A little hope for my June Half-Ironman?

Since I have been basically crapping out on any meaningful training program (ie I am SOOOOO inconsistent!), I went ahead and looked up the refund/deferral process for the Raleigh Half IronMan coming up June 1st.  Basically, there is no deferral and you only get $75 of the $225 back if you cancel by April 17th.  I am super annoyed with myself and feeling pretty defeated. 

HOWEVER!  Today a gal in a Facebook triathlon group I belong to posted a 12 week HIM training program.  I am just over 14 weeks out, so this could actually work - although, Lordy, will I have to COMMIT.  I have decided to follow this plan until April 17th and then evaluate whether or not I think I can finish the HIM.  I have somewhat of a base so it's not completely out of the question and I really, really don't want to punk out on this race.  My goal is to FINISH and I have 8.5 hours to finish.

Today I did W1 D2 of C25K with no problems.  Looking to lengthen my intervals and just condition myself to keep running after a walk break. 

Am I crazy?  We'll have the answer by April 17th.

Day (I've officially lost track) of 100 (AND Princess Half Recap List!!)

Yesterday I added weight training so within weeks, I will be ripped like Linda Hamilton in Terminator!!  While I'm super excited for these excellent muscles, today I feel like I've been beaten in all my tender places.  :(

I also ran yesterday and since I have been somewhat inconsistent and have been wanting to increase my intervals, I re-started Couch 2 5k from Day One.  It was not terribly hard, with 1 minute run/ 90 secs walk, but I pushed hard on the intervals and did the whole thing.  Recall from previous posts that I peter out at halftime, regardless of the length of run.  I was pleased that I didn't give in to that little voice that tells me I can just skip a run interval and pick back up again next time.  I never do.  It's all walky-walky after I cave in.

 

Now then, you are invited to consider my big dilemma!  I was in Japan during the Dumbo Double Dare sign up.  To be honest, as much as I wanted to do this race, I just didn't see it in the cards for 2014 so the sign up day came and went without much thought.  Also, I was in Japan so I was pretty consumed with thinking about any food I could eat other than rice.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from RunDisney saying I was signed up!  What?  Yes, well, that guy who's not really my boyfriend signed me up without my knowledge/consent/permission the day it went on sale.  So, I have mixed feelings because on one hand, DUMBO DOUBLE DARE - YAY!! And on the other, airfare and hotel and park tickets, oh my.

Also, if I'm going all the way to Disneyland for a race, I might as well do that Coast to Coast thang again. I was thinking of doing Wine & Dine anyway.  My question with this is that our big local race, City Of Oaks, is the weekend before W&D and I hate to miss it again.  Last year, I volunteered, but it was my first half and it holds a special place in my heart.  I could probably do both on back to back weekends, but do I want to?  It seems like you need a burning fire in your heart to want back to back halves.

 

Speaking of RunDisney, it was just Princess weekend and man, I missed not being there.  I think I will try to be a charity runner next year.  I've got to figure out a way to do more Disney races without selling my much-needed organs.  Here are some 2014 Princess Half Recaps.  I'll add more as I find them of  if you have one, please leave it in the comments!  (Here's mine from Princess 2013.)

Disney Princess Half Marathon Race Recaps - 2014:
Rachel - Undercover Diva: A Sitcom
Amy - The Point One Will Getcha

Amy - Mom's Magical Miles
Catie - Thank You For Running
Amanda - Disney Everyday
Tabetha - I Run On Water
Karen - Losing The Glass Slipper
Heather - Run Heather, Run: 26.2 or Bust
Meranda - Fairytales and Fitness
Jennifer - JennFaulk.com
Erika - Running Toward My Happy Ending
Amy - The Relocated Tourist
Bonnie - 'Cuse Runner Girl
Lauren - Will Run For Disney
April - Run The Great Wide Somewhere
Kara - Makeup, Cupcakes & Running
Julie - Run.Walk.Fastpass.Repeat.
Hildarys - Running Through Theme Parks
Patty - Margaritas, Miles & the Mouse
Laura - Run. Write. Rejoice.

And tell me, what should I do about my fall race schedule?  I only did my race goals for the first six months of 2014!!

Day 5 - Day 10 of 100 - Snowed in with comfort food!

I love North Carolina.  I like most of the people, despite the huge influx of Yankees and I love the weather.  I am a hot house flower and the summers of over 100 degrees and humidity into 90% are a little slice of tropical heaven to me.  I even run in it and much prefer it to running in the cold.

