Back on the Wagon...

To sum up the last year and a half: I ran the St George Marathon October 2, 2010 and weighed 155 lbs at that point. A few weeks later we got pregnant with our 6th baby...

I continued running and exercising regularly but when I started contracting at 15 weeks I decided to ease up on the exercise a bit to see if I could stop the contractions. They stopped for a few days and then came back slowly until by 18 weeks pregnant I was contracting every 2-3 minutes. I have a condition that is referred to as an "irritable uterus" which means that your uterus will contract without causing change or "progression" to the cervix (basically meaning that I contract all day but am not in danger or preterm labor). My irritable uterus contractions are not like most and they come at regular intervals and last a full minute with the most pain at the height of the contraction. Basically, they feel exactly like labor contractions except that they don't get closer together or more painful with every one. This pregnancy my contractions stayed 2-3 minutes apart and got increasingly more painful as my uterus grew. Usually these contractions don't start for me until the end of my pregnancy. The earliest they have started was around 30 weeks, so starting at 15 weeks was kind of crazy even for me. I spent the last 4 months of my pregnancy in so much pain and so exhausted from having constant contractions for several months already that I spent most of my day in bed or on the couch unable to walk from one room to the next without breaking into a sweat from the pain of the contractions. 

I only mention all of this to try to justify the 70 (yes, that's SEVENTY) pounds that I gained during that pregnancy. I usually gain a lot of weight when I'm pregnant but that is just disturbing! I delivered my baby at about 225 lbs.

Those of you who have read this blog may have read that my body likes to hang onto it's weight during the first year of my babies lives! Regardless of diet and exercise I cannot loose weight until my babies are 9-11 months old. I've tried everything! I've been really good at keeping track of what I eat and balancing the right number of carbs and protein as well as eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and drinking enough water to drown a whale! I've tried fad diets, weight watchers, even diet pills. After 6 babies I've finally started to get the hint, my body wants that weight for some reason (I haven't been able to nurse my last 5 babies so it's not nursing that is keeping it on either). The best I can figure is that my hormones must still be all out of whack from having a baby and hormones have a lot to do with loosing weight, right?

Anyway, our 6th baby was born at the end of June 2011 and a few weeks later I started walking on the treadmill every morning. Mid July I decided that I wanted to set a goal to walk or jog 100 miles before Labor Day. I started out walking for the first few days but felt so good that I wanted to run, so I started running 2-3 miles 4-5 days a week and I met my goal. 100 miles later I still weighed 200 pounds. I could tell that I was getting stronger and in better shape though because I could run faster and farther without having to stop to walk, but the pounds still weren't coming off. Somehow I'd hoped that by some miracle this post pregnancy body would be different and would let me loose weight. I kept treating it like it would. I ate super healthy and drank tons of water and never stopped exercising. 


In November, my baby was 5 months old and I was feeling stronger and more in shape but still hadn't lost a pound. I was really discouraged and actually pretty depressed about how I looked. I decided to take a picture of myself at my biggest ever (right then) so I could see the progress when the weight finally started coming off. Here is that sad picture:

Finally in mid February (8 months after I had my baby) I lost 5 pounds and was down to 195. It took me until April to loose another 5 pounds and get down to 190. Here's a picture of me on April 13th at 189.7 lbs:

Now it's May and my baby is 10 1/2 months old and I'm down to 185. I've lost 15 pounds in the last 2 1/2 months and I'm hoping to loose another 30 pounds by the end of September (5 months away) when we go back to Hawaii again. I've signed up for a half marathon at the end of July and am just about to start a "Biggest Loser" challenge (http://bigloser6.blogspot.com/) at the end of this week. 

I think that 30 pounds in 5 months is a totally realistic goal. That's only 6 pounds a month and only about 1.5 pounds a week. I'm going to be training for my half marathon during this time, as well as competing in this Biggest Loser Challenge. So follow me on here to see my progress and please feel free to comment and encourage me along this journey to a skinny me... again! Lol!

*I just read back on this blog and noticed that I posted the whole story of my weight gain and loss on my family blog and not on here so here it is:

"I started a weight loss blog about a month ago to keep track of what I'm eating how much I weigh and what exercise I'm doing each day. I thought it would be a good way to keep me on track and keep me accountable for what I'm eating and what I'm doing (or not doing) to get in shape. I also started a weight class around the same time and so I'm keeping track of all of the things that I am learning there too.

