It's here!!

I am so excited!! Katie's Garmin got here for me to try for a few weeks. Of course it came after my run this morning and right as I was walking out the door. So now I can't wait for my run on Monday to test it out. It's gonna be dangerous for sure as I already know I am probably going to want one. I will have to settle for my mapmyrun app for now ;) I'm pretty sure I am gonna use both of them and see how they compare.

I love Katie's blog by the way. She has lost 120 pounds and is maintaining it. She's so real, and crazy enough to send her Garmin across the country and even into Canada for absolute strangers to try. I read her blog every day :0)

So a funny thing happened on my run on Thursday :0) My app told me me average pace was 16:23. Um hello? Who am I? Running that fast. I was super excited that my 3 mile run was done in 49:14!! And it said my first mile was done in 15: 24. I mean did I break it? I really had no idea that I was even running that fast.

I honestly thought it was a fluke. 

Until I went running today.

I get back home and logged on. My app told me my average pace was 15:37 (!!!!) and that my 3 mile run was done in 46:55. And I even ran a mile in 15:00 even. Now for real. Once again, I didn't even think that I was running that fast. And today I even was running around the track at the middle school. (They were having a 5k race at the park I normally run at, a boat/rv/camping show at the second park I would have started at, and a pet adoption at my 3rd option. Keep my away. I will bring home an animal!! So the track it was.)

I'm really just quite shocked. I mean even from one run to the next, I seemed to have taken off almost 3 minutes. I mean, I know I have lost 25 pounds this year. And yeah. I have to keep telling myself that's a lot. But I have never been able to imagine running a 15 minute mile. I go back and forth over whether I want to maintain it for a while or just press on and try to keep running faster. I mean I know I did get some cross training in this week, but seriously. Does it help that fast? I don't know, LOL!

And since I'm being quite random in this post, I will just also tell you that I did 4 of my 6 planned workouts this week. I count this as quite a success :) I managed to run 2 times and do 2 other workouts. I'm happy that I was able to get some workouts besides running. It's nice to be able to work out at home sometimes too. Even if the bike killed me ;)

I think I will stop here for tonight. I have other thoughts swirling in my head, but I am going to keep those for tomorrow :)

A stay home day

Today was a stay home day :) As we like to call it, a day where I don't have to go to work or church :) I took today off of work because 1) we didn't have kids today. It's conference week, so they aren't there. And I had trade time I needed to use. Woo-hoo. I am glad I decided to use it all in one day so I could finally recover from the wedding. I was supposed to get up and get the boys ready for school, but one of them was sick, so my Mom ended up staying home too. Bonus! I got to sleep in! I stayed in bed until after 9. It was glorious :)

So after I ate and let my stomach settle for a while, I went and did my run that I had postponed from Saturday. It ended up starting to be quite windy, but that sort of worked to my advantage. Today was the last interval running that I get to do before I start the last week of just running for 30 minutes. So that means this week I am going to do 4 runs. And I have already mentally prepared myself that I won't be finishing 3 miles in 30 minutes, so I am ok with the drop in mileage :)

But today I finished 3 miles in 53 minutes! I had to look up on sparkpeople how long it took me to run my last 5k. It took me 58 minutes and 39 seconds. Now today I didn't do that last 10th of a mile, but hey. It wouldn't have taken me 5 minutes for sure! I am very impressed than in a year I have managed to cut off 5 minutes of running time. I was passing points earlier in my run today. I got to the spot to where I normally start running and had to walk a little farther before my run started. So I am even getting faster when I walk :) It averaged out to an 18 minute mile today. I was very excited. I had figured for sure I would be slower because of all the crap food I ate this weekend, but my friend who runs told me it was probably because I had more carbs and sugar in me :) So hey. I guess we will see what happens tomorrow when I start my last 3 runs of walking for 5 minutes and running for 30 and walking for 5.

3 more runs and I will have finished this program. Something to cross off of my list! Can't wait!

I did what?

Oh my gosh. I still can't believe I actually did this, but when I got home from doing my C25K run today and checked out my stats on my fitbit, I realized I had done a 17 minute mile.

Ok, so that's like seriously taken about 3 minutes off of my mile!

I started at the 2 mile marker today, and started my 5 minute walk, and by the time I finished my first 12 minute run I had just touched the 3 mile marker. Yeah. I knew I was sooo close so I booked it right at the last two minutes of my run. And I can't really run all that fast. I was definitely a bit wheezy after the run today. So then after turning around after about halfway through my 3 minute walk, I made it back across the 2 mile marker with about a minute to go to the end of my 5 minute walk after my second run. So all in all it was about a 2.25 mile run in 38 minutes. Equals 17 minute mile :0)

And to top it all off it was windy. Not the 45 miles hour gusts like yesterday, but it was pushing me a bit. Which I am sure helped on the way back ;)

I continue to amaze myself with the things that I have been able to accomplish running. I didn't think I could do the program without repeating weeks, but I have. I didn't think I could run a mile that fast. But I DID. I don't even remember how fast I could run a mile. Probably because I didn't run. I always remember a 20 minute mile. But yeah. 17? Am I gonna run that fast every time? I don't know. It was a little on the uncomfortable side while running. But I'm sure it will get easier.

A while back I started on a list of reasons to lose weight. At the time it was 111 reasons because that's how much weight I needed to lose. Of course I haven't come up with that many yet. I think I have right around 40, so I need to get going on that again. Because who knows...maybe I have crossed some things off without even knowing it.

Oh yeah. And I need some goals for March! This upcoming week is going to be crazy. My friend gets married ONE WEEK from tomorrow. And I still have some stuff to do..so forgive me if I don't post a whole lot between now and then. I will of course still post my picture on Wednesday, but I am not making any promises of many other posts :)

Couch to 5K easy run?