Imagine my horror at the SNOWMAGGEON that nature inflicted onto NC last week.  We get snow (an inch is a lot) maybe twice a year.  The world as we know it stops for days - no school, no leaving the house, sometimes no power... it's a zombie apocolypse minus the zombies.  But, last week, it came so hard and fast that Raleigh was literally gridlocked for hours. 

It went from a few flurries at noon to 1 inch sticking to the roads at 12:30pm.  My daughter was at a friends and we tried to go get her, but traffic was at a complete stand still.  She ended up stranded there until the friend's Yankee dad (with front wheel drive - I guess this is good?) and Vermont driving experience brought her home on Friday.  People were abandoning their cars all over town and this photo of Glenwood Avenue happened just about 7 miles away from my home.  Yes, that is a car on fire, and no, none of that pic is photoshopped.  No one could make it up that hill and people just left their cars and walked to hotels.  CRAZY, right?

I should not have let the kids being home from school for FOUR DAYS interfere with my training.  But, I did.  UGH.  I did do my Chemistry so I am perfect for my 100 days on that goal.  Working out, not so much.  And then it was an endless buffet of comfort foods while we were snowed in.  Mac and Cheese?  Oh yes.  Valentine's chocolates?  More, please!  How's it going on the "no microwave popcorn" front?  Very poorly indeed.

And speaking of Valentine's Day - it was depressing.  Like, "you are alone and no one will ever love you, you middle-aged fatso" depressing.  Worse still, I was halfway expecting flowers or a card from my semi-boyfriend in California, but got NADA.  No recognition of the day at all.  To be fair, we are not talking much lately, but this pretty much cements that he's not what I need or want in a partner.

So, as the snow melts and I see the beautiful Carolina blue skies again, I gotta shake it all off and get back to putting training as a priority.  No more excuses.  I may or may not be prepared for this Half Ironman in June, but I have until April 17th to figure that out.  I will lose about $200 if I pull out, but I just can't go into something that big under prepared.  I don't know... gotta figure it out.

I WILL run today.  <--- my commitment to you.  Because you read my silly crap and I really appreciate that!  So for you, I will run today.  Maybe tomorrow it will be for me, but today it's for YOU.  Thank you for leaving comments and encouraging me.  Thank you for making it through the posts that aren't all chucklefests.  Just thanks. 

Day 4 of 100 - I have 47 days to lose 25 lbs!!!

PANIC!!  PANIC!!  PANIC!!

PANIC!!  PANIC!!  PANIC!!

 

Ok, here's the deal.  I bought a too-small dress for an event because, well... Kohl's.

 

 

You know the plan:  Lose weight to fit into a certain outfit by the upcoming event.  Except, other than a week spent barely surviving on rice, I've been eating like a longshoreman.  I made Chicken Artichoke Lasagna with more cheese than Wisconsin produces in a calendar year PER SERVING, and then proceeded to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it was gone.  When that was gone, we ordered Jett's Deep Dish Pizza and had left-overs.  It's easy to limit intake at one meal, but when EVERY meal is garbage, it is not helping!

 

 

AND on top of that, THESE LITTLE DEVILS:

So, yeah.  I feel like a bloated, cheese-filled land beast with Thin Mint crumbs all over my fat little face.  I don't actually have to lose 25 lbs, but 10-15 would probably get me into the dress without full body spanx. (Which I am NOT above, so don't judge me!!)

Now then... what am I going to do?  I can definitely stop eating cookies (since we are out).  And I probably can make more sensible choices for at least 40 of the next 47 days.  I can log back into My Fitness Pal and track, track, track.  Should I try something like Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred?  I've heard great things about that from the freaks on MFP.

Here's the driving force behind the dress efforts... I get to wear these shoes with it:

Hot, yes?  Worth it??? 

And, oh yeah, I rode an hour on the bike trainer today.  That should help!







Day 3 of 100 - Running Objectives

I am so, so very slow.  Even by run/walk standards, I am pokey.  My biggest challenge is maintaining the run/walk intervals - especially during the last half of the run.  It doesn't matter if it's 3.1 miles or 13.1 miles... I peter out to a straight walk about halfway in.

