The last day of the year! This is the first time in several years that I feel some ‘peace’ going forward. It some respects, it’s been a tough year (ie. My bad car accident), but in many ways, it’s been the best year of personal growth I’ve had in a long time. Is it true when they say some times it takes a dramatic event to reset the balance in our lives? I feel like my accident , although the recovery was a bit rough on the brain there for awhile, was a smack in the head I needed! I’d prefer the accident did NOT happen of course, but, it is true that it was some sort of catalyst, or *jolt* to steer my life to a different, better path.
I have lots of rambling to do today….so thanks for bearing with me through all my chattiness! :-)
For my Wednesday weigh in, on this last day of 2008, I am proud to say I weigh a full 23 pounds less than I did on January 1st! I did not ‘resolve’ to lose weight this year…last year on New Year’s Eve I basically said ‘whatever’ – I’m not bothering with resolutions. My how things have changed!
Today I weighed in at 146, so I am ALSO happy that my holiday feeding frenzy netted just a one pound gain. *whew* I’ll tell you what though…on those days over the last few weeks where I ate, well, CRAP, I certainly FELT like crap too! Yes, I enjoyed some good holiday food and treats – but only mentally. Physically my body was saying ‘ewwww’. LOL – I am HAPPY to be back to Clean Eating!
Speaking of Clean Eating…I’d like to thank Shosh for turning me on to Clean Eating magazine. It is tough to find…you have to go to a Border’s or other major chain bookstore that has a large magazine collection. Or of course, check out the website, which is also great. This magazine is filled with healthy, wholesome recipes that the whole family can enjoy – complete with tips and tricks for cooking the ‘clean’ way. For example, using some mashed steamed cauliflower in mashed potatoes for a healthy boost. I am in the process of preparing my grocery list for the coming week and can’t wait to try a few new recipes. Anyway, thanks Shosh! I am hooked and can’t wait for the next issue which comes out in early February.
Also on the food front ~ this week I’ve been experimenting with my ‘balanced oxidizer’ food intake, according to Jillian’s suggestions….I should be eating a diet of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat and sticking to around 1400 calories. I was a little wary of this formula for a couple of reasons….first, 30% fat seems high to me, and 1400 calories seems low for me. I created a handy little food log (spreadsheet) which auto-calculates everything I eat. (I get my nutrition info from CalorieKing.com)
On Monday, I had a LOT of food, but still stayed within calorie range! The only ‘processed’ food I ate was Baked Lays, which I probably could have done without. I’m finding I’m a little heavy on the carbs, (ie 48% instead of 40) and I could use a tad more protein….this has been very enlightening for me! But, after two days, I’m NOT hungry and I feel very ‘balanced’. Since it has only been two days, I am looking forward to what my possible result will be by next weigh in. I need to work on getting the carb level down a bit. I’ll tell you what though, before doing this tracking, I know I was eating WAY more carbs then I am now, so that is very telling in itself.
On the workout front ~ (yes, there is more…..) Today I started my official Half Marathon training! I’m sure I shared my little ‘rookie’ plan a couple of weeks ago, but to give a little overview of how things are going to go over the next several weeks, here is the plan. I call it my little ‘rookie plan’ because, well, I’m still a rookie, and I’m slow, and I actually want to FINISH this race without killing my 41 year old self!
I used the ‘Smart Coach’ feature on RunnersWorld which calculated my training plan based on my 5K time, and how many miles per week I currently run (6-10), and how hard I want to train (moderate). Basically for the next 4 weeks, I will be doing ‘Easy Runs’ ranging from 2 miles to the long run of 5 miles in the 4th week. (I can’t WAIT to say I ran 5 miles!) My assigned pace for these runs is 14:38. YES that is S-L-O-W. But it’s doable for me, and I need to practice sustaining this steady pace because my 5 mile run in 4 weeks will be at 14:38 also, so while the 2 mile runs will be ‘easy’ at first, as I build to 5 miles, sustaining that pace and not slowing down will be a challenge. (And by the way I officially hate my Garmin which this morning had my pace jumping all over from 14:00 up to 24:00 – even though I was running steady the whole time - That thing is more trouble than it’s worth! So my ‘average pace’ was 16 something, even though MOST of the time I was almost exactly at 14:40, in between the erratic fluctuating of course.)
