Persevere

That would be the word of the day. Persevere.

I did a tempo run on the treadmill this afternoon after work, and since my gym seems to suck with the TVs (they are at an awkward angle to the TVs and it's always SportsCenter or CNN), I found myself bored. Boredom usually leads me to wanting to quit. This time, though, I focused on a word painted on the wall across the gym from where I ran.

Persevere.

It became my mantra. I had to persevere, to push through. And I did!

I know it's not the greatest of pictures, but how dare LA Fitness have adequate lighting in their gym? Maybe exercisers can see their weights, but it means my picture is a bright light right in the middle!

I did a 4 mile tempo run. The breakdown went like this:
Mile 1 - 14:00 minute mile
Mile 2 & 3 - 12 minute mile
Mile 4 - 14 minute mile

The 14 minute miles were pretty easy, but the 2 miles in between were rough. But I'm so proud I finished and finished strong!

I had no idea what to expect in a tempo run. I went to Runner's World last night and did some research. Apparently, it's a "comfortably hard" run. I was supposed to know I was working hard, but not feel like I was racing. And I definitely felt that way. Runner's World also stated that for an easy run, conversation should be easy to maintain. But for a tempo run, conversation should be near impossible, limited to two or three words at a time, between breathing. That, too, was definitely true. :)

While I have been running for about 18 months now, I've always just... laced up my shoes and hit the road. I would run until I needed to walk, then I'd walk, then run again. I never paid much attention to pace, just distance. I am excited to see what slower easy runs, tempo runs, speedwork, and slow long runs can do to help me out!

Came home to cook dinner. Tonight was spaghetti with meat sauce and broccoli.

But the best part came after dinner when I was settling in to watch The River on my DVR. I pulled out dessert - Peachwave frozen yogurt:

I have developed a method for dispensing my favorite frozen yogurt. I line the bottom of the cup with fruit. Tonight, it was bananas, pineapple, and kiwi. Then I add in two flavors of yogurt. Tonight, it was cupcake and peanut butter. And on top of that, I am allowed to put the yummy treats. Tonight, I piled on Snickers pieces, Oreo crumbles, Butterfinger pieces, and baby Reese's cups. I try not to overpile it (sometimes I make up words), but it's hard. I was proud that today's froyo stayed within the confines of the cup.

So I sat curled up on my couch, watching The River. I love spooky, sci fi things, so this is right up my alley. Throw in some froyo and my comfy sweatpants, and I am a happy girl.

Happy Wednesday!

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Rewarding with Food -- For the Dogs?

I saw this image on Pinterest today:

And it really got me thinking. I am one who has always rewarded (or comforted, or celebrated!) myself with food. If I had a great day at work, I felt like I deserved Cheetos and a cupcake. If I had a terrible day at work, I felt like I deserved Cheetos and a cupcake with some tears. On a Friday, I felt I needed to celebrate my survival through another work week with some Cheetos and a cupcake.

But since beginning Weight Watchers again, I have tried to change that mentality. Just the other day, I was going through some stressful times, and I told my friend Jenni that I wanted "wings and beer" just to make it through. And Jenni's response was just what I needed to hear:

"At the end of the meal, Amanda, is your stress still going to be there, or will wings and beer truly take care of it?"

And she was right, of course. The food would make me feel better for all of 20 minutes, but then, once the plates were cleaned and the smoke cleared, I'd still be left with the stress hanging over my head, only now it would be compounded with guilt over giving in to a compulsion I knew I shouldn't.

So instead, I began to make a list of rewards and/or comforts that were not food-related:

1) Work out -- on a bad day, nothing can turn my mood around better than a good sweat. Even a bad run on a bad day can make me feel so much better.

2) Give myself permission to laze -- There are times where I feel like I SHOULD be doing something "useful" -- laundry, cleaning, etc. But I have learned to let myself lay on the couch with a good book on my Kindle or a recorded show on my DVR, and let THAT be a treat.

3) Quality time with friends and/or family -- If I'm in a bad mood, it's a surefire thing that my friends can cheer me up. They make me laugh, and they will cajole me out of my mood. My parents are much the same way. I can go and vent to them about my problem or stresses, and then, the magical healing properties of a parent's presence takes over and I feel better.

4) Read a good book -- My Kindle is the most amazing thing I've ever gotten. I love that I can pull it out of my purse, regardless of where I am. If I want to reward myself or comfort myself, I will often find myself buying new books. My newest reads have been either 1) geared to the young adult section of the bookstore, or 2) running related.

