5K Training: Day 37

4 loops at Vet Park (1.76 mi) in 24 minutes and 10 seconds. I wanted to run the full 25 minutes, but as I was coming around the last part of the loop, I didn't think I was going to make it under 25 so I "sprinted." Alas, I "sprinted" too fast and clocked in around 24 minutes. Oh well.

I'm a little worried I may have blown my weight loss this weekend. I didn't think I ate TOO bad. I ate pretty healthy, and when I did eat junk, it was in moderation, but when I hopped on the scale yesterday, it was waaaaaaay more than what I weighed on Friday. :/ And now, of course, I have Grandma's cookies and four giant muffins in my fridge. UGH.

5K Training: Day 36

Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, Day 3

So I didn't end up running on Sunday at all since I had to get up early and drive back to Akron to catch my flight. Honestly, I danced my little heart out on Saturday night so I call it even exercise-wise. Plus, I think I wasn't ready for 2 miles just yet. I'll just try to run the whole 25 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday this week, which will get me 1.75 miles. Then, depending how it goes/what I'm feeling, perhaps I'll try the 2 mile run on Sunday instead of the 1 mile.

We'll see.

5K Training: Day 33

XT: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, Day 2

WHEW. Arms. Who needs arms? Not me!

I woke up at 6AM this morning for some stupid reason, but I decided to weigh myself before I left today. 104.8 lbs. Another 1.2 lbs gone --> 3 lbs lost total in less than two weeks. HEY YEAH.

But not a lot of time for typing. I need to shower and pack and gooooooo. I might blog again on Sunday, depending on when I get back and whether or not I got my run in.

Cheers for now!

Aussie Football

Or Footy as they called it when I arrived. Remember how I told you about that woman, Tracey, who came up to me after my run on Sunday? Well, I went to one of their informal practices today, and it was pretty fun. I originally thought it was like Rugby, but it's not. They didn't really explain the rules too much, just showed me how to handball and kick. I'm not great at either of those things, but I'm not bad either. Plus, they were all impressed with my ball-catching skills. ;)

They seem like great people, and they were all really helpful and kind. I might go back again for their next practice. Unfortunately, I can't go Sunday because I'll be our of town, but Tracey put me on the email list so I'll find one I can attend.

Plus, it was gorgeous outside and it was great to be in the park with everyone else. Colorado is so active. Hah.

5K Training: Day 32

Run 20-25 minutes.

Finally it was nice enough to go run outside ( I think I do better when I'm running outside than stuck on a treadmill) so I went to Vet Park. I did four laps, which is about 1.76 miles in 24 minutes and 19 seconds. Definitely not fast, but "YAY ME!!" for running almost 2 miles and almost 25 minutes. :]

Then I walked one lap (0.44 miles) in 8 minutes to cool down.

DB = 350 total cals (302 for run/48 for walk), Pedometer says 189 for the run, MFP = 351 total (310 for run/41 for walk).

My arms are LEAD WEIGHTS today after Jillian's workout. I'm not sure if I'll be able to weigh in this weekend since I'll be gone for the wedding. PLUS, I don't know how my workout will work out (no pun intended) since I'll be traveling on Sunday. We'll see.

5K Training: Day 31

XT--Or as I'm now referring to it, 30 Day Shred: Day 1

WHEW! Jillian, you kill me. You kept yelling "No breaks!" at me, but I had to take a few. I think a big problem was that my weights are 8lbs and yours looked to be about 5lbs, maybe.

Unfortunately, it's only a 20 minute workout. DB = 159, MFP = 249 but I'm not sure how to log this stuff. All I know is that I'm POOPED. My arms feel like jello.

5K Training: Day 30

30 days already?? Hot dog. Well, once again Denver is pretending it's Seattle and the weather is terrible. I looked like a goofball walking over to the gym in my running capris, rainbow rain-boots and a big white DePauw sweatshirt with the hood up. What a G.

Today was supposed to be a 20-25 minute run. It was still a struggle to get to 20 minutes so I'm not sure when I should push myself to hit 25. Maybe next week...

