Sing in the rain or face the dreadmill? Such decisions

Even dorky me promises to leave the umbrella at home

OK, I've always been super lame about cold weather, rain and snow. I'm not a fan of the elements. Living in Southern California for the brief time I was there, suited me just fine. But, I've been back in Jersey for the last few years and now I'm a runner. And I'm a runner who is training for a marathon dammit.

I have decisions to make.

With winter on its way, I have already decided that I'm going to try to run outside as much as possible and try not to bitch, moan and cry like a baby truly embrace the experience.  Now that I've become accustomed to running outside, the thought of going on a treadmill sucks is just not tempting me. When I first started running, I'd say about 99% of my running was on the treadmill. I didn't run outside at all last year until the temp climbed above 60 - and then, when the temp turned hot - I took it back to the treadmill.

It was OK back then. I wasn't running that fast or long - "long runs" were 4 or 5 miles (sure they eventually built to 10 for long run day, but I only had to do 8 once and 10 once for 1/2 training) it wasn't that big a deal.

But now, the thought of doing 10 miles (2 hours) on a treadmill is giving me hives.

I've already begun to stock up on cold weather gear and have asked Santa for stuff like Under Armour for Christmas. (Really? I used to ask Santa for Gucci or a great new perfume... now I'm asking for Under Armour... yep. It's on the list right next to compression socks and sports bra. Yee haaaaa, how things change...)

Sorry for the digression.  Anyhoo...

Tomorrow I've gotta do six. It's supposed to pour.

Do I literally 'test' the waters and run in the cold rain or do I suck it up and visit my good ol' friends at the gym? I have kind of a crappy wind breaker and a nylon hat. I don't know. What does one even run in outside in the rain? Do I need special gear? Will my sneakers get ruined? My Nike + get waterlogged, my i-Pod explode (or die painlessly?) Inquiring minds...

Real runners run in rain... (I think, in any case say that ten times fast... ;)  What do you think?

XO
Jen

Ten Freakin' miles! Yippee

OK, this is an exageration, but how the wind felt to me

Today I felt like one BAMF'er out there.

I'm recovering from some weird flu like thing (chills, aches, swollen glands) that ruined Turkey day and holed me up yesterday, but feeling 85% back, figured I'd give the long run a go.

With slightly less energy, wind howling in my face, chilly conditions, an annoyingly runny nose the whole time (and horrors - no tissues), I stared down my long run day of ten miles and took it on.  Pace was 11:56 and just under 2 hours but I felt super victorious. The last time I ran ten miles was for my half in September and I had hit an awful wall right before ten miles, so I had that mental thing to get past too.

And I did it. I did it strong. It was the very first time in my entire life that I'd ever run for that kind of distance without walking at all, that accomplishment makes me feel really happy.

Oh there's a lot of mental cheerleading and stuff going on in my head. Many mantra's. They got me thru.

So that's pretty awesome.

And in slightly more annoying news - I gained FIVE pounds at WW this week?  WTF!? Even without the long run on Friday I ran 12 miles and cross trained twice. I didn't eat Thanksgiving (no dessert, no alcohol) thanks to the flu... I'm baffled. I eat clean and lean and it just doesn't add up.  I always have a lot of points at the end of the week, I don't eat anywhere close to all the points I accumulate from all the exercise (HELLO, today I earned an extra 16 points for the long run - that's almost a whole day of food!)

I'm not upset, just confused. OK and a little annoyed because I was so happy about 81.8 pounds and I'm going backwards. And of-course there's always this guy in the meeting, "Well, I'm totally shocked but I lost 2 pounds this week and I ate everything not nailed down..." Good for you buddy.

GRRR.

I'm hoping being sick and drinking a lot of salty broth yesterday to soothe the throat is what's tripping up the scale this week, we'll see. I can only keep on eating right, training and doing the right thing. I have to think the good will catch up.

My saving grace is, I feel good in my skin, I feel strong, I feel accomplished, I have the knowledge that I'm doing a million good things for me...  so while I'm slightly annoyed I do not let the scale ruin my day anymore.