Anyway, I didn't really want to tell people about the blog yet because I post my weight and I wasn't sure I wanted to share that with the whole world wide web! But here goes nothing! Just to put things into perspective, in High School I weighed about 130 and I was super skinny and had no muscles! I weighed 138 lbs when I got married, and still had zero muscles! I put on roughly 85 lbs when I was pregnant with Tyler (yes, my friends if you do the math you will see that I weighed about 223 lbs at my very heaviest). After I had Tyler I got down to about 165 lbs and then gained 19 lbs when I was pregnant with Maddie (184 lbs), got back down to 165, gained 18 lbs when I was pregnant with Emily (183 lbs), and then got down to 152 lbs right before we went to Italy in 2006. Brought home a little souvenir and gained 65 lbs when I was pregnant with Nathan despite my exercise and good eating habits before and during my pregnancy (back up to 217 lbs). After I had Nathan I got down to 165 again and then got pregnant with Logan and gained 25 lbs (190 lbs). I got back down to 165 fairly quickly after he was born but then put back on about 10 lbs or so and then lost about 5 and ended the year at around 172 lbs. I'd been exercising on and off and had been eating really well and even went on a "sweets fast" with my mother in law and sister in law for awhile! But no more weight was coming off. Well, since I'm feeling more and more sure that we are done having kids, I'm feeling more and more motivated to get rid all of my baby fat!

So January of course brought the usual New Years Resolution to exercise consistently and eat healthy and loose weight. Mine also included Run a Marathon and achieve my ultimate goal weight of 145 lbs (maybe 140 if I'm feeling SUPER ambitious for my height and build 130 looked somewhat anorexic and 138 was better but I still had no muscle at that weight, so I'm thinking 140 to 145 is about right for me). I started doing P90X and Turbo Jam and weights and running on the treadmill and Tae Bo and a gazillion other exercises and often 2 or 3 workouts a day and drinking about 80 ounces of water a day and eating super healthy and kept that up for 3 full months without noticing ANY difference! Not an ounce of weight lost, not an inch of waist lost. That's when I remembered that my body tends to hang onto some extra weight until my babies are about 10 months old. It's been that way with each of my kids and I guess I thought this time would be different since I'd been working SO hard to loose weight, but no such luck! I had been sitting around 172 to 174 lbs since Christmas and Logan would be 10 months old on May 1st. About mid April the weight finally started to come off. Now I weigh 162.8 lbs and have lost MANY inches! I'm also on track in my training for the marathon. I registered for the St. George Marathon and in 2 days we'll see if I made the lottery and will be able to run it! If you are interested in following my progress feel free to stop by my blog at skinnyjanelley.blogspot.com. I've added a tracker so I can see when people come to the site just to keep me on my toes. I didn't tell anyone about my site but had a few people stumble across it and even got a comment from a friend of mine from BYU which caught me by surprise. I realized since I saw that people were coming that I started feeling more accountable and like people were actually reading what I eat every day and seeing how much I weigh! That's when I decided that it was time to let my regular "bloggy" friends know about my other blog, so that more people might stop by, keeping me more motivated to eat well and exercise a lot! So thanks for the motivation everyone!"

26.2 Miles Later...

OH MY LANTA!!!! I can't believe I actually finished! That was the hardest thing I have ever done! I thought I would be able to keep a 10 to 10 1/2 minute per mile pace throughout the race, but I hadn't done that on a single long run yet so I wasn't too surprised when that pace slowly slipped away. The time said 5:27 when I crossed the finish line but since I didn't cross the starting line until 7 minutes after the start time my official time was 5:20. That put my average pace per mile just over 12 minutes. That also put me in 4824th place! Lol!! There were 5702 people that finished the race. That meant that only 878 people finished after me. There were 2461 women running the marathon and I finished 1973rd of them. Lol!! Peter and I got a good laugh out of those numbers! Oh well, it was seriously SUCH AN AMAZING experience! Let me start from the beginning...

