Free Friday

Thanks so much for all of the book ideas yesterday! My library queue is now long enough to last me at least a year or two ;)

All the rain we've gotten makes it feel like April. This morning, I woke up to more rain. After getting the kids off to school, I was trying to stall before heading out for my long run. I was hoping that the rain would die down a bit to give me some time to run without getting soaked. I like to run in the rain if it's a short run, but when it's longer than four miles or so, my feet get wet and that's not fun.

Finally, at around 10:30, I decided to just go, even though it was still raining. I always forget about the jacket that I got from the Women Rock MN half-marathon, but it's a good jacket for the rain. Very light-weight and water resistant. So I threw that on over my shirt. It took me about five minutes to get ready, and by the time I stepped outside, the rain had become just a drizzle. Much better than big fat rain drops! I planned to do an eight-mile out-and-back route, keeping my pace between 9:15-9:30 ish.

Thankfully, the wind wasn't bad today. While I was running, I thought a lot about my friend, Sarah. She's battling advanced melanoma, and recently, she got some bad news. They discovered the cancer had spread to her brain, and she was on chemo for that. She'd had three tumors on her brain, and now she just found out, after stopping the chemo, she has over a hundred. Because of this, she no longer qualifies for the clinical trial she'd been hoping for. Now, they are going to try radiation over her whole body, to try to shrink the tumors and alleviate the pain. I really hope it works for her.

I just feel so sad for her. We were really close in high school (and went tanning together all the time, before we knew how bad it was!). She has two kids who are just a little older than Noah and Eli. Anyway, while I was running today, every time I found myself thinking about how much I'd rather be doing something else, I thought of Sarah. I'm sure she'd give just about anything to be able to walk normally (the original melanoma was on her calf, and the surgeries have made walking difficult), let alone run.

I turned around at mile four and headed back. I think I felt better on the way home than on the way out; my energy picked up a little. By mile six, though, my feet were definitely wet. Once I hit mile seven, I picked up the pace a little to have a sub-9:00 mile. I always like to finish feeling strong!

My splits were ridiculously even, without even trying. After chugging some water, I took a quick shower and headed to the store. I'd forgotten that I had some "Free Friday" coupons downloaded to my Kroger card that were going to expire soon, so I wanted to use them before they expired. Kroger has a coupon every Friday that you can download for a free item. It has to be downloaded that day, but it doesn't usually expire for a month or so.

I had three of them saved up on my card, so I got those things today: a Dole smoothie, a Larabar ALT, and a box of Stacy's toasts... all for free!

I tasted one of the Stacy's Banana Nut crisps, and it was really good! It tasted just like banana bread, only crunchy. They have a lot of calories for a tiny serving, though, so I don't know if I'll be eating those. Jerry definitely will, because he liked them a lot, too. I haven't tried the smoothie or the ALT bar yet.

While I was at Kroger, I saw the perfect long-run treat for today. I have been craving one of these babies for a long time, and I looked for them last week, but couldn't find them:

I love Rice Krispies treats, but I like this brand the best. It's huge (two servings), and the whole thing is 7 PointsPlus. I earned 12 PP on my run today, so I bought it and ate it for an afternoon snack. It was so good!

As lame as it sounds, I'm spending this Friday night with a book and a mug of hot tea. I was in my pajamas at 5:30--and I'm not exaggerating ;)

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A new couch

Ahh, I write this while sitting on a very cozy new couch. Well, new-to-us couch. We've gone through a few couches over the years that Jerry and I have been married, and, a couple of years ago, we ended up back with our original couch that we bought when we got married in 2003. We loved it, but recently realized that it was old, worn, and the cushions were looking shabby... we decided we needed a new one.

But after our history with couches, I really didn't want to get a new one. We had bad luck with them! I really like sectionals, and our couch was a three-piece sectional. When Jerry got his new job in July, we started looking online at different furniture websites for something we both liked. My ideal couch was a large sectional, preferably brown leather. They were pretty expensive, though, starting at around $3,000. So, we just put it off and kind of forgot about it.

A couple of days ago, my mom told me she went into a furniture store that had a used leather sectional for $499. She said it looked like it was in good condition, so I decided to go check it out. At $499, I didn't even get my hopes up that it would be what I was looking for; but yesterday, Jerry and I had nothing else to do in the afternoon, so we went to the store to see it.

The store was family-owned and run, VERY unique, and had some awesome stuff in there! They had some new furniture, but most were vintage and antique items. It was a huge store, so we browsed around for a bit, and then we saw the couch my mom was talking about. It was perfect! It was exactly what we were looking for: a dark brown leather three-piece sectional. There was a small tear on one side, but other than that, it was in very good condition. We sat in it, and that sealed the deal. It was so comfy!

So we paid for it yesterday, and then today, my dad and Jerry went there with a truck to pick it up. We (surprisingly) had no problems getting it into the house, and I was so excited when we got it set up!

