Two 5Ks closer to Marathon

When I started this journey, I knew that I was taking on a big goal and it scared me.   I knew I had to change my way of thinking about it.  The idea of running 26.2 miles seemed impossible but the idea of running a 5K was a reality.  So I decided to train one 5K at a time for this goal.  Today this sorta paid off.

For the first time in my life, I ran 7 miles!  Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!  All week I tried not to think about it in those terms.  I told myself two things. 1.  You are doing a mile seven times. 2.  I am running a 5K on Saturday and may run another.  Either way, the number seven never entered my vocabulary during the week. And then Friday came and I discovered we were only doing six.  I know I know, six use to be a big number but as it relates to seven, it is smaller.

I have a wonderful running partner, Heidi.  We are the turtles of the group. We are usually the last to come in and we do the shortest distance.  We are okay with that.  When we left the store on Saturday morning, the starting point for our run, we had not decided on a distance.  We figured we would get to the six mile turn around point and decide at that time.  And we felt great at the halfway point of six miles so we decided to run up another half mile and do the full seven.

I don't know what happened but mentally I shut down towards the end of mile six.  I knew it was all mental.  My heart rate seemed normal and my legs felt good but I felt like I was gonna cry and self doubt creeped into my head.  I told Heidi that I was feeling this way and she said it was okay.  Feelings are okay and they are normal, just let them happen.  So I did.  I went through an emotional roller coaster. And while I let myself feel these things, I remembered in the back of my head the truths about me.  Not to mention, Heidi kept reminding me also.

At my lowest point, I cried, "I feel like the fat kid in gym that can't do what the normal kids do without effort."  To which she responded, "You are not the fat kid.  You are out here running seven freaking miles when most people are asleep.  We are doing an amazing thing. We are almost there."  (yes...I started my fat kid thing when I had less than half a mile to the end.)  By the time I made it back to the store, I was on the verge of tears and just wanted to lie down, close my eyes and pretend it never happened.

Say what?  I just ran seven freaking miles.  I just did the longest run of my life and I just want to forget about it?  That is plain nonsense.  When Kim, the store owner and our coach, came to see me, I couldn't say anything. I walked off and went to the bathroom....oh yeah...you have to drink plenty of water during your long runs and I did. So by mile 5...I really had to go.   Within a few minutes I felt better and I was proud of myself. I was proud of Heidi and me and thankful Heidi was with me for this run.

As I stretched out I thought of the saying that has played in the back of my head since April.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and this didn't kill you.

Seven miles didn't kill me.  They made me stronger.

July Challenge

Every last week of the month I feel like James Bond aka 007. I eagerly await the arrival of my new Fatty Must Run mission.  I have to say, I was kind of relieved that no clean eating was involved in the making of this mission.  But I will try to eat clean anyway.  So what are the missions?

1. Plank a Day Do a plank each day and see how long you can hold it.  Yesterday I did my first plank. Mental note to self, put the dogs up before attempting this feat.  They were trying to get under me and walk over me.  So my plank only lasted 43 seconds.  I am not saying I can hold it much longer but I felt I could do a second or two more.  My sister said that Kim, our running coach, says we can do anything for a minute.  We shall see.
2. Sign up for a race in July or August Believe it or not, this is going to be the tricky one.  The season is coming to a close due to the hot weather.  The Lunar Rendezvous is coming up July 20th but I am hosting a 14 hour crop at my house that day.  I want to do it because the first 5K I ever ran was the Lunar Rendezvous.  You can read about it here:  My first 5K and how I lost to a 3 Year old. So I am off to Active.com to look for more races and to my running groups calendar. I am sure there are more out there.
3. Run a timed 5K I am really excited about these timed 5Ks. Each time they feel like a surprise and I feel like I am making progress.  I started Heart Rate training this month. I will tell you more about it this month.

Well those are the challenges, if you so choose the mission.  I hope you join us and remember if you want to see how all of us are doing, I have links to the other girls' blogs on the right.  Each of us have own  story to tell.  You may find you see yourself in one or more of them.  

