Back In the Saddle

Seeing the title I just chose, I kind of wish I could go horseback riding. I love horses and I've always wanted to know how to ride one. Maybe it's my inner cow-girl coming out.

Anyway, it's been a very long week... and it's only Wednesday! Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
Last weekend was the 100th year Anniversary Jubilee celebration for the Girl Scouts (the organization I work for). I spent part of Friday helping set up, all day Saturday working it, and then Sunday I went back to help take down (though there wasn't much to do). Saturday was a blast! Hectic, but fun! We had around 9,000 people show up to the event. I got up bright and early and was at the fairgrounds by 8am. Around 10:30am I helped lead the opening parade. By 11:30 I was tossed into the food booth to help field orders because the lines were over an hour long! Ahhh!!! After a few hours of that, I made it to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) stage to help load and unload the performers. I also got to MC and introduce the acts as they came out. Rock on! By 6:45pm, we started breaking down everything in the STEM area as the day was finally over. I left the fairgrounds a little after 7pm, got home, had dinner, and went to bed.

Sunday they didn't have much of anything to do as far as clean up, so I headed home. Later that evening, we had to rush my father to the hospital. he had been having severe abdominal pain and couldn't move. At first, they thought it was his appendix. Turns out, it was his gallbladder. They ended up having to do emergency surgery on him Monday morning to remove it. He is still currently in the hospital (he developed a fever yesterday and is still in a lot of pain, but he's doing better), and we hope he is going to come home tomorrow.

I did manage to get in a very nice run Monday morning before I went back to the hospital. I did 2 miles in 28:02. I ran the first 6 minutes straight, then maintained a 2 run: 1 walk ratio the rest of the time. I chose that method for multiple reasons; 1. I haven't been running like I was last year, so my muscles and everything need to be re-conditioned before I start upping the ante, and 2. I chose to run faster for those two minute spurts and try and push myself more than if I tried to run 5-7minutes straight. I plan on doing the same thing tomorrow for my second run of the week.

I've also been trying very, very hard to keep track of what I eat every day and have been keeping up pretty well with MyFitnessPal (again, feel free to add me biggergirlsrun2). I've made a couple of new friends on there and hope to make even more! I'm a firm believer in the more support, the better. Since I first reported that I had gained a good portion of weight back, I'm happy to say that I have lost about 4lbs. Hooray! I'm sure once I really get into my training schedule, I will lose more. And I'm super psyched about that!

One of the forums on MyFitnessPal.com asked people to list what their summer fitness goals were. I thought that was pretty nifty, so I decided to share mine here and see what goals y'all might have as well.

My summer fitness goals are:

to train (intelligently) for my 2nd half marathon,

to run at least 50 miles,

to go rock-wall climbing (inside),

to go ziplining,

 to go for at least 3 really nice hikes,

and to try a new Zumba place.

What do you think of my goals? What are YOUR summer goals?

My Fitness Pal

                 Have no fear, fellow bloggers, my training plan is here.

I had a few requests to post up my new training plan, so I did. I even put it on it's own page. Feel free to check it out, follow along with me, etc. I have to say, I like the fact that the traiing plan incudes easy walks in them. Sometimes it's nice to go out and just take a short, relaxing walk to keep the muscles warm and stretched. If I hadn't mentioned before, the plan is actually one designed by Jeff Galloway (though I think I tweaked one or two things). I was doing some research about different training plans online and came across this one. I really liked it, so decided to go with it.

He does include a few runs that have "MM" next to them. "MM" stands for Magic Mile. Basically, the Magic Mile is a one mile timed trial run that you do at a good, but hard pace for yourself. You take that mile and multiply it by 1.2 (for half-marathon training pace). This gives you a pace time for your training runs. There's a whole explanation HERE, along with a handy calculator that lets you see different paces/times for different races. It also gives you a walk/run ratio that seems easy to follow (depending upon your MM).
For me, my fastest mile when I push myself is about 13minutes. Therefore, my training pace will be 17:54/mile. When I do "MM" runs, my goal will be 15:36/miles. Make sense? It took me a bit to wrap my head around as well. ut, I think it's a pretty nifty guide.

Another thing I wanted to discuss today was this app I have on my phone called My Fitness Pal. Does anyone else have it? I love it. I was tossing around the idea of doing Weight Watchers online, but I'm cheap and didn't want to pay $20 a month for it decided I liked My Fitness Pal app better (plus, it's free!). I plug in my current height, weight, daily activity level, and how much I would like to lose per week. It then calculates how many calories I should be eating per day. From there, I input what I eat and drink either by searching food, or using my camera to take a photo of the barcode where it auto-searches the product for me. I can also input my cardio and strength training. Just like with Weight Watchers online, if I exercise, I get more calories to eat back. So, if I know I want to have a small bowl of ice cream tonight, I know I will want to burn some extra calories at the gym beforehand. It's pretty sweet.

My favorite part though? You can connect with friends who have the app as well and leave comments for each other. I can see exercises that friends have done and send them supportive reminders when I see they haven't logged in for a few days. It also has a corresponding website http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ that's user-friendly and has some great user forums.

