No, I’m not changing the name of the blog – considering I’ve got at least a year left with this URL – there’s no sense in doing that.

But, what I will be doing from here on out is blogging about what I’ve done and not about what I’m going to do. I have wasted a lot of time blogging, thinking, dreaming about what might be.

What has really happened though is that I have not been doing anything that I’ve written about wanting to do.  Take a look at my Goals for 2010. I am moving forward on a few of the items, but none of those related to physical achievements.

So here’s the plan:

1. This is the last time I’m going to talk about what I’m going to be doing.
2. From here on out I’m only going to talk about what I have done.
3. This blog is now going to be about doing things, achieving goals, running miles, biking tens of miles, and living life. No more dreaming, thinking, and hoping, just doing.

Today, here’s what I did:

I quit the Y. I haven’t gone in a month. I don’t know what the plan is from here, but this was a good decision (as I was throwing $78/month away and not using it at all).

I ran 3.5 miles painfully slowly and figured out the direction of this blog.

I made sauteed veggies and a green monster for dinner and it was fabulous.

I know this wasn’t the most exciting example about how the blog is going to be, but I think this decision will really help me out on a lot of levels. I know that I don’t like reading blogs about people that only talk about what the will do and not about what they are doing, so I’m going to quit talking about the future and start talking about the doing.

Yesterday, M and I pumped up our tires and headed out for our first real ride since he bought his new bike back in March. I was really excited to ride with him and see if he’d like it. About halfway through the ride he said that he loved it! I was thrilled! We biked about 12 miles (my bike computer is on the fritz so I’m going to have to find the mount for my Garmin to use on the bike).

Since last Sunday (after I posted my Mini Marathon race recap) my right foot – the same one that was injured before the race – started hurting in a completely new place. I think it’s the tendon that attaches to the fifth toe but I’ll find out tomorrow when I go to the orthopedist again.  That is all relevant because my foot hurts to walk right now, so running has been out of the question. However, when I bike I have no pain so I needed something new to motivate me to bike.

I considered doing it last year but decided not to ride in the Ride Across Indiana (RAIN). RAIN is a 160-mile ride across the state of Indiana on July 18th. I will be riding in this race as a part of the Indiana State Alumni Group! Needless to say this was just the motivation I needed to amp up the mileage. So this morning I decided to get out and ride for 30 miles. I stuck to the Monon, which a rail to trail that runs North-South through the city). This my route:

I took a quick break at the top of the route and grabbed a picture of the trail head:

I wish I would have grabbed more pictures. I really enjoyed the ride (although technology was not my friend so I don’t have an official time – it was somewhere less than 2 hours) and am excited to start training for something big! Looks like you’ll be seeing a lot more biking on this blog

Yesterday in Indianapolis the temperature was 80, the sun was out most of the day, and it was a bit windy. This morning the temperature was barely 50, the sun was no where to be seen, and the wind was howling. Naturally it was Mini Marathon morning.

I woke up at 5:45 (race start was 7:30) and ate a bagel + peanut butter, my typical pre-race/pre-long run breakfast. I had no stomach problems during the day so I’d say this breakfast worked perfectly for me again.

When I picked up my packet yesterday at the expo I discovered (to my surprise) that I was in corral E (they go all the way to Z!). The nice part about this was that it was the same corral that my friend Nicole was starting in (she’s a speed demon though – her time was 1:53!!! Next year she’s busting through 1:40, I just know it!). It was also nice because I wouldn’t be dodging walkers the whole time. The huge downside, however, which I discovered very quickly was that I would be being dodged nearly the whole race. I’m not sure why I was seeded so high (I used my last half time which was a 2:09), but next year I’ll start much further back so that I can do some passing. It’s depressing to be passed the whole time.

My game plan had been to run the whole race with Nicole, in hopes of break the elusive 2 hours. I started out fine with her for the first mile. During the second, I realized she was going to be going faster than I was comfortable with and I told her to go. I’m glad I did because I think I would have held her back.

