Look at my clavicle! What do you mean, you can't see it?

Plans have changed a bit. I realized that tomorrow the school's fitness center will be closed (they're changing out all of the aerobic equipment for new machines, wee!), so I've got no workout plans. In lieu of this catastrophic news, I decided to forgo shoveling today so I'll have something to do tomorrow, and instead decided to kill it on the treadmill.

I ran two miles at 21:30, did a hill workout on a stationary bike for 12 minutes, and then did 16:30 minutes of interval work back on the old treadmill (one mile of intervals, .4 mile recovery). Intervals were separated by 1:00 @ 4.0, and went as follows: 2:45 @ 5.5, 1:00 @ 6.0, 1:00 @ 6.2, 1:00 @ 6.4, 1:00 @ 6.2, 1:00 @ 6.00, 2:45 @ 5.5. So today was a 3 mile day. Not too shabby. I haven't run that far since the Turkey Trot I did with my sister on Thanksgiving, so I'll take it as a win, even if it has to come in parts. A mile is a mile is a mile.

This is me post-shower:

Ignore the goofy face and peace sign, and look at the index finger pointing to the imaginary clavicle. I've always wanted a clavicle. That would be a nice spot for one. Okay, I know I have one, I just want to be able to see it. I'm touching it in this photo, but you really can't tell. Add that to the list of goals. Goal-related post coming soon.

New Year, New Goal

So on a Saturday night, I found myself at a website listing all of the half-marathons this coming year. I don't know what prompted me to search for them, but once I was there I typed in Massachusetts. Lo and behold, there is a half in Worcester this June - the first half the city has ever held. June 13th, 2010. Since my goal is to run 10 miles by May, why not just add a 5k to that by June? I can totally do that, and paying $55 to enter a race is plenty of motivation for me to keep at it - I don't want to waste my money! I won't be able to enter until next week when I get paid, but I've already settled on it.

Funnily enough, since I started running casually 2 years ago, I've never ran a road race, even though the majority of my runs are around the 5k distance, which just so happens to be the most common race distance. Oh well, looks like I'm skipping a few steps and going straight to the half. But who knows? Maybe I'll find a shorter training race in between now and then. I've got about 6 months to go - better get crackin'!

Getting faster, running longer!

Today I set out thinking that I would do a solid 1.5 miles, jog slowly for a few minutes, and then pick it back up and run one more mile, for a total of ~2.5 miles. I got on the treadmill and thought to myself, "This is a dreadmill day." I don't run with music and I don't cover up the display in front of me. Running may be a physical activity, but I think that it's equally mental. Every time I run, I try my hardest to best the display, and pay less and less attention to it. I say that it was a dreadmill day because I looked at the display after about 20 seconds. This was going to be a tough one.

The first mile was tough - and it often is for me. After running only a couple of minutes, 25 more just seems so impossible. It's not, and I know it's not, sometimes it just feels that way. In any case, I made it to one mile, and then I told myself that after 1.5 miles at 5.5, I could bring it down. Then I thought, "Bring it down? You mean let this machine beat me? Ain't gonna happen!" I ran to 2 miles. Just 2 miles? I did that yesterday, easy-peasy. How about 3? And how about I run it a little faster than I did last time? Sure. After 2 miles, I did ease it down to 5.4, then 5.3, then 5.1, and I ran until I hit the 3.0 marker at 33:19. That's the fastest I've ever run 3 miles!

Mile 1: 11:03

Mile 2: 10:53

Mile 3: 11:23

I obviously slowed down a bit in the end, but overall this is the fastest I've accomplished 3 miles, and I feel AWESOME! I am 26 seconds faster than I was on Saturday, and 1:41 faster than I was on Friday!

My goal a few weeks ago was to reach 202 lbs by November 2nd, which is a week from today. That's not going to happen, because I seemed to have hit a little snag at 208. That's quite alright with me, though, at least for now. Chaffing is getting pretty bad, though. I definitely need to invest in some better shorts.