20 minutes, 4.5 mph (treadmill = 170, DB = 252, pedometer = 160, MFP = 258)
10 minutes, 3.0/3.5 mph

3 sets of 10 push-ups. Every time I do push-ups, I distinctly remember that scene from "Pete & Pete" (am I dating myself here?) where young Pete watches his elderly neighbor woman water her plants and her arm fat jiggles in slow motion. THAT CANT BE ME!

5K Training: Day 29

Needless to say since the new Gaga album came out last night--I jammed to that while I worked out today. LOVE IT.

45 minutes on stationary bike (bike = 220, DB = 612, MFP = 491)

2 sets of 15 tricep extensions (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 dumbbell rows (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 dumbbell curls (10 lbs)

2 sets of 15 kettlebell swings (8kg)
2 sets of 30 catwalk pins

2 sets of 30 crunches
100 oblique crunches

5K Training: Day 28

YAY TODAY I GOT TO RUN OUTSIDE! It finally wasn't rainy or cold or gross, so I drove to Vet Park and ran my mile there. 2.5 loops/13:09 minutes & then I walked another 1.5 loops/13 minutes to get close to a half hour workout. And several good things resulted from that:

1. Hot rugby dudes playing in the middle of the circle I run. I may have shaved 30 seconds off my mile time. Motivation!

2. As I was stretching, this woman came over to me and asked if I had ever played field sports before; now while I DID play powderpuff in highschool, it was only two games so I don't really count. Apparently she plays on a woman's football league and had seen me running while they were practicing and wanted to know if I wanted to join their team! WHAT. I felt like a college recruiter had just offered me a scholarship aka I FELT BOSS. I gave her my email and am seriously thinking about doing it--it would probably be lots of fun!

Plus, as you can see from my little MFP bug, I lost 1.8 lbs this week. :] I officially cancelled my WW acct today, so it ends June 17th. Oh, and it's the last week of classes HALLELUJAH!

5K Training: Day 26

XT day: 44 minutes on stationary bike (DailyBurn = 254; actual bike = 218; MFP = 484)

2 sets of 15 dumbbell curls (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 tricep extensions (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 dumbbell rows (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 bench press (2 10 lbs)

2 sets of 30 crunches
100 oblique crunches

2 sets of 30 catwalk pins
2 sets of 15 kettlebell swings (8kg)

I was sweating like a hog today in the gym; I even had that dark ring around the neck. Whew! A good workout before my day off tomorrow. I think I'm going to log 300 calories for the cardio--roughly below average for the three.

5K Training: Day 25

Today was an UGLY running day. Again, I was inside because of the rain/cold weather. Really, Colorado--what ARE you doing here? But I don't blame the treadmill for this one. I blame Mother Nature's monthly gift. It was awful. I was feeling ambitious again so I started running 5 mph. I only made it to about 8 minutes before I HAD to reduce down to 4.3 mph. Then I finished out the 15 minute run. Then I walked for four minutes (3.3 mph) and then ran another five minutes at 4.5 mph. And then walked another five minutes for a total of 30 minutes of cardio.

That was just BAD. Let's hope Sunday's run is better than that. Oh, and then I did 3 sets of 10 push-ups. PUSH-UPS ARE THE DEVIL. :)

Also, here are the calorie totals for this workout supplied by several sources:
Pedometer: 172 calories
Treadmill: 228 calories
DailyBurn: 254 calories
MyFitnessPal: 251 calories

That's not too bad. Usually the spread is a couple hundred calories. I'll just stick to logging the MFP one then. Cheers!

Look How Far I've Come...

And how far I still have to go.

Since I'm pretty sure I'm going to be cancelling my Weight Watchers plan in the next week, I wanted to have a picture of the progress I made along the way. I lost 26 lbs in 11 months, which is not very good. Granted, there were several times when I was off the diet for weeks at a time, and taking that into consideration, I averaged about 0.5 lb a week.

But now I'm ready to take thing seriously. I turned down McDonald's fries today--I never thought that was possible. Usually, it's like "well, just one!" but I didn't. Go me.

5K Training: Day 24

30 minutes on stationary bike

2 sets of 15 dumbbell curls (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 dumbbell rows, each arm (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 tricep extensions (10 lbs)
2 sets of 15 bench press (10 lbs)

2 sets of 30 catwalk pins
2 sets of 15 kettlebell swings (4kg)

2 sets of 30 crunches
1 set of 100 oblique crunches

I'm still struggling with which amount of calories is burned. The machine says one thing, i.e. 189 calories, but when I plug it into MyFitnessPal, it says 330 calories. That's a big difference! Usually, I just add a little more to the machine's total. I'd rather allow myself less than more.

5K Training: Day 23

OH LAWDY. Two friends from college came to visit me last night, so this morning before they left, we went and had breakfast at Subway. I've never been much of a morning eater, so my breakfasts normally consist of a cup of cereal and Silk. I thought I was going to implode after eating that Egg White & Cheese Flatbread (though it was REALLY good).

After they left, I wallowed on the couch for an hour before I decided I could complete my run without vomiting all over the gym. And being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided today was a good day to amp up my speed to 5 mph. HAH.

Regardless, I completed the 15 minute run, going a little over 1.25 miles. Then I did 25 push-ups for the hell of it. I think I felt bad for eating that big of a breakfast.

Also, after one day of being on MyFitnessPal, I think I already like it better than WW. Their database is bigger, I can track whatever nutritional values I deem necessary, and I don't have to worry about stupid points and flex points and activity points--ITS JUST FOOD. I'll probably give it til the end of the week and then decide if I want to cancel.

5K Training: Day 22

XT day:
30 minutes on stationary bike, level 5
2 x 15 reps dumbbell curls (10 lbs)
2 x 15 reps dumbbell rows (10 lbs)
2 x 15 reps tricep overhead extensions (10 lbs)
2 x 15 reps bench press (10 lbs)
2 x 20 reps of catwalk pins
2 x 15 reps kettleball swings (8 kg!)
2 x 25 reps crunches
50 reps of cross-body (oblique) crunches

I have a feeling my legs are going to HATE me tomorrow. But they're fat so they deserve to be in pain. SEPARATE THUNDER THIGHS! :) I also made a MyFitnessPal acct, because once again, I'm looking for a way to NOT have to pay for WeightWatchers every month. Bitch is poor! We'll see how it goes.

5K Training: Day 21

THREE WEEKS COMPLETE. Hot damn. I never thought I would be running more than a mile at a time. I remember when I first started running--it was a struggle for me to run for 5 minutes. And now I run for 20 minutes, probably feeling better than I did when I finished 5 huffing and puffing.

Today was the long run: 1.5 miles. Considering Wednesday when I ran for 20 minutes, I ran 1.48 miles, I figured it would take me about the same. I upped the speed just a little bit, to 4.5 mph, and finished 1.5 miles in almost 20 minutes exactly. Unfortunately, I was stuck inside on the treadmill again since its been raining for three days straight, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Plus, I got a few stray glances from a ginger. HEYO.

I need to figure out what I'm going to do when Arock & Drew are here on Tuesday morning: should I run the full 20 minutes or do sprints? Either way, I'm probably going to have to get up early to do them. Bleh.

5K Training: Day 19

Another XT or walk day. I decided to switch it up a bit by biking for 30 minutes instead of walking. I took it real easy though. Then I did the usual but I added 30 reps of bench pressing 10 lbs. I thought I did too much tricep work on Wednesday, so I took out the tricep extensions on the bench and replaced with bench pressing.

I'm also starting to get pissed off at my weight loss. I don't eat fast food hardly ever (maybe once a month), I work out at varying levels 6 days a week, and I stick to my daily point allowances almost every day...yet I haven't lost weight in months. I was okay with it at first, chalking it up to different reasons everytime; but now I've been following some people's weight loss blogs, and they are losing TONS of weight by simply not eating fast food and working out 3 times a week. HOW IS THAT FAIR!?

Eff.

5K Training: Day 18

Well, the weather didn't improve, so I was seriously dreading today's run. When I used to run inside during the Winter, I got bored after like five minutes, which meant that 20 was going to be a bitch. Luckily, there was something on the television that caught my interest (making legislature to keep people in the Peace Corps from getting raped and then blamed for it). Also, I noticed when you're not about to die from lack of breath, it's easier to keep yourself entertained while running inside. Just another plus of training.