XO

Jen

PS: After reading this post, my friend Jackie sent me this article about weight gain and exercise - I'm doing a lot more lately, so perhaps this is it? Make more sense and at very least, is very comforting! Thanks Jackie!  Gain Weight with exercise

Happy Thanksgiving - Thanking the running Gods

As we gear up to gather with family and friends for another Thanksgiving holiday (my fav. holiday for the record) I, like many others, have taken some time to reflect on all of the things I'm truly thankful for. Topping the list are my husband, son, my twin sis and parents, the many friends in my life, the roof over my head, the clothes on my back, the food on my table. I am a lucky girl and my thanks for things could go on from now to next year.

In the interest of time and keeping a running theme going, I thought I'd do a top ten greatest things I'm grateful for in running.

Thank you running Gods for:

10. Having the good sense to make the Apple folks invent iPods & iTunes

9.  Running fuel like Gu and Sport Beans for long run days.

my park - I owned the place today!

8.Beautiful places to run, like the beach when I'm in Cali or the gorgeous and many, many miles of Saddle Brook Park in NJ just a few miles from home for me.

7.  The Internet, where in a wink of an eye, you can calculate routes, calories burned, gather information, browse blogs and order a new pair of running pants.

6.  Sneakers! Running in heels or flip flops would really suck.

5.  Fellow running bloggers like Jason, Lesley & Julie ----> make sure to check out my blog roll for others who rock. I find humor, advice, feedback and inspiration from my fellow writing runners.

4.  Thank you running Gods for making me thinner and healthier...

3.  ...for challenging me to be stronger and inspiring me to dig deeper.

2.  Race day excitement and runner's high.

1.  Thank you for finish lines where goals are reached, dreams achieved and new beginnings emerge.

XO

Jen

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Before & After Part 2 The Emotional

Jersey Shore half 2010

The post before this, I showed some of my physical transformation and while I still have some ways to go, I'm getting close to goal.

But more exciting than the physical transformation has been the emotional & mental "before and after" that I didn't expect to gain from running:

Before:
I can't run, I'm not athletic, running sucks.
After:
I can run, I am strong, running doesn't suck that bad and sometimes I even like it.

Before:
I'll never lose weight, I have no follow thru.
After:
I can commit to training, to believing in myself and had a whole winter of going from not being able to run for 13 seconds to running for 13 miles last May. I'm even capable of losing weight. There's nothing I can't do if I'm willing to work for it and take the steps to get there.

Before:
I have to accept things the way they are even if I'm unhappy.
After:
I have the power to change things I don't like, I just have to give up excuses and find solutions. (Even if it's snowing out I can run around my kitchen table 2000 times and get my run in -- no that's not awesome but there's always a way.)

Before:
I have soooo much stress, life sucks, I have to drink or overeat to deal.
After:
I have some stress but life is great - I just need to run it out and, think and regroup.

Before:
I felt like a loser through much of my life, often looking for the negative
After:
I look for the positive - I'm a winner :)

Running has given me so many life tools - coping skills, confidence, goal setting ability, friends and health- I had no idea it would give me such a great "after" life.

What about you? What's your before and after story?

XO
Jen

Before and After Part 1 - The Physical

Well, my WW weigh in was a dud today at the scale, I actually gained weight. I'm not too freaked about it because I had a big loss last week and I really didn't do anything to warrant a gain. I actually had a great week - I ran 20 miles, had my best 5K time, and was called a role model.

I also ate healthfully, I didn't eat anything out of the norm and was within my weight watcher points... In fact I earned about 38 activity points and didn't touch any of them so I feel my weight gain might be from not eating enough if anything. Oh well. Who cares? At this point I'm striving to be the healthiest I can be, run well and continue losing until goal. In that order.

Anyway. I dug up these pictures sometime last week and have been toying with sharing this before or not. I finally decided I will. It's no secret that I was bigger at one point. My before picture was taken very shortly after the birth of my son.

I was embarrassed of this picture.  Ashamed at how I allowed myself to get that big but after really reflecting on it, I changed my mind. I'm no longer ashamed of that girl. That girl, in that body decided to make a change, she had the guts, the desire, the courage to start and the persistence to keep going. I'm proud of her.