After we had our 5th baby we began to feel more and more certain that we were done having kids. Naturally, after having 5 kids less than 8 years apart my body had seen better days. I'd worked out in between pregnancies and tried to stay in shape but then I would always get pregnant only a few months after I actually started to loose weight. So feeling pretty confident that we were done having kids I decided that I wanted to reclaim my body. I was going to loose ALL of my "baby weight" and regain control of my eating and exercise habits. So I started running, my fail proof weight loss plan. But something was different this time. I couldn't wait to get up in the mornings and tie on my running shoes. I started waking up earlier and earlier because I realized that there was something comforting and so peaceful about running while there was still dew on the grass and a fresh cool feeling in the air. I loved watching the sky turn from a dusky grey to a pinkish blue as the sun would rise. I loved hearing the birds wake up and start to sing while I was out running. I loved feeling the cool morning air brush across my face and hair and I couldn't wait to do it again the next day. Gradually I started pushing myself a little farther and a little faster and it wasn't long before I fell in love with running. The feeling caught me by complete surprise! My Dad is a runner, my sisters run and my brother is a runner, but not me!

My three older siblings had run the St George Marathon together last year and they were all talking about running again this year. I thought it would be so amazing to be able to run with them and push myself that far and accomplish something so great together with them. I'd always been the little sister who didn't like to run and they all ran track and cross country in Jr High and High School and now they'd all run a marathon together! I'd been left in the dust! I was the girl who used to forge Doctor's notes in High School to get out of doing "the mile run" in P.E. It was always either a doctor's note or I would tell my young male P.E. teacher that I was on my period! Lol! It never failed that he would wave me away and tell me to just "sit this one out"! But I was different now and I actually loved running. The farthest I had ever run was 9 miles, could I actually run 26.2... at once? There was only one way to find out! So I put my name into the lottery and was absolutely ecstatic when I got in!

The training was long and hard. Hard physically but also logistically since I had 5 small kids at home and a husband that needed to be at work every morning and he also had a list of projects and things he needed to get done on Saturdays while I needed to be out running for hours at a time and he was home taking care of the kids. But we made it work and he supported me every step of the way. Every Friday night I would sit at the computer on MapMyRun and plan out my route for the next day. And every Saturday I would come home tired but thrilled that I had run farther than I had ever run in my life!  It was invigorating and exciting... and yes, exhausting! I had a knee injury towards the beginning of my training and decided to not worry about speed or pace at all and just work on building my distance. I've posted about a lot of my runs on here so I won't get into all of the details, but through this process I went from someone who abhorred running in High School, to someone who hated running but did it anyway because it was effective in helping me loose weight after having a baby, to someone who absolutely loved running and felt depressed when I couldn't run for awhile because of my knee injury. It was a long road, but one I would walk over and over and over again!

So after months of training and being amazed that I could push my body farther and farther every week, Marathon weekend finally came. Friday morning we got the kids off to school and the 3 youngest off to neighbors/friends houses and then Peter and I headed down to St George. Peter took the day off of work to come down and support me. We decided not to try to bring the kids for several reasons, but the biggest one was that on the day of the marathon there is a lot of waiting out in the heat and I didn't think the kids would enjoy that or cooperate for long and that would leave Peter unable to really enjoy it. I also wasn't looking forward to a 4 hour drive down when I was nervous and anxious trying to take care of all the kids OR the 4 hour drive back home with all 5 kids when I was exhausted from the run. Peter's brother Tim and his awesome wife Lisa came out and stayed overnight with the kids so we could go down just the two of us and really enjoy the experience.

We got there Friday afternoon and met up with my Mom and Jen (my oldest sister, shown in the picture above) and Billy (my older brother) and headed to the Expo to pick up our bibs (running numbers) and check out all of the vendors and souvenirs. Peter and I each got a cool marathon t-shirt and we had a lot of fun laughing at all of the t-shirts they had for sale. They said things like, "I hope there is someone behind me to read this", "I'm only doing this so I can post a picture on Facebook", "90% of running is half mental", "Running is a mental sport and we are all insane", and "Toenails are overrated!" I lost a toenail last week and it never occurred to me that it could be a result of all of my training! I saw several different signs along the course and quotes on t-shirts about toenails being overrated and something about sacrificing so much to get there - including our toenails, so I wonder if that's why my toenail fell off! We also sat in on the last half of a "First Timers Clinic" where they answered a ton of questions, gave a bunch of advice and walked us through the course mile by mile with pictures and video and told us what to expect. I was really glad that we decided to sit in and wish we would have been there for the whole thing.

