Sunday, October 23, 2011

Mile Posts: Run Like A Child: Race Yourself

Mile Posts: Run Like A Child: Race Yourself: It is easy to get caught up in the world. To fall victim to what we see in magazines, the Internet, the TV. Everyone wants to BE . Be be...


This link is a blog I follow, and she is a superfast runner (in my opinion). It was exactly what I needed to read today. I know that all runners go through ups and downs, and I'm not even sure I consider myself a "runner". I run 2-4 times a week, for 5-9 miles average. I do about one official 5K a month, and usually one unofficial 5K on my own. Here lately I have gotten so slow. For those of you who don't know me personally, I am a heavy runner - I recently lost 20 pounds and am still working on it, but I'm still 40 pounds heavier than I would like to be, and probably 50-60 pounds heavier than most super fast runners are (I know I will never be there, and have no false hopes of running a 9:00 mile) but I do know what I'm capable of, and have an idea of where I can be if I lose some more weight. When I used to run, I would feel light and sometimes I would feel like I could run forever. Now, I feel so heavy and sluggish and I'm struggling to keep up with where I used to be. As Dorothy's post said, I'm not competing with everyone else, I AM competing with myself and how I used to run, and that's the discouraging part. At my peak, a couple months ago, I was running 11:40 miles (which I know is not fast, but it's fast for ME!) now I struggle to run a 12:30 average mile, WITH walking. When I run, I can run a 11:45 - 12:00 mile pace, but I just don't have the endurance to keep it up more than 5 minutes. I don't know what's happened. I haven't gained any weight, though I have been eating more unhealthy lately. I was doing Weight Watchers, but I spent a week in Vegas and haven't gotten back onto my diet since then. I'm wondering if my eating habits are affecting my running. My plan is this week to drink no diet Coke (uuugggghhhh) and go back on the diet and see what happens. I have a 5K on Saturday, and I cannot imagine doing it running the way I am right now. I have 3 runs before then hopefully, so I'm going to take my friends advice and do a little speedwork. I really hope I don't disappoint myself on Saturday, and I'm dreading it, and I hate that. I used to get excited, and I guess I need to figure out how to get back there. I have been under A LOT of stress at work, so I think that may have something to do with it as well. If you're a runner and have ever dealt with this, please give me your tips as to how you got out of the rut. I would appreciate it!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Everyday Life

Things have just been so busy lately! A lot has been going on at work, which makes all aspects of life busy, I've found. For a while I was neglecting my running, but last week I made myself run 4 times, and today I registered for two races, one next week and one next month. I am so happy that I've made myself focus on running again. It's so easy to let it slip when things get hectic, but it truly is the only thing I can do that keeps me sane and makes me feel focused and energetic. If you're reading this on my actual blog, you can see my 3 new running widgets that will allow me to be more accountable to everyone reading, and you can share in my progress! This morning Kylie said "When I get bigger, I want to race with you!" and that made me feel good. She for sure will do races with me, and I can't wait to share that experience with her (and Claire, eventually!)

I guess we've finally decided on Halloween costumes. And by "we", I mean Kylie wouldn't decide because she's 3 years old, so we came to a decision we could all be happy with. They are both going to be princesses. I know, not very creative, especially compared to last years' "Dora and Boots". But Kylie went from Jessie from Toy Story, to a devil, to a butterfly princess, to a normal princess. That's where we stayed. It will be cute though, and next year hopefully she will be old enough and excited enough to actually choose a costume. We shall see.

I'm so excited to be having a CMC Accessories party Saturday night for my "bertie" Heather, then me and her and hopefully a couple other friends that said "maybe" will be going out to dinner and for drinks afterwards. It's crazy the things I get excited about now that I'm older! I've been looking forward to it all week though!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Fall

It's been a while since I've written, life gets busy! I had a great 3-day weekend with my family, we made cookies, went to the park, ate Mexican Villa, ate Golden Corral, watched football, went on a walk and colored. It was the most enjoyable weekend I've had in a long time - no stress about work (I didn't even think about it!) I enjoyed spending time with my girls so much, they are so much fun right now! Kylie is so funny, and Claire is starting to talk and do funny things. No one was sick, no one threw a fit, no one got hurt, it was amazing! To top it all off, this morning Kylie slept until 8:30 and Claire slept until 9:30! That is totally me being braggadocios about my weekend - I'm sure after saying all this, tomorrow will be a horrible day :) Oh well, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend with my girls, and I thoroughly don't want to go to work tomorrow! We have Radiothon on Power 96.5 this week, and I'm pretty excited about that, so maybe it won't be so bad!