New Runner MIA.... Reward if found

I have no idea what is up with me. I would like to say I have been really busy this week but that wouldn't be true. I could say I was sick but then I would be lying. I could say I injured myself on my last run...but again... a lie.

So why haven't I run all week? Why is my mini giving me smack? I am not going to make any excuses. Lazy... maybe. Scared? Perhaps. I have a 5K coming up next Saturday and I have not run outside in a long time. So I told myself I would start getting up early and run outside for Week 7 and Week 8. But I am not a morning person, so by the time I get up and see the time, I feel defeated and end up not running at all.

It's all mental. And I have to snap out of it. Get up in the morning and if I don't run anyway. Prove to myself that I can do this....I mean I have come this far and I can do this. I have a habit of starting things and not completing them. Not because I can't because I won't. Even with work projects, the last 5% of any project is a mental game with me. It isn't that I am tired or mentally drained or confused. I don't know what it is but it won't win this time. I have put safety nets all around me. I am prepared and I will finish.

You guys are one of my safety nets as well as my buddies on Weight Watchers and Nike plus. Thank you for all your wonderful comments. Kick me in the rear, if you feel I need it. I don't mind. :)

Week 6 D3

Let me start by saying, I missed the Michael Jackson Memorial. I hear it was beautiful and I have caught bits and pieces on CNN. His children are beautiful. It is so easy to forget that to them, he was just a father. He was daddy. They probably have memories with him like we have with our fathers. Laughing, playing, and just passing time. May he finally have peace.

Well I did Week 6 Day 3 last night while I watched track and field on Universal Sports. Was it easy? Heck no!!! I wanted to stop at 5 minutes, 11 minutes, 14 minutes, 16 minutes, 19 minutes, 22 minutes and 24 minutes...and probably every minute in between. There were times that I really had to talk myself through it. I would say, "Come on.....do it.....come on....come on....don't stop." My husband must have thought I was crazy. I would review in my mind my first weeks of this program. I would review how I cried in week 2, wanted to quit in week three and how I wanted to quit now. But now I know, I can't listen to my mind. Sometimes it will lie to me.

I am reading Born to Run and I am really loving it. Well, when I say I am reading it, I mean I am listening to the audio book. The author mentions a female Ultra Runner who calls the pain and mental anguish she goes through during her runs, the Beast. She says she loves the Beast and loves when it appears because each time she finds new and better ways to deal with him. Good analogy. I like it and will think about it when I run.

It felt good to go against my beast and win. I was drenched in sweat and felt alive. However, on a side note... I have to figure out a different way to wash my bras. They are fine until they are drenched and then they just smell funky. I tried washing in hot water, cold water and just soaking them and still....funkified. Any suggestions?

W6D2 and the IPhone 3GS

So, I ran W6D2 yesterday. It was pretty uneventful. I must say, it is harder to run on my treadmill than it is to run anywhere else, including outside. I also realized I am looking forward to W6D3 because it is a straight run. Say what?!?!?! Yes, you read it right. I like getting into a rhythm and and just going. I don't want to start and stop. It is hard to get going again.



But this week and last week my thinking is kinda skewed. I am "squeezing" time to work out. Funny how I don't think I am squeezing time to brush my teeth or take a shower or watch Rate My Space. I don't want to lose my momentum. They say the busiest weeks at a gym are the first six weeks of a new year. People, trying to fulfill New Year's Resolutions, will usually stop after six weeks.



That is why I am glad I have all my online running friends, wonderful blogs to inspire me, my Nike + and my Polar F6. I am surrounded by motivation and encouragement.



But the best news, drum roll please, the new IPhone 3GS has Nike+ built in software. Yes, you read that right. If you run outside and like to use the Nike + but also like to carry your phone, now you can do both... in one device. That is right, apparently they saw my review of the Nike + and hating that it was not compatible with my Iphone and the acted immediately. I am kidding. But I am sure there are many Nike + users celebrating. Now if I can just convince my husband that a new IPhone is beneficial to my health and safety.

Nike also launched their new running site. I haven't played with it much but you can be sure that I will share any information that I can.

W6D1 and Ode to a Legend

Tonight I graduated to week six. It was a good run. There were no inhibitions about it because it seems easy (5-5-3-8-3-5-5). There were no double digit runs for this day. I think running on my treadmill at home is harder than running on the one at the gym. Maybe it is because my treadmill is over 10 years old. I am not sure. And yes, I have owned a treadmill for 10 years and moved it to six different homes and never used it to its full ability.

About seven years ago I started working out and would walk on my treadmill for 20 minutes about three times a week. But about four years ago, my business suffered a small setback and it caused alot of stress. The stress took a toll on my lifestyle. I couldn't focus, I started eating comfort foods, and I stopped working out. Four years and sixty pounds later, here I am.

But I am starting to see alot of changes in me and my family. Not just in my improvements in my runs but my home life. I am happier and my family is happier. I have the energy to keep up my household and my family helps more. Since we started working out, we encourage each other. Everything is a group effort as oppose to keeping score to see who did more or less in the household. We are far from perfect we are better.

I was shocked yesterday at the sudden death of Michael Jackson and Farrah Faucet's death. Farrah was part of my seven degrees of separation. Her parents were clients of my father. Farrah was often seen around our neighborhood doing everyday things. I grew up far from the Hollywood lights...small town in Texas so it was unusual to see anyone famous. But she was kind enough to give my daughter an autograph and we are both survivors...or we were both survivors. It still shocks me when someone that had cancer after I had cancer, gets cancer again and passes away. It just makes me wonder why I am still here. But only God knows. She will be missed.