My favorite spot is the chaise, which is where I'm sitting right now :)  I always love a good deal, and I feel like this was a very good deal! It was funny--the kids acted like it was Christmas morning when they saw it. They were SO excited!

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It was pretty crappy outside today. It rained on and off all day. True to my word, I ran a very easy-paced three miles today. Mentally, it's kind of hard to run at a pace that is much slower than I'm used to, so I set my Garmin to show nothing but my heart rate zone.

My goal was to keep my pace in Zone 2 for the entire run. It was actually nice to run with a goal of slowing down rather than trying to speed up! It was kind of difficult to keep my heart rate in Zone 2, though; every time I saw it creeping up to 2.9, I would slow down again.

It started raining almost as soon as I left the house, and it rained the whole time I was running. I don't mind the rain when it's warm outside, but cold + rain isn't very fun. When I was running along the lake, the wind was blowing hard off the lake, making the rain come in sideways at me. I was tempted to pick up the speed just to get it over with, but I kept my heart rate in Zone 2. The only time my heart rate went into Zone 3 was when I ran past a group of guys working construction ;)

When I got home, I checked out my pace, and it wasn't as slow as I thought. A 10:17 average pace; I could've sworn I was going a couple of minutes per mile slower than that.

I'm hoping that by doing both slow and fast paces with my Garmin outside, it may "learn" more about me for when I run on the treadmill. I'll do a few more outdoor runs and then give the treadmill a try again. I'm also going to go to the indoor track at the rec center to see what my Garmin reads--might be interesting. Tomorrow is my long run (8 miles), and it's supposed to be rainy again. Bummer.

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I'm on the last book of the FBI Profiler series by Lisa Gardner, and I need some suggestions for books that are similar. Lisa Gardner has a few books that aren't part of a series, so I'll read those next, but after that, I have no clue. I like easy-to-read fiction novels, preferably mysteries. The books I've read by Lisa Gardner are exactly what I like to read! Are any of you Lisa Gardner fans that can point me in the direction of an author who writes similar books? I've been reading quite a bit ever since we got rid of cable.

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Headwind

After being back on track with my eating for eight days, I actually wasn't dreading doing my Wednesday Weigh-in today.

I weighed in a 138, which is down 2.5 pounds from last week. Not a huge leap, but I'm definitely happy to have lost some of this Halloween weight! I'm up three pounds since before Halloween, which makes sense, considering how much candy I ate.  (By the way, that's not a mole or melanoma on my toe; it's just a bad ladybug tattoo that I got when I was 18. I've gotten a couple of e-mails about it recently, so I just wanted to explain again!)

Anyway, getting and staying on track this week was in large part due to my Kitchen Safe. When I went to the grocery store, and thought about buying a "problem food", I decided I would only buy what could fit in the Kitchen Safe, which isn't much. I keep the same routine with the safe each day: the safe opens each morning, I take out one serving of my snacks or whatever I plan to use that day (usually, I'll have nut butter with breakfast and then almonds and half a Clif Bar for snacks). Then I lock the rest up until the next morning!

I mentioned on Instagram that I was going to buy another Kitchen Safe because mine is packed to the brim, and the kind people who developed the safe offered to send me one for free, because I'm probably their biggest fan ;)  It arrived yesterday, and I immediately got a couple more things to include: Twizzlers Bites (I *love* Twizzlers, but I can easily go through a pound of them) and the Jif Whipped Chocolate Peanut Butter.

I measured out a serving of the Twizzlers Bites (one serving is SO tiny!) and put them into a baggie to have for a snack later in the day, and I had some of the Jif peanut butter on an English muffin this morning. It's been working out so well--I can have my problem foods in moderation. So, happily, there have been no binges all week long!

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This morning, I knew I was going to run, I just wasn't sure how far or what pace. I just decided to figure it out as I was running. I headed out in the late morning, and when I got to the end of my street, I saw that I was running at about an 8:45 pace fairly easily, so I decided to aim for 6 miles at a sub-9:00 pace. The first few miles felt great! The sun was out, which felt good, considering the temp was in the low 30's, and it didn't feel windy at all.

As soon as I got to the three-mile mark to turn around, I realized why it didn't feel windy; it was a tail wind the whole way out. When I turned around, it hit me hard! My route isn't hilly in the slightest sense of the word, but right at the turn-around, there was an incline (you might be able to see it on this elevation graph, if you squint really hard...)

Even though it didn't really qualify as a "hill", it felt twice as hard because it was a slight incline and I was heading right into the 25 mph wind gusts. I wished that I'd only decided to do three miles, but I wasn't about to quit on my goal of sub-9's because of the wind.

On the way back, I switched the screen on my Garmin to look at my heart rate, and I was surprised (but not really) to see how high my heart rate was--90% of the maximum. Running against the wind was tough! But I somehow managed to keep up the pace for all six miles. Mile four was definitely the hardest, because I was in such a shock when I turned around into the wind.

I was happy to see that I burned 95 calories per mile today, too ;)

Tomorrow, I am only going to do three miles at a very easy pace. The wind made today's run much harder than I'd planned! My Garmin suggested a 72 hour recovery period after today's run (which is based on heart rate, I believe). I really like these kinds of runs, though (after they're over, of course!) because I feel good about it all day long. I was in such a happy mood all day, and I'm sure it was because of the run!

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The Garmin 620 on the treadmill

Yesterday morning, when I woke up, the power was still out. The wind was blowing like crazy (which is what knocked the power out on Sunday evening), and I was expecting trees to start blowing onto our house. The last thing I wanted to do was go run in that wind, so I decided to run on the treadmill.

Yep, I guess I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, because I thought, "Oh, I can't run on the treadmill, because I won't be able to watch TV or anything to keep my mind occupied!"--because the power was out. Then I had the idea to listen to my iPod, and just stare at the wall while running. I was only planning to run three miles, so it couldn't be too bad.

[No, it still hadn't occurred to me that the treadmill itself uses electricity...]

I got completely ready to run on the treadmill, turned on a podcast to listen to, and looked forward to the "adventure" of running on the 'mill without watching TV. When I turned on the treadmill, nothing happened. It was only THEN that I thought, "Duh! I can't use the treadmill, because we have no electricity!" And here I thought I was getting creative by using my iPod instead of a TV show, hahaha.

The power came back on at around 3:00 in the afternoon, so I ran on the treadmill then. I was excited to see how my new Garmin would do as far as accuracy. There is no foot pod; the distance is measured with the accelerometer in the heart rate monitor. I decided to do three miles at three different speeds, just to see what would happen.

For the first mile, I set the treadmill at 6.5 mph, which is a 9:14/mi pace. The Garmin showed that I ran that mile in 9:30; that was a pretty big difference, but I figured that it took at least 5-10 seconds for the treadmill to get to that speed.

For the second mile, I bumped the speed up to 7.0, which is an 8:34/mi pace. I definitely felt like I was running at that pace; my heart rate went up, my breathing was harder, and I was sweating like expected. But the Garmin showed that I finished in 9:20. That's a HUGE discrepancy! I know I was running much faster than 9:20, just based on my heart rate alone.

For the third mile, I lowered the speed to 6.0, which is a 10:00/mi pace. My heart rate lowered a lot, I felt like it was very easy, and just how I expected a 10:00/mi pace to feel. According to the Garmin, I completed that mile in 9:44.

Incline shows 0, but it was at 1% while running

The treadmill showed that I ran 3.11 miles in 28:48, which is a 9:16/mi pace. The Garmin showed 3.00 miles in 28:34, which is a 9:31/mi pace. I started my Garmin about 10 seconds after the treadmill, so obviously the timer on the treadmill is slightly off (which I knew already).

I'm disappointed that the Garmin was so off with the pace! I know the treadmill isn't perfect, but the Garmin definitely should have shown a bigger distinction between each mile. My pace graph usually goes parallel with my heart rate; the faster I run, the higher my heart rate is. But that wasn't the case on the treadmill. My heart rate reflected the faster pace, but the Garmin barely registered it.

All of the other stats (vertical oscillation, ground contact time, stride length) were right on with what they have been outside. So, I'm not really sure what to make of this yet. It was only a three mile run, and the first time I'd used the new Garmin on the treadmill, so I'm going to experiment some more with it. Maybe I'll wear both Garmins on a run (the 910 with the foot pod, and the 620) just to compare.

If it continues to be inaccurate, I'll just have to pair my foot pod with the 620; but that would be a bummer, because I was excited to ditch the foot pod!

I took a rest day today. I'd like to switch my rest days to Tuesdays, because my weigh-in/the start of my new Weight Watchers week is on Wednesday. When I have a rest day on Wednesday, I don't have any activity PointsPlus to start off my week, which is tough. So if I make Tuesday a rest day, I can plan to use up the rest of my weekly PointsPlus before my weigh-in the next day.

Speaking of which, I've stayed on track all week long, so I'm actually looking forward to weighing in tomorrow :)

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Motivational Monday #41

Happy Motivational Monday! I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to post this today, because we lost power last night and it wasn't expected to be back on until midnight tonight. Thankfully, it was restored at around 3:00 in the afternoon, so I was able to put this together.

I've had a really great week as far as my eating goes, so I'm proud of myself for getting on track. I'm also proud that I managed to avoid those cookies my mom brought over for Jerry to take to work! Putting them in his car helped me to forget about them.

I hope everyone else has had a great week!

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Brittney just completed her first indoor triathlon! She didn't have a time goal, and was just hoping to finish; but she ended up placing second place in her age group! She's been fighting the scale all year, and isn't where she'd like to be, but she is very proud that she's continued training and working hard. (Brittney's blog)

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Cheri ran her first 10K this weekend! She says she wasn't very prepared for it, due to an injured wrist (in a cast) and later, strep throat. She decided to go for it at her race anyway, and ran 6.2 miles in the rain, with a cast on her wrist! She even ran faster than her goal pace, and was thrilled with her finish time of 1:32:25.

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Desiree just reached her one-year fitness anniversary! She's lost 56 pounds over the last year, and is very proud of her progress. She posted a recap (in photos) of the past year on her blog.

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Elizabeth ran her second half-marathon, and finished with a PR of 2:22:32! Elizabeth has lost over 150 pounds since she started her journey, and her friend, Diane, has lost 30. Diane just finished her first 8K! You can read Elizabeth's race report on her blog, and Diane's race report on her blog. 

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Ivayla, in the Santa hat, just PR'ed her 5K time by two minutes, finishing in 31:31! She said the best part of the race was afterward, when a man came up to her and said, "The whole time, I was trying to catch up to you, but couldn't. You were too fast!" (Ivayla's blog)

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Jamie just reached the big 20-pounds-lost milestone! She started Weight Watchers in September, and she registered for a 5K in January. She's excited to crush her 5K on January 1st!

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Julie just completed her final race of the year, The Color Run. In January of this year, she couldn't even run for five full minutes. Since then, she's run five 5K's, one 10K, and two half-marathons! For this Color Run, she ran with a friend who was just starting out as a runner. Julie's first race was also The Color Run, and she struggled in the way that most beginners do; now she's happy and proud to call herself a runner!

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Linda ran her first marathon on Saturday, the Richmond Marathon! She started running three years ago, vowing to run one 5K and be done with it. She fell in love with running, lost 50 pounds, and just completed her first marathon in 5:42:53!

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Make sure you check out the Motivational Monday Facebook post for more stories!

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My rite of passage

We had some very strange weather in Michigan today. This morning, it was 60 degrees when I woke up! (In the evening, we ended up having a tornado watch, and the temp was in the high 60s). I actually wore capris and and a t-shirt to run. I only planned to do 4 miles today--same route as yesterday, only a little faster so that I could see what that did to all my numbers on my new Garmin. I've actually been looking forward to running each day so that I can learn something new about the watch!

Yesterday, I discovered that I could transfer my actual personal records from the computer to the watch, so that when it tells me I did my "Fastest mile" or "Fastest 10K" or whatever, it will actually be true; not just my fastest since getting the new Garmin.

One of the things I love about the new watch is that it picks up satellite signals super fast. I used to go outside and stand in my driveway for a minute or two, waiting... waiting... and then finally it would find satellites. The 620 has some sort of technology in it that it "remembers" where the satellites are when you shut it off, so when you turn it on again, it picks them up right away. I counted how long it took from the second I pushed the power button until the satellites were found, and it was 15-20 seconds each time; that was when I was standing in my house! I didn't even have time to make it outside to wait for the satellites.

It was really overcast this morning, so it seemed kind of dark for being 7:30 in the morning. There were lots of shotgun blasts on my left the whole way out on my out-and-back route. I just hope that the hunters obey the laws and don't get too close to the road! I usually hear a couple of shots, but today there were a ton.

After I turned around to head back, it started raining. The rain got heavier the farther I ran, and combined with the wind, it was pretty loud. I came up behind a couple of hunters carrying rifles on the side of the road--not something I come across every day. I made sure to announce myself, so I didn't get shot ;)

By the time I got home, I was really wet from the rain, but it was a good run.

I took a hot shower, and when I got out, I was drying my feet, and noticed my toenail was still looking strange. After the Chicago Marathon, my toenail (on the toe with the tattoo) developed a blister underneath it. I popped the blister right away, but ever since then, the nail seemed like it was sticking up farther than it should have. Whenever I got out of the shower, I'd press on it to make sure I wouldn't lose the nail. I'd never lost a toenail before, and even though it's really common among runners, I was scared to death of losing one!

So today, the edge of the nail looked strange and upon further inspection, I noticed it was loose! (I shudder just thinking of that). I gave it a gentle lift on that side, expecting to feel a searing pain like when you pull off a hang nail. It didn't feel like anything. And then the nail came off completely! My entire toenail came right off, and it didn't even feel like anything.

It wasn't at all what I expected. When I think of a toenail coming off, I pictured horrible pain, and raw skin, and blood... but it honestly looked like there was still a toenail on there. If it hadn't come off in my hand, I probably wouldn't have noticed. Losing a toenail is like a rite of passage for runners, and now I'm in the club! hahaha

I know a lot of runners just paint over it like they would a toenail, but I'm too freaked out to touch it, let alone paint it. So it'll just look like that for a while until I get a new nail, I guess!

