I ran 5 miles for the first time ever!!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Actually 5.1! In 70 minutes, which is 13:45 minutes per mile! Way faster than the 15 minute miles I had projected!

I am feeling super proud of myself, and I wanted to share this great feeling with all of you.

There were a lot of great, small moments on this run. I am up in the North East Kingdom area of Vermont visiting my family (who needs graduation? Bah!) and I planned a route out for myself yesterday. It was three pronged - my parents live at the top of this monster hill, so I ran down (with a beautiful view of the mountains, cow pastures, horses, and just greenery everywhere!) and then took a left and ran on a rolling dirt road that runs alongside Derby Pond. It was so peaceful, and there was fresh cut grass, and it just smelled so summery and sweet. I then turned around and ran back the way I came onto the third prong, past a cemetary where a funeral was taking place. There were two hills to conquer at this point, and I had to really dig deep. I usually have great posture but I had to lower my head and push, push, push for that last half mile. Between the hills I ran past a man viewing the funeral from afar, and he said with a smile, "I sure envy your ability to run". It was just the perfect end to a great run.

I ended at the bottom of the hill from prong 1, so I had to hike 20 minutes back up to my folks' house. It was cake after those miles though!



So yeah, just awesome. The whole way I just felt joyful - that I was both physically and mentally strong enough to just keep going and do what I knew, I knew I could do deep down in my heart. I was half laughing, half crying when I reached that 5.1 mile mark and slowed to a walk - it is a quiet road, but if anybody drove past they might have thought I was crazy - this silly girl in her cute but SHORT shorts laughing and pumping her fists in the air... Ha!



Now I get to spend the rest of the weekend with my family, for which I am ever grateful. I am very excited about the marathon relay next weekend - I am going to totally rock my 5.8.

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

On track with my training schedule! And other updates

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I am feeling GREAT about the schedule I set up for myself for the next week and a half. I am going to be SO ready for my 5.8 miles. Serve 'em up. I can totally do this.

If you can't tell, I am feeling really confident, lol.

I had a great 3 mile run today - ran at an average 13 min/mile pace, faster on the second half of the run. This was on sore legs and with sore arms and shoulders to boot. I felt really tough, and really strong. I made sure to stretch out well afterward. Tomorrow is a rest day (thank goodness!) and then Saturday will be my long run. I am going to try for 5 uninterrupted miles, and I think I can do it. I will be up visiting my parents who live on this killer hill, so I might run down and out and then call to have someone pick me up, lol. I don't need to be overusing my legs or injuring myself at this point!

When I graduated from my internship I received a $50 gift card to a local sports store (Ski Rack, for locals) plus a membership to the Green Mountain Athletic Association, which has as a perk a 15% discount on running gear at Ski Rack. So I decided to take advantage of those today!! I bought a pair of Mizuno shorts, purple with a pink stripe down the sides AND a cute little hidden pocket, and a very nice, very pink sports bra (the brand eludes me right now...).

Side bar/rant! I have lost 75 pounds and I'm not THAT big, and I am still just barely squeezing into a size large for running bottoms! And the few stores that I have been to only carry up to large for bottoms. What's up with that? Oh well, I will reverse-grow into them! They fit, I mean, but they aren't as loose as they should be.

One more update... things are going really well with my gentleman friend! We have been spending quite a bit of time together, and we mutually decided to date each other exclusively because we are pretty great. We even changed our status on facebook to being "In a Relationship". Crazy, I know. I am very happy, this has worked out very well and beyond what I had hoped for (it has been a long time since I have dated and it has been so much fun!).

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

Training schedule for next two weeks - Prepping for my 5.8 mile relay leg!

Monday, May 17, 2010

I took a few minutes to jot down my training schedule for the next two weeks. I want to feel great and perform well for my relay team! Here is what I came up with:

5/18 - Run 1-2 miles

5/19 - Walk and strength train

5/20 - Run 3-4 miles

5/21 - Strength train/Rest

5/22 - Long run - aiming for 5 continuous miles!

5/23 - Run 1-2 miles

5/24 - Walk and strength train

5/25 - Run 4 miles

5/26 - Strength train/Rest

5/27 - Run 3 miles

5/28 - Walk

5/29 - REST!

5/30 - 5.8 miles at the Key Bank Vermont City Marathon!!!!!

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

75 pounds lost!! Progress pics!!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Yay! Finally made it. It is just one stop on a longer journey, but these milestones feel so great. It has taken me 16.5 months to get here, and every thing I did was worth how healthy I feel right now.

**I should note, these new pics do not represent my decent photography skills!! But you'll get the gist...





As compared to me around my highest weight in the fall/winter of 2008:



I have way too many pictures of myself at this weight. It is funny, I never thought I looked that big when I was that size. Now I look at pictures like this and I ask, who was that person?

And as compared to me at an early point in my journey, having lost 25 pounds by March of 2009:





I have additional progress pics in my picture section on my spark page, please feel free to browse! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the positivity and support.

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

I'm in the 180's!!! By a hair...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

...but still, I'm there!

189.6 this morning, which is also thiiiiissssssss close to my 75 pounds lost mark! Tomorrow might even do it - I can't wait to take my new set of comparison photos!!

Feeling really, really good about this. Especially after quite a bit of eating out with my new male acquaintance. I made some good choices though, so I think that my conscientiousness about my eating paid off.



In other news... I have hung out with my new friend everyday since Sunday. Getting to know each other has been very nice. Definitely, definitely, definitely enjoying this early start to summer.

Also: Got an A in my independent study for the semester. No other grades in just yet, but I'll keep y'all posted. I imagine that I got Bs in my other two classes, which is fine by me, given all that I went through this past couple of months. It is the experience and the learning, versus the grade, that is important to me.

  Member Comments About This Blog Post: