My First 5k!

Some photos from my first 5k – the Race for Hope DC! It was so well organized, there were a TON of people there! Before the race, they had all of the survivors of brain cancer/brain tumors walk past all the runners to the starting line, it was really touching. I am sure that some day Jackson will be among those survivors!

Here’s a view of the crowd from the starting line. If you squint, you can see the Capital building!

Here I am! It was so humid that my hair was frizzy before we even started running.

With my friend Mary who was nice enough to get up early and run with me! Mary’s been running a bit longer than I have, she just ran the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler last month. She was also nice enough to go slooooowly and stay with me and my bum ankle!

I managed to run about half of the race, but after that my ankle hurt way too much, and I kind of hobbled the rest of the way. But, I made it across the finish line!  I won’t embarass myself by disclosing my time… suffice it to say that it was much slower than I’ve been running 5ks around the neighborhood recently. Oh well! Hopefully my ankle will heal quickly and I can run another race soon. There’s one right down the street on June 6! 🙂

SO SAD!

As you may know, on Sunday I am supposed to run in my FIRST EVER 5k race! That I’ve been training for since JANUARY!

But.

It is not to be.

I fell and sprained my ankle while gardening this afternoon. The same ankle I sprained (much worse) last May that had me laid up all summer.

Now I feel like this:

I am a sad, sad, sad blogger. Not only can I not run in my 5k on Sunday, but I can’t exercise at ALL. Well, I guess I can do sit-ups. How fast do I have to do sit-ups to get a good cardio workout?

The only plus that has come of this is that I realized in the past I would have turned RIGHT to the pantry to soothe my sorrows… and I have NO desire to do that! (Though I did weep into a glass of red wine. Just one though.)

So, maybe some of my new habits are sticking! I just hope my ankle heals before I get completely out of running shape and I have to start ALL OVER again. That would make me an even sadder blogger.

At least my wonderful hubby made some delicious black bean and salmon tostadas for us for dinner! And now he has gone to retrieve us a movie from the Red Box. So the weekend isn’t a total wash.

I’m going to the chiropractor tomorrow (previously scheduled appointment). I wonder if they treat ankle sprains?

Question to other fit/health bloggers…

WHEN do you all find time to blog?! By the time I work all day, go to the gym, come home make dinner and lunch for the next day… I’m so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open! I try spend a little QT with the husband and then pretty much fall into bed. I can’t fathom how those of you with kids do it, let alone keep up with a blog. I am super-impressed. I clearly need lessons in time management. Maybe there’s a chapter on that in Mary’s new e-book!

In other news, I would like to share what I saw on Tuesday morning when I stepped on the scale. Ahem. ::clearing throat::

(are you paying attention??)

I saw… THIS:

Can I get a WHAT WHAAAAT?! SEE THAT FIRST NUMBER? That’s a one. 1. o-n-e. That’s right my friends, I am officially in ONEderland! For the first time in… at least two years! And this time… I’m sticking around. Additionally, this puts me squarely within 10 lbs of my darling husband. Muah hah hah. 190, I’m COMING FOR YOU!

ALSO. On Saturday, DH and I went for a run on the track at the high school near our house. I’m using the track to wean myself off the treadmill and on to road running. It was a gorgeous morning! Slightly overcast, about 65 degrees. I decided to test out my new Nike+ (due to some technological difficulties… I do not have a graph to show you. Sad, I know. I hope to have this remedied ASAP) so I ran a lap to calibrate, and then took off, wearing my fabulous new running shoes (Asics):

Snazzy, eh? I went to Potomac River Running, recited my litany of foot/ankle issues, they watched me run on the treadmill, had me try on five or so pairs of shoes, and I walked out with these lovelies!

Anyway. Saturday. My run.

My goal was to run two miles (that was the farthest I’d run consecutively on the treadmill). Well, I got to two miles… and felt great! So I kept going! I ended up running… get this… 3.5 MILES! That is literally the farthest I have ever consecutively run, ever. In my entire life. All 28 years. It. Was. AWESOME! I was on top of the world when I finished. Granted, it wasn’t FAST. (39 minutes) But I ran the WHOLE THING! So, I am now much less concerned about finishing my 5k on May 2. And I might be contemplating a 10k in the fall. Maybe. Shhh.

Heartbreak and Hope

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m running my first 5k in May – The Race for Hope.  The race is a fundraiser benefiting the National Brain Tumor Society and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure. I’ll be completely honest, when I signed up for the 5k, I did so because it was the one that worked best with my C25K training schedule.