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It seems wrong to post about food after sharing way too much information about my toes. Anyway, yesterday my mom brought over a big container of cookies for Jerry to bring to work. They are probably my favorite cookies ever, but I've been doing really well staying on track, so I didn't want to eat any (I estimate them at 5 PointsPlus each, maybe even 6; and I can't eat just one!).

Almost as soon as my mom dropped them off, they were beckoning me. I couldn't stop thinking about them, so I finally decided to take them out to Jerry's car. That worked really well! Once they were in his car, I actually forgot about them for most of the day. If they had been in my kitchen, I surely would have dug into them.

This morning, Noah asked me if we could go to Panera for lunch. I suggested dinner, instead, so that Jerry could go with us. I love that my kids love Panera! It's pretty expensive to take the whole family there, so we don't do it often, but it's so good when we go. I had been planning to get Broccoli Cheddar soup, but when I got there, I saw that they had Country Style Mushroom with Truffle soup, which sounded really good, and was only 10 calories more than the Broccoli Cheddar. The woman working there offered to let me taste it, and after tasting it, I was sold on it. I love mushrooms! I got a bowl of the soup with a whole grain baguette.

The soup was 9 PointsPlus, and the baguette was 4 PP. It was really filling, and totally worth it!

Jerry and I are going up to Ann Arbor tomorrow, and I've been trying all week long to save up a few PointsPlus here and there so that I can get a brownie at Whole Foods. Remember the orgasmic Turtle Brownie I got with Jessica? I rarely go to Ann Arbor, but when I do, I always think of that brownie! I estimate that it's about 20 PointsPlus, so I may end up getting that tomorrow. If not that, then definitely some sort of treat. I haven't been to Whole Foods in probably a year or more. I'm mostly looking forward to spending the day with Jerry!

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you've accomplished something brag-worthy this week, feel free to e-mail me a picture and a brief description to SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, with the subject "Motivational Monday"; I may include it in tomorrow's post!

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It gets easier

A reader recently wrote me an e-mail asking a good question that I wanted to bring up here, in case anyone else was wondering. She was just starting to run here and there during her walks, and said when she would run, her lungs were burning and it was just miserable. She asked if I loved running right from the start, or did it take me a while before I enjoyed it? Also, does it get easier after a while?

I absolutely hated running when I first tried it! My lungs felt like they were on fire, and my legs felt so heavy. It was boring, and the time passed so slowly... I just couldn't even comprehend why anyone would CHOOSE to run. But I'd committed to running a 5K race with my friend Renee, so I was determined to stick it out. I planned to get through the 5K, and then never run another step for as long as I lived. Haha!

I had something like 8-10 months before the actual race, and figured it would take me that long to be able to run a 5K. But somewhere in those months, I started to love the feeling I got after a run; I loved talking about running; I loved trying to reach new goals of being faster or running farther; I loved reading about running. I also noticed that my lungs weren't burning like they had in the beginning, and my legs didn't feel like lead.

I loved that I could eat more on the days that I went for a run; I loved that I felt happier on the days that I'd run; I loved that running seemed to curb my appetite for a few hours; and I loved that I was doing something I never imagined was possible!

Just for fun, I looked up my blog post from the day I started the Couch to 5K program, to see what I wrote (the blog is no longer online). It made me laugh!

"I decided to start the Couch to 5K program today, and then when I finish that, maybe I could just run a couple of times a week for a few miles. I have no desire to be a full-fledged runner, but I'd be super proud to actually FINISH the C25K program."

And here's another quote from a couple of weeks later:

"I thought I was going to DIE--well, throw up, really--when I did the Week 3 Couch to 5K workout yesterday. It was really hard to do the 3-minute run. I'm so out of shape! I'm really dreading doing it again tomorrow. Hopefully it feels easier."

And a few days later:

"I quit the C25K today. I started Week 4, which is SO MUCH HARDER than Week 3. I made it through 3 of the running segments, but there was NO WAY I was going to be able to run another 1/2 mile. So I decided to kind of do my own walking/jogging thing. Since I ran a 6-minute segment today, I'm going to start with that and just add a minute or two every week. I'll walk 5, jog 6, walk 19 (to total 30 minutes). Then the next week, I might walk 5, jog 8, walk 17. etc. I think I could handle that. C25K has you DOUBLING your jogging segments, and I just can't do that. I had to slow my running pace from 5.0 mph to 4.5 just to get through the 6-minute segment I did."

I think it's so funny that I once said, "I have no desire to be a full-fledged runner..." At that time, I meant it. It's really interesting to read how far I've come since then! It's obvious that I've made progress, but to see the numbers and read my thoughts from back then just confirms it. I went from "no desire to be a full-fledged runner" and "feeling like I was going to die during a 3-minute run" to training for and running three full marathons.

