Day 57 - 24 days to go... Four weeks away!

Christmas is coming!  Wow.  Four weeks!

I get to run 8 miles tomorrow.  YIKES.  Debating if I should do it inside or out.  Not sure which is least tortuous.  I guess it depends on the temperature and what time I work out.  I'm tempted to do outdoors to fight the boredom of being on the treadmill for nearly two hours but tempted to do the treadmill to utilize the two cup holders that will hold plenty of (I'm sure) much needed beverage... decisions, decisions!

Anyway, my friend Nicole sends me running quotes all the time (thank you!  love them!)  And yesterday's was this:


Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.  -Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life


Now, Amby Burfoot may have had the unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your take) luck of being named Amby Burfoot but she (or is Amby a he?) is definitely my kind of thinker and I love this quote.  May even buy the book. 

The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life

If I don't die running eight miles, I'll tell ya all about it tomorrow night!


XO
Jen


**I'm still not sure if it's a she or he - I am too lazy to look it up right now but I did find the book on Amazon and this person has ran for more than 35 years and won the Boston Marathon in 1968!  I definitely think this might be a good read!!!  I put the link to the book it's on sale for $9.95 if you're interested.  


PSS:  Make me souper!!  Don't forget the contest!!  Vote for Jennifer!


PSSS:  I'm an idiot..  Wound up looking it up.   Amby is a guy and he's kind of a big deal.  Here's his bio:


Amby Burfoot is the 1968 Boston Marathon winner, and a long-time editor (since 1978) at Runner's World magazine. Burfoot has run approximately 103,000 miles in his life, and has finished the Manchester (CT) Thanksgiving Day road race every year since 1963 (47 straight years through 2009). He also continues to run Boston on every fifth-year anniversary of his win, with his next scheduled Boston race in 2013, and has twice completed the 54-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa. These days, at age 63 and counting, Burfoot continues running about 25 miles a week for health and fitness, and races just a handful of times each year. He's married to Cristina, a fellow writer/editor, and has two grown children, Daniel, a Ph.D. in robotics, and Laura, a community organizer in New London, CT. He feels extremely lucky to be one of those fortunate few who have been able to combine their passion with their profession.

Day 56 - 25 days to go... A run in the sun, not so fun.

OK, major mistake.  After running in a temp controlled environment (the gym) and in slightly cooler weather outdoors up until today - I made a bad decision.  It was 82 degrees, slightly muggy,very sunny and 3 PM... and I thought that would be a good time to run.  Without water.  Wearing black.

My bad.

It's probably not that big a deal if I had worked up to this temp but being that it was 20 degrees warmer than anything I had ever run in, I really felt the heat.  I wound up walking way too much during the last mile or so - I was dizzy and soooo thirsty that I might have stuck my head in a puddle if I happened upon one.  Of course, the park I ran through kept giving me little mini teases of water fountains that I would run out of my way to, only to find them not operating.  Remember that cartoon where wandering nomads in the desert would hallucinate mirages of palm tree shaded ponds?  That was me.

I didn't bring water because I didn't want to be bogged down running and holding a water bottle.  Maybe that was an error.

Even a little cooled down soup would've been welcomed.  Hey, did someone mention soup?  Did you know you could vote here and make me super souper!?  it was souper hot out today but please vote anyway!

Aside from the heat, the other annoying thing I forgot to take into consideration was the fifty schools (well really 4 schools but still) that all let out during my run.  I love kids and all but trying to weave in and out of a sea of brooding high school students loitering about is not my idea of fun.  It's actually my idea of torture.  In addition to clogging up the sidewalks - they immediately make me feel old and dorky.

But alas, the heat, the kids, the mirages of water didn't kill me and I'm still standing.  I still ran four miles (OK probably ran 3 and walked one or something...) but I did it and learned some lessons - I finished with an overall pace of 4.1 mph which tells me that the time I was running must've been pretty good because I walked a lot and thought my pace would wind up slower than that.

Do you runners bring water with you on your runs outside?  Do you carry it in hand or is that some kind of fanny pack/tool belt things that you employ?  Is it cumbersome?

XO
Jen

Day 55 - 26 days to go... Words of wisdom?