I think somewhere I have crossed a line. I have gone from Oh I could never be a runner to Oh that was an easy 12 minute run. 

Um Hello?!?!?!?! Really?

I started week 6 of Couch to 5K today. A 5 minute warm up, 12 minute run, 3 minute walk, 12 minute run, and a 5 minute cool down.

I winced a bit right before the voice told me to start running and said a quick little Jesus Help me prayer. And took off. And I kept going, and going and going ;). And by the time he told me to stop I had run for 12 minutes. I wasn't breathing incredibly hard and it felt good. And I walked for 3 minutes turned around and started over. It was kinda crazy good.

I don't know what has come over me LOL!

I get to do this two more times this week and next week the 12 minute run increases to 3 times. We shall see how easy it becomes then. And the next week is the week I start to run 30 minutes at a time!

But at this point I am not really all that worried. I feel like I have looked the fear of running in the face and told it who was boss. (That would be me, by the way) I am no longer really afraid of running for weight loss, I actually enjoy it a little bit now. I am going to have to come up with some amazing playlist for when I just want to start running without the c25k program telling me when and when not to run. I mean by no means is my 5k going to get done in 30 minutes right now. But in 37 minutes I had done 2 miles and that's pretty stinking good for me!

I texted my friend after my run and told her of my "easy" 12 minutes runs.

It's official. I am a runner...

Couch to 5k week 4

Eeeeek! Ok you have no idea how excited I am about my run this morning. So good in fact that I am going to tell you. :) The only bummer of a thing was it was blowing wind about 15-20 miles an hour at times. I mean for real weather?!? Last week it was raining, this week it was windy..next week it better be sunny! Because I don't want to keep wearing all these layers LOL!

Back to the run...

I tend to hit the track on Saturdays so I don't have to invade my grandparents house so early. Well today it wasn't super early, it was close to 9:30. I did let myself sleep in a little today. I got up at 7:00..because well you know, that's sleeping in ;) I had been checking the weather and it said it was going to start being windy around 10-11, so I thought I was going to be safe going early but it was windy when I got up.So week 4 is walk for 5 minutes, run for 4, walk for one (repeat 5 times) and then walk for 5 to cool down. I can generally walk around the track once in 5 minutes, and I have noticed the last couple of times I can go a little farther. So I basically get half a mile done just by warming up and cooling down :)

So at any rate today I crossed two miles right as it was telling me I was done for the day! Meaning as I was running the four minutes I came pretty darn close to running around the track once. I actually did it the first time through, but the next four times I slowed down just a bit. But still today I went from running a 20 minute mile to running an 18 minute mile according to sparkpeople :) Which makes me a happy girl. Now I want to see what it is next week when I am running for 8 minutes at a time!

I still have to figure out my fitbit and my stride though. I know that I did 2 miles at the track because I went around 8 times. And when I got home to check out what the fitbit said I did it said I did two and a half. At a pace of a 14ish minute mile.Which would be all exciting, but I didn't do that LOL!

What else are Saturday's for?

I always have the best intentions of updating the blog early..but that doesn't seem to happen too often :) Except on Wednesdays when I am just so excited to show you my picture of the scale!

Today I had every good intention of cleaning my house for the bridal shower that I am having here next weekend for my friend whose wedding I am in. Ok. Well really the MAIN goal was to get the Christmas Tree out of the living room! Yeah. We have become one of those people. Who leave the tree up forever. I mean really. We are just really good at pushing things off till the last minute. Like how much time do I have until I absolutely have to do this? kind of people. So since we didn't want a tree in the living room next Saturday, today was the day. And I am happy to report that it is now downstairs in the storage room with the rest of the Christmas decorations. And the rest of the house is still a mess. Don't you hate that? I got parts of each room cleaned that I needed to. So I guess I can't say it was an utter failure? Just that I would have liked to have gotten more done than I did.

Because.

I had to do my Couch to 5K training. Happy to say I finished up week 2 today. And I ran outside at the track at the middle school. And it was cold! I think it was around 32 degrees? I started off cold. I only wore one layer. I knew I was going to warm up soon enough. So I got started. I began to realize that I am starting to get farther when I run. Now this in fact might be only in my little head, BUT, nonetheless I can make it walking around the track in 5 minutes. So when I made it about 3/4 of the way around the track jogging I got a little inwardly excited. And last time I ran at the track. I did 1.5 miles. This time I added a 5 minute run/walk session and finished 1.75 miles. I actually just went around the track one more time and finished off the two miles. My fitbit said that I did 2.5 miles. I played around with it today to try to set my stride. So hopefully next weekend when I run at the track it will be a little more accurate? I might have to do some more playing with it. I was really excited when I looked at it today and it told me I did 2.5 miles in 40 minutes. It came out to an almost 16 minute mile. But I knew it wasn't true since I had counted the laps at the track for 2 miles. But still. I did good :)

I am already trying to find ways to be running outside more. I think it's going to be staying lighter enough for me to actually go and run at the track right after work. Part of me feels bad because I told my grandparents I would be coming and using their treadmill. But the other part of me wants to be outside! I run faster. I was able to do 2 miles in 40 minutes. Now I know that doesn't seem like a big accomplishment to some. But it is to me. Since having my knee surgery a couple years ago, I haven't quite been able to get back to a 20 minute mile. I look forward to shaving some more time off my mile. And I know it will happen as I lose more weight.

I never thought I would be one to like, let alone secretly love running. I already had fleeting thoughts the other day on a day I wasn't scheduled to run that I should go for a run because the weather was nice :)


What's your favorite thing to do on a Saturday?