Running Motivation (movies and books)

I didn't get a single Motivational Monday submission this week! I'm going to cut back the Motivational Monday posts down to "Monthly Motivation" or something like that. Since I've only been getting one or two per week lately, I'll just save them up and post them once in a while.

To keep with the "Motivation" theme today, however, I thought I'd share some of my favorite movies and books about running! I've included the trailers for the movies, so you can see for yourself if it's something you'd like to watch. (I am sorry, but I had to truncate this post because of all the media on it, so if you're reading this on a reader or email, you'll have to click through to the blog).

Here they are, in no particular order...

McFarland, USA

Available on Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes

This is your typical feel-good Disney movie. A physical education teacher of a Latino school discovers several kids with some serious running talent (or potential, rather). He begins to train them to run cross country, despite the kids' parents not being very supportive. As most Disney movies are, it's predictable and a little corny at times, but it is very inspiring and makes you want to run. AND, it's based on a true story!

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Prefontaine

Available on Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes

Chances are, if you're a runner, you know who Steve "Pre" Prefontaine was. He was a track runner in Oregon who was as confident and cocky (in a likable way) as he was talented. He once held the American record in SEVEN different track events, and he competed in the 1972 olympics. The movie details his life, which ended tragically at age 24. (I recently discovered that Pre and I were each born on January 25th! I think it's fun to share a birthday with a running celebrity.)

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Saint Ralph

Available on Amazon (free with Prime!), Vudu, and iTunes

This movie is hilarious! It's about a ninth-grade boy named Ralph who attends a strict Catholic school. He's always getting into trouble, in the way a coming-of-age boy does. He gets caught smoking, and as punishment, he has to join the cross country team. His mother is in the hospital, dying, and Ralph makes a bargain with God that if God heals Ralph's mom, Ralph will train for and WIN the Boston Marathon. This movie is extremely entertaining! The only thing that would make it even better would be if it was a true story (it's not).

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4 Minute Mile

Available on Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes

This movie made me want to run FAST. It's about a high school boy with a tough home life who is discovered to be a very talented runner (kind of like 8 Mile, the movie with Eminem, only instead of rapping, this guy runs). He is trained by (if I remember correctly) a former track coach who turned alcoholic. The coach decides he's going to train him for a sub-4:00 mile. I won't spoil the ending, but it's inspiring ;)

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From Fat to Finish Line

Available on Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, and iTunes

I couldn't resist posting this one... From Fat to Finish Line is a documentary that I took part in when I formed a team of runners for a Ragnar Relay. Here are the posts about when/how the team came together. Our team was made up of 12 people who had lost a collective 1200 pounds and became runners throughout our journey. One of the girls that I asked to join the team happened to be a part owner of a small film company, Media Meld Studios, and they thought it would make an awesome documentary. The film has premiered in Nashville and in Las Vegas, and is now available on Netflix and iTunes! Here is the trailer (just try to watch this without getting goosebumps!)


The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young Available on Amazon, Vudu, Netflix, YouTube, and iTunes
If you want some serious motivation, this is the movie to watch. These people are HARDCORE runners. They run a loop of what seems impossible terrain and elevation changes--100 miles, and it has to be completed in under 60 hours. There are only 40 runners allowed, and it fills up immediately. The application fee is only $1.60 (plus a license plate)--odd, but the film explains it ;) This is a must watch!

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These are a few of my favorite books about running. I didn't include training books--these are stories/novels/memoirs about running. (Amazon affiliate links)
Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games By: Lopez Lamong This is hands-down my favorite inspirational running book. This is the true story of Lopez Lomong, who went from a refugee from the Sudanese Civil War to being a Nike-sponsored athlete on the US Olympic team. If you find yourself making excuses not to exercise, or take care of yourself, this is a must-read. I felt SO incredibly grateful for my life after reading this book. 

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner By: Dean Karnazes Dean Karnazes is an incredible runner who can basically run for days without stopping. He never gets tired! I was hooked from the first page of this book, which details Karnazes' adventures and how he got started as an ultra runner. This is an interested read whether you are a runner or not!

My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon By: Bart Yasso, of Runner's World Magazine In this book, the "mayor of running" Bart Yasso shares tales of some of his most interesting races. I've met Bart a few times at Runner's World events, and his stories are incredible. He has been all over the world and has done some really crazy races--including a naked run at a nudist camp! A very entertaining read.

Born to Run By: Christopher McDougall Additional: I feel like it would be a crime not to mention Born to Run, which is pretty much the most famous book of all time about running. I own a copy of the book, and I've started to read it probably five or six times, but I just can't get into it! I'm going to list it here anyway, because so many runners rave about it. (I'm vowing to read the book in its entirety sometime this year. Hold me to that!)

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And there you have it--my very favorites. Do you have a favorite running movie or book? Please share!