I'm living proof that it does get easier! It certainly wasn't easy for me in the beginning, as you can see, but I had determination and discipline, which helped me get through the hard part. I'm really glad that I stuck it out in the beginning, because running has changed my life in more ways than I can count.

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I made it through the infamous "Day 4" yesterday. I don't know why it is, but when I'm trying to consistently log my food and stay within my PointsPlus or calories range, the fourth day is always the hardest! I know if I can make it through the first four days, then I'm likely to keep going. I've stayed binge-free and logged my food for five days (by the time I am in bed tonight).

This morning, I was up at 5:00 again. I ended up making some tea and sitting in the living room with my book. I'm reading another book by Lisa Gardner--I've read quite a few of them since I picked up the first in the spring. That's really unusual for me; normally, I read one or two books a year. Over the summer and now into the fall, I've read her Detective D.D. Warren series, and now I'm almost through the Quincy and Rainie series.

I've been reading a lot lately, because ever since we got rid of cable, I haven't really watched TV at all. We have Hulu and Netflix, but most of the shows I used to watch aren't available on those, so I just haven't watched anything. I never really realized how much I would mindlessly turn something on (Food Network or Lifetime Movie Network) to watch while folding laundry or other chores.

I've noticed that the time passes so much faster when I'm reading than when I'm watching TV. It's helped me get through the evenings without constantly going to the pantry or refrigerator! ;)

Once it was light enough to go for a run this morning, I decided to head out for a short, easy run. I wasn't really sure how far I'd go, and I certainly didn't want to push the pace; it was nice outside, and I just wanted to enjoy the weather. (And, well, I wanted to use my new Garmin some more!)

I ended up deciding to run a four-mile out-and-back route. The weather was PERFECT for a run--36 degrees, overcast, and 0 mph wind. Today was one of those runs that I just truly enjoyed, even in the moment. When I got home, I was giddy to look at all my data :)

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Love at first split

I was actually kind of excited to go out and run eight miles this morning, thanks to my new Garmin that arrived yesterday! I didn't even procrastinate; just headed out right after the kids left for school. It was pretty nice out this morning--a great morning for a run.

The first thing I noticed about the watch right out of the box was how light it is. It weighs next to nothing. When I got ready to run, I was a little frustrated at first, because I couldn't get the heart rate monitor to read on the watch. The manual says that the heart rate monitor is already paired with the watch, but when I turned on the watch, it just wasn't picking up the signal. I wasn't sure what to do about it, and I was pretty disappointed. I was about to just grab my old Garmin and go run with that, but I tried one more thing: "Add a device" on the watch, and it picked up the signal immediately. I guess the two weren't paired by the manufacturer. Now, there shouldn't be a problem.

The HR strap has a built-in accelerometer, which I am super excited about. It eliminates the need for a foot pod while using the treadmill or when GPS is turned off. It's extremely accurate, because it uses your outdoor data to automatically calibrate it for indoor use. The more you run, the more it "learns" about you and can predict your performance.

Anyway, once I got the heart rate monitor paired, I headed out. I pushed the start button and ran. I didn't have a goal pace or anything for today; my only plan was to run eight miles. I kept looking down at the watch, because it's so pretty and has so many cool numbers! ;)  I'd set up all four screens yesterday, so it displayed all the things that were important to me: distance, time, pace, average pace, lap pace, heart rate, etc.

The touch screen is going to be hard to get used to, I think, but I like it. I didn't have any problem using the touch screen with my gloves on. The screen isn't SO sensitive that an accidental bump would throw anything off; the only way to start and stop the workout is to push an actual button on the side of the watch.

Less than mile into the run, I heard a beep and a message popped up on the screen: "Recovery check: Good" or something like that. I wasn't sure what that was about, but the manual says, "The recovery check provides a real-time indication of your state of recovery within the first several minutes of a run." It's based on heart rate, and there is a "Recovery Advisor" that appears when the run is over. It tells you how much recovery time you should need after the workout you just did (anywhere from 6 hours to 4 days); it doesn't mean I shouldn't run in that time, it just means that is the amount of time I should wait before another "hard" run. Mine was 72 hours after today's run (I took the pic a couple of hours after running):

So after I ran the eight miles, I stopped the timer and then sat on the porch to go through the data. There was a cat sitting on my porch (not my cat!) and he was very friendly. He's been hanging around for several months now, but I think he belongs to someone. He was rubbing all over me while I was sitting on the porch, so I took a few pics of him:

I was really excited going through the data on my Garmin. First, a bunch of "records" popped up--my fastest mile, my fastest 5K, my fastest 10K, and my longest distance--because this was the first time I used the watch, I had a bunch of PR's ;)  So, for example, the fastest mile is shown below. When I run a mile faster than that, it'll show a new record.

Then I saw the basics of my run:

Distance, time, pace, calories, the usual... I was bummed to see the calories, because that seems so low to me! That's only 70 calories per mile. I'm going to see if I can find some more info online about how that number is calculated.