No one really slept much that night, we were all anxious about the marathon. We got up at what Jen refers to as "O'dark thirty" and got ready to go and ate breakfast. I was relieved to find that the hotel had all of my usual pre-run foods so I ate a banana and 2 pieces of wheat toast with peanut butter and jam and a little bit of orange juice.

We got to the park where the buses would drive us to the starting line around 5am and waited among the huge throngs of people to get on a bus. When our turn finally came we piled in with 3 adults in each seat (mind you, these seats might be big enough for 2 small children to sit on). It was quite a sight! And then we started to drive... and drive.... and DRIVE!!! HOLY COW!! I could not believe how long we were driving and we were driving the course! I kept saying, "Are you sure they aren't taking us a different route? This is really only 26.2 miles?! Are you sure?!?!" It was crazy! That's when I realized I was completely insane. It was pitch black and thousands of people were being dropped off in the middle of nowhere and going to be told, "Now run back!" Insanity I tell you!!! Finally we got to the starting line and loud music was playing while thousands of us unloaded the buses and began waiting anxiously for the start of the race. There were hundreds of fire pits lit since it is usually super cold at the start of the race but we took off our warm clothes and sent them right back down the hill and were quite comfortable. It was the hottest morning in St. George Marathon history, which didn't bode too well for the rest of the day! There is no shade on the whole course (except for one bridge that we ran under about mile 17 or so and there were at least 40 people stopped under it stretching and trying to escape the heat).

The starting line was CRAZY! Not unorganized crazy just crazy to see! Almost 6000 people crammed onto one road. The mass of sardine people stretched back at least a mile. I wedged my way in and the whistle blew for the start of the race. And I laughed as nothing happened. No one moved. No one could move! I'm sure the people in the very front did, but it took about 4 minutes until the movement reached where I was wedged. And then we all kind of shuffled, stopped, shuffled, stopped and then eventually we all kind of bobbed up and down in a way that tried to mimic a jog (still touching people on all sides) and then we crossed the starting line 7 minutes after the whistle had blown! After we crossed the starting line the mob started to disperse a little bit but you still couldn't put your elbows out very far or take very big strides. You were all just kind of carried along together for about another half mile and then you had a little bit more room and you might be able to put one of your hands out straight to one side of you, but certainly not both. And that squishiness stayed on for not quite another half mile and then it started to get a little less crowded and you could start maneuvering in and around people as you tried to start thinking about your pace. Until about the second mile you didn't really have a choice how fast or slow you were going unless you wanted to get trampled or trample others! By that point as well it was hot enough out that I was full on sweating, which I hear is pretty crazy since you are usually still trying to thaw out at that point.  I saw a box on the side of the road for warm clothes that had a big 3 written on it and I thought, "What in the world? Does that mean 3 miles? That's so crazy! Have we really run 3 miles?" I was so focused on not getting trampled and trying to weave my way past people and find a way to get out of the mob that I had no idea how far we'd gone! I have an app on my phone that I use that tells me distance and pace and everything and I'd turned it on at the starting line, but I guess in the crowd at the start someone probably bumped it and it turned off. Anyway, there were a LOT of people!

My sister took this picture on her phone around mile 17. It was a beautiful course! It was super hot though and like I said, no shade. So the sun just roasted us the whole time! I wish I would have thought to wear sunscreen on my face at least. I started out running the first few miles about 8:30 average but I think that was mostly because that seemed to be the "flow of traffic" and at that point I didn't have much of a choice! Then I settled into about 9 - 9:30 min/mile for the next several miles. I was hoping to run with the 4 hour group (they had pacers who carried balloons that said their goal finish time on them) but I couldn't find them in the chaos of the start, so I ran just ahead of the 4:15 group until about mile 7 (yes that's Veyo - one of the only real uphills on the course). I got a pebble in my shoe and stopped to get it out and couldn't get the momentum going again to get back to my 9:30 pace and I slowed down to about 10 - 10:30 for a long time. I was really comfortable running that pace and was really feeling pretty good! I saw a man that looked so much like my Daddy that I did a double take. And he ran like my Daddy! It made me so happy that I ran along side him as long as I could. It lasted a few miles and then I lost him at a water station. It was a fun little distraction!