5) Blog! -- I have already found, in just a week and a half, that writing down my thoughts and emotions go a long way towards validating my thoughts, be they happy, sad, or stressed. Whether you want others to read it or not, write down your thoughts. It can help clear up potentially cloudy situations and it can provide a way to remember those happy events in your life!

Is there a good way to reward/comfort/celebrate yourself that does not involve food that I missed? Let me know!

Early Morning Workout and Pizza for Dinner

It's Tuesday, and you know what that means... BIGGEST LOSER! Hopefully, the drama will begin to die down. I miss the old seasons where it was all about conquering weakness, getting in shape, changing lives, and actually losing weight. Now, it's become a middle school popularity contest, where a queen bee pulls the strings on her marionettes to make them dance for her amusement. It's a little frustrating, but I am hopeful!

Had a fabulous workout this morning. Tuesdays are "no run" days, so I cross train. I did the Turn up the Music workout from BodyRock.TV. It was a quick 12 minute high intensity interval challenge. I set my interval time for 12 rounds of two segments - 10 seconds rest interval and 50 seconds max interval. I did six different workouts twice:

1)Walking Push-Up & Knee Jump Tuck -- 4//3
2) Plank Jumps with Weight Ball & Clean & Press -- 4//3
3) Low Jacks and V-Split on a dip station -- 7//9
4) Superman Push-ups -- 7//7
5) Turkish Get-Ups with Weight Ball and Standing Jump -- 7//7
6) Sumo Squat with High Knee and Half Burpee -- 5//4

Only twelve minutes, and I was pouring sweat! It's great for my workouts before work. I can wake up at 5:30, work out, make breakfast, get dressed, and leave for work by 6:50.

I got to snuggle a five-day-old baby today! My friend Julie had her second child, a gorgeous little girl named Ellie, last Thursday. So snuggling her today was super sweet. I love the way babies smell of baby powder and just... love. It's a very unique scent. I was a tried and true baby hog, not giving the baby up until her grandfather protested. I SUPPOSE he deserves to hold his new grandbaby. WHATEVER. :)

I went over today with dinner (a large cheese pizza and garlic knots) and dessert (4 cupcakes from Parkside Bakery, an amazing bakery in Grayson, Georgia). While I did cave and have two pieces of pizza and two garlic knots, I DID refrain from eating ANY of the cupcakes. I feel like I deserve mad praise for that. Cupcakes are my weakness. They're little portable cakes! They are PERFECT!

Today's food:
Breakfast - 3 scrambled eggs with chopped green and red peppers
AM Snack - cottage cheese, green pepper sticks
Lunch: lean ground beef, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, light ranch cup
PM Snack - protein drink, cottage cheese
Dinner - 2 pieces cheese pizza, 2 garlic knots (I'm not even sorry)

Yep... Cupcakes are my weakness. And doughnuts. And mozzarella sticks. And Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos. And wings. And pizza. And Reese's peanut butter ANYTHING.......

Somebody stop me now!

(PS - I totally meant to take a few pictures today to put on the blog to make it more interesting, and I forgot! I will get better... I promise!)

A gorgeous Monday run - fabulous even after work!

Running after work has been a challenge. I'm an elementary special education teacher, and I feel like by the end of the day, my body is physically drained and my brain is mentally drained. Running can be a challenge at that point, to say the least.

But like Saturday, I slowed it down. I went from a 12:00 mile to a 13:08 mile, and I ran the entire three miles, even after work. I felt like I could've continued on, but I didn't want to press my luck. I'm trying to keep my mileage low as I recover from the half!

I am keeping track of my mileage for 2012. Thanks to Slim Katie, I discovered a super cool website called Running Ahead. It keeps track of your mileage and adds it up over time. It's a pretty nifty tool for keeping track of mileage.

Running Log powered by RunningAHEAD

I have decided I need to be better about pictures. I think pictures can add so much life to a blog. It brings to life these images that our words paint every day. I'm not used to taking a lot pictures through my day to day life, but hopefully this will help me be better with it!

Today's food:
Breakfast -- oatmeal, pear, hardboiled egg
Snack -- apple, almonds
Lunch: chicken breast, black beans, zucchini sticks, grape tomatoes, ranch (to dip!)
Snack - tuna fish, green pepper sticks
Dinner -- whole wheat spaghetti, low-sugar spaghetti sauce, lean ground beef, 2 York peppermint patties

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun....

I love weekends like this one!

