All signed up

Yes, there is a good chance that I am crazy.  Why?  I just signed up for a half marathon.  13.1 miles.

I'm pretty sure Robert  is going to do it as well - and I need to talk more people into it so that I don't chicken out :)  Who's with me?!

I also signed up for the Training Team - so that should be an additional kick in the butt to make sure I'm prepared for what's to come.

Official training starts in August!

Jog log.

I suppose to make things more exciting around here, I'll keep track of my work outs - which hopefully will keep me from slacking.  Hopefully

Today - ran 2 miles in 22:13.  My current goal is 4 miles (for the Innsbrook Corporate 4-Miler in June) in 44 minutes, so I'm on track for now!  Wanted to take it a bit easier today since I'm battling a sore heel, but tomorrow seems to be calling for 3 miles :)

I will also add to this that I did the Carytown 10k on Sunday morning.  I wasn't entirely prepared, meaning I hadn't been 'training' and the most I had run since the Monument Ave 10k in early April was 3 miles.  My time at Monument was somewhere around 85 minutes.

My time at the Carytown 10k was 73:44 - almost 12 minutes faster - not shabby! (my personal best for a 10k is my 2010 Monument 10k time - 73:22 - I missed it by 22 seconds!!)

So my new goal (aside from the 4-miler in June) is a sub-70 minute 10k.  I can do it!

Something new

I'm going to try something new here.  I haven't posted for a while because I haven't had anything 'good' to report.  So every time I'd think "I should post something on the blog" I would draw a big blank because I hadn't really accomplished anything or met any of my goals.  I'd think about that and just get down on myself.

So that's where the change comes in.  I know in my case, I spend way too much time focusing on what I haven't done, what I think I can't do, what I don't feel like doing, and less on what I am able to do, what I'm capable of, and what I have done.

My new goal is to focus the good - learn how to appreciate what I have and how to improve upon that.  Too often I think "I hate my legs." "I hate my hips." etc.  I am going to learn how to love me, my body (which sounds ridiculous but is true) and do my best to improve what I love.  I do this in other areas of my life, why should it be so hard to relate it to my body?

I don't know how this will go, or how hard or easy it will be to learn to stop the negative thoughts and switch from wanting to change something out of dislike, to wanting to improve something to make it better - even though it's fine the way it is. I'm sure it will be a struggle.  But I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

Couldn't hurt, right?

No seriously, Motivation...

You'd think I'd have given myself a kick in the pants after the last motivation post.  You'd think.

I didn't.

Anyway, I just placed an order for a BodyMedia FIT LINK armband - it's supposed to track your calories burned (all day and night) and monitors sleep patterns, and has a software it links up with for tracking calories ingested. I am so excited to get this thing.

To sucker my way into getting it, I compared it to our car (which is a hybrid).  The car shows  your it's performance while you're driving, so you can see if you hit the accelerator too hard or are riding the gas pedal too much, and if you want the car to perform better and have optimal gas mileage, you have to pay attention to what the car is telling you and go easy on it.  Same thing with my body and this BodyMedia guy (or what I hope).  I envision that it will show me how I'm doing all day long and I can track my history and see what works vs what doesn't work.  I've read a ton of reviews and 9 out of 10 say that the user has had a lot of success.

I'm so excited to get it and I'll report back when I do and have had it for a while :)

Dear Motivation...

Where the heck did you run off to?

It's the beginning of February and January flew by like a cat being chased by a cute puppy, much like my motivation.  It was a busy month, full of puppy duty and new job stuff, but seriously, I feel like SUCH a SLACKER.

So the other day after work I hauled myself off the couch and ran a mile.  For having not been on a run in, oh, three or four months, it felt pretty good to get back out there and it felt even better to actually be able to run the entire mile sans stopping.  So I plan on running again today after work, even if it is just a mile again. I've got to keep my priorities in check but also not push for too much to fast.

I've been reading a lot of 'runner-girl' blogs lately - Run, Eat, Repeat; Skinny Runner; Once Upon a (L)ime; Meals and Miles; Eat Live Run; Daily Garnish and they've been motivating - they all have (fairly) good diets, run like crazy and look amazing.  Here's to joining that crowd sometime in the next century!

Food woes on the j.o.b.

Yes folks, you heard it right. J.O.B.

I got one.

Finally.

!

It's going great so far, everyone's nice and welcoming, the facility is beautiful and they provide every single flavor of coffee a girl could dream of.  I'm on day 3 so not too much responsibility just yet, but we're getting there.

But this whole not being at home all day thing has seriously kicked my healthy eating progress in the hiney.  Know what I had for 'breakfast' today?  A peppermint mocha and a pop tart.

Sad. Face.

SO bad.  One package of pop tarts holds all of my daily allotted carbs, not to mention tons of calories and other things that are oh-so-bad for my body.  Sigh.

Christmas and new years didn't exactly go over so smoothly with the food thing, and as of a few days ago I hadn't lost anything more BUT I hadn't gained anything either.  As of this morning, I'm up 4lbs.

Really. Gigantic. Sad. Face.

Getting back on the horse that bucked me off (must've been spooked by the holidays) and having another go at this.

NO MORE POP TARTS.

"No offense, but..."

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times in my life I've felt like I'm not enough 'something'.  Not good enough, not spiritual enough, not skinny enough.  We all know that no one is perfect, but what happens when we extend an expectation of perfection onto others?  When we don't mean to offend but we say something offensive?  So many times we've all bit our tongues to a snarky remark or rude judgment and just let it float on.  How else are we supposed to handle stuff like that?

I truly have no answer to this, but I so wish I did.  There are often times that people close to us will say something incredibly offensive but not 'mean it that way.'  We've all passed judgment on others, including myself, and I rarely stop to think "I wonder if what I'm commenting on/thinking about might be a daily struggle for that person..." I understand honesty and truthfulness, but I think we all need to be more aware of others feelings and think before we speak to ensure we aren't offensive.  Even the smallest passing judgment can be seriously hurtful, especially when you don't stop to think about what battles people are fighting on their own.

We all have our own ideas of how things should be handled: how the kids should be raised; how the house should be kept; what fitness and eating well looks like, and rarely do two individuals agree 100% on these things, yet we almost all feel like our way is the right way and then feel the need to push that way on the other person.  I believe we should all be free to have our own opinions, but I also feel like there are situations in which our opinions are best kept to ourselves. Obviously, I could go on and on about this topic, it's such a predominant issue, but I won't.  I am going to make an honest attempt to make a serious change to be less judgmental and think more before I speak, and I hope others will do the same!