There was a ton of other data that was fun to look at:

The average heart rate and max heart rate are self-explanatory. The "TE" is "training effect", which is the impact the exercise has on your aerobic fitness, shown on a scale of 1-5 (based on heart rate). The cadence is the number of steps per minute--ideally, it would be around 180. Vertical oscillation is the amount of bounce while you're running, measured in centimeters--mine was 10.5, which is average. I was curious to see how the cadence would compare with the data from my foot pod. It was identical! So the accelerometer inside of the heart rate strap is just as accurate (if not more so) than the foot pod.

I love that the Garmin shows your VO2 Max. VO2 Max is a number that defines your body’s maximum ability to transport and utilize oxygen during exercise. Basically, higher is better. For a female, 30-39, 44 (my reading) is "excellent", so that's pretty awesome! But this was just based on ONE run, so that could change pretty significantly after I've run a few more times. I guessed it was around 39-40, based on some online calculators, which is in the "good" range. It's hard to see in the pic, but there is a band of different colors around the edge where the VO2 Max is shown. The colors represent Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent, and Superior (from left to right); you can see the white line is where mine falls.

The VO2 Max is used for the Race Predictor on the watch, also, which I am excited about! Again, this was just based on ONE run, so it's probably not accurate yet. After I run a few more times, the watch will "learn" more, and it will be more accurate. But here are my race predictors based on today's run:

It's pretty interesting, because those are very close to the goals I have set for the spring! My 5K goal is sub-24, my 10K goal is sub-49:23, Half goal is sub-1:50 (and I have no plans for a marathon).

My watch was connected (via bluetooth) to my iPhone, so all of the data automatically uploaded to my phone! There is a Garmin Connect app that displays all of the data (with cool charts, of course).

Because the info was uploaded onto the Garmin Connect app on my phone, when I logged into my account on the computer, the info was already there. So easy! With the Garmin 910xt, I would have to use a little ANT+ stick in the USB port on my computer to download the info from my Garmin (that was the thing I lost in Key West, and had to buy a new one!).

There is a new little section on the website that shows the Running Dynamics:

It even shows ground contact time (the amount of time your foot is touching the ground) in milliseconds! I have no idea what to do with that information, but it's fun to know ;) 


So, it's safe to say that it was definitely love at first split with my Garmin 620! I'm super excited to get some more runs on there so I can see how it affects the VO2 Max and the race predictions. I'm also really excited to try it out on the treadmill and see how accurate it is. There is WAY too much info to get into a lot of detail in here, but DC Rainmaker did a VERY in-depth review of the watch. I always learn new things when reading his reviews! (Also, he has a coupon code for 10% off, just FYI; I ordered mine through his link).

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A new toy!

On this Thursday last year, I wrote a post called "'Till I Collapse", after I reached two big milestones during a training run: I ran a sub-26:00 5K, which was a HUGE goal of mine for a long time, and I ran my first sub-8:00 mile. I was so happy and excited!

Since I'm following last year's runs as a sort-of schedule for the next couple of weeks, today was a big day to beat. I wanted to beat my 5K time from last year as well as run the third mile under 8 minutes. I haven't run a sub-8:00 mile outside in a long time! I was actually pretty nervous, even though it was just a training run.

After I got the kids off to school, I dressed in my running clothes and headed out. My plan was to try and stick as closely to my splits from last year as possible, beating them by just a second or two. Last year's splits were 8:31, 8:34, and 7:54.

Because I was nervous, I started out way too fast, which is always a mistake. I caught myself about a quarter mile in, and forced myself to slow down. The first mile wasn't too bad; tough, but I was just thinking about how much tougher it was going to feel during the third mile! My first mile was done in 8:18, so I slowed down some more. I wanted to save as much energy as I could to try and hit sub-8:00 for the third mile.

Second mile was done in 8:29. Perfect! As soon as I heard my Garmin beep after the second mile, I picked up the pace. At first, it really didn't feel as hard as I expected it to. My pace was about 7:45, and I felt good! But that mile felt like the longest mile of my life. It kept feeling harder and harder to hold that pace. When I hit mile 3, I kept running hard to finish off the 0.11. My neighbor was outside, and must have thought I was ridiculous; I flew by him, then stopped in front of my house, gasping for breath. He said "Good morning!" and I could barely give a wave. I was exhausted. But I had done it!

I spent the rest of the morning updating the "Favorite Things" page on my blog (finally). I've been meaning to add some things on there for a long time, and I just hadn't taken the time to get it done. I have a few other pages that I need to update, so I'll hopefully get that done soon.