Anyways, I ran for 20 minutes (4.4/4.3mph) on the treadmill, which told me it was ~1.48 miles. Oddly enough, my pedometer almost agrees: 1.47 miles. Either way, this is the longest I've run and I feel BALLER to have completed a mile and a half without feeling like death at the end. Even though I do run pretty flipping slow... I was doing the math in my head; when I run 3 miles, it's going to take me 40 minutes. UGH.

But that's a worry for a later date. :)

5K Training: Day 17

Today is a gross day. It went from being 80s and sunny, to 40s and rainy. Thank goodness today is one of the days where I go to the gym. Tomorrow isn't supposed to be much better, but hopefully it will clear up so I don't have to run on the treadmill...

Anyways, I walked one mile (~17 minutes and 15 seconds) at 3.5mph and 1 incline. Then I did lots of arms because I noticed I have old woman flab and I'm not okay with that. Tank top weather is soon approaching and I would like my arms NOT to jiggle when I move. I did 30 curls, 30 extensions, 30 rows, and 30 extensions in the row position (okay, so I don't know what they're called....). Then 30 kettleball swings, 50 crunches, and 50 cross-body crunches. There was a man next to me doing kettleball swings at the same time, only his kettleball could have crushed mine to pieces. Oh well.

5K Training: Day 16

Well I survived. It's amazing how much of a process running actually is. You have to build up the muscle in your legs so that you can run farther distances, but you also have to build up your lungs to allow you to BREATHE while you run farther. But it's not just a give and take between those two things; it's also a mental process of telling yourself that you CAN run that far. Seriously, it's a lot of work to push yourself while running.

Today I ran for 18 minutes and 2 seconds. I had been running a fairly consistent time of 6 minutes per loop, so as I approached the end of the third loop I realized I was not going to make it under 18 minutes. Therefore, I broke out in a dead sprint and just barely went over. It was close.

Pedometer says 1.28 miles. 3 loops times 0.44 miles = 1.32 miles. Either way, it's the farthest I've run continuously. Woot!

5K Training: Day 15

Ah, the start of Week 3.

Walked for 20 minutes (1 incline, 3.5 mph)
30 reps of tricep
30 reps of curls
50 crunches
50 cross-body crunches
30 reps of 4kg kettleball swings

My legs STILL hurt from the kettleball swings on Friday, so i figured I should just keep going at this point. Tomorrow marks the first time I try to run more than 15 minutes. WISH ME LUCK.

5K Training: Day 14

WHEW. I can't believe how wonderfully amazing it is outside right now. When I checked the weather at 9:30, it was already 70+ degrees and sunny. Although I'll admit, it was a little deceiving, haha. As you know, today was the "mile" run so I mapped a loop that took me down to Asbury and then back up to Buchtel (~1.02 according to MapMyRun). I would say after running up the hill to Buchtel, I noticed that the wind had stopped and I was sweating bullets. So while it was nice to start, after a while 75 degrees can be a little HOT to run in. Oh well, I'm not complaining. I'd rather be hot that freezing cold, right?

Anyways, my "mile" took me 13 minutes and 47 seconds. Again, I'm not sure who to believe, the website or my watch. Pedometer marked it as 0.99 mile. DAMN THE INCONSISTENCY.

Oh, & I still didn't lose or gain any weight. This is getting ridiculous. I think my scale is faulty--but it also could be my sore legs. I think when muscles are sore, they are heavier. I also think I just made that up, but it sounds logical to me.

5K Training: Day 12

25 minutes of walking (3.5 mph/1 incline).
30 reps of dumbbell curls
30 reps of tricep extensions
50 crunches
50 cross-body crunches
AND I SPICED THINGS UP A BIT: 50 reps of kettle ball swings using the 4kg. Probably wasn't a very good idea since I can already feel the inside of the thighs getting sore, but tomorrow is my rest day so they can recuperate then.

TODAY IS BOOT SHOPPING DAY! In a few hours, I will officially own a pair of cowboy boots & be a Colorado-an. :]

5K Training: Day 11

This is starting to get really repetitive because nothing new is happening with my runs. YET. After this week, I'm sure there will be a lot more complaining because next week I push past 15 minutes AND the long weekend run is 1.5 miles. YEAH-FREAKING-RIGHT. Let's hope I feel more confident after running 20 minutes, or if I can...

