Running - Its hard

So, I've been running for about 3 weeks.  It seems like I ran the first block very easily, and now I've got a mental block that I can't run any further.  As soon as I got the 1 block down, I upped my running goal by 0.1 mile.  And for some reason I spent the past 2 weeks not able to finish 0.5 mile.  Today I did it though.  Today I ran 0.5 mile without stopping.  However, once again, it was slow.  I wonder if its better to push yourself to the max, and burn out fast, or run slowely and do distance.

If I stay on this track that means it'll take me 10 more weeks before I can run 1 mile without stopping.  That seems like forever away.

This also means, that I've continued on my goal of running.  And a long time ago - see post here I made a deal with myself that if I worked out 3 times a week I would allow myself to spend hundreds of dollars on my hair for a keritin treatment.  Since its officially been 3 weeks of running a minimum of 3 times a week, I think I will allow myself to schedule an appointment.  Although, I also think that between now and the hair appointment, if I don't continue to run 3 times a week I need to only get a trim, not a treatment.  Gotta find motivation somehow.

I'm hoping the Keritin treatment will be so amazing that I'll have to continue running so I can continue the treatment. :)

Hm... I think this means I need to go buy new shampoo.

Challenge Accepted.

Everyone pretty much knows my exercise/weight battle... Well, you all at least know about my exercise battle.  Basically I hate exercising and I love food.  I wouldn't say I'm fat, but I also think I could use to loose a few lbs. 

If I do say so myself, I was HOT in college.  I think it was the fact that I hated the dorm food so I pretty much only ate salads for lunch and dinner.  (The salad bar in my dorm was amazing)  It also helped that I walked EVERYWHERE in college.  I'm sure I walked a minimum of 5 miles a day.  I would frequently come home in between classes and my dorms were always pretty far from my classes.  So yeah... easily 5 miles.  In college I could eat whatever refrain from going to the gym and not gain a lb.

When I graduated college I continued to not go to the gym.  My only exercise consisted of walking to and from work.  For the first 3.5 years after graduation this amounted to 2.5 miles of walking a day.  So I still could refrain from going to the gym, but I quickly learned I couldn't eat what I wanted without seeing the results on my hips.  A little over 1.5 years ago, I moved from the suburbs (where I would take the Metra and walk a mile to and from the office - trust me I know this doesn't add up to 2.5 I did additional walking every day too) to the city, where I got dropped off either via bus or El practically outside my building.  My daily exercise consisted of walking up 2 flights of stairs whenever I took the dog out... Yeah... I know thats awful.  So over the past year, I have gained weight, and not been happy with the way I look. 

So - this morning my good friend DecidelyDisastica asked me if I would do a challenge with her.  She knows I've been trying to figure out motivation to loose weight and she needs motivation too, so we are going to try to help each other out.  The challenge is the first person to loose 10 lbs gets a mani/pedi bought by the other person.  This will happen a total of 3 times (since we would both LOVE to lose 30 lbs)  The next 10 lbs will get a facial.  And the final 10 lbs will be a massage. 

The official weigh in starts tomorrow.  And I have to say, part of me wants to slam an entire gallon of water before my weigh in so I can have a little extra help beating DecidelyDisastica, but the other part of me doesn't want to see that number on the scale with all that water weight.  So, its doubtful that I'll slam the water.

All I have to say is - DecidelyDisastica - you are going down! :)

Wish us luck all!

Starting to work out.

Well, its official... I'm determined to start to work out again.  I was doing real well at the beginning of the year when I was going to the gym and lifting with 2 of my friends.  Then the gym closest to work closed down and the next closest was $50 a month!  That is way more than I was previously paying, so I quit and made a promise to myself I would exercise at home.  Well I originally made that promise in March or so, and I don't think I've worked out more than once or twice since. 

A few days ago I discovered "Back On Pointe's" exercise challenges on pinterest.  She (I'm almost positive the blog writer is a she) creates mini workout challenges and posts them online.  You can see them here. I hate to admit it, when I first saw her challenges I had to look up how to do some things; I never knew what a Burpee or a Star Jump was.  But I thought they looked short and easy and would be the perfect thing to get me wanting to work out again.

Today I did the "Cardio Circuit" workout.  And I feel like today's short exercise kinda kicked my butt.  :-/ Maybe it was because these challenges are supposed to be done with no break in between exercises (and not because of how out of shape I am) but I got my heart rate pumping and started to sweat a bit! 