The kids had asked me to take their allowance money and go buy them a Rainbow Loom and more rubber bands today for their bracelet-making. They've been making SO many bracelets! They haven't even touched the TV or video games this week--I love that they found something creative to do that doesn't involve electronics. So I went to the craft store this afternoon to pick them each up a loom and some of the bands. I ran into Renee, who happened to be there for the exact same things! Her son wanted a loom, too. I think it's so funny that my kids are so excited about making these bracelets. They spent the whole evening like this:

When I got home from the craft store, Jerry told me that I had "very special" package arrive in the mail. It was MY NEW GARMIN!! I tore into the box to check it out, and read the quick start manual. I played around with the watch a little bit, but I won't really get to try out the features until I run tomorrow. I love the orange/white color combo.

I printed out the owner's manual and I'm going to spend some more time looking at it tonight, and getting it set up for tomorrow's run. Tomorrow's post is going to be VERY nerdy! ;)

Today marks the two-year anniversary since my lower body lift surgery. I cannot believe it's been two years already! I am still VERY happy with the results, and I wouldn't change a thing. My scar is very faded, and I haven't had any complications. When I look in the mirror, I still admire that my stomach is flat (well, for the most part... after Halloween, it's a little puffy! haha).

It's kind of interesting... ever since my surgery, the first place I notice a weight gain of even a couple of pounds is in my stomach. I kind of like that, because there is no such thing as being in denial about a few pounds. I can clearly see a gain when it happens, and that's usually what kicks me back into weight loss mode.

Speaking of which, today was day three of staying on track. I'm really determined to get back to 133 before December 12th!

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Post-Halloween weigh-in

Oh, boy. I really didn't want to post my weigh-in today! Last week, I didn't post one, and a few people asked about it. Thank you for that, by the way! It keeps me accountable even when I really don't want to be ;)

Having the kids' Halloween candy in the house threw me way off track, and it's been such a huge struggle to get back on. My kids were very generous with their candy, and I probably ate just as much as they did. Since then, my weight has been hovering around 140-142... which is up from 135 just over 3 weeks ago! Today's weigh-in:

I went the entire summer without seeing the 140's, so I'm bummed to see that again. But to be honest, I am surprised it's not much higher. After the amount of Halloween candy I ate, I felt like my weight should have been in the 150's or 160's. I do know how easily 5 pounds turns into 10, which turns into 20, and I don't want that to happen. So as badly as I didn't want to weigh-in today, I did. 140.5. And hopefully next week, I'll be safely back in the 130's.

The one year anniversary of reaching my goal weight of 133 is on December 12th--a month away. I would LOVE to see 133 again on that day, so I'm keeping that in mind. I don't really have any room for error, so I have to stay on track. Surprisingly, the holidays aren't a problem for me. I'm not a big Thanksgiving dinner person, and we only go to one or two holiday parties throughout the season. I don't bake, because that's way too dangerous for me. I usually don't have a problem losing weight over the holidays; so let's hope this year is the same!

I came down with a bit of a cold on Sunday after the half-marathon. Nothing serious, but I haven't been feeling my best the past couple of days. With the exception of my runs, I've been resting a lot. Yesterday and today, I spent most of the day reading a book under my electric blanket, sipping hot tea, with Estelle curled up on my lap.

She loves the electric blanket almost as much as I do. Every time I sit down, she jumps right up on my lap; if I have my computer on my lap, she gets annoyed that it's invading her space, and she plops herself right on the keyboard.

I didn't really have a plan to run today, but because I took Monday off (the day after the half-marathon), I decided to just go out and run three miles at an easy pace. I went out at 1:30 in the afternoon, and with the wind chill, it was in the low-30's. The wind was pretty brutal!

I did a three mile out-and-back, but when I was about a quarter mile from home, I decided to take a detour to my parents' house. My mom just received a whole bunch of fabric from a friend, and she told me I could take whatever I wanted, so I went over there to browse through it. There was a TON of it. Her friend, who was a quilter, passed away early this year. Her husband was just going to throw away everything, and my mom said she'd like it, so he gave it to her--a sewing machine, lots of notions, and boxes upon boxes of fabric.

It was fun going through the fabric, and I put together a good-sized bag to go back and pick up from her later (it would have been awkward to carry while I ran!). I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to make with it, but I love to sew, so I'm sure I'll come up with some projects.

I left my parents' house, and ran the rest of the way home, so my total ended up being a little over four miles, rather than three.

I noticed the past few times I've run outside, that there is a problem with my Garmin getting a little foggy spot in the center of it. That's never happened before (with any of my Garmins), and it makes me wonder if the seal is broken or something. Anyone else have that happen? I tried to get a picture, but the spot was almost gone by the time I grabbed my phone.

It's the little spot between the 09 and 09.

Speaking of my Garmin, I got a very exciting e-mail yesterday... my Garmin Forerunner 620 has been shipped!! I pre-ordered it a few months ago, and I've been super excited for it to be released. It'll be here just in time for my winter training plan. I'm really excited to try out all the new features!

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