Calorie burn

Well, we didn't end up going to the Metropark yesterday, but we had a nice day at home. The weather was gorgeous, so we opened up all the windows. The kids got the idea to rearrange the furniture in their bedrooms (something I used to LOVE doing as a kid), so we helped them with that. I've never seen them so excited to clean their rooms ;)

I had a seven mile run on the schedule yesterday, and I ran outside. It was tough--I felt like I was working hard but a half mile in, I saw my pace was 11:15/mi! I put some more effort in it, and the farther I ran, the easier it felt, but it was still a tough run. When I got home, I was shocked to see my calorie burn: 454 calories burned in a 7 mile run?! That's only 65 calories per mile. I know that can't be right.

My average heart rate was 148 bpm, and the last time I ran with a heart rate of 148 (a couple of weeks ago), my calorie burn was 83 calories per mile. Something around 80 calories per mile is very typical for me (on super hot/humid days, I'll burn about a 100/mi, but the lowest is usually 77 or so). I was curious what it would say for my run today, because I always burn a lot during intervals.

For today's interval workout, I decided to do 12 x 400's at 5K pace (7:30/mi) with 400 jogs. After a one-mile warm up, that basically means to run 1/4 mile at 5K pace, then jog slowly for 1/4 mile, and repeat for a total of 12 times (6 miles total, not including warm-up). I hadn't done 400-meter intervals in a long time, because they are usually used for training for short races, like 5K's. But 400's usually feel like they go by so quickly, because you're only running fast for a couple of minutes at a time.

Each interval went by really quickly, but I felt like today's run dragged on forever! I kept telling myself I could quit after "one more" interval; and then, of course, I would say, "Okay, you can make through one more." And eventually, I made it through all 12 of them!

My average heart rate was 156 bpm, and according to my Garmin, I burned 557 calories (80/mile). The last time I ran with an average heart rate of 156, I burned 97 calories per mile. So I really feel like I'm getting screwed on the calorie burn. I looked it up on Google, and found that I'm not the only one who has noticed it. A lot of people who have the 910xt have the same complaint. Interesting! I'm not going to use that calorie burn number to figure out my activity PointsPlus earned; I'll just use the Weight Watchers eTools calculator.

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Today was the kids' open house at school. Their last day of summer vacation! They got to check out their classrooms, drop off some of their supplies, and meet their teachers. I'm excited for them to start school tomorrow, but also a little sad. They've been fighting all summer long, so it will be nice to have some quiet; but they're so funny/cute sometimes, that I'll miss them being around all day.

I was toying with the idea of switching my long runs to Fridays again (it's easier for me to get outside for a run when the boys are in school), but with this Hansons training, ALL of my runs are pretty long. SO it really doesn't make much difference. I think I'll just stick to the schedule the way it is.

Over the past week or so, John and I have managed to put together the entire Ragnar team for SoCal 2014! I was thinking it would take a long time to get a full team together, but I went through old e-mails from readers (people who had expressed interest in running a Ragnar), and invited them to join. Within a few days, the team was complete.

With the exception of John and I, we are all strangers to each other. The first time we'll all meet up is going to be in California in April when we go there for the race. I've mentioned some of them on my blog before, mainly from Motivational Mondays, but I think I will slowly introduce the team here like I did with my From Fat to Finish Line team. We haven't come up with a team name yet, but hopefully soon! I'm super excited about this team :)

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Labor Day

Hope you're all having a great holiday! I forgot to post a reminder on my blog yesterday about Motivational Monday, and I only had two submission this time... so I decided just to hold on to those for next week.

Today, I'm just hanging out with my family, so I'll catch up tomorrow :)

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Wine hangover

My wine club meeting last night was so fun! It had been a while since I'd gone to a meeting, so I was looking forward to seeing my friends. Jerry even volunteered to drive me there and pick me up, so that I wouldn't have to drive; normally, I only drink 4-6 oz. because I have to drive home, so it was nice not to have to worry about that ;)

It was at Rachael's house, and she chose to do a theme of her favorite wines. She had about six different wines to share. I think my favorite was the Kendall Jackson Summation, a dry red blend. The dry reds are always my favorites! You can always tell when I've been drinking wine, because my teeth tend to get a purplish tint (so classy):

Jessica, me, and Renee

Anyway, I definitely indulged too much, because I woke up this morning feeling hung over. Not fun when I had a 10-mile run on the schedule! I drank a ton of water and procrastinated for a while, but finally got on the treadmill and got it done. I'm just grateful it wasn't a 16-miler this week.

