Moving on after a bad day (or two) of eating...

Yesterday turned out not to be a very good food day for me. And unfortunately, I let it carry over into today, which I hate doing!

It all started innocently enough. I haven't been eating a ton of sweets lately, and I seem to be doing fine with just having a piece or two of chocolate now and then. So yesterday, I thought I'd be fine to make some fudge (in retrospect, I should have seen in coming! haha). I made the fudge, cut it into a whole bunch of little pieces (3 PointsPlus each), and then promptly ate way too many of them. So much for my plan of having a piece for dessert each night!

I had already put a healthy dinner in the Crock Pot (Split Pea Soup), so I decided to just play it off like the fudge hadn't happened, and continue on with my day. After Eli got home from school, the kids were really excited to eat the soup. As strange as it sounds, my kids' very favorite food that I cook is Split Pea Soup!

I gave the soup a stir, and thought, "Wow, this isn't even close to done! The peas still seem hard." Sure enough, I had the Crock Pot turned on all day, but it was UNPLUGGED. I had been burning a new candle all day as well, so I had just thought the lack of "yummy soup smell" was because the candle was overpowering it.

I was so frustrated. I plugged in the Crock Pot to cook the soup then, but knew that wouldn't be done until at least 10:00 pm, so I started thinking of just ordering pizza for dinner. I felt like the day was already shot, so might as well. Instead, though, I just looked through the pantry and decided on Ramen noodles. It was freezing cold outside, and Ramen noodles actually sounded better than pizza anyway. Ramen isn't exactly healthy, of course, but it was a little more Points-friendly than pizza was. The soup situation felt like it mentally messed me up all evening--I had a handful of Goldfish here, and a handful of dried cherries there.

Today, I decided to cut my losses with the fudge and evening snacking, and just get right back on plan. I was doing really well, too--until I got a phone call from the school asking me to come pick up the pies that Noah had sold. Noah had a fundraiser several weeks ago, and he sold four pies--I let the kids pick one out to buy, and then my parents ordered one, my sister ordered one, and my younger brother ordered one. When I sent Nathan a text telling him he could pick up his pie (Oreo), he told me that I could take some of it if I wanted. He'd only ordered it because Noah had asked him to, and he wouldn't mind if it wasn't all there. Such a nice brother! ;)

Nathan's Oreo pie

After lunch, it was like without even thinking it through, I just opened up the box and cut a slice. I was hoping it would be terrible, but it was actually really good. Since it was Nathan's pie, though, I left the rest alone. When Noah got home, he really wanted to try the pie that he and Eli had picked out (Peanut Butter Cup!). So I cut a slice for him, and then even though I knew better, I cut a slice for myself as well. We sat down and ate it together, and Noah kept saying how delicious it was. I shouldn't have taken any, because after the Oreo pie earlier, it honestly just didn't sound good. But since I was on a roll, I guess I just figured I might as well (I wish I could cut that habit, I really do!).

I'm sure it would have tasted much better if I had been hungry for it, but it was just really rich and I didn't even finish the piece. But of course I was mad at myself for taking it when I didn't *really* want it.

Peanut Butter Cup pie

Anyway, that's how one bad day turns into two. And if I'm not careful, it can turn into three, or a week, or a month! So I thought I'd write a little of how I get back on plan after a day or two of going (way) over my PointsPlus. A lot of people ask me how I count the PointsPlus if I know that I've gone way over--do I try to eat my minimum target for the rest of the week? Pretend it didn't happen? Count it and keep a negative balance?

It can go one of several ways. If I add up all those PointsPlus I spent on the fudge and the pies and other stuff I ate, I would have been way over my allotted PointsPlus for the day AND the week. I get 49 PP per week to use whenever I'd like, but those would be gone, leaving me with nothing until my week resets on Wednesday. In the past, when I've done that, it almost inevitably leads to a binge. I can't live on 26 PP per day! I get too hungry, and I just say "Screw it!"

The worst scenario would be to just ride out the rest of the week without counting anything, and feeling like, "I already blew it, might as well just eat whatever I want until my week starts over on Wednesday." This has never turned out well, and is definitely not a solution!

What I find works best for me in this situation is to look at the entire week as 7 separate days (instead of as a week as a whole). So for me, I get 26 PP per day, every day, no matter what. I also get any activity PointsPlus that I earn. AND, I get 49 PointsPlus per WEEK (which would average out to 7 per day). So if I was to break that down into days, I would get 26 daily PP + 7 weekly PP + activity PP earned that day. Instead of letting those two days ruin my entire week, what I like to do is just discount those two days by treating them as if I'd eaten 26 PP + 7 PP + the activity PP I'd earned.

So yesterday, for example, I earned 3 activity PP. So I would count yesterday's points as 26 daily + 3 activity + 7 weekly = 36 PP. I know that I ate much more than that, because of the fudge, Goldfish, and a couple of other snacks here and there, but for the sake of keeping my sanity and really working hard to get back on track, I just count that day as done and over with at 36 PP. I just tend to think of it as a 6-day week instead of a 7-day week. If I try to make up for the excess fudge and pie and whatever else, I find that I just get frustrated and overwhelmed and I try to "wait until Wednesday" to start fresh for the week.

It probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and sometimes I'll end up with a weight gain, but I know that it would be much worse if I just stopped counting until the new week. If I was having way more bad days than good days, this wouldn't work. But I've found that when I'm on track for most of the time (say, 12 or 13 out of 14 days), that one day doesn't matter so much.

I dumped the rest of the fudge in the garbage today, and I'm not even tempted by the pies anymore. Tomorrow, I will continue to count my PointsPlus, eating all 26 daily PP, my activity PP, and if I want to use any of my remaining weekly. Today, I had my heathy Split Pea Soup for dinner, so I at least ended the day on the right note! ;)

I have plans to meet up with Stephanie tomorrow morning to do a long run together (yay company! But it's going to be a super cold run.) And tomorrow evening, I have plans to go to Renee's for wine. I haven't sat and had a conversation with her in a long time! I think since February-ish. This whole year is just going by so quickly. Anyway, tomorrow should be a good day :)

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Jen, a long-time reader of mine, recently interviewed me for her blog. You can check it out here, if you'd like! I feel honored that she asked me, because she's interviewed some pretty great people recently--Bart Yasso, Jeff Galloway, Mark Remy, and others.

Finally, last chance to enter the giveaway for the Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon registration! I'll be pulling two winners tomorrow. Good luck!

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Goal or Skydiving

You could say it was just a tad bit chilly this November morning, even for Michigan:

When I walked Noah to the bus stop at 6:45, I felt like my face was going to freeze off! The average high this time of year is 48, and low is 33, so this cold and wind is definitely not the norm.

Yesterday, the roads were actually pretty bad in the morning. They were really icy when I walked the kids to the bus stop, and since I had speed work on the schedule, I decided to do it on the treadmill. A few people mentioned using Yak Trax or IceSpikes on the ice--my IceSpikes work well when the roads are covered in ice or in packed snow, but I hate using them on dry ground. So for now, with icy patches, the IceSpikes are just more of a nuisance. After last winter, I actually really started to enjoy the treadmill, and I honestly don't mind using it. Besides, I do my fastest speed work on the treadmill, and I think that was a big factor in helping me get my PR's last year.

I had a 35 minute tempo run on the schedule--a 5-minute warm-up, then 25 minutes at tempo pace, and then a 5-minute cool down. I was hoping to be able to hit 8:27-8:41 for a my tempo pace, but that pace sounds scarily fast to me right now. I figured I'd try it, and hope for the best, but I could slow down if needed.

I did my 5-minute warm-up at 6.0 mph (10:00/mi pace), and then switched to 7.0 mph (8:34/mi pace). I was watching Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars on Netflix, which helped the time go by faster. The pace felt good for a tempo run--not too hard to sustain, but definitely not easy. My Garmin was showing a pace much faster than the treadmill was showing, but I was sure I wasn't running an 8:00/mi pace, so I suspected the foot pod calibration that had worked so well on the track wasn't working on the treadmill.

I noticed that I had accidentally selected the wrong tempo workout (30 minutes instead of 35), so when the Garmin beeped to alert me to cool down, I had to keep running at tempo pace for 5 more minutes (which is why my splits don't reflect a cool down).

I knew there was no way that I ran 25 minutes at a sub-8:00 pace, so I decided to try to see how accurate my treadmill was.

First, I measured the belt of the treadmill all the way around, which was 124.5 inches. Then came the tedious part--counting the rotations. I sat on the floor to count how many times the word "EPIC" on the belt passed by a little white piece of lint on the side of the 'mill.

I set the treadmill at 6.0 mph and started counting. I counted 200 rotations (about as long as I could stand it) and then stopped the treadmill. I multiplied the 200 rotations by 124.5 inches, which gave me 24,900 inches (.393 miles). The treadmill showed 0.398 miles, so based on my super scientific experiment, I'd say that the treadmill is pretty darn accurate (or close enough).

Needless to say, I'm bummed that I wasn't actually running a sub-8:00 mile pace, but I expected that ;)

Today, even though I would have loved to run in "Real Feel -9* F" (ha!), I decided to do my easy run on the treadmill to calibrate the food pod to the treadmill. I took a guess at the calibration factor and set it at 93.0%. It ended up being fairly close! I ran three miles at 6.2 mph (a 9:40/mi pace), and this is what it showed:

I stopped running after mile 3, but forgot to turn off my Garmin
for 10 seconds, so you can ignore the fourth split.

It showed about a 9:46-ish pace, so it was showing my pace to be just slightly slower than the treadmill. After my run, I used the calibration formula (actual distance divided by displayed distance x current calibration factor)... 3.03 / 3.00 x 0.930=0.9393. So that gives me a calibration factor of 93.9%. I'll try that next time and see how close it is. When I'm at the track, I'll have to set the calibration factor to one number, and then change it for the treadmill. I'm not sure why the numbers are so different.

When running on the treadmill, my heart rate tends to be quite a bit lower than when running outside, so I may adjust my pace goals when I run inside. Today, I probably could have done a 9:15/mi pace and still have kept my heart rate in the "easy" zone.

I'm getting kind of excited to set goals for next year. Today, I was toying with the idea of maybe running a half-marathon once a month for all of 2015. My biggest goal right now is to hit sub-2:00 for Indy, and I certainly think that's possible. Depending on where I'm at in February, I may even try to aim for a PR (currently 1:52:07). I'll list all my running goals and post them next month--I have a couple of big ones.

As for my weight, of course I'm still working on that (will it ever end?! ha). I'm still hopeful of being back at my goal by the time I go to Portland in March. It's kind of funny; I was texting Thomas about it a few days ago, and he dropped this bomb:

HAHAHA, that made me laugh so hard, because if there is ONE thing I can say with 100% certainty, it is that I will NEVER go skydiving (and he knows that). You couldn't pay me $10 million to jump out of an airplane! Of course Thomas was just joking when he said that, but if there was any way that he could actually enforce the skydiving threat, there is no question that I would be at goal LONG before I go to Portland. I would have no problem saying no to any ice cream, wine, cookies, etc ;)

Can you imagine if there was some sort of company whose job it was to enforce your worst nightmare if you couldn't reach a goal? You would work as hard as possible to get to that goal. It made me really think about how much of this struggle is mental. If you take the mental part out of the equation, it would be easy! I'm probably not explaining this very well, but I just think that with the right motivation (i.e. doing everything in my power NOT to have to skydive), I could reach pretty much any goal I want. On one hand, I'm so glad that Thomas can't enforce the threat to go skydiving; on the other hand, all of my food decisions would be easy ones if he could! Haha

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Motivational Monday #87

Happy Motivational Monday! I don't know what I was thinking, but I totally spaced out that today was Monday until I went to write my blog post. It feels like it should be Sunday, but my kids went to school, so that doesn't really make sense. We got a couple of inches of snow yesterday, and it was so pretty outside today! It was actually the perfect day for being lazy and watching movies. Jerry was off work, so that's exactly what we did :)

I'm still counting my Weight Watchers points, but this week I've had a few moments that were extremely difficult. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to binge! The thing that has helped me to stay on track the best has been looking through my "motivation" photo folder on my phone. Seeing the photos of me at my goal weight last year make me really motivated to get back to that place!