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A long run and high calorie day

Today was Eli's birthday party with his friends from school. He decided to have it at the roller skating rink again (he had his party there a couple of years ago). Yesterday, I went to Sam's Club to get his cake--a very non-traditional birthday cake:

It's called a "Scoop Cake", and it's basically layers of chocolate cake and frosting. Every time I see it at Sam's Club, I want to dive into it face first, but I've never actually bought one (it's big, and I would have eaten way too much of it). So, I decided to make today my high calorie day for the week, because I planned to have some of that cake!

Today also happened to be my long run day, and I had 60 minutes on the schedule. I was reading yesterday whatever I could find about the foot pod and the Garmin 620, because Garmin customer service never responds to my questions about how to calibrate it. On the 910XT, there was a calibration setting, where you would run half a mile and it would find the right calibration factor. For the 620, there is no calibration setting. Since I've been running on the treadmill lately, I'd really like to re-calibrate it.

Garmin must have updated the instruction manual online, because now it says that the foot pod is "self calibrating" to the 620--when you run outside using GPS, it automatically calibrates the foot pod. I never wear the foot pod outside, so I want to start doing that just to see if the it is, in fact, "self calibrating". I set the calibration factor to the factory setting, which is 100%, so that I could look at it later to see if it changed. (The Garmin automatically uses GPS first, and if GPS isn't available, it will use the foot pod data... so wearing the foot pod won't affect a GPS run).

After checking the weather, I dressed for cold and wind today. I started wearing a wind breaker type jacket over my regular running clothes when it's windy, and it's helped a lot! I should have tried that sooner. The jacket is super lightweight, so it doesn't add any warmth, but it helps keep the wind from penetrating my clothes. I wore two long sleeved layers plus the jacket, and it ended up being the perfect amount of clothes.

My heart rate was kind of high to start with today, and I felt like I was barely crawling along in order to keep my heart rate under 146. I had a headwind the first couple of miles, and my pace was close to 12:00/mi in order to keep my heart rate low. Once I turned away from the wind, I was able to go a little faster.

The last two miles felt amazing, likely due to the tailwind ;) The only bummer about running at such a low heart rate is that I don't burn as many calories--today, I only burned 461 calories for a 5.45 mile run (roughly 85 calories per mile).

I checked the calibration setting to see if it had changed from the 100% that I'd set it to, and it did! It was at 96.4%. I'll need to do some speed work outside with it to make it more accurate, but I'm glad to see that it really does "learn" the calibration from GPS runs. So, if you have a foot pod, leave it on your shoe whether you're inside or outside and it will calibrate to the GPS. Nice!

Since it was my high calorie day, I decided to get one of my very favorite foods for lunch--a 13-8-on-9 sub from Erie Bread Co. Eli and I went to pick up some supplies for his party, and while we were out, we got the sub to bring home and share (the sub is huge, and I estimate half of it to be around 1,000 calories!).

As I was eating it, I declared it the best thing I've ever eaten. Truly.

In the afternoon, we went to the skating rink for Eli's party. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people don't RSVP for a party--it only takes 30 seconds to send a quick text to let me know if they are coming. I had gotten responses from five kids, so I was planning on seven kids to be there (my boys, plus five of Eli's friends). We ended up having 11 kids show up! I had made a few extra goody bags, just in case we had an extra kid or two, but I only had 10 bags.

Eli had a lot of fun, though, so that's all that matters in the end.

(Noah and Eli are actually the same height, but Noah was wearing skates in this photo, and Eli was not.)

I skipped eating any pizza there, but I did eat some of the scoop cake. It wasn't as good as I was imagining, so I'll stop lusting over it when I see it at Sam's. There is some left over in the fridge right now, but it's not even tempting me. I'm kind of relieved! If it had been as good as I thought it would be, I would probably think about it way too much.

The kids are staying the night at my parents' house tonight, so Jerry and I were talking about going out, but I'm kind of exhausted--it's been a busy day. Today will likely be a "Netflix and chill" night--and I mean that in a LITERAL sense! Hahaha, I had no idea that "Netflix and chill" meant anything other than watching Netflix and relaxing, until I used that phrase a couple of weeks ago on my blog and a few readers pointed it out ;)

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If you have a Motivational Monday submission, please send it on over when you can!

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A flying lesson

Yesterday, I ended up getting a very interesting and informative lesson about flying :)

My friend Andrea's son is a friend of Eli's--he is going to be flying for the first time soon, and he was pretty nervous about it. He's a VERY smart kid, and I had a feeling that if he was able to talk to a pilot about how things worked on the airplane, he would feel more comfortable about his first flight. As you probably know, my brother, Brian, is a pilot for Delta, so I asked him if he would mind chatting with Andrea's son.

Brian is in the process of moving to Michigan, so he's been here a lot lately working on his house (he and his wife bought a foreclosure, and they are remodeling). He agreed right away, and thought it was so cute when Andrea's son said, "I never thought I'd be talking to a pilot. Like, ever. It's absurd." Hahaha. So, I picked up the kids from school and Brian came over, wearing his uniform and everything.

