Saturday, April 28, 2012
100 mile challenge - day 3
Holy smokes people - I jogged 4 miles this morning! 4 MILES!!! That is the furthest I have gotten since I completed my 10k in December. I am sooo excited! And to have done it after two days of jogging - that says something to me! I think it means that my body may actually be getting good at jogging! Admittedly, I have been jogging slower than I used to (averaging a 13 minute mile rather than a 12 minute mile, but at least I am finally making the whole 5ks again. My most recent attempts to jog prior to these past few days, I was barely able to make it a mile. Ugh - I thought I was going to have to start completely over with my training. Thankfully, with a slower pace I have been able to make it through fairly easily. My legs are doing really well; its my lungs and heart that are still working their way up to in shape. But, the jog hasn't gotten really tiring until the 3rd mile, which seems natural. David wrote a tracker for me on my mirror to help with my motivation. I am not sure why, but my urge to cross off those numbers is ridiculously high. (He listed by tens backwards to 'Happy Birthday'). :) Between the first two days of jogging I had made it 6.2 miles. I can't fully explain it, but I really wanted to cross off the 90 TODAY. So, while jogging the first few laps, I did the math in my head and realized that I would only need .7 mile more than I had planned to jog in order to earn that mark. I was already jogging a tad faster than I had been the two days before so I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it or not, but I decided that I would decide as I was crossing the finish line for my pre-planned 5k. Thankfully, when I got to that point my feet kept moving. From that point on, I knew that I HAD to finish the mile. I couldn't get THAT CLOSE and stop. Coming up a half mile or so short of getting to cross of that 90 on my mirror would have frustrated the hell out of me. Is it weird that I am that motivated by a number on my mirror? Bizarre what gets people going. Anyways - I am proud of myself for making such great progress and thankful for all who have helped me to determine a goal and encouraged me to attain it. :) 10.2 miles down. 89.8 to go!!
Friday, April 27, 2012
Feb. 22, 2012 - 5k Bliss!
I know it's been a while since I have posted, but I promise I have actually been working out. :)I have been doing strength training at the campus gym 2-3 tmes a week. The only exception being the week of "The Vagina Monologues" (which was last week). In addition to working out in the gym, I have also decided to add into my diet a lot more water. To help me do that, David helped me pick out a nice water bottle to take to work with me. I have been using it for three days now and it is definitely working. I have had 2-3 bottles of water each day during the work day and drink either water or juice when I get home. Of course, I still allow myself one 12 ounce Diet Coke at work each day. I wouldn't make it through without it.
100 mile challenge!
So, I don't carry cash and I work out far fewer days than I should, but have not been counting. Thus, the dollar a day thing isn't working well for me as a motivational tool. (There are already $20 in th jar!). I have no desire to train for a half marathon and am not really into theh whole weight lifting things as much as I should ne. So, again - I am struggling for motivation. This past weekend I mentioned the dilemma to a friend of mine. She said that a friend of hers set a distance and time period goal for herself rather than working towards running a certain distance at one time. After giving this idea some careful thought and taking notice of the softening around my tummy and chin areas, I decided that this may just be the best plan for me. That in mind, I did some math and calcutated out what I thought would be a reasonably attainable, yet sufficently taxing distance goal. My time period goal is between now and my birthday (2 months & 1 day). My birthday plans this year are to visit my jogging buddy, Chrissy, in Chicago. It would be great to celebrate with her not only my birthday, but also our combined success. She has already proven a champion of the dollar a day challenge and recently set a new record for herself by jogging a little over 7 miles in one run!! Amazing right? Well, I know I probably won't get to that point anytime soon, but jogging a full 5k (3.1 miles) 4 times a week for the next 2 months will get me to my 100 mile challenge goal!! (To be specific it will get me 99.2 miles of my goal. I will have to throw in an additional .8 miles along the way somewhere.) In addition to jogging this amount, I am planning to track the miles I walk as a bonus. No, I am not fancy or dedicated enough to invest in a top notch pedometer, so I am only going to count the miles walked intentionally for the purpose of excersise. It has only been two days, but I am off to a very positive start!!(It doesn't hurt at all that I have been off these past two days so that I could hang out with my stunningly beautiful niece.) And, I came home to the sweet surprise of a tracking log on my bathroom mirror curtousy of David. :)
April 26 - Day 1 of the challenge
at Franky Carter Park
1st mile - 12:50 mins - j
2nd mile - 26:05 mins - j
3rd mile - 39:36 mins - j
.1 mile - 40:55 mins - j
.4 mile - untimed - w
April 27 - Day 2
at Franky Carter Park
1st mile - 12:48 mins - j
2nd mile - 26:06 mins - j
3rd mile - 39:00 mins - j
.1 mile - 40:18 mins - j
.4 mile - untimed - w
6.2 miles jogged - 93.8 miles to go!!! Plus .8 miles walked!!!