The race was a struggle for me the whole time. My quads felt heavy and I just didn’t feel fast. I should say, since I haven’t been blogging so you all aren’t aware, that I hurt my foot on April 15th. I’m not sure what I did to it but I was worried it was a stress fracture since I’ve had one of those before, so I only ran twice between April 15th and today. My last long run was April 10th, which was a 15k. I didn’t even get the same 15k time today that I had on April 8th. I definitely lost some endurance and speed by taking all that time off. Just goes to show how important training really is.

I ended up finishing in 2:20:33 which was a pace of 10:38/mile (recall that at my last half marathon in October I finished in 2:09 and my last Mini Marathon was in 2:12). This was the first half marathon where I didn’t PR. To be honest I’m disappointed. I really wanted to do big things this year. I hate always saying “There’s always next year.” The bottomline is that I weigh at least 5 pounds, if not 10 more than I did last year at this time, and I have been eating anything but health for the past year. I don’t know how I can expect to improve my time without getting more in shape which I just can’t do without losing some weight.

In the end though, I’m proud that I finished today. It was my fifth half marathon and my fourth Mini (my fourth of many – I plan to run it every year until I can’t run anymore). I’m glad that I didn’t use my foot as an excuse not to run (btw, I went to an orthopedist on Monday who said I could run – always check with a doctor if you are hurt before a race  so that you don’t cause more harm!). In fact, my foot is fine today. My quads are screaming though!

Next stop: several triathlons this summer and the Chicago Marathon in October. I’m planning on running a half marathon in Indy in November since I should theoretically be in tip top shape!

Congrats to everyone else who ran today! Did you have the race you planned/hoped for?

After much encouragement from some of my most faithful readers, I decided I’m coming back. And hopefully with a fury.

Tomorrow I’m running my fourth Mini Marathon (and fifth half marathon). Read all about the 2009 Mini here.  I tried to train for sub-2 hours and I’d love to do that still, but I’m hoping to at least PR. However, given a minor injury to my foot that had me not running for the last 3 weeks except for two short runs (and a few longer bike rides) and the predicted 30 mph wind gusts, I’m just going to be happy to be running across the finish line.

I’m also in the process of finalizing my triathlon season (4 or 5 sprints, and an olympic race in Evansville, with my good friend Nicole who is running the Mini with me tomorrow for the third year in a row! She’s SUPER fast compared to me but we have plans to run it together. Last year, due to long lines at the port-a-potties and leaving my house a bit too late, we didn’t even start the race together! Thankfully I’ve moved 16 miles closer to the start so we should have plenty of potty time this year

Finally, M and I both ordered Nutrisystems in an attempt to lose 30 pounds each. I’ve had a hard time starting it and am not eating the food at all today. See, the thing about the program is that I think the key to it is the high fiber. My “coach” e-mailed us yesterday and said specifically to avoid fiber today so that we wouldn’t be miserable tomorrow. Given how miserable I was on Tuesday and Wednesday because of, ahem, too much fiber, I decided it was in my best interest and the best interest of everyone that may be behind me at the race tomorrow for me to skip it for a day. Plus, I need to carbo load

I hope some people out there in the blog world missed me and will come back to reading!

I need to get back to blogging. I want to get back to blogging. Whether I will actually succeed in getting back to blogging is another story? (You could easily substituted the words “losing weight” for blogging in the last three sentences…)

So what have I not been doing in the last month:

• I have not been doing the sixty day challenge
• I have not been losing weight (in fact, I’m up a few)
• I have not been blogging (duh)

Thankfully, what I have been doing has been a lot more exciting:

• I have worked out, almost religiously 4-5 mornings during the week and either one day or both a weekend. I even got to ride my bike outside lat week!
• M and I wen to see a house for sale at on open on house on 2/22. At that point in time, our plan was to sell our house in the fall of 2011.  We were merely checking the place out. Turned out we loved the house (or thought we did). Needless to say 2011 was not happening; we listed our house one week later.
• We sold our house after it had been on the market for 3 days. The first offer (and only offer) was for $2k less than our list price – we couldn’t not take it. At that point in we hadn’t even looked at the original house we liked or any other house for that matter. The sale was finalized on 3/5.
• Sometime before 3/3 I registered for an indoor triathlon on 3/14.
• On 3/3, I won a race entry for a 5k on …. 3/14.
• On 3/6 I ran a 10k (training series run). I ran in it 58:49, with a pace of 9:28. Definitely an improvement over last year, but I was hoping for a pace closer to 9 minutes, which is what I need to break the 2 hour mark in the mini marathon.
• That afternoon we went to look at the original dream house. Turned out it wasn’t so dreamy. We saw lots of issues, our realtor saw even more. That night M and I were so depressed as we realized we’d be homeless on 4/24 if we didn’t find a new house. I really haven’t been that emotionally exhausted in a long time (which is good!).  We immediately commenced searches on realty websites. M found a bunch of houses. I found a few (my preference is closer to downtown than M’s). Our realtor found a few more.
• On 3/7 we went looking again. We saw some truly terrible houses, some okay houses and then went to the last house. The last house was one I had picked. It’s a mere 4 miles from home. We fell in love. We went and looked at it again on 3/8 and put an offer in that night. By 3/10 we finally had a done deal. We move between 4/22 and 4/24. So much for fall 2011 (and I couldn’t be happier – I have wanted to move since…well…I moved in with M originally. I’m not a fan of the suburbs.) Here’s a sneak peak of the house. We are doing the inspection Saturday and I will take many more pics:
• On 3/13, I went to an Endurance Symposium at a local YMCA. A co-worker of mine who does triathlons invited me and I thought it was a good idea. I had a good time, won a pair of $95 shoes, and joined the Y and a triathlon training club at the Y (my co-worker’s real reason for inviting me was to get me in the triathlon training club I think. He’s been telling me to do it for a while).
• On 3/14, I decided I’m officially addicted to racing. At 8:20 a.m. I did an indoor triathlon (15 minute swim, 25 minute bike, 20 minute run) hosted by the new triathlon training club. I won – there were only 2 people in the experienced division, but I actually officially won the women’s division. Don’t be impressed by that. You can however be impressed that immediately after the triathlon I hopped in my car, drove downtown, and ran the 5k. It wasn’t my best 5k – 29:46 (that’s my official time; they didn’t have starting mats. My real time was 25 seconds or so different than that). I’m not mad about my pace considering the triathlon earlier that day, but I’m going to pick up the intensity of my runs and move back to 4 days of running I think.
• This week I started working out at the Y. Monday (spinning) and today (killer strength workout) I did with the triathlon training group. Yesterday I did a workout by myself running and swimming because I couldn’t make the “team” practice. Because of joining the group, I am going to have to change how I train but this will hopefully be for the better!

And that brings us almost up to today. It’s been a crazy month. I’m trying to get a concrete training schedule in place for the next year with my races all mapped out. I am hoping to do a few Olympic distance triathlons, a bunch of sprints (some for workouts and not as races), a few half marathons (one with my mom so speed won’t be a goal, finishing will), and a marathon (or 2 if I get in NYC and am really crazy since that’d make 2 marathons in a month!).

Or with breakfast…

With an egg and 2% american cheese sandwich. This meal has approximately 371 calories.

I decided to sleep in this morning because M and I stayed up last night watching the Olympics. If you missed it, the snowboarding was phenomenal! I might try to get a bike ride in tonight, but we will see.

I forgot to mention that I got an Amazon package last night that included two new cookbooks.

