Before And After!

Be warned...the following photos I am wearing glasses! I HATE MY GLASSES! (But, I also tore my last contact and have no other option right now. Boo! haha)

I found this photo today. Man, not happy to see it. This photo was from 2010. My first born was almost 2 and a few months before getting pregnant with my second. 

Even with my HORRIBLE "four eyes" I look 100x's better! I feel 100's better! Man, so glad I finally got my butt in gear and got committed!

Weekly Miles And Counting Calories

I haven't posted in a while. Seems my life has been so busy for the last little while. It feels with my running and me counting calories takes all my focus.

A little on counting calories. I started to count 3 weeks ago and I have learned a lot! The first week I counted I saw that I ate NO WHERE NEAR where I need to be. The second week was the best week! I ate the right amount and felt great! My runs were awesome and even my long run felt easier! This third week I've learned how hard it is to count calories. What have I learned overall? Overall it's very important for me to count and record my DAILY intake. My first week I realized I was only eating 1000-1500 calories a day. I need 2300. This last week has been hard because of hormones. It seems when those come in, I don't want to eat, anything! Just not hungry. Needless to say, my runs were CRAP this week. Times weren't too bad but the way I felt this week compared to last week when my calories were right now was way worse. I had no energy. I'm going to try harder to eat more this week. When I have high calorie meals it's easier. This week it just felt I was snacking all day. 100 calories here, 100 there. Instead of 400 breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I'm having fun learning about my body. Not only do I function better with more calories, DUH, but I like faster paces on runs. Talking with my training partner, she likes to go slow and steady. But to me, that gets boring. Anyone else like that? I like to run faster, it seems to not hurt my knees/shins as much and it gets done faster. We had a pace run on Thursday of 6 miles. After a quick 30 second stretch at 3 miles we bumped up our speed, on the treadmill, from 8'12 minutes a mile to 8 minutes per mile. I felt soo much better. We ended up finishing the last mile at about a 7'50 pace. It. Felt. Great! I like the speed. I come from a family that has a lot of speed runners. Both my older brothers, my sister and myself all were speedy. So for me to go slow and steady gets boring. I like the adrenaline that comes with speed. Granted, some days are slower than others, depending on how my body feels. But I feel most comfortable going quicker.

Anyway, on to the weekly miles

Monday - 3 miles 26 minutes
Tuesday- 6 miles 56minutes
Wednesday - 3 miles 26minutes
Thursday - 6 miles @pace 48 minutes
Friday off
Saturday 8 miles - 1hr 17 minutes
Sunday - cross train
Total Miles 26 miles

Like I said before, kind of a crappy week. It was hotter this week. It'll be the same next week. I get nervous sometimes thinking we are training hard enough. Training is meant to be hard and to push ourselves, right? I really want to qualify for Boston. Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself. Ugh. The drama! That's life I suppose. Trying to keep positive and hoping for a better week next week!

Weekly Miles

Monday - 3 miles 27 min
Tuesday - 5 miles 47 min
Wednesday - 3 miles 27min
Thursday - 5 miles 48min
Friday - off
Saturday - 11 miles! 1hr 45min

Happy Moments

This week has been even more awesome than last week!! I LOVE seeing changes happening to my body. I am so overwhelmed with excitement. Finally after 5 years I have been able to actually stick to something that is not only changing my body but making me a much better person!

Now on to the happy moments! I started doing an ab workout just over a week ago. It's a 30 day challenge but just after 6 days of doing it, I can already see a "6 pack" starting! (it's more a 4 pack.) Even though it's not perfect, I'm still thrilled by the results! A little story and then I'll post a photo! Last week I found this 30 day challenge on pinterest. It was a Tuesday I believe. Normally, I think to myself, I'll just start it next Monday....this weeks already begun, I'll just wait. Great excuse, right?? I kicked myself and said, if you wait til Monday, you probably will forget about this and not start it. So...the next day, Wednesday, I started! And I'm so glad I did!

It's just barely there but the fact that it is even there...makes me extremely happy! Hopefully the rest of the 24 days or whatever's left will help get my lower abs looking better!

This is what most of my ab workouts look like...

