Making a change.

I've decided to veer from the C25k program. My body isn't ready to run for that amount of time. Not carrying this much extra weight. I've been reading a book called Marathoning for Mortals and it has several training programs for walk/run combos. I think I'm going to work from that. Today I did this: Walk 5 min, run 6 min, walk 3 min, run 6 min, walk 3 min, run 5 minutes, walk 17 minutes. I covered 2.9 miles in 45 minutes. I think that my goal for now is to get that up to 3-6 minute runs and then eventually up to 8 minutes. OR I'll add another run segment and only walk 2 in between. Not sure yet, but I need to do this one for a few more times and get my heartrate lower while doing it. I'm going to spend the next month focusing on getting up to 4 miles in one hour.

A big week!

Today starts week 5. Today I did three five-minute runs while walking three minutes between each. I did 2.07 miles in 31 minutes. It felt really good. I got a good sweat going, I've never exercised indoors and sweat so much my shirt was wet.


I've decided that my first official run will be in April, rather then May. On April 7th in Tempe I'll be participating in Pat's Run . It's 4.2 miles to support the Pat Tillman Foundation. If you don't know who he is, follow the link at the top of the run page for the foundation. I was a graduate student at ASU when he played there. His decision to turn down a huge NFL contract for military service was huge news here and I respected him so much. It was his death that really brought the reality of the was in Iraq home for me. I felt like I lost somebody I knew and it was heartbreaking.

Yay!!!!

I'm down 10 pounds exactly today!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! I am very excited. It feels like it's taken forever but SO worth it. Again, I just keep reminding myself that a SLOW weightloss is more likely to stay off.

Another week done!

I finished week 4 today! I am feeling so good about myself!!! I missed my outside run this morning because my youngest was sick last night and woke me up several times. It was too late to get out and be back before my husband had to leave so I went to the Y. Today I did 2.09 miles in 31.5 minutes. I also wore one of those rubbery belts around my belly so I was hot! Next week is even scarier to look at then this week was, check it out.

Workout one:
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Workout two:
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

Workout three:
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.


Uh...... yikes! The idea of me running for 20 minutes straight is almost surreal! I know I can do it though!!!

Let's talk food!

I didn't train today, not even yoga like I had planned.

My dear friend Shelley has introduced me to the concept of keeping your food in check by making sure no matter what you eat, make sure that no more then 20% of calories come from fat. Shelley has a whole site dedicated to her success in running and weight loss where she gets much more technical and I highly suggest checking it out. http://www.weightlossmommy.com/

She has recipes on there that are darned incredible. Monday I made yummy, chewy chocolate thimbul cookies with raspberry jam! Totally cures that need for something sweet or chocolatey!

Tonight for dinner I made a recipe she'd gotten from another site http://www.low-fat-diet-recipes.com/low-fat-oven-baked-kfc-chicken-recipe.html This one is full of great low fat eating tips too! This chicken is really yummy! I little bit salty for my taste, but I've been cooking pretty low sodium since last summer with Anthony's high cholesteral and blood pressure. All in all, this was a great (and easy) dinner. I paired it with some Idahoan instant loaded mashed potatos. You make them w/ just water and they are totally low fat and so good! They taste like they have sour cream and bacon in there. Can't beat that.

So, does this lowfat stuff work? I mean, the theory is that you can eat as much as you want/need to in order to feel satisfied as long as you keep it below 20% fat.

Well, as of last Sunday I was down 7lbs since Jan. 2. As of this morning I'd lost another 1.4 (in just 3 days) doing this. On top of that, Tuesday was one of those hungry days. You know, the kind where you'll eat anything in sight. I did, or it felt that way, but I made smart choices.

My goal for losing weight is to make changes that I can live with, that don't feel like I'm sacraficing everything I love. I think this could be like that for me. I want to lose weight at a steady but slower pace then I have on previous diets, we all know how successful those have been for me. I want to be down at least 50lbs totaly by the walk in November.

Good workout!

Workout 2 of week 4 is done!!!! It went so well. My legs actually felt better running then when I slowed to my walking pace. I did 2.08 miles in my 31 min 30 seconds so my pace was up a teeny tiny bit. Oh, and my heartrate never got over 168, compared to 172 on Monday, so that is awesome! All in all a good training day.

I need to be thinking about how I'm going to cross train for the 3 day and the half marathon at the same time.

I guess I hadn't talked about my goals here, or at least I don't think so.

I want to run an 8k run in May, do the 3 Day in November and then run the 1/2 marathon in Las Vegas in December. I hope I can figure out how to do long walks and long runs. Should be interesting. I also really need to work in some yoga or something on my non-running day.

Woohooo!!

OMG, I went to the Y this morning and did workout 1 of week 4.

I DID it. In fact, I realized as I hit one minute running and wasn't even winded yet that it's amazing what 9 previous workouts over the course of 3 weeks can do! It did seem like 90 seconds wasn't quite enough walk time but I decided to just go for the whole thing. I got through the 5 minutes and was SOOOO excited! My heartrate ended up in the low 170's by the time I ran my last 5 minutes but really came down ok.

I did 5 minutes of cool down walking at the end so my total time was 31 min 31 seconds and I went 2.02 miles.

Done with week 3!!!

Today was my last workout of week 3. I was nervous going into this week but it went really well! I got up at 6 today and took Cowboy with me. We stuck to the streets since it was still dark and I remembered my cell phone so that was good. There are two great parts about running w/ him. He keeps my walking pace up there, especially the first half, and he's so vigilant that I feel like I can still safely listen to music without somebody sneaking up on me.

I added the extra 90 second set to the end so that I did more then 20 minutes of the run/walk split.

I'm pretty nervous about week 4. It looks like this (from http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

I really want to get a heartrate monitor but they're more then I need to spend.


I can't help but be a little bit frustrated. My scale has only gone down about 6lbs in the last 6 weeks but I can see and feel a difference in my clothes, and so can the ladies I work with. I guess that's all that matters, eventually the scale will catch up!

Yikes!

Wow, today I went to that greenbelt. It didn't occur to me that running in grass would be harder on my legs (stamina wise) then what I'm used to. Monday I had done those an extra 2.5 minutes of both walking and running, but today I just an extra 90 seconds of each. My calves HURT when I was done, but it was a good hurt.

Saturday I'll do my route through the neighborhood.

Not today...

Well, no formal workout today. I did take the boys to the park and do some good walking and a bit of running with them. I'll go to the Y or the park again tomorrow. I discovered that the park in the next subdivision has a HUGE greenbelt, much bigger then a football field. I could cover some good distance around that thing and be running in grass so it won't be so hard on my legs, feet and knees.

Today wasn't a training day, though I do need to start doing something on my off days. I'm thinking yoga.

I took my measurments last night. I'm not sharing them, at least not 'til they've shrunk A LOT. Then maybe I'll post the before and after. ;-) Anyway, I decided I needed to take them. As of this morning I've only lost 6lbs but people have commented that I look like I've lost weight. I actually think it was just the shirt I had on yesterday.



I've got some ideas for fundraising. I want to make some sort of piggy bank for everyone I know to start saving their spare change in. I told my dh that every night he needs to empty his pockets into our jug we keep change in and that will be our donation. If you want in, let me know!

Shelley (Bella Sapone Soaps) is going to donate a set as a prize for me. She's also going to do a special with the scent she has. I think it's going to be called "Love, Hope & Faith" and it smells like LoveSpell from Victoria's Secret. She's going to do it in pink and donate 75% of the profit to my walk!! (Thanks Shelley!!!!!)

I'm also going to look into talking to the principals. I'd like all the schools to try to save 40,000 pennies. I thought I'm make a sign that says, "Every life matters, Every penny counts" and then list some of the statistcs of breast cancer. My only obstacle is that they have a pretty strict "No soliciting" policy. Gotta figure out a way around that.

Getting started!

This Saturday I registered to walk in the Arizona 3 day walk for breast cancer. I'm not sure what has come over me and why I NEED to do this, but I do and I just can't wait! I know part of it is my drive to lose weight and get fit. This gives me something to work toward. I am also just staggered by the breast cancer statistics and the changes that have come in the area of research. Did you know that in the US alone this year, over 175,000 people will be diagnosed with breast cancer? Worse yet, over 40,000 will die. In the 30 minutes it takes me to type this first post 8 women will be diagnosed and go from living their lives to fighting for them.

Now, thanks to the progress in early detection, there is now a Stage 0 diagnosis with a 100% survival rate. That's incredible!!!



My traning:

Two weeks ago I started a fitness program called the Couch to 5K program - it will transform me from a total couch potato to somebody able to run a 5 k. I should be there by the end of March. From there I plan to continue to train for an 8K run in May. May also marks the beginning of the 24 week training program to prepare me for the 60 miles I'll walk in November.

Today I went to the Y for my workout. I did a 5 minute warm up walk and then started equally timed run/walk bursts. I did 90 seconds, 2.5 minutes, 3 minutes, 90 seconds and 3 minutes - then another 5 minutes walking to cool down. All total I did 2 miles in 33 minutes.

My goal for this journal is to track my training progress and emotion behind this process.