Using that foot pod tool a couple of days ago worked perfectly! I found the correct calibration number, and it's very close to what my treadmill reads. And because the calibration was based on TONS of my runs (via GPS), I think it's very accurate. My long run pace is 9:38/mi, so I set the treadmill at 6.4 mph, and my splits were very even. The tenth mile, I kept bumping up the speed to get done, though.

I started watching American Horror Story on Netflix while running, and that's been interesting. I love scary movies, but I'm not usually into supernatural stuff, so I wasn't sure what I would think. I really like it so far, though! There are a couple of seasons, so it should get me through quite a few more treadmill runs.

I was feeling pretty crappy all day long, thanks to the wine last night. I was really craving homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner (one of my favorite comfort foods), so I made that and I'm sure I went way over my PointsPlus today, even with the 10-mile run. We ran a few errands in the afternoon, but then I changed into some sweats and lounged around for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I got a text from my mom saying that she was at a garage sale that had a ton of Victoria's Secret clothing. I love VS clothes because they are so cozy to lounge around in. They're super expensive, however, so I always look for them at garage sales.

I went to the sale my mom told me about, and I was shocked at just how much this woman had. She works at Victoria's Secret, and she told me her daughter is very spoiled! The daughter had been a size 4/small, until she went to college last year and gained some freshman weight, so she was getting rid of all the smaller clothes. Lucky for me, that's my size!

I bought five hoodies, three pairs of jeans, one pair of sweatpants, a couple pairs of pajama bottoms, a few long-sleeved t-shirts, and a couple of other tops. I didn't even make a dent in the amount of clothes she had, either. I can't imagine how much she must have paid for all this stuff new, even with an employee discount. The hoodies retail for $45-50 alone, and I paid $66 for everything. I'm excited for the weather to feel more fall-like, so I can get cozy in my hoodies and long sleeve tee's.


Since tomorrow is officially the last day of the kids' summer vacation (they have open house on Tuesday, and school starts Wednesday), I think we're going to take them to the water park at one of the Metroparks. The weather looks good for it; I just hope it's not packed because it's a holiday. Anyone have big plans tomorrow?

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200!

Dinner and the Mud Hens game last night turned out to be so fun! Originally, Noah chose Bob Evans for dinner, but my mom suggested Spaghetti Warehouse, which was just a block from the stadium. Noah wanted to try it, so that's where we went for dinner. None of us had ever been there before.

I really wanted to like it, but I wasn't impressed. The food quality wasn't very good at all. I ordered the Wild Mushroom and Chicken Pasta, which is described on their website: "You'll go wild for our creamy sauce featuring a trio of fresh mushrooms, tossed with spaghetti and artichoke hearts, then topped with grilled chicken breast and roasted red bell pepper." It sounded fantastic, and it was 16 PointsPlus, which isn't too bad for a dinner out.

I thought it looked pretty good, but the pasta was really overcooked, and the chicken was very fatty (I ended up giving the chicken to Jerry, but even he wouldn't eat it; and he eats ANY meat). The artichokes were still kind of cold, and tasted like they'd been dumped from a can right onto the dish, so I didn't eat those, either. I really liked the mushrooms, so I ended up eating the mushrooms and pasta, which was very filling.

Anyway, after dinner, we walked around for a little while before heading to the stadium. We got to the stadium about an hour before the game started, so we tried to keep the kids entertained.

The game ended up being a blast! Normally, I am not a sports person in the least sense of the word, but I do like to go to a baseball game now and then. Usually, we go to Tigers games. Well, after going to the Mud Hens game last night, I have no desire to ever go to a Tigers game again! The Mud Hens' stadium is smaller and homier, and they have all kinds of entertainment going on throughout the game. Yesterday was "superheroes" day, so there were tons of people dressed up in costumes. The game was good, and ended up going into extra innings. The Mud Hens finally won in the bottom of the 11th inning. Then we stayed for fireworks after the game, so we didn't leave until 11:00. It was a late night for all of us! Noah said it was his favorite birthday present he's ever gotten, which made my day ;)

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When I was losing weight, I remember seeing the scale read 199 one day, and I vowed never to see the number 200 again. Getting below 200 pounds was a huge milestone, and thankfully, I haven't seen the number 200 again in over three years... until today. I'm not talking about my weight, of course, but the number of miles run in one month.