Weight Loss

Obviously, as a 200+ pounder, weight loss is the primary goal of running, at least for me. Every time I "get back on the horse" I make it down to about the point I'm currently at, 207/208 lbs., and give up. I refuse to let that happen this time. When I came to college, I was ~235, so I've lost a good chunk of weight, and kept ~20 lbs. off for three years, but every time I stop running and stop paying attention to what I eat, I got back up to around 215.

When I started running again three weeks ago, I weighed 214.6 lbs. My last weigh-in on Saturday put me in at 208 lbs. I REALLY want to be under 207 this week. It would be the lowest weight I've been since I can remember - probably since freshman year of high school. I'm not going to brood over it if I don't, though. I should be getting my period this week, which means bloating and whatnot, so I won't be surprised if I'm 208 again.

Anyway, here's my plan. I'm eating. I'm not really restricting myself from foods, but I'm monitoring my intake and controlling portion sizes. It's so funny how we stretch our stomachs to the extent that we need a huge plate full of food to feel full - that's so unnecessary! Other than that, I am limiting myself on sweets. I was raised in an environment where greasy, salty, fried snacks were always around, and after-dinner desserts were assumed. That's not right, and that's not healthy. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized that not everyone had dessert EVERY night (seriously). So I'm not cutting desserts out, just cutting them waaaaaay back.

I have a goal to run at least 7 miles a week. So far I've run 2 on Sunday, 2 on Monday. Today's an impromptu rest day for me, for three reasons: (1) I've run on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so my muscles could use a day to rest; (2) I got a massive blister on my achilles during my run yesterday, so I'm giving it another day to heal; and (3) I have too much to do today (worst of the reasons). I'm doing stregth training 3x a week, with upper-body on Mondays, lower-body on Wednesdays, and core on Fridays.

Also drinking a TON of water, and trying to be as optimistic as possible about life in general.

So that's that. I've got to go get some work done, but I'll be checking back in soon!

Always seem to be starting over...

I don't even know how many times I've started over this year alone. Probably around five. I guess that's good in a way - I fall off the horse, I eventually get back on. I just want to stop falling off already. Seriously, enough is enough!

I was going to go for a run today, and mentally I was really feeling it, but after last night's atrocious run, I decided a little bit of rest wouldn't kill me. The plan is to wake up and run tomorrow morning before it becomes too hot out, shower, head to the beach with my lovely sister (lathered in SPF 50), relax at home, and then meet up with an old friend. This is the plan. I'm hoping to do a 1.0 mi warm up, some interval training, and a 1.0 mile cool down. We'll see how that goes!

I also weighed myself this afternoon. Granted it was midday and I'd had about 4 cups of water and eaten two meals, but I'm just going to accept that as my weight. It's probably fairly accurate, and I'm terrible at remembering to weight myself first thing in the morning. I am currently 209.8 lbs. Heavier than I'd like, but hey, look on the bright side! It's still 12.2 lbs less than when I started, right? I'm going to keep telling myself that. My goal is to be under 200 lbs by my 21st birthday (June 20th). I think 10 lbs in a month is a fairly reasonable goal... gotta stop eating those brownies, though ;)

Off The Beaten Path

Weigh-in didn't go so well, as expected. Nothing I can do about the past, so there's no use crying over it. What's done is done, I just have to put in a better effort today and tomorrow!

LW: 206.8
CW: 209.4
CL: +2.6
TL: 0.0

Looks like I'm starting over!

Besides the weigh-in, which I knew would be a downer (my own fault), today's been going okay, I suppose. I'm finding it very difficult to motivate myself to do anything, seeing as though I practically have no schedule this week. I was going to go for my run this morning, but I decided to wait until it warmed up a bit. I ended up mapping a 4.0 mile run (ambitious, eh?) and heading out a little after noon.

Today's run was eventful, to say the least. Lots of things happened. For example, some teenage girl called to someone inside her house, "Hey, look at that girl jogging!" I was a bit offended, for no legitimate reason. I'm running, not jogging. I just happen to run very slowly. Then I got to a street that I thought I was supposed to go down, but couldn't because of construction. I hung a left, and ended up realizing that I was on the correct road. Then I turn right and OH SHIT. Look at that hill! How did I not look at the elevation gains/losses at mapmyrun before I left the house? Well, no turning back now, so up I go.

This is almost the end of my first mile, and I'm making pretty good time. The road is a circuit, so basically it's just a big circle. I figure, at the very least, there will be a nice downhill for the second half of the circuit. What? The road is a dead end? Okay, I'll just keep going anyway. Over the river (or brook) and through the woods, as they say. It was a nice break from running on pavement. Soon enough the circuit resumed (I suppose the middle segment had been closed off many moons ago), and I continued. Then I took a wrong turn somewhere and thought I was really off my course, but I just kept going, although I was a little frustrated with myself because I couldn't properly record my splits. When I got home and remapped my route, I realized I was a block off. WOMP. Oh well.

So I keep going, down another dirt road, until AHOY!, my supermarket! I know where I am now... and only 2.0 miles to go! Ha. I wasn't laughing. In keeping with the running off pavement theme, I took a detour through a park over another dirt path until I came out of my little residential bubble and hit the urban jungle that is Worcester. I was then annoyed at the noise and the wind pushing against me. Soon after I turned out of suburbia, my left calf started to cramp up, but I managed to finish all 4.0 miles without any real problem. My total time was a bit slower than I would have liked (okay, a lot), but I can't beat myself up too much. I've never run 4.0 miles outside before, and I've only done it once on the treadmill (and treadmills pace you, you don't have to work at it).

4.0 Miles: 48:46
pace: 12:08

I also decided to run in my first race! A group (no idea which one) at my school is sponsoring a Green 5k, with all proceeds going to the Regional Environmental Council. Good cause, and a good goals for me. It's about time I ran my first race. Plus, I'll make everyone else running feel better, because they won't have to worry about coming in last place :)

So sore!

Man, this morning when I woke up (lost an hour of sleep - thanks, DST!), I felt so sore! In a good way. I decided to incorporate more cross-training into my workouts, so yesterday after my run I did a yoga video that I'd had for over a year and had never touched. I thought it was going to be a nice, mellow introduction to yoga. Maybe it's just because I'm so fat, but that thing kicked my butt! I couldn't do some of the positions it had me do, but I made my own modifications instead of waiting for something that I was physically ready for. Throughout part of it, the instructor kept saying things like, "what a great back workout!" and "doesn't it feel great to stretch out your back after that back workout?" I had no idea what she was talking about until this morning. Now I know.

I didn't have much to do this morning, so after my Sunday routine of checking PostSecret, I headed over to Runner's World to do some reading. I've been spending a lot of time reading running blogs and running articles lately. Anyway, I found an article full of reasons to get out and run. Some are quotes by famous runners, others are simple statements like, "you'll be wearing a bathing suit in another month, won't you?" This one caught my attention:

65. DON'T EXPECT EVERY DAY TO BE BETTER than the last. Some days will be slower than others, and some days might even hurt a bit. But as long as you're on the road, it's a good day.

After yesterday's run, this is my exact sentiment. This week, I'm going to try and run at least one mile every day. It's not necessarily something I should do as a beginner runner all the time, but I feel like this is a really good personal goal for myself. Today's the first day of the week, so my mileage will start today. I'll let you know how it goes!

Early in the Morning

Running early in the morning is so nice. You can run uninhibited by those around you, because there really is no one there. When I woke up this morning, it was still freezing outside and last night's snowfall still covered the ground. By the time I left the gym after my workout and shower, nearly all of the snow that had fallen last night had melted and it was significantly warmer. It's cool to think that in so short a period of time the weather could change so much.

But I digress. Running in the morning is just the best. Fewer people. Fewer cars. Less sound. Fewer distractions. Running in the gym is similar in that there are few, if any, college students willing to wake up and go to the gym at 7:00 am. This morning was a good run for me (I usually don't run on Thursdays but as I couldn't yesterday...). Two girls, who looked more like twigs, got on the treadmills next to me and started running about a minute before I did (I took a minute or so to stretch). I was so proud of myself for the following reasons: I was able to run at a constant speed for 20:00, and then I pushed myself to complete the 24:00 to finish up 2.0 miles. The girl directly next to me ran for about a mile, walked for 5:00 and then she ran faster than she was capable and soon had to slow down to her original speed. I know I shouldn't be paying attention to other people and their runs, as they really have nothing to do with me, but it helps me reaffirm my runs in some ways.

Firstly, just because I'm fat doesn't mean I can't be in good shape. When I started, my max runs were only 1.0 miles and on rest days I had to push myself to do 0.5 miles. With those girls running next to me, it helped me to remember that I shouldn't care what I look like versus what they look like: at the end of the day, I have better endurance than they do. Now, my average run is 20:00 instead of 12:00. I think that's pretty cool. Secondly, I know my limits. I'm okay with running 5.2 mph. I know I'm not a super-fit-103-pound-cross-country athlete. I'm okay with that. I'd rather be able to run for an extended amount of time at my pace than burn myself out at someone else's. That's important to remember, as well. So thank you, skinny girls. You helped me learn an important lesson today.

I realize that I have no goal for the moment, and I really should. My next goal will be to run 25:00 at 5.3 mph. I'll step it up a notch and challenge myself, but I know how far I can feasibly push myself. I'd like to transition to have 24:00 be my average run time.

Also, just as a side note, I am completely in love with my spandex. New water bottle is cool, but the spandex were definitely the better investment.

Building Endurance

Today I semi-reluctantly headed out the gym. Part of me didn't want to run - I think I was afraid of not performing well. I hopped onto the treadmill and set it for the usual: 12 minutes with a 1.5 incline at 5.1 mph, giving me a distance of just over a mile. This is the way I normally do my workouts. I set the treadmill for 12:00 because running a mile is usually pretty simple for me, but sometimes I really have to push myself to run just one mile. By setting the machine for 12:00, it allows me to feel out my run so that I'm not let down or disappointed in myself because I wasn't able to run the 2.0 miles I'd wanted to. Usually I add a few minutes as I near the 12:00 marker when I have a good grasp of how my run is going. By the way, I completely forgot I'd planned to do intervals today. I think that I may be over eager.

Anyway, today I decided to try something new during my run. On a treadmill, I find it very difficult to focus on anything BUT the digital numbers in front of me. I don't listen to music when I run and I don't cover the treadmill with a magazine or a towel. I don't know, part of me feels like that's cheating. So I've always had this internal struggle: how do I overcome the mental obstacles that keep me from running as long as I can? I know that my body is capable of running 30:00, I proved that this summer when I went for my daily runs.

As of a couple of weeks ago, the longest I had run on a treadmill was 15:00 minutes. Then one day I wowed myself with a 2.0 mile run (24:00). Earlier this week I realized that I had met this goal without even noticing, and set a new goal for myself: run for 25:00. Yesterday I just kept running. And running. And then 25:00 minutes was over. Today, I had the aspiration of running a mile, and if it was going well, 1.5 miles. As I started my run, I got to thinking about how this mental monster was keeping me from achieving my goals, and how I wasn't okay with that. Blocking the numbers in front of me wouldn't help me overcome my problem, it would only act as a surface solution. I decided to try something new. I was on a treadmill in front of a window, so I started counting as people went by. This gave me a task and kept my mind busy and focused, something I found incredibly difficult to do on a treadmill. Every time 15 people walked by, I would allow myself to look down and check on my progress - if I thought I could hold out for a while longer, I would up it to 30 people.