So here it is:

Jen September 2007

Jen in the middle November 2010

XO

Jen

Running myth busters according to Jen

Today I had a rest day, which I actually kinda hate - I like getting my run on. But I did go to the Road Runner store to pick up some sports beans for my long runs... I found out last week that i really like them much better than Gu or gel. These are the ones I particularly like - I only needed to eat half the bag for my 8 miler and they seemed to really work:

Here was the cool thing, the guy who worked there was a real runner (like 10 marathons) when I went to pay he asked if they were for my long run and we talked run shop for a few minutes - we swapped stories of where we run, what races we're doing, he told me about some new energy gel that's coming out and I was on my way. I felt like such a real runner. Talking the talk, walking the walk, getting my beans. I don't know, can't explain how cool that was to me. There is no longer that dear and headlight daze I once got, walking into the running store. No confusion on what I'm doing. I really feel like I've crossed a bridge from wanna be into runner. It's a nice feeling.

Anyhoo...

This running journey has been an interesting ride. I've learned a ton about a million things but I've also learned that I was wrong about a whole buncha things too - myths if you will, that not only I used to believe but many people still believe and perpetuate. I was musing these things so thought I'd throw them out there...

Myth #1 - Running will allow you to eat whatever you want and lose weight.
Jen truth - maybe for you but not for me. I have to still carefully plan everything I eat and it's even a little more challenging now because I have to not only take in consideration that I'm trying to lose weight but I have to figure out the right amount of calories pre-run, during my long run and for recovery. I'm striving for healthy balance, I don't want to be stupid and not eat enough either...  This is a fine art and even with all the running, I have to WORK at the food.  Oy.

Myth #2 - Running is a cheap form of exercise.
Jen truth - Hardy, har, har, har. I write a shopping blog for a living and read a lot of articles about saving money. It seems that many "frugal" bloggers have this crazy notion that running is "a super cheap form of exercise." I thought that at first too. What's there to spend? Ya got feet? A pair of sneakers from the Payless and we're good to go. Um. Cough. Anyone who thinks running is cheap isn't a real runner. Sorry. Just the basics alone - a good pair of sneakers, the right clothing, race fees quickly add up. Never mind the rest of it - the compression socks, iPod, tracking gear, hydration belts, sports bras, gu, and that's just what's rolling off the top of my head - isn't cheap. Now don't get me wrong, it's all worth every penny but I'm busting this myth wide open.

Myth #3 - You must love running ("I could never run because it's not my fav. activity")
Jen truth - I can't tell you how many people say, well, I could never really run because I don't really like it much. Do you think I liked to run at the beginning? Hell no. This started out as a side show, a novelty act, something to get me writing and exercising. Every minute of running was pretty painful and annoying. Now I love it. I feel extremely grateful that I took that time to "acquire the taste" but it didn't happen overnight. It took me a looooooong time to appreciate it and then finally start to love it.  You don't get to 236 pounds loving running, you get to that weight by loving pizza, sitting on your ass and sleeping late. Luckily, I loved myself enough to make the changes necessary to get me right to this spot... gearing up for my 8 mile long run in the AM.

So my fellow run-loving friends, what myths are you ready to bust?

XO
Jen

No turning back now - it's official, I'm registered for my first FULL marathon

So yeah, I'm in. Took the plunge, dove into the pool, plunked down my credit card and signed up for San Diego Rock and Roll Full marathon... all 26.2 miles of it.

I guess I should thank the blogging community for it all...

Without it, I wouldn't have publicly made the commitment (without the public expectation, I prob would've changed my mind already) and then to be named a "role model" well, what choice do I have really?

It'll be great. Gulp.

The words "Rock and Roll" in the title of the race makes everything cool - no?

It's only one mile 26.2 times or so... I could do that. I think.

Oh boy. Well there's no turning back now. I'm going to train and train hard. I know there'll be runs in the wind, and long runs on the "dread mill" in the middle of winter... I know it's going to be challenging but walk, run, skip or crawl - I'm gonna give it my all.

By the way, plenty of time for you to sign up and do it with me... here's a code to use at checkout and save a few bucks: sdsurvey10

XO
Jen