Today, I reached 200 miles run in August!

That's a LOT of miles. It averages out to 6.45 miles per day (or, if you factor in my rest days, it would be 7.69 miles per active day). This is how it breaks down:

My shortest run of the month was 5 miles; my longest was 16. My previous highest mileage month was April 2012, where I hit about 140 miles.

I have to admit, I really like the Hansons' training. I've remained injury-free, which is more than I can say for the last two marathons I trained for (during my first marathon training cycle, I injured my right knee; then injured my left knee while training for my second). I really think my body likes running more frequently, and higher mileage. I'm certainly looking forward to cutting back a bit after the marathon, but so far, I'm glad I've done this training.

Anyway, I was pretty excited to see my August stats when I uploaded my run today:

I burned the equivalent of approximately 302 Oreo cookies... not bad! ;)

Tonight is my wine club meeting, so I get to celebrate with some wine and chit chat with friends--can't wait!

You'll go wild for our creamy sauce featuring a trio of fresh mushrooms tossed with spaghetti and artichoke hearts, then topped with grilled chicken breast and roasted red bell pepper. - See more at: http://www.meatballs.com/menu/d_pasta.html#sthash.ASrEBamY.dpuf

You'll go wild for our creamy sauce featuring a trio of fresh mushrooms tossed with spaghetti and artichoke hearts, then topped with grilled chicken breast and roasted red bell pepper. - See more at: http://www.meatballs.com/menu/d_pasta.html#sthash.ASrEBamY.dpuf

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Liberating!

This morning, I had a five mile easy run on the schedule; however, I planned to run nine miles instead of five (I'll write more about that tomorrow). Since I finished Breaking Bad yesterday, and haven't decided on a show to watch next on the treadmill, I decided to run outside, regardless of the temperature.

It was a VERY humid morning. I headed out fairly early, at 7:00, but it was already really muggy. I just decided to pretend I was running in Key West ;)  I didn't carry water with me, because I usually don't need it for ten miles or less, but since it was so humid, I stuck close to home. I planned to do a six-mile loop and run by my house, stopping for water if needed, and then do a three-mile out-and-back.

It was a GREAT run today. Even though it was humid, causing me to practically drown in sweat, I felt really good. I don't know what planted this idea in my head, but I started thinking about ditching my tank top when I ran past my house, and running in just my sports bra.

I've never, in my entire life, bared my belly in public. I've never worn a bikini (even as a kid, I always wore a two-piece). When I was pregnant, and friends asked to see my belly, I was adamant about saying no. Shortly before I started losing weight, my friend Melissa asked me if I would want to go with her to auditions for The Biggest Loser (couples' edition). I said that I would rather stay fat than let anyone see my stomach.

But once I got the thought in my head, I spent a few miles talking myself into it. I know my belly looks much better than it ever has, thanks to the weight loss and the skin removal surgery. However, I still have stretch marks, and the skin is still loose (the only way to correct that would've be with a vertical incision from my breast bone to my pubic bone, and I didn't want that).

As I ran, I kept thinking about how absolutely terrifying it would be to run in just a sports bra, but how liberating it would feel to get rid of those insecurities. When I was obese, if someone had shown me a picture of my future stomach (what it looks like now), I would have been ECSTATIC with it. I would have said that I'd walk around naked, just to show off my new body! ;) But now that I'm here, in this body, I still have insecurities, although they aren't as bad as before.

So, I asked myself, "What's the absolute worst thing that could happen if you run in just your sports bra?" And the only thing I could come up with is that someone would make a rude comment to me while I was running. Big deal! Sometime over the past few years, I stopped caring so much about what random people thought about me. And I decided to go for it, even though I was super nervous.