The kids were very interested in what he had to say (okay, I was, too!), especially when he talked about how the engines are even tested by throwing a (dead) chicken into them (to simulate geese, which can be a big problem for an airplane). They throw all sorts of stuff into the engines for testing. Brian showed the flight plans on his computer, and explained exactly how the plane is able to fly. He explained what all the noises would be (this was most interesting to me, because I panic when noises change on an airplane). He talked about turbulence, and why it happens. If nothing else, *I* feel much more at ease for my flight to Portland in April! ;)

Brian gave all the kids "wings" (the little pins that pilots wear). Eli declared that he wants to be a pilot. Let's hope that he will, because the parents of pilots get some pretty great benefits (flying for free) ;)

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Today, I had another speed workout on the schedule: 12 x 1:00 at faster than race pace. My race pace is 7:55, so on my "fast" workouts, I try to aim for 7:50 or better. Since these were just going to be one-minute intervals, I decided to push the pace kind of hard, and aim for sub-7:00. (The roads are still icy, so I was on the treadmill again).

I ran a 10-minute warm-up, and then set the treadmill to 8.6 mph (a 6:59/mile pace). The first 30 seconds or so of the interval was a piece of cake. Then, of course, it started to feel harder. Knowing I was only running at that pace for one minute, though, made it very bearable. I did the first eight intervals at 8.6 mph, but my heart rate still wasn't getting up to 95%. Over the next four intervals, I increased the speed by 0.1 mph, so I did the last four at 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, and 9.0 mph (which is a 6:54, 6:49, 6:44, and 6:40 minutes per mile pace).

If you can't tell, I'm watching Gilmore Girls on my iPad. LOVE THAT SHOW!

I was kind of bummed to see that my foot pod showed me going slower than that, between 7:02 and 7:30. The interesting thing about calibrating the foot pod is that it can be spot-on for running at 6.0 mph (the speed that I calibrated it at), but then when I change to 5.0 or to 7.0, the calibration is off again. Between intervals, I just hopped off the treadmill and rested until my heart rate dropped down to 136. Since the intervals were so short, there was no point in changing speeds every minute. Over all, the workout went really well--almost too well. Next time, I'll try and do all of the intervals at 9.0.

Jerry and I bought Powerball tickets for yesterday's drawing (we've only ever bought tickets maybe three times, but since it was such big news, we just had to). We were talking about what we'd do with the money if we won, and I kept thinking of all the things I wanted to buy for other people: I'd want buy my dad a new boat, my mom a new car, pay off mortgages for all my family, send my siblings and friends on dream vacations, etc. Most of all, I would want for Jerry to not have to work another day in his life!

Jerry stopped me and asked what *I* wanted, and I had such a hard time thinking of something. I would want a new house, but nothing enormous--just modest and comfortable. After spending a good 10 minutes thinking it over, I finally figured out what I would want to buy for myself: a brand new treadmill! My treadmill is getting so rickety. Each time I use it, I'm afraid it's going to quit on me. So, if I woke up with $1.5 billion tomorrow, the first thing I'd buy is a fancy new treadmill! ;)

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Week 22 Weigh-in (Eeek!)

Some pretty exciting news to share today! :) For the first time EVER on Runs for Cookies (which I started in April 2011), my "official" Wednesday Weigh-in weight was in the 120's...

I have no idea what my body was thinking this week, but I dropped three pounds since last week, leaving me at 128! I did my body fat percentage and waist measurement as well, since it's been a while and my weight has changed about five pounds in the meantime. Body fat was 20.1%, and waist measurement was 25 inches. That's the smallest my waist has ever been. The last time I was at this weight (for a brief moment in 2010), I hadn't gotten my skin removal surgery yet. My body is looking very different now--in a good way :)

While my official "goal weight" is 133 pounds, I am happy to be under that weight and have a cushion--this way, if I overindulge a bit, I can still stay under my goal. Also, since I set a very lofty goal of PR'ing my 10K this spring, the extra weight loss will certainly help with my running speed. Here is a chart from RunnersWorld.com that shows a rough estimate of how much faster you can run with a bit of weight loss:

I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight this week, but my calories were a little less than the past few weeks. My average daily calorie intake was 1,620. I didn't really do anything very differently, so I'm not sure why the large weight loss, but I am happy with it.

The part that is most exciting for me, however, is that I am back to being 125 pounds down from my starting weight! When I initially lost 125 pounds, the last 10 of it was when my jaw was broken (in November-December 2010). My jaws were wired shut, so I had to live off of a liquid diet (a ton of smoothies!), and I'm pretty sure that's how I got down to 128. I was only in the 120's for a week or so before I could eat solid food again and I gained 10 pounds back almost right away. I just looked at my old weigh-in log, and here it is:

So, while I technically lost 125 pounds in 16 months back then, it was short-lived. Today, however, I can say that I am 125 pounds down from my 253-pound starting weight in August 2009! I am SO glad to be back to this point. I was thrilled to get to 133, which is my goal weight, but like I said, a little cushion is nice. When I was at this weight before, I was hoping to get to 126.5, because that would be exactly half of my starting weight--I always thought it would be so cool to say that I was half my size! I'm not exactly aiming for that number now, but I certainly won't be upset if I see it ;)

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I did well on my new year's goals again this week:

Step goal: My goal is to get in 7,000+ steps per day for at least six days a week, and I did that every day except for Monday.