A few weeks ago, though, I started reading the The Dundon’s Nest. It’s a blog written by a mom in my area. She and her husband have two adorable little boys – Jackson is 2 1/2 and Mason is 4 months. In January, she noticed that Jackson was having trouble with his balance, so they took him to the doctor and then to Children’s Hospital here in DC.  An MRI revealed a parent’s worst nightmare – a tumor on Jackson’s brain stem.

Jackson is a HUGE Washington Capitals fan, and tshirts designed after their logo are for sale at CafePress to raise money for his treatment. I ordered one, and then I emailed his mom, Kristin, and told her that I was running the 5k and that I’d like to do the run in honor of Jackson. Luckily, she was totally on board and sent me some of her favorite Jackson photos to share with everyone. Here’s the precious little boy who I will be running the 5k for:

Jackson and the whole Dundon family have been so brave and positive through this struggle. They are truly inspiring. He has gone through chemo and lost his hair, and this Thursday he has a follow-up MRI to see how the chemo is working. Please keep them in your thoughts on Thursday!

If you’d like to support Jackson by donating to the race you can do so by clicking here.

You can also join Jackson’s Facebook Support Group, or donate directly to his recovery fund:

The Jackson Dundon Recovery Fund
c/o Kerry Donley
609 N. Pickett Street
Alexandria, VA 22304

A Sunday kind of love…

Sooooo weigh in this morning. -0.5. Not quite as exciting as LAST weekend… but a loss is a loss, right?  I feel like I am being taunted by the 25 lb mark.. Ohhhh hooo here, have 24.2… now, 24.8! Gah! Once I’m past 25 lbs lost for two consecutive weeks I’m treating myself to a massage – I can’t wait!

I did W7D1 outside yesterday morning – my first outdoor run! Gotta say, for all the whining runners do about how running inside is… running outside is not what it’s cracked up to be.  First of all, it’s warmed up considerably from a few weeks ago, but it was still about 45* when I went out. My lungs were NOT pleased with the huffing and the puffing of the cold air – that hurts! I have no idea how the people who run through the winter do it.  Second, hello hard pavement! Yeow, do my shins hurt this morning after that. I’m taking an extra day before my next run to let them heal. The last thing I need is chronic shin splints! I got all 25 minutes of running in, though not consecutively, I admit. I hope it gets a little warmer soon. I might try the track up at the high school next time, I figure it’ll be easier on my shins. But I have to get used to road running sometime soon – my 5k in May is ALL on roads. Any pointers on how to ease myself in??

After my run I went to lunch with my dear friend and former roommate, Leah. She and her hubby are expecting baby #1 in July! It’s a boy! I am so excited for them. She looks great and is really loving being pregnant. Leah is one of my WW role models. Back in college/right after, she lost over 70 lbs, and has kept it all off! I meant to take a cute photo of her with her baby bump, but I totally forgot. 😦

This morning I woke up bright and early (ok, more like 9:00) to hydrate and eat in time for an 11:00 Bikram class! The heat was definitely more tolerable this time. I enjoyed it so much, that I took the dive and bought a 15 class pass! So you may be hearing a lot more about my Bikram activities. I’ll try to get a photo sometime of how crazy sweaty I am when I come out of there.

I’m going to go pick up some Chinese take-out in a bit for DH and I to enjoy while we watch the Oscars tonight. I’d like to see “The Hurt Locker” or “Inglourious Basterds” win Best Picture… but really as long as it’s NOT Avatar, I’ll be happy!

Have a good Monday everyone!

Finished Week 6!!

Today I went to the gym and completed W6D3 of the C25K training – I ran for a full 25 minutes! At the beginning of January, I could hardly run for 90 seconds! I love this program! Albeit, I’m not terribly FAST yet… but we’ll work on that.

In a good routine

This week has been going pretty well. On Monday I swam for 40 minutes and yesterday I did W6D2 of my C25K training, plus the nautilus weight machines.  Yesterday’s run was MUC better than Sunday’s. There were two ten minute runs and I was able to increase my speed on both of them and felt great. Taking today off, and doing W6D3 run tomorrow – I can’t wait! It’s a full 25 minute run straight through, so I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited. I think that’s the most I’ve EVER run. Ever.

We had a ton of leftovers so not doing a ton of cooking this week. DH did try a turkey sausage and sauerkraut recipe yesterday, but it was kind of gross, unfortunately! I DID try a new veggie this week – brussel sprouts!

