Some Serious Willpower!

Okay, okay...and a little guilt or something! I skipped out on my 45 minute run on Wednesday and blamed the heat. My plan was to get up and do it Thursday morning before it got hot. That didn't happen. Then I brought all my gear to work, figuring I'd just knock it out on the treadmill after work. Yeah, I got in my car and drove straight home. As I sat on the couch watching the clock near 8pm, I started to feel just the tinsiest bit guilty that I didn't run. I mean, I do have an 11-miler to knock out on Sunday that Portland/Vancouver Fit has so graciously allowed me to run with them.

So, with a heat index of 84 degrees, I hit the road, jack! In an effort not to kill myself, I took it nice and slow and told myself that I would stop if I started to really feel like it was too hot. Luckily, the pace helped a ton and I got the whole 45 minutes done at an average of 10:07/mile! There were only a handful of crazies out there, like me...usually you can't go 2 blocks without coming across another runner...I think I only saw 4 other runners the whole trip! Oh, but I did have the company of the lightning bugs and I love them! With those also came the little swarmy bugs that you can't see until its too late...I few of which I managed to spit out...and a few of which I'm pretty sure I ate. Yum.



I also did Day 2, Week 1 of the Pushups Challenge...it was tough, but I got it done! I'm thinking my pride will push me through to Week 2, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to repeat it before I can move on to Week 3!

The crazy part is that I feel so much more fit than a few months ago, but there really isn't any proof. The scale still won't budge, I don't see any changes to my appearance (although I swear the thighs of all my pants feel a little looser), I just seem to be building muscle that is all hidden away until my fattie layers :( If I can even manage to get 5 pounds off this summer, I swear, I'm throwing myself a party!

A Good (Hard) Run & Some Pushups

Last night was a 40 minute run. It was about 79 degrees and luckily it didn't feel too humid. It was cloudy so that helped a ton! I felt like I was running really hard and thought for sure I was going to see amazing numbers on the Garmin as far as how fast I was clocking my miles. Alas, this was not so! Kept all my miles under 10 minutes, but nothing mind blowing. Nothing like what I FELT I was running. Poo. It must have been the heat.

In an attempt to get my run in before dark, I got home, changed and was right back out the door. It wasn't until I was on my cool down walk that I realized I was supposed to do my push ups BEFORE I had gone out to run! What is it with me trying to get out of doing these push ups??? It is not on purpose! I swear!! So, once again, I was looking at delaying the start of the challenge. About 10pm, as I was getting ready to shut the house down and head to bed, I thought...I should try the push ups. I figured, if I felt like I might never get back up off the ground, I'd wait until the next day. But, if I could get it done, then all the better! And that I did! Did my 4 sets of 2 (yeah, yeah) and then my final set to max out...which I did at 4 :) So, 12 total pushups! Hey, I gotta start somewhere!!

Tonight, I have a 45 minute run on the agenda. Day 2 of pushups will be tomorrow and then another 40 minute run on Friday. Bright and early on Saturday morning I head for Portland where I'll be through Thursday. Have I mentioned yet that I'm tired? :)

A Lazy Evening

Yesterday was a rest day with the running, but I was SUPPOSED to start the Hundred Pushups Challenge last night. Too bad I did not remember until after the lights were out and I was all snuggled up in my bed...once I'm in bed, there is no getting me out! :) And since we all know that mornings aren't my thing, I'll have to start tonight. Now, do I do them before or after my run? Hmmmm...

I've been really, REALLY tired lately working all these hours at the office and having trouble sleeping since the death of our friend. I made my flight home for his service last night so at least now I know how long I'll be gone. I'm hoping to still be able to keep up with my running and push ups while I'm there. It will be fun to run all my old routes and actually attempt a few hills! Maybe I'll even go check out the Portland Marathon course so I can really see what I'll be up against! Its just too bad that I'm going home for such a sad reason :(

Finally, today is my first check in for the Healthy You Challenge. My goals for this are to just feel better, stronger, more energized and in an overal better place than right now! Losing a few pounds along the way would be fantastic, but that isn't how I'll be measuring my success! Here goes Week 1!

13 is a bad number, anyway!

Yes, this weekend was supposed to be my official half marathon. This did not end up the way I had planned. I could blame it on a lot of different things, but ultimately, my mental strength gave out. Dammit.

