Going in the right direction

I did a little under 12 miles today, after doing 13 miles last weekend. My body tolerated it and I actually felt great today! 25 miles with just 2 runs! The weather was nice and cool - 52 degrees when we finished. I didn't have any back or hip pain at all. My foot started aching the last few miles but I believe it's still adjusting to long distances on the orthotics. I switched back to my Nathan Fuel belt today so I wouldn't have the weight of the 20 oz single bottle resting on my back. I don't think that caused my back pain during my race last week but it definitely didn't help it. I will probably reserve that belt for shorter distances.

In other good news, this week I lost the 5 pounds that I put on over the last 2 months!

13.3 pounds to onederland! I will make it there! When I get close to 210 I normally struggle. That seems to be my body's "set" point but I will just battle thru.



In the interest of full disclosure-I am eating a breakfast taco right now....but it's 11:24 am and that's all I've had and I ran 12 miles. Ok...I know that's not going to work....😃




But I did make better choices last week when things were crazy at work. Several days I couldn't go to lunch but sent a coworker to SNAP to get me a healthy meal.

One step at a time...



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The truth continued - measurements

The day before my half marathon I made myself go to weight watchers. I haven't been in a couple of months. I also went by the gym to get my measurements taken and my body fat percentage. As I've said before I need to know where I started from.

My measurements as of Dec 13th are below. Surprisingly there isn't that much of a difference from 6 months ago. Maybe due to the half marathon training (even though I only ran 2-3 times a week). I did have a noticeable increase in my hips though! Apparently that's where I gain first.

I am still 50% fat. 50.4% to be exact. I don't even remember being under 50% fat in the last 20 years. I don't ever recall being under 45% body fat.

Obese is 32%+. 25-31% is acceptable. 21-24% is fitness. 14-20% is athlete.

Is it sad that having a body fat % of obese would be a significant improvement for me?

I have a lot of work to do.






My weight (slightly different than the gym). I asked for a new weight booklet to start fresh. Over the last 9 months I've lost a total of only 11.6 pounds. 😳 I've gained 5.2 pounds since I was last there in early October. For me, that's the same as maintaining.





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BCS half marathon - a future measuring stick

You gotta know where you are starting from to set goals and truly recognize what you've accomplished later down the line. So....

I had a half marathon today. The BCS half marathon in College Station. It was tough. But so am I. Back pain by Mile 4. Left Glute pain kicked in as well. Foot pain the last 3 miles. I started out with 5/1's but had to drop 2/1's and then to walking due to pain. But I kept moving.

On a positive note, the weather was absolutely perfect, the course was great, and I felt better the last 5 miles (I got a Tylenol at mile 7!). I always knew I could finish despite my longest training run being 8 miles and my last long run of 7 miles being over a month earlier on November 4. I was in India from Nov 8-Dec 4th. Prior to leaving town my training was consistent and I was looking forward to this race. My time wasn't what I wanted it to be but I adjusted my goal to finishing and enjoying myself, rather than worrying about the time. Not that I ever gave up. And I did start back up run intervals later in the race and finished with run intervals!

This was a Wonderful race. I will definitely be returning to this one next year. Maybe in search of a PR.

My future time to beat is my time of 3:36 from this race (official time may be slightly different). I would like to show considerable improvement at my half in 3 months in Dallas. Note that this is not my PR. It's probably one of my slowest (the slowest is another one in which I had back pain ironically).

My current PR is 3:08:24. By March 2015 I hope to be under 3:00. By next December I should be able to hit 2:45. Of course that is dependent on me training and I would say getting healthier and losing weight as well.

Anyway below are some pics from the race. By the way, I'm so sore you wouldn't believe!


This course was not flat....


But it had a great finisher shirt and medal


Me post race


A selfie with Mr and Mrs Claus during the race


Nice sign to see along the way. "Finishing is your only option!"


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Location:

The first day of truth - facing the scale

The purpose of the blog this time around is to be totally honest and straightforward about my journey. 

To know how much progress you've made, you have to know where you started. 

The first step along this path is my weight.  I landed back in the USA Thursday after being gone for 26 days. 

My weight today (Sunday) is 218 per my home scale (sorry the picture is sideways). I actually basically maintained while I was gone although I can tell my body is "softer" from lack of exercise. My "healthy" goal weight range for my height of 5'4/5'5" is 117-155. My personal goal right now is 180 and then I will re-evaluate. 38 pounds sounds achievable. Right now if I pick something that seems impossible I will get discouraged before I even get started. 

