This week...4 miles.

Last week kind of sucked. I didn't do too well in training and my diet went awry a few times, but I'm determined to be back on track this week. I managed to squeeze in a few miles last week but nothing I haven't done before. The goal is to increase my distance and my speed, not maintain my distance and decrease my speed. I just felt sluggish and in a bit of a rut. However, my cousin and fitness guru was nice enough to take an hour of her time on Friday to give me some free personal training and some exercises to do on my non-training days to strengthen the muscles that will carry me through those 21 kilometers. She has me doing some crazy hip and butt stuff that will increase the mobility in my legs and joints and boy am I feeling it. Turns out if you strengthen your butt then it takes some of the pressure off the legs, (yes please)! So this week's goal is to do two 30 minute sessions as fast as I can and then tackle 4 miles on Saturday.

When I am in control of the situation, I actually don't have a problem staying under my 1250 calorie goal and getting in my training times. It's when you have company over to eat, or you meet a friend for dinner that can really throw you off. Greg met a friend for breakfast on Saturday, came home and entered in his calories and he was 90% done his day...before 11am. To help stay on track I'm just eating exactly what I ate a few weeks ago when I was under my calorie goal.

So I'm waiting for my dad to pop by now and watch the boys so I can tackle another 30 minutes, but this wind is making it hard to get motivated. Turns out I'm not a very internally motivated person. It's hard for me to get up and say, "Yay Audrey! Let's do this". It's more like, "Ug, maybe if I do this I'll treat myself to a Starbucks". I guess I need to find a way to keep myslef externally motivated. As a treat for dropping my first 10 pounds I purchased new running clothes. Pants, long sleeved shirt and short sleeved shirt. I think another 5 pounds might warrant new shoes (which I desperately need anyways). Just need to find $140 somewhere to get some.

There are other things besides gifts and coffee that help me get going on slow times like this. I've noticed the choice in music and time of day contribute to my success a lot. I'm not a good morning runner or walker, and I'm not good with music that is too energetic. You would think something with a lot of kick to it or something high energy would make you a better or faster runner, but it burns me out fast and makes me push too hard too soon. I need just the right album with some ups and some downs to correspond with my heart rate. Some good ones I've found are:

1. Angels and Airwaves
2. The new Lights album
3. Owl City

Still Kickin' it

A baby with croup, a kid with a cold, and a house with never-ending laundry has made keeping this blog up to date harder than I thought. But the good news is I've been keeping up with the training and doing better than I had hoped. I'm still training 3 times a week and I'm doing 3.5 miles a session now. I know lots of people run 5K a lot and it's no big deal, but it is the furthest I've run and the fastest I've gone...ever. I feel pretty good when I'm doing but my shins are sure feeling it. It's a bit daunting knowing that my distance is going to more than quadruple what I'm doing now but I'm just taking it one step at a time.

Greg and I have a pretty good routine worked out and we're really becoming a team. I train twice a week on my own, working mostly on my speed, then on Saturdays we go out together and do a longer distance than the week before. Greg is still wicked fast and much stronger then I am, but I'm gaining speed and he's noticing the changes in me already.

Speaking of changes, I'm finally losing weight, although not necessarily from the training. Greg and I have been counting our calories and it's finally something that is working for me and that I seem to be able to stick with. I discovered an app for my iPhone called "My Fitness Pal', where you enter your weight, goal weight and desired amount lost each week. Then it gives you a calorie max number for each day and you have to stay under it. You can add all the things you eat and it adds up your calories or you can use your iPhone camera to take a picture of a bar-code and it enters the information for you. I've entered everything I put in my mouth, everyday since February 22nd and I'm down 9.5 pounds already.

At first I was hungry and ate my calorie max before dinner most days, but the app helps you realize where you are spending too many calories and where you need to cut some out. I realized I drink half my calories for the day in my juice, lattes, milk...etc. So I've started drinking a lot more water to allow myself more food. I've also given up things I thought were low-cal choices like Booster Juice and I really feel like my stomach has shrunk. I can easily stay around my calorie goal everyday and not go to bed (too) hungry. Greg is down 4 pounds too and he only started 2 weeks ago.

So things are plugging along. I have a crying croupy baby now, so I gotta run. I'll try and post more often. Yay for -9.5 pounds! Only 25 more to go.

On my own path

I've recently been chatting with many different runners and marathoners. Everyone has their suggestions on what program to follow, how to train, what shoes to get, what pace to take, what routes are best and what food to eat. It can be overwhelming to follow other peoples advice all the time. I know there are good nuggets of info mixed up in everyone's stories but it's confusing and frustrating to riffle through everything to find the best way to go. I know I'm slower than most and I'm taking full advantage of the fact that we have 2 months of "extra" training time since our race is not until September, but I did just have a baby 3 months ago and before that I experienced over 7 years of sedentary living. So it's taking me a while to find my own way of doing this but I feel like I'm maybe finally getting the hang of it.

I'm training every other day, and on my off days I'm doing some strength training. Nothing fancy, just squats and hand weights at home to help build the muscles that will have to carry me through 13 miles on race day. My pace is still slow and I'm mostly walking (as fast as I can) and running small intervals. I've been on a few different routes around my neighbourhood and I can't say I love any of them. It's either trashy houses, sketchy people, bird pooped underpasses, too much traffic or too many stop lights. So I spent some time on Google maps and found some routes to try that are more "runner friendly".

I've even stuck to tracking my calories on this awesome app every day for 5 days and I'm already down 4 pounds. I'm learning how to make what I put in my mouth count and I've even cooked up some great meals with lots of veggies, spices, lean meats and new flavors that were not too bad.

I'm glad I have so many friends and family who run and have good advice, but like most things, you need to find your own beat to go to and do what works best for you.