Stir Crazy!!

No CrossFit this week. You heard me. No. CrossFit. This. Week! The box is closed for the week. No big, I figured. I'll just run every day, and work on sit ups and push ups, and maybe some burpees (you know, because I love burpees SO much...)

Started out well enough. Did the community WOD on Saturday, and then ran 6.3 miles on Sunday. Then, a couple of hours after my run I was walking around the house, took a step and OUCH! Radiating pain in my left foot. What is up with that? Tried to walk it off - made it worse. Monday came around and it was painful to walk on (as long as I was sitting it was fine). So, being that it was Christmas Eve and everyone is closed, I went to the local Urgent Care center and wasted $50 to be told it doesn't seem to be broken and rest it. Oh, and if it's no "significantly" better by Wednesday, come back or go see my primary doctor.

Today is Wednesday. Not better. Went to the doctor. Saw Dr. Nguyen - super nice guy who, it turns out, is a runner as well! Had a nice chat about running half and full marathons, and other such runner talk. Bottom line is I need new running shoes. Which, I knew, just was hoping to get a few more miles out of the ones I have. And, no running until the pain goes away. Hmph.

Doesn't help that I ate myself into a carb-loaded, full of gluten frenzy yesterday and I'm feeling all kinds of yucky today. I have come to the conclusion that I'm not one of those people who can have "cheat" days - I don't even think I can have "cheat" meals. I feel like a total slug today. Back to Paleo - STAT!!

Tomorrow - I WILL get up early and work on sit ups and push ups AND burpees. Here's hoping my foot feels well enough to do the community WOD on Saturday. I am suffering some serious withdrawals and need a fix!!

The scale is only half the story

So, just wrapped up the Eat. Live. Be. challenge at Milestone Crossfit. It was a 2 month challenge (Oct. 6-Dec. 3)  in which I completed my first Whole30 program (which actually ended up being more like a Whole40 due to a gift box full of Tiff's Treats that were totally worth it!), and added an additional CrossFit session a week (so, 3 times a week now).

It started out with a benchmark workout - the Spartan 300.

25-minute cutoff. The first go - I got through about 26 of the KB clean & jerks. 2 months later? Finished ALL 300 reps in 23:26.

We also had a body composition analysis done with hydrostatic testing by Body Fat Test. Beginning measurement had my weight at 124.7 pounds, and 22.6% body fat, which is average. From where I started, "average" is pretty darn awesome. But - the final analysis - weight was (drumroll please!) 124.9 pounds. That's right. .2 lbs. MORE. Here's the awesome part - my body fat percentage dropped to 20.6% - which is HEALTHY. I actually lost 3 pounds of fat, but I replaced it with 3 pounds of MUSCLE! That's right. I have muscle!

It doesn't end here. I'm on a roll - I feel better than I ever have. For the first time ever, I also feel like I know what to eat to fuel my body. I have more confidence because I know what I'm capable of, and that I'm capable of even more than that!

So - the moral to the story is don't listen to the scale. Use it as a gauge, sure, but it's not the whole story. My clothes fit better (actually, some are too big!), and I can see muscle definition in my abs and arms, and maybe some in my legs. And, again, I feel better. Lighter, even. So, maybe the scale is only a quarter of the story. Not even half. Hmmm...

Benchmarks

I think I love benchmark workouts. Maybe not while I'm doing said workouts, but, when I'm done, and I look back at how I did the last time I did said workout. Love.

Take the 300 challenge workout. Here it is:

There is a 25-minute cutoff on this one. 2 months ago I got to number 26 of the KB clean and jerks. Today...I finished the. whole. thing. in 23:26.

That's kind of bad ass.

Speaking of bad ass...I'm a little proud of this:

And - did both scheduled runs on my half marathon plan this week. The 3-miler will be accomplished tomorrow with the Reindeer Run 5K.

I'm on a roll!!

One More Warrior Dash Picture

Last one!

I don't usually buy the race photos (mostly because I just don't look cute when I run), but this one was kind of cool. I'm a sucker.

Breakfast for dinner

I could eat breakfast-y foods for every meal. Tonight it was a pumpkin banana blueberry omelet with a little almond butter on top.

Eggy heaven.

Turkey Trot

So, yeah, Thanksgiving was yesterday, but I about ate myself into a pie coma, so I'm a day late.

