Don't be RASH!

It’s not sweat… My fat cells are crying.

Is that not perhaps one of the best lines, ever?  I found this little gem on a wall photo from a Facebook page I follow named I <3 to Run. 

Music to my ears and sweaty neck!

This weekend marks the beginning of one of my grandest adventures, my half marathon training program. 

What is the ultimate goal?  Not self torture but to successfully complete a half marathon.  I want to run it STRONG, finish with a little juice to spare and be able to walk the next day.  Our coach said that you should also want and be able to run a recovery run within a few days.  Not to mention I need to be up and moving so I can go buy out the store's supply of pink 13.1 swag!

Saturday we meet as a group for our first run.  It is supposed to be a fun, get to know you run of about 4/4.5 miles.  Excitement and nervous anticipation are the feelings running through my mind.  My only hesitation to it all is the weather forecast.  HOT, HOT and more HOT.  Of course being in Tennessee you also have to figure in the wring your clothes out it is so humid on top of the heat.  BLEH!!!!

This brings me to the question/problem of the day! 

Lately when I run and it is super hot and humid I get a nice, lovely and all together disgusting itchy rash on my neck.  Is there anything more complementary to a lady?   I’ve tried numerous remedies and the latest is the embarrassing diaper rash cream Desitin.  Hmmppff!  I thought I had graduated from frequenting the baby isle for this stuff when my last one was successfully potty trained.  Oh, the humiliation.  So far nothing is really working except the diaper ointment does seem to keep the itch and rash a bay a little longer.   

While many of my ½ training cohorts will be concerned about properly fueling for runs, hydration, gear, etc., I’ll be researching the ills of neck rash.  However, I will not be conquered!  I’ll figure something out and who knows, maybe Coach has some tips.   

RUN STRONG AND RASH FREE! 

Hey, maybe I need to coin that as my ½ motto. Ha-ha

Monday's musings

I started an entire spiel about my trip to Cleveland on Friday, the stress, disappointment and criticism and stopped.  No one wants to hear it and I don’t want to rehash it.

Let me just say that I kept my cool, weathered the criticism with flying colors and partook of a piece of cake without diving head first into the cream cheese icing.  I stayed on my diet other than that one small sliver of birthday cake.  It was all about moderation.

What I do want to talk about is feeling strong.  I felt stronger for being able to get through a stressful day on Friday with a positive outcome.  Saturday I met up with my running buddy and we ran with the 10K training group we “graduated” from last session.  I had a good, strong run and felt good about myself and went on to have a great rest of the day and made all the right food choices.  Sunday I woke up bright and early and hit the pavement.  I managed to get in about 4 miles (I even ran it straight!) before the rain came down.  My run was so good and I was feeling so strong that I could have easily done another mile or two if I hadn’t cut it short due to the weather.  I felt empowered and went on to another day of good food choices and even splurged on a little afternoon nap.

I could have let that one moment of time ruin the rest of my weekend but I refused.   I am the master of my present.  It is a “present” I am giving to myself; a fit and healthy life.  You see, I want to live and enjoy it.  It hasn’t been that long ago I realized I wasn’t going to live to see my children grown if I didn’t shape up figuratively and literally.  Now I’ve got a firm grip on the reins.  I still might not live to see my children grown but it will not be because I was a fat, lazy, depressed slob of a person. 

Remember, onward and upward!!

This week I am going to attempt to swim some as cross training.  I’ve never been a good or strong swimmer but I’ll give it a go.  Who knows, I might just surprise myself!  I’m looking forward to a great, empowering week that leads up to the beginning of my half marathon training on Saturday.  Full steam ahead!

By the way, I didn’t purchase any much needed work pants.  I did however get a cute new running skirt and matching top!  I know I’m hopeless.  Ha-ha!