Soon I had been running for 20 minutes, and I realized that the physical hardships that had kept me from running longer durations all came from my mental obstacles. I would have gone further, but I forgot to up the time and by the time I realized, the machine had already gone into cool down. I walked for about 3 minutes and then decided to run for an additional 6:00. This would give me a total time of 36:00 and a total distance of 2.5 miles. Today was officially my longest run in one workout, the longest amount of time I ran in one workout, and the longest span of consecutive running on a treadmill. If I had gotten to the add minutes button soon enough, I could have been my longest continuous run ever, outside or on a treadmill, but I suppose that will have to wait for another day.

The hardest part about today's run was the chafing. I've started to realize that if I run more than 2.0 miles, the frictions really builds up and burns my inner thighs. Today was the worst, but I convinced myself that the pain was minimal and that I should just keep going. It really wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things, but even walking home after my workout caused me a lot of discomfort. I decided that it was time for some spandex, and so I set out to Dick's Sporting Goods with my lovely roommate to find a pair of shorts. While I was there I also picked up a CamelBack water bottle, which I think will be a lot more user-friendly for me while I'm running (Nalgenes are terrible at the gym, and splash guards don't help much).

Today may very well be my proudest running day!

Mini Goal Met

I've been thinking about the goal I set for myself all week. Running 25 minutes straight on a treadmill is daunting, especially when you hate treadmills and haven't been running outside in quite some time. I'm out of shape. Well, I guess I can't be out of shape if I've never really been in shape. But you know what I mean, right? Last summer I was able to run about 25 at a time (I usually fluctauted between 22-28), but I couldn't event imagine running the same distance on a treadmill. The treadmill is my demon!

So all week I've been thinking about running for 25 minutes, and each day that I've been running, I've pushed myself, but never hard enough. I've been running longer intervals (longer than I'm used to with the Couch to 5k program, at least) and pushing myself to get in about 2.0 miles each time I hit the gym. This morning I woke up very tired (I only got 7 hours of sleep, and I know my body needs at least 8), and I had to drag myself out of bed. I procrastinated a little bit, but I got myself to the gym and on the treadmill. My goal for the work-out was to run a mile, at which point I would evaluate how my run was going, and add more time if I wanted. Everytime the treadmill was about to send me to a cool down, I added a minute. Then I had been running for 25 minutes (!) and I allowed the machine to cool me down with a brisk walk. At the end of my walk I decided, HEY! You can run more. You've pushed yourself before, push yourself again. So I added another 5 minutes of running, totalling 30 minutes and 2.5 miles. That just may be the longest and furthest I've run in one workout!

Another exciting thing is that in my past two work outs before today's I've ended with 0.5 miles at 6.0 mph, which is something I've never been able to do before. I think tomorrow I'm going to do 2-minute intervals at 6.0 mph. We'll see how that goes!

Follow Through

This week was sort of a bad one for me in many respects. I let my school work get the best of me - instead of working hard on my studies at a moderate rate, I saved all of my work for last minute and exhausted myself. I had a 10 page paper due on Tuesday and my first project in my hardest class due on Thursday. I sacrificed eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercise for my school work. Now, I know that school is important (if for no other reason than I'm paying tons of money to be here), but it should not keep me from living well. I have to learn to balance my life in a more effective way.

My runs were less than stellar. I'm slowly upping the speed at which I run (this week I moved up to 5.1 from 5.0), which makes my runs a bit harder, but I am nonetheless disappointed in myself. I skipped going to the gym on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and because of that, I only got in 3.75 miles this week, and compared to last weeks 6.67 miles, that's pretty bad. Today I ran 2 miles, which is over half of last weeks total. That's kind of ridiculous. It's okay though, it was just one week.