 This is usually how my workouts at home are. Mylee crawling on me...or both girls copying me!

I love these girls!!

Cute story. I came home from my run last night and did my ab workout. Kendal girl decided to be my copycat. She did the WHOLE 15 minute ab workout with me, stretched, weighed in, and then had to drink and eat exactly what I did. It was super cute. I felt like a good example because I was doing healthy things.

Weekly Miles

This week was awesome. One week down 17 to go til my first marathon! I love being in training mode. I'm a mental person and being in training helps me stay focused and excited. I ran a total of 26 miles.

Monday - 3 miles 27 minutes
Tuesday - 5 miles 45 minutes
Wednesday - 3 miles 26 minutes
Thursday off
Friday - 5 miles  40 minutes @race pace
Saturday - 10 miles 1hr 40minutes
Sunday off

I feel really good about this week. Miles were faster this week than they had been before training started. With that being said, I feel accomplished. I'm not so nervous about the marathon anymore.  My 10 mile run was one of my best. I've ran 3, 10 milers and 1, 13 miler. I always felt dead at mile 8. Knees throbbed, lower back killed, toes were achy. But this 10 mile run I felt great. Even after the run I wasn't hurting like usual. I think it's because I've started doing an ab workout. After 4 days of consistently doing it I feel stronger. And it proved so in my run. I'm excited for all that I'm learning and all that I will accomplish.

Something else I started this week was calorie counting. Monday I only ate 1500 calories but I'm supposed to eat around 2300-2600. By the end of the week I was reaching my daily goal calories and I felt really good. Most weeks I'm tired and low on energy but I know now thats because of poor nutrition.  I'm having a lot of fun researching foods and making sure I get enough calories. (funny how mental it was. Before "training" I disliked eating and counting calories, but now it's more real and because there is a big purpose behind it all, it's actually enjoyable.

This week is the same as last week for miles, except on Saturdays run, it'll be 11 miles and we won't have a pace run. (A pace run is where we run at the pace we will in the marathon. We are training to hopefully qualify for Boston. Need to run the St George Marathon in 3hrs 35min average pace is 8'10 a mile for 26.2 miles. I'm excited!!)

I say this a lot but I'm very motivated and very excited for this. Finally after many years of struggling to find something that brings me joy and helps me emotionally, I've found a love for running. It's been 8 months since I first started running. 8 months ago I couldn't run a mile! I've come so far and so excited to see where I can go in my life.

I Like To Go Fast!

Well, on with the training! This week is week 1 of my 18 week training for my MARATHON!! Sometimes I can't believe I'm ACTUALLY doing this. This whole experience is just awesome. For the past few weeks we were just out "getting our miles in" and it was starting to get boring. I felt my body changing. Getting a little more jiggly and weak. Our miles weren't short but they weren't that long either. AND they weren't fast. Already after 2 runs this week I'm feeling more excited. we are running around 9 minute miles for several miles. It's awesome.

Monday- 3 miles - 27 minutes
Tuesday- 5 miles - 45 minutes

I feel so great! I forget that I love going fast. In high school, the one year I ran track, I ran sprints. Nothing over   400 meters. I'm a sprinter. So now I need to keep my speed but obviously build my endurance. I love what running has been able to do for me. Just "getting my miles in" is nice but I definitely like training mode and pushing myself for a time.

I've started counting calories again. That is hard work! Not so much the counting, but actually getting the correct amount in one day. I'm a horrible eater...under eat...so it's hard coming up with calories. Monday I only got in 1500 calories out of the 2300 I'm supposed to get. Yesterday was better...2100 but I felt like I ate Thanksgiving dinner the whole day. Hoping my body adjusts. It's fun though. It keeps things real and motivated. I'm excited for these next few months. I'm going to take some before photos today and then again after my marathon. We, I keep saying "we" cuz I'm doing all this with a friend, are going to be running SOOO much this summer. 3 weeks of 50 miles a week. Our Saturday runs are mostly all about 10 miles. It's so awesome to think I'm doing this when just 8 months ago, I could hardly run ONE MILE. I'm stocked! I'm going to pick up my "Weekly Miles" post I had been posting on Sundays so I can keep track of miles ran and times.

Wish me luck! <3