I can't really think of anything about my week that makes me exceptionally proud. A couple of days ago, I was having a particularly week moment, and was very close to bingeing. Instead, I posted on Instagram a few screenshot photos from a video taken last year while I was trying to pogo-stick with the kids. I was at (or very close to) my goal weight in that video, and seeing those screen shots gave me the push I needed to avoid bingeing. So I guess that was a proud moment for me!

Here are a couple of motivating stories to start the week off:

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When Megan (on the right in photo) was born, there was never any hope that she'd one day be able to run. Her right hip wasn't fully developed, so she had to wear a brace that kept her knees to her chest for the first year of her life. Her tendons would also become hyper extended, which caused her a lot of difficulty with standing for more than 30 minutes or so at a time. She ended up needing steel braces on her legs just to be able to walk. After six surgeries over the years, her surgeon told her that it may have worked. She could walk normally, but would probably need another surgery later on in life. She stopped living in fear, and started working on being more active. Since then, she's lost 50 pounds, run her first 5K in 30:11, and signed up for her first half-marathon... all things that she believes are truly miracles of God. She has two active little boys, and she is happy to be able to set a good example for them.

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Erin just completed her first half-marathon after battling breast cancer--twice. She's a mom of four kids, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 and again at 34 years old. She has remained cancer-free for several years now, and after recovering from a 12-hour reconstructive surgery, she decided to start running. She signed up for the Indy Monumental Half-Marathon, and despite the 18-degree weather that day, she exceeded her expectations! She assumed she'd finish in around 3:30, but she ended up crossing the finish line in 3:22. She's looking forward to beating that time at her next race ;)

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If you have a photo of an accomplishment that you'd like to share, you can email it to me at Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, subject: Motivational Monday, along with a brief description, and I may include it on a future MM post!

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My Favorite Gift Ideas for Runners

I know that pretty much everyone with a blog writes a post of gift ideas this time of year. I've never done one of those posts before (at least that I can remember!), so I thought it would be fun to compile a list of my favorite running items that I think would make great gifts for others.

A few of the items on this list are items that I had received for a review; but I am not an ambassador for anyone, nor am I on any of these companies' payroll, so I have nothing to gain from recommending these things. (Some of the links are Amazon Affiliate links, however--so if you were to buy them through the link, I may get a small commission from Amazon.)

These are all just items that I found I truly love, and think others will as well!

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1) A race registration. Perhaps the runner you're hoping to get a gift for has been running for as long as you can remember, and they have everything there is to have related to running. You can never go wrong with a race registration! I would make a handmade "coupon" to give them, saying that it's good for one race registration of his/her choice. Unless you know someone really well, I wouldn't recommend just choosing a race and registering that person without talking about it first, however. The cost of this varies enormously, so I'm not going to put a number on it.

2) A subscription to Runner's World magazine. When I first started running, this magazine was SO helpful. I learned all sorts of running terms that I'd never heard before, read inspiring stories that kept me motivated, and got lots of tips for training. I was a huge fan of this magazine long before I was featured in the April 2014 issue ;) DiscountMags has a sale today for $5/year. It's very rare to find it that cheap! The $5 sale usually only lasts a day or two. Through Runner's World or Amazon, it's $20 per year.

I look this excited every single time I get RW in the mail!
Just kidding. But I do immediately start reading it.

3) Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner book by Dean Karnazes. This book is a very entertaining read for any runner! I don't do ultramarathons, but I loved reading about Dean's races. My brother and sister read it and loved it as well. $9.34 for paperback on Amazon.

4) Balega socks. I was never brand-loyal for any socks until I tried the Balega socks. I have five pairs now, and I rotate them as quickly as I can wash them. They fit very well, don't have annoying seams that can cause blisters on my toes, and are very comfy! $9-12/pair on Amazon

5) My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon book by Bart Yasso. I was very fortunate to have met Bart a couple of times at Runner's World events, and I was amazed at the running stories he has from years of experience. He's seen and done it all, it seems! His book shares some stories of notable races, and it's very entertaining. $12.96 for paperback on Amazon.

6) Yurbuds Inspire Sport Earphones I don't listen to music when I run, but I know lots of runners do. I've tried several earbuds, including some fancy schmancy blutooth ones, but the yurbuds are my favorite. I use them when I go for walks to listen to podcasts, or to hear movies when I'm traveling by plane. I wrote a more detailed review of them here. $18.92 on Amazon.

7) Hydraform Handheld Ergo-Lite water bottle by Amphipod. When I do short runs during the summer, and don't need nearly as much water as the Camelbak holds, I prefer to carry a handheld bottle. I bought this particular bottle from Amphipod, and I'm very happy with it. It holds 10.5 ounces (also available in 16 oz), which is great for a short run (or if you have places to refill). It fits very comfortable in my palm, it's not heavy, and there is even a little pocket that you can fit something small (a key or a Gu). $22.50 on Amazon.

8) FlipBelt I've tried several running belts (including the popular SPIbelt) to store things (keys, Gu, Shotbloks, my iPhone, etc), and the FlipBelt is, hands down, the best one I've tried. It's very comfortable, it doesn't bounce at all, and when "flipped", nothing will budge out of it. I wore this for the first time during the Chicago Marathon, and now I wear it during just about every run that I do. I always like to carry my phone with me, and the FlipBelt easily holds it. $28.99 on Amazon. (I've found that if you are between sizes, it's best to go with the smaller size--just FYI)

I know that looks like me, but it's not. Honest. (photo source)

9) Black Diamond Sprinter Headlamp. I hate running in the dark, but during the times when I do it (like during a Ragnar Relay), I adore this headlamp! It's pricey when compared to several others, but it's well worth it. It's ridiculously bright, rechargeable, and best of all--it doesn't bounce. When I ran Ragnar Florida Keys (through the Everglades, mind you!), I had a headlamp that bounced terribly, wasn't very bright at all, and drove me crazy the entire time. As soon as I got home, I started researching headlamps, and ended up buying this Black Diamond one. I wore it for Ragnar SoCal, and I was in love. $55.70 on Amazon.

Thomas is wincing because he's blinded by the brightness of my headlamp.
Or maybe because he just ran 6 miles at 5:00 a.m. 

10) CamelBak Marathoner Hydration Vest. (ETA 8/2/19): The "Marathoner I'm wearing below is no longer being produced, but the link above is one that is very similar). I received one of these for review, and I fully expected that I wasn't going to like it. I thought it would be heavy, hot, and cause chafing. I was blown away at how much I loved it! I prefer this to a hydration belt any day. I wore a belt when training for my first marathon, and it hurt my back after a while. But I trained for Chicago with this CamelBak, and I was very happy with it. Here is a link to my (more detailed) review. $76 on Amazon.

11) Hire someone to turn the runner's race shirts into a quilt. This is something you would either have to ask about beforehand, or give a "coupon" for, because you could risk making some really angry if you cut up his/her shirts! It's also very expensive because of the labor involved, but it's such a special gift. I cut up my shirts and made a quilt top out of them. My sister-in-law and her mom did the quilting for me, and I should have it back next week! A lot of runners have more race shirts than they know what to do with, and putting them into a quilt is an awesome way to preserve those memories. Sarah, a reader of mine, takes orders for handmade quilts. You can check out her blog and pricing here. Upwards of $200 + supplies.

This is my quilt top. Sarah's work looks much better!

12) GARMIN Forerunner 220. I saved my very favorite gadget for last. Very basically, a Garmin Forerunner is a GPS watch that gives you "real time" data of your distance, time, pace, etc. While I have the FR 620 model, I actually wouldn't recommend that one. The FR 220 is nearly identical, and it's a couple hundred dollars cheaper! If I were to go back in time, I would have bought the 220 instead. The 620 gives a few extra pieces of information that the 220 does not; but the extra information is stuff that I found to be pretty useless (how many milliseconds your foot touches the ground when running; how high your body bounces; how long you "should" spend recovering before running again). Without the heart rate monitor, it's $239.99. With the heart rate monitor, it's $286.22 on Amazon. I love using my heart rate monitor, and would recommend spending the extra $50-ish to get that option.

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Hopefully this gives you some ideas! If there are any products that YOU love, feel free to share them in the comments.

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Picture motivation

It's been ridiculously cold the past few days! After running with Dean on Wednesday, it only continued to get colder. Wednesday was the day I was supposed to ride my bike, but this whole week has gotten kind of screwed up because of the half-marathon on Sunday, rest day on Monday, etc. Normally, I don't run on Wednesdays, but running with Dean was worth it ;) I decided to just do the biking on Thursday instead.

Except it was 28 degrees and snowing.

Since I made it a goal to bike once a week for all of November, I didn't want to skip it entirely. I wasn't sure if my membership was still active at the rec center, so I verified that it was, and then decided to go to there to use an indoor bike. The cardio room there is extremely boring (they have two TVs playing without sound--one of them is on Sports Center and the other is on the local access channel). I remembered this from the one or two other times I'd been in there, so I brought my phone and earbuds.

I was hoping to be the only one in there, so I wouldn't feel like an ass as I tried to figure out how to use the equipment. The fat girl in me still makes me feel so self-doubtful and out-of-place at the gym, if that makes any sense. Unfortunately, there were a couple of other women in there, so I just tried to pretend that I knew what I was doing.

There were a bunch of bikes, ellipticals, and treadmills. There was only one upright bike (most were recumbent); I knew I wanted the upright one, because it's better for cross-training for running. I hoped I wouldn't have to adjust the seat or anything, because I had no idea how to do that! As I was fiddling with my phone and earbuds, I was looking at the bike, trying to find the button to turn it on.

When I was ready to start, I just couldn't get it turned on. I was pushing all the buttons I could, pressing and holding the "Go" button, etc. Eventually, the woman behind me offered help--which, even though it was embarrassing, I was grateful for. She told me I had to pedal the bike for a few seconds and it would turn on automatically. Bingo--it worked.

The upright bike was nice, because I could just lean forward onto my elbows, which left my hands free to use my phone. I put on some music, and then browsed around Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter while I pedaled. I set the bike to a "rolling hills" workout, and it was pretty tough. I was really sweaty by the time I was done. I only did 30 minutes--much less than if I had biked outside, but there was no way that I wanted to do more than that in the cardio room!

My membership expires on December 3rd, but I think I will renew it so that I can continue to go through the winter. The rec center is only $100 for our whole family for a year, which is super cheap compared to gyms. It's nice when I want to use the indoor track or to take the kids swimming.

Yesterday was my long run day. My schedule was up to 7 miles already. It's kind of funny--when I started the new schedule, I was really looking forward to having "short" long runs (5 miles, 6 miles). That didn't last very long!

For yesterday's run, I knew I had to prepare for the cold. It was 28 degrees, but a "feels like" temp of 20. The wind wasn't too bad at 9 mph, but it felt SO much worse when it was that cold. I wore my Cold Gear tights, a long-sleeved top with a heavier long-sleeve top over it, a hat, and gloves. I also rubbed Aquaphor on my cheeks to hopefully block the wind a little.