Kemah Bridge

Well I did it!  This past week, I did my first Kemah bridge run.  I liked it so much that I did it twice!  My daughter and I met my sister at the bridge at 6 AM.  I have driven over this bridge hundreds, if not thousands of times. It is the bridge between me and the nearest sign of box store civilization (Walmart, Target, Office Depot and Home Depot). Why am I running a bridge?  Well, I live in flat SE Texas. We have no hills.  When I say we are flat...I mean we are flat  The Houston Marathon is a great place to qualify for Boston because the run is soo easy...no hills.  But every runner needs to do hill work so us in SE Texas run in parking garages or on high arching bridges.  I happen to live very near to a high arching bridge.  It crosses the waterway that links Clear Lake to the bay.

This waterway is heavily utilized by boaters.  You see Clear lake is home to the third largest fleet of recreational boats in the United States.  Because of all the boat traffic seen, a steep and extreme high bridge was built.   And until my run, I did not realize that the south side is steeper than the north side.  I also didn't realize that cars whizzing by at 50 mph, that are less than 3 feet from you, cause alot of hot wind.  But I loved it.  I loved the way my thighs burned on the incline and the reward of going downhill immediately after the burn.  My sister and I took a picture at the top of the bridge from my phone, which in turn caused my Nike+ to stop recording and my wireless headphones to unlink.  So I am smiling in this picture but moments later I was just frustrated.

Now the bridge is less than two miles from my place but at least 30 miles from my sister's house.  Again, I am truly blessed to have a sister that would drive that far, that early so that she can run the bridge with me.  Isn't she awesome?  There are no words to describe my gratitude.  I am just truly blessed.

Warning: Cheeks appear larger than normal

Two days later I decided to do it again.  Because I was doing it by myself, I decided to go a bit earlier.  The second picture was taken as I was leaving the bridge to go home.  The bridge is 1.9 miles round trip.  I think next week I will try to do it twice which is....3.8 miles.

Monthly Motivating Movie

As promised, here is the monthly motivating movie for June. On the first Friday of each month I plan to recommend  a running movie. My pick is coming out a few days early for a reason to be announced later in this article.  My pick for June is Spirit of the Marathon.

Courtesy of Netflix

This Spirit of the Marathon is a documentary that follows 6 runners on their journey to running the Chicago Marathon.  I love this movie because it follows 6 very different runners.You have a male and a female elite runner that are  training to win. A couple that have run a few marathons around the world.  A senior, running again and his daughter that is running for the first time. And one more female that is running her first marathon as she progresses naturally from 1/2 marys to a full mary.  Each story is unique and in many ways they are similar.  It is definitely worth a watch if you are training for a marathon, 1/2 mary or a 5K  

Haven't sold you on it yet? Well here is where I get cheesy.  BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! While googling for a picture of the movie cover, I came across some exciting news.  There's a sequel!!!!  That's right, it was sooo good they came out with a sequel. The sequel follows runners training for the Marathon in Rome (In my dreams, that would be where I would run my first marathon.)   It is scheduled to be in theaters for one night and one night only.  Click Here  for a theater near you.  It will only be in theaters June 12th! Run and get your tickets!! That is the reason I wanted to share this one early.  I want to give you time to search for a local theater and make sure your calendar is free for that day.

Enjoy!

Fatty Must Run Marathon Challenge Monthly recap

Before I started writing this post, I decided to review my previous posts I have written since starting the challenge and I realized two things:

1.  I thought I blogged more than I actually did, which means all those times I thought I was sharing with you guys, I was only sharing with myself...in my head and
2.  I have no concept of time. It seems like just yesterday that I received the email stating I was accepted and at the same time, so much has changed in that time that it seems so long ago.

If you are not familiar with the Fatty Must Run Marathon Challenge, just click here for information about it. Over the course of a year, Julie, the leader of this challenge, will guide us through marathon training. Some would consider training for a 26.2 miles run as torture but I consider it a privilege to do so with these women.  Ok side note here: Julie is from the UK and I am obsessed with anything from across the pond, so when I read her blog posts, I read them out loud with my very bad British accent.