I've been using it for awhile now to try and get myself back on track. So far, it's been a huge help! I suggest checking it out, and feel free to friend me on there (biggergirlsrun2). We can help each other out! YAY!



Every New Beginning

First off, let me say thank you to everyone who left me a comment on my last post. You don't know how much I appreciated hearing all of your supportive and kind words. Truly, thank you!

I had a moment of clarity in between bouts of craziness yesterday.
I've decided that instead of trying to continuously revamp and re-do my plans to reach my goals for this year, I'm just going to start over.

Simple as that.

Today is a new beginning. I'm starting fresh and excited. And, I have new goals!

Turns out I won't be able to do the Diva Long Island Half this year. So, instead, I'm going to do the ING Hartford half again. Why not? I had a blast last year! I'm also in the works of making sure I can get to the Disney Princess Half in February next year (but more to come on that later).

I have been doing some research and I think I found a great training program (designed by Jeff Galloway nonetheless). It's 19 weeks and the runs seems pretty doable. 3 runs a week, plus one easy walk. I realized this past weekend, just how out of shape my body is again. I haven't really run in awhile (though I have gotten to the gym and done arc trainer and elliptical machines- not the same though).When I finished my Race in the Park 5k this past Saturday, I was SORE. I mean, felt like those 3.1 miles were actually 13.1 miles, sore. Today is the first day that I can walk without wincing. That, to me, is unacceptable! I used to have no problem running 3.1 miles and being only slightly sore the next day and I want to get back to that.

I've even started setting up a support system to help me stay on track. I've asked family members, my boyfriend, and coworkers to help me make sure I do my runs and stay disciplined on my training. I'm printing out my training schedule so that everyone has a copy so I have no excuse like, "I can't remember what I have to do today". I WANT to be held accountable for my training. I've even come up with some back-up plans in case a morning run is missed (keeping an extra pair of running gear in my car so on my lunch break, I can sneak in a short run). I feel confident that I can do this.

I'm hoping that you all will hold me accountable as well. I truly feel that a huge part of my success last year at the half marathon was because I was blogging so often and you all were amazing enough to leave comments, supportive notes, tips, tricks, advice, etc. I want to do that again. I'm going to start off slow and work my way up (just like with my training). My goal is to blog 2 times a week, then 3, then 4, etc, etc. Even if I didn't run or train on a particular day, I still want to blog. I may even give my blog a face-lift (if I can figure out how to work this new blogger layout. ugh.).

Sound like a plan to yall? Seems like a good start to me!
Cheers to a new beginning!!

Where, Oh Where, Has My Motivation Gone?

I'm depressed.

That about sums up the past few days of my life. I have no real reason to be depressed- my boyfriend is amazing and probably the sweetest guy on the planet, my job is time-consuming but fulfilling and fun, my family and friends are all healthy, finances are starting to straighten out... so, why am I depressed?

Because, despite all these other wonderful things, I've lost my motivation to do anything.
I've kept up with my bikini body boot camps, but I haven't done any other workouts. LAME.
I go to bed every night and think "tomorrow I'm going to get up and run", I even set my alarm and lay out my clothes. But, when that buzzer goes off, I reset my alarm and go back to bed. I can't seem to drag myself up and out. Not even down to the living room to do a quick workout video or anything. Ugh! I'm so frustrated with myself, I could seriously spit!

I keep giving myself little goals:

Run 50 miles and I will treat myself to a full body massage.
Get under 200 and I can have a shoe shopping spree.
Run any distance today and have an ice cream.

But, nothing seems to do the trick. I even keep trying to visualize different things to get myself going:

Being skinnier for my 10 year high school reunion.
Being a size 14 for 2013.
Losing another 10 pounds for summer.

Nothing. It's as if my brain gets what I'm telling it but my body refuses to take the message.
*sigh* I don't know. I'm at a loss. I was excited a bit yesterday because I bought something in a size 14/16 and it felt a little lose, but then some of my old clothes don't seem any bigger on me. And this morning I hopped on my boyfriend's scale. It said I had gained 15 pounds. I burst into tears. He tried to console me and tell me that the leg on one of the sides is broken so the numbers are wrong, but I know it's a lie. How did I gain 15 pounds in 2 weeks?! It's not like I've been stagnant- I'm still always up and about with work and rehearsals. I haven't even been eating as much because I don't always have the time to eat. Maybe that's part of the problem- maybe my wacky eating habits are killing me.

Either way, I just feel as if I worked so hard to get down to 207 and now this. I'm taking gigantic steps backwards and I don't know what to do. Even now, I just want to cry. I want to go to the gym while I'm still angry at myself but I'm literally working/rehearsing until goodness knows when tonight. And I want to wake up early tomorrow for a run before work, but I know I'm going to be exhausted.

Please help.  

Week 1 of Bikini Body Bootcamp

I'm frustrated right now. I had this whole beautifully written post all done up for you about my first week doing the Bikini Body Boot camp and as I hit submit, my computer crashed and erased it all. FAIL!!

Let me see if I can recap a bit (mind you this won't be as amazing as my original post- now lost forever!).