I headed outside, and while I was expecting the cold, I was NOT expecting the ice! The shoulders of the roads I was running on had a thin layer of black ice on them, and it was hard to run on. The first mile wasn't bad (and since I did an out-and-back route, the last mile was the same). During the other miles, though, I spent a lot of the time focused on my footing, which was mentally exhausting. I was more worried about the cars hitting a patch of ice and sliding into me.

It wasn't a good run, overall. I didn't feel my best, and running on ice is never fun. Next time it's icy, I'll use the treadmill. But I got it done!

In the afternoon, I had plans to meet up with my friend Stacie, who I usually only see a couple of times a year (she was actually the one I walked the Indy Mini with in 2008). I saw her at the Monroe Half, and we made plans to get together for coffee. The last time I saw her was about a year ago, so we had a ton to catch up on. We met at Tim Hortons, and spent two and a half hours talking about the last year. I didn't have a whole lot to talk about except for Mark's story. She knew all about Mark, because we've been friends since high school, but I explained all that had happened with his illness.

I've been really excited for Stacie, because she's always wanted to write and publish a book--and now it's actually happening! She went on a solo hike in Sedona, Arizona, a few years ago, and it was life-changing for her. She wrote a book about her experience, called On The Edge: A Solo Hiker's Journey (Amazon affiliate link), which is going to be released next month.

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Today, my mom had a Thirty-One party at her house. I wasn't *planning* to buy anything, but you know how that goes. I spent way too much money, but when you see all the organizational bags, it makes you feel like you've been missing out all along! She had brunch there, but I had already eaten breakfast, so I just had some tea. Then when I got home, I was starving for lunch; but even after eating lunch, I started having binge thoughts. Logically, I knew I would regret it horribly if I did binge; but I was still really struggling. Finally, I started going through a picture folder on my phone called "Motivation"--it's a folder of a couple dozen photos of me at my goal weight, where I looked good and felt happy.

Thankfully, looking through that folder was exactly what I needed to stay on track! I managed not to binge, and instead, I went to the store to get some groceries for dinner. I need to remember to look through that folder whenever I'm feeling binge-y.

Anyone else have ideas for staying on track when you are having a tough time? Feel free to share! The most motivating for me is to look at pictures of me at my goal. It always makes me feel nostalgic.

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My 500 Festival Mini-Marathon history (and a giveaway!)

I have a very exciting giveaway to share with you. In fact, out of all the giveaways I've done, this one is one of the most exciting for me, because of my history with this race.

Back in 2008, when I was well over 200 pounds, my sister asked me to walk a half-marathon with her: the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon. When I signed up, I had all these plans of training and losing weight before the race. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. On race day, I only had a few miles of walking under my belt, but I did the race anyway. It was extremely difficult, and I even wound up getting bad tendonitis from my nonexistent training, but I loved the race itself. That was the first race I'd ever done, so I didn't have a clue what to expect, but I definitely wasn't expecting it to be so fun!

2008

I immediately signed up to do the race again the following year. Despite my intentions of losing the weight (again), I toed the line in 2009 at my heaviest--253 pounds. However, I did prepare and train this time, and had a much better race. It was during the 2009 race where the infamous "before" photo of me in the blue shirt was taken.

2009

It was that year that I really felt out of place with the group that had gone--I was the "fat one" in the group, and I hated that feeling. Again, I vowed to lose the weight for the following year (because of course I was going to do it again!). And to make a very long story short, I followed through. In 2010, I was down to 165 pounds and I had trained my butt off for the race. I shaved nearly 30 minutes off of my walking finish time for the race, too.

2010

Seeing my brother, Brian, along with my sister's friend, Jen, and my friend, Renee, run that year lit a fire under me to start running. Instead of making weight loss resolutions, I decided I was going to run the half-marathon in 2011. I had been doing a little running up until then, and was at the point where I could run 5K, so I started adding mileage and working my way up to training for a half-marathon.

In 2011, I was 147 pounds, and ready to run 13.1 miles for the first time. I am SO glad that I chose the Indy Mini as the first half-marathon I ran! The course is so entertaining that the miles just flew by, and I truly (honestly!) enjoyed each minute of it. I ran the entire way, and crossed the finish line in 2:10:40.

The 500 Festival Mini Marathon is a FANTASTIC race, especially for first-time half-marathoners. With 35,000 participants, the Mini is the largest half-marathon and the seventh-largest road race in the U.S., as well as the 18th largest road race in the world. The course is lined with over 80 bands (yes, EIGHTY!). There are also several groups and cheer squads along the course to entertain the runners and walkers.

The race is also very walker-friendly! I walked this race for three years before I decided to run it. The course has minimum pace requirement of 18:00/mile, but even if you're just starting out, I believe there is plenty of time to train to meet that requirement. I held a 17:41/mile pace at my heaviest weight (after training). With 35,000 participants, there are a LOT of people walking; I never felt embarrassed to be walking instead of running. Here is the plan I used to train to walk the race; and here is the plan I used to train to run the race.

The course is unique in that you get to run around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway race track. That's where the name "500 Festival" comes from--the Indianapolis 500 is a 500-mile motor race around the track held over Memorial Day weekend on that track.

Personally, my favorite part of the course is actually in the first mile, when you get to run past the zoo. If you look to your right, you can see the elephants :) It's kind of crazy, but when I walked the race, just before the 2-mile mark, you can see the elite runners as they approach mile 12! They start the race right as the gun goes off, but since I was in the back of the pack of 35,000 people, it took me nearly 30 minutes just to get to the starting line. So the timing makes sense that the elites would be there at that point. The first place finishers usually finish under 1:02 (about 4:43/mile). Crazy fast!

