Training Day 3

Guess it’s time for me to get my act together and get serious about this!  I was forced to take a break in my Forming Days routine due to sick kids over the past two weeks (hence the lack of blog updates) however school is back in session (yea!).   I’m having trouble getting back on track though.  It is so easy to slide back into the old habits of watching TV at night instead of working out.  Of eating Wendy’s (seriously? Gross) instead of packing something from home.  I have a new app from Nike Training Club on my phone that I’m dying to use.  I just need to GET OFF MY ASS!

I did get to a class I really like taking at my gym last Monday even though it’s a complete kick in the ass every time.  Strike: “...powered by Everlast. Strike Zone is the latest signature format to be offered at Life Time Fitness. It is an intense, kickboxing-inspired workout, sponsored by Everlast. Challenge yourself with this full-body interval workout that incorporates traditional kickboxing combinations done with optional weighted gloves, controlled weight-bearing movements and athletic drills. This is NOT your typical kickboxing class!”  And this isn’t just any Strike Class, its Strike with Holly. Double, triple, quadruple the pain.  As I left her class the other day I thought to myself ‘I will not feel like I have accomplished anything fitness-wise until I can get through just ONE of her classes without stopping in the middle’.  I may need to talk to her about that though.  She may make it so challenging on purpose, so we constantly feel like we have more to work towards.  On a positive note, I rarely feel sore the next day so that tells me one of two things: 1) I’m already in awesome shape (HA!) 2) I’m not trying hard enough to be sore the next day.  I’m going with #1  J

Anyway, so back to my Training Days schedule. Today my goal is to find a training plan I can work with and physically make a Half Marathon Training board to hang up in my house.  Nothing like ‘in your face’ accountability.  I’ll have to look at that board everyday and know either ‘Yes I got my miles in for the day’ or’ No I still need to do that!’.  I grew up Catholic, nothing like a little guilt motivation to get me going.  Haha!  I’m thinking that I’ll have to skip running on the weekends, since those are always so screwed up.  Stick to training to weekdays where my schedule is more predictable.  My kids are almost at an age where if I wanted to go for a run on Saturday morning before they got up I think they would be fine.  Especially if my husband were home (sleeping no doubt).  Of course this means I can’t be drinking and hanging out at the ball field all night on Fridays….. J  

Forming Day 21

I’ve had a week full of reasons why I didn’t train hard…… Number 1 reason though-the AC in our house went out.  During one of the hottest weeks on record for our area and for 3 days we have no air conditioning.  Nothing zaps your energy or patience like a hot house. I even considered pitching our tent in the back yard and camping since at night it was cooler outside than it was in our house. By Friday when I had finally had enough and was 2 seconds from booking a room at Great Wolf Lodge the repair man calls and says our motor is ready to be picked up!  There is a God!!!  I’m not exaggerating when I say our upstairs was over 100*.  So with the assistance of my fantastic brother-in-law Mike, John was able to get it up and running again by Saturday morning.  Ahhhhhhhh  J  And so prepping for my first Half Marathon resumed Saturday afternoon which was fueled by the announcement that one of my sisters (I have 4!) will be running the race with me and  John!  YEA!!!  I’m so happy!  She’s living in Denver so this will be a fantastic way of getting to hang out with her while doing something we both enjoy, running. 

So with the knowledge that Sara will be along for the ride I’m now extra motivated to train.  Well, I’m extra motivated for her to train also, she’ll be running the full marathon with a friend of John’s from the Marines and we have a bet going that she can beat him.  Sara, a 23 yr old former college soccer star and runner extraordinaire WILL beat a former Marine who I believe just turned 30 (and I will be $25 richer)…. Yea she’s got this in the bag!  She shared with me her marathon training poster that is hanging on the back of her front door to her apartment.  Every day she has to look at it and either think to herself, ‘yep I got my miles in for the day!’ or ‘damn I have to get out there!’ I love the idea of the visual accountability.  Once I roll into my actual Training Days (coming up soon!!) I think something like that would be great for me.  I’m a very visual person and if I don’t see it, it gets forgotten about… this would be a great tool for me.  

Speaking of Training Days, it just so happens that once the kids go back to school I will have exactly 13 weeks to prepare for the OBX Half.  This also happens to be exactly how long my boot camp was; coincidence? I don’t think so.  Although this time there will be no gas chamber, or rifle range, or chow hall duty.  I would love it if Jillian Michaels were yelling at me DI style though, man she is awesome!  I will however still be waking up at zero-dark-thirty to get the kids on the bus.  Haha!  It has been extremely challenging to get miles logged with Thing 1 & Thing 2 home all day and John at work (stupid night shift!) so I’m really looking forward to ‘Jen time’ starting Aug 18^th. 

