The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyways??

It’s a true gloomy week in January.  It can be hard to stay motivated with this cold, dreary month.  I’m doing everything I can to stay on track.  Successfully completing my half marathon next month and meeting my goals is at the top of my priority list.

View From my Sunday 9 Miler Run

The remainder of my workout week went well.  On Thursday I did a 3 mile run and finally felt like my cardio was getting back to where it needed to be.  Friday I worked out with my trainer.  I had planned to get up and go to a body pump class on Saturday morning but really wasn’t feeling all that great so decided to take the day off.  Definitely was a good decision in preparation for my long run.  I carb loaded with some mellow mushroom pizza (yum) on Saturday and got myself to bed early.

My plan was to wait until it warmed up into the upper 40’s on Sunday to run.  Well as the morning went on it wasn’t looking like the upper 40’s were going to come at all.  So I decided to just suck it up and go out in the 37 degrees and do my run.  Once I got started I didn’t feel terribly cold or anything.  Though when I stopped at mile 3 for a bathroom break my legs were freezing.  I kept my pace controlled just over a 12 minute mile.  Since it had been so long since I’d done anything more than about 3 I didn’t want to kill myself on this run.    I can confidently run much faster than I did but when I hit 36 min at my 5k just took it in stride to save my energy for the end.  It definitely worked out for the best as when I finished my entire 9 miles I really felt like I could run more if I had to.

I’m feeling much better now that I’ve done a significant long run as my 7 miler was almost a month ago!  Everything I did workout wise and eating this past week drastically helped me to run stronger, more consistently and hurt a little bit less!

So far this week I did a 30 minute slow recovery treadmill run on Monday which was not the most pleasant run due to my legs being tired.  I also went to Zumba yesterday and my legs were SCREAMING last night!  Below is the rest of the week’s workouts.

Wednesday: Training Session

Thursday: 3-4 Mile Run

Friday: Training Session

Saturday: 11 Mile Run

Right now Saturday is looking to be sunny and 55 degrees but who really knows what it will actually be!

So things are definitely getting done and I’m keeping it going!

New Year New Plan

Happy 2015!  As we are 8 days into the New Year those New Year’s Resolutions are hopefully still fresh on our mind.  For me I had a lot of things I wanted to improve on going into the new year.  First is getting ready for my Disney Princess Half Marathon which is in a mere 44 DAYS!  Seems like yesterday I signed up even though it was back in July.  This training so far has had its fair share of major downs.  As I’ve touched on in my posts since my November half marathon I really have been out of the groove for a variety of reasons.  Traveling, Illness, Holidays etc.  I could go on forever with excuses but at the end of the day I’m not where I should be in this training AT ALL.  So Goal #1 is refocusing on my running.

Goal #1: I’ve restructured my training plan to work around my schedule.  So far this week i’ve done 2 maintenance runs (3 miles each) and planning on a 3-4 mile run today.  Sunday is looking like the warmest weather day of the weekend so I’m aiming for an 8 mile run then.  Due to all the December weekends I didn’t do long runs I’ve now got to basically do 3 weekends in a row of it…not ideal but better than not doing it at all.

How I’m going to achieve: Running comes first (well after work).  My weekend plans have to revolve around me doing a long run these next few weekends.  As much as it sucks I have to just get it done.  Its only 3 weekends..thats 3 weekend evenings of not going out, relaxing and hydrating.

Goal #2: So my second goal is refocusing on my overall fitness (incorporating running of course).  Looking at my stats from last year via My Fitness Pal (when i logged…) and my fitbit I need a variety of exercises in order to sustain the weight i’m happy with.  As I’ve said running isn’t enough for me physically and mentally.  I need to take a long hard look at long distance running going forward and decide if this is something I want to continue doing.  It takes my time away from doing other exercises I know work well for fat burning for me.  I believe after Princess I will be taking a break from half marathons at least until the fall.  I believe i’ll still sign up for 5 & 10k’s as I see them come along and do short maintenance runs 2-3 days per week.  Then I can concentrate on more weight and cross training type classes.  When I was at my most “optimal” level of fitness was this time last year when I had just started running.  I do believe adding running in has helped but there needs to be a balance for me to be where I want to be fitness wise.

