October 2015 – Sweat & Sparkle

Mini-Goal, DVD, and Facebook

I was looking forward to weigh-in Saturday morning, because I thought for sure, the week I ran half-marathon distance, I must have torched some serious pounds! I stepped onto the scale, eager to see the number.

169.0

On one hand, that was awesome. My mini-goal was hitting the 160’s, and I did it! I lost 2 pounds since last week. I should have been excited, right?

But I wasn’t. Two pounds? After running over 13 miles? I felt cheated and disappointed. I’m not sure exactly what I expected, just more than that.

Two pounds is still two pounds in the right direction and two pounds closer to my goal. My reward for reaching the 160’s is this workout DVD:

I love Cathe Friedrich, and this weight-training DVD got really good reviews. Her DVD’s tend to cost a bit more (this one was over $20), but I have found they are well worth it. I will review it after I receive it and try it out.

This past weekend, my stepkids were home with us. My 13-year-old stepson told me he saw my post on Facebook about running over 13 miles, and he congratulated me and said, “I liked it on Facebook because you said you had been trying to reach that distance for a long time.” I loved that he was proud of me. It meant so much to me.

But…I had checked that post to see who had liked it, and his name wasn’t on that list. I checked again, thinking I had just missed it, but nope, it wasn’t there. Well, he certainly didn’t lie about liking it, and he had obviously seen it because he knew I had mentioned it being a goal of mine for a long time. There is only one possible explanation: after he liked it, his biological mother, Psycho, logged in as him and un-liked it.

I just shook my head. Yes, that is definitely something she would do, as sad and pathetic as it is. My stepson liking something I wrote about my fitness achievements would have sent her into a jealous spiral of rage. Well, let her be jealous. That’s her prerogative. My stepson knows what I achieved, and he is proud of me, and she can’t change that!

Thirteen Point One!

I went for a run yesterday evening, determined to not only burn off those McDonald’s french fries (delicious little golden-fried temptresses), but to reach 10 miles. I don’t know what magically came together to give me a good run, but I felt strong. I love runs like that, the few and far between runs when I feel good, nothing hurts, and I have energy to burn.

As I neared 10 miles, I started thinking about pushing for 11. When I hit that and still felt good, I went for 12. When I hit 12, I was too damn close to that magical 13.1 number, the half-marathon number, to stop! So I kept going.

My quadriceps groaned and complained the last 2 miles, but I just kept thinking that I had come too far not to go for it. Hey, otherwise I had to start all over again at mile 1, so why not just keep going from mile 12? Logical, no?

When Runkeeper announced I had reached 13 miles, I dug my phone out of my arm band so I could count down and watch the distance turn to 13.1. Just for kicks, I let it turn to 13.2, then finally slowed to a walk for my cool-down.

Yesssss! I have been trying since May 2014, when I first took up running again, to reach 13.1 miles. I got sooooo close last summer: I hit 12 miles sometime during the summer. Then I slacked off, stopped running, and gained a ton of weight. I started running again in June of this year, when I made the commitment to lose this weight once and for all.

I still can hardly believe I finally reached the half-marathon distance. The first thing I did this morning was shop online for one of those coveted 13.1 stickers for my car! I still intend to run a formal half marathon, but Runkeeper proves that I am officially a half-marathoner now, so I want my sticker. I will get the bling (the medal) in a few months when I run a local half marathon. I just need to stay consistent so I can be sure to get that medal too!

Sort-Of Victory

Has it really been a week since I wrote anything here? Well, here I am, ready to dish up some scintillating tales that will have you gripping the edge of your seat in wild anticipation!

Or not. I’ve just been extremely busy. Today my car is in the shop, and I already got the dreaded call with my estimate, so the stress of worrying about money and about my car has me ready to tear into the cookies in the kitchen at work. (And why, pray tell, are there always cookies or candy or cakes in this kitchen, anyway?)

Since my car is in the shop, I didn’t have a way to leave the office to get any lunch. Luckily I had a frozen Smart Ones oatmeal in the freezer (or unluckily, because have I ever mentioned that I bought those purely as an experiment and think that oatmeal tastes like wet cardboard?) A well-intentioned co-worker took pity upon me and came back from lunch with a bag from McDonald’s for me.

I panicked when she placed it on my desk. Noooooo! I am on a diet! Get that evil bag of seduction off my desk!

I smiled and said thank you. I told myself to throw it away. NOW.

I contemplated the bag after she walked away. Well, I don’t even know what’s in it!

You don’t need to know! Throw it away, you fool!

Did I listen? No. I opened it. A cheeseburger and fries waited for me to devour them.

I ended up eating the fries. I added it to my MyFitnessPal food diary, feeling guilty. I had to draw the line at the cheeseburger. Three hundred more calories, when I will still be hungry afterward? Have I been fighting so hard to lose weight for months just to cave like a spineless weakling?

The cheeseburger went in the trash, but now my office smells like McDonald’s, which is not helping with cravings for junk food now. I’m disappointed that I ate the fries, but at least I stopped myself from eating the burger. I am going running this evening, and I really wasn’t looking forward to throwing up mid-run because I scarfed McDonald’s for lunch.

So, a sort-of victory. I could have done better, but lordy, I could have done so much worse!

Running Apps

I had a good weigh-in on Saturday, down a bit over two more pounds to 174.2. No complaints here! I’m looking forward to breaking into the 160’s and being just a bit closer to my goal of 130.

Over the weekend, I sat down and planned out my workouts for the upcoming week. It’s going to be busy, and I want to be sure I make time to work out each day and have no excuses.

Since my runs have been getting longer, I have been exploring running apps for safety. Mostly, I want one that will send my location to my boyfriend while I am running, so he will know exactly where I am. If something goes wrong, heaven forbid, I want my phone to keep sending him my location. I tested Road ID on my last run, and it sent him a link but just kept saying it was waiting for tracking information and never sent him my location.

Can anyone recommend a good, reliable app that will keep him updated with my location while I am running?

8 Miles and Earrings

Last night I decided to go for a run. I wasn’t sure how far I would run, but my last long run was 7 miles, so I was really hoping for 8.

I didn’t think it was going to happen. Between mile 4 and 5, I got the bright idea to leave the park I was running in and head up the sidewalk to a side street that had a few hills. Gotta start training on hills, right? Well, maybe not in the same run I was shooting for distance! It really wore me out. I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. I jogged/dragged myself back to the relatively flat path in the park and felt like I had blown it: not even 6 miles in, and I felt wasted.

I’m not sure what kept my feet moving during those last 2 miles. Certainly not the music on my phone, because for some reason, it kept repeating the same few songs over and over, which was more than a little annoying, but as tired as I was, I didn’t want to deal with wrestling my phone out of my arm band and trying to figure out the problem with sweaty fingers.

When I hit mile 7, I just kept repeating to myself, “One more mile! One more mile!” It seemed like the lady on RunKeeper was never going to say “Distance: 8 miles”, but I finally heard those magnificent words and slowed to a walk to cool down.

After that run, I finally felt like maybe I really can train for a half marathon. I joined a running club and am looking into group runs to keep me motivated and accountable, to make sure I don’t let myself slack off. I already marked a group run on my calendar for Monday evening. I hope they don’t take off and leave me in the dust!

In my last post, I mentioned that I ordered a pair of earrings as my reward for losing another 10 pounds. Someone asked me to post a picture of the earrings, and I didn’t know how to do that in the comments, so I am posting it here. Here are the earrings that should be in my mailbox when I get home, if the tracking information is not lying to me: