I Just Wanted To Be Athletic - And Now, I Am! (comments welcome)

[corinnak]

Here I am on day 8. Very exciting, I know. Last night, we went to CiCi's pizza buffet, and I hadn't even been saving up all day for it. I did go into those "flex points" a bit, but overall, I was really impressed with my ability not to eat everything in sight. And it's nice to leave a buffet not feeling totally gross. I'll have to remember that in the future.

I don't know why it is, but it always seems like my weight goes down after a "splurgy" day and stays the same when I don't touch those flex points. Go figure. WW says don't weigh every day. Somewhere else, I think I read that weighing every day is good. I think I kind of like the regularity of weighing every day BUT only tracking once a week. I'm always too curious.

Ran 5K this morning - it was nice. A little nip in the air, even. I am looking forward to wearing my running jacket again! It was a pretty good run. And I ran up the hills, too. I have decided that it's not the little hills that bother me - it's the ones that go on for 1/2 mile.

It feels good to be back in the groove, like I've got my head on straight again.

 

[kimwim8]

Congrats, C. I'm so proud of you! Once this trip is over, I am going to follow your lead!

 

[corinnak]

Sooooo.....true confessions time, for anyone besides Kim (she's been in on this since mid-August):

1. I've not been counting points this past week.
2. I haven't run in a week.
3. I was on a super-secret-surprise-last-minute-trip to WDW so some members of my family could experience Pleasure Island - especially the Adventurers Club, before it goes the way of...Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
4. I was one of those lucky ducks who got a brief but fascinating tour of the Cinderella Castle Suite on August 31.
5. That's all. I think. Oh, I forgot. I got to ride the new Toy Story Mania, too.

My weight is about the same as when I left, so I actually call it a victory, as there were quite a few instances of indulging in things that I wouldn't ever eat while following WW.

The kids just started back to school - one yesterday and the other today, so I'm getting back to a normal kind of routine, which is so nice. And what do I do? Go out with a friend for lunch today. Ghengis Grill (pick your own stir fry) and no dessert. So I feel like I am still on the SANE side And tomorrow I will resume with the counting of the points. Seriously, it feels like that:

 

[kimwim8]

haha. I love that I was somewhat involved! I personally am SO glad you were there! It was great texting with you, and of course that awesome ride in the super stretch limo! Thanks also, for the heads up on the castle tour. That was simply amazing!

Back to the grind, my friend!

 

[corinnak]

Yes, Kim, it was a conspiracy! It's tough coordinating in WDW, but at least we'll always have Steven Tyler. Circa 10 years ago, perhaps? I am thinking he looks scarier now.

I'm so glad you got in on the castle tour as well. What a rare opportunity! Unless it becomes an annual thing. Even then, though, what are the odds of having a trip booked for that time and hearing about it before they ran out of slots??

So yeah, back to it. I must go log my hastily eaten breakfast.

 

[postesf]

You guys got to tour the castle??? NO FAIR!

Thanks for stopping my journal!!! Today is in fact the start date! We'll see how my run (now walk) days go. I may have to change it up a little. I decided to scale back my expectation and go with a walk/run program instead of the other way around. It's my first Half. I want to make it to the finish and feel good about it! I want to enjoy it!

I hope your training goes well! Now that the kiddies are back in school hopefully can find a routine that works for you!

Have fun!

Stacie

 

[corinnak]

Thanks for the note, Stacie! Your plan to scale back sounds very wise. I agree - the main goals need to be finishing and having fun.

It was a really lucky thing to get to see the Cinderella Suite. Kim and I could hardly believe it. It would have been fun if our times had been the same, but alas, we were lucky to get 4 slots apiece and at a decent time of the evening. I could not have brought the kids to a 2am tour. Just couldn't do it.