I recently learned the difference between goals and objectives from a wonderful and very smart businessman who happens to own the largest balloon manufacturing company in the world.  He told me that goals are something you work toward, but never achieve because there is no end.  (Weird, right?)  But no, because a goal is something like"better fitness" or "running faster" - things you can move TOWARD but at what point can you not go farther?  There is no measuring this kind of "goal".  But an objective has a measure and a timeline.  For example, I'd like to run (or even run/walk) an 11 minute mile by June 1st.  It's blah-blah-business-people-talk to be sure, but it does help me realize that my previous goals post had no objectives, just ideas on what I'd like to move toward.

So, objective: 11 minute mile
Timeline: by June 1st

This will be a significant speed increase and will require some serious work.  I have read all sorts of articles on how to run faster, so I have some idea of where to start.  My main challenge is that my training pace has always been my race pace.  I get no adrenalin bump on race day.  I race like a I train - no faster and sometimes slower!  Keep in mind that I have never really busted my ass trying up to this point in my running career.  This is something that I'd definitely like to change.  I'd love to have that "left it all on the course" feeling at the end of a race instead of the nagging regret that I could have given more.

Today I did run/walk for 1 hour at a 14:05 pace to give you my starting point.

Any tips for running faster for a chubby pokey little puppy like me?  Is an 11 minute mile too ambitious for a 4 month time frame?

Day 2 of 100 - Bike Trainer Comes Out Of The Box

I started my 100 Days yesterday with a 5 mile run/walk.  I decided my 100 Days Project was going to be dedicating time to "working out" - meaning a run, a bike ride, and/or swimming.  I did it this way because I'm not certain I can swim EVERY DAY and I don't want to set myself up to fail and thus have a reason to just give up the whole thing. 



 

My plan is to alternate run/bike days and swim Monday through Friday.  This means I start swimming tomorrow when I am in the throes of my horrid little monthly visitor.  Not only am I bloated and cranky, but I am pretty uninterested in shimmying into a bathing suit when I have gained some pesky LBs since the last time I was swimming regularly.
Today I set up bike trainer and tried out my new bike shoes!  This led to the immediate rediscovery that I am highly uncoordinated!  The trainer has been sitting in a box since Christmas so it was good to get it out and actually use it.  The shoes I just got a few weeks ago, along with new pedals.  I had to install all that today as well.  I'm a regular Bob The Builder today.

I also am doing Chemistry for 100 days.  I went to Wake Tech Health Campus on Friday and got all re-signed up.  Yesterday I checked my log-in and realized I had forgotten whatever crazy nonsensical password they had assigned me and searched for the papers that told me my log-in info to no avail.  Today I was able to just reset my password (I blame post-Krispy Kreme Challenge hangover as the reason I didn't just do this yesterday) and when I got in, I discovered that none of my progress from last semester was erased as they had told me it would be.   So yay!

What?  It's chemistry, right?

Any one with a bike trainer have any tips?  (Especially in getting used to clipless bike shoes??)  And I appreciate any and all comments that will help keep me accountable as I do my 100 Days!!!  SHAME ME INTO BETTER FITNESS!!!

Check out my sweet new shoes & pedals!!

Race Recap - The Krispy Kreme Challenge

12 Doughnuts - 5 Miles - 2400 Calories - 1 Hour

Or, since we are not crazy college students:

1 Doughnut - 4.87 Miles (Garmin) - 200 Calories - Just under 1.5 hours

The Krispy Kreme Challenge is a fundraiser for the NC Children's Hospital that started 10 years ago on a dare with a bunch of NC State students.  Run from the NCSU Belltower down to the Krispy Kreme on Peace Street, eat a fresh dozen glazed doughnuts, and run back in under a hour.  Nowadays, it's turned into a major event and fundraiser with nearly 8,000 runners.  It's mentioned in many lists of the top cool things to do at colleges nationwide and it's definitely an iconic event here in Raleigh.

Enough history!  I can sum this event up in two words: Costumes and Puke.

I know you are so disappointed that I didn't take photos of the puke.  I did, however, take lots of photos of the costumes!  What's that?  You say you prefer costume photos?  Well, ok weirdos, here they are:

Uhhhh... dead mice in kilts?

NCSU Wolfpack, er... wolfdragon?

That cop from Reno 911 and some lady donuts

Banana Boys

Gladiators

Breaking Bad



Elvis

Vikings

PacMan

We did not dress up.  I wanted to, but my darling 15 year old son is in that teenage phase where everything your parent does is mortifyingly embarrassing.  So, yeah.  No costumes.  This was Wil's first race!  If you read this blog at all, I think you know that I trained for crap.  Wil didn't train at all.  So we did 1/1 intervals and still ended up finishing ahead of several thousand people. 