This week I'm going to focus on getting comfortable with my 5.1 mph runs. It hasn't been too bad, but I'm not nearly as comfortable running at 5.1 mph as I was at 5.0 mph. Today I did a little bit of interval training: 12 minutes at 5.1 mph, walk 3 minutes, run 5 minutes at 6.0 mph, walk 5 minutes, run 6 minutes at 5.1 mph, ending with a 5 minute cool down walk. It was a pretty good work out, and I was proud of myself for pushing myself to run half a mile at 6.0 mph. It was hard, but I could have gone a couple minutes longer. I don't think I could push myself to run a whole mile at 6.0 mph, though. In time! One of my long term goals is to work up to 6.0 mph, which is why I'm slowly increasing my speed.

I'm also having trouble keeping myself hydrated, so I really need to work on that. Especially because I like to run in the mornings, I need to make sure I'm adequately hydrated before I go to bed each night, so that when I wake up I don't have to chug a ton of water and hope that it doesn't slosh around in my belly.

Edit: I was just reading through a post from December and realized that I achieved a goal without realizing it! To run 1.5 miles on the treadmill without stopping. Woo! I've gotten up to 2.0 miles, so that goals been reached. How about running straight for 25 minutes on the treadmill as my next goal? I've done 24 minutes once, but it was hard and I would really have to push myself to go further. Sounds like a plan!

Progress! Change! Woo!

Sometimes I feel silly while running on a treadmill. Every step I take my gut and my love handles just bounce up and down. I'd like to be able to see myself run, I think I might get a kick out of it.

Anyway, I haven't written in a while,but that doesn't mean I haven't been running! It was nigh impossible over break (roads too dangerous and no gym), but once school started up again the first thing I did on Monday the 12th was head to the gym. I ran a mile at a 12:00 pace to see how I'd do. It was a little bit tough near the end, but I got through it without too much difficulty. I think that I could have kept going, but I didn't want to push myself too much. Tuesday I went back to the gym and struggled through a half mile. I've never really run on consecutive days (I was doing the couch to 5k program which had full rest days), so this was pretty big for me. I pushed myself to finish a half mile, but I knew my body didn't want to go much farther than that.

Wednesday I rested, and Thursday I headed back to the gym. I set a goal of 15:00 (1.25 miles), and by the time I got there, I decided I was comfortable enough running that I should keep going, so I pushed my goal to 18:00 (1.5 miles). I just kept going until I got to 20 minutes - it required a bit of an extra push, but a run should be challenging. I was so proud of myself, I almost threw my hands into the air at the gym, but then I realized that I might embarrass myself a little and refrained.

After that hard run (my longest treadmill run! wee) I took Friday off and got swimming lessons from my friend Annie on Saturday. I always thought I could swim, you know, I can move from Point A to Point B in a somewhat timely manner. We spent almost the whole time on breathing and form. Damn! It's hard. It was fun, though, and a pretty good work out. Before, I never really liked to use my legs when I swam and she made me, so my legs were a bit sore. I went to the gym again on Sunday and ran a mile (all of my runs are set to a 12:00 pace on treadmills). Monday I went swimming again. Tuesday no gym. Woops.

Now Wednesday. Wednesday was a day I was proud of. My goal was to run for 15:00. At about 12:00 I was starting to feel it, and I pushed myself to make it to 15:00, and I made it. I did my cool down walk and two minutes into it, I thought to myself, "I think I can run more, and I want to!" I finished my cool down, and then reset the treadmill for another 9:00. It was hard to stay motivated mentally, and my eyes kept wandering back to the timer, but my body was totally fine with it. I required a bit of a mental push around 7:00 in, but I just told myself that only 2:00 were left - I had already run for 22:00, what's another two? Awesome day at the gym. Not my longest uninterrupted run on a treadmill, but the most distance I covered by running on a treadmill. Pretty cool! Running for so long made me a couple of minutes late to work though. Woops again! They didn't mind, luckily.