Woke up Saturday morning and went to meet one of my friends at Weight Watchers. The scale was down, which doesn't always happen very often! It was only down 0.6, but hey... a loss is a loss. I'm now officially down 16 pounds!!!!

After Weight Watchers, I had a 4-mile run. It... Was... AMAZING. I consistently run about an 11:30 - 12:00 minute mile. Super slow, but working on improving that. However, when I run that pace, I'm not able to maintain it more than a mile and a half or so. I have to stop and walk, then run again. But just once, I want to RUN a long distance. And I mean, really run the entire length of it. I want to be that girl that can run eight, nine, or even ten miles without stopping. So yesterday morning, I set out with a goal. I was going to run SLOWER than I thought I needed to. I actually ran a 13:18 minute per mile pace. And running slower actually took some concentration! But I focused on the slow run, and four miles flew by. FOUR MILES that I ran the ENTIRE TIME. I was pretty excited.

Then, last night was Girls' Night! I have an amazing group of friends, and about 5 years ago, amidst a circus of weddings, engagements, and pregnancies, I decided that we needed to do a monthly Girls' Night. The first night out was December of 2006, where the group of us hit up Atlantic Station in downtown Atlanta. Fast-forward 5 years, and a few friends have unfortunately drifted away and new friends have fortunately joined us, but I thank God for these girls every day! So we got together last night and went to Cinebistro Brookhaven in Atlanta. It's this amazing movie theater, where you can order and eat dinner right in your seat at the theater. And the seats were these oversized leather chairs that rocked! They were large enough that I could sit comfortably cross-legged, because I am a big 10-year-old and when I sit in chairs, my feet dangle. It makes crossing my legs awkward. So I just say, 'to hell with it,' and I do the old-school Indian style. :)

Anyway, I split a main course with my friend Jenni. We shared a grilled chicken BLT with avocado and French fries. YUM. And then, we also split a super rich chocolate cake. And then I split a pitcher of beer with my friend, Kathleen (I try to be classy and drink wine, but I just love a good beer). There is something to be said about enjoying a cold beer while you're watching a good movie on the big screen. We saw "This Means War," which had 1) Reese Witherspoon - enough said, 2) two hot boys as male leads, 3) hilariously funny one-liners, and 4) stuff that blew up! I had heard bad reviews about the movie, so I was a little hesitant, but I LOVED it.

Sunday morning, after the necessary trip to the grocery store - which may or may not have occurred in my sweatpants I slept in, teeth unbrushed, face unwashed, and hair unbrushed -- I got a phone call from my friend Krista about seeing a movie. So I decided to try this whole 'being spontaneous' thing and threw on a pair of jeans and headed to meet her. We wound up seeing Wanderlust, with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. It was very funnier - much funnier than I thought it would be. So glad I went!

Now comes a busy afternoon of cooking, food prep for the upcoming week, and TV-watching. I love Sundays!

Kelly Clarkson, 4 miles, and heading back to the gym!

How nerdy is it that I got geekily excited about 1) running again tomorrow (4 easy miles!) and 2) beginning speedwork and tempo runs? I'm not sure at the moment how to gauge my runs, so I'm going to be doing most of my tempo and speed runs initially on the dreadmill. Hopefully, I'll be able to become a little more better acquainted with my levels of exertion. Right now, my levels go from approximately "Hey, this isn't too bad" to "HOLY CRAP, I'M GOING TO DIE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, HELP ME" in a fraction of a second. I think I may be running too hard, even as slow as my mileage is. My easy runs according to SmartCoach are supposed to be run WAY slowly - 13:48 a mile tomorrow! I'm hoping that by slowing it down, I will also be able to run the entire way.

Here is my week according to SmartCoach:

I'm not sure why my dates are a little bit off. I typed my information into the plan on February 20, so I don't know why it's telling me my first week is February 13 - unless SmartCoach thinks I should've been psychic and anticipated this ahead of time! I'm using the times as rough estimates for my traveling, but I am also following a training plan that a super awesome friend created for me. Deanna works for Mizuno and is probably one of the most amazing runners on the planet. So I'm following her plans while keeping to suggested times from SmartCoach. It's good to mix and mingle, right?


I am doing the 4 mile run tomorrow, then starting off with the posted weekly schedule on Monday. My cross-training days will come from BodyRock.TV. I did a workout on Thursday of this past week that included burpees and reverse push-ups on a dip station and my back muscles are totally feeling it today. Love that feeling!

