"Very impressive!" - 6.3 miles down!

I skipped lat week's 4.5 mile run. Bad, I know.

This week I was schedules for a 5.0 miler. Daunting. Very scary. Completely frightening. After procrastinating all morning, I suited up and headed out. Through the entire run, little pains popped up here and there, but it wasn't so bad. Around the 1 mile marker I saw a 50-something man running who would make another appearance later in my run. Around this time, I was feeling pretty good - I had some pain in my right hip, but it went away and was replaced by an unhappy tummy. Ruh-roh!

Around the 2.5 mile mark, I saw the man again and had a short conversation with him, because this time we were headed in the same direction. He's running the Worcester half-marathon as well, not shooting for a PR, just looking to cross the finish line. He asked me how far I was going today, I told him I was planning on doing 5 miles, and he responded with a "Very impressive!" I am IMPRESSIVE? I guess so! I took the compliment and ran with it.

I also got some boost of energy (well, it was more like determination - I was pretty tired) to keep running. I ran a total of 6.31 miles in 1:25. HELL. YEAH. !!

I feel pretty awesome. Just sayin'.

Also, down to 206 lbs!

A bit better

Today I'm in a much better mood than I was yesterday. My adviser never sent back edits for the abstract I had due yesterday, so I ended up doing it on my own. I don't think it's very high quality, but I think just forcing myself to get it done and not relying on someone else really helped.

I woke up this morning and did a weigh-in (usually it's on Saturdays, but I am partaking in a New Year's Eve challenge and they weigh-in on Thursdays). Here are the results:

SW: 214.6

LW: 208.6

CW: 204.6

I'm feeling good! I don't know if it's my scale that's weird or my body, but something seems to prefer the .6 increment. Anyway! I did a nice 3 miler this morning at 33:45. It took me a WHILE to get warmed up, but I got there eventually and had a decent run because I willed myself to get past that first 1.5 miles. Also, my new Under Armor is AWESOME. Absolutely no chaffing, whereas is used to start at about mile 2. Woot!

PS - This is OFFICIALLY the lightest I've weighed in... what is it? About 8 years. At least 8 years.

Weigh-in bummer? Not really.

So I woke up this morning, my weigh-in day, so excited to see that all my runs this week had payed off! I raked in a good and solid 10 miles this week, which is huge for me! In addition to my daily runs, I got in upper body, lower body, and core strength training sessions. I also managed to stay around the 1400-1500 calorie range, and most days stayed within other nutrition ranges (fiber, protein, fat, and carbohydrates). Lo and behold, the scale wishes to try and demoralize me!

Last week: 208

This week: 208.6

I won't fall for his tricks this time: the scale is a damned fool! I won't be listening too much to what he has to say. I know I've made progress this week. On Sunday, I was only able to get in my 2 miles by taking a walking break. By Wednesday, I tackled the 2 miles full on. Yesterday, I said to hell with 2 and kept going until I hit 3.

I feel good this week, regardless of what the scale says.

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 :)

First Weigh-in

It's been a while since my last post! All I can say is that my school work has kept me insanely busy since we've been back from spring break. That doesn't mean I've neglected my running, though! I only got out 4 times last week, totaling 8.0 miles, but this week has been a bit more difficult. I went out on Monday afternoon and did a lousy 1.33 miles - not even paying attention to the distance (I try to keep my base runs at 2.0), it was just plain bad. I ran outside yesterday (it was gorgeous!) for about 3.0 miles. My average pace was a little under 11:30 - not quite how fast I can go on the treadmill, but hey, at least I'm not running the first mile super fast and then getting really slow like I did two weeks ago! Also, for the majority of the last two miles, I was running into the wind, so I'm pretty pleased with those numbers.

Mile 1: 10:54
Mile 2: 11:54
Mile 3: 11:29

I got my scale in the mail last week and did my first reference weigh-in on Thursday, so it looks like Thursday will be my weigh-in day from now on. That means today is weigh-in day!

Last Week (LW): 209.4
Current Week (CW): 206.8
Current Loss (CL): 2.6
Total Loss (TL): 2.6

Woo! Pretty exciting business. And when I say pretty exciting, I mean it. The lowest weight I've been in the past I don't even know how many years - probably since I was 14 or 15 - was 207 and that was a year and a half ago. Next week hopefully I'll be below 205!

Also, I donated the majority of my hair to Locks of Love this weekend! Now my hair is way shorter than it's ever been (might account for a few ounces of loss ;) ) and very tricky to hold back while running! Well, maybe not tricky, but they way I have to put it back looks pretty silly!