How to achieve this: I work out with a trainer once a week so that counts as one weight/cross training session.  Regularly attending a zumba class and incorporating at least 1-2 more weight training sessions.  My gym has the Les Mills Body Pump series which I also have on DVD.

Example Workout Schedule:  Monday Maintenance Run 2-3 MI/30 Min of Body Pump DVD, Tuesday Zumba Class, Wednesday Trainer, Thursday Maintenance Run/45-60 Min, Saturday Longer Run or Weight Training Class.

To me that gives me the best of both words on a 5 day training week.  Keeps my running strong and my toning and strength training improving while burning lots of calories.

Goal #3: My third goal is my nutrition.  While changing up my workout plan will help ultimately my goals will be challenging to achieve without proper eating and calorie control.  When I don’t log i don’t loose weight and really have a difficult time maintaining.  It keeps me accountable to myself.  All week i’ve been logging everything eat and planning exactly what i’m going to eat every meal.  This helps me stay away from temptations and eat correctly.  Obviously diet isn’t going to be perfect but if I can better keep tabs on where i’m slipping up I can work on correcting them.

How to achieve this: Utilize myfitnesspal on a daily basis and try to accurately track.  Try to stick to a 1,200 calorie diet 5-6 days per week.  When going over, keep it to a minimum and still track to see how much I can go over without impacting my weight loss.  Steer away from fast food and food high in sugars.  For me keeping my diet similar and simple over the week works best.  A sample of my diet this week is below:

Breakfast: Organic Rice Cake And Organic Peanut Butter, Starbucks Blonde Roast Coffee with Soy Milk: 225 Calories

Morning Snack: Power Bar: 100 Calories

Lunch: Chicken Salad With Balsamic Dressing And Hummus: 280 Calories

Afternoon Snack: Power Bar: 100 Calories

Dinner: Organic Grilled Chicken with Quinoa: 342 Calories

Evening Snack: Pretzels: 110 Calories

I know a lot of people don’t like being repetitive but it keeps it simple and easy for me.  These are many of the foods i’ve been eating when I have achieved results over long term.  I’m not into cooking at all..my idea of cooking is heating something up in the microwave or cooking on the george forman.  A large part of it is that by the time I come home from working out its close to 8pm and I need something quick and easy.  This week I pre-cooked the chicken I wanted to eat and I purchase a bag of Whole Foods Microwave Quinoa that takes only a few minutes to heat up and has multiple servings.  This keeps me from snacking while my meal is waiting to be cooked.

Weekends:  My biggest downfall.  I now live within walking distance of a ton of restaurants that are very bad for my dieting.  What I used to do and plan to do again is look at menus in advance when I know I’m going somewhere and map out what I’m going to eat so I don’t get blindsided by something that looks too good to pass up.  If they have a chicken sandwich ask for it without bread and a healthier side than fries.  Fries i love fries..i’m trying to completely go without them for a while as I’ve overloaded my body with them these past few months.  That and potato chips….all so good but so bad.  Of course drinking doesn’t help either so I need to keep that down some this month.

Short Term Goal: I’m going to Las Vegas the weekend of February 6 (so a month from now).  I’d like to be down 10 pounds by then.  I thinks its somewhat doable especially since a lot of the weight i’ve put on since my Half I believe will come off quicky from the shock of working out 5-6 days a week again and eating right.  I weighed myself on Monday and I’m already down a few pounds so off to a solid start.  Obviously I’m sure while in Vegas i’ll put a few pounds back on but then I have two solid weeks of good workouts and eating before my race and Disney trip.  Its a vicious cycle of working out then vacationing and working out then vacationing.

Long Term Goal:  I’d like to get back down about 20 pounds from where I was as on Monday and Maintain there.  I think getting back on track with my eating and workouts will help me achieve this going forward.  It scared me how quickly I could go downhill in 6-8 weeks and add 10 pounds back on.

So I’m feeling good going into 2015 and hoping for positive results at obtaining my ongoing fitness goals.