Hakuna Matada - Jumpin' into June!

[RunRookie]

Thank you for inviting me into your community! It was so cool meeting Mike and learning a little about his journey and sharing the recent 5K race with him and Patrick (and Liz?). He has described this group to me and it sounded pretty nice to have a supportive community with a common interest in running. And I am a big Disney fan to boot so it sounded like a good fit.

My journey began last May when I decided to lose 160 lbs and live/eat healthier after being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I joined Weight Watchers and started down this path. In December, I was cleared to add exercise to my plan, after having lost 50 lbs just through healthy eating and portion control. So I decided to start by just moving more.

Being new to this sport, I know that I have much to learn. I started out just walking on the treadmill this January. By March/April, I was starting to jog and doing run/walk intervals. In May, I ran my first 5K -- the Weight Watchers 5K Walkit -- which I run/walked in 38:20 and took 2nd place in my age group. In the recent 5K, I ran the entire race and finished in 36:02. I was very excited about being able to run the entire race. And the medal was pretty cool!

So now, 90 lbs lighter but with 70 lbs more to lose, I am feeling great. My doctor has been tapering me off the meds for diabetes with the intent for me to be drug-free by early July! And I am going to keep on running!

My next events are a 10K in mid-August in Wheaton, IL; the Chicago AIDS 5K Run in October; and the Disney 5K & Donald Half Marathon at WDW in January 2012. The 13.1 is intimidating but I will be training for it starting in September. And I hope you all will give me some great tips to help me make the most out of my prep work.

I look forward to running with you and getting to know you all better. If you want to learn more about me, I have two blogs that I try to maintain. One is about my journey towards healthier living which includes my running logs (rickpeete.squarespace.com) and the other is my random personal blog (rickpeete.blogspot.com).

Thanks again for your warm welcome!

 

[windwalker]

Good morning fellow road warriors.

Welcome RunRookie, yes this is a good group to be involved with. Some of us run and some of us run and others do a combination of both. I'm purely a walker.

This is a rest day for me since I have to work early and also because tomorrow is the morning I have my group training walk with my race walkers.

Have an awesome Tuesday y'all.

Dave

 

[Hockeychic]

Welcome RunRookie!!!!!!! Thank you for posting about your journey!!!!

Mike did you mention TONGA TOAST!!!!!! No trip to disney is complete without Tonga Toast. I don't even think I know what else is on the menu there

How is everyone doing???????

Vicky and MIke congrats on your races this weekend. Vicky I would like to do that one next year but couldn't give up a race just up the road.

Yikes, it is later then I thought, got to get to work to pay for my race and disney addictions.

Oh we are booked at POP also 4 - 14th. Can't wait!!!!

 

[Lynn G]

Good Morning Team!

Welcome Richard!

Dave - Don’t know about Disney races next year, we haven’t talked about it yet. It is too bad they discontinued the Tower of Terror race because that is during our regular annual visit to WDW.

Emily - Good Morning!

Mike - Good Morning!

Kim - We are doing great! How are you doing?

AFM - We both did our exercise inside yesterday - never did rain, but wind was sure blowing all day, and it did look like it would rain any second! Today is sunny but still windy - we may do “wind training” again (laps around our block on the bikes). I got in 50 min on the spin bike and 50 min of Pilates yesterday.

Pixie dust to all who are in need!

Have a great day team!

 

[bunnyfoo]

Hi everyone! Oh gosh! I miss a day and I feel like I've missed a lot! PSA to keep drinking water! Even if you're inside exercising, extra water is never a bad thing

Rick - Thanks for sharing your story with us! Congrats on all the hard work you've done so far! And I am so impressed with the 90lb loss! Awesome! Our team bios are on the first page of the thread and if you want, I can add your races to our team calendar. Just let me know! I'm a runner and definitely not the fastest but for me it's all about finishing a race and being able to smile at the end

Lynn - Good job on the workouts! Sounds like you need some sunshine! But with all the rain, it must be good for your fruit trees. Glad to hear that you were able to find cover during the hail storm. Hail here never gets bigger than say a cherry but it still makes me nervous.

Kim - It's a pretty fun race! Maybe next year? They were also pretty generous with the post-race snacks. There were bagels, cookie snack packs, granola bars, apples, bananas and Vitamin Water. How are your run/walk intervals coming along?