Julie gives us a new set of challenges each month.  We are to keep her updated at least once a month via email or blog post. But most of us have also updated eachother daily via Twitter.  If you would like to follow us, just search #FMRMC or #Fattymustrunmarathonchallenge.  For the first month, May, we were given three tasks run 2 miles, start 30 day squat challenge and run a timed 5K.

1. Run 2 miles and report back to Julie on how it felt. Because I was already running two miles each run, this one was natural for me.  The only comment I have is that it is getting hot in Texas so I have to change the time of day I run.
2. Start a 30 day squat challenge I had never heard of this but I googled it and discovered it is a 30 day challenge that increases the amount of squats each day. You start at 50 on day 1 and by the time you are on day 30, you are doing 250 squats in one day.  I love squats.   I build muscle extremely fast, genetics, so I can really see the difference and feel the difference in my legs and buttocks.
3. Run a timed 5K to get a base time.  Of all three, this one concerned me the most. I had not run a 5K in a very long time so I was worried.  I always hovered around 54-56 minute 5Ks.  I didn't want to time a 5K so soon after restarting C25K only to discover I am slower than before or not be able to finish.  My new time was a pleasant surprise 43:15.  I know, I know...I can't believe it myself but I took a picture just to prove it.

Yeah Baby!!!

If you had told me a month ago that I would have had so many changes in the first few weeks, I probably would have not believed you.  No, I know I would believe you.  As a matter of fact, I probably would have contemplating dropping out for fear of failing.  But I didn't quit. I just went one step at a time, one day at a time.  And things just happened.

• Pace  When I restarted C25K I was ecstatic that I ran my fastest mile at 15: 48. Years ago when I trained for my first 5K, my average pace was in the 17's and even 19's.  Yesterday I broke my own 5K time by doing it 43:15 and my average pace for my total 4 miles was 14:12.  By the way, the only reason I mention pace is not because I think I was going too slow before, but because it means I am improving. It means I am getting stronger. You guys know how I feel about pace.
• Distance:  My first few runs in April were 2 miles or less.  By mid May I was consistently doing 2 miles and as of last Saturday, I have increased my mileage to 4 miles.  My plan is to increase my mileage for my during the week runs to 4 miles and 6 miles on the weekend.
• Strength:  All I can say is that before this challenge, my legs just moved me forward.  Now, I can actually feel my muscles working and I love it.  There is a feeling of control or power...I haven't quite found the right word for it but all I know is that it is good.
• Community:  My running group has grown by 14.  We live hundreds, even thousands of miles, away from each other but this common goal is the thread that binds us together.  We encourage eachother and hold each other accountable.  On my own, I probably would have become bored the first week and moved on to a new challenge.  I am here to stay.

We have been given our new challenges for June.  I'll share more on those tomorrow.  All I can say is that it is going to be hard....mentally.  But in the meantime, check out the girls and how they viewed the first month. A link to their blogs is on the right.

My friend I Want

I have written and rewritten this post several times in the past two days.  But each time I did, well I just wasn't "feelin' it".  But a fellow fluffy runner wrote something the other day that just stuck in my head. He said sometimes he doesn't want to go out and run and his friend told him, "Hey if you are waiting for "I Want" he ain't coming so just get out there and do it."  Wow! That got me thinking about my I Want.  We all  have one.  And I realized my  I Want  can be a pretty flaky friend. Sometimes he shows up everyday no matter what.  The baby kept us up all night with a cough...he doesn't mind.  He reminds us why we are doing this and encourages us to get out of bed.  We have a horrible day at work, boyfriend hurts our feelings, husband doesn't understand, teenager is being difficult...doesn't matter to I Want, he picks us up and takes us for a run.

But I Want isn't dependable.  Sometimes he leaves for the day, the week or even the month with no explanation.  (Truth be known, I think he has another woman).  I can't verify it but sometimes I see them out on the trails running together.  And of course, I get jealous. Why does she have him? She must be special. She must be better than me.  She must have it all together and I am just a loser and that is why I am stuck here with I Want's evil twin I Don't Want.  My mother warned me about guys like I Don't Want.  They are selfish, degrading and never want what is best for you.

