1000 to 2012 or i'm back... ('cause i look good in the pulse feed)

that's me feeling all 'runner' wearing my arm warmers, which i finally got to use today for the first time (thanks to this unseasonal warm winter day.) after i put them on i said out loud 'today, i feel like a true runner' and mila said 'me too mom.' hey, pink fuzzy socks worn as arm warmers look as athletic as anything. take note deena kastor!

stats for today: 3.2mi in 43'00"80 or 13'26"25min/mi. so i'm not running any faster than when i was training for the marathon although i felt today i really pushed myself. but i'm cutting myself some slack because: 1. the last time i went out for a run was about 2 weeks ago and 2. i'm  carrying some serious pound overage from the holidays.

but today was a good day. i made good, conscious and healthy choices about my food and i went out for a run. so yeay me!

i did it!

i'm sure someday i will regret not having kept a detailed log of my training. right now it doesn't matter. i did it. i ran 26.2 miles. it took me 6hrs and 30min and it was one of the most fantastic experiences of my life! i am so proud of myself. who knew i had it in me!

and now a question to think about tomorrow: what should my next goal be?  :)

i'm back

ah, so many things have happened since my last post. let's see:

first, i ran 10 glorious miles a couple of weeks ago. i took forever but i did it! what an awesome feeling! the next day my body was back to normal, no aches, no pains, nothing. i felt on top of the world!

 the following week i decided to do some speed work for the first time. i decided that i wanted to do it on the treadmill where i could actually see how hard i was pushing myself. i did 4mi and felt great except for this little nagging pain on my hip which i though was normal soreness and it was going to go away. the next day i went for 5mi and ran the whole thing in pain, no fun! the day after that i wanted to try to do some more speed work and that's when it happened: my hip was hurting so bad that i couldn't go further than a mile! i stretched for a bit and then the possibility of not being able to complete this ...this 'life project'...this 'mission from god' (as my physician called it) crept up in my mind then my heart filled with fear and that's when i started bawling like crazy! the husband/coach tried to comfort me but i felt pretty defeated. i made an appointment to see the dr. on monday (this happened on a weekend.) on saturday i was resentful of every runner, and there were many around! the only thing that got me out of my funk was crazy kid's #1 awesome pre-birthday birthday party! his friends came and he had so much fun. i loved seeing him laugh so hard and play with his school buddies. it was just a great, great party! and i'm so greatful for all his wonderful friends and also omg! the boy scored some pretty great presents too!

on monday i went to see the dr., she's a runner too which is pretty cool (did i just called myself a runner? i gues i did.)  so definitely there was some muscle overuse, and i think it was the gluteus medius. the truth is i have no strong muscles in my body! i know, i know, i gotta get kicking with the weight training, but it's so easy to say 'oh maybe i'll do that tomorrow'... anywho... i'm guessing my gluteus medius looks like the one on the right when it would be most helpful if it looked like the one on the left. the dr.'s orders were to do some cross training (elliptical) and take a whole bunch of ibuprofen 3 times a day.

on top of this i had signed up for a race this coming sunday. my first race! a 10k! you can imagine i was pretty bummed at the thought of not being able to run it. but things are looking up today! per the h/c suggestion i went on a very short 3mi run. i did it slow people! slower than my regular slow but i was fine. i feel a bit of tightness and soreness but not enough to make me stop, my hamstring was bothering me more today, but i felt fine. so i think i'll try to run 4mi tomorrow and see how i feel, then i'll decide if i can do the 10k but i'm feeling pretty confident that i will. as soon as i got back from the run today i did the ice pack thing and rubbed some arnica on my hip and hamstring. i don't think i have ever taken such good care of my body, ever! and it feels pretty good to care that much!

stats for the day: distance - 3mi  time - 46min27sec or pace -14min31sec/mile

tomorrow: 4mi

week5-day1: 3mi. or trying to redeem myself as a blogger to my non existent audience

i have to admit that i haven't been as inspired as i thought i was going to be writing this blog. i think for one is because i have one reader (hola misho!) and that just feels weird. even when i think that i just want to do this so i'll have a good log of what i experience as i go through the training and then the marathon, most of the time is not enough to to keep me motivated. and last, i haven't had many profound or interesting thoughts during my runs lately or maybe i have but if you don't write about it soon after you pretty much forget or the meaning is lost.oh, and also the lack of images, i mean, how boring! blogs with no pictures are boooring.

