Weekly Recap–April 23 to 29

This is going to be short and to the point. I went running with Leigh tonight and we got soaked in the rain. I’ve had a hot shower but still feeling really chilled, I think I’m going to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and watch Top Chef Canada and then go to bed!

The Chocolate Race

This was a really fun event that I got to run with my Running Room crew. We had so much fun. There was some mix up about chip times today, but I think my time was 43:49. We ran sets of 6/1 and there were some wicked hills. If you’re interested in a more complete recap of the race and more photos, go to my Events Page.

 

Running

This past week I ran the most I have ever run in one week. And this week I am already up to 9.8km.

Weight

I lost 1.1 lb this week bringing me to 196.3 lbs.

Food

That’s a whole post on it’s own and I will probably write more about it later this week.

We Are Ready For Chocolate!!!!

...the Chocolate Race that is!

We ran 5k again last night at a slightly faster pace. Leigh and Bev totally blew it away and I have no doubt we are going to have an amazing time at the race.

I've never run 5k back to back before and I will do it again tomorrow night and then again Sunday morning. I am feeling slightly sore today but nothing some stretching won't fix.

By the end of this week I will have run 5k, four times in 7 days! I never thought I would have the endurance or the strength, or the inclination to do that.

My old normal was 3-4k pretty easily. But now 5k is pretty easy. It's not like walking but I feel strong to the finish and I know I could run another interval if I wanted to.

Who is this person!!!???

Leigh, Bev, Enz, Tanya
Carol (our fearless and patient RR instructor)

500th Post–EAYGC Challenge and Other Miscellany

Blogger tells me this is my 500th post. I feel like I should write something auspicious or serious or interesting or inspiring or…….something other than a normal weekly update.

But as I thought about that more and more, I thought 500 is just a number and not any more special than any other number. It’s not like the posts that come after this or the 499 before this are any less important.

And then…I’m so brilliant I amaze myself sometimes

Isn’t that just like weight loss. We work really hard to get a certain number and when we start to struggle we are so quick to dismiss all the work that went into the numbers to date. When we do reach that magic number, we seem to forget that all the days coming after are just important as the ones that went before, in many ways even more so because regaining weight is so much easier than losing.

I’ve been really focusing on one day at a time lately and trying to make sure each day is 100% effort. Notice I didn’t say 100% perfect. Every day I have to put in the 100% effort to get the results I want. You do a half assed job, you get half assed results….(see now I’m thinking but half my ass (size) is exactly what  I do want….maybe that’s not a good analogy…) Anyway you get my point.

Every day is important. Every day has to count.

So on that note, my weigh in this week was 197.4 which means I’ve basically been maintaining for the last 4 weeks.

I am pretty sure I need to lower my carb intake back to under 50 to see any more movement on the scale. The difficulty I have is that I just don’t like meat, never have and probably never will. I don’t like the texture of any meat. I can manage to eat 3-4 meat meals a week because I’ve forced myself to do so for so many years, but any more than that I honestly feel like I’m going to gag and I feel like it’s lead sitting in my stomach.  Somehow I have to move past that. I don’t know how yet.

My calories are around 1200-1300 a day and I drink about 120 oz of water a day plus other fluids. I exercise for at least 30 minutes, 6 days a week. So..I need to change some stuff up.

In other news, I’m having some car issues and although I had a short term plan to get rid of my car to save expenses for about year, I hadn’t planned to get rid of it TODAY and am not really prepared for managing without it right now, so I’m in a quandary. Fix it and keep it for a while longer or write it off and put my future plan into the present tense and deal with it?

As of right now, it is not drivable so I need to come up with a plan pretty quick.

Mostly I want thank you all for giving me the inspiration and motivation for sticking it out for 500 posts. My very first follower was Rachael at Scientific Nature of the Whammy. For a very, very long time, she was the only one that commented and cheered me on and I have to say Thank You because without her I don’t think I would have continued. Along the way, 500 posts and over three years later, I have come to appreciate you all and get to know some of you as more than anonymous faces on my screen. This is the best part of blogging!