My Measurements will be updated next week. I tried to do them myself tonight but would rather have official (I.e. Accurate) results. I can say that my waist size surprised me, and not in a good way! That's the one area I'm sure I measured correctly. 

On another note, I went for my first run in over a month. 3 miles. Ran 1 mile at a time, with a short walk break in between miles. Not bad for taking an entire month off! Of course, that's only 3 miles. I have a half marathon this coming weekend that I am no longer prepared for. One person online gave me very good advise.  She said not to beat myself up or spend the whole race thinking about the what ifs. (What if I would have trained while I was in India....). She said to just enjoy the experience for what it is and not let negative self talk take over. Very good advice!

One last thing-I have 2 meals prepped in the mini crockpots. A porkchop with gravy and chili. So I have taken away the fast food excuses for the first 2 days of the work week!

Recent photos 

2015 - The Year of Kimmi

I didn't want to title this as "I'm back" because, well, I did that in 2012 and it was my only post for the year!

My life has been taken over by work since 2011. I've totally lost my sense of work life balance. My health has suffered. My running has definitely suffered. So I've decided to make 2015 "The Year of Kimmi".

I can no longer allow work to come first, and Kimmi to always come last. I can no longer allow family member's needs to always come first and Kimmi's needs to come last. I can no longer give 150% emotionally and physically to everything and everyone else except Kimmi.

2015 will be the year of keeping my promises to myself. Making my goals and sticking to them. Being accountable to myself, for myself. I'm not just talking about running goals. There are so many things I've put on the back burner for work. I need to take care of my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

If I don't take care of Kimmi, who will?

No one.

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I'm back!!!

It's been a while! A ton has been going on. I took most of last running season off, although I did do a half marathon relay, and 3 half marathons within 3 weeks, 2 of them on back to back days! I survived. I was slow, lots of walking, but I did it on very little training. So that made me wonder-if I can do back to back halfs with no training, what could I do if I trained for the entire season, May - March? So my goal is to find out this year. Work had been crazy - it has completely taken over my life and I'm really unhappy. Lots of overtime, stress, stress eating leading to weight gain (or sometime no break and no food all day). i get sick frequently-working the way I do isn't healthy. My goal is to devote more time to taking care of myself than I do to my job. if something were to happen to me, the reality is, the job would survive. They would pick up and move on and forget about me in a few weeks. I've really been thinking about the whole work life balance thing lately. This has become even more important as I found out over the last couople of days that I have an irregular heart beat. It was only discovered because I went in because I was really sick and in the course of the normal "listen to your heart with a stethoscope" the dr heard something usual - some extra beats in there. An EKG confirmed it. In researching I discovered that stress can cause it. So can caffeine but I gave up sodas on Decc 28th and usually drink decaf tea (and I do n't drink tea that often). I had felt a few twinges in my chest lately but I kind of dismissed it. Anyway, my job is not worth my health. i'm only 36!! So this running season I'm going to focus on me. Of course, I'm not off to a good start being sick, with an infection and fever. Probably won't be running this week with my running group. Just have to make sure that missing 1 week doesn't turn into 1 month and then into 1 year.....

A PR? Who? Me?

I ROCKED Dallas! The Dallas Rock and Roll Half Marathon was my absolutely most enjoyable half marathon that I've done to date, and this was half marathon #6. It wasn't just enjoyable because I had PR (personal record), although that was icing on the cake. I can't say I had the best impression of the Rock and Roll series, based on the San Antonio one I did. I wasn't that impressed with the course or post race party, etc. Dallas totally changed my opinion of the Rock and Roll series. Why?

• Well organized from start to finish - from packet pickup at expo to the pre and post race


• Great pre-race music! Even upon arrival. Got me exited. When I walked up they were playing "I got a feeling...tonight's going to be a good night" by the Black Eye peas. Was a sign of the race to come!


• Midsize race - Only a half marathon and had corrals so no craziness at the start line


• Dallas cheerleaders - I know they were freezing but it was kind of cool to see them!


• Beautiful scenery - not all hood or industrial. Beautiful HUGE homes and landscaping. For the first time, I really was looking around as I was running. This race has the best scenery of a race I've done so far.


• Great traffic control (although I heard a resident left their home and drove on the race course)


• Great volunteers - with plenty of fluids, even at mile 12 for back of the pack people


• Lots of great bands (not allowed in Highland Heights area but we had great scenery there!)


