5/4/09 – A new start of sorts and a PR of huge sorts!

I have been avoiding blogging, for nearly two weeks. The last two weeks have been bad for me food-wise; on the other hand, exercise-wise they were not only good, but really fantastic. When things are going bad with the food I don’t blog. The solution: I need to blog so that I will eat better. Knowing I have to post my food will make me eat better. The result of my horrible 2 weeks of eating is a 3-4 pound weight gain. I have been down around this weight, around this time of year two times now. And two times now I have spent the summer gaining all my weight back. This summer and every summer hearafter will. be. different. Mark my words. (no really — flag this and if I’m gaining weight/not working out in July/August/whenever in the future, YELL AT ME! Please! You’ll be doing me a favor I promise).

Despite this self-hate on the food end, I have excellent news to report. I ran my third Mini Marathon this weekend. That news in and of itself is excellent.

After training since October/November for the Mini without much of an official training schedule, I was ecstatic to cross the finish line in 2009. It took me 23 minutes to cross the start line, and that meant when I cross the finish line and beat my 2007 time on the race clock, that I had smashed my previous personal record. ………drumrolll please………..A quick history of my previous Mini Marathons and then the current:

The race was perfect. The weather was overcast and in the low 50s. I ran the entire thing. At mile 11 I really wanted to walk but I pushed through. I think I slowed down pretty significantly on mile 11 and 12 which caused me not to beat 2:10 but that was not the goal. The goal was achieved in every way possible: I ran the entire thing. I smashed my personal record. And best yet, I know that I can do more. I know this is only the beginning of my personal records. I can’t wait to start triathlons so I can break PRs there as well, but running will always be my first love. My next half marathon is in October and my goal will be pretty lofty: I want my time to start with a 1.

For now, I started my triathlon training this evening. The good news …er, superb news…for the evening was that our gym has finally opened!!!! No more 20 minute drives to and from. My training schedule said 20 minutes of running. However, I have managed to injure both of my feet in the last two days though: my left foot is ailing from the race (my shoes may not be quite as perfect as I had once though) and my right foot is suffering from stubbing my toes and I cannot tell you how much the right one hurts more than the left. But I didn’t let my gimp feet stop me. Instead I decided to do 20 minutes on the elliptical on the hill program at level 20. This made me sweat! And hopefully as close enough to running that my training won’t hurt.

I then did some upper body lifting. I am now adopting M’s training plan, which he stole from Body for Life. The plan involves doing 5 sets of increasing weight at the following number of reps per set: 12/10/8/6/12/12 . The second to last set is done at the same weight as 8 and the last rep is done on a different machine (but for the same muscles) immediately after the last rep. Tonight I did chest (chest press for the first 5 sets (45/50/55/60/55) and then incline chest press (45)); back (lat pull downs, which I love (65/75/85/95/85) and seated row (55)); and shoulders (incline should press (20/30/40/50/40) and overhead press (40?)). I didn’t have time to do biceps and triceps but hopefully I will do so tomorrow.

And finally food for the day:

B: oatmeal [160]. I was starving by 10:45 a.m. 160 calories is just not enough in the morning, at least if I expect myself to make it to lunch without a snack. I almost had to eat my arm.

L: cobb salad from 251 [600]. It was a sad day for me as my best friend at my work is leaving. It was our last lunch together. I am quite sad to see this day come I also had a chocolate chip cookie [200]. I need to learn self-restraint. The cookies always get me.

D: butternut squash ravioli lean cuisine [310] and banana pop [15]

Overall, today was a pretty great day food wise. I am sure the salad was probably around 600 calories, but even at that (and the cookie) my total was 1285, so really even if I’m low on the salad and cookie I think I stuck to under 1500 today. Food as always is my struggle. The only cure to this is more eating in and putting food in my mouth that I’ve prepared and know exactly what is in it (or at least can read off of the nutritional info).