Binge-free streak: Still going strong! Today is Day 162. I did struggle a lot with binge thoughts this week, but I've been working hard to overcome them. Working on a puzzle at night has been the most helpful--the time flies by, and I actually don't even want to be "bothered" to stop to eat! My back hurts when I do puzzles for very long, so I try to change it up. Something else that I've been doing is taking Joey for a quick stroll around the neighborhood (one mile) if I'm feeling like bingeing. 

Recipes: My goal is to cook one new recipe per week, and I posted about this week's recipe yesterday.

For some reason, my anxiety has been extremely high this week. I have generalized anxiety disorder, so I don't worry about one particular thing; I just have a constant feeling of dread/worry that makes it hard to focus on anything else. I've noticed that what works the best to ease it, even better than a Xanax, is when I nail a hard run. Thursday's run kept me feeling amazing for a couple of days! And then yesterday, when my anxiety was bad again, I was talking to Jerry about it. As I was talking, and telling him how bad I felt about the run, I realized that I would probably feel better if I "re-did" my run that I'd quit earlier... and so I did. And I felt a million times better. 

For so many years (all through my teens and twenties), my anxiety was actually secondary to depression; but for the past few years, it's been anxiety that is the dominant problem. Now that I've noticed a correlation between a good, hard run and easing my anxiety, I'm going to try and use that to my advantage. Having a tough goal to hit and then actually reaching it gives me a nice "high" feeling that overrides the anxiety, at least temporarily. Tomorrow, I have another tough run on the schedule--12 x 60 seconds at faster than race pace. I'm going to try and push the pace hard for those intervals, because they are so short. And no, I won't be drinking wine tonight! ;) haha

Anyway, I am SO very excited to be back down to this weight--I honestly never thought I'd see it again, nor did I even try to get here again. Calorie counting is working out so well for me!

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A rare double run

I'm somewhat relieved that I'm not writing the post I thought I would be writing today. Yesterday afternoon, after I picked up the kids from school, we stopped at Kroger before going home. As we were walking into the store, we saw a black cat (probably about 4-6 months old?) run out from some bushes in the parking lot. The cat looked around frantically, looking scared to death, and then darted back into the bushes.

The poor cat looked extremely skinny and its fur didn't look very healthy at all. When I see the feral or stray cats in neighborhoods, I feel awful for them and want to bring them home, but I manage to restrain myself (we have enough pets). But the Kroger parking lot was a different story! There aren't any houses in close proximity to the store, and the bushes that the cat was hiding in were on a little island of landscaping in the parking lot. Basically, I could safely assume that someone had just dropped off the poor cat.

I couldn't just leave it there. It was 10 degrees outside and we were expecting more snow through the night. So, the kids and I went over to the bushes and started calling to the cat, hoping to coax it to come out. The bushes were pretty thick, and I couldn't see the cat in there. We eventually went into the store, and decided to look again on our way out.

When we left the store, we went back over to the bushes, and tried again. Still no cat. So as sad as it made me, we went home. When Jerry got home, I told him the story, and he felt awful, too. He decided to take a can of cat food and see if he could find the cat, and if not, at least leave the food for it. He tried for about 20 minutes, but he didn't have any luck either.

I really don't want any more pets, but there was no way I could have left that cat in the parking lot! So, I imagined I'd be writing a post today about Janice, our new kitty (or maybe Gunther, if it was a boy). Anyway, I just hope that someone else picked up the cat and that he or she is nice and warm in someone's house.

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Last night, Jerry was off work, and we decided to share a bottle of wine in the evening. I mentioned recently that I haven't been drinking wine much lately, and I've turned into a total lightweight. A bottle of wine is 25 ounces, so I had 12.5 ounces--and I actually woke up feeling hungover! I never used to feel hungover from half a bottle of wine (it's only about two generous glasses). My stomach felt gross, and I had a bit of a headache. Perfect for doing speed work! Ugh.

The kids' school ended up being canceled today because it was snowing like crazy, adding to the ice and snow that are already covering the roads. I can't do speed work in the snow (well, I could, but I would probably fall on my face), so I went out to the garage to do it on the treadmill. On the schedule today was 4 x 6:00 at faster than race pace, with recovery until my heart rate gets down to 136. I started with a 10 minute warm-up.

I did the first interval at 8.0 mph (7:30/mi pace), and I was able to finish, but I was NOT feeling well at all. My stomach was feeling gross and I had a sharp side stitch that I couldn't shake. Halfway through the second interval, I decided to call it quits. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to make it through the workout. (Note to self: No wine the night before speed work!)

I felt guilty for the whole rest of the morning, and was still thinking about it after lunch. I told myself I could make it up on Thursday, but I still felt like I should have pushed myself through and finished the workout. Finally, at around 1:00, I decided that I was going to try again. I was feeling better, and even though I was warm and cozy inside the house (and showered), I decided to change back into running clothes and attempt to do the speed workout (again).