Each time I've gone, we've made a fun weekend out of it. We get a hotel right at the starting line (the Embassy Suites Downtown Indianapolis), so we can literally walk out of the hotel and into our corral. We've always gone out for pasta at Buca di Beppo the night before the race. And I LOVE that this race is on a Saturday, because that means we can spend the afternoon/evening drinking relaxing at the hotel instead of making the drive home.

Anyway, I was already registered for the 2015 race when the Director of Marketing contacted me to see if I'd like to offer a giveaway on my blog. I'm not an ambassador for the race or anything--I just truly love love LOVE this race, and I would love to give the opportunity to someone else! I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend there in 2015 with my Sole Mates Ragnar team.

I have not one, but TWO free registrations to give away. Right now, the registration cost is $85, and it jumps to $95 on January 1st (the race usually sells out before then, however). I know that because of the location, many of you may not be able to enter; but if you're considering a destination race next year, this is a great one to do!

So, if you'd like to enter to win a registration for the Indy Mini, just fill out the form below. Before entering, please just double check that you're able to go to the race if you should win.  (ETA: There was an issue with the form--my mistake. So sorry if you weren't able to have access to it before! It appears to be working now.)



I will close entries and choose a winner on Friday, November 21st at 1:00 PM EST. Good luck!

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A run with Dean!

A couple of nights ago, I was feeling kind of down, and I posted about it to my Sole Mates team on Facebook. I absolutely love my teammates--I feel like I can tell them anything, and they always have great advice or know just what to say to make me feel better. The next morning (yesterday), I got a text from Dean, asking if I may want to get together for lunch or a run today.

It was really great timing, and of course I said yes. While lunch sounded good, I always have a hard time with counting points while eating out, so the run was a better idea. We made plans to meet just outside of the State Park near my house for a 5.5-mile lollipop route.

It was really warm on Monday and yesterday (67 and 60 degrees), but this morning, it was in the 30's! I was freezing just before we started to run, but I warmed up about a mile in. I even took off my gloves after a couple of miles.

Dean is much faster than I am (he just ran his first marathon in 3:52!) so I felt bad about slowing him down, but he didn't mind. I made it a point not to look at my watch during the run, and the only time I looked at it was at around mile four. I felt like we were going faster than I would have run on my own, but I had no idea just what our pace was. I haven't run with someone in a while, and it was nice to be able to have a conversation while running--definitely makes the time go by faster!

Just before we finished, I saw a truck up ahead that looked like my dad's, and it turned out that it was actually my parents. We stopped and talked to them for a minute, and then ran back to our cars. Our average pace was 9:24, and we had (mostly) negative splits. Considering we were talking the entire time, I was very happy with that!

Dean had driven about 45 minutes to meet me, so I invited him back to my house until lunch time, when he had plans to meet up with his sister. Jerry was off work today, so we sat and chatted for a couple of hours. Estelle loved meeting Dean, and took it upon herself to cozy up on his lap the whole time he was here.

Anyway, it was a fun morning, and I hope we do it again soon!

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When I was at the Heartbreak Hill Half in June, one of the bloggers I met was Amanda from Run to the Finish. She noticed that Noah has gotten into running lately, and she recently asked me to write a post about getting kids interested in running (without pushing them into it). I loved the idea, so I wrote some tips that I hope are useful ;)  You can read the blog post here: How to Get Kids Interested in Running.

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My brother's comparison photos!

I couldn't believe I was still really sore when I woke up this morning. I was supposed to do speed work yesterday, but there was no way that was going to happen the day after that half-marathon, so I decided to do it today instead. But even at that, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do speed work because my calves are very sore.

When I was cleaning yesterday, I found an old Runner's World book called "Competitive Running". I don't know where or why I got it, but I flipped through it, and looked at some of the speed workouts. They were certainly more interesting than the 6 x 400's I had on the schedule, so I decided to replace mine with one today. On paper, it looked easier than the 6 x 400's, and since my legs aren't fully recovered from Sunday just yet, I figured it wouldn't hurt.

The problem was, I knew I would have a hard time hitting the correct paces outside, because I'm just returning to speed work, and it takes a while to really get a feel for the "right" paces. So, I decided to do the treadmill, even though it was a nice day outside today. Here is what the workout consisted of:

My goal half-marathon pace right now is 9:00/mile (9:10 would be a sub-2:00 half, but I want a little cushion in there). I used a race comparison chart to figure out what paces to do the 10K race pace and 5K race pace intervals at, because I haven't raced a 5K or 10K in a long time. According to the chart, I should aim for 8:20 and 8:40 for the 5K and 10K respectively.

The whole workout went REALLY well, which kind of made me second guess my foot pod. I used the outdoor track several times to make sure the calibration was correct (or at least very, very close). The calibration number it kept giving me on the track was just over 100% (101.2% to be exact). But whenever I've used my treadmill, I have to keep it at 89% to make it read the same as the treadmill. This means that if the 101.2% calibration is, in fact, correct, then I've been running MUCH faster than my treadmill displays. I've suspected that for long time, but I never really knew how to calibrate the treadmill.

Today during my run, I was afraid to either the foot pod or the treadmill. I sort of just aimed for a number in between. My splits ended up looking like this:

Too fast according to my Garmin, but too slow according to the treadmill. I don't know which is right. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to calibrate my treadmill.

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Anyway, today is Veteran's Day, so I first want to acknowledge all the veterans out there. I posted this on Facebook, which totally sums it up:

As I've mentioned before, my younger brother, Nathan, is an Army veteran. This morning, I was looking through his Facebook photos to see if I could find a good one of him in uniform. I did find a pretty cool picture (although because it's shadowed, you really wouldn't know it's him!):

He's on the right in that photo. I saw another photo that made me stop and stare really carefully to make sure it was actually my brother. I barely recognized him! When he got out of the Army, he apparently gained quite a bit of weight. I didn't really notice the weight gain, because he was just "Nathan" to me, but looking at the photo was shocking, considering what he looks like now. I made a couple of comparison photos of him to show the drastic difference:

His waist now is smaller than mine, for sure! haha

I had never thought of him as being overweight, or even a "big guy". He was always just "my little brother". Anyway, I'm super proud of all he's accomplished (on the outside AND the inside). He inspires me!