In other news, went to the Kelly Clarkson concert in Atlanta last night. LOVE that girl. She just always seems so comfortable with who she is and by God, she is not changing to fit what the media or what society feels she should be. I admire that a lot, and sometimes I feel so hypocritical, because part of the reason I go to Weight Watchers and workout like I do is because I want to fit into all these cute clothes, and I want to look cute, according to society standards. I envy that she could not care less.

But forget her appearance (because she's beautiful as anything, no matter her weight!), let's discuss her VOICE. The girl can sing. I would love to have the ability to sing well. I can be best described as a cross between a dying bullfrog and the squeaky sounds coming from a hamster's spinning wheel. It's so not pretty, and yet, I will sing loud and proud. I figure, if I know I'm terrible, I might as well own up to it.

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday!

I miss running. But trying something new next week!

I am taking the week off to recuperate from the half-marathon this past Saturday. And while it means I get to run on Saturday, it also means I didn't get to run today. I normally run on Wednesdays, so my brain definitely missed it today! Four miles on Saturday, here I come!

I am incorporating something new beginning next week... Thanks to Hungry Runner Janae, I am trying out Smart Coach, from Runner's World. You can input your time on your latest race (2:43 for a half marathon for me), the race length you are training for, the intensity of your training, and how long you want your training to be, and it creates a plan for you. My next half is 34 weeks away, so I've got quite a long training plan! BUT Smart Coach seems to think it can get me to finish the Diva Half Marathon in 2:24. Twenty minutes faster? That would be awesome!

So beginning next week, Smart Coach has me doing tempo runs and speedwork. I have never done either - all of my runs have always been either easy runs or long runs! Next week's tempo run is 4 miles, with a mile to warm up and cool down, and the 2 middle miles at 12:05 per mile. I haven't gone to the gym to use the treadmill since June 2011, but I guess I will be revisiting my membership!

Tomorrow - going to see Kelly Clarkson in concert! SO excited!

BIGGEST LOSER!

I freakin' love Tuesdays. The Biggest Loser makes me happy, though all the drama this particular season is a little tiresome. That being said, I love and adore Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince with every beat of my little heart.

I bet you didn't think I knew how to do a short blog post, did you? I showed you!

A Weight Loss Journey - Reliable Tracking?

Happy Tuesday! I feel like I have so much free time in the afternoons this week! Because of the half-marathon this past Saturday, I am giving my legs a week off from running, so I won't run again until this next Saturday. It's amazing how much free time I have when I'm not running!

I started to talk about my weight loss journey in the last post. While I do think the numbers on the scale can tell a story, a lot of the time, it is a completely inaccurate story. Take for example, a graph tracking my weight over 10 months:

If you just looked at this graph, you'd say that I keep gaining and losing weight. Which is completely true, but it is still misleading. The real story comes from measuring myself. I whip out the tape measure and measure myself at the end of every single month. It has provided such amazing motivation for me, because unlike my weight, my measurements tell a totally different tale.

I have lost a total of 1/2 inch in each arm, 3.25 inches in my hips, 3 inches in my bust, 3 inches in my waist, and 2.75 inches in each thigh. This is a total loss of 15.75 inches of fat GONE from my body! This is what has allowed me to go from a size 12 jeans to a comfortable size 8.

What has helped the inches? Definitely not the food. It's the exercise! Running has helped, but while running is fabulous cardio and I could never give it up, strength training has made the biggest difference.

I discovered a website called BodyRock TV in July 2011. In this website, Zuzana Light and her then-husband, Freddy, created workouts for people based on the theories of HIIT - high intensity interval training. High intensity interval training just means that you work out really hard for a set period of time, then have a few seconds to let your body relax, then work out again. It's proven to be amazing for weight loss and for strengthening your muscles. An average workout is anywhere from 12-15 minutes, though they have time challenges that can last anywhere from 20 - 40 minutes. I began doing these workouts three days a week, and in addition to the three days per week of running, the inches began to drop.

I LOVE working out. I have learned to love push-ups and burpees and mountain climbers. I have learned to push through 50 seconds of hard work, knowing I can have water and 10 seconds to breathe once the 50 seconds are up. I love how it makes me feel, and I love that it is a great stress-reliever. I especially love that it keeps me in my new jeans! While BodyRock's site has changed slightly, with Zuzana leaving to do her own things, and Freddy bringing in a new face of the site, Lisa-Marie (who has the greatest accent ever, might I add!), I still go to the site and workout, both with old workouts with Zuzana and new workouts with Lisa-Marie.

To give you an example of what the workouts tend to look like, here was today's workout. I did the Bikini Body Beach Ready Total Body Summer Workout, but I altered it slightly from a time challenge to a 12-minute interval training.