Today was a rest day but I had some interesting things happen.

1.  I was interviewed for a blogging position for a fairly big web-site.  I feel pretty confident that it went well and hopefully they'll let me know soon.  (WOW - people get paid for blogging!?  And to think, I just do this for fun!)

2.  I had an interview with our town newspaper The Nutley Sun Newspaper for my "Souper You" fame (lol)  - I let them know when I received word on my finalist status, figuring maybe I could garner up some local votes.  Megan called and we chatted for about 20 minutes.  She was kind and asked me about running routes, why I liked running around our community and finally my words of wisdom for others.   Words of wisdom?  First of all, I didn't expect to be asked about running so much - like I was some kind of running expert or something.  Soup.  I was ready to talk about soup.

So, I kind of choked on this one.  I never really considered having my own words of wisdom here.  I've spent so much time begging you all for advice on sneakers, pre-post workout meals, stretching protocol, warm-up technique, song selection, gadgets to use -  I download my training schedule and everything is pretty much on autopilot.

My weight loss has been slow and up to now I've always considered my battle with weight and exercise a pretty good failure - to have someone ask for my 'words of wisdom' in this arena was not something I was prepared for.  I thought we were going to talk soup... And how you could vote for me here:  souper Jennifer

So what did I tell Megan?

Something about no matter where you are at or how big your goal is - you can take one small step at a time to get there.  How I started as a size 16 (on this journey but my highest size was a 20!) who could barely run for a minute and 55 days later can fairly comfortably run 4 miles on a normal day and will be pushing myself to go 8 miles this week, 9 next and eventually 13.

I guess, upon further thought, it's about perseverance.  Knowing there'll be people who run faster and further, knowing that there'll be uphill climbs, forks in the roads and set backs but going balls to the wall and doing it anyway.  Taking big dreams, making big goals and figuring it out as you go.

The day I signed up to run 13 miles back in February - I had no idea how i would go from no running to running 13 miles -- i just knew (and continue to know) that somehow, someway, I will cross that finish line.

XO
Jen

Day 54 - 27 days to go... Easter Bunny and Jen on the run!

Happy Easter everyone.

This morning was perfect here in New Jersey.  The type of morning that if you could bottle and sell, you'd get millions for.  The flowers are beginning to bloom, the trees are sprouting leaves, the sky blue, the sun shining.  Weather at 8 AM was around 63 degrees (give or take) and all was perfect.

I decided to do my 4 mile run outside.  It was a great run.  I did it (and it was more than 4 miles - not sure how much it was because my run included going through parks and mapmyrun doesn't map park trails...) in just under an hour.  If it was 4 miles it would've been done in 4.22 but it was more so I'm really pleased with the time.  I barely walked and there's something about running outside that just is so different than running on a treadmill.

My top five reasons to run outside vs. running at gym
1.  Scenery of parks, houses and gardens more motivating than watching steroid dude misuse weights and guzzle power smoothies
2.  You never know what you might find outside... Today I found a coupon for $.75 off my next purchase at Shoprite while passing said store.  SCORE!
3.  Evading angry dogs, smiling at neighbors and leaping over potholes in a single bound makes you feel super hero like... (or just SOUPER, don't forget to VOTE here:  vote for your fav souper hero here )
4.  Pretending that the people mowing their lawns are watching you, makes you run faster (it's true!)
5.  The sun on your face, the wind on your back and the fact that once you are a few miles from home and the only way back is to run the distance back - good incentive to keep moving!!

and of course, running outside does have it's cons:

My top five reasons to run at the gym vs. running outside
1.  Steroid dude too self-absorbed to notice you doing disco guns as you run to "I'm Coming Out" from Diana Ross
2.  The floor is moving.   Move your feet or die.  (Well maybe not die, but definitely get hurt and then die of embarrassment as the steroid dude tries to peel your face off the treadmill.)
3.  2 nifty cup holders and a dashboard to hold beverages of choice and sweat towel.
4.  No rain, no angry dog no chance of, "stepping on a crack and breaking your momma's back."
5.  If nature calls, you're 2 feet away from a place "to go."

Oh man, I wish I didn't have to rest tomorrow.  I had such a good run today, I want to do it again tomorrow!!

