Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I ran a mile with out stopping. One full mile. I ran it in exactly 12 minutes. A 12 min mile...not super fast...but I wouldn't have been able to do it a couple of months ago. So it's an accomplishment. And I'm proud of it...oh yeah, and it's my birthday.

another day

I had to talk myself out of bed this morning. I almost didn't get up to go for a bike ride. I so wanted to sleep for just a bit longer. But then I remembered the chips I ate last night and how they made me feel ill and I told myself that I'd be sure to get up and go for a bike ride to make it up to my body. So I dragged myself out of bed. I don't know why it's so hard to get out of bed. Once I am up and out the door I am always glad that I'm up and doing it. But the actual getting out of bed part is a killer. I love my sleep and I am not a natural morning person.
Now that I am starting to see some progress on the scale, I have a renewed desire to keep this up and to be even better than I have been. I want to keep seeing that number go down. I have goals to reach. I'm starting to see that maybe I'll be able to reach them after all.

3 weeks to go

Only three weeks left until the 5K race. Last week training was tojog for 4min and walk for 1 min repeated 7 times. During my Wednesday morning run I decided to run out the the half way mark to get an idea of how long it would take me to do the whole race. On the way back I could see that all I needed to do was run one more interval and I'd have run the full 5K. So I did it AND I didn't feel like I was going to die. I wasn't any faster than the first time I walk/jogged a 5K, but I wasn't struggling to finish either. It wasn't as hard as the first time, not by a long shot. So on my Friday morning jog I decided to just see how far I could jog with out stopping. I actually wished I had mapped out how far a full mile was, I kinda just guessed and ran out to that point(I was off by 0.1), I ran for a full 10minutes. I'm sure I could have gone longer, but I didn't want to push myself too hard, I was experiencing pain in my calf muscles and I wanted to be able to finish the days training and make it home. I think some time this week I'll just run a full mile just to see.
Today was a great day. I easily finished the days training, which is still the same as last week. I feel great. Pain wasn't too bad in my calves today. I'm always grateful for that. My knees are kinda achy, especially when I walk down stairs. So I'll have to be more diligent in the strength training to try to eliminate that pain. But all in all I am happy with how things are going.

A New Low

I stepped on the scale this morning...240.4!!!

That is all :)

This is hard

What is hard? everything.

Keeping this blog up to date is hard. I really wanted to keep this blog a daily thing, or at least a few times a week, but lately it's been more like a bi-weekly thing. I'll do better....I'll try to do better. Sometimes it is easier to just not write my thoughts, especially the negative ones. But, this is my journey and I do want to keep track of it, both the good and the bad.

Jogging is hard. But I am enjoying it. Most of the time. I still have the pain in my calf muscles, but I have learned how to manage it and keep it to a minimum as much as possible. Today a jogged another 5K just to see if I could. I jogged for 4 minutes and walked for 1 minute. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do it as easily as I did...even if I am slow. 41 minutes is better than not at all. The real Race day is coming up in a little more than 3 weeks. I was getting doubtful these past few days, that I'd even be able to do it. That is why I ran the extra bit this morning to make it a full 5K, I needed to know that I could do it with out dying. And I can, so I'm happy with that. I don't have any plans to be the one to come in first, or second, or even tenth. I just want to do it. To prove to myself that I can and then to simple say that I did.

Finding time to do all the strength training that I should is hard. I had planned to do it when I get home from my jog, but often as soon as I get home and get stretched the kids have swarmed around me and need me to feed them or do this or do that and so it gets put off and then most of the time it doesn't get done....I probably should be doing it right now, but instead I am using my free moments to make this post.

Losing weight is hard. Finally when I stepped on the scale last week I saw the numbers move. From 245 to 242. I didn't dare hope that it was real so I didn't record it. But then again this morning when I stepped on the scale it read 241.4. Oh blessed day. I really hope this is for real, that I am starting to see the weight come off. I am so tired of that number...stupid 245. I've been there for way too long, in spite of all my efforts. Do I dare hope that I'll continue to see that number drop over the rest of the summer?

I'm still here

I know it's been like...forever, since I posted here. Life is busy. And on top of that I've been trying to figure out what I need to do to overcome this intense pain in my calf muscles. I've been doing all kinds of reading on different possibilities on what is causing it and what to do about it. I took another two weeks off of jogging. I spent the time walking 5k and riding my bike for 10k. I found some stretches that are specific for runners and helping with the pain in my calves. Yesterday I jogged for the first time in two weeks....and it felt great. It was pain free!! So now I am feeling like this is possible. Which is a change from the past two weeks were I was kind of feeling defeated. That this goal of mine to run a 5K this summer was out of reach and maybe a little far fetched. But now I am feeling like I really will be able to do this. I'll be jogging again in the morning, and I am hoping that it will go as well as yesterdays jog did. Hopefully onward and upward from here.

The beiginning of the 5K running training program

Well hello all my faithful readers....oh wait...that's right,there aren't any :) It's just me and my thoughts out here. Well regardless I have to apologize for being away for so long. It's been one week short of a month since I last posted anything. After I ran/walked my first 5K, I took two weeks off of jogging. I was still trying to get some walking in. but I really wanted to let my shins and knees heal before continuing on in the quest for my 5K race. this past week I started jogging again to see where I was at. I was pleased to see that I hadn't slowed down any. I bought some new shoes, so we'll see if that helps in the sore knee department.
Unfortunately I am still sitting at the same weight that I was when I started this whole thing. That's right, I haven't lost a pound at all. It seems to me that I am doomed to remain 245lbs forever. I can not accept this. However, I can not be discouraged either. So today I have decided to get back into tracking everything that I am eating to see where I am going wrong. I have also decided that I will ride my bike on the days that I am not jogging AND that I WILL do some strength training everyday. The plan is to get up at 6am instead of 6:30am to fit in some strength training when I get back from my jog or bike ride...that didn't go so well today. I turned off my alarm and was just going to lay in bed for a few minutes, but I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 6:30am when my baby boy started crying...a good thing too, because I would have just kept on sleeping.
So onward and upward. lets hope I start to see some results in the very near future.