I hope I keep up the workouts.... I figure if I'm so obsessed with the internet or tv where I can't spare 20 minutes I have big problems to worry about. 

I joined a gym, and Um... I'm WEAK.

I saw a picture of me as a Sophomore in College and I got depressed.  I used to be SOOO thin!  I don't mean to be cocky, but I looked HOT.  So I decided I would try to loose 20 lbs... My mom even has helped me with this... we have a bet that if I loose 20 lbs by my cousins wedding she gives me $100... if I don't... well... I give her $100.

This is why joined a gym.  I want to look like I was 7 years ago.  Granted, 7 years ago, I could barely afford to eat, I hated dorm food (I LOVED the salad bar, but that was pretty much it), and I had to walk ~ 1 mile to classes every day (I also made that trek multiple times a day since I always went back to the dorms between classes).  But, thats besides the point.

A few weeks ago I joined a gym and have been going with 2 friends of mine a few times a week.  (Yesterday was the first day I played hookey from the gym!!)  I do ~ 1 hour of strength and 20 minutes of cardio... I HATE cardio. Little did I know I sorta enjoy lifting. 

A few weeks ago was the first time I EVER lifted weights... I mean I've picked up dumbbells before, but I've never done reps or sets or anything.  Thankfully, the 2 friends of mine who weight lift with me are very experienced.  They've taught me a bunch.  I may not have proper form, but I'm trying to learn.  When I bench press-ed for the first time, I could bench "the bar" however I could not do 3 sets... it was (I mean IS) pretty pathetic. 

I alternate between Chest and Tri, Shoulders and Abs, Legs, and Back and Bi. I've done Chest and Tri 3 days... Next time I do Chest and Tri, I plan on attempting "the bar."  We'll see how that goes.

I love free food... Haha.

Want a free breakfast?

Go Here

Corner Bakery's are offering a Breakfast Thin for FREE if you sign up and make a reservation. 

I have no idea what a "Power Panini Thin" is (which is the only thing they are offering for free).  I've searched the Corner Bakery website and tried to find nutritional info online.  Unfortunately I have had no success. It looks like low carb bread with eggs, cheese and bacon. 

I signed up for Monday morning.  :) I have tried VERY hard to have a real breakfast every morning I work out (usually Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays).  So this just means I will have one less day to make breakfast. 

Very interesting blog - Exercise

Back a few weeks ago I was talking about how I think exerciser people try to trick us non-exercise folks into believing that you get addicted to exercise.  Now, unfortunately, I have not experienced this addiction yet. I have been slacking on the exercising also, which is why I probably aren't addicted yet.

But anyway, I found this blog.  Here Its called "Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit."  Its a real life journey from an "obsessed with being fit" man to a couch potato, back to an "obsessed with being fit" man.  This gentleman is a certified personal training through NASM (whatever that is).  May 7th (of this year) he weight 193 lbs.  5 months later (Oct 15th) he weighed 263 lbs.  His measuremetns increased: waist - 13 inches, chest - 4 inches, neck - 1 inch, and hips - 11.5 inches. Of course all of this is fat.  He has said that his diet is unrestricted and he wont exercise during his "fat" stage. 

I think the most interesting part of the story will begin in about 2 weeks when he starts the "fit" stage.  I can't wait to read it. My goal is to implement his "fit" plan starting January 1st. 


Personally, I think that not only will this journey help people like me (I'm not 60 lbs overweight, but I don't workout nearly as much as I should) but I think it will also help him become a better personal trainer when dealing with .... well.... (lets be blunt) fat people.

FYI - apparently this blog has gotten a LOT of press lately so his site is extremely slow. 

I suck at this "working-out" thing

So, I officially posted about the motivation "coupons" C gave me a month ago.  Since then I have filled out 5 of the 10 workouts for 1 date.  (Meaning I have exercised 5 times in the past month - ouch)

Now - 1 of those weeks I have a good excuse, but the other, I do not.  Last week I was very sick, therefore I didn't work out.  However I don't have any excuse for the week before... except laziness.