Michael Jackson defined my generation. He defined how music videos should be produced and choreographed. I danced and sang to his songs throughout my teenage years. Yes, I know what they say he has done recently, I don't know if it is true, even so, another truth about him is that he was a great performer and I will celebrate that part of him. So, in honor of him, I put together a playlist of Micheal Jackson songs and ran to them today. Off the Wall, Black or White, Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Wanna be startin something...wooooo those songs took me back.

W5D3

I struggled with what title to give this entry. This entry has soo much for me.

• First time to run twenty minutes straight
• First time to run a complete mile
• First time to cry at the gym
• Tiger woods congratulated me on my best mile ever

Tuesday I was suppose to run my first full 20 minutes and I was scared. So on Tuesday night, I cleaned house like a mad woman and did the weekly grocery shopping. In other words, I tried to keep myself busy so that I didn't have to do it.

Wednesday rolls around and I know it is now or never. My Mini is giving me smack and the weight of the fear is worse than not even trying. I mean, in reality, if I have to start walking in the middle of it, who cares? How many times did I stop in W2, when 90 seconds seemed too hard, or during the three minute runs, I felt as if my legs were going to give? It happened too many times to count. So at 10pm, I got up enough nerve and went to the gym with my family. ( I love 24 hour gyms).

I got on a treadmill, decided I was going to do the run without the C25K prompts on a podcast or on my Iphone application, changed the TV in front of me to Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and started. The warm up was usual and then I started to run.

My pace was 3.3 on the treadmill. Believe it or not, the first 7 minutes were the hardest to run and I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. To take my mind off the minutes, I started to read the closed captioning on the TV and before I knew it, it was 12 minutes into the run. I remember looking down at 14:51 minutes (this is the girl that died on the 90 seconds and now 171 secs go by and I don't even feel it.) I felt amazing. Because it was dark outside and the blinds were open, I could see my reflection in the mirror...I looked like a runner. When I hit minute 15, I knew I could do this. Mentally, I was saying, 5 minutes is nothing. Two weeks ago, 5 minutes seemed like so much to me. I am getting better and I am loving it.

At 19:01 minutes of running and the treadmill was at 1.21 miles, I hit my first big milestone. I had run a complete mile. I started to cry and yelled out "I just ran my first mile". Thank goodness the only people in the gym were me and my family. Oh, no, I was crying so much that I couldn't catch my breath and I was still trying to run...I had 50 seconds left. I felt great but just couldn't catch my breath. But I did it. I finished my run. My family heard me yell and they saw me crying so they gathered around me to congratulate me.

But you know what was my proudest moment? When I was looking at the reflection of the gym in the glass window, I saw my daughter behind me on an Arc trainer. She was watching me and smiling. Every once and a while, she gave me a thumbs up. And when she came over to my treadmill, she said, "Mama, I am proud of you. You did it." My husband said he was proud of me. He said he remembers me dying on 90 second runs and now through patience and perseverance, I am able to do twenty minutes. Even Tiger Woods congratulated me on my best mile ever.

This gal, whose comfort zone was the fact that she was too big to run, just ran 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I didn't stop when I got tired and pushed through. It felt good to run. It no longer was a struggle.

Running has given me back my confidence. Who knew I would become a PR junkie? I have to be honest with you. I have seen those initials everywhere in magazines and didn't know what they meant. They mean Personal Record. Yes, I am a PR Junkie. I also started biking and I want to Kayak. These are things I didn't think I could do and the Kayak thing scared me last summer. Now, I can't wait to try it.

Nike Mini Really Works

I was going to take the whole weekend off from running. I had a full schedule. It went something like this:

Friday
4:00 pm get off of work
4:15 make side dish for pot luck dinner
5:00 get dressed
6:00 get to dinner party and stay til past 1 in the morning

Saturday
5:45 am get up for swim meet
7:00 am -1 pm---stay outside in 96 degree weather at swim meet

2-7 pm catch up on some sleep
7-10:30 go shopping for Fathers Day gifts

Sunday
9 am church...I didn't go because I over slept
10 am yikes notice my Mini is talking smack about me
10:30 washed clothes, cooked breakfast, cleaned house
3:30 get on treadmill for only 30 minutes
4:15 cook for Fathers Day dinner
6:00 travel an hour to dinner
7-11pm visit with family then drive home
12-2am come home to a house full of diarrhea. One of my dogs was sick and did it everywhere

I say all that to say this....being busy is not an excuse to not work out. 30 minutes is all you need. I would not have learned that lesson if my Mini was not holding me accountable and was visible to all you guys. I would have just let the weekend go by without working out and I would have felt justified. Find something or someone to hold you accountable....it helps.

Am I running?

I am all over the Internet looking at running blogs. I want to learn all I can and get tips from those who are actually running. Most are encouraging blogs with great tips. Some seem to be just snobby. The "feel" I get from them is that they seem somehow justified in thinking they are above everyone. Case in point, I read a blog where the writer mentioned how he hated when people call themselves runners but their pace is X amount. Being the curious new runner, I decided to look up the definitions of running and walking.

According to Merriam Webster the definition of running is : to go faster than a walk ; specifically : to go steadily by springing steps so that both feet leave the ground for an instant in each step.

There was no mention of pace. It seems to come down to technique. And if you technique can be described by the above definition, then by God, you are running. You may not be running fast but if you are running. So if run across one of these blogs, don't be discourage. Speed or pace will come with time. Just do your best and try to improve on that. If you are consistent with your work out, then it is inevitable that your pace will increase.

And as time goes by, you may find out that not only will your pace increase but it will build confidence. Ever since I started running, I am seeing a different side of me. I go into Academy and I am not embarrassed. I feel as though I belong. I started to go biking, because there is no reason why I can't. I am seriously thinking about kayaking. There are no limits to what I can do as long as I believe that I can and set a goal.