At mile six, I stopped at home for a  second to throw my shirt in the house. I didn't want to look in the mirror, because I was afraid I would chicken out. I hesitated at the door to go back outside, but then, before I could change my mind, I opened the door and ran off the porch, down the driveway, and into the street.

I was running... without a shirt. Something I never, in a million years, would have ever thought I'd be doing.

And it was SO liberating! The breeze cooled me off much better than when I had my tank on. When I looked down, I could see the skin on my stomach bouncing a little, but I honestly didn't even care. I had thought that maybe I would just run around my neighborhood, so I wouldn't run into many people/cars; however, I was feeling so good, that I went on a busy road and ran a mile and a half out, turned around, and ran home.

Nobody made comments to me, no cars crashed from my blindingly white skin, and people barely even glanced at me as they drove by. It was awesome!

50 Shades of Pale

I thought it was pretty funny when I looked at my splits. I was trying to run an easy pace (high 9:00's to mid 10:00's). You can see just how nervous I was when I took my tank off, because my pace for that 7th mile was 8:58. When I'm nervous, I always run faster!

It was fun to do something that was so scary for me. I don't look anything like the high school girls that run cross country in their sports bras (who I see out training occasionally), but considering I'm a formerly-obese mother of two, I'm very happy with how I look now, and I'm going to keep working on not feeling self-conscious of my flaws!

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Calibration frustration

I had such a frustrating run this morning! Today was a nine mile run at marathon pace (8:58/mi), and it was a hot morning, so I chose to use the treadmill. I was down to the last two episodes of season five of Breaking Bad, which totaled just about the same amount of time I would need to run nine miles--perfect!

I got everything all set up, and decided not to run a warm-up mile (because my warm-up pace is only slightly slower than marathon pace, so it's really not needed). I planned for this to be a "set it and forget it" kind of run, where I just set the pace and run until I reached nine miles. It didn't work out that way at all.

I noticed that my Garmin was showing that I was going much faster than the treadmill was reading. I have a fairly new battery in my foot pod, so I knew that wasn't the issue. I wouldn't have minded if it was only off by a couple of seconds per mile, but it was reading something like 8:37 when the treadmill said 8:57. Multiply that by nine miles, and it's a big difference!

I didn't want to have to recalibrate it in the middle of my run. I decided to manually fiddle with the calibration number on my watch to try and match the treadmill's pace. Each time I did that, I had to stop the 'mill, stop my Garmin, press a bunch of buttons, start the 'mill, run, and restart my Garmin. I probably tried four different numbers, before I finally decided just to calibrate the thing the long way, by running for a half mile.

After I calibrated it to the treadmill, it was telling me that I was running 8:02 or something ridiculous. I knew that wasn't right, either, and I don't understand how that happened. I should have just thrown my Garmin across the room and worried about it later, but I was determined to find the right calibration number.

I messed around with the stupid thing for over four miles!

Finally, I got it to read 8:45-ish, which was the closest I could get to the treadmill pace. The one good thing about all the hassle was that the first half of the run went by really fast. As soon as I reached nine miles, Breaking Bad ended, so the timing worked out perfectly, even with all the starting and stopping. I'm not even going to post my splits, because they are so inaccurate.

I searched online for some info about the foot pod and why it might not calibrate properly. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find a cool (and very nerdy!) program that gives you a really accurate manual calibration factor based on all of my previous runs done by GPS. I'm not going to get into it, because it truly is the nerdiest thing I've ever wasted my time with (I loved every second of it!), but if you like nerdy numbers stuff, you can find it here. If that is correct, my treadmill shows that I'm going slower than I actually am, which is interesting! I'm excited to try out the new calibration numbers to see what it shows.

I think my body has been craving vegetables lately. I am a self-proclaimed salad-hater, but once in a while I go through a phase where I just can't get enough salad. So the past few days, I've been making big salads to eat for lunch, along with a bowl of soup. I love the Bolthouse Farms ranch dressing (I wrote about it here); and lately I've been adding Craisins, almonds, turkey, and rice noodles.

When I do eat salad, my favorite part is all of the toppings. When the bowl is almost empty, and all the lettuce is gone, and there is just a bunch of random toppings left--those are the best bites! Anyway, I've also been eating vegetables for a snack--I've been hooked on cucumber slices with cream cheese (mixed with Italian dressing mix).