Our run Friday night was good. Not “wings on my feet” amazing, but good. It was very challenging and we did 4 sets of 6/1 for the first time, we did a longer loop of a route we’ve done before and the new part of the route was uphill so it definitely worked some muscles.

Wings On My Feet

That’s how I felt on tonight's run. Since I started running last July with Guenther , this is my third time that I have felt awesome both during running and after running.

Normally, the whole time I’m running, I’m questioning the wisdom of running and wondering what possesses me to keep doing this and how much longer do I have to do this for anyway? When it’s over, I feel pretty good – but not sure if its because its over, or because I feel accomplished.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fast by any means…but sometimes I feel fast.

Sometimes, It's like my legs go on autopilot for a little while and just run on their own and I can concentrate on breathing and keeping my focus straight ahead, my core solid and just go. But tonight the whole run was like that and it seemed to go by so quickly!

I felt pretty good right at the outset of our run tonight and I attributed it to the route which is a gradual down hill incline (Cootes Drive).   But by the third interval I was still feeling amazing and recovering very quickly in the 1 minute walk interval.  We had decided to do 4 sets of 5/1 but after the fourth one we took a bit of longer walk break and then did another interval of 5 minutes running. About half way through the 5th interval, I was starting to doubt I could finish it. Leigh was our official time keeper and she fibbed about the time just long enough to help me push through the last interval. Thanks Leigh!

Our instructor, Carol, is awesome, always challenging us but not pushing in an obnoxious, competitive way.  Tanya also runs with us and I love her quirky sense of humour, she often has me laughing so I don’t even notice the time go by.

So end of run, we had done 5 sets of 5/1 plus a warm up walk and a cool down walk. Our total distance was 4.97 km.

Oh before I forget, I want to give a shout out and a huge Congratulations to Guenther, who ran 5k in under 30 min the other day. He started running in July with me and put in the work, the time and sweat to meet this goal. He is proof that if you want something and you’re willing to put in the work – you can get there.  He is a huge inspiration to me.

…and then keep doing it!

Day 2 of my Reboot. Work days are easier to manage because the day is so structured. Calories and fluids were on target, carbs will end up around 50 for the day. I had zero caffeine today and before the run only 30 g of carbs. I did feel I had to push my legs a little harder, but it wasn’t crazily impossible.

Running clinic practice was 4 sets of 5/1 at the rail trail. We did 3.5 km including a warm up and cool down walk.

There is a steep downhill then immediately uphill again (kind of like a little valley) and then a gradual  incline. It is hard to keep the pace going up those hills, but we did pretty good, I think.  Our overall pace was 9:39 min/km which is slightly better than yesterday but our walk time was less and we had two very steep down hills to pick up time. The unfortunate thing is that Nike+ doesn’t allow me to distinguish between walk/run intervals but by replaying the sequence, I can see we were under 8 min/km most of the time during the runs.

 

Just Do It

Nike says it best.

This was our week for 5/1 at the Running Clinic. The program is to do three sets of 5 minutes running and 1 minute walking.  We did four sets because we’re pushing for a 5k race at the end of April so we’re trying to make sure we are training for that.

Today we ran Cootes Drive which starts out all downhill, then we turn and come back all uphill – gradual incline both ways. It was a good workout. Despite “not feeling it” when I woke up this morning, once I got out there and met up with Leigh and our instructor Carol, I was good to go.  This “run” included a 3 min warm up walk, then the four sets of 5/1 and about a 7 min cool down walk, hence the overall average pace. Our actual run pace was around 8:30 m/km pretty steadily, even going up hill.

Tomorrow night we do it again, but will run the rail trail which has short, steep hills rather than a gentle incline.

I started tracking in MFP again this morning as well. I had just been tracking on paper since last Monday.

Today I am going to spend this rainy day cooking and prepping for the week ahead.