So far, so good with the training. There is a LOT of x-training on the plan, I must say! I didn't do any yesterday, but I'm thinking I may do something along the lines of weights or Wiifit. And I'll probably count Kung Fu when that starts up. As I was running today, I was thinking how last year it seemed like I always had Kung Fu and a run on the same day. Today's run felt better than Monday's run overall. I always feel better, too, after I pass that 2 mile mark, for some reason. Not sure if the endorphins kick in or what. Today was the "form" workout. I don't know that 4-30 second sprints are going to do that much for me. I just ran them on the kinda-sorta-flat part before I get to my house. I'd run 30 seconds, kinda fastish and then walk back to the beginning. Used the timer on my watch, which was kind of nice. I saw a hawk flying around with some black birds - crows? grackles? could not tell. I don't think they liked that hawk at all. And then I saw three military planes of some sort flying in a formation. That was interesting, for sure. My long run this week is slated to be shorter than my "regular" runs have been. I guess it starts climbing after this, though!

Wow, that was rambly.

 

[kimwim8]

You know we love your ramblings!!

Just wanted to "officially" wish you good luck with your training here, where it all began. I know you're gonna totally ROCK that 1/2 my friend. I'm so glad I get to follow along with you during your journey.

 

[corinnak]

Just back from a wedding, so what do I do? Gotta update the ol' journal, I guess. Today was the third run, the long, easy run. It turned out to be neither one.

Did I mention that I donated blood on Wednesday? I donated blood on Wednesday. And I was really missing those RBC's today. It makes a difference. It really, really does. It felt like I was slow, tired quickly and on top of that, my heart has been acting a little strange and fluttery again. I had this checked out last year and the imaging and everything seemed to indicate everything was OK. I don't know if I'm having more after the blood donation or if there's something bigger going on. I feel it sometimes at rest, and the first half of the run, I'd feel it too. When I feel my pulse, it's like it skips a beat and then the next one is a BIG beat. So I walked a good bit of the run today. And the rest, I ran slowly. I am going to call on Monday and get an appointment to get a referral for a stress test and whatever else they do.

Next week, I'm going to add in some very wimpy cross training as well. At least that's the plan.

 

[corinnak]

Thanks for the note, Kim - I need all the luck I can get! Oh, and this isn't really where it all began - that would be the old C25K thread, right? Good times.

Glad you "enjoy" my ramblings.

 

[kimwim8]

Thanks for the note, Kim - I need all the luck I can get! Oh, and this isn't really where it all began - that would be the old C25K thread, right? Good times.

Glad you "enjoy" my ramblings.

See, you have a MUCH better memory than I do. Yes, we started in the C25K thread. I'm seriously getting old.

I don't only enjoy the ramblings (I prefer to call them stories ), but I actually look forward to them.

 

[corinnak]

Wow - it's been almost a month. That's BAD. So to recap....

I am a few weeks into the Stacie Half Marathon Training plan. Thanks Stacie! It's going OK. Except tomorrow I'm supposed to run 45 minutes and it's supposed to be 45 and rainy. Which sounds kind of coldish to me. Gotta figure out what to do there.

I also donated blood at the end of September and wow - it sent my heart all aflutter. Really, I just ended up with this weird light feeling in my chest and when I feel my pulse, I'm skipping beats. Kind of weird, so I make an appointment with my doctor. I had something similar last year and had an EKG which turned out to be just fine. So a week later, I go in and the doctor refers me for a Holter monitor - to record my heart's activities over 24 hours. Says they'll call me. Long story short, another week passes while I wait for them to call, call and check and ultimately decide to have the office fax over the referral again. And then a week after that, I finally got the monitoring done. I should get the results on Thursday. It feels like this is taking forever. Meanwhile, I've just been blithely continuing on with the training. So far I have not had any pain nor have I keeled over - probably it is nothing serious, right??