I mixed a whole brick of fat free cream cheese with two teaspoons of Italian dressing mix (a powder). Then I just spread two tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture on cucumber slices for a 1 PointsPlus snack. It's really good!

After running nine miles today, I wanted to balance out those veggies with something a little more indulgent ;)  So after dinner, Jerry and I took the kids to Cold Stone for ice cream. I got a small cup of cake batter flavor--my favorite.

Noah got cake batter with Snickers and Reese's Cups, and Eli got chocolate with Snickers and Reese's Cups (Jerry got plain mint). I still haven't had peanut butter (six weeks and counting!), otherwise, I may have been tempted to get Reese's in mine, too. The cake batter ice cream is only 10 PP for a small, and it's SO worth it.

Tomorrow, we're taking the kids to the Toledo Mud Hens game. We bought the tickets for Noah's birthday last month. The game is at 7:00, so we told Noah we'd go out for his birthday dinner tomorrow before the game, and he could choose where we go. He chose Bob Evans, which was an unusual choice for a nine-year old, but that sounds good to me ;)  We won't get home from the game until late, so I probably won't write a post tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

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The giggles

I spent almost the entire day today thinking it was Thursday. When I woke up, I knew it was Wednesday, because I did my weigh-in. Which, by the way, was actually much better than I expected:

My weight was up two pounds from last week's 136. From the week I've had, though, I thought for sure it would be in the 140's. I ate out a few times this week (which always causes me to gain weight, regardless of what I order), and I didn't track my food for a couple of days. I've been going back and forth between 136 and 138 for several weeks now, and I ready to get back to goal!

This week, we're going to a Mud Hens baseball game on Friday night (and since it's "Pizza Friday" the kids want to go out for pizza before the game. On Saturday, I have a wine club meeting with girlfriends, and that always involves food. I'm going to make a plan before both of those days so that I don't go overboard. I can't afford to, because I have to fit into a bridesmaids' dress in two weeks!

The boys start school next week, and then I will be able to settle into a routine. I find it so much easier to stay on track with my eating during the school year. I have a few projects I want to work on, too, like painting the boys' bedrooms and possibly the kitchen. As of this Sunday, there will be just six weeks until the Chicago marathon!

Today was my rest day, which I always look forward to; but then I end up spending the whole day feeling weird about not running! ;)  Eli has been really into Uno lately, so I played several games of that today.

Then, I was helping him with a workbook that the school gave the kids to work on over the summer. Eli was really taking his good old time today, writing out his numbers and letters very carefully (and veeeery slowly). It was driving me crazy, but I didn't say anything about it, because I assumed he was trying to make his work look neat. I had told him that we were going to work on the book for an hour. About 20 minutes in, he hadn't made much progress because he was writing so slowly.

Then he said, sounding pleased with himself, "Wow, I'm really good at writing with my left hand!"

I almost died. But the situation made me laugh so hard that I was wheezing. I had the giggles after that, and Eli had no idea what was so funny. It was one of those moments where, long after it stopped being funny, I was still laughing about it.

And I'm going to cut this post short, because I really don't have anything else to write about today!

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Ladder intervals

According to the Hansons' marathon schedule, my Tuesday runs from now (well, last week) until the marathon are "strength" runs. These are similar to speed work, only the intervals are longer (1-3 miles per interval), and the pace is much slower (10 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace). Today, I was supposed to do 4 x 1.5 miles at 8:48/mi pace. I really didn't want to do that workout, and not because I didn't feel like running; it just feels like a race pace run with a few breaks thrown in, and that isn't very challenging.

The Hansons' plan is very marathon-goal-specific, so if I had my heart set on a goal for the Chicago marathon, I'd follow the strength runs on Tuesdays to the letter. But I don't want to just forget about doing speed work for the next several weeks, so I decided to go back to the speed workouts and continue doing those instead of the strength runs. The speed workouts are shorter, faster intervals, where I really push the pace. These will help me keep up my speed for my shorter distance races after the marathon is over.