Fortunately, I Want has been pretty faithful.  He has been late a few times but by the time I finish my 5 minute warm up, he comes in and runs alongside me.  He never runs ahead.  He sticks by my side cheering me on...yeah that's just the kind of guy that he is.  He's a real playa.  When he is with you, he makes you feel like you are the only one but when he is gone...well he is gone.

So I love I Want and if I had it my way, he would be around for my whole Fatty Must Run Marathon Challenge.  But I know he won't be. I know there will be some days that I will be alone on my run.  I know that I Don't Want will  throw sticks at me and run circles around me and mock me.  That's okay.  I am preparing for that day.  I had I Want write me love notes while he was around.  I had him write down why I am going on this journey and why I am worth it.  So every time he goes MIA and I Don't Want shows up, I'll pull out his love notes to me.  I'll read them and run anyway.  Nothing I Don't Want says will deter me because I have these reminders.  And when those don't work, I have 14 women that will remind me of why I am doing this and vice versa.

So if your I Want is around, do me a favor and have him write you some love notes.  If he is MIA, find some fellow runners to share theirs.  You'll be glad you did. And eventually, your I Want will show up again.  He always does.

Fatty Must Run Marathon Challenge Update
Our Marathon Challenge has started.  We were given our first assignments.  Sometime this week we are to run 2 miles and report how it felt.  I did this challenge today.  It was H O T!  I am going to have to change up my schedule and start running in the am and blog at lunch.  I am not looking forward to summer training.

Our next challenge is to start the 30 day squat challenge.  I had never heard of it but Julie said to just google it and we will find it.  And I did.  Basically you start out with 50 squats the first day and on day 30 you will do 250.  I have pretty muscular legs and buns under all this fluffy so right now it is pretty easy and I build muscle extremely quickly so I know I will also bulk up this month because of it.  But it is for our benefit. The stronger the legs the easier the run.

The last challenge is to run a timed 5K by May 31st.  This will be our baseline. We can either do an actual 5K event or map out a route ourselves and time it.  I will probably map it out on Mapmyrun and run it.  My first 5k event isn't until June 8th.

If you want to read more about the FattyMustRunMarathonChallenge. Just click the link.  This will tell you what the challenge entails.  If you want to meet all the gals who were picked read this post.  And for all the women that are doing this challenge that have blogs, I have added links to their blogs to the right.

Can I encourage you to visit their blogs, follow and comment?  Sometimes when I Want is MIA, it's nice to know others are there for us.

Kris Kringle and the Winter Warlock

There is a joke in small group, more commonly known as Bible Study, don't pray for patience because God will give you something to test your patience. Well guess what? I prayed for strength, discipline and better health. So God sent...FattyMustRunMarathonChallenge.  Aye yay Aye!  He is going to test all three at once.

That's okay because I was given super powers.  At 12:04 today I received the email, along with 14 other women, stating I have been chosen for the year long marathon challenge. Yikes!  Talk about having mixed emotions. I am not gonna lie.  Part of me is terrified to take this challenge. What if I fail? What if I find out that I can't do this? What if I find out I am a failure? It is so easy to fall into that type of thinking. Heck, it is second nature in my head space.

So I will twist these lies into truths.  That's right. If I can believe anything I want, then I choose to believe that I can do this.  I choose to believe that I will succeed.  I choose to be on my side.  I have wasted too many years rehearsing failure in my head.  Time to rehearse success.  

So here is the truth that I know today.  Today I can run 2 miles.  Today I know how to listen to my body.  Today I know I can put one foot in front of the other. (Anyone just think of the Christmas Special Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, where Kris Kringle is trying to help the snow guy , Winter Warlock, to become nice.?)  THAT'S IT!!!  REVELATION!!!  I will put one foot in front of the other and change my ways and do so, one step at a time.  My 2 miles will turn into 3 then 6 then 13 then 26!  All by just putting one foot in front of the other. 

And just as the Winter Warlock had Kris to help him, I have 14 women to help me.  Together we will encourage, support and share our experiences.  Over the next few weeks as I get to know them, I hope to share  a little about each one of them. Some have blogs and I will list them to the right so that you can follow their journey also.