There’s a blog I read that absolutely motivates me and it seems that Dayne always posts exactly the message I need to hear when I need to hear it. Today’s post definitely struck home.

If you don’t read him, check him out. I have also downloaded some of his audio messages to my iPhone and I listen to them on the train on days I am feeling in particular need of a pep talk.

Coach Your Mind.

Reboot

This past week has completely upset my routine and sapped my strength of will and determination.

I knew the scale would be up this morning and I know it's not as bad as I expected.


New weight - 197.9 - that is up 0.6 lbs.


Although I have felt defeated this week, I am not giving up.  I have to find my motivation again, it's amazing how it can disappear so quickly after being so strong for so long.


I did three runs and also yoga today so I have not completely abandoned healthy living this week. Back to the drawing board - back to the basics.


Hope you all have a great weekend!

What a Week!

It's been a crazy week. It started off with feeling  really, really, really tired on Friday and mostly doing nothing but some low level housework and watching television all day - which I never ever do (the TV part, not the housework part).  I pretty much squandered about 12 hours alternately dozing and watching food porn. I had zero appetite and a wicked headache that carried through til Monday afternoon.

As the weekend wore on, I felt more and more tired and "sick".  I cooked a lovely Easter dinner on Sunday but had no inclination to eat it - I picked at it and packed up a ton of leftovers, much to the glee of my youngest son who spent the next three days eating them because I was not up to doing anything from Mon-Wed. I did go out and try and run Monday night - if you can call the ridiculously slower than normal shuffle I was doing - running. Leigh was wonderful to put up with me and stick with me for the intervals.

Anyway long story short, I've eaten very little this week except for Liptons Chicken Noodle Soup and saltines. Let's just call it salt dissolved in water. Today I feel more human but definitely am bloated and retaining sodium and water, my hands and feet are swollen and I feel like a beached whale.  I highly doubt I'm going to see any kind of loss on Saturday morning. Whatever gain there is, I know will be temporary but I just hate seeing it. Today was a better eating day but still not 100%. It turns out I had a reaction to a new diabetes medication that both upset my stomach so I was vomiting everything I was  eating/drinking as well as it causing my blood sugar to go far too low and major headaches.

For anyone who has any type of metabolic disorder, undereating is very very bad - just as bad as overeating and just as hard to recover from both metabolically and emotionally.

I'm planning a hot bath, a good night's sleep and an on plan day tomorrow and my normal Friday night running clinic. Keeping my fingers crossed life is back to normal tomorrow.

EAYGWC and Weekly Update

I had a really good week. Stayed within my calories, drank all my fluid, did the Running Room Clinic 3x, 1 extra run with Leigh, 1 extra run by myself and 60 minutes of Yoga and I walk every day at lunch for half an hour – the walk calories I don’t even count. The other exercise calories I do track in MFP but I don’t eat them.

Total loss this week……0.1 lb. Total for the challenge, 5.0 lbs.

After years of this I know the scale doesn’t always follow the lifestyle immediately but I was disappointed. I know it will catch up next week. I work really hard to lose 1 lb a week and when I don’t, it feels like the Universe is kicking me in the teeth.  The good thing is, I’m still alive and kicking, I can still keep working at chipping away this fat and there’s nothing holding me back.

Plan for this week is to keep doing what I’m doing.

Stay within my calories and points, drink all my fluids and exercise at least 4 times.

I have a long weekend getaway coming up in May and I know I won’t get much (if any) running in those 4 days so I’m trying to make as much headway as I can in endurance before I go. The run on Friday night felt really good, we did our first set of 4/1 (4 times) and although I always find the first set to be difficult, until my legs warm up, the run was actually good. Breathing was good, feet were good, legs were pumping – it was awesome.

Tomorrow morning we meet again and then Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night. Saturday is Yoga and I will probably run on my own either Thursday night or Saturday as well. Tomorrow I am hiking or running with my sister while Easter dinner is in the oven. Its easy to be so active when the weather is so nice and when I have good company!