I feel like it is such a common refrain. I'm back to WW again. It's this goofy on-again-off-again thing. And I know that to make it work for me long term, I really need to be on-for-good. For better or for worse. And there is still part of me that doesn't love that. Doesn't want to believe that I need to be ON program the rest of my life. I'm not in love with it, but I will say that when I'm on, I feel good. It's a well worn groove now, it's just, for some reason, hard to get into it. Once I'm in, I'm good. But when I get out again, that's when it gets bad. I almost feel like I need for it to be NOT a choice. When it's NOT a choice, I can do almost anything. When my son had a soy allergy such that even a small amount of soybean oil in my food would go through to my milk and give him little hives, I became a non-soy vegetarian. Not easy, but not a choice, either. Earlier this month, I said I felt like the choices were to either keep trying over and over or to give up and be fat and content. For the sake of my continuing health, if nothing else, I feel like I need to keep on trying. And then keep on going.

Blah blah blah.

 

[postesf]

Hey Corinna! I can relate w/ the on again, off again thing. Sometimes I just want to give up, but in the long run and for the sake of our health, I guess we need to keep plugging along huh?

I'm glad the training plan is working out for you! Looks like it's going well! Keep it up! Are you mostly running? I've scaled back to walking for now.

I hope you get the medical issues worked out!!!!

Take care of yourself!
Stacie

 

[corinnak]

Well, I went to the doctor for the follow up today. The short answer is, I'm OK to run. The long answer is I am having premature contractions of the kind the doctor says are non-harmful. Evidently this is increased by 1. Caffeine, 2. Alchohol and 3. Stress. Sooooo, no Rum & Coke with my Father-in-Law, I guess! Seriously, I don't have a huge amount of any of those. I generally avoid caffeine, drink fairly moderately relatively occasionally (seriously, people, I have a 2 drink maximum...). Stress - I've never been LESS stressed in my life. SO that's mystifying.

BUT I read online that these can also be increased by Anemia. And THAT, my friends, I do have. My Hemoglobin and Hematorcrit are just barely at the bottom of the normal range, but my Ferritin level is a 4 and needs to be between 10 ad 120. Basically, my stores are low and I have been ordered to supplement. Hopefully I get that resolved and the heart thing gets resolved as well. It already seems better than it was, which is nice.

Stacie - thanks for stopping by! Yeah, we have to keep on keeping on, I guess. For our health. I am mostly running, yes - I don't know what percentage of the Half I will be able to run, but we will find out! I do take the occasional walk break on a hill or if it seems like I'm working tooo hard. But mostly running. Or Jogging, probably would be more accurate. That's how I log it at WW, cause they don't consider it running until you get to 9 mpm. Whew - not sure WHEN I might get to THAT as an average. Maybe when I have enough iron.

 

[mom2faith]

I am glad you are OK to run!!

I can't wait for more installments and to get to know you along this journey we are on.

Have a great weekend!!

Amy

 

[kimwim8]

Hey C! Just checking in as I wasn't able to talk to you last night and see how your appt went. I'm glad it's nothing major. I say, no worries about the causes he listed...but cut back on giving blood. Especially when you're involved in a training plan, you know?

Take care of yourself and I'm sure I'll talk to you real soon.

 

[corinnak]

Hey Amy! Nice to see you over here. It is such a huge relief to me that I am OK to run, I can't tell you! It would have been really hard to give up on the 1/2 marathon in January. More installments are definitely forthcoming.

Kim! Yes, I was out at Kung Fu all evening. It definitely gets us back on the late side for bedtime. The only thing to be done about that would be to give up on the weapons and sparring class, and apparently we are about to graduate to our next weapon (!!!), so I don't know that that's really an option. OK, I'm really a very peace-loving person, but the next one we get (we've got staffs now - staves?) is a big ol' knife that looks like a sword or scimitar. They look so flashy and dramatic in the forms, so I've been looking forward to that for a while now.

So yes, you're right, I think. I need to lay off the blood donation, especially during training season. I think the real issue here is that 1. Vegetarian, so I don't have that big ol' RED source of iron - not a problem under normal circumstances, BUT: 2. Mom of 2 kids - evidently pregnancy and lactation wears down the supply. 3. Considerable iron loss on a monthly basis . and 4. semi-regular blood donation. I should not be surprised that it has come to this, I guess.

So I bought my supplements today. I went to Target first and I found most of the things I needed there, but they had the wrong kind of iron. And in the wrong amount. SO I went to the nearby GNC and got the PERFECT iron supplement! Of all the things to get excited about. Anyhow, given that I already feel better than I did 2 weeks ago, I assume I've rebounded a bit on my own already, but hopefully I will feel even more energetic soon. I didn't realize, but it seems like those hills were extra hard not because I'd lost all my conditioning but because I'd lost most of my iron!

No running today - I'm going to do it on Sunday. I will find something to do today, though. DDR, Wii Fit, resistance bands. Something.

Oh, and the food is still going well. Logging everything in the WW online journal is the way to go. It feels good not to be eating like a crazy person addict, I must confess. At this rate, I'm on track to meet or exceed my "10 by Thanksgiving goal."

 

[corinnak]

So today I am thinking about the things I have to stop because they are the very things that got me into this heavy place. In no particular order:

1. Cereal as a snack food.
2. Ice cream as a snack food.
3. Seconds at meals
4. Eating the kids' leftovers
5. Chocolate Chips and M&M's as a snack food.
6. Eating things just because they are there and they taste good.
7. Eating past my comfort level.
8. Putting too much cheese on things.
9. Sugary dessert on a daily (sometimes every meal!) basis.

So are there any I've missed???? There must be at least one.

 

[corinnak]

Today was a 6 miler. And I thought it was going to be the first snowy run of the year - it was snowing for several hours earlier in the day. However, I waited it out and by the time I got out there - pushing 4pm!!! - the snow had stopped altogether. The wind was blasting away, though. They were predicting gusts up to 35mph. And let me tell you, those are COLD, but only when I was facing a certain direction. For some reason, parts of the run, the wind felt great, but sometimes, when I was running directly into it, it was kind of brutal. Even so, this run was a vast, VAST improvement over my past few long runs. I remember 2 weeks ago, I was literally dragging myself along the last mile. Today, I ran up all the hills and was OK by the time I got to the end of the distance. So, perhaps it was not excess of weight or lack of training that was my problem but rather deficit of iron???? It makes a girl hopeful, I'll tell you that.

Next week is the 7 miler, or, pretty much the Half-Half. Quarter marathon??? Anyhow, I'm having scheduling issues. Because DH was out of town this weekend, I decided to wait to do my run until after there was another responsible adult around. So I ran this afternoon and it was good, BUT that left me thinking I'd run next week on a T-Th-Sat schedule. But what I forgot was: Next weekend is my grandmother's 90th birthday party. And I'll be darned if I know how I am going to fit in an hour and three quarters worth of running. So I'm debating if I should do MWF and just do a shorter run on M, since I ran 6 today??? Or if I should to T-TH....and then, what the following Monday? Seems like a bad idea. Cause then when would my next "week" start? Wednesday? That's nutso. I KNOW that the theory is that if you miss a run, you miss it an you have to move on, but I just can't accept it when it comes to the Long Runs. Man, I need those miles and I feel like I'd rather have it be a day late than not at all, you know? Maybe I should "miss" Monday's run and then just hit Wednesday and Friday. This has got to be the boringest rambling of all time......

 

[postesf]

How are you on 6 miles already? I only did 5 Sunday... Ah, oh. Did I mess up? Now I wish I were at home so I could look at the fridge. I know I had 5 milers back to back.

I went back to my MfM plan and adjusted my weekly walks/runs. Looks like this starting w/ this week:

TUES
45 min
50 min
50 min
50 min
60 min
60 min
60 min
60 min
50 min
40 min
30 min

THURS:
40 min
40 min
50 min
50 min
50 min
50 min
50 min
50 min
40 min
40 min
REST

I know what you mean about your week getting off. I just always plan my LR on Sunday and plan the rest around that.

Can you do T-TH-Sun? Just an idea...

Glad you had a good run!!!

Stacie