before i forget: week 3 and week 4 of the training went great. by the end of week 3 (3mi-4mi-3mi-7mi) i had run a total of 48mi. since i started training. then week 4 was a bit wonky because i got back from nyc on monday, then tuesday we had a birthday to celebrate so i didn't start my week until wednesday. then i don't remember exactly what went down but i ended up skipping one of the short runs. but i think i did great with my long run (8mi.) i was fine up until mile 6, i had to struggle through mile 7, my legs felt so heavy and then i try to speed through mile 8. when i was done i felt great and energized! and so proud of myself!

the food has been kind of all over the place for the past week. of course there was my trip to nyc and i tried to get back in the plan as soon as i got back but the next day there was a birthday and ice cream cake to be had. for the next few days after that i was so hungry all the time. and here's my big epiphany of the day: the single most powerful thing that makes me fall off the wagon is when i go a few days being constantly hungry and running out of points! it's a horrible feeling! i feel miserable and deprived and it just feels like a horrible uphill battle with myself. when i went down from 24 points to 23 it took me months to get used to this. i kept on loosing and putting on the same two lbs. for weeks until my body (or i or both) got used to it. there are some days, specially the long run days, when i am constantly hungry and even if everything i eat is reasonably healthy, the points add up, you know? a 2pt banana here, a 1pt string cheese there... it adds up quickly! so i'm just coming out of one of such weekends but today is a new day and a new week and everything is back on track and i feel great!

i also started doing some weight training. not too much but hopefully enough to strengthen my body to help me carry my weight more efficiently during the marathon. my plan is to do it only after my short runs and only on those two days, if i can squeeze another session  during my day off that would be great, but at least get those 2 in. so today after my 3mi i went to do the weights. i'm not sure how i feel about it yet, i think i'm not pushing myself enough because i should be sore, right? i don't know. maybe i'll have a better perspective in a month or so.

tomorrow: 5 mi (but only after a romantic 'before summer break starts and we have one or the other kid 24-7 in the house and no time to be alone' date)

week2-day 2 (4mi) -3 (3mi) -4 (6mi) + weekly weigh in

my absence of posts in these last few days is testament on how hard it is for me to stick to things, even things that i enjoy doing. so i'll just start where i left off.

a couple of days after my last post was my eighth wedding anniversary (yeay for me & the husband/coach.) we went out for breakfast, as it is the only time we were kid free, and we had plan to have a sushi dinner at home after the kiddos went to bed. i had decided beforehand that although i was going to count points i really didn't care if i went over. so i ordered a breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese and a blueberry scone for an astonishing value of 17 points! i knew i had to go out for my 4mi run and it was such a hot day that i had almost made my mind that i wanted to go to the gym to use the treadmill, you know, in a nicely controlled environment. but then i thought it would be kind of romantic if the husband/coach (h/c) and i went out together for a run so i reluctantly braved out the heat and out i went. now, when i say running with the h/c means that we walked together from our house to the beginning of the trail and then i didn't see him until i was about to reach the 2mi and he was already on his way back. but even if he wasn't a way faster runner than i am, i'm not sure i'd enjoy running with him... i'm pretty sure i'd feel like when i drive and he's in the passenger seat, i'm always tense...sometimes he makes little comments here and there like 'ah you could've gone faster' or 'didn't you see that pothole you drove into?' but for the most part he's pretty good at refraining himself from any comment...but i know he's thinking it...lol. so the same with running, i love running, not feeling judged, doing it my way which is the best way i know how, it really is very personal for me, it's me with me and i like that. so back to the 4mi... it was soo hot that i was afraid i was going to pass out, i didn't but i ran very slow,  so pretty much it took me an hour (58min14sec) to complete the run. but i was proud of myself because i really did this grudgingly.

the next day for my 3mi i went out again with my running buddy. i forgot to turn the chronometer on so i don't know what my time was but i'm assuming it was very similar to last week's since my running buddy is pretty good at keeping her pace. and even though it was after 8pm it was still very hot... around 90F. so i took a shower when i came home, had some yogurt and then went to bed....at which point my stomach started acting up like i've had something weird to eat and of course, i couldn't sleep... and neither could h/c since i kept tossing and turning and getting up. then he started worrying that i was dehydrated but i couldn't bear the thought of drinking water or anything for that matter. the next day i was fine. h/c  insists that it was dehydration but i'm not so sure, i've been very conscious about my water intake everyday. whatever it was it did not feel good.