Anyways, ran another 15 minutes at Veteran's Park. I've started to doubt my pedometer's trustworthiness again. Usually, it's about 0.07 miles off so I just add that to the total at the end of my run, which is what I've been doing for my Vet Park runs; the watch would say 1.06, so I would make it 1.13 but now I'm wondering if the watch's distance was accurate. One loop is 0.44 miles. I run about 2.5 loops, which WOULD make it about 1.06. TRACKING DISTANCE IS SO CONFUSING. Ugh.

Anyways, I take back all my estimated distances from my previous runs and substitute 1.06/1.07 miles in their place. Damn.

5K Training: Day 10

WALKING DAY: 30 minutes on the treadmill (1 incline/3.5 mph) and then 50 crunches, 50 cross-crunches, 30 reps of tricep extensions, and 30 reps of dumbbell curls. I forewent the legs today since I got to walk a little longer than normal.

Last night, I talked to Kirsten (the one who just ran the marathon) about how to process with the timed runs coming up next week and what's the best way to jump five minutes. Her advice was basically not to stick so strictly to this training plan like it was for a grade; if I felt like shit one day, only run 17 minutes. If I get to 17 minutes one day and feel great, keep going. She also suggested that some of my run days could be used to speed train instead of distance, like if I just felt like walking to the gym and running instead of going to the park. In that sense, I would run for a short amount of time, like a minute, a lot faster than I normally run, then walk for a few minutes, then do it again. Run five sets of fast minutes or something, which could be useful.

May the 4th be with you. (hah, Star Wars humor....)

5K Training: Day 9

Now we're into week 2 where the daily run goals are just 15 minutes, which is pretty easy considering that's what I ran all last week. Ha. Again, Veteran's Park, 2.5 loops for about 1.13 miles. Today was a beautiful day for a run. It was 60 degrees and sunny, with a nice cool breeze. Uh, Colorado, you're amazing.

I was thinking about what I'll do next week with my runs since they are supposed to be 15-20 minutes. I'm not sure I can just up my running time by 5 minutes, so I might run like 16 minutes on Tues and then 18 minutes on Thursday, so then the week AFTER that (God, I'm thinking way too far ahead...) I should be able to run 20 minutes, theoretically. Anyways, just thinking aloud I suppose. If you have suggestions, lemme know!

5K Training: Day 8

Well first of all, congratulations for Kirsten for completing her first marathon in four hours. I love watching the finish line for races, not because it motivates me to run, but because these people have accomplished something amazing, and I enjoy being part of the crowd that cheers them through the end.

As for me, I'm accomplishing less amazing things. Today was a walk/XT day, and since I was running a little behind this morning, I only walked for a mile (17:08 minutes, 3.5/3.6 mph/1 incline) on the treadmill of death. The belt kept getting stuck so it would slow down, then speed up. Eff that. Then I did my normal curls/extensions (30 reps), 50 crunches, 50 cross-crunches, and dumbbell squats (2 sets of 15).

I was a little peeved when I didn't lose any weight last week, but I'm blaming my new training schedule--more working out than usual so my muscles might be big and sore. Hopefully next week will be back to normal.

5K Training: Day 7

Since yesterday was my rest day, today is technically day 7. The goal today was to run a mile, which was pretty simple except for the fact that we're heading up to Fort Collins today to watch Kirsten run here marathon. Basically, I got up at 6:40am, didn't eat breakfast or drink coffee, ran a mile up and down University, came back and minimally stretched my legs, hopped in the shower, and here I am with 8 minutes to spare until Emily & Heather show up. WHEW. I'm still sweating; I'm not sure if that's still from the run or the hot shower or the rush.

Anyways, today's mile took me 13:02 to complete, which is a little faster than normal for me, but I did have to sprint through some crosswalks with a few seconds left. Regardless, I'm ready to go cheer her on & eat bagels. Mmm. (How lame do I sound running 1 mile at 7am while she started running 26.2 at 6:15am?? BUCK UP NOLL.)

"Run, Bitch, Run."