• Not too many mile markers - sounds strange to have this as something I liked but during the race, I only noticed a few mileage signs (with clocks showing the time). Maybe there were a lot more, but I only remember the sign for mile 4, mile 8, mile 11, and mile 12. And of course, mile 13. It helped, especially early on when I struggled more, not seeing or noticing a lot of the mile markers. Especially since I struggled more the 1st half - seeing I was only at mile 5 and had 8 miles left wouldn't have been helpful.....


• Great ending with the Ferris Wheel. Great Texas landmark.


• Awesome post race concert - Bret Michaels. You didn't have to go looking for the concert. You just heard it and could see it. If I had to go somewhere, or come back later, I would have missed it/wouldn't have bothered. By the way, I didn't even think Bret Michaels was someone I wanted to hear/see. I just heard him and saw him as I was crossing the post race area and decided to listen to a few songs because it was pretty good! I think because it was a half marathon only, with a 4 hour time limit, the concert could be held right away

Now on to me! I got a PR! My former PR was 3:10:42. That was from my very first half marathon - Aramco in 2009 (the one I ended up in the medical tent afterwards, lol!). Just as recent as December, I did a half in 3:37 (after taking many months off) and in January I did a half in 3:15. New PR. 3:08:14. On a course with hills!

So what made this race really the most enjoyable besides the scenery? #1 - An AWESOME running partner - Karen! I've done my last 2 half marathon's with her. I think she is my good luck charm! #2 No CRAMPING! I have cramped in every single half marathon I have ever done prior to this. I have struggled beginning around mile 9-11 in every half, and had cramping really hitting at mile 11. That did not happen this time! #3 - I wasn't thinking "What was I thinking when I signed up for this?" the last few miles!!! #4 - I actually felt better the 2nd half of the race and ran negative splits. I never felt like I wouldn't finish the race once I got to the 2nd half. Usually, the last 4-5 miles is where I start thinking I can't finish. But I was feeling good. Odd! I think the strengh training may have played a part in this. Mile splits for the race are below:

1. 14:13 - seeing some usual things. Like a couple of people running with their gear bags. A bottle of water rolling down a hill (running a half marathon carrying a bottle of ozarka?)


2. 14:39 - I'm thinking perhaps this was the first hill? The hill that I didn't know about, by the way...I ran up it, how ever slowly while everyone was walking. Was pretty proud of that!


3. 14:34 - Just running and chatting


4. 14:18 - Just running and chatting.


5. 14:32 - I remember thinking "Beautiful neighborhoods" somewhere in this area


6. 14:42 - I started struggling a bit. The 3-1's were getting harder. This is the farthest I've been lately in training runs since Aramco (part of why I didn't expect anything near a PR). I was thinking I wasn't going to make it 13 miles......


7. 14:50 - Still thinking I'm really not going to be able to finish this race. Dang, I should have made myself get in a few more long runs since Aramco! A little bit of nausea. Maybe I took my 2nd set of endurolytes here.


8. 14:37 - I think around here I have switched to 2-1's instead of 3-1's. It made a HUGE difference.


9. 13:50 - I'm feeling good. Every time the run interval beeps, I cheerfully say "let's go!" to Karen. I'm shocking my self.


10. 13:26 - Must have really been feeling good. This was with walking breaks!


11. 13:41 - Karen tells me we are on pace for a PR for me. I'm too scared to believe it.


12. 13:44 Wow, at mile 12. Karen says we are almost there - see the Ferris Wheel? I say the Ferris Wheel looks pretty far away to me!!!!


13. 14:09 - We were really picking up the run pace - running in the 12's. So I went a little slower on the walk recovery. Started freaking out because I could see I was back in the 14's for the mile average and I was worried I was going to blow it at the end and not have a PR. Since I didn't even set out to PR in this race - only finish - I just can't believe it can happen.....I always blow it the last few miles of the race.

.1 - I don't know. I stopped my Garmin when I crossed the finish line, but I accidently started it back up later and it added on to what I already had.

Actually, I'm just now looking at the elevation chart for the first time - got a copy for this blog, and it explains some things. Like why mile 6 and 7 were extremely hard and why I slowed down so much! And it explains why it started getting easier at mile 8 when I crested the hill. I'm glad I didn't see this elevation chart prior to doing the race!

NEXT GOAL: SUB 3 on November 13th, 2011

San Antonio Rock and Roll!