Ok, moving on…..The 2nd month of training adds in some Tempo Runs and Speed work. The first Tempo Run in week 5 is a 5 mile workout, 3 of which are run at 12:53. Yikes! It’s like a 5K! So again, this slow steady building the first month will HOPEFULLY prepare me for that.
The Speedwork that comes in week 6 is a little scary (for rookie me of course). Total distance, 5 miles which consists of 2x1600’s @ 12:10 and with 800 ‘jogs’ in between? Holy Cow…Translated that mean the workout goes like this:
1 mile warm up,
1 mile @ 12:10
½ mile jog
1 mile @ 12:10
½ mile jog
1 mile cool down
How fun will THAT be? ;-) Thankfully there are only three speed sessions in the 16 week plan, with the last session in week 14 running the miles at 11:55 (aw man….) so knowing I won’t have to do this every week is half the battle!
So I am looking forward to the training overall…it should be fun but challenging. I may be surprised and find my pace picking up more than planned, who knows….but I am not running this ½ marathon to be fast. There will be time for speed later. The same way I look back at my early weeks of C25K and smile over my struggle to run 10 minutes straight….I will some day look back at my measly 12:00 – 14:00 pace and smile again. I’ll be happy just to get to a 10 minute mile someday…but for now, I’m just happy to run period.
That is my rambling for today. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year celebration! For me? A quiet night at home, a little bit of wine, crab legs and New Year’s Rockin Eve! Oh, and a promised round of High School Musical board game with my Grace. Alison will be babysitting and raking in some serious cash, Chris will go to bed at his usual 8:30. I will probably crash on the couch by 10PM (since I was up at 4:45 for a 5am run) and Mike will wake me up at 11:45 lol....
It just doesn’t get any better than this!
Happy New Year!
I have lots of rambling to do today….so thanks for bearing with me through all my chattiness! :-)
For my Wednesday weigh in, on this last day of 2008, I am proud to say I weigh a full 23 pounds less than I did on January 1st! I did not ‘resolve’ to lose weight this year…last year on New Year’s Eve I basically said ‘whatever’ – I’m not bothering with resolutions. My how things have changed!
Today I weighed in at 146, so I am ALSO happy that my holiday feeding frenzy netted just a one pound gain. *whew* I’ll tell you what though…on those days over the last few weeks where I ate, well, CRAP, I certainly FELT like crap too! Yes, I enjoyed some good holiday food and treats – but only mentally. Physically my body was saying ‘ewwww’. LOL – I am HAPPY to be back to Clean Eating!
Speaking of Clean Eating…I’d like to thank Shosh for turning me on to Clean Eating magazine. It is tough to find…you have to go to a Border’s or other major chain bookstore that has a large magazine collection. Or of course, check out the website, which is also great. This magazine is filled with healthy, wholesome recipes that the whole family can enjoy – complete with tips and tricks for cooking the ‘clean’ way. For example, using some mashed steamed cauliflower in mashed potatoes for a healthy boost. I am in the process of preparing my grocery list for the coming week and can’t wait to try a few new recipes. Anyway, thanks Shosh! I am hooked and can’t wait for the next issue which comes out in early February.
Also on the food front ~ this week I’ve been experimenting with my ‘balanced oxidizer’ food intake, according to Jillian’s suggestions….I should be eating a diet of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat and sticking to around 1400 calories. I was a little wary of this formula for a couple of reasons….first, 30% fat seems high to me, and 1400 calories seems low for me. I created a handy little food log (spreadsheet) which auto-calculates everything I eat. (I get my nutrition info from CalorieKing.com)
On Monday, I had a LOT of food, but still stayed within calorie range! The only ‘processed’ food I ate was Baked Lays, which I probably could have done without. I’m finding I’m a little heavy on the carbs, (ie 48% instead of 40) and I could use a tad more protein….this has been very enlightening for me! But, after two days, I’m NOT hungry and I feel very ‘balanced’. Since it has only been two days, I am looking forward to what my possible result will be by next weigh in. I need to work on getting the carb level down a bit. I’ll tell you what though, before doing this tracking, I know I was eating WAY more carbs then I am now, so that is very telling in itself.