Well I am off..putting one foot in front of the other....

SING WITH ME!!

Warlock:  I really am a mean and despicable creature at heart you know. It's difficult to really change.

Kris:  Difficult? Why, why look here, changing from bad to good is as easy as taking your first step.

[chorus]

Put one foot in front of the other

and soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor.

Put one foot in front of the other and soon you will be walking out that door.

You will never get where you're going

If ya never get up on your feet.

Come on, there's a good tail wind blowin'

A fast walking man is hard to beat.

[chorus]

If you want to change your direction,

If your time of life is at hand,

Well, don't be the rule, be the exception

A good way to start is to stand.

[chorus]

Winter: If I want to change the reflection I see in the mirror each morn...

Kris: Oh you do

Winter:  You mean that it is just my election?

Kris: Just that?

Winter: To vote for a chance to be reformed? Wuu Huu!

If Winter can change, then so can I. I am just going to put one foot in front of the other!

Marathon?

Ever did something that you regretted but at the same time you are glad you did?  Well that is how I am feeling right now.  I have filled out an application to be part of a one year marathon challenge. Julie at Fatty Must Run, is in the process of starting a one year training program for a marathon.  So what, you say?  Ok, well here is the catch...you have to have a BMI of 25 or more in order to be even considered.

I subscribed to her blog about a month ago and when I read the entry from 4/22 that discusses the challenge, I read it and thought to myself, "That's nice. Crazy but nice."  She wanted us to share the challenge with friends. So being an abiding reader, I went to the Active Community forums and posted a new thread.  Then went to my Facebook and shared it with my friends on Facebook.  I made it known that I was not interested but someone out there might be.  DONE!

But I kept going back to that post and rereading it. And every time I read it, the shock value of it lessened just a bit.  On Friday, I decided to submit my application.  Yikes!  Ever since then I have been on this crazy roller coaster of "gosh I hope I am picked" and "I hope I don't get picked so that I have an excuse to not do it."

There is a huge side of me that wants to be picked.  Somehow I have rationalized that if I am picked that not only will I get a training plan but I would also get super powers.  With these super powers I would be able to train for a marathon and actually run one.  I fantasize about spending my mornings training on the trails. These super powers would give me the ability to cook healthy meals, organize my day to fit in all the training that I would need and my super powers would rub off on my family and they would love the new meal plans and help more around the house so that I would have more time to train.  Man the more I think about these super powers, the greater they become.

Then there is this tiny part of me called fear.  Fear tells me that I am not ready.  That I will lose my enthusiasm early into my training and I will have to hide from everyone out of shame.  Fears says my family will look at me and say, "See we told you, you are trying to do too much."  Fear says that this will just end up in failure and when I think about that failure, it is an infinite thing.  It reaches into all areas of my life.  My home would become messy, I would eat horrible food everyday, stop running and just sit on the couch each day and regret quitting and never forgiving myself for doing so. Fear is horrible and never nice.

I don't let myself stay in that head space for long...too sad.  So I fall back on "Where there is faith, there is no fear."  And faith is belief.  So I have decided to Believe.  My mantra will be She Believed she could, so she did. I'll remind myself that I have walked 20 miles three days in a row, if I can do that, then I can run 26.2 miles in one day.  I will believe that I can do this and remind myself it is not just saying yes and then the next day going out to run 26.2 miles.  No, it means I will start out small and build up miles over time. It is the same concept as couch to 5K and I believe in that concept.

When I received my application, it came with a note about the timeline for training.  She set out dates to run certain types of races. When I compare that to what I have already signed up for, I realize that I am already doing that part.  I am already building my mileage over the next few months.  I am doing a 5K this coming weekend and will sign up for more between now and August.  In September and October I am doing two 10Ks and in December I am doing a half marathon.  All of a sudden this huge task of running a marathon seems attainable.

So the big goal of doing a marathon will be at the back of my mind but I will focus on the task at hand and when it is done, I will check it off and move to the next.  So I will run a marathon, 5K at a time.