My First 5K!!

So I signed up for my first race! I will be running my first 5k next Saturday morning...a race called Negative Split. I had no clue what this meant, but on their site it says: "Running a "negative split" means to run the second half of a race faster than the first half." 

I have been training to run a 5k since the first week of May. I am now running for 30-33 minutes at the gym and feel ready to start running in 5K races. I also started taking two spin classes during the week for some cross-training. Holy workout!! I have never sweated so much in my life and I love it. I wore my running shoes to class the first my first couple spin classes, but my right heel hurt like the dickens, so I am going to start wearing my bike shoes to class and see if that helps. They are mountain biking shoes, but the guy at the bike store said to try them before investing in road bike shoes!

 The little helping to make a healthy smoothie!

 The new puppy...introducing our little boy, Buck!

Buck all tuckered out on the deck

Our garden is doing pretty good & we are already eating lettuce and spinich from it...yummo!

• What was your first race?
• Have you taken Spin classes...and did your heels hurt?

Just a day...just an ordinary rainy day

Today it is raining...again. It is also in the 50's which is quite cold for this time of year. I am thankful I bought my summer gym membership since on days like this I know I would be convincing myself it is too yucky outside to get exercise!

Here I am a few weeks ago with my sweetie Charles at a local air show. We have known each other since 10th grade when we met and started dating. We dated until right before the end of 11th grade when my family moved to Utah for a few years. Years...lots of years later we got back in touch and here we are today...thankful he accepts me for who I am and I love that he supports my quest to become a runner!

So this is what I do to keep myself motivated to hit the gym in the morning. I set out my clothes, shoes and gym towel each night so I am ready to jump out of bed...ok crawl out of bed & get ready. 

I bought a few of these magazines...one before I actually started running to keep me inspired. There is an Ipod there, but I don't use that right now. I use my iPhone and listen to Spotify radio during my runs.

Since I am still working on getting my out of shape legs toned, I was getting tired of them rubbing against each other...I found this stuff and thought I'd give it a try. It works pretty good. I tend to get down about my poor untoned legs, but I can see the changes already & that is keeping me going!!

My buddy, Nala, she is the most flexible thing...I am pretty jealous :) 

Tomorrow I will begin week 9 of my couch to 10K program....40 minutes of running. I have never run that long in one day...ever. This is pretty exciting for me to know that I am making my body do things it has never done before :) 

Rest Days

Me and the kiddo enjoying our day!

Today is a rest day for me. Now that I have been consistent with working out and running, rest days have become harder than I expected. It is almost like I feel guilty for taking a day off, but know my body needs to rest. I don't want to push it and get burnt out, or injure myself so early on in my journey.

Tomorrow's run will be my first at 30 minutes. I am a super slow runner at this point, but have been reading up on doing speed work and other exercises to do during the week so I can get a bit faster. I have been incorporating weights, the eliptical, and the bike into my workouts to change things up a bit so I am not only running.

I had no idea there was so much to learn about running. There are tons of blogs out there, advice columns and of course runners magazines. For now it is one day at a time for me...taking it at my own pace!

Trying out a food journal

I decided that it was time to get serious about my food intake and I started a food journal. I have tried online food journals before, but I tend to not keep track of everything like I should. I leave out some important things like all the sugary goodness I indulge in. So, having something I write in has worked better for me. I realize I do a lot of emotional eating. That has been eye opening for me to realize. I eat when I am feeling bored or upset. Keeping the food journal has also kept me from making too many bad food choices especially at night. I really didn't want to write down that I ate a huge bowl of peanut butter chocolate ice cream so I just didn't eat it. Instead I opted for greek yogurt.

The hardest part of eating healthy is that my boyfriend is a huge fan of sweets and keeps them in the house. It is so hard to keep my willpower so I stay away from it. I have resorted to putting the ice cream, cookies and baked goods of his in places where I can't easily see them.

Does anyone else keep a food journal?
How does that work for you?

Being honest with myself

So, it was time to take that before picture that I was dreading. Here I am at 146 lbs on my way back down the scale to my normal weight. I am looking forward to taking an after picture in the next few months!!

 I haven't wanted to admit that I gained weight during school, but it is time to face the music and get back to my healthy self. There has been an incredible amount of stress in my life over the past four years and now most of that stress is now gone and behind me. I have turned a new leaf in life and am excited to see what is in store.

Today I made it to the end of week 6 of my running program. I ran 22 minutes straight!! I didn't run very fast, but I didn't quit. My next run will be 25 minutes straight. My goal is to run a 10K at the end of this training program.

Here is a sweet card my parents sent me for my birthday. It came at a perfect time just when I needed to read what the card said. My parents are just too sweet!

Note to self

Today I woke up later than I should have...I laid in bed trying to go back to sleep not wanting to start the day. Tomorrow's goal is to wake up and work out first thing early. I got in a 45 minute workout at the gym this morning, but was dragging. I think I need to evaluate what I am eating at night. Maybe pizza wasn't such a good idea last night, but it sure was yummy!

Week 6 Day 1

Today I warmed up 5 minutes walking, ran 5, walked 3, ran 8, walked 3, ran 5, walked 5.

Sounds like a crazy routine to maintain, but with my app it makes it pretty easy. She just gives me a nice reminder when I need to run and when I should walk. I only have a few more days left of this walk/run business and then it will be mostly running.

I haven't lost much weight (maybe 2 lbs) since I started, but I think that has something to do with um...my diet :). Eating normal portions and sweets at night aren't helping my weight loss goal of loosing 15 pounds. Time for me to start eating right so I can fit back into my skinny clothes just in time for school to start back this fall!

The gym has been nice to workout at since the weather this summer has been iffy, but I am hoping to get out on the road to run here pretty soon.

I think I am going to set running goals and then get gear to reward myself! This is something I am looking at getting. It is the Garmin Forerunner 10.

I wonder if it would be a good investment for me...hmmmm. I will have to look into this.

My New Running Shoes

I decided to go to a local running store, Runners Soul in Spokane, WA to get advice on new shoes. These are the ones I got by Saucony. I love them!!