finally yesterday i went for my long 6mi. run. i was kind of nervous because it had been so hot but like a miracle that day was nice and cool. i mean, honestly, i couldn't have asked for more perfect weather... which brings me to this petition: 'dear universe, i beg of you that the day of the marathon the weather is as perfect as it was yesterday. i thank you before hand. -mery.' i enjoyed this run so much for so many reasons. one, 6mi.!!! omg!!!! this is the longest i have ever ran!!! i just get excited thinking about it!; two, i paced myself so well (translation in non running lingo: i went really slow but fast enough not to feel like i was walking) that it didn't feel horribly hard, you know, i didn't have to talk myself up to keep going or try my hardest not to think about how much longer i had to go, those kinds of things. i could just enjoy myself doing it! even the uphill parts, i was just fine and it felt awesome!; three, the biggest treat of all. when i was starting my last mile i bumped into the husband/coach and crazy kid #2!!! (they were on their way out for h/c's run of the day) aaahh... i can't explain it, i know it doesn't seem like a big deal but i just felt such a spark of happiness, like when you open your mail box and you receive something unexpectedly good... you know? like that! so i made a mega quick stop to give a kiss to crazy kid #2 and to h/c and off i went for my last mile feeling really good! my time was 1hr28min or 14min12sec mile. so still slow but good. (i still have to remind myself, 'i don't care about the time' 'i don't care about the time')

and finally the weigh ins. during the training i'm treating the whole point system as an experiment to see what works for me right now. so for the past two weeks i've increased my points from 23 to 28 (the 35 weeklys divided equally through out the week.) so last week i lost 1.4lbs. now, this week because of the anniversary breakfast and dinner i not only ate my daily points, but also my weeklys, my activity points and then some...at the end of the week i was 21.5 points in the red. so i went to the meeting today not knowing what to expect and i lost 1.2lb....yeay! a fluke? maybe? i don't know. all i know is that this training is my great body experiment all around.

so up to today my total weight loss is: 81.4lbs. i really should post some pictures, although i don't have many... i should get someone to shoot a picture of me full body with my hands on my hips because i've noticed that's the pose of preference for the 'after' pictures.

so that's it for the week. for week 3 i'll try to mash up all the training days together so i can be done by thursday because i'll be going to nyc (by myself, thank you very much! -and thank you husband/coach!) for the weekend and i don't want to have the long run hanging over my head. i'm still bringing my running shoes because who knows, my friend and i might be able to get a run in there ...hopefully in central park, like anne hathaway and kate hudson in that movie about the brides...you know?

total mi for the week: 16mi  total overall: 31mi.
 
tomorrow: 3mi.

week2-day1: 3mi.

shouldn't have waited this long to write, now i'm too sleepy so this will be brief and boring.

i started my week a day earlier so i could take a day between the short and medium runs. it was quite warm today which means i ended up sweating more than usual and feeling like my shirt was too tight! i just felt too hot! i would say my heart rate was up on the last mile, part of it because i was trying to be done with it and the other part was because it was... too... hot!  my time ended up being 41min26sec or 13min48sec/mi.

tomorrow: update about the weekly weight in

week1-day4: 5mi.

this morning i went out pretty early because there was no other time i could do it but also because it's getting pretty warm these days. it was nice and cool, around 59-60 F at the time. i did ok overall but i'd be lying if i told you i didn't struggle...maybe not struggle in the sense that i had to fight the urge to stop because even when my legs felt like lead i just had the certainty that i wouldn't stop until i reached the 5mi. but it was hard. i had to go through an underpass, on my way out was downhill but on my way back was uphill and it felt so steep, even the slight irregularities on the road, itty bitty slopes that i wouldn't normally feel that much were taxing on my legs and a bit on my heart rate. but i did it! and i enjoyed it so much! the path where i run runs alongside a canal and you can go towards one side which is not that nice (where i went running on the rainy day) or you can go to the other side that is gorgeous, beautiful scenery, nice foliage everywhere, marshes, beautiful fancy houses and so peaceful and bright.

so here's a confession: i have been a little bummed about how long it is taking me to do my runs because my times are shorter on the treadmill for the same distances. part of it is a little bit of fear, especially in a slightly longer run like today's because i'm terrified of running out of fuel, or feeling weak and jittery or light headed or passing out... all things that have happened to me before (except for the passing out) and are the most unpleasant experiences ever. i'm being very careful with having enough calories and water in me before i go out, so so far so good, plus i have to start trusting my body more. so i decided that worrying about my time is stupid! i mean come on, i'm running 5mi!  yeay me and yeay for my legs and my body that carry me through! so who cares if it takes me hours and hours and hours? i'm doing it!!!!

my time today was 1hr9min44sec or 13min56sec/mi.

with this run i conclude my first week of training, one down, fifteen to go. 

total mi for the wk: 15  total overall: 15

tomorrow: weekly weigh in at ww

ps: this blog needs some images asap!