And speaking of being inspired, I am super excited for tomorrow. I have plans to go for a run with Dean! I met Dean because of Motivational Monday last year after he'd run his first 5K. Since then, he's lost 140 pounds total (he went from 317 to about 177)! He's also become a running machine (my Ragnar team calls him "Dean the Machine"), and he just finished his first marathon in 3:52:43. He continues to amaze me all the time. He lives fairly close (relatively speaking--it's about an hour away, I believe). Tomorrow he is driving up this way so we can run at the State Park. I'm looking forward to it!

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Motivational Monday #86

Happy Motivational Monday, Friends!

After yesterday's humbling half marathon, I am feeling extremely motivated today to get back into the shape I was last year. At the same race last year, I paced my friend Stephanie to a sub-2:10 finish, which is about the same pace that I ran yesterday... but the difference was HUGE in how I felt. Last year, I had just run the Chicago Marathon a couple of weeks prior and was in extremely good cardiovascular shape (not my thinnest, but I could run). I felt so amazing after that race that I felt like I could run the whole course twice. Yesterday, that same pace nearly made me keel over at the finish line, and I can barely walk today ;)

I've been back to counting Weight Watchers points for about 6 weeks, but I haven't seen much progress in my weight (only down 4 pounds). I've had a few bad days, but I've mostly been right on track. When I saw the photo of my brother and me at the half yesterday, I almost didn't post it on my race report, because I couldn't believe how big I looked! Maybe it was the angle, or the fact that I was wearing a few layers of clothes, but I wasn't happy with that photo at all.

I've been doing a new running schedule for three weeks now, and I am really happy with how that is going. Despite how I felt during the race yesterday, I actually did finish faster than I expected to, so I am happy with that. I've been hitting my goal paces during my training runs, so I have no complaints.

I think the hardest part is just having patience. I want to see results NOW (if not yesterday), and it's hard to wait! But I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing (counting points and running according to my schedule) and I hope that in a few months, I'll see some nice changes. Maybe I'll run a spring race with my brother, and we can do another photo for comparison (or redemption? haha)

Anyway, the whole point of all this is that I am feeling extra motivated on this Monday! I want to kick this half-marathon's ass next year, and feel like I could run the whole race a second time... maybe even backwards. ;)

Here are a few motivational stories for you to read this Monday...

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Rachel just completed her first half marathon! That alone is cause for celebration, but she has quite the motivating story. She started running in August 2012 with the sole purpose of running a Disney half-marathon--and at the time, she couldn't even walk more than a mile. While she was training, she and her family were in a car accident, which caused her to suffer a bilateral vertebral arterial dissection and stroke that impacted 1/3 of her cerebellum. Her neurosurgeon told her she'd never be able to walk normally again, and she should plan on never running again. She made it her mission to prove him wrong!

Eight months later, she was cleared to start running (slowly) again. And now, eighteen months later, she completed her first half-marathon in a time of 3:16! When she started this journey, she hoped to show her then-2-year old that with hard work, you can accomplish anything, even if it seems impossible. She has proved to herself that she is the only one who can put limits on herself, and that 'impossible' is not a word that should be in anyone's vocabulary.

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Heather (left) and her sister,  Emma (right), just completed their first triathlon! The race consisted of a 300-meter swim, 9K bike ride, and 2K run. They had a goal to finish under an hour, and even though it was very hot (they're in Australia, where it's nearing summer), they reached their goal!

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Jamie just ran her third half-marathon, and PR'ed by nearly 30 minutes! She's also feeling proud because she just got her school photos back, and was excited to see such a difference in her appearance. In just over a year, she's lost 90 pounds!

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Don't forget to check out more stories on the Motivational Monday Facebook post!

If you have an accomplishment you'd like to share, you can email a photo and short description to me at Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, subject "Motivational Monday", and I may include it on a Motivational Monday post!

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Monroe Half Marathon 2014 race report

Well, if there is one word that sums up my race today, it is: humbling.

When I first started running in 2010, a half-marathon seemed so HUGE to me. It was something to train several months for, and just finishing it was something to celebrate. After running three full marathons, something happened in my brain where I just didn't think of halfs the same way anymore. I regularly run 8-12 miles for my long runs, and it's usually no big deal to sign up for a half-marathon on a whim, knowing that I can do it. The half-marathon distance became "just another race" to me.

I say that today was humbling because I realized just how big of a deal it is, and that it ISN'T "just another race". It's tough!

With that intro, I'll start my race recap. As of 10:00 last night, I still wasn't even 100% sure I was going to do this race. My younger brother, Nathan, said he had to push a car out of his driveway last night (I didn't ask), but if he was able to get to bed at a decent hour, he'd do the race, too. I sent him a text at 6:30 this morning, and he said he was in, so we planned to meet at the race at 8:00 (it started at 9:00) to register.

It was COLD this morning. I wore some Eddie Bauer clothes that I'm going to write a review for soon (long-sleeved top, jacket, and tights), and some fun Running Skirts compression socks. I really wanted to wear the new Altra shoes, but the farthest I've run in them has been 6 miles, so I figured I'd better play it safe and use my Adrenalines. I also wore a hat and gloves. The "feels like" temp was 33, but it honestly felt colder than that to me.

The start and finish of the race were at the State Park, which is only about five miles away. When I got there, there wasn't a line at all, so I registered quickly. Then I noticed that Nathan had sent me a text saying that he was there and registered, so I went to his truck where we sat until a few minutes before the race started. We really could have left home at 8:45 and still have been to the starting line on time!