The top book is French Cooking in Ten Minutes which apparently has been in print for a really long time. The other book is Cook Yourself Thin. I’m excited to have another cookbook option. This will help me plan new meals so look for some new stuff next week!

Lunch was a Jimmy John’s Beach Club (#12) and a pickle. Looked something like this:

Of course, I had it without mayo (and sprouts, although I should really start eating those!). ‘Twas delicious and only 576 calories (even less if you skip the cheese but I decided not to today).

Had about 4 unpictured mini Reese’s Cups at the office. Must avoid candy dish, especially since each one of these is 40 calories!!!

For dinner, Matt and I had our old favorite: turkey burgers and sweet potato fries.

These are almost always delicious. Occasionally the burgers can get really dried out but we combatted that today by adding some ketchup and soy sauce to the meat before cooking it (sounds odd but try it!).

And you can never go wrong with sweet potato fries. Never. Trust me. The key to sweet potato fries in my opinion is to cook them TOO long to make them a bit crispy. Putting them right under the broiler at the end for a few minutes helps. I cooked these in olive oil cooking spray by the way and don’t notice a difference at all from back in the days when I doused them in olive oil.

This meal had approximately 500 calories (didn’t measure the sweet potatoes or the ketchup).

Also had a weight watchers ice cream bar for desert.

Overall, I ate 1716 calories today. Burned approximately 600. According to daily burn, I could have used some fruit today. I didn’t have any! Oops!!

I know I said I was going to be doing all these restrictive things for my 60 day challenge – calorie counting, specific foods, etc. I need to be more realistic so for this first week I’m going to focus on calorie counting/food diarying – with hopes that I stay in my range but not requiring that. I’m going to slowly start doing the things on the list that are food related (I am doing quite well on the workout front and have been since Christmas so I’m just going to keep on keeping on there), and not try to be perfect overnight.

I have a confession to make. I haven’t posted about my 60 day challenge because I’m failing at it miserably. I haven’t met my food related goals for one solid day yet.

I feel like I’m in a never ending cycle: I make a plan, I start the plan (or don’t even get that far in this case), I do the workouts (I’m still going strong with those), and then I fall of the wagon because of one meal or one day or whatever.

The real confession is that I have no willpower when it comes to food. Many people have really valid reasons for their struggles with food (e.g., abusive relationships, bad childhoods, etc.), but I don’t have a good excuse for this. I’ve lived a good life filled with love and think I eat because I can and I enjoy it. Those are not very good reasons, but they are the reasons that I’m overweight.

I don’t want you to throw me a pity party. Besides these lingering 20-30 pounds, I’m healthy. In fact, with the 20-30 pounds, I’m really healthy. I have a great blood pressure, good cholesterol levels, amazing cardiovascular fitness, and some sweet muscles. So really these lingering 20-30 pounds are more about vanity.

I want to look as good as I feel inside because truthfully when I bust out 10 miles on the treadmill before noon on a Saturday I realize how awesome my body is. And when I lift 4,000 pounds in one work out (check out dailyburn.com which tracks the number of pounds you lift when you put in your exercises each workout). I’m strong. I’m fit. But I don’t see that in the mirror when I look after a great workout. Instead I see an overweight girl begging to burst out of this overweight suit I’m wearing.

The problem for me is my inability to tell myself no (which is something with which I struggle on more than the food front, particularly with money).  I’ve never had to tell myself no because I have lived the good life. In the past, if I wanted something I figured out a way to get it (this is also why I’m in debt up to my ears). This isn’t always a bad character trait – I’m pretty sure it’s benefited me in the educational and work spheres- but it’s definitely a trait that has it’s consequences and needs to be reigned in.

I guess what I’m saying is that my “60 day challenge” is starting tomorrow. It will probably end prematurely (at the end of day 56 when I go to CALI!) but I will do this. I will teach myself to say no. And more importantly, on day 61, I’ll be able to look at a Reese’s Cup in the secretary’s dish outside my office and I’ll be able to say no.