XO
Jen

Day 53 - 28 days to go... Happy Saturday!

It's a gorgeous day and I did my 3 mile "recovery" walk home from my Weight Watcher meeting today.  Funny, how speed walking 3 miles is now a "recovery" from anything.  lol ;)

The really funny thing is, I've been going to that WW meeting for three years now and it never occurred to me to walk.  It seems really far just driving there to me.  So even the decision to walk home today, making it and realizing that it was no big deal - was kind of a positive step in the right direction for me.

I had my weigh in and I lost a whopping .2  add that to my giant .6 from last week and we're looking at .8th of a pound in two weeks.  Yes, you should read the hint of sarcasm in there.  I mean you would think I at very least, sweated .2 away just from running for 7 miles.

But I'm feeling thinner, things are fitting better and people are starting to notice that I'm losing weight so I'm getting to a place where I'm more at peace with whatever the scale says because I think my body is changing.  In fact, some of my clothing is getting too big to wear.  I wore a pair of sweats today that were super annoying because as I was walking home, they kept sliding down - and these I only bought a month or so ago!  :)   So I think my next run will be to the mall!

Don't forget to go to the polls and vote in the Souper You contest today!  JEN IS SOUPER - PLEASE VOTE!  I made the announcement in my WW meeting so hopefully I'll pick up a few more votes there too!!

Have a great Saturday.

XO
Jen

Day 52 - 29 days to go... coming quick!

Only 29 days to go!  I can't believe it.

I know the day is going to be a reality some day but somehow this whole journey has made the actual race day almost an unreal fantasy.  The feeling reminds me of when I was a little kid and I would look forward to Christmas.  As a kid, every year felt like ten years.  If it was May and I was looking forward to Christmas, it seemed like a day that would never actually come but a day I would dream about.

Twenty nine days and it's no longer a novelty or a dream -- it's happening and coming quick - ready or not.

I think I'll be ready.

By the way map my run mapmyrun.com  has a really cool section (all free) where you can keep track of your training.  It's under the "my training log" tab.  I started using it in the second week of March and it's great.  not only can you track everything about each work-out (you can go as simple as how much time and your perceived effort -- all the way up to tracking how you were feeling, heart rate, pace, etc...) but it also tracks your overall month.

So you can take a glance at a month and see how far you've come, here's my March calendar.  Each day I worked out, I have a little man on the day.  At the top you can see your progress for the whole month.  In march, I ran for 37.44 miles and burned 5,238 calories.  I love this thing - and I would encourage you to poke around this site even if you don't run.  I find this training log worth the free membership!!

Have a great weekend... And if you haven't already -- cast your souper vote for me!!

Jen wants to at least win third so vote!!

XOXO
Jen

Day 53 - 30 days to go...SEVEN MILES

OMG, people!  I ran for 7 miles today!  SEVEN miles!!  That's like 2 5k's back to back, that's for real -- no fooling, no doubt about it, some hard core running!!  I did it in 1:44 which averages a little over 4mph... respectable in my opinion as the amount of miles to run felt like forever...

The calorie burner said I burnt off 998 calories! LOL

I broke it up into two parts, the first 3 miles I ran in 44 mins and the next 4 miles I ran in exactly 59:28.  It was very tough and it seemed like I wasn't going to make my self imposed 4 miles in the hour.  after running 5 miles I was getting really tired and my legs were burning but once that treadmill got to around 50 mins, I let it rip and I dug deep to run the last ten minutes between 5.0 -5.5 to get 'er done.  There was nothing sweeter than making that goal.  I literally gave the double finger salute to the treadmill, as to say -- "ef" you I win!!  I think I might have done a Jersey fist pump in there too.  I'm pretty sure I looked absolutely insane, all red faced, hair frizzed, sweat dripping off every inch of my body, laughing and flipping off the treadmill but i don't care.  I did it.  And no one can take it away.

It was a souper moment for a souper gal... Don't forget to vote if you haven't today:  Jen's SOUPER and ran SEVEN MILES! VOTE HERE

Here's a picture of me post run.  Good thing Shoprite had that sale on frozen veggies - 7 miles required 6 bags of various mixed veggies to help get me iced down.

XO
Jen