This time, after my warm-up, I started my interval at a more conservative pace (7.8 mph, or 7:41/mile pace). It doesn't sound like a big difference from the 8.0, but it felt more comfortable. I told myself if I could just get through two intervals, I could stop feeling guilty. Bonus if I could get through three!

It was NOT easy by any means, but I managed to push myself through three intervals. Then I decided to go for the fourth. Even though I had done one and a half earlier in the day, I knew I would feel really good to get the whole workout done at once. And just to torture myself further, I even decided to set the speed at 8.0 mph for the last one, and finish strong. I pushed myself to the max, and I did it! I had run all four six-minute intervals at 7:30-7:41 pace (and 1% incline). I felt much better about myself after that!

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For Taste Test Tuesday this week, I chose to try this recipe for Creamy Garlic Penne Pasta. It's basically pasta with a garlicky béchamel sauce and parmesan cheese. I love garlic and pasta, so this sounded delicious! I didn't have any penne, so I just used cavatappi instead.

I was so good--lots of garlic flavor, which my whole family loved. It made eight servings, so I had it for lunch the next day, too.

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If you haven't already, make sure you check out my annual Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K details and sign up! Here is a link to the post that explains all about it.

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Motivational Monday #135

Happy Motivational Monday! This whole week, I have been feeling absolutely fantastic about my run from Thursday--it was definitely the highlight of my week. Unfortunately, we got some really bad weather over the weekend, and the roads are super icy now. It looks like I may have to start doing my speed work on the treadmill, so I am really happy that I managed to get in that one really good (confidence-boosting) run before the weather turned.

Yesterday, I went out and ran 30 minutes in the ice/snow. It was freezing rain in the early morning, and then transitioned to snow and got extremely cold. By the time I headed out for a run, it was ridiculously windy, and the rain had frozen. I was running on a layer of ice topped with a layer of snow. Yaktrax had sent me a pair of their Yaktrax Run's for review back in November, but this was the first chance I've had to try them out! They worked really well, and if it hadn't been so windy, I probably would have enjoyed running in the snow.

Here are the Yaktrax--I'll write more about them when I've gotten some more use out of them!

After I uploaded my run, I loved what Smashrun had to say when I moused over the weather:

Haha :) I wrote a post a couple of years ago about running in the winter, but I still get emails asking about it all the time. Here is the post, if anyone wants to read it. I happen to love running in the winter!

Anyway, let's get on with Motivational Monday... Enjoy!

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I received the following in an email from Emily. Usually, I edit down the submissions to just a paragraph; but Emily's was the only submission this week, and the whole story is so inspiring, I decided to post the whole thing. It's a great story!

"Four years ago, I managed to lose about 30 pounds; and since then, I’ve gained it back and then some (...the usual story!). I had also let my fitness level deteriorate massively and was generally feeling unhappy with my life. Back in March of 2015, I left my job as a doctor in the UK and relocated to Cambodia where I am currently volunteering with a charity that provides free health care to poor Cambodians. This brilliant organization serves isolated communities who live in floating villages on the largest lake in south-east Asia, and is entirely funded by donations. 

When I heard that there was a half-marathon in the town where I’m currently living, I signed up on a bit of a whim. The main attraction was that the course winds around Angkor Wat, a stunning complex of Cambodian temples built over a thousand years ago. I also thought that I could try to raise some sponsorship for the charity that I’m working for to help them continue providing medical care to a vulnerable population. 

Having never been much of a runner (in the UK I probably ran about once a fortnight!), let alone a runner that runs races, I think I probably underestimated the challenge I’d set for myself. Deciding to train for my first ever half-marathon in a place where the average temperature is 35⁰C (95⁰ F) and the humidity is regularly over 80% might seem like a questionable decision... There were many times when I just wanted to quit. 

When I started to transition from running on a treadmill in a beautifully air-conditioned gym to the outside world, I truly thought it might beat me. Getting up at 5 a.m. to run while it was marginally cooler, and still getting sweatier, redder and more dehydrated than I knew was possible, pushed me to my limits. 

However, after 4 months of training, and a whole lot of sweating, I managed to complete my first ever half-marathon on December 6, 2015. My main target had been to make it across the finish line, and I hardly dared to hope that I could do it in less than 3 hours, so I was absolutely thrilled to finish in 2 hours and 43 minutes. I also raised nearly $2000 for the charity that I’m volunteering, for which will be a huge help.  

As well as getting much fitter and actually starting to enjoy running, I managed to lose about 15 pounds while training for this half-marathon. It was less than I had hoped, but it turns out that running makes me ravenously hungry (who knew?!). Despite this, I feel like the whole process of setting myself what seemed like an insurmountable challenge and achieving it through sheer determination and hard work and just not letting myself give up has reminded me that I CAN do difficult things. I’ve still got a long way to go to get to the weight I want to be, but I think I finally believe that I can do it now!"

