Progress Report

I gave myself a goal of losing 15 pounds before I would post anything on this blog again.

And I did it! Woo! Hoo!

I can actually live at this weight.

I will continue on my food plan (Eat Clean Diet - thank you Tosca Reno!) and hope to lose more weight, but I feel FREAKING AWESOME right now.

After getting a freak October snowstorm where I had over 2 feet of snow at my house, I decided that I just needed to purchase myself a treadmill so that no matter what I could get a work out in.

So, I got a treadmill. It is awesome to get up early in the morning and hit the treadmill wearing freaky clothes, sweating like a nut, panting as I am going too fast for comfort, and doing all this before it is even light outside! Very good purchase.

Last week's mileage was 13.1 miles. I thought it was a wonderful coincidence that I did a half-marathon. I certainly didn't mean to. My run yesterday was 5 miles. I think it was a bit too ambitious with hills. I think I will go back to flatter long runs. I have added hills into my 3 mile runs, and that is OK. But I am still not feeling that strong, so I think I will cut myself some slack on the long runs for a while.

Here is my plan...

• For the remainder of 2009 - lose another 10 lbs.
• Build my base mileage - get at least up to being able to do a comfortable 10K
• Register for the "winter race series" - 3 races, 1 in Dec., 1 in Jan., 1 in Feb.
• Run a half marathon in Spring - hopefully in an exotic and fun location - suggestions?
• Run a Real, Live, 26.2 mile Marathon in the fall, leaning towards Richmond - suggestions?

That's my plan. Hope I can do it.

(People advertising diets are advised to go elsewhere, I will delete your comments. Thank you.)

Thanks and Thinking

About races...

I am about as excited as I have been in years. You want to know the truth about what I think happened? Last Tuesday morning I woke up with my second migraine of that week. I had two the week before that too. Probably two the week before that too. I have been just suffering terribly with them. Horrible, horrible. Last Tuesday, I called my doctor, literally crying, and told him I had to find something to PREVENT them, not just treat them. I had read about Topamax as a migraine prevention medication - and asked him about it. We tried it.

It has now been 10 days without a migraine headache! I cannot describe to you what this is like. I want to cry just writing this. I feel like a new woman. I am waking up in the morning with energy and the ability to get out of bed and do things. At night I feel like I can plan to get out of bed in the morning and go running or swimming or whatever activity I have planned. It feels like the most amazing freedom. I feel like my life has been given back to me. Thank you Dr. Yang and Thank you Topamax.

Now, on to races.... Wes suggested Donna's 26.2 in Jacksonville in February. That is only 22 weeks away. Not real sure I can get ready for a marathon in 22 weeks. Richmond is still out there in November and it sounds like a good one. My sister suggested I come out to East Hampton, NY and do their marathon in September, but it is too small for a person as slow as I am - I would likely come in last and having once had that experience, I would not care to repeat it. These are the ones I have seriously looked into so far. I will look into more over the weekend. Keep the suggestions coming if you have any...

I ran 4 miles this morning. YAY!

I swam 1/2 mile yesterday morning. YAY!

I am back on track! YAY!

Thank you for your help and thank you for coming by when I haven't posted anything for so long!

Back to it...

Pretty much from square one. That's OK.

I haven't been running much at all. I had my two triathlons over the summer. They were good. The Tri for the Cure was awesome, as it is every year. My performance was off - I hadn't really trained - which can kind of put a crimp in your performance! But I still had fun.

Now I need to figure out what the heck I am doing. I have gained weight - no surprise there. I have lost fitness. NO surprise there either. But I am not too far gone to get it back. It will take a while, but I know I can do it.

So, I called a friend who is a personal trainer and asked her if she could help me. She assure me that she could - we haven't gotten together yet, but we will.

I have done some soul searching and have realized that I am blessed with a passion for running. I know I complain about it when I am training for a race, but I really love to run. I feel most happy when I have a huge race in my future. I need to get back to this core of my person.

I have wanted to run a marathon since I was 29 years old. That was 1977 folks. That is a long time. I am going to try to first get in shape, and then train for a marathon. I am looking for a race in fall 2010. Maybe Richmond?

Any suggestions for a first time marathon? It has to have over a 6 hour limit. Sorry, but I have never gotten under 3 hours for a half marathon, so I don't think I will try to do a marathon in under 6 hours. Oh, and it should be flat, friendly, and at sea level.

My little first step towards my goal was a 2 mile run on the treadmill this morning. See? I said I was starting all over again...

Long Time Without Update

I was hesitant to post about my triathlon. I will NEVER do another tri where I need a wetsuit. I was OK, but I had to stop to flag down help for two different women at two different times who needed to be pulled out of the water. I hate to talk about that because I would hate for anyone who never did a tri to think that is normal - it isn't. My time for the race was really bad. I spent about 15 extra minutes in the water and didn't do much better on the bike portion.