I set my interval timer (Seconds Pro, an app on the iPhone) for 12 rounds of 50 seconds high intensity and 10 seconds low intensity. Then, I go through 3 rounds of 4 different exercises, writing down my reps for each time. Then, when I go through the exercises for a second and third time, I try to beat my previous scores.

Exercise 1: 1-2-3 Spider Push-ups (the video on the site explains how to do these exercises)
Round 1: 7
Round 2: 7
Round 3: 8
Exercise 2: 10 Mountain Climbers // Weighted Ball Clean & Press with Back Lunge
Round 1: 3
Round 2: 2.5
Round 3: 3
Exercise 3: Weighted Ball Shoulder Press and Side Kick
Round 1: 13
Round 2: 11
Round 3: 10
Exercise 4: Side Obliques on a Dip Station (You can find a dip station here.
Round 1: 15
Round 2: 18
Round 3: 15

So the moral of the story? Working out may make your weight go up and down, depending upon how fast your body is building muscle and breaking down fat and utilizing carbs and proteins. But the measurements? They do not lie!

Today's food:
Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with chopped red and green peppers
AM Snack: cottage cheese and green pepper sticks
Lunch: 3 ounces ground beef, zucchini sticks, cucumbers, tomatoes, Ken's Light Ranch
PM Snack: protein shake and Pink Lady apple
Dinner: Skinny Taste Salisbury Steak, grape tomatoes, raw baby carrots, roasted zucchini, York peppermint patty
Night Snack: hard-boiled egg, carrots

A Weight Loss Journey - The Food

I have always, as long as I can remember, been self-conscious of my weight. And my entire life, it feels like I have been on one diet or another. And what is amusing to me now is that I really thought I knew how to eat the right foods. Lean Cuisines, canned soups, and Crystal Light... it works, right?

It did work for a while. But for ME, the sodium levels and the chemicals in the foods just didn't mesh well with my body. I would lose three pounds, then gain six the minute I ate something other than Lean Cuisines or Campbell's. I went from a size 10 to a size 12, and at one point, even those size 12s were getting a big snug. I remember shopping for shirts that would be loose around my belly, so my muffin top wouldn't be as noticeable. New clothes, getting dressed up to go out... all of it would be so stressful! I was weighing in at 159, and at 5'1", it was far too much for my frame.

May 23, 2011, I made a decision. I was heading to meet a friend at the park to run and I made a pitstop on my way there - at Weight Watchers! I weighed in, cried at the number on the scale, and signed right up.

My weight began to drop right away. In fact, I went down six pounds the first week! By June 8th, I was at 149 and ecstatic. Definitely motivation to keep it up. From July 2 - July 30th, I continued to drop weight - slowly, but surely. By the end of July, I was sitting at 146, down 13 pounds. I was also in my size 10 jeans, and even those were a tad baggy in the waist and thighs! Since July 2011, however, my weight has gone back and forth between 142 and 145, and I am comfortably in size 8 jeans. My ultimate goal is 130, however, so I've still got a ways to go.

There were many things that helped me lose weight and continue to lose weight. Exercise is a big part of that - both running and strength-training -- but that is another blog entry for another day. ;) For today, I'm focusing just on my food and how it has changed.

I have always been a Southern girl. While my Weight Watcher leader would tell us to "eat to live, not live to eat," I grew up in a household that did, in fact, live to eat. Pound cake, cheese grits, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, white bread with butter... YUM. Food just makes me happy. I eat when I'm stressed about something, I eat to celebrate great news, I eat when I'm sad about something... Overall, lots of eating. As you can imagine, this didn't bode well for my waistline!

When I first started WW, I was able to eat 29 points per day, with 49 weekly points. I would be great all week, staying within my points and eating low point foods. Then on Saturday, I would go crazy and eat all my weeklies at one time! Breakfast at Waffle House after weighing in (I know, don't tell my WW leader!), Mexican food and margaritas at lunch, and wings (and beer!) for dinner. I LIVED for Saturdays!

But my weight began to slow down. I would gain two pounds, then lose one. Then I'd gain a half pound and lose two pounds. I wavered back and forth between gaining and losing the same 3 pounds from September 2011 to January 2012. So I took a deep breath, said goodbye to my endless food Saturdays, and tried something new.

I had never really tracked before on Saturdays. I didn't write down my food, didn't figure out point values... I just assumed I had used all my weeklies and called it a day. But I was running 10-15 miles per week, and I wasn't eating back any of my calories to fuel my body appropriately. So I discovered a plan for WW called the Wendie Plan. I'm not sure why it is named that, but it varies the number of points I eat each day by spreading out my 49 weekly points.