Monday, April 2, 2012
Dollar a Day & Monterrey
I don't think that my friend Chrissy reads my blog (I don't think ANYONE reads my blog to be honest), but I do think that she read my mind. It must be a mark of true friendship since she is all the way in Chicago and we haven't gotten to talk nearly as regularly as we should.
Anyways - just two days after my last post she messaged me on Facebook proposing a challenge. She was my accountablity buddy in grad school and would jog with me around the Bear Trail. Well, I think I was only able to jog the 2.something miles once at a snail's pace. Instead, we would do 1 mile as fast as we could and walk the rest. Our goal was to do 1 mile in 9:30 minutes. FYI - The closest I ever got was 10 minutes. Since graduate school we have both recommitted ourselves to jogging and general health-related eating habits. We jogged our very first 5k together in October, 2010. I have since jogged what will most likely be my only 10k and she has competed in a variety of 5k events. Most recently she signed up for a Tough Mudder event that is pure insanity. This is what inspired her to issue me the challange: Every day we do not jog/work out we must put $1 in a jar. Sometime next year we will go on a long overdue trip. On this trip we will either be hotties on a budget or fatties with spending money. :)
Today is April 2nd. In the 15 days since the challenge was issued, I have deposited $10 in the jar. Not a great start I must admit. In my defense on the first day of the challenge, March 19th, I spent the evening losing my breakfast and trying to force myself to eat Saltines and broth.
Then I went on my ery first ever trip outside of the U.S.! Normally, vacation is one of the hardest times for people on a diet or exercise routine. However, my boyfriend is a very active man and helped to ensure that my sightseeing also burned calories. On our first full day there, we started the day by hiking in Chipinque National Park. For those who haven't been there, basically I climbed approxiametely 4 miles of stair cases up the side of the Seirra Madre Mountain Range. I honestly thought that I was going to collapse at one point. I can walk a meandering trail for several miles no problem. But steep stairs up a mountain while literally losing oxygen really kicked my butt. On the bright side - I DID IT! And, the view from the top of the trail was spectactular. There was a little lookout point that had a panaramic view of the city and a cafe with fresh squeezed orange juice. I caught my breathe and regained enough strength to jog up the stairs to the giant slide several times too. Its amazing how easy it is to revert back to childhood when presented the opportunity to slide. :) The way down was much easier on my legs, but I had to be slow and step carefully to prevent slipping and breaking my ankle.
Our second day's afternoon was spent walking up and down the city's newly finished Riverwalk Park. It was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water, brightly colored flowerbeds, a perfect view of the Saddle Mountain and sandia palettas (watermelon popscicles) that are by far the BEST popscicles in the world! It was also approximetly 5 miles of trapsing.
The next morning we hung around the house so that David could study for his test. Tired of being trapped inside on such a gorgeous day, I decided to go jogging in the park by his parent's house. He walked into the room with the same idea as I was lacing up my shoes. :) It was HOT and I was worn out from the previous two days of work, so I was only able to jog 7 laps around the 500 meter track and walk 2 more. I had hoped to jog 10 laps which would roughly translate to 3 miles, but just couldn't do it. Either way - This was by far the most physically active vacation I have ever been on. :)
Once home though I pretty much gave myself a week off. It wasn't really intentional, but I had to grocery shop, made a date to watch Hunger Games with my Mom, and other things that were important at the time, but my head hurts too bad right now to remember. (I have been fighting a headache for a majority of the day.) I had planned to make up for that over the weekend, but.... yeah....
Yesterday I decided that it was time to get back on the trail and off my couch. So, after spending the morning and early afternoon in Chapel Hill looking at the bluebonnets (one of my FAVORITE things to do), I took advantage of the beautiful weather to jog at Frankie Carter Park.
1 mile - 11:40 mins - jogged
2 mile - 24:41 mins - walked 1/4 jogged 3/4
3 mile - 38:05 mins - walked 1/4 jogged 3/4
4 mile - 53:03 mins - walked 1/4, jogged 1/2, walked 1/4
Today, I took to the parking lot of my apartment complex despite the nasty, humid overcast weather leftover from this morning's downpour. I was proud of myself for going when I didn't really want to, but am not super impressed with my performance. I jogged one lap (half a mile) and couldn't do more. I think I need to devote more time to stretching (my legs have been sore all day from yesterday). Anyways I still managed to do 3 laps, but wish I could have jogged more of it.