I noticed that there were several people wearing shirts that said, "I run for ___" and someone's name. I really wish it had occurred to me to make a shirt in honor of Mark! The proceeds of the race go to benefit the Special Olympics, so for that reason alone I am glad to have run today.

I was feeling really nervous because of my lack of preparation for this race. I honestly had no idea how it was going to go. I figured I'd feel good for about 7-8 miles, and then the rest would be totally up in the air. It was so cold, and my feet were numb, so I really just wanted to start moving. Finally, the race started. I'd told Nathan to run his own race, so that he could do well and I wouldn't hold him back. Also, that would make me feel less pressured to run fast.

I ran at what felt to be pretty easy--I guessed it was probably a 10:00/mi pace--and was surprised to see that it was actually an 8:58 pace about a quarter mile in. I deliberately slowed down, but I felt like everyone was passing me. I always warn new racers about this happening: it always feels like the entire pack of people is passing you, but just stick to your plan and run your own race. So I tried to keep that in mind, but I still started too fast for the first mile.

I could have sworn I went much farther than a mile, but my Garmin hadn't beeped. Then I remembered that I had forgotten to turn the auto lap feature back on! I was at mile 1.3, and there was no way I could run the whole race without knowing my lap pace, so I changed the settings (mid-run) to turn the auto lap on. It screwed up the first two laps (the first one was long and the second one was short) but by mile 3, it was back on track.

My first mile was about 9:08, and I knew that was way too fast. I briefly thought, "Maybe I should go for sub-2:00 today!" because I was feeling really good at that point; but then reality reminded me that I wasn't trained to even run a half this weekend, let alone a sub-2:00 half ;) So I decided to try and keep my pace at around 9:45.

Everyone was wearing headphones, so there wasn't anyone around to talk to while I ran, which was disappointing. So throughout the whole race, I kept thinking about my breathing. When I was in Bethlehem, I met Budd Coates*, who wrote a book called "Running On Air". He taught us how to breathe while running, and I found his whole presentation so interesting! It wasn't at all what I was expecting. He said we should breathe rhythmically based on our steps, and it should always be in an odd pattern (a lot of people inhale for two steps, then exhale for two steps, which can cause injury to one side of the body). So through the race, I was trying to focus on inhaling for three steps and exhaling for two steps (his recommendation). It helped pass the time, if nothing else!

*Side note: I learned a fun fact about Budd while I was there--he's one of very few people to have run a sub-3:00 marathon in five different decades of his life. Pretty cool, right?!

I really love the course of this race, because it's all so familiar to me--I've trained on nearly all the roads/paths that the course is on. At around mile 4, I could hear someone yelling way up ahead, and it sounded suspiciously like Jerry. I started looking for him, but it seemed like forever until I actually saw him--that's how loud he was. It was fun to see him, so I gave him a quick kiss before I kept running. I continued to hear him yell for a good 3/4 of a mile down the road, haha.

I felt the exact moment that my legs just went to shit, for lack of a better way to word it. It was at mile 9, when we were back in the State Park. I had maintained all sub-10:00 miles up to that point, so I was really determined to stick it out to the end. But no matter how hard I thought I was running, my pace was slowing down. I kept seeing it get over 10:00, so I would sprint a short ways to get it back under 10:00.

I actually started to wish that the State Park wasn't so familiar to me, because I kept imagining how much farther I had to run, and that messed with my head. I squeaked by under 10:00 for miles 10 and 11. And then at mile 11.25, I just felt so defeated that I gave up on hitting all sub-10's. My calves were really cramping up (something that had never happened to me before). I decided to just jog it out to the finish (I was imagining my pace to be closer to 11:30, but it turns out that I actually didn't slow down THAT much).

I knew that I would still probably keep my average pace under 10:00, so I was happy with that. But I was SO CLOSE to keeping all my splits under 10:00--it just shows how hard it actually felt to me. Normally, I am really good at mentally fighting through runs. If I'd been running with someone, I probably would have been more likely to push myself, but I started thinking the "Why am I doing this?" and "You weren't trained for this, so why would you expect to have a good race?" thoughts.

In truth, I was planning for a 10:15-ish pace, but hoping for a sub-10:00 pace. So the fact that I was doing as well as I was made me think it was totally fine to let go of the last two miles and just run however I could to finish. Those last two miles, I just kept thinking about how humbling the whole race was. I went into it expecting to feel pretty decent (not fantastic, but I'm a seasoned runner, and assumed it would feel like any other (shorter) race I didn't train for).

Mile 12 was 10:16, and mile 13 was 10:10. Those miles felt like they lasted forever. My average overall pace was still 9:45-ish, so I was very happy with that. I saw Nathan waiting for me just before the finish line, and I could barely high five him because I was so exhausted. I crossed the finish line in 2:08:18 (a 9:48 pace). I was given a medal, a can of Red Bull, and a water bottle (the race gave out nice reusable plastic water bottles filled with water rather than the usual disposable ones, which I thought was awesome).

Nathan was there after I crossed, but it took me a minute to catch my breath before I could even talk to him. He did AWESOME! He finished in 1:44:51, an 8:00/mi pace. This was only his second half-marathon, and the first one that he actually raced (the first was part of his 20-mile training run). I'm really glad that I encouraged him to run his own race, because that is a fantastic time.

Overall, I'm very glad that I ran the half today. And even though I felt like crap through the last four miles, I am actually glad for that, too. It confirmed that the race isn't "just a half"--it's HARD when you don't train correctly for it, even as a seasoned runner!

After the race, I found my friend Stacie. She was the race director last year and this year (she's retiring for next year), so I knew she'd be busy, but we made plans to get together on Wednesday. Now that the race is over, she's got quite a bit of free time. I'm excited to catch up with her--she's actually getting a book published next month!

I wouldn't have said this during miles 12 and 13, but it ended up being a great day :)

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