When I got to mile 14 I started to walk through the water stations (at every odd mile) and eventually started to walk about 10-30 seconds of every mile and I'd slowed down quite a bit to where I was doing more like 12 minute miles. I still felt really good until about mile 19. There was another hill that was a pretty steady incline for over a mile and I got my first cramp in my calf. I jogged through it for a few more miles and then finally stopped to get a Bengay rub down about mile 21. I don't think I ever regretted signing up or felt incredibly disappointed that my goal time slipped away from me. There were however a few times, when I looked around me and saw the hordes of exhausted people hobbling, jogging and limping down the road in the middle of the desert and found it extremely comical that we were all crazy enough to be here. But we WERE here! We were running a MARATHON! And we were going to finish, and no matter what that finish looked like it was an incredible accomplishment to be proud of!

I noticed the 5:00 balloons pass me around mile as I was getting my legs rubbed and drinking my Gatorade. I decided to call Peter since my phone was about to die and I'd told him to expect me somewhere around or just after 4 hours and that would NOT be happening! Then at mile 23 I got a phone call from my sister Tara who decided not to run this year and she got emotional telling me how proud she was of me and I just started to cry. It was the perfect motivation that I needed to keep me going through the end. I only had 3 more miles and I wanted to run the whole way. My calf cramped up several more times and I slowed considerably but I did it. As I ran into town I just started to cry again. People were lining the streets on both sides cheering and holding signs and a few people walked along side of me for a minute or called out to me and said, "Good Job!" "You are doing great! You are almost there!" "You've done it! Just one more block and you ran a marathon!" and I just cried and told them thank you as I jogged passed. Peter told me that they were just passed the last turn right before the finish line and I wasn't sure how many turns there were in through town so every corner I'd turn I'd choke up knowing that they were right there cheering me on. But then I would turn it and realize there was another turn up ahead. After several turns in town I saw my mom peeking through the bushes on the corner watching for me and she ran back to tell the rest of them that I was coming. I turned the corner and emotions flooded through me.

There is me crying. It was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment and joy and love for my family and Peter who supported me through all of my crazy hours of training and I just couldn't hold it in. I think being so physically exhausted probably made me a little extra emotional but it truly was such an amazing experience and one that I will NEVER forget.

Here we all are after we finished. Jen had a knee injury towards the end of her training that kept her from getting in her long runs and so she decided to stop at mile 21 and ride the shuttle in the rest of the way so she didn't get injured and they took her bib number when she got on the shuttle :( You can read about her experience on her blog here.

Here's my mom, my sister Jen, my niece Britta, my brother Billy and Me and Peter. Billy finished in 3:55 (crazy, that I thought I would do close to that). I think the heat added to everyone's times but regardless of time, it was an amazing experience and I still get emotional thinking about it. I was sore... VERY sore. In fact I'm still sore as I write this (2 days after the Marathon) but not as sore as yesterday. I sat in the finishers area on the grass stretching and eating bread and oranges feeling exhausted but so happy. I heard that less than 1% of the population had ever run a marathon and I realized how completely amazing what I had just done was. I was now and would forever be a marathoner. Wow!

I continued to stretch in the car as we drove the 4 hours home and stretched some more when we got there. Then I took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood trying to keep my legs moving and work all of the lactic acid out of my muscles. I was starting to get really sore. Even my TOES were sore! How does THAT happen?! The soreness gradually increased through the night and on Sunday it was really bad and I couldn't go down stairs really at all. I couldn't carry my baby and walk at the same time and I started having crazy tiny muscle spasms and shooting pains every once in awhile that evening. I took a couple of hot baths and my 7 year old daughter spent Sunday afternoon massaging my legs and feet since I was still having a hard time walking. At this point I contemplated whether or not it was worth it (by the way it was). I woke up this morning able to get out of bed without rocking back and forth to get enough momentum to push me forward. I also walked down the stairs without holding onto the rails, I was walking sideways and not straight down but I was QUITE proud of my accomplishment!