The first couple of miles were rough, but once I got warmed up, I was feeling good! The weather was warm, but not hot and there was a cool breeze blowing. I looked down at the Garmin and saw that I was 4.5 miles in and feeling really good. A few minutes later, I looked down again and saw a blank screen! What?! I started frantically pushing all the buttons to no avail. The Garmin was dead. This is where it started to go downhill. I was not on the mile marker path at this point so there was no way for me to now be sure of how far I'd gone. I started having to estimate how far it was until I got to another marker. Plus, this may sound silly, but the Garmin is motivating for me. Without the Garmin working, my morale was shot!

Oh yeah, and I had tummy problems, as usual. I had already spent some quality time on the porclain throne before I left :) But, it was acting up again. I was tired and started in on the "just make it to the next water fountain" routine. At one point, I noticed I had stopped sweating, but I only had a few more miles...I was guessing. Then I started to get goose bumps and feel very cold. This is the point at which I had to call it quits. I know the signs that my body is way dehydrated. The down side is that I think I was somewhere between 11.5 and 12 miles in. Could I have pulled it out? I think so. But, I was so uncomfortable with the belly problems and the fatigue that I used dehydration as an excuse to stop. And it is a valid excuse, so I should not get down on myself...at the same time, I don't want to be a quitter either.

Disappointing. And I blame it all on Garmin! Okay...and the bar food and beer I had the night before...but whatever!

I got home and called my friend to bitch and moan about the Garmin. He says, did you hold the buttons down for 6 seconds to reset it? No, I say. I hold the buttons and lo and behold, it pops back on! Grrrrrr...had I only known.

So screw the half marathon! That was my last attempt. I'm just moving forward with the training. That means 11 miles this weekend and that I can do!

Tonight starts the official training for The Hundred Pushups Challenge. Wish me luck!

Whirlwind couple of days

Wow...a lot seems to have transpired since just a couple of days ago.

I was MIA yesterday because Thursday night my mom called me to tell me that someone close to our family died. He was young (in his 20s) and while its hard to deal with anyone's death, I'm not sure anything can prepare you to lose someone so young. I was even more shocked when my mom phoned again last night and said that the police are now looking into it as a possible homicide. Needless to say, it has been a difficult 36 hours.

Of course, I have to go home for his services and to support his family. As I mentioned in my last post, my co-worker is out on bereavement leave herself so that complicates matters at work. Being the manager of this department, I don't feel I can just up and leave it without a handle on the staffing. So, I'm hoping I can fly out Tuesday night since my co-worker should be back on Wednesday. I'll just have to have her close down the office early each day and we may have to be closed on Saturday. I don't know, I can't even think it through very clearly at this point.

That said, I got a great run in Thursday before I was dealt this bad news. All my miles were under 10 minutes and that was nice to see since it doesn't seem to be happening as often as it was a month ago. I'm waiting until Monday to officially start my Hundred Pushups Challenge, but I've been trying to prepare myself a little by doing wall pushups and actually trying to do a few real pushups here and there. I still can't believe how hard they are!

It looks like the weather is going to work in my favor tomorrow so the 13.1 will happen! It will be very nice to get it out of the way and be able to move forward with the training. I'm excited. I obviously don't know how the running will work out next week since I'll be in Portland, but I'll just have to play it by ear!

Oh, the humiliation!

So...last night I had to do the "push up test" so see what program I need to start on. Um, yeah. I did 4. You read that right...4. Obviously, I do not work my upper body much! I went down for the 5th one and there was no getting back up. It was actually quite funny to me. But this is good, it will give me something other than running to think about. And maybe even inspire me to do my pilates video a few times a week like I keep saying I will.

Yesterday's mini-goal was a success! I had NO CHOCOLATE all day! One of my co-worker's even offered me an ice cream cone treat that had chocolate on it and I turned it down. Well, it is waiting in the freezer for me to have today :) But still! I turned it down yesterday! Cut me some slack here!

Today's mini-goal will be to eat 5 small meals throughout the day.

My co-worker's father-in-law passed away yesterday morning and since we are a department of two, that leaves me, and only me to man the fort. Which means 10 hour days and working on Saturday until she gets back next Wednesday :( I have a feeling this is going to leave me quite unmotivated to run after work, but I'll have to find it within myself somewhere to get my butt out there! The weather looks questionable again this weekend, but there is no skipping out on the 13.1 again. I'll just have to get out there no matter what!

Hee Hee

This made me laugh...hope you enjoy:

I'm Training to Ruin a Marathon

ChallengeS

Yes, that is right, I'm not only going to do the Healthy You Challenge, but I'm also going to try the 100 Pushups Challenge! What I've wanted to do for a long time is learn to do a pull up cuz what would be cooler than to see a GIRL doing some pull ups?! I did find a program that worked up to it, but of course I didn't print it out right then and now I can't find it...so if you have one, let me know! For the moment, Push ups will have to do!



As far as a Healthy Me, I'm not only on a quest to finish the marathon, but also to drop a few pounds (especially now that my friend moved near a pool and thinks that I should go play in it with him...yikes!), fix a few "problems in my diet"...ahem...chocolate..., and basically just treat my body a little better than I do! I was thinking of starting something like this on my blog, but now that I've found someone else who's already done the dirty work, I'm joining up!

Like I mentioned last night, first I'm going to start off with daily goals for the rest of this week. After that, I figure I'll create a weekly goal along with the dailies and see how it proceeds. Should be interesting!

Fool Proof!

Since I've been having a hard time getting up and running again, I came up with a fool proof plan to get me into action! See, my friend was nice enough to pick me up from work tonight and instead of having him just drop me off, I put my plan into action!

I ran inside, quickly changed into my running gear, grabbed my key, Ipod & Garmin and was back out the door and in his car.

The destination? His house.

The catch? I'd have to run back home :)

I knew I'd never back out and have him take me all the way back to my house so once I was up there, there was gonna be no choice but to run my way back across the city. And run I did! It ended up being 5 miles...split about half and half with the lakefront path and street running. No better way to get back in the groove than to leave yourself with no other option!

I also came across something fun today that I've decided I'm going to be a part of. It's called The Healthy You Challenge, but I'll blog more about it tomorrow.

For now, I think I'll start by making daily goals. And tomorrow's will be that I can have NO CHOCOLATE! This may sound easy to most of you, but rarely a day goes by that I don't have chocolate in some form or another. It might be my mocha in the morning. It might be a Banana Baby at night. It might just be some straight up candy from the vending machine! I'm a Chocoholic and I'm not afraid to admit it! So, tomorrow, no chocolate :(

And really, you should try the banana babies!

Hmmm...where's the running?

I think my last run was on Wednesday :(

I wouldn't exactly call that falling off the wagon, but I do seem to be finding it hard to get moving!

The weather has been hit and miss this past week with the worst of it culminating in me cancelling my 13.1 on Sunday. It takes me awhile to get psyched up for this type of run so I was ready to go! Woke up at 6am on Sunday, turned on the weather channel and saw the biggest, ugliest storm about to hit Rockford. It would probably be about an hour and a half before it reached the city. No way could I run 13 miles that fast :)

Sure enough, it hit with force and by a little after 8am, it was about over. But, more watches and warnings were coming up. And while the temperature did dip down as far as 60 degrees during the rain, it was rising swiftly. No, the run would have to wait until the evening if that. And...well...let's be honest here...if you give Nicole too much time to make excuses to not do something, she will :)

So, it did not happen. Not at all. Poop. That's all I got to say.

Rise and Shine!

Yes, with summer upon us, I have to start the morning runs. So, here were the things I did to make sure I would be up and ready this morning to kick out a 35 minute run:

Sleep on the couch. Why? Because it is bright as hell in my livingroom at 5am and the bunny is up and rowdy so she'll often times jump on me and wake me up.

Have a friend call at 5:30am and give me a good morning pep talk. This is much better than any alarm because you can't hit snooze and it forces your mind into action.

Turn off the AC. The less comfortable you are, the less likely you are to want to stay in bed.

Go to bed early. Yeah right! That didn't happen...

Miraculously, it worked and I was out the door by a little after 6am. The first mile felt great! I was cruisin' along enjoying the beautiful morning. Mile two, not so great. Started to feel a bit fatigued already! I guess I used up what little energy I had in that first mile! :) Still, I finished the run in good time and was glad to have it over with for the day.

I am dragging a bit now, but hopefully my body will adapt!

Reality Bites

And that reality is that summer has hit Chicago and it's not going away any time soon! Remember those easy 8 miles I was talking about? Yeah...that didn't happen. That may have been the absolutely worst run since I started this year!

I got out there a little after 8am...I know, I know...I shoulda been out there at 6am and saved myself, but you know me in the morning! Just 2 miles in I knew I was in for bad things. I already was sweating a ton and my legs felt very fatigued. I stopped at every water fountain and spent at least a minute standing there trying to convince myself to go on. I did make it all the way out, turned around and about halfway back I decided I couldn't do it anymore. I was too hot and too tired. I clocked 6.25 miles, but I was very disappointed in myself.

