Struggling with my self image ...

Sunday - Rest
Monday - Strength Training

• Kettlebells - 30 minutes (Joint Mobility Warm Up and 2X Fat Blast Workout)

When I woke up this morning, I decided not to workout as I planned because I wanted to measure myself. Six weeks ago, I went through the process of measuring myself to set a baseline of measurement for my progress. I know it isn't exactly accurate because I started my lifestyle change in February, which is way more than six weeks ago. My original intention was to measure myself every four weeks but since I was on vacations I let it slide. After I returned from vacation, I didn't want to measure myself because I was afraid that my physical appearance wasn't changing even though my weight has been dropping. When I look in the mirror, I still see the remnants of the person I used to be. I only see the imperfections that remain and I don't really see the changes that are occurring. I think I have had self image issues my entire life. My situation isn't being helped any when I receive compliments on a daily basis at work about my new physique. I watched an episode of Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta on TLC over the weekend that really struck a chord with me. One of the girls at the bridal salon had recently gone through her own lifestyle change where she lost 65 pounds over the course of a year. (I promise I was not on the TV show.) Even though her physical appearance had drastically changed, she still saw her old self and all of her old problem areas every time she looked in the mirror. Her lack of self confidence about her new physique really made the experience of wedding dress shopping a painful one for herself. I know that I am not getting married any time soon but I am afraid that as I continue down this journey I will be my own worst enemy. I have been so self conscious of my physical appearance for so long that it will be hard to see myself as a changed woman with the physique I have always wants but never thought I could have and I never have the guts to try to get it.

By the way, the results of my measuring process are a loss of 8.6 pounds, 13.25 inches (total), and 3 inches in my hips. Now keep in mind that these results are over the course of 6 weeks and me measuring myself. Hopefully, I will have more accurate measurements taken when I finally sit down with a personal trainer in the next couple of weeks.

My workout tonight was great. I felt upset with myself this morning because I didn't workout but I still was able to get it in. I really like the workouts on my new kettlebell DVD. They are more about using the weight of the kettlebell for its intended purpose rather than a prop to swing around for added resistance to body weight/cardio exercises. Now don't misunderstand me. I really enjoyed the Kettlenetics workout program and it helped me get to where I am now but it can only take you so far and there isn't a whole lot of room to grow. The exercises that are done in those videos can not be done with any bell heavier than 8 lb. I honestly can't wait until I access to heavier kettlebells to see how my fitness will improve. I also really want to talk to a personal trainer that can point me in the right direction. Up to this point, I have been doing everything on my own. I have developed my own nutrition plan and my own training plan (with the help of Nike+ and Jeff Galloway). I try to listen to my body as much as possible but I haven't quite figured out what my body's threshold actually is. I think I am going to join that gym this weekend and get the ball rolling. I guess I will have to write down my kettlebell workouts so I can take them with me.

Night time tempo run ...

Thursday - 3 miles

• 3.67 miles, 40' 07" minutes, 10' 55" min/mile average pace, 159 BPM average heart rate

When I didn't wake up early enough to run before work, I decided to take Jeff Galloway's advice and run at 10 pm. It totally threw my schedule off though because I usually like to be in bed by 10 pm so I can wake up early enough to work out. Tonight instead of changing into my pajamas and climbing into bed, I doned my running clothes and climbed onto the treadmill. When I first decided to run at night, one of my concerns was how my stomach would handle it after a day of eating. I also wanted to make sure that I pushed myself without going too far.

Let me just say that I felt great after my run tonight. I got my heart rate up to 172 BPM at its max, which is on the low side of my threshold zone. I could have probably pushed myself a little bit more but I found a new max pace that I am comfortable with. After my five minute walking warm up, I set the belt pace to 4.0 mph, which is where my comfort zone has been. I held that pace for five minutes before I started to slowly increase the belt speed. Before I started running tonight, I actually set a goal for my max pace to be 5.0 mph. I spent 10 minutes increasing the belt pace from 4.0 to 5.0 mph in order to allow my body to adjust to running at the faster speed. Once I reached my max pace goal, I maintained it for 20 minutes and I actually felt like I could continue at that pace. I chose not to though because I had finished my scheduled mileage and I didn't want to push myself too much. I spent 5 minutes slowly bringing the belt pace back down from 5.0 to 4.0 mph before I started my 10 minute walking cool down.

My run tonight went really well. I pushed myself to a faster belt pace, which was very empowering. Throughout my run, I controlled my breathing and never felt out of breath or overexerted. Hopefully, this will translate into my 8 mile long run on Saturday morning. My big concern is that the weather has been so hot recently that I may get overheated. What really sucks about this heat is that by 9 am when I leave for work it is already so hot that I work up a sweat just walking to my car. I am going to have to wake up extra early to try to beat the heat.

Another Official Race Email from Disney!

Only two and a half months left until my very first half marathon! Just thinking about it makes me so nervous that my stomach gets butterflies. If you were planning on running the Wine & Dine Half Marathon and haven't signed up yet, then you may be out of luck. The Half Marthon has sold out but there are other options if you are interested. According to the runDisney website, there are still still spaces available for the Half Marathon Relay and several charity organizations still have spaces available. So if you are still holding out or even considering running in this event, then hurry up and sign up before it is completely sold out!