This evening as we had dinner with Peter's family I heard myself say the words, "The next time I run a marathon..." and I realized how badly I wanted to do it again. To run the whole time even if it was slow. To prove to myself that it wasn't just a one time thing. I wanted to prove to myself that I could push myself even harder the next time and improve my time of 5:20. I wanted to see if I would still feel the same elation and excitement as I trained even though each long run wouldn't be my farthest run I'd ever done. Yes, I had checked something off of my bucket list and yes, I had accomplished my goal of loosing all of my baby weight and reclaiming my body after 5 kids but it was so much more than that. I had changed. I was a different person. I was a person whose mind was stronger than my body. Who could will myself to do something that every muscle in my body was screaming at me to stop doing! I know now that I can do hard things... REALLY hard things! That knowledge has changed me and made me a better person. A better mother, a better wife, and a better daughter, sister, and friend. Running a marathon isn't about running for a really long time, it's about accomplishing something amazing. It's about being in control of your body, your thoughts and your attitude. It's about becoming a stronger and more motivated individual. That is what I took away from this experience, and THAT is why I can't wait for "the next time I run a marathon..."

18 mile run... CHECK!

Well I guess it was only 17.5 miles but still! I got up just after 5 and planned on leaving by 5:30 but it was still so dark that I decided to wait a bit. So I stretched a little more and looked at the map again to make sure I knew how to get to my son's football game on foot. I ended up leaving just before 6 and I still ran in the dark for about an hour! Craziness!! I only stopped running to use the bathroom and averaged just about 11:30/mile. I got to my sons game about 10 minutes late so I didn't loop around anymore to wrap up the last 1/2 mile to make it a full 18 miles. But I felt really good. I wasn't totally winded and my legs weren't jello and I wasn't really sore the next day! I did feel a little pulling in a tendon up in my left hip joint but I only felt it on the huge uphill stretches that I did. I ran down state street and up and around the Mt Timpanogos Temple and then out to Canyon Road and through Cedar Hills and came out at the mouth of American Fork Canyon and ran down along a trail that went through the golf course for a bit and then came back out on the Highland Highway and then went up 6000 to Timberline Middle School where my son's Football game was. I remembered to pack a peanut butter sandwich and a nectarine and some pretzels and a drink for myself so I had a little recovery food and I stretched on the sidelines as I watched him. I took my ice bath when I got home from the game (about an hour and a half after I finished my run) and I still felt fine. It worked out great! I'm excited for my 20 miler this Saturday!

I ran 5 miles this morning at about 9:50/mile average. Still feeling great! No knee issues and I'm really gonna do this! I can hardly believe I've built up to 18 miles already! It seems so unreal! Such a great feeling to have accomplished this so far! I need to start lifting weights with my hubby again and focus more on really eating oober healthy so I can get rid of this last 10 pounds and then just maintain. It's really true that those last 5 to 10 pounds are STUBBORN! But oh well! I look at my 5 beautiful kids and I think it's a pretty small price to pay! I'm setting a goal to loose 5 more pounds before the marathon. That'll put me at 149.5 lbs.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Exercise: Ran 5 miles at about 9:50/mile average

Weight: 154.6

Only 3.5 weeks until the Marathon!!

Wall?

Is this what it feels like to hit a wall? I thought you just used that expression WHILE you were running right before you get your second wind. Yesterday I think it hit one and I wasn't even running! I think my body is finally exhausted after just upping the anti every week and not tapering at all. I'm almost done though. 18 this Saturday and 20 next and then I get a break for 2 weeks before the marathon. I was talking to my brother about it last night and I think I've had a total different experience with running the last few months since I've started back up after my knee issues. Peter isn't working from home anymore and he needs to leave for work at 8am which means I don't have quite as much flexibility in my run times and I feel more stress to push harder or run faster or just plain cut my run short to make it back home in time and also I HAVE to get up earlier to go running instead of choosing to. I used to LOVE waking up with the sunrise to go for a run and I couldn't keep myself in bed even if I wanted to. Now it's different because I don't have the choice to sleep in a bit so it makes the experience not as enjoyable. I used to run as a release and to relax and just enjoyed every minute of it, and while I still enjoy running and I love the high that I get from it and the feeling of being fit and in shape and more in control I am not in love with the schedule of it. Does that make sense? I don't regret anything and I'm still SUPER excited about the marathon but it's just taking a little more effort to get myself out of bed in the mornings to start my runs. Saturday my son has a football game at 9am which means I either get to start my run at 4:00 in the morning to get the full run in followed by an ice bath and a shower and get myself and the kids ready for his game, or I can start at 5:30 and end my run at his game all stinky and exhausted and do a delayed ice bath and shower. OR I could start my run after his game and run right through the hottest part of the day for the longest run I've done yet. Or I could go in the evening and start just as the first BYU football game of the season starts and get home just as it finishes! I'm leaning towards the 5:30 start time.