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Fun with Eli's birthday gifts

We celebrated Eli's birthday on Thursday, and he got a couple of gifts that we have had so much fun with! My sister sent him a game called BeanBoozled, which is by Jelly Belly. Basically, you spin a spinner which determines the color of jelly bean you have to eat. Each color is one of two flavors--one is good and one is gross. For example, one of the beans could be Buttered Popcorn or it could be Rotten Egg. The only way to find out is by eating it!

It sounds horrible, especially when you see the different flavors:

As a 10-year old boy, Eli thought it sounded delightful, of course, and was super excited to play it. I didn't have the heart to NOT play it with him, so the four of us sat down and took turns spinning the spinner and eating jelly beans. My first one was the Buttered Popcorn/Rotten Egg color. I was so nervous! It took all of two chews before I realized it was definitely the Rotten Egg flavor. I spit it out and then started gulping water. It was terrible, and the taste just wouldn't go away! The kids were cracking up, and Jerry was filming it, of course ;)

I lasted three rounds, and all three were bad luck for me--Rotten Egg, Toothpaste, and Stinky Socks. The kids got all gross ones, too, but somehow, Jerry didn't get any! I insisted that he keep eating jelly beans until he got a gross one, because it wasn't fair ;) He tried Canned Dog Food, and I could smell it on his breath from several feet away.

As gross as the game is, it was fun to play with the boys. Boys love that stuff! My parents were even great sports and played with them yesterday.

I always have a hard time buying Eli a birthday gift, because his birthday is RIGHT after Christmas. He mentioned something called a Wubble Bubble Ball that he'd seen on TV, so I ended up getting that for him. It turned out to be one of the coolest toys ever! Last night, Jerry was working, but the kids and I had a blast playing with the bubble/ball. It's a very lightweight rubbery ball (it comes deflated, with a pump to fill it). It's practically indestructible, and we proved that last night.

Noah was terrified it was going to pop, so he kept running to his room when Eli or I would sit on it. It's lightweight enough that you can play catch with it in the house, but it's so flexible that it can't pop. We had so much fun messing around with it last night.

(Edit: Well, so much for "it can't pop", haha. What a bummer! After I wrote this post, it got a hole in it. There is a lifetime warranty on it, which was appealing, but when I checked out the details, you have to pay $6.99 for a new one! Since it only lasted two days, we won't be doing that. That company underestimated the activity level of 10- and 11-year old boys!)

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I was a total insomniac last night. I didn't fall asleep until sometime after 2:30, and got up at 6:00. I almost fell asleep again after I ate breakfast, but I wanted to get in my long run before it started raining, so I got dressed to head out. It was 45 degrees! Two years ago (actually, it was Eli's birthday in 2014) it was 30 below zero, and the coldest day on record in over 100 years.

It was a little windy today, so it actually felt colder than I was expecting. On the schedule today was a 75-minute long run (at easy pace), so my only goal was to keep my heart rate under 146. I am loving running at an easy pace! I actually really looked forward to my run today. I didn't look at my Garmin at all while I was running, so I had no idea what my pace was; but my heart rate alert only beeped twice in the entire 75 minutes (both times were when a dog bark startled me), so I knew I was running at a very easy pace.

This was the first run in a VERY long time that I was able to completely zone out and forget that I was even running. When running at a pace that's even slightly uncomfortable, I'm constantly counting down the miles or minutes. But today, I zoned out and didn't think about the running at all. It was kind of weird, actually--I don't even remember huge chunks of my run! It was nice to not really think about anything at all. When I got home, I saw that I was probably running a little too easy (my heart rate was really low), but it was still in the aerobic zone, so it didn't really matter.

I was tired all day, so I worked on my puzzle for a long time, and actually took a short nap in the afternoon (something I never do). Hopefully I can get a good night's sleep tonight!

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Don't think, just run.

We're going to head out to dinner for Eli's birthday soon, so I just have time to write a quick recap of my run this morning. Let me just start by saying that this weather we've had so far this winter has been PERFECT for running! Today, it was 32 degrees and sunny, no wind to speak of, and no snow or ice or anything on the ground--in JANUARY. It's awesome.

Anyway, last night, when I was looking at my training plan, I realized I had accidentally screwed something up when I was transferring the plan from one spot to another, and the run I thought I was doing today was much easier than what was actually listed. The correct schedule said that I was supposed to "Alternate 10 minutes easy with 10 minutes fast for 50 minutes". I read that as 2x(10 min easy, 10 min fast); 10 min easy.

The problem here is that the "fast" pace is supposed to be "faster than race pace" or 95% of your maximum heart rate. My race pace is 7:55/mile, and I haven't run a mile (outdoors) that fast in over two years. Two years, people! And I was going to have to do 10 minutes (roughly 1.25 miles) not just once, but TWICE? Might as well quit now, is what I was thinking last night.

