Some Friday Motivation!

I was reading blogs this morning and headed over to Running is Funny and he had a countdown of some great running commercials. I loved them all - but the last one - really spoke to me today - take a look!

Sacfit Saturday!

So things today were a little different - we did the Cooper Workout - I have a love/hate relationship with this workout since it is very hard to do and my lungs hate doing it, but it is a great indicator of how far I have come from season to season.

This season I ran further again - by almost half a lap and was very close to completing 5 laps in 12 minutes! I believe this will give me the confirmation that I am in the right pace group for me and I have earned my spot in the faster group! My actual stats are - 1.22 miles in 12 minutes making my average pace 9:51! Granted this is not my long run pace, but our coach crunches the numbers and based on those figures places us in a group he knows we are capable of running with.

Sunday is the Hubsters birthday and we are really just celebrating today - we are going bowling with his workplace and then to a nice dinner at Cheesecake Factory! Can't wait!!

Tweaking the Workout Schedule!

I am going to try something that I have been considering doing for quite a while now - I'm going to try and get my workouts done in the morning. Logan's school schedule and my work schedule means I can not go to the gym before work, but since I can run at home and ride the bike on the trainer at home I can do both those things before he even gets up in the morning. When I get off from work it is dark still so I can't run on the trail like I want to anyway and riding the bike outside is also out of the question for the same reason. I will do my running and my bike at home and on Wednesday night I will go and swim after work. The rest of the week I will be free to come home after work and actually eat at a descent hour and spend some time with my family (I don't even get off work until 6PM - getting me home at 6:45 if I go straight home and almost 8-8:30 if I workout after work) It will mean getting up earlier, but if I can pull this off it will be good for my family. I'm not good with change but the way I see it, I had to put some pretty drastic changes into place to get me to my 100 pound weight loss, my fitness level as it is and for me to complete a marathon so this is just one more change I hope I will adapt to quickly! Wish me luck!

Weekend Ramblings!

Well on Saturday there was a 7 mile run - I rocked it! It was very nice, but I was so tired at the end of it I was worried I was going to fall asleep driving home! I came home, ate lunch and took a long nap, followed by dinner out (usually a no-no the day before weigh in day) and then back home to go to bed. I still feel like my body is fighting off getting sick and some days are better than others.

Sunday morning the Wii fit had me up 3 pounds from the day before (the reason eating out on Saturday is a no-no! - salt is bad) So I did go to my meeting but didn't weigh in. Since I am lifetime now I only have to weigh in once a month but will still keep an eye on things to make sure I don't creep too far up (and I do want to still lose - but I'm pretty darn happy where I'm at right now). I have already weighed in for February.

Sunday after WW was my new favorite breakfast - Pancakes, strawberries and Nutella! Yummy! Then we met my older son at his house downtown and walked to the running store to look around, then to the bike shop to finally buy his graduation present. We decided to go out to eat today as well, it was nice being able to take my older son out - we don't get to spend much time with him because of work schedules and such. We ate at a little Mexican restaurant and it was soooo good - then we went next door to Rick's dessert diner and picked up couple of desserts to go. I'm starting my week in a major hole, but you know - sometimes you just need to do it!

On Monday Tri training officially starts. I kinda started it a week early, but then didn't get two of the workouts in due to feeling icky - so this week I need to do better. The weather here has been so beautiful and I think the walk today in the sun did me some good. I'm still very tired, but maybe once and for all I can get a good nights sleep and kick this!

So in case anyone is wondering what my Tri-Training schedule looks like here it is!

Monday - Bike and Run
Tuesday - Run
Wednesday - Bike and Swim
Thursday - Run
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Run day with Sacfit (long run)
Sunday - Swim

I look at this schedule and think "That is a lot of activity points!"

A weekend post!

The last few days I have felt myself coming out of the "fog" and feeling more like myself - getting my joy back and getting back to normalcy. It is good to be back!

It was a good week for workouts, it was a good week for food!

Workouts - I worked out 4 out of 7 days this week - including my long run with Sacfit on Saturday (6 miles!). Sacfit was with a faster pace group than I used to run with and I will continue to run with them - as the pounds have dropped and I get more miles under my belt my speed has improved.

Food - Started the week at Bucca DiBeppo (holy bread consumption Batman!) but tracked everything the best I could and stayed 100% on track the rest of the week to make up for it!

Weigh In - I have been within my goal range since hitting goal, but have found myself creeping up past my comfort zone weight wise the last couple of weeks due to eating out more than I really should - so today I was weighed in down 1.8 pounds bringing me back down below my goal weight which I am very happy for!