Mike - I haven't decided on dates yet but will probably fly in on Wednesday. I was wondering what the preferred room meant. I'll probably stick with a regular room. I'm always nervous about flight delays and being bumped in the winter. I'm so looking forward to seeing you eat the double order of Tonga Toasts! I'll update the weight loss list tonight but keep up with the running and the weight will be gone before you know it! Do you cross train or go to the gym? I know your schedule is pretty hectic as it is...

Emily - Great work on the 4 miler, especially in humid conditions! Hope you're feeling better today

AFM - I had a training session last night and did a bit of leg work, lifting and some work with weights. I also did some different exercises like pushing a heavy sandbag back and forth across the gym floor. Reminded me a bit of the exercises they do on The Biggest Loser. I like the new trainer, he doesn't listen to me when I say "I can't".

I found out yesterday that someone broke into my reward points account and stole my points I was planning to use some of them for a Disney ticket in January and some for a new Kitchen Aid mixer. They're investigating but said it could take several weeks. It's more annoying than anything else and its hard to be patient.

Anyway, back to work! Have a great day everyone!

 

[RunRookie]

BunnyFoo - Sure! You can add my races to the calendar.

Tomorrow I leave for a youth conference in Minneapolis (after an early morning cardio workout at the gym). I am very excited about it -- it only comes around every three years. It will be held at Bethel University and they say there are awesome run and bike trails throughout the campus so I am stuffing some tech gear and shoes in my bags. I plan on running on Thursday and Saturday mornings (Saturday will be my long run -- 4 miles this time).

-Rick

 

[Motomiker]

Hi Everyone!

Rick~ Very Happy that you found us! This is a great bunch of people! Have fun at the conference, sounds interesting!

Vicky~ Glad that you like your new trainer! Sounds like he is doing a good job. A preferred room gets you closer to the main building. We were in the 70's building last year, which was right next to the foodcourt door. To me, it's not worth the extra $100 or so, I'll take the extra walking and spend the money on race shirts and pins. Plus, the preferred rooms can sometimes pick up the loud music from the pool area. They have scheduled things going on every night until about 10pm. Fun, by we have to get up early for the races!

Kim~ Yeah! I'll have someone to "bump into" while I'm there! I look forward to seeing you and Mike again!

Lynn~ I want you to know that it is really cool that you and Scott are keeping so active! Way to go! You are putting me to shame!

AFM~ This week I'm getting serious about crosstraining on my off running days. Probably bike riding on nice days, and weight lifting during bad weather. I ran 5.5 with a pace of 10:21. Really hot outside and I got caught in a rainstorm!

Have a great day! Mike

 

[RunRookie]

Question on Gear:

Is someone putting together an order for tech shirts or visors, etc. for the group soon? Just curious. I would love to 'represent' in August when I run the WindRunners 10K. If not, it's cool.

But I definitely want to show my 'colors' at Disney in 2012!

 

[MaryJ]

Wow! You go away for a few days, and all kinds of things change around here!

First of all, a big to our newest member Richard! Glad Mike invited you to join us. I met Mike while waiting for the start of the Wine and Dine Half last October. Looking forward to seeing him again in CA in Sept. I am a "wogger," which means I walk awhile and then I jog awhile. DH and I still haven't made up our minds about marathon weekend in 2012.

Dave...how about those early morning storms? Both Saturday and Sunday we had our alarms set for 5:00 so we could get out and get our long runs in before the weather turned beastly. Both days we woke up to thunder and lightning! We tried to get our run in on Sunday after church, but it was just too hot!! Quit after only 2.5 miles. Here's hoping for better weather next weekend as we are entered in a 5K in Evansville.

Vicky....so sorry to hear about your reward card issues. Hope they get it straightened out soon. Someone hacked into my Facebook account over the weekend, but they weren't very smart. They used what I must assume was their VISA card (because it wasn't mine) to buy poker chips for my account. So, I now have poker chips and I don't even play!

AFM...I am going to the ortho tomorrow, and for once it's not running related. I have been having pain off and on in my right wrist for years, and I have finally had enough of it. I've tried everything I can do on my own...icing, stretching, ibuprofen, wearing a brace, massage, even using the left hand for the computer mouse. I know that my hobby of knitting has a great deal to do with it, and I'm hoping that the doctor will send me to an OT. I read online where someone else with a similar problem saw one who made special knitting splints for her to wear while knitting.

I started going back to the gym on a regular basis a couple of weeks ago, but am going to be looking for a new trainer soon. My current trainer just graduated from college with a degree in Physical Therapy, and she sent me a text to tell me that she landed a PT job and starts on Thursday, so tomorrow will be her last day at the gym.