Therefore in order for me to get my Keratin treatment around Thanksgiving, I officially need to work out 15 times before October 22, or approximately 4 times a week to make up for my approximate 1 time a week this month.  Wow, that's a lot.  I guess I better get started, and get used to waking up earlier.... Crappy

The Madison Ironman - 9/11/11

My dad and brother just finished an ironman.  Baiscally, they are nuts and I think they should be committed to an insane asylym, but thats just cuz I have no desire to torture myself like that.

I wanted to share my day at the ironman.

Just some stats to start out.  Approx 2800 people were registered. 1000 first time iron man athletes.  The youngest was 18, oldest 74. 

So, Mom and I woke up and enjoyed a nice breakfast.  We took a shuttle to the main part of the race and figured out the best place to watch the bikers.  Unfortunately they did not give us good directions so when we got back I tried to input an intersection that I thought was close to a bunch of hills. 

Well, turns out I did REAL good.  Mom and I hung out there for about 5 hours.  We were at the top of a big hill near a turn so we got to see the bikers for at least 15 seconds.  (lol) We had no idea what mile we were at (turns out it was ~ mile 50) so we just watched and waited for my bro and dad to show up.  We also had no idea what they were wearing, so it was quite difficult.  My brother almost rode right past us without noticing us even though we were yelling and screaming.  It also looked like he almost fell off his bike trying to ask us if Dad was behind or ahead of him.  (I'm sure he will say he didn't almost fell, but it looked that way.  And Dad was behind)  For several hours before we saw my brother, we cheered on hundreds of other bikers.  We also saw the lead biker and his "entourage" as they rode by.

Somehow, we almost missed Dad (about 30 minutes behind my bro).  He was actually the one who noticed us instead of the other way around.  We found out later, (the next day) that Dad actually had a flat tire at the beginning of the race.  Turns out one of his spares (he has 2) also had a hole in it so after Dad changed his flat he rode almost the entire 112 miles with no spare tire.  Quite a scary thing in the middle of the race.  We had planned to stay at that location for a while since the bikers rode past us twice.  However late in the day we decided to wait for the boys at the bike finish line. 

I guess Madison is "infamous" for this, but I just think this is CRUEL.  The runners have to run up the parking lot helix after the swim to change into biking gear.  Then they have to bike down it (not that big of a deal, but kinda scary.)  HOWEVER, after 112 miles of biking, the course designer thought it would be a nice touch to make the bikers bike up this.  As if the hundreds of excruciating hills aren't enough, they have to add a terrible helix at the end of it.  You would not believe how many bikers complained that they were getting dizy.  I was not surprised.  Lets add dehydration, extreme fatigue, circles and a ramp and see how many bikers will complete it.    My brother completed this with what looked like no problem.  (Later we found out he was vomiting almost the entire bike ride.... fun times)  He then went to change into his running gear.  At this point Dad was about 1 hour behind my bro, so we decided to meet my brother at the start of the marathon race.  We took a few pictures and cheered them on before returning to the helix to wait for Dad.

It got to be 5:15 and all of a sudden all of these ironman volunteers came out to the helix.  Turns out if you don't cross the finish line by 5:30 they don't allow you to run the marathon.  Dad still had not finished the bike part so Mom and I were stressing.  Every single biker that got close to the helix was cheered on and we were hoping it was Dad.  FINALLY with 3 minutes to spare he rode up.  He reached the bottom of the helix, got off his bike and stopped.  I ran down the helix and started cheering him on along with all the other volunteers.  After much encouragement Dad finally started running with his bike up the helix.  He ended up finishing the bike with 2 minutes to spare, but immediately collapsed after crossing the finish line and told us he wasn't going to do the marathon, that he quit.  It took us about 30 minutes to persuade him to keep going.  It was 6:00 when Dad started the marathon.  Normally 6 hours to do a marathon wouldn't be too bad, but after 114 miles... its hard to walk let alone RUN a marathon.  I calculated that Dad had to run an approximate 13.5 minute mile.  What I deamed almost impossible for Dad in his fatigued shape. 