I'm really glad my knee is still holding up okay! I ran 16.75 miles last Saturday and wasn't sore at all afterwards (I think largely due to my fabulous ice bath ritual and good stretching right afterwards and that evening before bed). Hopefully the last few weeks keep being nice to me and I can finish my training strong with no injuries. Still a little bummed that I'm so slow right now but I hear that you run faster after the final taper. I'd love to run 9 minute miles for the marathon. But since I haven't done that in awhile, maybe 9:30's... We'll see!

Where have I been?

On VACATION!!

My husband and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and had the opportunity to go to Hawaii this summer with some friends! YES PLEASE! Between getting ready to go and getting the kids ready for their stay with family and then the actual vacation as well as a short stay with family AFTER the vacation means I've basically been MIA for the whole month of August! But for a good cause!

The Marathon is in 4 short weeks and I am SO excited! My knee has been holding up pretty well. I started running again and as I increased in speed a little every run trying to get back to where I was when I had to take time off I started to notice a tiny twinge of pain in my knee that wasn't there before so I eased up again. I found that I could add the miles steadily and not have a problem but when I kept adding miles AND pushing for speed my knee would tell me to ease up. Since I started back into my training with only 9 weeks left and I still hadn't gone farther than 12 miles I knew that NOT adding the miles was NOT an option. So instead I've sacrificed on my speed. Before my knee issues I got down to about 8:50/mile. Now I try to keep myself at 9:30 to 10:00/mile just for training but I get down to 8:something in each of my runs for at least a little bit and I have to remind myself to slow down. My long runs I've been going even slower and the past few weeks I've been averaging about 11:40 average on my long runs and have even been seen walking for a short break when I'm doing a lot of hills which bums me out. I do NOT want to walk during the marathon. Of course I've forgotten my energy gels a few times and have still been scavenging for water fountains as I run since I haven't figured out whether I want a camel back or water bottles on a belt. I already run with a belt for my iPhone and my gu's and gum and chapstick. So I'm leaning towards water bottles that have the harness that I can slide onto my belt. I really need to just go get them since I only have 2 long runs left before my marathon. This Saturday is an 18 mile run and the next is 20 then I'll taper for 2 weeks and then the next week is the marathon! I need to run with my water. I carried a water bottle last weeks since I did a pretty long route in residential and knew there wouldn't be water fountains. It was kind of a pain, but not as annoying as I thought it'd be. It had a clasp so I tried to clasp it to my belt but it bounced off in the first half mile. So that didn't work. I really could just use the water stations at the marathon but I'd like to only have to stop to use the bathroom. So anyway! There you have it!

Another reason I've been such a slacker on updating this blog is that I've stopped dropping weight and have leveled out. I got down to 153.6 before Hawaii but all that yummy food did me in even though I did exercise while I was there. I ran 3 days while there. I did a 2.5 mile run with my cute hubby who used to run track and when to the national junior olympics and likes to think he's pretty speedy! We averaged 9:40 but got down to 7:50 for awhile! He said that going so slow made it hard for him to run and he was WINDED at 2.5 miles! So we went into the gym and he lifted weights while I finished running another 3 miles. Then I ran almost 6 miles one day and even did a 12 mile run along the beach (not in the sand) and it was HEAVEN! Nevertheless, I still came home with a few pounds for souvenirs and they haven't gone away yet!