I usually go to the gym before class, but I have to do a load of laundry and I wanted to write a post because I haven't written one in forever, so I'm going to go around lunchtime. My goal for the day is 8:00!

56 degrees in December

I woke up this morning sweating due to the uncharacteristically warm weather coupled with my winter tendency to sleep with three comforters. Anyway, I soon got over the fact that not staying in bed all day was not part of my future, grabbed a little bit of food so I wouldn't be running on an empty stomach, packed my shower necessities (my house doesn't have hot water, go figure), and put on my running clothes. Though it is incredibly warm for this time of year, it is also raining. I decided that I wouldn't get another opportunity to run outside without slipping on ice and cracking my head open for quite some time, so I took advantage of the day in spite of the rain.

It was really only drizzling when I set out and it didn't really ever get to be a problem. The wind bothered me much more so than the rain: it was blowing at 27 mph and gusting up to about 40. For a good portion of the run, I was moving into the wind, and it felt like I might be able to go faster if I were to just walk, but I kept going anyway. It soon became apparent how out of shape I am. Not that I was in good shape before I stopped working out, but I was certainly in better shape than I am now. The lactic acid started building up in my muscles about 8 minutes into my run, but I tried to ignore it for the most part. I pushed myself, but after about 18 minutes I decided I shouldn't push myself too far on my first day back at running. No point in risking injury because I'm too enthusiastic. I stretched and then threw in some lunges and squats - I really have to rebuild those leg muscles!

So it seems like I'll have to reevaluate one of my first goals, which was to run 1.5 miles in one go. Today I ran, according to Google maps, 1.59 miles at about 11:30 pace. Not terribly bad for someone who hasn't run in over three months and has since gained 20 pounds. So I'm altering the goal: run 1.5 miles on a treadmill. God, I hate treadmills. I get bored after about 5 minutes. There's nothing worse than staring at a wall while you run (or out a window if you're lucky), without the breeze against your skin, and with all the mechanical noises that come with gym equipment. I tried the whole iPod thing, but it is definitely not for me, I'd much rather focus on my thoughts and how my body is moving, and I find music distracting. When I run, I like to be able to watch the scenery around me change, zone out, and relax. I can't focus on myself on a treadmill the way I can outside. Looks like I'll have to learn to deal until winter is over.

And so it begins

So here I am for all the world to see. I've been ~60 pounds overweight, for, well, just about ever. I can't remember ever being thin, probably because I never was. I wasn't brought up in a very healthy lifestyle (though I do not fault my mother), and now that I'm out on my own, I haven't made any lasting changes. Last summer I lost 20 pounds through eating right and exercising, but once I got busy, I neglected myself. I now find my 5'6" self at a whopping 222 pounds. That's crazy! I'm only 20 years old, and in my opinion, I shouldn't have to be restricted in my life choices because of my size. So I'm putting my foot down (one after another) and making the changes myself. There's no one else to make them, after all.

So yeah, I tried the couch to 5k program, and while it's great and all (I made it to week 7/9), I didn't like its structure. I ended up adapting it to my needs, which turned out to be great; after I made the necessary alternations, I was able to complete the newly renovated program and consistently ran 20-30 minutes 4 or 5 days a week. Sadly, I didn't enter a road race while the weather was favorable. Even more saddening is that once my semester got to be too hectic, I really began to neglect my running. And by 'neglect' I mean to say that I abandoned it. My poor running shoes, how sad and lonely they must have felt. Anyway, I've started running again, I'm gradually making changes to my eating habits, and my goal for the month of December is to lose 8 pounds and to be able to run 1.5 miles at a time. That would bring me down to 214 and halfway to the running abilities that I had this past summer. Let's see how that goes!

As for the name of the blog, it's a play on a Steve Prefontaine quote: "A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." Hopefully, I'll be able to show that yes, I've got what it takes, I'm willing to push myself and challenge myself, and I will achieve my goals. Also, at 222 pounds, I clearly have a gut ;)