Looking forward to next week - I'm just hoping to not get really sick - my body has been doing its best to fight off a cold that everyone seems to have had (including my younger son and hubby) one day my throat is sore then next day I'm fine, the next day it is sore again and my head hurts and the next day I'm fine again. I have been playing this game all week and today I'm going to rest and try to kick it to the curb once and for all!

Also since the topic of our meeting was "Loving yourself" - I feel I should share whatI did this week to love myself. I bought an Itunes gift card for myself so I can put more workout music on my Ipod and I made the time to get my workouts in no matter how hard it was. I also took some time to do something that I don't normally do - I made food! I made a No-Oil balsamic dressing from the Whole Foods website (very good!) and I also made some homemade energy bars for before/after my workouts. That may not sound like much to you, but those who know me well, knows that hubby does most of the cooking since he gets off work way earlier than I do, so for me to even go into the kitchen and prepare something (that isn't cake) is a huge step for me!

An overdue Lifetime/100 pound party post!

On January 10th - I hit 100 pounds lost - so the next week my leader threw me a 100 pound party - which would also be the day I would celebrate making lifetime! My leader asked people to bring in 100 things to give to me. One person brought me 100 viola seeds and a beautiful card. Another brought me Noodles because I should I could use my noodle through my journey and Rubber band because I have "stretched and stretched" and also because I was always able to bounce back to weight watchers no matter what happens. Another brought me a 100 piece puzzle because I put my life back together one piece/pound at a time and it is a Lightning McQueen puzzle because I have stayed on track (so clever!!)! I also got a baggie of cheerios and a baggie of marshmallows. Also in this pictures is my lifetime key and my lifetime card! With everything that had happened since the first of the year I was very emotional.

My hubby got up and talked about how my weight loss has not only changed me physically, but every aspect of my life had been changed. He saw a very strong person at the hospital and sees a very different person than I used to be on a daily basis. He gave me this beautiful necklace.

I have had some pretty hard times lately - my wonderful hubby summed it up in an email to me one particularly rough day when I was wondering how to get myself out of this funk I have been in.

He wrote "Up until now you have had goals - a marathon, Nike, hitting your WW goal, hitting 100lbs lost and making lifetime. You reached all of those goals within a few months and in the midst of that you had an unexpected life changing event that made all of your goal seem trivial. Now you are feeling guilty for having those "trivial" goals when something devastating was narrowly avoided in the middle of achieving those goals.

You need to realize that what happened to Matt was completely out of your control and accept that. As far as we know it was out of everyone's control including Matt's. The best we can do is learn from this and be thankful he was in such good hands at Kaiser.

Now you need to set some new goals and use Matt's recovery as a springboard instead of a shackle."

So I have committed to three things - one that I have already experienced and two that I have not. One - I am registered for the Parkway Half Marathon (May 1) - it is our running groups goal race - May 1. Two - I have committed to running with the gold 12:30 group which is a faster pace than I ran last season. Three - and this is the biggie - I have registered for a Sprint Triathlon (June 5th)- I know I can do the run, I'm pretty sure I can do the bike, but unsure on the swim portion and not sure if I can do them all back to back! This is very much out of my comfort zone (especially being seen in public in a swim suit!) but I think it will give me the focus that I need right now. Official triathalon training starts the week of February 15th and I will just work in my run days in the training schedule to keep me on track for the half marathon.

Another update on my older boy!

First I must say he is doing so well - last Friday at a recheck with his regular doctor he was told he could do without the oxygen at home and on Monday he is going back to work. The doctor again told him how lucky he was and gave his the pneumonia vaccine and basically a clean bill of health!

Secondly I'm so excited - I get to see him tomorrow! He is coming out to Sacfit with Jess (His finacee) to see what we do and to meet a few of my friends that came by to see him at the hospital even though they didn't know him. He is not a runner - he is more of a sit and watch type of person, but just the fact that I get to see him makes me happy!

And thirdly - I have a confession to make. I was a rock through all this - I wanted to be strong for everyone else and I feel that I did and now that things are better - I'm a mess. I'm in a fog that I can't get rid of, things are different and that is pretty much the only way to explain it. I went to Weight Watchers and made lifetime on Sunday and have really struggled with lots of emotions - happy and not happy. I have neglected lots of things that are important to me - including my blog and my workouts and I know I just need to get back on the horse, but how do I do that when things are different? This may not make much sense, but it is the only way I know to explain it. I appreciate, more than you know, the love and support I have from everyone!