Ran the Thundercloud Turkey Trot yesterday in just under an hour. It's 5 MILES (not kilometers). Felt awesome! So...went a little overboard on the desserts. Definitely feeling it today - reminds me why I don't eat like this every day anymore.

Open gym at Milestone Crossfit this morning. Got there at 6 (yes - I got to sleep in an extra hour!), and did one of the WODs from the Triple Threat. I needed to work on pull-ups, so I chose the one with pull-ups. And, if I do say so, I killed them! Still nothing like the competitors I saw (I'm still using a band), but compared with where I started, I can tell a difference.

Today, will clean house, dust off the Christmas decorations and Holiday-up this house!

My favorite time of year!!

Half-Marathon Plans

I decided shortly after I started running that I want to run a marathon. And, because I have to put timelines on things or they don't get done, I want to do it before I'm 40. Well...I need to get on it! I have the marathon in mind - the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2014. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right!

So, first I need to run a half. I had hoped to do the 3M Half (I hear it's great for first-timers), but the kids have bogarted that weekend. The Livestrong Half is February 17, and that's doable. I found a reasonable training plan online (click here for the article), and here it is:

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
11/26	Rest	2 mi	Rest	2.5 mi	Rest	3 mi	20-30 min easy run or CT
12/3	Rest	2 miles	Rest	3 mi	CT or Rest	4 mi	20-30 min easy run or CT
12/10	Rest	2.5 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	5 mi	20-30 min easy run or CT
12/17	Rest	3 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	6 mi	20-30 min easy run or CT
12/24	Rest	3 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	7 mi	30 min easy run or CT
12/31	Rest	4 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	8 mi	30 min easy run or CT
1/7	Rest	4 mi	Rest	4 mi	CT	9 mi	30 min easy run or CT
1/14	Rest	4 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	10 mi	30 min easy run or CT
1/21	Rest	5 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	11 mi	Rest
1/28	30 min easy run or CT	4 mi	Rest	3 mi	CT	12 mi	30 min easy run or CT
2/4	Rest	CT	Rest	3 mi	CT	5 mi	30 min easy run or CT
2/11	Rest	2 mi	20 minutes	Rest	20 minutes	Race Day!	Rest Day!

So doable! From here on out - training will be tracked (along with interesting tidbits along the way). I'll officially start this plan next week, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to run this week. I mean, the Turkey Trot IS Thursday, after all.

Gobble, gobble.

Warrior Dash Central Texas 2012

Good times in Cedar Creek today. Somehow, adding obstacles to a 5K, just makes it even more fun!

I'd done the Warrior Dash in 2010. Training for it is actually how I discovered that I love running. I missed out last year because I was still rehabbing my knee, but so glad I did it this year!

Getting ready to Warrior up!

















The obstacles were great! There was a swimming obstacle and I think I may have pulled a rib muscle gasping from the cold (that would only happen to me...). And, the mud pit was, um, muddier than I remember.

The mud was like sludge!















The kids came along with me. Good thing, too. There were lots of muddy folks milling about needing their pictures taken and Ali was the only un-muddied person around, so she was playing photographer.

So fun!

The journey began here.

July 2009

















Well, at least it did this time. July 2009. I actually made a (albeit slightly drunken) proclamation that I was going back to Weight Watchers and doing something because the shorts I was wearing were size 18. EIGHTEEN. That shirt? It was a Large. I could still get away with Large because my shoulders are so narrow (more proof that I was not simply "big boned". One look at my childlike hands nipped that notion in the bud anyway). I had made such proclamations before, and had modest success, but it just never seemed to "stick".

A year and a half later, and I was down 47 pounds and a WW Lifetime member. And, the shorts I buy now are size 4 or 6 (depending on the brand).

August 2012

















I discovered that I do actually ENJOY working out. And running - LOVE it! I fell and injured my knee in June of 2011, and was down for the entire summer. 16 weeks in 2 different knee braces. No bueno. 6 months of physical therapy. That whole ordeal is a blog post all its own, though.

I'm back on track now. Running, started CrossFit a little over 2 months ago, and I do circuit training twice a week. I'm no longer following Weight Watchers, I'm actually exploring Paleo (on day 20 of the Whole30!). There will be more on that, I'm sure!

Thanks for reading, and welcome!