Sorry to have been MIA for so long. Hope everyone is doing well. Stay cool if you can!

 

[windwalker]

Yep, MaryJ we have had all the fun with storms we can stand.

Tomorrow is my group training walk and I'm hoping the storms take a break long enough for us to get our 6.8 miles over with. I've been pretty lucky getting my walks in between showers.

If anyone on the team is interested in race walking I can post some links to good training sites. Race walking is very effective for training at a high energy pace without stressing your knees.

Lynn I guess we will just have to find you guys somewhere else if your not going to be at WDW that often.

Everyone have a restful evening.

Dave

 

[es45]

Happy Wednesday, everyone,

Rick: Welcome and thanks for sharing your story. Great job on the weight loss and the running!

Vicky: Is this the rewards program through Disney Visa? Do you feel confident that you'll get your rewards points back? Keeping my fingers crossed. Re rooms: I agree with Mike that preferred rooms are not necessarily a good idea for early-rising runners (because of the noise).

Dave: Please posts some race walking links for me. My right knee is still swollen so I'm not able to run as much as I should be now. Perhaps I should try something else.

AFM: I need to lose 30 pounds. There, now it is in writing and you can hold me accountable.

Today will be 97 degrees (36 C?) so it was already 77 when I got up and the humidity is already at 70%. I'll run tonight when it cools down again. I see a lot of posts about high humidity and temps elsewhere so I really don't have an excuse not to get out there and run a few miles tonight. Going to the gym before to swim too.

Stay cool everyone!

 

[bunnyfoo]

Hi everyone! It's a rainy day here - I'm hoping it eases up by the afternoon.

Elizabeth - for your knee! I really like journaling for weight loss. Even though I'm the only one who looks at my food journal, I still don't like writing down snacks so I force myself to skip them. I really like using a site called Lose It!. It also has an iPhone app. I'll ask you about your progress in a couple of weeks. Make sure you're drinking your water, keeping low sugar and eating lots of veggies! No it wasn't a Disney Visa, it's a points program in Canada. I'd better get those points back LOL I'm 80% sure they'll give them back to me since it wasn't my fault that the account was broken into. Fingers crossed anyway.

Dave - Looks like we've gotten some of your rainy weather. How was your walk with your group? If you can post some walking links, I'll add them to the team info on the first page. I would be up for some park hopping after Kona!

Mary - For some reason, when you posted ortho, my first thought was an orthodonist I was thinking Mary has braces? I hope things go well at your appointment tomorrow and you're able to get a referal Someone bought you poker chips on Facebook! Too funny But it is a bit unsettling when you think about someone going into your account. Good luck in your search for a new trainer!!

Rick - I sent a message to Mel. She's the person who organizes the WISH shirt orders every year. I'll let you know what she says. I've added your races to the first page. If you want to put up a bio, add your birthday etc. Let me know! Don't feel like you have to do any of it if you're not comfortable.

Mike - Good to know about the prefered rooms. I'm with you - I'll save my money for food and souveniers. Keep us posted on how the cross training and eating goes this week

AFM - It was a rest day for me yesterday. I made some muffins since I had some extra buttermilk and bananas lying around. I can post the recipe I used, I tweaked it a bit. They turned out pretty good. I took one for breakfast this morning since I was in a rush and didn't have time to make a smoothie. I'm hoping the rain lets up so that I can do a quick 3 miler after work.

Have a great day everyone!

 

[Lynn G]

Good Morning Team!

Vicky - Beautiful day here today (yesterday was nice except for high wind). Our hail rarely gets bigger than pea sized, but that still hurts when you are out in it! Good luck getting your reward points back!

Rick - Have fun at your conference! Look for a thread on the wish board for shirt orders, they happen fairly regularly - can’t remember right off hand who does them, but someone else might.

Dave - It is not that we are not at WDW often, it is just we are not there for the races!

Mike - With all your races, no one could put you to shame!!!!

Mary - Pixie Dust for good weather next weekend! Good luck with your Ortho appt!

Elizabeth - Good luck with your weight loss!

AFM - Today one of the local banks had a breakfast in conjunction with “Ride a bike to Work Week”, so we rode into town and had breakfast, even though we were not riding to work. They had bagels, muffins, fruit, juice and coffee. Then we rode home again - 13.86 miles. It will be warm (hot) today after several very cool days. We are planning on going kayaking this afternoon.

Pixie dust to all who are in need!

Have a great day team!

