Just Plodding Along

This year has been pretty amazing!!! I am pretty lucky to have such great friends and family. Thanks to everyone who was a part of my amazing 2014! Mercedes Half- Adventures Alabama style. Learn I can run fast even on tired marathon training legs. Also learned that Nicole is awesome...no wait I already knew that.  Tried for 4:20 finish and got a 4:28. Still a PR! Got to run with Buddy who helped me keep going when times got rough and got to see the amazing Dana and Patrice finish their first marathon. Still believe I can get faster at the marathon- excited for 2015 and PR attempts. Got to run a pretty course with two of my favorite running buddies, Nicole and Kelcey. One of my favorite races because of the company and look at that medal! Decide that running with friends makes everything way more fun! Smoky Mountain Relay- Awesome ladies and an awesome adventure. The love/hate relationship with relays begins. They are so fun but so tiring....but mostly jus...

Hope your holiday is full of food,                                 Family And fun!

36 miles and three days of weight lifting. Pretty good training week.  Monday Track workout. One mile warm-up. Ladders 400-800-1200-1600-1600-1200-800-400. Last track workout for the next two weeks. Averaged mile times of 8:43 for the workout. Not too shabby. Lifted arms. Tuesday 3 easy miles on Ft Bliss. 4 miles in the evening with my 1/2 training group. Wednesday 7 easy miles, flat and easy. Was supposed to be a tempo but legs were sore and tired so went with easy. Lifted legs after. 3 miles in the evening with c25k. Thursday 3 miles. Lifted arms Friday Easy 6 which started as 3, turned into 4 and then what the heck let's do six. I like runs that do that. Saturday Jingle Bell 5k! My C25kers rocked it! Ran with my 12 year old 5ker, 28:10 finish time, and she placed 1st in her age group!! So proud of all of them!! Sunday Road Trip to Colorado.

Last Friday I headed back to the Wellness Center to have my body fat rechecked (read how it went the first time here ). While I had lifted more in the last 30 days I did not do a very good job of tracking my food intake and making sure I ate the prescribed 2400 calories a day (seems high but my resting metabolism is 1800 a day- so if I laid around watching Sex and the City reruns all day I would need a minimum of 1800 calories to exist, but I only lay around and watch Sex and the City reruns like part of the day so I need more calories to fuel the running, training, cross training lean, mean, muscle building machine....or something like that). And by not a very good job I mean I didn't do it for more than two days. Why? Cause it is super annoying to me cause I am busy, cause I hate measuring food, cause insert excuse here. I use My Fitness Pal but for some reason it was just too much for me to handle. Bod Pod fun. So futuristic. So much reality check. So even though I had ...

I picked it up a bit this week in the mileage department and felt it. My legs were done by Sunday. I finally successfully lifted three times this week! Nailed it! This contributed pretty heavily to a general feeling of soreness all week. But no pain no gain. Progress can not be made without a little discomfort. Monday 12 X 400 on the track. My head was still full of snot from my cold so it was not the best performance but all 400s were between 1:50 and 2:10 so not too horrible. One minute rest between intervals. The last time I did this workout I couldn't hack it and had to take an extended break about half way through to recover. This time it was tough but I felt strong the whole time and didn't need to take any extra rest. It was great to see progress in my fitness. Lifted- lots of squats and lunges which I immediately regretted. So much burning. Tuesday 2 mile walk followed by 3 miles of an easy run on base. Super sore from lifting so it was nice to shake some of tha...

Last week was a tough week. A cold kinda took me down. But on the upside I lifted two times last week. Monday- Sick Tuesday- Woke up feeling terrible but felt better throughout the day. Was able to run an easy 4 with my half training group. Wednesday-  Lifted weights. Ran with couch to 5k group Thursday-  Easy three miles. Friday- Track workout. Finally felt well enough to pick it up a bit. One mile warm-up. Mile 2- 8:17 Mile 3- 8:39 Mile 4- 8:08 One mile cool-down. 5 miles total, Lifted weights Saturday- 4 miles with my training group. Overall not a great mileage week but a cold will do that to you. The past few weeks I have been thinking about what I want to do in 2015. It feels like I have not raced in awhile so I am looking forward to pounding the pavement, dreaming big and of course, collecting more medals! I am excited for 2015 running adventures!

No matter your size or speed you should get out there and do exciting things. Try a 5k, train for half marathon, train for a tough mudder. As someone who has been on the heavier side at times and who will most likely never be called thin I am always curious when I read articles about the question of can you be fat and fit at the same time? Now most articles say no. Excess weight is a detriment to your heart and depending on what you do for exercise can put a strain on joints. Now I have also read other articles about being skinny fat which is just as detrimental. Basically if you sum it all up excess body fat is bad. Now if you have been reading my blog you will know recently I had my own excess body fat moment.  (Side note: booked to get remeasured soon...skeptical much has changed). What these articles fail to do is define what the term fit really means. And should body fat be the only measure of how fit someone is? I personally think being fit is more than body fat percentag...

Well soooooo last week was Thanksgiving week......and things got pretty lazy round here. I couldn't even be bothered to track it on daily mile. Eh. This is what happen when my training partner goes out of town and a food based holiday occurs. Monday: uhhhh nothing. Tuesday:  2 miles while training. 25 x 75 sprints. These were freaking hard. The first four I was like oh yeah I am all over this, by number 12 I wanted to puke and cry at the same time. Short game is probably not my thing. Lesson we learned from this workout- sprinting sucks. Lifted weights. Evening- 3 miles with my half training group. Wednesday: Couch to 5k training- 2.4 miles Thursday: THE DAY OF EATING!!! But first a 5k. Iron Turkey 5k done in 26:05. Not my fastest but for a hilly kinda tough course in my opinion it was a good effort. I never felt like I was pushing super hard and my fastest mile was 8min. Not bad. Then to the eating. so much eating.... Friday: Black Friday madness.....working...