With the ‘forming’ that I’ve been working on, I can see and feel my body changing and that is definitely a good thing.  In fact I wore a 2 piece bathing suit yesterday that I haven’t fit into in a couple of years, WHICH felt awesome!!  I told you that I am visual so having that profile picture on FB which I also uploaded to my phone as my background has really helped.  The constant reminder of my ‘goal body’ helps me when I want to eat junk or be lazy about getting to the gym. My abs and arms are taking on tone they haven’t seen since I was 22 and my legs are getting lean and strong.  I need to keep this up, I feel fantastic.  J  When I think about eating a piece of cake, or donuts, or Oreos with peanut butter on them I just look at the caloric content.  Imaging how long it will take me on the treadmill to work off those calories is usually deterrent enough.  Who likes doing extra work?? 

 So just a few more weeks and my real work begins!  I’m really excited!!!  Now to answer the really hard question….. what will I wear to the race?!?!  ;)

Forming Day 9

Weekends off from exercise cannot last…… not if I intend to be serious about training.   I play on a ladies softball team on Friday nights in the summer so I use that as my excuses to not only skip my Friday gym session but then Saturday as well since I might be sore.  (I rarely am sore)  Stuff sometimes does come up that I can’t work out on the weekends but in general if I wanted to it could happen.  I really need to buckle down and start getting my head in the game.  I told you from Forming Day 1 that I need accountability and so with that I think I’m going to start running with the MoJo running group every other Saturday morning.  Huge, I know.  If people are expecting me then I will be there.  Why every other Saturday you ask?  My husband’s work schedule has him working every other weekend so for now that is what it will have to be.  I’m really looking forward to running with people of different skill sets and being pushed to go further and run harder.  To be challenged!  Speaking of being challenged…..

So I was running at Lifetime Fitness yesterday and luckily my favorite treadmill was available.  Next to it was two women who had just gotten started on their run and had a pretty good pace going.  I was feeling like it was going to be a great run- my fav treadmill that allows me to watch ESPN and unwilling running partners.  J  I know I  have mentioned that I am competitive so every time the girls upped their speed I upped mine as well (I swear I probably have a mental condition that doesn’t allow me to just ENJOY something, it has to be a competition!)  We settled in at a great pace, 6.5 and no incline.  When we first got to 6.5 I thought there is NO way I’ll be able to keep this up but I really surprised myself and lasted 2.5 miles there.  I was really really impressed with myself!  Now they went on and did 3 miles but I was so happy with my ability to maintain that pace.  THAT is the kind of challenge I need, I would have NEVER pushed myself to run at 6.5 but thanks to those strangers I realized  that I can do something I hadn’t thought possible!  Yea Me!!  However it certainly didn’t help my ego when as I was leaving my post run sweat session I saw the ladies in a cardio class…. Come on!!! 

Something that I have started to think about is my diet.  I’m pretty conscience of what I eat/drink in general.  Now that doesn’t mean I always make the healthiest choice, but I’m at least CONSCIENCE of the junk I’m putting in my mouth. Haha!  I heard Jillian from The Biggest Loser one time say that she only allows her people to drink water that way they aren’t using up their allotted daily calories on drinks.  I like this line of thinking and so I try to drink as much water as I can during the day (after my 4 cups of coffee in the morning!) so I’m free to eat more during the day.  In general I eat fairly healthy but I really really like junk food.  Wait, allow me to rephrase- I like the way junk food tastes, I hate the way it makes my body feel.   I try to remember how gross I feel after eating chips with my lunch as a deterrent from making that choice again; it works about 75% of the time.  ;)  And as always when I start working out, I notice my metabolism working harder, my body slimming down and so I think I can eat whatever I want since I’m burning more calories now…… One would think that after 20 some odd years of watching what I eat and exercising that I would learn.  I just moved beyond that phase, thank goodness it’s usually a short phase.  Last week I was eating like no bodies business.  Ice cream, chips, Sour Patch Kids, etc.  Somehow I still managed to lose a little weight so I think to myself “if I could exercise AND eat correctly how awesome would this be?”   That is my goal for the week, to start being extremely aware of what I eat and asking myself if what I am eating is a hindrance or helper to my goal of running a Half Marathon….  Why would I want to create more work for myself by eating crap that will only make me have to work out more just to burn off?  I’ll NOT be giving up beer though, I’m only human!  I will be cutting back on how often I have a few though.  Softball games wouldn’t be the same without a giant plastic cup of good old American Bud Lite! 

Have a great week everyone and please keep posting your questions/comments!  I’ve noticed that you will have to log in to your Google account to make a comment though so keep that in mind.  I love hearing your thoughts on this blog!!  Take care and happy trails!!!

Jen