So instead of today's 4 x 1.5 mile intervals, I chose to do ladder intervals--something I've never actually done before! This would consist of 400 meters, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, and then 400, at 5K-ish pace (7:30/mi); all of these would have a 400-meter recovery jog in-between. I liked the idea of a variety, and I knew the 7:30 pace would be tough, especially for the 1600 meter (1 mile) interval.

I set up the entire workout on my Garmin, so that I wouldn't have to think much while doing it. It was thunder storming outside, so I chose to use the treadmill (I like the treadmill for intervals, anyway). I've been watching the fifth season of Breaking Bad on Netflix, and it's a pretty short season. I'm almost done with it already!

Anyway, I started with a one-mile warm-up. I set the treadmill at 6.0, and then just kept increasing it by 0.1 mph each tenth of a mile. After the warm-up, I started the first interval. It wasn't too bad! The second one was tougher. By the third, I was thinking, "Oh, man, why didn't I just stick with the strength run today?" I was really nervous about the "top" of the ladder, the one-mile interval. That one seemed to take FOREVER. Once I finished that one though, it was all downhill (er, down the ladder...), because the intervals would get shorter each time.

After the 1-mile interval, I was doing the 1/4 mile recovery jog, lost in Breaking Bad. One minute, I was trotting along, watching the show, and the next second, I almost ran through the wall (okay, that's definitely an exaggeration, but I did run into the front of the treadmill, banging my hip pretty hard). The power had gone out (from the storm), which made the belt on the treadmill come to an instant stop, while I kept running. Bahaha, that was pretty funny.

And you know what my first thought was? "Yes! The power went out! Now I don't have to finish my intervals!" I decided to wait five minutes before calling the workout quits and getting into the shower. At around minute number four, the power came back on. So, I truly had no excuse not to get back on there.

It was a tough workout today! But I really liked doing the ladder intervals for variety. It looked interesting on the pace graph:

 

Doing the ladders definitely made the miles fly by. Since I was focused on each individual interval, I didn't realize that I'd run nearly seven miles by the time I was done.

I've been really getting into a "fall" mood lately, so I decided to make Pumpkin Cranberry Apple Baked Oatmeal for breakfast. It's a hefty 9 PointsPlus, but it sounded SO good today. It makes six servings, so I can just heat it up each morning for the next five days.

After breakfast, my friend Jake stopped by with his kids. He has a son Eli's age, and boy-girl twins who are, I think, three years old. The little girl kept asking me, "Where's your girl?" She's so adorable! I just had to keep reminding her that I am the only girl in this house, and she seemed to think that was very strange. The twins were very interested in the cats, and I'm glad my cats are people-friendly, because they definitely got a lot of attention today.

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For Taste Test Tuesday this week, I bought these Salted Caramel Biscotti by Nonni's:

Holy smokes, these are SO good! If you like the salty-sweet combo, you will love these. They have everything as far as taste and texture--crunchy, smooth, salty, and sweet. They're only 100 calories, so they make the perfect treat to go with my salted caramel tea :)

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Motivational Monday #30

This is the last Motivational Monday of August... can you believe it's almost September already?! I feel like the summer just flew by way too fast. But I'm very much looking forward to fall. Fall means settling into a routine, which makes it much easier for me to stay on track. I've been struggling all summer long, but thankfully, have kept the damage to a few pounds (rather than the 15-20 I've gained per summer in the past!).

I think the thing I am most proud of this week is my 16-miler yesterday. I was so nervous about it, but it went SO well, and I felt really strong through the whole run.

Lots of great motivation from readers this week, too!

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Brittany ran her first 5K! She'd been running about a 14:00/mi pace during her training, so she surprised herself (in a good way) when she ran a 12:30/mi pace at the race.

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Dave's story gives me chills. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may remember when my From Fat to Finish Line Ragnar team was looking for a twelfth member, and people "applied" to be on the team. We eventually ended up choosing Meredith to join our team--her story is VERY motivational.

Well, Dave is Meredith's husband, and I had the pleasure of spending some time with them both in Key West. Dave has quite the inspirational story of his own! About five years ago, Dave was a severe diabetic, on pills four times a day, and very close to being put on insulin. He was also on high blood pressure meds and high cholesterol meds.