Anyway, this morning was going to be crazy busy, because I had all kinds of errands to run while the kids were in school. I knew I could squeeze in my run if I did it right away, instead of procrastinating until 10:30 or so. I dressed in my running clothes and then drove Eli to school, because we made a birthday treat for him to share with his class. From his school, I just went to the Lake Erie Metropark to run. Did I mention the weather was awesome?

I was nervous, but I kept telling myself that if I couldn't hold the pace, then I would just do my best. Running my best would still help me improve. I started off with the 10 minutes at easy pace, and my heart rate was higher than normal because of my nerves. Haha! I still get nervous every time I have an "important" run. I tried to run super slow, so I didn't waste any energy. 

When my Garmin beeped to start the next segment, I started running hard--too hard--and then slowed it down. It took me a few minutes to settle on a pace. I wanted to stay as close to race pace as possible, without going faster, because I didn't want to burn out halfway through. 

It was hard. My breathing during easy runs is a four step inhale, three step exhale; but during fast runs like this, it's a two step inhale, one step exhale. I was glad I didn't see many people while I was running hard, because I sounded like I was going to keel over. I was surprised that the time was going by kind of quickly. When I do two-minute intervals, the time takes forever! But I could imagine at about what point at the park I'd get to stop, and I just kept repeating to myself, "Don't think, just run" (that's going to be my new mantra). 

My pace was on target, so when my watch timer said 17:55, I knew I'd just run a sub-8:00 mile for the first time in over two years. I was ecstatic! Had to keep running hard until the 20:00 mark, and then finally, my Garmin beeped to start my easy run. I walked for about five seconds, wishing I could walk the whole 10 minutes, but I made myself start jogging. Thankfully, the jogging time went by really slowly--usually, it's the opposite when I do intervals. I think I was just so nervous about the next hard run. I really didn't think I could do it--I barely made it through that first one!

I told myself that since I was able to hit pace for the first one, I could run tempo pace (8:22) for the second one. But, I knew I had at least two minutes left in me at race pace, because I do 2:00 intervals each week. When my watch beeped at 30:00, I started running hard again. Surprisingly, I hit the correct pace right away (actually, a little fast, at around 7:45). 

I figured I'd just hold that pace as long as I could. Eventually, I was telling myself, "Think how proud you'll be if you can finish this workout!"and "Just three minutes left!" "Just two minutes left!" etc. I was SO VERY EXCITED when I heard my Garmin beep. I slowed to a walk for a good 20 seconds or so, to catch my breath. 

I did it! I had actually hit pace for both of the 10:00 intervals. I slowly jogged back to the car, stopping several times to take pictures.

It was so gorgeous! I should have plucked my eyebrows for that photo. Anyway.

I did 1.27 miles for the first 10:00 segment, which was a 7:51 pace. And for the second 10:00 segment, I did 1.29 miles, good for a 7:46 pace! These numbers totally made my day. 

I haven't had a runner's high like this in a very, very long time. Smashrun even had some fun notables for me when I uploaded my run:

Needless to say, after today's "impossible" run, I am feeling much more confident that I may actually be able to pull off my PR goal. It felt so good today to push myself to the max, and aim for a goal that I didn't think I'd be able to do--and then DO IT. Don't think, just run ;)

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Week 21 Weigh-in

It's been 21 weeks since I started counting calories, and 6 weeks since I reached my goal weight of 133 pounds. I'm really happy with how maintenance is going so far! I'm still counting calories every day, but I've been eating more than I was when I was losing weight. Today's weigh-in:

The scale said 131, which means I am down a pound from last week (and two pounds below my goal weight). My average number of calories eaten this week was 1,958 per day. I thought for sure that I would have a gain, because I felt like I was eating much more than usual, but maybe the stomach bug I was dealing with had something to do with the loss. Regardless, another successful week on maintenance!

As far as my goals for 2016 go, I did well with those, too...

Cooking a new recipe: I made this recipe for Meatball Casserole. Super simple, but that was the day I was really sick, so I just threw together the simplest thing I could find. It turned out really good, though! The boys and Jerry absolutely loved it.

Getting in 7,000+ steps per day for at least six days per week: This was a short week, since I started this goal on January 1st. But, I did get in 7,000+ steps every day except for Monday (I was sick and it was a rest day), so I'm good with that.

I've stayed binge-free this week as well--today is day 155 of being binge-free!

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I'm very happy with the way my 10K training has been going. I'm still skeptical that I'll be able to get my PR in April, but that's because it just seems like a crazy goal; I have to remember that it's still a long way out, and if I follow my training, I can do it. Here is a comparison of the paces from my two-minute (outdoor) intervals. (The highlighted pace is the average for that session of intervals)

I gave 100% effort for these intervals in the moment I was doing them. Interestingly, my average heart rate from the last two sessions was the same. (The average HR from the 12/8 session was actually 10 beats per minute higher!) That's a good thing--I'm getting faster, but I'm working at the same effort level.