Before, my weeks looked like this:
Saturday (weigh-in day): 26 daily + 49 weekly = 75 points
Sunday - 26 points
Monday - 26 points
Tuesday - 26 points
Wednesday - 26 points
Thursday - 26 points
Friday - 26 points

Now, on the Wendie plan, my weeks look more like this:
Saturday (weigh-in day): 46 - 48 points
Sunday - 26 points
Monday - 33 - 35 points
Tuesday - 26 points
Wednesday - 33-35 points
Thursday - 29 points
Friday - 26 points

I happen to run on Saturdays (long runs), Mondays and Wednesdays, so it works out great!

Since I've made the decision to not only switch to the Wendie plan and start tracking my Saturdays, I've also gone to a nutritionist, who has helped me create meal plans that will help me reach my goal of 130 pounds. I've been on the plans for a few days and they aren't so bad at all!

Because food is such an important part of my life, and it's such an important part of fueling my body for running and working out, it will be an important part of this blog. You will read most days what I have eaten, so be prepared!

Today's food:
Breakfast - 1/2 cup Fiber One cereal, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup Horizon Organic fat free milk
AM Snack - cottage cheese, green pepper sticks
Lunch - homemade vegetable soup (complete with homemade chicken broth!), peanut butter pretzels
PM Snack - protein shake (I have a fabulous protein powder I use, so I add some water and a little bit of Crystal Light powder to mask the taste!), pear
Dinner - shrimp, quinoa, asparagus
Night Snack - hardboiled egg, 5 baby carrots, 5 strawberries

I have developed a weird tendency to take pictures of my food, so here are some of my favorite meals that I have consistently:

This is rotisserie chicken, "jazzy" broccoli (olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic powder), tomatoes, and a glass of milk.

Tuna fish and quinoa, roasted Brussel sprouts, and clementine oranges.

The Day After....

I sit here in my bed, every muscle below my waist reminding me of the 13.1 miles I ran yesterday morning. It truly is the greatest feeling ever, isn't it?

I ran the Berry College Half Marathon.I started training in October of 2011, thinking I would be more than set. In truth, I wasn't completely prepared, but then again, are we ever? The race day dawned bright and beautiful, albeit cold. The weather reports all week had warned of 90% chance of rain, and in the end, the 10% that I desperately wanted won out. It was 40 degrees at the start of the race, a perfect temperature to run a half marathon.

The first three miles passed fabulously. I have a tendency to start out fast and burn out early on. So when I passed the first mile marker, I was pleased. When I was still running at the second mile marker, I was happy. At the third mile marker, I was elated. I usually wuss out by then and let myself walk. ;)

The first water stations were at mile 3.5, so I walked through that, sipping water and trying not to breathe at the same time. The rest of the race was a mixture of walking and running. I would have LOVED to run the whole race, but that was just not doable with my physical fitness at the time. But I am definitely training for more.

Miles 1-6 went great. I felt good, my muscles weren't hurting, and the scenery kept me distracted. Mile 7 came and along with it, the hills. I know, I know, I signed up for a race in North Georgia, in the foothills of the Appalachians, and I was surprised at the hills? I don't claim to be the brightest crayon in the box. :) Miles 7-10.5ish were up and down hills. The ups were steep and difficult, and the downs were over far too soon. I discovered that while my lungs hated running up hills, my knees did not enjoy running down them. Around 10 and a half miles, the terrain evened out, but my legs were burnt out and it was hard to finish.

My race preparation had me do my longest pre-race long run as 10 miles. The adrenaline of the race day would carry me over the final 3.1 miles. I disagree whole heartedly with this now. My next training session for a half will have me doing long runs that are 12 or 13 miles. My brain could handle 10 miles, remembering that not only had I completed 10 miles before, but I had thrived. Every step after mile 10 was new territory for me, and my brain felt like each step was harder than the last.

In the end, I finished at 2:43. I had set a goal of 2:35, but did not make it. I'm not upset with that, though, and instead see it was a challenge. My next half WILL have me beating that 2:35 wall.

In October 2012, I am hoping to run the Diva Half Marathon in Long Island, New York. Over the next 34 weeks, I will be incorporating easy runs, tempo runs, speedwork, and long runs into a training plan that will prepare me for New York. My goal for that race? A daunting 2:30.

And this blog is here to help me remember every step of the journey.