Also having my RunMeter app on my phone that emails me the results of each run and also posts them on Facebook. I haven't needed a place to keep track of them anymore. I LOVE this app! I love going back and checking my splits for each mile and seeing when I hit my peak and when I started to slow down and could use some energy gu for a pick me up! I love having my pace spoken to me at each 1/2 mile so I know where I'm at. It's also so fun to have peoples comments read to me on the automatic posting that RunMeter puts up on facebook. The voice is a robotic male with a Brittish accent! LOL! So funny to hear how he pronounces things! Love it!

So to sum it up. I've got a plan where I ran 4 miles then 6 miles then 4 miles then 10 miles, then 4, 6, 4, 12, then 4, 6, 4, 14, then 5, 8, 5, 16 then 5, 8, 5, 18 then 5, 8, 5, 20 and then I'll taper and do 5, 8, 5, 9, then 3, 5, 3, 8 then on the last week I'll do 3, 3, walk 2, then 26.2! I did 16.75 last week and this morning I only did 4 miles instead of 5 because I had to get back so my husband could get to work, but I'm planning on 8 tomorrow and 5 Thursday and 18 on Saturday. My goal for this week is to not stop to walk on my long run at all.

I'm hoping that when I run the marathon I'll be able to go a lot faster than 9:40/mile which I hear I should be able to since I'll have tapered and fully recovered and I'll be excited whatever. So I guess time will tell. Part of me wants to speed up, but I don't want to risk an injury this close to the marathon. Especially without any small tapers since I started running again. I've been adding 2 miles every week and that makes me nervous about getting hurt. Anyway. So that's where I am! I'm still hoping to loose these last 10 pounds sometime in the near future. But I'm sure it will come!

Size 8 and a fixed knee

HOORAY!!!! I bought a pair of jeans the other day and they were size 8, and they were not in the slightest bit tight! I understand that all brands fit differently but STILL! I haven't been size 8 since I was in High School. This is a big deal for me! Most of my shorts and pants are still size 10 but some of them are getting a little big. I never thought that I'd be smaller than a size 10 again after having kids, but here I am!! I am still 16 pounds from the weight I was when we got married but since I had ZERO muscle then I'm sticking to my original goal weight of 145 as my ultimate skinny goal. I'm still trying to get down to 150 before Hawaii (4 more pounds to go). But I am SUPER pleased with my progress! 20 pounds lost since April!!! Yay!!!

In other THRILLING news, my knee is fixed!! I ran 3.7 miles this morning in 35 minutes with ZERO knee pain. NONE! The past two times that I've run I've still felt a tiny twinge in my knee, no pain, but just a little tight from not running on it for over a month. And today, NOTHING!! It felt SO GOOD!! I am definitely not as fast I was but I'm getting faster with each run. I have to work a little harder to keep up the pace but that could have something to do with the fact that I'm just barely getting over a KILLER cold and am still pretty congested. But I am definitely going to go on my long run on Saturday. Not too far. I'm only going to plan on 6 miles but I'm hoping that I'll still feel good enough to keep going for 8. I am dying to get back on schedule for my training! But SO ECSTATIC that I can run again! Yay yay yay!!!! It's been a good day so far!

Thursday July 22, 2010

Weight: 154.8

Exercise: ran 3.7 miles in 35 minutes (9:30 average/mile)

Tuesday July 20, 2010

Weight: 156.0

Exercise: ran 3 miles in 29 minutes (9:41 average/mile)

Is it over?

Ran outside today and my knee felt okay. I ran kinda slow and only went 2.5 miles but I felt good. Can it really be true?! Is the wait really over? Can I really start to run again? Only time will tell I guess!

On Wednesday we did indeed to weights in addition to my treadmill/bike workout and abs/glutes. We focused on pecs and did tons of bench presses (in a million different variations) and pec flies and push ups. We worked out for an hour again and it worked me good! I'm pretty sore today. Not as sore as I was after triceps but still sore! I love working out with my hot hubby!

Thursday July 8, 2010

Weight: 156.8

Exercise: ran outside for the first time in a long time! distance - 2.5 miles, average speed - 10:30 pace. My knee felt pretty good! No pain, I just noticed that I'm a little stiff from not running much. I need to up the anti on my biking too. I was not happy with how winded I was going as slow as I was! I need to get better cardio endurance workouts when I'm not running! I also did 20 minutes on the bike when I got home