.5 mile - 5:20mins - jogged
1 mile - 12:39 mins - walked
1.5 miles - 18:08 mins - jogged 3/4, walked 1/4
Anyways - just two days after my last post she messaged me on Facebook proposing a challenge. She was my accountablity buddy in grad school and would jog with me around the Bear Trail. Well, I think I was only able to jog the 2.something miles once at a snail's pace. Instead, we would do 1 mile as fast as we could and walk the rest. Our goal was to do 1 mile in 9:30 minutes. FYI - The closest I ever got was 10 minutes. Since graduate school we have both recommitted ourselves to jogging and general health-related eating habits. We jogged our very first 5k together in October, 2010. I have since jogged what will most likely be my only 10k and she has competed in a variety of 5k events. Most recently she signed up for a Tough Mudder event that is pure insanity. This is what inspired her to issue me the challange: Every day we do not jog/work out we must put $1 in a jar. Sometime next year we will go on a long overdue trip. On this trip we will either be hotties on a budget or fatties with spending money. :)
Today is April 2nd. In the 15 days since the challenge was issued, I have deposited $10 in the jar. Not a great start I must admit. In my defense on the first day of the challenge, March 19th, I spent the evening losing my breakfast and trying to force myself to eat Saltines and broth.
Then I went on my ery first ever trip outside of the U.S.! Normally, vacation is one of the hardest times for people on a diet or exercise routine. However, my boyfriend is a very active man and helped to ensure that my sightseeing also burned calories. On our first full day there, we started the day by hiking in Chipinque National Park. For those who haven't been there, basically I climbed approxiametely 4 miles of stair cases up the side of the Seirra Madre Mountain Range. I honestly thought that I was going to collapse at one point. I can walk a meandering trail for several miles no problem. But steep stairs up a mountain while literally losing oxygen really kicked my butt. On the bright side - I DID IT! And, the view from the top of the trail was spectactular. There was a little lookout point that had a panaramic view of the city and a cafe with fresh squeezed orange juice. I caught my breathe and regained enough strength to jog up the stairs to the giant slide several times too. Its amazing how easy it is to revert back to childhood when presented the opportunity to slide. :) The way down was much easier on my legs, but I had to be slow and step carefully to prevent slipping and breaking my ankle.
Our second day's afternoon was spent walking up and down the city's newly finished Riverwalk Park. It was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water, brightly colored flowerbeds, a perfect view of the Saddle Mountain and sandia palettas (watermelon popscicles) that are by far the BEST popscicles in the world! It was also approximetly 5 miles of trapsing.
The next morning we hung around the house so that David could study for his test. Tired of being trapped inside on such a gorgeous day, I decided to go jogging in the park by his parent's house. He walked into the room with the same idea as I was lacing up my shoes. :) It was HOT and I was worn out from the previous two days of work, so I was only able to jog 7 laps around the 500 meter track and walk 2 more. I had hoped to jog 10 laps which would roughly translate to 3 miles, but just couldn't do it. Either way - This was by far the most physically active vacation I have ever been on. :)
Once home though I pretty much gave myself a week off. It wasn't really intentional, but I had to grocery shop, made a date to watch Hunger Games with my Mom, and other things that were important at the time, but my head hurts too bad right now to remember. (I have been fighting a headache for a majority of the day.) I had planned to make up for that over the weekend, but.... yeah....
Yesterday I decided that it was time to get back on the trail and off my couch. So, after spending the morning and early afternoon in Chapel Hill looking at the bluebonnets (one of my FAVORITE things to do), I took advantage of the beautiful weather to jog at Frankie Carter Park.
1 mile - 11:40 mins - jogged
2 mile - 24:41 mins - walked 1/4 jogged 3/4
3 mile - 38:05 mins - walked 1/4 jogged 3/4
4 mile - 53:03 mins - walked 1/4, jogged 1/2, walked 1/4
Today, I took to the parking lot of my apartment complex despite the nasty, humid overcast weather leftover from this morning's downpour. I was proud of myself for going when I didn't really want to, but am not super impressed with my performance. I jogged one lap (half a mile) and couldn't do more. I think I need to devote more time to stretching (my legs have been sore all day from yesterday). Anyways I still managed to do 3 laps, but wish I could have jogged more of it.
.5 mile - 5:20mins - jogged
1 mile - 12:39 mins - walked
1.5 miles - 18:08 mins - jogged 3/4, walked 1/4
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