On the workout front ~ (yes, there is more…..) Today I started my official Half Marathon training! I’m sure I shared my little ‘rookie’ plan a couple of weeks ago, but to give a little overview of how things are going to go over the next several weeks, here is the plan. I call it my little ‘rookie plan’ because, well, I’m still a rookie, and I’m slow, and I actually want to FINISH this race without killing my 41 year old self!
I used the ‘Smart Coach’ feature on RunnersWorld which calculated my training plan based on my 5K time, and how many miles per week I currently run (6-10), and how hard I want to train (moderate). Basically for the next 4 weeks, I will be doing ‘Easy Runs’ ranging from 2 miles to the long run of 5 miles in the 4th week. (I can’t WAIT to say I ran 5 miles!) My assigned pace for these runs is 14:38. YES that is S-L-O-W. But it’s doable for me, and I need to practice sustaining this steady pace because my 5 mile run in 4 weeks will be at 14:38 also, so while the 2 mile runs will be ‘easy’ at first, as I build to 5 miles, sustaining that pace and not slowing down will be a challenge. (And by the way I officially hate my Garmin which this morning had my pace jumping all over from 14:00 up to 24:00 – even though I was running steady the whole time - That thing is more trouble than it’s worth! So my ‘average pace’ was 16 something, even though MOST of the time I was almost exactly at 14:40, in between the erratic fluctuating of course.)
Ok, moving on…..The 2nd month of training adds in some Tempo Runs and Speed work. The first Tempo Run in week 5 is a 5 mile workout, 3 of which are run at 12:53. Yikes! It’s like a 5K! So again, this slow steady building the first month will HOPEFULLY prepare me for that.
The Speedwork that comes in week 6 is a little scary (for rookie me of course). Total distance, 5 miles which consists of 2x1600’s @ 12:10 and with 800 ‘jogs’ in between? Holy Cow…Translated that mean the workout goes like this:
1 mile warm up,
1 mile @ 12:10
½ mile jog
1 mile @ 12:10
½ mile jog
1 mile cool down
How fun will THAT be? ;-) Thankfully there are only three speed sessions in the 16 week plan, with the last session in week 14 running the miles at 11:55 (aw man….) so knowing I won’t have to do this every week is half the battle!
So I am looking forward to the training overall…it should be fun but challenging. I may be surprised and find my pace picking up more than planned, who knows….but I am not running this ½ marathon to be fast. There will be time for speed later. The same way I look back at my early weeks of C25K and smile over my struggle to run 10 minutes straight….I will some day look back at my measly 12:00 – 14:00 pace and smile again. I’ll be happy just to get to a 10 minute mile someday…but for now, I’m just happy to run period.
That is my rambling for today. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year celebration! For me? A quiet night at home, a little bit of wine, crab legs and New Year’s Rockin Eve! Oh, and a promised round of High School Musical board game with my Grace. Alison will be babysitting and raking in some serious cash, Chris will go to bed at his usual 8:30. I will probably crash on the couch by 10PM (since I was up at 4:45 for a 5am run) and Mike will wake me up at 11:45 lol....
It just doesn’t get any better than this!
Happy New Year!
8 comments:
Sounds like a perfect N.Y.E!
I like your training plan...building milage slowly is definitely the way to do it without getting hurt.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year. Great plan. I love your approach to training and your attitude. The slow and steady approach will pay off big time. You will have an awesome 2009, fo SHO, homie!
Happy New Year Cyndi,
YOu've achieved great things this year, I look forward to hearing all about the victories of 2009!
Your posts always motivate me to get out there and run!
loved your ramblings (and shosh and clean eating).
here's to an even better 2009 should that be possible :)
MizFit
I love your plan for 2009! Great job with all the weight loss in 2008, thats a lot to be proud of!
I need to figure out smart choach on runners world and use it! I hear its awesome! :)
Happy 2009
Happy New Year Cyndi! You have had a great year. It sounds like 2009 will be just as good with the plan you have. I am going to have to check out that magazine.
Happy New Year! All good things in 2009...
And, thanks for the Clean Eating link...looks great!
Happy Belated New Year!
Again, you are the best darn planner around. Very wise training plans. I think if you run the half marathon then Mike has to buy you a new Garmin 405!
What ya think? LOL!
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