I sauteed them with some EVOO and then splashed balsamic vinegar on them at the end and let it caramelize a little. It smelled amazing!

Looked pretty yummy, too! The flavor with the balsamic vinegar was great, unfortunately, the insides of the sprouts were pretty tasteless. Like plain raw cabbage, kind of. Not terrible but not great. DH wasn’t terribly impressed, either. The outside layers of them were really yummy, though!

At my gym I participate in something called FitLinxx. It’s a computer program that is hooked up to all of the weight machines and tracks what/how much you lift. You also manually enter all cardio workouts you do. You get points based on your workouts (I don’t know the exact formula.) The gym has a bulletin board where they post monthly results by age group… and GUESS who was NUMBER ONE for 20-29 year olds in February!

Yep, that’s yours truly on the top of the list! Full first name and all. And my sister in law is number five! She’s working on getting in shape for her wedding in September.

Now, of course, I just need to make sure I STAY there in March!

Fantabulous weigh in, and other Sunday goodness

I hopped on the scale this morning and was completely bowled over with what I saw… 208.8 – that’s a 4.4 lb loss! And much lower than any of the peeks I took during the week 😉 I considered chalking it up to water weight from Bikram yesterday, but I drank a TON of water all yesterday and last night so I can’t imagine that is the entire explanation. This WI means I have lost 24.2 lbs, and I’ve passed 10% of my starting weight! Of course, I got a tsk tsk message from Weight Watchers about losing too fast when I tracked my weight… but whatever, this totally makes up for last week’s measly 0.8 loss.

For breakfast I had a Thomas Light Whole Wheat English Muffin with peanut butter (3 pts) and dried apricots and prunes (2 pts) to get some protein and sugar in me before hitting the gym.

Then I put together a grocery list on my iPhone with the GroceryIQ App (It’s awesome, it has way more functionality than I need, and much more convenient than crossing things off a piece of paper when you’re in the store. Plus, it saves your favorite items!) and headed off for my Sunday gym/grocery store run. I did the W6D1 C25K workout on the treadmill at the gym – 5 minute warm up walk, 5 minute run, 3 minute walk, 8 minute run, 3 minute walk, 5 minute run, 5 minute cool down walk. Not gonna lie, I was not feeling it this morning. Even though last time (W5D3) was a full 20 minute run, and this was only 18 minutes, split up, I just felt so tired and like I could not catch my breath the whole time. My HR was consistent though, so it must have been mental. Also, my hamstrings were killing me from yoga yesterday! Hopefully I’ll be back in the groove for W6D2 on Tuesday! After that I did my circuit on the weight machines, which takes about 35 minutes, for a total of 6 APs. Here’s my sweaty mug post workout glow, as inspired by Jen over at Prior Fat Girl:

Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll snap one after Bikram next week. That’s a special glow in a category all its own. After the gym, I hit the grocery store. I worked this week’s menu around stuff we already have in the fridge, so there wasn’t a whole lot to pick up. Hopefully my running-pants-clad arse didn’t scare too many people. Then I dashed home, put the groceries away, showered and plopped my bum on the couch to watch the USA vs. Canada gold medal hockey game! Now, hockey is not a sport I typically follow, but what a great game! And while I’m bummed that the US lost, I have to admit, I think it’s pretty great that Canada won gold in their sport on their home turf.

For dinner I heated up some left over black bean burgers with low fat cheddar sprinkled on them, and organic ketchup, and sliced up a sweet potato for baked sweet potato fries. Yummmm. I love my husband, but I think one of the strangest things about him is that he doesn’t like sweet potatoes! Who doesn’t like sweet potatoes?

Also, to my dismay, our Girl Scout cookie order was dropped off today… dum dum dum. I’m hoping since DH works from home he’ll eat most of them before I can be tempted. Hah. Also I’ll stash them in the freezer where a binge is less likely. My mouth is watering just thinking about the Samoas…

Week 2 Update

Well it’s the end of my second week on the Challenge. So far, so good. I went to the gym 4 times again this week, and today I started Week 2 of the Couch to 5k program! I’ve personalized the program a bit for myself, spreading it out from 9 weeks to 14 – doing two workouts a week instead of three. The other two days I swim 🙂 And to keep myself on track, I registered for a real honest to goodness 5k race on May 2! By then I should be able to at least run the distance, even if not terribly fast.

P.S. TEAM CONAN!