Bloomers and birthday cakes

One of my dearest friends always used to tease me when I would lose weight on many of my yo-yo diets.  “Your bloomers look like a family has moved out of them” or “You have on your clown pants today”.  You see, when I lose weight my backside is one of the first things to go.  I noticed this morning that once again, I’m wearing my clown pants.  Oh no, that can only mean one thing, it is time to go clothes shopping. I am not a shopper.  In fact, I’d just about take a beating as to go shopping. 

You would think that now that I have lost weight and in a much smaller size than when I started this adventure I would be excited.  Wrong! I do however love shopping for running clothes, go figure.  I get a thrill out of being able to wear the cute running skirts and actually look nice in them.  Perhaps I can trick my brain into thinking I’m running skirt shopping while I’m trying to find pants that fit and don’t need 6 inches cut off of them.  Remember, I am Shorty McShort-Short. Haha!  Guess I need to put on my shopping armor and get to it before the general populace actually catches a glimpse of my drawers when my pants sag.

I’m also dreading this Friday because I know it is going to be stressful.  Friday is my grandmother’s birthday so the kiddos, my mother, stepfather and I are all loading up and taking off to Cleveland to visit.  Yes, I love my Memaw but I’m not blind to her difficult nature.  There, I said it, she is a difficult woman. Gosh, that really makes me sound terrible, doesn’t it?  I am already dreading hearing how I need to lose weight (even though my son has started telling me I’m thin enough), what I should/shouldn’t do regarding my children’s father, etc., etc., etc.  I have to find my happy spot or I’ll plunge headfirst into a food induced coma.  I suppose it doesn’t help that there will be birthday cake involved during the visit. Also figure in the pound I was up on my weigh in Monday that is starting to niggle at my brain and resolve. 

*DEEP BREATH*

I must stay focused.  If I dive headfirst into birthday cake oblivion my bloomers won’t be baggy for long.  Maybe I’ll promise myself this, no food therapy while in Cleveland.  Then when I get back home, I’ll be ready to reward myself.  My reward will be a size 10 pair of pants. 

Bloomers or birthday cake?  I think I’ll take bloomers for 72 lbs.

PS:  I might even splurge on another running skirt!

Gone fishin'

As many of you know, I adored my Papaw.  The best part of each summer was when my parents would take me to Cleveland to spend a week or two with my grandparents.  Somehow Papaw always managed to have the entire time I was there off to spend with me and we had many grand adventures.  One of my favorite things to do was to get up early and go out to the lake that was hidden away on his farm.  You had to know it was there to find it.  We would walk the secret path out to the lake and I would admire all the early morning beauty.  Is there anything more lovely than dewy morning glories and ducks swimming on the glistening water?  Sometimes we would even fish but being a bit squeamish, I’d always want to let my fish go.

Today is the first official day of summer and it has already been a scorcher day after day.  So hot and miserable on most days that if you want to get a run in without turning into a puddle of goo you have to be out and at ‘em before Mr. Rooster even rolls over.  I’m not always super excited about being up by 4am in order to get a run in and still get cleaned up in time to be at work.  However, when I’m out that early I am able to enjoy watching my neighborhood wake up and greet the day.  Just like the times I spent with my Papaw.

Sometimes to achieve your goals you have to go through discomfort.  During the summers with my grandparents it was getting up super early to trek out to the lake with Papaw.  That discomfort today is the craptastic hot, muggy and torturous weather. 

This afternoon after work my running buddy and I are supposed to meet up and have our usual run/chat fest.  It is always good to get together with her and vent our frustrations, share our joys and laughter all while furthering our quest to be fit and healthy.  We will be out when the discomfort part comes in, not the dewy freshness of the morning.  We’ll just have to be smart about it. 

I know what my goals are; to get these last 20 or so pounds off and to successfully complete a half marathon.   I also realize there will be discomfort, sometimes GREAT discomfort along the way, but it will all be worth it.

So, the question is this.  Am I ready to fish or cut bait?  What about you?

Putting it in DRIVE.