Week 1 was the 10 Minute Bootcamp Workout by Jeanette Jenkins

I was very sore going into this because I had spent the day before out doing a complete overhaul on my garden (removing stumps, weeding, wheeling rocks, etc). I refuse to kneel when I garden so I always end up in a long-standing squat or just flat out bending over- probably not the smartest, but it works for me.

Anyway, it was only a 10 minute workout, so I decided to give it a shot before I went to work. It may have only been 10 minutes, but boy did I work up a sweat! Love it! The workout consists of 5 moves:

1. Burpee Push Shuffle (this was a challenging one to start off with, especially after having just woken up)
2. Squat Leg Lift Medial Delt
3. Front Kick Two Hand Touch (this was my favorite!!)
4. Back Row Fly with Booty Tap
5. Grand Plie with Overhead Extension (this was my second favorite)

The exercises vary with how many reps you do of each- some are 10, some are 25, so on and so forth.
But, as I said before, I was definitely mopping up some sweat with this routine, and I really like that. I may add this in as one of my cross training days. Who doesn't love a quick fat-blasting, toning session?
Anyway, the link above has the video you can follow along with to do the workout. I am also going to post links to all the workouts on a separate page on my blog.

In the meantime, give this boot camp session a try and feel free to leave me a comment with which exercise was your favorite!

Hippity Hoppity

Who got her new medal in the mail yesterday?

THIS KID!!

Yay! I love shiny things! Mucho thanks to Amy @Pumpkin to Princess for a fun virtual 5k and some snazzy bling to go with it.

I hope everyone had a good Easter (if you celebrate it). We had a big family gathering at my parent's house. I got to hang out with my niece and help her do the egg hunt (she found them all on her own- I swear!), and enjoy a TON of homecooked goodness. We had ham, lasagna, bbq kielbasa, kielbasa and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, mac and cheese, and rolls. I was pretty good and gave myself small portions (I only did one helping of everything as well). For dessert I made a banana bundt cake with white chocolate drizzle. It was a low cal, low fat cake recipe (no oil or eggs)- it came out super yummy!

Anywho, the day before Easter I did a 2 mile run in 27 minutes. Not too bad. I'm just struggling with trying to hold that pace for longer than 2 miles. Just going to have to push through it, I suppose. Any tips or ideas?

Oh! I also found a website where the writer is doing an 11 week Bikini Body Bootcamp. I actually found it on Pinterest and ended up really liking her blog. I decided I am going to join in and put myself on this 11 week Bikini Body Bootcamp starting this weekend.  On top of the workouts I do throughout the week, I am going to toss this in as an additional circuit training. So, I hope y'all get excited and look forward to my Bikini Body Bootcamp updates. I will fill you in on what I did, which ones I felt worked me hard, which seemed easy slightly less challenging, so on and so forth. Also, if anyone wants to join in with me, please leave a comment and let me know! Maybe we can help each other push through and get all 11 weeks done! Who's with me!?

Run Like a Fool 5k

And that is exactly what I did this morning!

Amy @Pumpkin to Princess sent me an event request on Facebook for this 5k run to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's a virtual 5k so i got to run it this morning around my neighborhood- and I get a snazzy medal to go with it! Woohoo! I managed to finish in about 43 minutes. Maybe it was because I know the area well, or the fact that I was excited about my new shoes, but it was a great run!

My new shoes are the Saucony Powergrid Cortana.

They are heavier than my Kinvaras and have more cushioning, but I like them better. I also got them a half size bigger than normal and I'm glad I did. Maybe my feet grew since I got my Kinvaras but lately my toes have been smushing into the front of my sneakers and I lost part of a toe nail after my 5k last Saturday. Boo!!

Last night, besides being a giddy school girl and opening my new shoes, I was graced with another awesome surprise. I was lying in bed, relaxing and watching Netflix when my mom came in to talk to me. She pointed to the vase I keep on my dresser (which usually has one fake flower in it that my boyfriend gave to me) and asked where all the flowers had come from. I looked up and realized my vase was full of pink roses! I was so confused! At first I thought her and my dad had gotten them for me, but she assured me that was not the case. Then, it dawned on me- my boyfriend! He had texted me earlier saying that he wanted to know what time I was working til so he could drop off my mom's charm book I had left in his truck. DEVIOUS! He didn't want to drop off the book, he was delivering flowers for me! It all came together (after I called him up and asked if he had given me the flowers- at first, he denied it, but then finally gave in and said they were from him). On the phone he told me he had wanted to surprise me and make me smile because he knew we both were running around crazy lately with our work schedules. Isn't he just the sweetest thing ever?!

Okay, enough gushing over that- I was perusing the blog world today, when I stumbled upon (Just) Trying is for Little Girl's most recent post. She was talking about how she had kind of lost her mojo and was advised to find her running identity. It made me realize that I need to sit down and really try and find my running identity. I want to run for fun and I try to do this as best I can but, it's hard to keep my competitive side out of it. I feel like I need to do better and get faster and be more like all of my friends and bloggers who run 8 or 9 min miles. I think I really just need to come to the conclusion that I am a slow runner and that that is okay! Not everyone needs to be fast, right? I want to solely run to enjoy myself and destress and have fun.