As I did the walk of shame for 2 miles back to the car, I watched everyone else running and just kept kicking myself for giving up. When I got back home and saw that the heat index was over 90 degrees, I did feel slightly more positive about my having given in. Still, it was a disappointing run. Please let the weather gods give me a break for the big 13.1 this coming weekend!

4 Months

4 months from today I will be done. I will have crossed the finish line, probably bawled my eyes out and be lounging away my sore muscles. 4 months from today is the day after my marathon.

I know I'm still in the beginning, although running seems to be coming much more naturally to me already. Yesterday I didn't have a run and I found myself feeling the urge to get out on the road as I lay in bed last night. 4 months is a long time. Although, I've already been at it for almost 2 1/2. Crazy, ain't it? Time flies, I guess.

The heat settled in here with a quickness. This is the real test. There can be no holds barred! Heat or no heat, treadmill or sidewalk, the runs must go on! Tonight is only 30 minutes...it'll be on the treadmill, no doubt :) I have 8 miles for my long run this weekend and it's pretty funny to me how I'm looking forward to 8 miles like its a walk in the park. It it was only a few weeks ago that I was dreading 8 miles and crossing my fingers that I'd make it back alive!

Next weekend is my first benchmark...half marathon distance. Will I be ready? I'm pretty sure. Actually, I should slaughter my Chicago Distance Classic time from last year without a doubt. Boy, did that race suck for me :)

I've got a long ways to go, but I've already come so far. I couldn't be prouder of myself right now. 4 months and counting...

Another run & String Cheese Rocks

Let's start with the string cheese, shall we? I bought one the other day at the Walgreens across from my building because I wanted a light snack that wasn't bad for me. Oh, how I had forgotten how satisfying a little string cheese can be! And how fun it is to actually string pieces off instead of just scarfing it down in 4 bites. All that fun for only 75 calories! String cheese rocks!

Okay, on to running! Did a quick 30 minutes on Tuesday. Still running sub-10s on my daily runs. I usually fall somewhere between 9:30 and 9:45...and I can live with that!

Last night, my friend and I braved the incredibly dense fog and went for a run on the lake. The weather was humid, but cool so it felt pretty good. I usually don't like running with other people because I feel like its going to go one of two ways: Either I'm going to kill myself trying to keep their pace or I'm going to be totally guilt-ridden that I'm slowing them down. Being that I forgot to bring my Ipod, I welcomed the opportunity for a distraction and my friend and ran together.

I know I was a little slow for what he likes to run, but I bit my lip and avoided telling him to go on without me. And even though we didn't say much to each other, just him running with me was a distraction and made the run fly by! And of course, he made me push it for the 2 minutes or so and finish strong. It was a nice way to change things up and I really enjoyed it!

11 Miles: Conquered

Wow, I haven't been blogging much lately. I guess it's kind of like how you are much more likely to go complain when you have a bad experience than you are to go give compliments when you've had a good one. So, that's a good thing because it means that my running is going absolutely wonderful!

I got in all my weekly runs at a pretty good pace, although some of them felt very tiring. And I'll admit, the Soldier Field 10 Mile stomped on my confidence a little bit because I struggled with those last 2 miles or so. This made me incredibly nervous about the 11 miles I had to run yesterday.

My tell-tale sign that something is bothering me is that I get stomachaches. It's been happening since I was a kid. I had stomachaches all night Saturday and had a hard time sleeping. I kept thinking about what route would be best and if it was going to be hot or not. Should I take some shot blocs with me or just try to go on water? It really sucked. Sunday morning was no different. I stopped by my friend's house before heading out and he was like, just relax, you'll be fine!

Knowing that I was nervous and that I'd run out of steam a little on the 10-miler, I decided I would just take it really slow. And it worked! I averaged a 10:14/mile pace, but the difference between this one and my other long runs is that I had enough steam in my engine to keep going if I had to. On my other long runs, I had to struggle to get to that last mile. So, now I know that 9:30 miles are great for during the week, but somewhere between 10 & 10:30 is good for the long run.

I feel very relieved and my confidence is back up! I drop down to 8 miles for my long run next weekend so I'm not at all worried about that, but then it's a half marathon the weekend after! Now, let's just pray the weather cooperates!