The past week or so I have really been vacillating back and forth about whether or not I wanted to sign up for the ½ marathon training program or attempt to train on my own.  I loved the 5K and 10K training programs and the ½ is offered by the same store, just a new and potentially scary coach.  Should I just do it myself and run with my running friends that are also training?  Should I dive head first into the dark unknown abyss and sign up for the program?  What to do?!?!  What to do!?!?  Ack!  My brain hurts for thinking about it!

I suppose you would like a little back story, huh?  Remember I started the running deal on a whim.  I have griped and complained but overall been very successful.  I owe a lot of that success to my running coach, Daphne.  She was right there with encouragement, hand holding, tear wiping and super coaching.  I’ll go ahead and admit here that I like comfort.  I’m comfortable with Daphne.  I love her and value not only her superb coaching but also her friendship.  So do I feel a little bit like Benedict Arnold because I am actually thinking about signing up with another coach?  Oh yeah…big time. 

Enter the “potentially scary coach”, Charles.  I know him from the store and out and about at the races.  He has always, and I mean ALWAYS cheered me on when we’ve met up at the races or seen one another out running.  He also knows what it is to go down the road called weight loss and healthy life style change.  These are pluses.  However I’ve heard through the grapevine that he is a slave driver.  YIKES!  Last night I went to the informational meeting to hear what he had to say.  I figured I needed to weigh all my options before deciding.  My running buddy, P agreed.

I walk into the store for the meeting and was immediately greeted by Charles.  Wow!  He chatted with me about the 5K the Saturday before; so far so good.  Then the meeting starts and I realized something very quickly.  Yes, Charles may be more “hard core” than what I am used to but what I’m training for is also more “hard core” so shouldn’t that be expected?  I also looked over the others assembled for the meeting and realized something else.  I don’t need to feel intimidated.  They are all regular people like me not marathon winners.

I signed up for the program last night and feel good about my decision.  I will not look upon Charles as “potentially scary” anymore.  Maybe the ones that feel this way just didn’t gel with him and that is OK.   He may be hard but I feel confident he will help me improve and reach my goals, just like Daphne did and continues to do.  You can’t go wrong with broadening your scope.  And let’s face facts I have to have a coach.

The program doesn’t actually begin until July so I have a few weeks to just enjoy my runs with my friends and Daphne before I have to get serious about training.  I hope she understands when I tell her the news.  I don’t know why I’m worried, I know she will.  This morning at half past crazy, getting my run in I thought about all this and was at peace. 

Sure hope I continue with this peace and don’t fall to pieces!

You can’t steer a parked car anymore than I can do my first ½ marathon without a structured training plan. 

Remember:  ONWARD and UPWARD!  Of course there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth along the way…it is me we’re talking about here.

AWOL and back again.

OK, so once again I have been MIA!  I’m just lazy I guess.  Lazy about writing on my blog but not lazy about my running or weight loss journey!

Let’s start our catch-up with news on the fatty front. I am down a whopping 71.5 pounds!  Waaaaa-hooooooo!!!!  There have been many ups and downs obviously but I have somehow managed to stay focused long enough to get over the major hump.  Could it be that I have finally embraced the lifestyle change? Hahaa!  Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I am amazed at how far I have traveled.  With approximately 25 pounds to go until I reach my goal I am amazed and proud that I have been this successful.  Loads of thanks for the massive support from my girls at MRC, my children and the friends that helped to keep me focused!

Am I still running?  Why, yes!  In fact, I have completed several 5K events, a 10K training program and am now about to begin training for my very first half marathon.  There have been times that I have wondered about my sanity but you know what?  I feel so empowered when I run that I realize it is something that I want to continue.  Quite a far cry from my first grumblings, whines and general b*tching about the entire thing, I know.  I am stronger in mind as well as body.  I enjoy my life more and truth be told, my children enjoy me more as well.

So, where do we go from here?  UPWARDS, baby!

Upward and onward!!!

I will endeavor to be more active on my blog as I travel down the half marathon torture, ermmm, training.  I will also strive to keep you better posted on my weight loss journey so you can celebrate (without food!) with me when I finally attain my goal weight.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Lots of love to you all.