Anyway, I've reduced my pace by 15 seconds without even really realizing it. I'm excited about that! I would like to do another 5K race soon, so I can compare it to my Thanksgiving Turkey Trot race--I gave 100% effort at that race, so it would be nice to see if I've improved much. My only concern with the training schedule that I'm following is that there isn't a long tempo run--I feel like I need to do at least a few longer runs at near-race pace. But, I'll decide what to do after a few more weeks of this schedule.

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Tomorrow is Eli's 10th birthday. I can't believe that it's been 10 years since I went to the hospital to be induced! Eli was huge--I was induced 10 days early, and he was 9 lbs. 10 oz. I can't even imagine if I'd waited 10 more days to give birth!  Just for fun, here is a picture of pregnant me, at 271 pounds. Eli was born about a week later.

If my "smile" doesn't say it all, I was miserably pregnant at that point ;) And here is Eli, shortly after he was born. I remember when I first saw him, I was so glad that we'd decided on the name Eli instead of Mason (his name was going to be Mason until about two weeks before he was born). He just looked like an Eli to me:

I don't know if I've ever shared that story here, about Eli's name. Jerry and I had decided on the name Mason shortly after we found out we were having a boy. When I was nine months pregnant, and huge, I took Noah (who was 18 months old) to lunch at McDonald's, and he was playing in the playscape. There was one section of it that was poorly designed, because a toddler could easily get stuck (climb down into it, but not able to climb back up). Noah was upset, and I had no idea how I was going to get him out. Right at the beginning of the playscape, there were these two padded rollers that you had to squeeze through--and even if I wasn't pregnant, there was no way I could have fit!

Anyway, there was a boy playing in the playscape who looked like he was about five years old, and I asked him if he could help me get Noah out. He was very helpful, and everything was fine. I learned that his name was Eli, and I immediately loved it. I suggested it to Jerry that night, and we decided on Eli (Elijah) instead of Mason for the baby's name. I didn't think much about it again until the first time I laid eyes on Eli after he was born, when I thought, "Wow, he looks like an Eli!"

Tomorrow, we're going to take Eli out to dinner of his choice to celebrate his birthday. He chose our favorite Chinese restaurant, so clearly, tomorrow will be my high-calorie day for the week! I'm looking forward to some sweet and sour chicken :)

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If you missed it, make sure you check out yesterday's post to sign up for the fourth annual Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K!

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2016 Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K Sign-Up

Introducing...

Finally! No, I did not forget about the annual virtual 5K. I just kept procrastinating working on the bib, t-shirt logo, and social media logo stuff (because I'm not good at things like that, and it takes forever to make the tiniest change--like the date!). Anyway, I was sick on Sunday, so I finally didn't have any excuses, and I got it done. Sorry it took so long!

If you've been reading my blog for a year or more, then you are familiar with the annual Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K. It all started in 2013, when I turned 31. I wanted to do something fun for my birthday, and you all know I love numbers--my 31st birthday was also my "5K" birthday (5K= 3.1 miles; 3.1, 31... yeah, it made sense at the time. I was probably drinking wine when I had the idea).

Random fun fact: My birthday is on January 25th, and who could possibly be a more fun person to share it with than Steve Prefontaine?! I had no idea who he was until I became a runner, but after watching the movie Prefontaine (if you haven't seen it, you should!), I read more about him, and learned that he, too, was born on January 25th. So, if you don't want to run for me, then run for Pre! ;)

I thought that hosting a virtual 5K would be an awesome way to celebrate 31 years... how cool would it be to run a 5K "with" hundreds of friends? The "race" is just for fun--to keep it free, I don't offer medals or t-shirts or anything like that. I just want as many people as possible to commit to running or walking 3.1 miles with me on my birthday!

The event will take place on January 25th (as always). This year, it's a Monday. Here's how it works: 
1) Sign up on the form below, to state your commitment.
2) Any time you'd like on January 25, run or walk 3.1 miles.
3) PLEASE take a picture to share! Not required, but so much fun to see.
4) Fill out the "finisher's form", which will be posted on my blog that day (it will ask for your finishing time--this is optional, but make sure you take note of it in case you want to share it).
5) (Optional) Upload your picture to social media using the hashtag #RfCVirtual5K, and/or post it on my Facebook page to share a little about your run.

The part I love best about the Virtual 5K is going through all the photos on social media and reading about others' experiences--people running or walking in all different countries around the globe, some running in snow, some running in heat, some using the treadmill or doing laps in their basements. It's very cool to see so many people achieve the same goal in so many different ways!

Noah did it in 2013

Eli in 2013

I have a printable bib that you can wear (or not, it's up to you). FYI, if you print this at 100% (NOT "fit to page") it will be a normal "bib-size" and not a massive 8-1/2 x 11 size.

I have a t-shirt logo, in case you want to use it to make your own t-shirt. This has a transparent background, so it's best to use this logo when printing a shirt; the other logos have white backgrounds.

Finally, here is a "social media" logo, in case you wanted to share on social media that you'll be doing the event. You can use hashtag #RfCVirtual5K if you'd like.

Sorry it took me so long to get this info up! Next year, I'll aim to get it up sooner ;) If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. Otherwise, here is the sign-up form below:

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