriety tests. Now, I am sure these are mandatory, but if I ever flipped my car - there is no way in heck I could even stand up, let alone walk in a straight line!

Lesson - don't drive when you are tired (or on something!)!

help a girl out

Taxes are filed and our refund is on its way...that means Nic and I will be getting a nice mid-year bonus (after a majority of the refund is put towards our basement remodel project).  So the big question of the week is, what should I get??

I am thinking of getting a Garmin Forerunner...but which model?  The 305 or the 405?

I know not that many people read this blog, but if you are reading this and if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment!

it all about balance

So I did really bad documenting my food from yesterday and today.  Oh well, not that anyone cares anyway!  All I can say is yesterday, I ate super well...today not so much.  See, balance.

Yesterday I was able to get out for another run outdoors.  Was a quick 3 miler, and then I caught up with Nic and Maia on their walk.  Nic and I then headed to our nutrition class only to sit in the conference room for 30 minutes without anyone else showing up.  Well, turns out the nutritionist at the Y quit on Monday.  Thanks for telling us!  (Look at this opportunity!  I told our hYped instructor that I will fill that position in  about 3 years when I am a registered dietician!)  At hYped we did an amazing leg workout, my favorite workout that we do.  You do two - three lifts, and then do a 3 minute sprint on some cardio machine.  Keeps things interesting.

And then end of our workout, our trainer totally hit on me.  It was fantastic! lol.  He really wasn't...  I was saying that I have lost about 5 pounds since being hYped, and complaining that it wasn't enough.  Then he proceed to say, look at you, and did the curving hand gesture thing...like, look at your hot bod.  I then called him out for hitting on me.  Good thing Nic wasn't there!

Because I ate so well yesterday and woke up this morning and fit into some sweet skinny jeans, I decided today could be a day off.  A day off of working out and eating healthy.  An order of fries, and 4 girl scout cookies later, I think my day has been pretty successful!

Oh, I also created a sweet t-shirt for our hYped class...what do you think?

Now, some soup for dinner and movie night with the man.  Yeah for Fridays!

skinny jeans

Yeah for skinny jeans!  No, not skinny jeans as in straight jeans, I still think they are gross (sorry Leah and Maddie!), but skinny jeans as in the ones that have been stuffed in the very back of my closet since college!  Also, thank god that jeans are made with that stretchy material...

Happy Friday!!