5K training – Stained Glass Butterfly

Half Marathon

This past week, my stepkids were home for the week as part of their summer time with their dad. I knew the kids being home was going to be a challenge. Their dad cooks more when the kids are home, and we’re talking fried this and battered that and everything dipped in Ranch dressing! Time goes by so much faster too, partly because we have precious little time together before they go back to Psycho and I go back to worrying about them. The only time I am 100% certain they are safe is when they are with us.

I scheduled my workouts and stuck to them. I fit in all three runs for my 5K schedule! So I knew I did well on the workout front but was worried about my eating. I expected a small loss at best.

On Saturday, I weighed in and was so surprised when I saw 205. That’s 3.6 pounds down from last week! Yesssss! Talk about motivation. Let’s keep this going!

I was also excited this past week because during run #3 for the week for the 5K training schedule, I hit 2.5 miles, the most I’ve run this go-round, and decided to see if I could hit 3 miles. I did it! So I’ve already met the 5K goal for the 8-week program, and I am only in week #3.

I got so excited about it, I looked up the half-marathon information online. It’s in November. That is about four and a half months to go from 3 miles to 13.1. Is that possible? Is that realistic? I would really like to aim for that, but I don’t want to disappoint myself by not being able to finish. There’s another half marathon here in February, and my conservative side says to wait for that one and give myself more time to train for it. Opinions?

Spinning and Running

Morning workouts are a struggle for me. I don’t sleep very well, so getting out of bed and having energy for a regular day is hard enough, let alone having the energy for a workout. I set the alarm last night for my 6 AM Spinning class with the best of intentions, but when that alarm went off this morning, I instantly started making excuses why I should stay in bed. It’s too early. I’m tired. I can work out after work. Mmmmm, pillow!

The Spinning class is pretty small, so you have to sign up ahead of time. I hid under the covers and seriously considered going back to sleep, but I thought about the fact that signing up for class took a spot from someone who may have wanted to be there but couldn’t. I would be a jerk to take that spot and then not show up. Plus, my Spinning teacher is the one who prayed for me the other day. Was I really going to let her down?

I reluctantly tossed back the covers and got up. I can’t say I felt excited or eager to get sweating, but I got dressed and grabbed my water bottle and gel seat (one of the greatest inventions ever) and headed out in the dark.

I felt a bit sluggish during class, but I still got a great workout. I left feeling very proud of myself and happy that my workout for the day was done already. If I had reset the alarm and skipped class, I’d have felt more than a little disappointed in myself.

Yesterday I hit the treadmill for my 1.75 run to stick to my 5K training schedule. At first I felt like crap and wasn’t sure I was going to make it. At some point my body stopped fighting the workout, or my head stopped fighting itself, not sure which, but I made it to 2.5 miles!

When I came home and told my boyfriend and the kids that I did 2.5 miles, my boyfriend congratulated me, and then I turned it into a math problem for my 9-year-old stepdaughter, and she figured out how many extra miles I did. I showed her how to break down a mile into quarters and how to work with decimals. She came to me later with a notebook and gave me some math problems: “If I was supposed to run 7.6 miles, and I ran 8.9, how much extra did I do?” I loved that she got into the running and the math! I was more proud of that than my run.

One Pound, Baby!

This is not me 🙂

My original plan, after such an awful week, was to skip weigh-in on Saturday. Why torture myself anymore than I’ve already been tormented? But that’s a really bad habit for me to get into. One skipped weigh-in turns into twenty, which turns into 50 pounds gained. Okay, I exaggerate, but only slightly.

I tried to salvage something for the week by working out Friday night and again Saturday morning. I got an email late in the week about a half-marathon training group starting in mid-August at the place where I take Spinning class sometimes. We were advised to be able to run 3 miles several times a week before the group starts. My first thought was “Yeah right, I’m too fat for this.” Then I thought, “I have two months to work up to two miles. I could actually do this.”

I printed a beginner’s 5K training schedule, and the first run was for 1.5 miles. So Saturday morning I laced up my running shoes and went to the gym with a mission: to finish 1.5 miles, no matter how long it took, no matter how much torture it was, and be able to cross off my first day of 5K training!

I did it, but it took me over 30 minutes. Wow, I’m out of shape. I used to cover 3 or more miles in that time. It was a struggle, and I hated feeling how much I have let myself go, but I completed that first 1.5 miles and proudly crossed it off on my training calendar. One down!

After that run, I decided to go ahead, face the number, and weigh in. I weighed in at 210, down from 211 last week. I’m sure it’s mostly water loss from the run, but it wasn’t a gain, so I don’t care if it was caused by aliens, I’m taking it and running with it and celebrating it!

I have to work two evenings this week at my second job, so I really need a plan this week. I’m going to force myself to get to bed earlier each night so I can make myself get up for a morning workout on Thursday and Friday. I have to work Saturday and Sunday (grrrrrrrrr), so fitting in workouts this weekend will be a battle.

My stepkids will be home Friday evening, and I always go with my boyfriend to pick them up, but I won’t even see them until at least 9:30 that night, after I get home from work. I don’t like that at all, especially considering I’m working all weekend too. Sometimes I seriously wonder if this second job is worth it. I am trying hard to pay down debt, get us on better financial footing, move into a bigger place (we desperately need it), but the sacrifices along the way seem gigantic.

I will take this week one day at a time. One pound down, and I’m taking aim at at least one more this week!