2011 Commemorative Pin

It has been about a month since I received the last email from Disney. The last one informed me that the course map was finally available. I am a complete control freak and I am the first to admit it. I am also a very impatient person and I really wanted to know what the course looked like when I registered for the race. Unfortunately, I had to wait almost two months from the time I registered to the time I was able to view the map. This race email provided even more information. Most important of all is that the 2011 Race Program is available! Another piece of crucial information is that bib numbers and waivers will be coming with the next email, which I am assuming will be coming sometime next month. Also, Disney has switched from using the ChronoTrack D-Tag to using the B-Tag. I have never used either system so I can not comment on the advantages or disadvantage of them but hopefully the switch won't affect my race. The D-Tag is the most similar to what I have used for my other races. It is a timing tag that attachs to your shoe. The B-Tag, however, is actually attached to the bib and is very sensitive apparently.

After getting over my initial excitement about receiving another race email from Disney, I checked out the race program to see what valuable information I could gleam from its PDF pages. The list of exhibitors is in the program as well as a layout for the expo hall. I have never been to race expo before so I really hope that I am able to take advantage of everything they have to offer. There are also several articles that contain some interesting information. One in particular by Jeff Galloway was about racing/running at night. Since I am still quite new at this whole racing thing, the running at night aspect of this race is one of the most nerve racking aspects for me. At first, I was nervous about the distance but I really feel like I can do it. Racing at night on the other hand is an idea I am still struggling with. In the article, Galloway suggests scheduling at least two runs in August and September at 10 PM to ensure that you aclimated to running at night. While I had actually thought of this, I am not sure when I will be able to do it. I guess I am nervous about running on the streets by myself at 10 PM, which eliminates scheduling my long runs at night. That leaves me with running some of my treadmill workouts at night. Somehow though, treadmill running doesn't seem like enough when it comes to aclimating to racing at night.

Magic Mile No. 1 ... Dolphins and a Turtle

Saturday - 4 miles

• 4.01 miles, 46' 42" minutes, 11' 38" min/mile average pace, 170 BPM average heart rate
• Splits:
• mile 1 - 10' 38" min/mile
• mile 2 - 11' 45" min/mile
• mile 3 - 12' 16" min/mile
• mile 4 - 11' 53" min/mile

When I went to bed last night, I knew that this run had the potential to be a really bad one. Against my better judgement, I didn't set my alarm. I was tired and really, really annoyed with my phone. Last night, my phone decided that it had had enough of this world and was ready to pass on to the next one. It completely reset itself back to factory. I was not a happy person when I went to bed last night so I decided I wouldn't set my alarm. My body wasn't fooled though. I woke up at 7 AM without an alarm. I tried to ignore my useless phone and get ready for run, which was easier said than done. After some hemming and hawing, I finally got ready for my run. I ate my yogurt with granola and drank some water. Because my run today was only scheduled at 4 miles, I didn't worry about taking any "foo" with me. Mind you that "food" while running is not normal everyday food. It took me about 20 minutes to walk to the running trail, which allowed me to come to grips with how I was going to handle my 4 mile run. According to the Jeff Galloway training program, today's run was supposed to be 3 miles with a Magic Mile (MM). A Magic Mile is a way to estimate what your pace will be on race day. Of course, the first time you one your pace isn't that great so you should actually run at least three and use the average as your Magic Mile pace. The MM is a mile where you push yourself to your max. It is recommended that you should not be able to continue anymore at your current pace when you finish. Even though, I did improve my overall time for the mile, I don't feel like I pushed myself as much as I could have. When I finished, I felt like I could have gone faster. That's okay though because I still have several more attempts to improve my MM pace.

Once I finished my MM, I took a moment to catch my breath and drink some water. When I started running again, I was conscious of making sure that my pace was much slower than my pace was for the MM. I wanted to be able to maintain my pace for the last three miles that I scheduled for today. The trail I run on is located along the water and today the water provided me with some excellant views this morning. Of course, with my phone on the fritz, I didn't have it with me to take any pictures. At the end of mile 2, I noticed that the water was moving. I examined it closer and two dolphins were swimming along the sea wall. About a mile later towards the end of mile 3, I noticed something floating in the water. At first, I thought maybe the dolphin had actually folled me it wasn't. It was a sea turtle swimming along. I actually stopped running to watch him for a little bit. The turtle dove down into the water and actually came back up with a crab. It was very peaceful to watch the sea turtle float along and it reminded me of the peaceful, realxed feeling that running gives me (when I am not stressed about my phone not working). At that point, I realized that I was focusing on the wrong thing this morning. The last mile of my run was probably the best one I ran all day because I allowed my mind to clear and started to enjoy my run.

First official Training Run ...

Tuesday, 5/31 - 30 Minutes of Running

• 3.23 miles, 45' 04" minutes, 13' 58" min/mile average pace, 150 BPM average heart rate

According to Jeff Galloway's training program, each running workout should start with a 5 minute walking warm up, followed by a slow build up to your running stride over the next 5 minutes, and finished with a 10 minute walking cool down. Today, I did my workout on the treadmill using a 1.0% incline. I started my workout with a 5 minute walk at 3.0 mph, then increased my pace to a jog (3.5 mph) for the next 5 minutes. After I completed my warm up, I felt pretty good and decided to push myself a little bit so I increased my pace to 4.0 mph, which I maintained for 20 minutes! After that, I slowed my pace back to down to 3.5 mph to start cooling down for the next 5 minutes. I finished my workout with a 10 minute walking cool down. I ran for a total of 30 minutes today, which is what I planned to do. I felt really good after my run and I ended up going further than I had expected. I also felt strong during my run. Don't get me wrong ... I totally broke a sweat, but I felt like I could keep going. I decided against it because I don't want to get injured and I really want to try and follow my training schedule closely.  I am still working on my pacing so hopefully as a I progress I will get faster and stronger.

*On a side note, the paces that I gave were based off of the belt speed. I actually run faster than the belt mostly because I am afraid that the treadmill will chew me up and spit me out the other side if I don't.