 

[windwalker]

Great walk this morning with my group. We did 6.8 miles in 1:20:50, that's an average of 11:53 per mile. Real pleased since the first mile was slower to warm up before we picked up the pace and there were a couple of challenging hills on the route. Not sure how accurate it was but one of the walkers with a garmin clocked our pace for the last quarter mile at 8:45 per mile. Every week is better than the last so even though I'm being cautious I'm improving.



Link for walking http://www.racewalk.com/HowTo/Introduction.asp

Dave

 

[windwalker]

When you go to the link click on the pull downs at the top of the page for many pages of race walking.

Lynn maybe we can run into each other somewhere. We can start traveling more by next year since Sally is working full time now, probably lots of 3 day weekend trips till she gets vacation time built up.

Yes Vicky friday park hopping after breakfast sounds like a great plan.

I managed to get the yard mowed today between storms, even though it looks like it could any minute.

Dave

 

[Piglet24]

Hi Team!

Vicky- So what did your mom end up doing for father’s day? You must be losing fat if your clothes feel loose. Thanks for the PD! 13% sales tax!! Congrats on your first race of the season! It’s dangerous to have 5-7 year olds running the opposite direction. How’s the neck? Do you usually have a smoothie for breakfast?

Lynn- Thanks! I’m glad Taiya’s foot is doing fine. Do you know how she cut her pad? You guys are hard core biking in the storms like that! That’s great there was a shelter to take cover near by. It doesn’t sound like you guys have favorable weather there in any season with all the snow, rain, wind and storms you seem to have. The Ride a bike to Work Week sounds pretty cool. I love that they served breakfast if you rode your bike to them. How was the kayaking?

Emily- What shows do you Tivo? I hope the training is going well for you. I seldom get a Charlie horse, but I have woken up in the middle of the night with them a few times. I’m glad you made it through your 4 miles even though you weren’t feeling well.

Mike- Thanks! I don’t know about the pin. I thought when we registered it was an option to order each of the pins? I bet your flowers/greenery is doing really well with all that rain. Congrats on your 5k this past weekend! I’m glad your calf is ok. Have you had any more pain with it? DH and I are going from Tues 1/3-Sun 1/8/12.

Dave- That’s great Sally’s back is much better. Congrats to her on finally getting to start her full time work! We would probably be up for some team park hopping and rides after breakfast. Congrats on the awesome walk today!

Rick- Welcome to our team! Congratulations on all your weight loss and hard work so far! Have fun at your conference. I know Vicky e-mailed Mel, but they started a thread about it on the main Events page not too long ago, and she said she would be up to doing another order in the next few weeks, so hopefully she’ll tell Vicky they’ll be doing another WISH order soon.

Kim- Glad to see you’ll be joining quite a few of us at POP! I hope the training’s still going well for you! Are you going to do a RR from the weekend, or did I miss it?

Mary- I hope your ortho appointment went well and they were able to come up with a plan for your wrist.

Elizabeth- Do you have a plan on how you want to go about losing 30 lbs? Have you been to the Dr. about your right knee?

AMF, like Vicky said I was rear ended last week on my way home from work and 2 blocks from the office. I was completely stopped when the guy hit me. My neck and back were injured and I’m still trying to figure out the insurance to it all. My neck and back pain aren’t as bad now as what they were last week, but they still don’t feel back to normal yet. My goal is to get to a chiropractor, but I need to do some more research since I’m new to the area and want to make sure I go to a good one. I found out yesterday that the guy who rear ended me does not have insurance, but I am not surprised at all. The guy was cited with Careless Driving. Their process here seems to be quite a bit different than the last state we were in. I didn’t train at all after it happened and just ran again yesterday (3 miles), but I dropped my run walk intervals down to 3:2s. I’m probably going to keep them there the next week at least and see how that goes and then eventually move up to 4:1s and see how it goes. Thanks again for all the pixie dust and positive comments. It could have been so much worse than it was, but it was still the hardest I’ve ever been hit in a vehicle. I can’t imagine being hit at a faster speed.

Oh, and in other news, DH and I are reserved for POP 1/3-1/8/12. And, I found out I’m going to be at an out of town training the week before labor day, so I should be able to sign up for that half I’ve been eyeing since March.

 

[RunRookie]

Yay for open WiFi at conferences!

BunnyFoo: Thanks for contacting Mel about the tech shirts. Let me know what Mel says.

We just had a 2am fire alarm due to a gas leak from a line outside of my dorm. Ugh! We just got cleared to return to the dorm. So now we will see if I can get back to sleep. This will make for a slow morning... Oh, and did I mention it is raining here? Yeah, not fun.

