I am starting to love running

I’ve sucked at blogging about it, but I have lost all of the holiday weight and am back to where I was before. Sweet victory this morning on the scale!!!

I’m still running, but I am way off of my running plan. I’m only managing to work out about three times a week because my schedule got crazy. I’m going to have to step it up a bit if I am truly planning on a half marathon in June.

I have noticed though that I have really started to like running. I am starting to find that when I get to the track I can hardly make myself walk a warm-up lap. I get there and I WANT to run. This is a breakthrough for me in so many ways. I have never liked running, but it seems that I am starting to LOVE it. Who knew?!

The mind is in charge, the body will follow

I've been thinking about this quote a lot lately.

“You have to make the mind run the body. The body will always give up.  It is always tired morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. You’ve always got to make the mind take over things and keep going.” – George S. Patton

You didn't know we were racing... Oh...

So… Running. I’m starting to like it. My Dad pointed out, “Kiki… We’re Vikings. We are not built for running…”  I agree, but I’m really not in it to become a superstar runner. I need a Louisiana friendly sport since there is a lack of national parks and mountains.

I am a little competitive brat by nature but I am sneaky competitive. The funny thing is that people who I compete with probably don’t even realize we are competing… The sneaky competitive has started to come out on the track over the last few weeks.

1. If I get to the track at the same as someone else I will stay longer at the track than they stay… I get a ton of personal glee out of staying longer than people who get there after me. (Not that I stay at the track all that long… Like an hour.)

2. I get a huge kick out of lapping people. (In some ways that is so silly, because my glacially slow jog is nothing to brag about… BUT lapping people pushes me.)

Running goals for the next 8 weeks.

http://www.halhigdon.com/5K%20Training/5-Knovice.htm

I just stumbled onto this page. This is the running program I am going to start next week. It looks totally do-able.

Seven blisters, sore muscles and a resolved to achieve

Muscles all over my body are sore. I have a total of seven blisters on my feet. I'm having some caffeine withdrawals.

Despite these minor pains I am pretty happy. I am on day four of resestablishing all of the good routines and habits that I worked on last year and am looking forward to even more good results.

I have changed things up a little bit.

1. I'm giving up caffeine - Last year I was constantly battling anemia due to working out, due to being vegetarian, and due to my celiac's disease. The anemia would kill me and really mess with my workout routines so this year I am researching ways to overcome it. Turns out that caffeine inhibits iron absorbtion. Good-bye french roast that I love... Adios Diet Coke... It will be worth not being tired and avoiding bruises.

2. I've added pilates to the mix. If I'm going to run a 1/2 marathon I need some serious core muscles, especially considering I don't want to have any back issues. Must take care of old injuries and strengthening my core is going to help with that. (At this point I totally recommend the Windsor Pilates DVDs. I've done her 20 minute pilates workout twice this week and my midsection is super sore...)

3. I have set a 15,000 step a day goal. I might actually have to up this a bit, but just for the first few weeks I want to make sure I am solidly hitting this before uping it too much. 15,000 steps based on my stride length is about 6 1/2 miles. Some days this will be hard and some days this will be super easy...

4. I have not started training for the marathon per se. Right now I just want to be able to run a mile easily. So my goal by the end of February right now is to be able to run three miles without stopping in about 36 minutes. That is 12 minute miles. Its a very reasonable goal.

Yep... I'm going to make a few excuses right now...

So, I have probably gained back about 10 of the pounds that I lost. I was doing really well maintaining the weight loss until Thanksgiving rolled around.

Really, though the gaining some of the weight back is not the bad thing really. It is disappointing, but the more important question is why I quit losing weight in the first place. This weight loss thing is a whole lot simplier than most people thing it is. I quit working out. I ate fairly healthy until November rolled around... Exercising and eating right...

• I never truly reestablished routines once school started again. That was just laziness on my part.
• I kind of suffered a bit of an identity crisis towards the end of summer. I looked completely different. Looking in the mirror was a new experience every single day. It became a bit overwhelming to not recognize the person in the mirror.
• I did not get to hike Timpanogos because of the snow conditions and I had really invested a lot of my motivation into that goal. I focused all of my energy on that goal and then when circumstances did not allow for it to happen it was a bit devastating.

How I resolve to solve some of the above problems:

• I made a new excel tracker.
• I bought a new pedometer.
• I made a new schedule.
• I have set new goals. (I want to be able to run a 10k by the end of June. I want to be able to do a half marathon by next December. I want to be in my "healthy" weight range by the end of June (that's about 50 pounds to go.)

Still working at this... Setting new goals...

Despite my lack of effort on the blogging front I am still very focused on fitness right now. I have maintained my weight over the last month since I blogged but have not lost anything more. (This is mainly because I have not been focusing enough on my eating though I am still exercising...)

I started running a few weeks ago and have decided to work towards doing a half marathon! I need to do some more research but I want to be able to run a half marathon by about Christmas time. I think it is totally do-able. Right now however I am just focusing on being able to run a mile and a half in a decent time...