This past Saturday, Dave reached a HUGE milestone--he hit his Weight Watchers goal weight, with 180.4 pounds lost!! In the "before" pic below, Dave weighed 429 pounds; in the "after" pic (holding his EIGHTEENTH 10-lbs lost ribbon at WW), he weighs in at 249. Dave's main form of exercise was walking (he always posts on Facebook how many steps he walked that day, and this guy walks WAY more than I run); but he's now training to run a half-marathon. Best of all, he's off ALL of his medication!

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When I first saw this picture from Heather, I thought, "I can't post that--it's too dark!" But it actually makes her post that much better. Heather and her neighbor have been meeting up for a run/walk around the neighborhood each morning... at 4:50 AM! While most people are still sleeping, they are up and at 'em, getting in some exercise to start the day, before the sun even comes up.

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In February, Katina decided that she'd had enough--she was ready to make the commitment to lose the weight. She'd tried to lose weight before, but always focused too much on the number on the scale. This time around, she decided to set mini goals to look forward to instead of worrying about the numbers. She listed things like, "Walk a 5K", "Stop using a seat belt extender on an airplane", "Complete a zombie run 5K (including the obstacles)", etc. Since she started her new lifestyle, she's lost 72.8 pounds, and she completed her first goal of walking a 5K. She's also a size 18/20 now, down from a size 30!

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Leesa set a New Year's Resolution this year to run five 5K races. She ran her first on January 6th, and this past weekend, she completed her goal by running her fifth! She ran the race with her daughter, and the rest of her family cheered from the sidelines.

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Liz ran 15 miles yesterday--her longest distance ever!!

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Liz ran her first 5K this weekend! This was a huge accomplishment for her, because she's signed up for races before, but she was too nervous to show up on race morning. She was afraid of not being fast enough, or good enough, or thin enough... but this time, she showed up (even though she isn't at her goal weight, and even though she didn't train as well as she'd hoped) and she finished the race! 

The race was a benefit for Gigi's Playhouse, a Down's Syndrome awareness organization, that benefits Liz's soon-to-be stepdaughter, Joy. Joy told Liz that she wanted her to win the race ;)  While Liz didn't win, Joy shouted with glee that Liz had won when she crossed the finish line. Liz is happy to set an example for Joy about health, perseverance, and overcoming fears!

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Melissa had been chasing a PR since January in the 5K, and this weekend, she did it! She finished in 31:17, which also meant she placed third in her age group. There was a man behind her the entire race, yelling encouragement to everyone, and Melissa said that it really encouraged her at the end to push hard and get that PR. Her father (in the picture) just started running a year ago, and at 69 years old, he won first in his age group this weekend!

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After losing 45 pounds, and completing the Couch to 5K program, Naomi was feeling pretty happy with her accomplishments. Then IronMan Canada rolled into her town, and she started to feel inadequate--what's a 5K when these people were swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and then running a full marathon? She started to feel down about herself, but then she started thinking about how far she'd come. Several months prior, she was 215 pounds and could barely walk a flight of stairs without getting winded, and now she's dropped quite a bit of weight and is able to run 3.1 miles pretty easily! Watching the IronMan competitors cross the finish line this weekend inspired her to set some new goals for next year--she's going to run the half-marathon in her hometown, and after that? Maybe she'll set her sights on becoming an IronMan herself ;)

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Rachel spent her entire life overweight, and never really gave much thought to how it affected her health. Sure, she wanted to be "thin" to look good, but it wasn't until after she had her daughter that she had an epiphany: she wanted to become fit and healthy to be around for her daughter. In the past, her goals were things like, "Lose X pounds", "Do a 5K", "Don't eat junk food",  "Don't drink soda", etc. This time, all she wanted to was to be healthy and fit to be a good mom. She started attending Zumba classes, and making healthy changes in her diet. She's not yet at goal, but she's lost 82.6 pounds, and is fitter than she's ever been! Wanting to inspire others, she just recently became a Sweat Pink Ambassador.

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Emily began running just two and a half years ago, and since then, she's completed six half-marathons, several 5K's, 10K's, and 15K's, and four Ragnar Relays! I think it's safe to say she's addicted ;)  She's currently training for her first full marathon, which takes place next month. This past weekend, she had a half-marathon planned, but days before the race, she hurt her knee. She was determined to finish, even if it meant walking the race, and she ended up finishing with her third fastest time yet, despite the run/walking she did! Now she's going to rest up until her knee is better, so she can finish her marathon feeling just as strong. 