Anyway - I have another tri this weekend. The weather here has absolutely been terrible - like as in cold and rainy and stormy, haily, windy, cold watery. I am not adequately trained, but I will just take it slow.

Here we go again with my annual decision that I really like long distance running. When I am doing long distance running, I long to train for a triathlon... but I think I am done with the bike.

I went over the handlebars (again) in May. I didn't break anything this time, but it freaked me out just the same. It is the second time I have done that. The last time was 4 years ago, and I broke a rib.

Maybe I just have to concede that I really am old?

Although a friend at work yesterday told me that she asked a couple of our co-workers how old they thought I was. One answered 40! The other thought maybe my late 40's, 50 tops. Wow. I am 57 and a half.

I am just grateful that these are my concerns. It is a good deal for a person my age.

wetsuit help!?!?!

About three weeks ago, I impulsively signed up for a triathlon at the end of June - which is now next weekend.  June 28.  I thought, no big deal, I have done this tri before - and I do a tri every summer, I will just add one.  I won't be quick, but I can do it and it will be fun.  Besides, the Danskin has better shirts than the Tri  for the Cure.

What I didn't count on was the fact that it has yet to be warm here.  Therefore, the water temperature of the Aurora Reservoir (where the race is held) is 64º.  I called and asked them if there is any way it could warm up  by next weekend, and was told that even if it got up to 90º every day between now and then and never rained once, it MIGHT get up to 68º.  

I have never used a wetsuit to swim before and never wanted to, but I realized then that I needed a wetsuit.  So, I rented one from my favorite running store in the Universe - Runner's Roost Lakewood.    I was very happy to  see that I could find one to fit and it wasn't even the largest women's size they had.  I feel not overwhelmed with confidence in my body right now, so I was dreading the trying on of wetsuits - even more than swim suits.  

Anyway, thanks to my friends at Runners Roost Lakewood, I have this great wetsuit to wear and so I went out to try it out last night.

HELP!  How do you get used to swimming when you feel like your chest is being compressed and your neck is being strangled?  It took everything I had not to panic during my first lap.  I did manage not to panic, but I didn't swim very well.  The buoyancy is great, but it makes the breast stroke impossible - because my legs just float right up to the surface, making the kick impossible and kind of tipping my upper body down.  Yikes.  I will have to freestyle the whole thing- which I can usually do, but I always know I have the breast stroke in case I get tired or freaked out.  

I have no time to get used to anything.  

I am freaking out.

Has anyone done the swim portion of a tri in a wetsuit? Any tips?

Happy Running Girl

I have been running and it sure makes me a happy girl. 

I have a triathlon in August.  

I have a half-marathon in September.

I am thinking I am going to have a half-marathon in January - in Maui!!!!!

I have not yet taken the huge step of booking my trip, but I think I am going to.  Soon.

I am so happy to be feeling like myself again.  It has been the longest winter of my life.

What a month or two it has been!

Holy Cow!

I was running in April, then I got stricken with a series of migraines.  Like debilitating migraines where you go home and pray it will go away.  I took maybe 3 or 4 dosages of migraine medication, which is pretty hard on the body.

On April 16, I experienced chest pain and shortness of breath.  I called the doc and they told me to go straight to the ER (actually they wanted to send an ambulance, but since I work at a hospital, I thought that would be incredibly embarrassing).  They kept me for 6 hours in the ER and did all kinds of crazy tests, among them a PET scan.  They said that I did NOT have a heart attack but that I needed to go see my doctor at the first available appointment.  

That weekend, I got to ponder this and I was sure I was old and dying.  It was awful.  On the next Monday, I went to my doc, who felt that I was in good shape and it was unlikely that I had heart disease - more likely I had an adverse drug reaction to the migraine medication.  But we scheduled a stress test.  Well, I didn't know a woman my age was supposed to quit 5 minutes into the deal!  No one told me!  So, I went for 12 minutes, which is off the chart for a 57 year old.

Using my blood pressure and my cholesterol, They calculated my risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years as 1%.  One Percent.  That made me feel very very good.

Then I started running again....

Last week, I developed a horrible toothache.  And the worst part was, it wasn't actually my tooth that hurt.  It was a gum infection, which was horribly painful.  I  took antibiotics for 5 days and that went away...

Then I started running again....

Now I am feeling good.  I ran this morning.  I am going to ride my bike to work tomorrow.  I am a happy girl about this.

I am looking into half marathons to do in January. ... still have Maui on my mind.  

Has anyone done a race in Hawaii?  Any advice?