On the Disney front, I got my reservations in for POP from 1/4/11 - 1/9/11. One more task completed!

 

[Hockeychic]

Good morning team!!!!

Rick: Ya for getting your resssies done!

Regina: We always stay at POP when we go to disney, I love it. Sometimes we are lucky enough to stay on a friends DVC points then we are at BWV or BCV but I love POP. So sorry to hear about your accident hope you are feeling better.

Lynn: I get tired just reading about what you do in a day.....whew...

Elizabeth: I would like to lose between 40 - 50 before marathon weekend, so I am right there with ya you can do it!!!!

AFM: Did a aqua zumba last night and althought it was fun I don't feel I got anything from it, I guess I will see later today how the muscles feel but It didn't feel like my heart rate was up at all.

DS was also in a car accident the other night, phones me on my way home from work saying "Mom I have been in a accident" Freaked and asked if he was OK, he was then the insurance broker in me kicked in and asked what happen, apparently a 84 year old woman was having a diabetic attack Kevin seen her coming and just put both feet on the brake to stop himself from going into a busy intersection he was at a stop sign. Fortunatley he was in the work vehicle and he was towing a trailer which took the brunt of the impact, the ladys car is a write off, fortunatley it was near my work so I went over to the scene but he was OK.

Off to get ready for work, have a great day everyone!!!

 

[bunnyfoo]

Hi everyone! The weekend is almost here! Yay! Wow! Looks like nearly everyone here is staying at Pop Century. Shouldn't we qualify for a group or team discount?

Kim - Yikes! I'm very glad that Kevin is okay. That must have been scary though! I've never heard of aqua Zumba before but it sounds like fun. I'm not quite coordinated enough for regular Zumba classes

Rick - Nothing like an early morning fire alarm to start the day. I usually go out running in the rain as long as it's not heavy rain and there's no lightning. Is there a gym at your hotel? Maybe you can get in some TM miles or do some crosstraining.

Regina - My neck's better but I realized that I can't really drive because I can't turn my head around as much as I would like. LOL I remembered this website yesterday - it's mostly for medical doctors but I've seen a few chiropractors from my area on there. Check out http://www.ratemds.com/ once you find a practitioner and see if they have any reviews. Another suggestion is to make a posting here (or on another running board) and ask people in your state/region to recommend a chiropractor. Glad to hear you're running though! Take it easy Yup, I usually make a smoothie for breakfast. I make it the night before because washing the blender is too big of a hassle in the morning. I'll post the recipe for you.

Dave - I'll get your link up on the team page! Thanks! Were you able to get your lawn mowed? And fantastic training walk! That's a fantastic pace! I sometimes struggle to run that fast!

Lynn - I called the rewards program back and they've sent my case to their fraud department. I'm going to call back next week and see if they've made any progress. The bike to work breakfast sounded like fun! Lots of people in Toronto bike to work but mostly in the downtown core. Again, congrats! You and Scott are really getting out there! How was the kayaking?

AFM - I did a short run last night. I was hoping for 3.5 miles but I had some pain in my left knee so I cut it to a 2 miler. I noticed I had changed my gait to accommodate my knee and was running more on the front of my feet which was causing my shins to hurt. I figured there was no point in getting in the miles like that. I didn't want a short run to screw up my weekend LR. I've got a quick 30 minute workout tonight and that's about it.

Quick question - when making Disney reservations, is there a difference between making them on the phone or doing it online?

 

[bunnyfoo]

I add a scoop of protein powder to mine and remove a tablespoon of oats. The recipe calls for non-dairy milk but I'd imagine you could use regular milk and have it taste the same. If you're not sensitive to dairy, it shouldn't make a difference.

I usually put all of the ingredients into the blender the night before because I don't have enough time to wash the blender in the morning. This makes just over 12oz. I find this keeps me full for several hours (9-1PM).

Sleepy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Smoothie​

http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/201...-cheesecake-verrines/?printthis=1&printsect=2

Vegan, Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free, Yeast free, Corn free

Ingredients:

• 1 cup non-dairy milk + 1/4 cup for blending – I used unsweetened almond milk
• 6 tbsp uncontaminated oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 1 tbsp cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
To be made the night before you plan on eating it, or at least 4 hours in advance.

Combine all ingredients in a glass container [I like to use mason jars and give it a quick shake] and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, pour ingredients into blender, add additional 1/4 cup milk, and process until smooth.

Top with cacao nibs + coconut