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After losing 40 pounds, Kim is now able to fit into the same size pants she wore as a sophomore in high school! She's been counting PointsPlus and started running, which has helped her to drop the pounds as well as 25 inches.

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Don't forget to check out more motivation (and share your own) on the Motivational Monday Facebook post!

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A 16-miler

Not sure why I was nervous about my long run today, and it turns out there was no reason to be--I did it!

I set the alarm for 6:20, so that I could be out the door at sunrise (6:50). I got dressed and then prepared my CamelBak, filling the water reservoir with ice and then water. I packed my pepper spray, phone, and a few ShotBloks, too.

I'd mapped out an out-and-back route that actually let me go past my parents' campsite. The boys stayed at the campsite with my parents last night, so I thought it would be fun to see them just before turning around and heading home.

According to the Hansons' book, I should be running my long runs at a 9:38/mi pace. Because I was nervous about the distance, I just told myself that I would aim for sub-10 miles, but I wouldn't look at my watch more than once per mile. I hate when I'm trying to hit a certain pace and I have to keep looking at my watch to see if I'm on target. Today, I just wanted to make this as painless as possible.

There was no procrastinating this morning; I wanted to get this done before the sun got unbearable! I started running at what felt like a comfortable pace, and just focused on getting to the campsite. The ice in the CamelBak was pretty loud as I ran, but the noise didn't bother me. When I hit a mile, I saw my pace was 9:35--almost spot-on to my goal pace today, so I was surprised that I hit that without really trying.

Every time my Garmin beeped at a mile checkpoint, I looked at my pace and then I took a drink of water--probably only about an ounce, but I didn't want to get as dehydrated as last week, so I made sure to drink often, even in the beginning. Other than that, I just let myself space out and daydream.

When I got to the campground, I was surprised at how crowded it was. Every single campsite was occupied. I wondered if I'd be able to find my parents' camper, but then I saw it. My mom was sitting outside reading, and I stopped to talk for a couple of minutes. She said the boys had just left with my dad to go fishing, so I figured I'd run down to their fishing spot to say hi before heading home. My mom wasn't exactly sure where it was, and since I'm very familiar with the trails there, I made my best guess. I was wrong.

I wanted to see the boys, but I didn't want to add any mileage to my run (16 is plenty!), so I didn't look very long. I just made my way back to the front of the park, and realized that if I went straight home, I'd arrive back home at mile 15.25, not 16. So on the way home, I made a couple of detours to add on a little mileage. If there is one thing I hate, it's running PAST my house or car, because I didn't calculate the route correctly.

I was surprised at how good I felt! Sure, my legs were feeling a little tired toward the end, but I honestly felt like I could have pulled a 20-miler today and been fine. It's funny--last week's 10-miler nearly killed me, but today's 16-miler felt great! The last mile was actually my fastest, which shows I still had some energy left in the tank. When I got back to my house, I actually did have to run past. It was at 15.97, and as anal as it sounds, I had to make my Garmin read 16. So I just ran to the neighbor's driveway and turned around. I sat outside for a couple minutes before going inside to shower.

I love seeing a calorie burn in the thousands!

The kids were still with my parents, so after I showered and had a huge protein shake for breakfast, I literally sat in the recliner and watched two full Lifetime movies. A very lazy morning! It felt awesome to sit and relax after getting my long run done. Paolo was thrilled to sit on my lap the entire time, too. ;)

I chose not to get a long run treat today, which was kind of a bummer. Yesterday, I had the munchies really badly, and said to hell with counting PointsPlus. So I'm sure I ate all of my activity PP yesterday, before I ever even earned them. I'm really hoping that I don't gain this week, but with eating out a couple of times, and then yesterday's free-for-all, I just might.

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The winner of the KIND bars giveaway is lucky number 159:

Allison, please e-mail me ASAP at SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com with your shipping info, so that I can pass it along to the kind people at KIND ;)

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Just a reminder that tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a pic of a health/fitness accomplishment that you completed this week, you can send it to me at SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com and I may include it on tomorrow's post.

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