The start was cold - 38 degrees or so and we did a lot of waiting before the 8:30am gun.  (Review some of those costume photos now that you know how cold it was! YIKES!).  We were expecting rain, but thankfully, it was only overcast.  The race started promptly and so did Wil's teenage bowels.  Poor guy had the trots, big time.  The 2.5 miles to the Krispy Kreme (and only Port-O-Potty stop) were a blur of grimaces and curt nods when I would ask if he was doing ok.  He is a trooper, though, and handled it like a boss.  I also got several marvelously detailed descriptions of the poop situation as only a 15 year old boy can provide.  It was sad yet hilarious.  Sadlarious, as we call it in my house.

Finally, we made it to Krispy Kreme!



Wil gets his dozen

Selfie while Wil waited in the Potty line



Nom nom nom



Me & Wil in front of Krispy Kreme at the halfway point.

All the empty boxes!  So many carbs!!

 There were not a lot of spectators, but we did see this cute sign next to a guy playing trombone:

It says, "Please Don't Puke On Me!"

We did see a good amount of vomit, so the more squeamish may want to skip this race.  The Finish Line was pretty much a puke-fest.  Again, yerwelcome for not providing THOSE pics.

This race was loads of fun!  As always, I wish I would have trained more (reoccurring theme here at LFTL) buuuuuut, it really was mostly a "fun run" and loads of people were flat out walking.  They allowed strollers and wheelchairs to be pushed, so the only people that cared about time were way up front anyway.  There were no corrals or anything in the way of dividing people by pace, so we just headed to the back third of the pack, and we were just fine.  We were passed and we passed folks.  No major problems with attitudes since everyone was there for a good time.

So proud of my son!  He says it's his first and LAST race, but we'll see.  That lure of the Finish Line is a siren's song too sweet to forget.

Could you eat a dozen doughnuts in the middle of a 5 mile race?  (and not puuuuuuke???)

How I Lost 5 Lbs In A Week!! (aka My Trip To Japan!!)

I've been ignoring my wee little blog lately, but for a pretty good reason.  I've been in exotic and exciting Japan!  And, since this is a blog about exercise and weight loss, I'll bring it home by saying that I lost 5 pounds over the 7 days I was in Japan.  I could explain this revolutionary new diet plan, or I can just show you some highlights:

This is a delicious baked potato completely ruined with squid and squid liver pate.

This was the hotel breakfast: seaweed with beans, ginger root in "sauce", salad with something decidedly NOT ranch dressing, pork sausage that was a little off, fruit and rice.

Lunch one day - a collection of mystery foods.  I did eat the sushi and there was potato salad in there.

This is a tiny Pepsi bottle being served in a tiny little glass.  I guess they don't believe in Super Sizing beverages.

I love noodles, but octopus is chewy.

My quick lunch option on two of the days.  Sandwiches from the local 7-11.  I didn't eat the whole thing.

So, needless to say, I lived on rice all week:

I am lousy with chopsticks so only about half of the food I wanted made it to my mouth.

 

Also, apparently people in Japan walk everywhere as well.  When I would ask how far something was, I was usually told in terms of how long a walk it was.  Since they all seem to power walk like something was chasing them (perhaps the mama squid?), a 15 minute walk was easily a mile.  So I walked.  A lot.

Don't get me wrong... I had a blast.  But eating was not something I did a great deal of.  Fortunately,
the complete flip-flop of time zones (Japan is about 14 hours ahead of EST where I live in NC) meant I was so tired that I was too nauseated to eat much in the first place.  Believe me when I tell you the first thing I did after clearing Customs was to buy a gigantic tea from McDonald's and a bag of white cheddar popcorn.

Here are some pics of some of the cool things I got to see between teaching classes and prepping for those classes:

Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atsuta_Shrine)

Kaminarimon Gate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaminarimon)

Sensō-ji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensō-ji) - This tower is said to hold some of the ashes of the Buddha.

Tokyo Skytree - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree) This picture was taken at 450 meters up!

Mt Fuji (taken from the train window between Nagoya and Tokyo)

I had a wonderful experience, but I am happy to be home.  Now I can start my 100 days towards getting serious on training.  I have a race next Saturday - the Krispy Kreme Challenge and I'm glad I'm not running for time because I would not be so speedy.

I have to say that 5lbs gone was a welcome surprise and I'm looking forward to losing more before squeezing into my silver dress at the end of March!