Mom and I grabbed the boys bikes and personal items and brought them back to the hotel.  We then walked to the marathon at the 4, 10, 17 and 21 mile point.  The marathon course is extremely boring... you have to make 4 loops on the same roads... But that's ok, we got to see the boys several times.  The first time I saw Dad on the marathon track, I had realized he was keeping ~ 13.25 minute mile.  I power-walked with Dad up the hill and told him I was going to stay until he crossed the finish line (instead of leaving at 10 PM like I originally wanted to.). By the time we saw Dad, my brother had already reached the halfway point on the marathon, so we made our way to the finish line.  By the time we got there, Michael hadn't reached the last checkpoint (4 miles to the finish) before the end.  So Mom and I started walking down the path trying to see the boys.  About 9:30, Mom and I decided that I was going to walk down the path to try to find my brother and Dad.  So I started walking, hoping to cheer them on to the finish line.  Less than a mile from the finish I saw my brother.  I power-walked with him for a while, and tried to convince him to keep up the pace for the last mile.  Later I found out that he ran the last mile because of my encouragement finishing 69th in his age group. 

After I passed my bro, I saw this guy during the marathon.  He was wearing the full fireman outfit.  I didn't take a picture, but I can vouch for him.  Such dedication.

I ended up walking ~ 4 miles through the marathon looking for Dad.  At 10:45 I turned around so I could meet back with Mom and 11:30.  I had no sign from Dad, couldn't find him.  I thought for sure that he was not going to finish.  At 11:45 (the race ENDS at midnight) there was still no sign of Dad so Mom asked me to go get the car for the boys who will be too tired to walk.  I guess 5 minutes after I left, Mom found Dad with about 0.5 miles to go.  She cheered him on, as well as the crowd.  The crowd started shouting for him to go, and soon the finish line was in site.  The crowd started counting down.  Dad had seconds to cross the finish line, or get a DNF (Did Not Finish)... 10... 9... 8... 7...

Dad was officially the last person to finish the Ironman with seconds to spare.  (I guess the clock was 35 seconds fast so he really finished with 40 seconds to spare opposed to 5 seconds he was told.  His time was later adjusted.) Dad ended up finishing 63rd in his age group. 

2800 started the race.  Only 2242 finished. 

The race was extremely stressful for us.  The entire time Mom and I were worried they were stuck somewhere or couldn't finish.  Its not like the athletes run or bike with cell phones to call if there are problems.  We saw injuries, men and women who could barely walk, terrible sunburn... basically a ton of bad stuff.

My brother suffered from (thankfully) mild dehydration, and Dad came out of the race with only extremely fatigue. 

Congrats guys... You are Ironmen.

Motivation Date

Well, I know C is probably going to hate this post but, I had a great boyfriend. :) I blogged a few days ago (see post here) about needing motivation to work out.  I made a deal with myself that if I work out approximately 3 times a week I can buy myself a Keratin treatment on my hair.  Well, C sweetened the deal.  He gave me a bunch of "coupons" for dates.  I have to work out 10 times in order to get 1 free date.  So, assuming I stay to the whole 3 times a week thing, That should translate to about 1 date a month.  Also, considering C gave me 10 plus coupons, this should get me past the "I hate working out and being in pain" phase.

Personally I have never experienced getting beyond this phase, but people have told me that after you exercise for a particular length of time, your body starts to crave the endorphins.  Once you reach this point (supposedly) you actually enjoy working out.  I really hope this is true, opposed to some cruel lie everyone says so they can point and laugh at out-of-shape people trying to work out. 

I hate to exercise - Motivation needed.

I never was a fan of exercising.  I loved horse back riding, but that was the only form of exercise I ever enjoyed.  When I was younger I tried every sport, soccer, dance, T-ball, basketball, gymnastics... basically you name it, I tried it as a kid.  The only thing that ever stuck was horseback riding.

The only problem is horseback riding is rather expensive.  Horses eat quite a lot of food and need a lot of exercise.  However since I live in the city, I can not get out to any stables on a regular basis.  Which causes me to have to hire someone to exercise my horse, which obviously is not cheap.  So, when I decided to sell my horses to save for a house, I gave up exercising.

Last year I tried running.  I did it for about 3 months, off and on.  I ran a few races, but it didn't stick.  I never really enjoyed it.  For my birthday, my parents bought me a super fancy exercise bike.  I'm going to try really hard to stick with this and get in shape.  But I need motivation.  So my motivation is the following.  If I ride my new bike ~ 3 days a week until Thanksgiving, I get to get a Keratin treatment on my hair.  I have very very very frizzy hair, and when you combine that with lazy-ness .... well, I barely ever do my hair.  So hopefully this will be good motivation to work out.  I care about what I look like, but who doesn't like to sleep an extra half hour in the morning instead of doing their hair.