Current Weight: 153.6
Starting BMI: 28.1
Current BMI: 24.8
So I'm choosing to share my weight POST Saturday run. I was up most of the week, and I know I'm weighing without my water weight, and I know it's silly. But I'm choosing to focus on the fact that at my lightest, I didn't gain this week.
1 - I own other rubber bracelets so I found it really crazy that these are the only ones I ran into.
2 - Despite being a dancer I NEVER have bobby pins and am ALWAYS digging to the bottom of this particular drawer.
I'm not religious, or superstitious, but I do believe in going with my gut and doing things that make me feel happy. The three bracelets I pulled out felt like they would be great motivators:
1 - The Color Run bracelet (the first 5K I actually ran)
2 - A random never give up bracelet (I mean, come on!)
3 - The Active Habit Heroes band from EPCOT
A lot of runners don't run with any jewelry on, I however always run with at least my Engagement, Wedding, Sister, and Birthstone (that I got from my grandma) rings on (bling much?). I've tried running without them (and when I first started running had to because my hands would swell to much to leave them on), but, I wear these rings every hour, of every day (unless I'm in the shower) and I don't really like feeling naked while I'm running. So adding a few bracelets to remind me to keep going really was no big deal. I tend to let my eyes drift down to my hands as I get tired. Because I wear my rings I normally see my engagement ring which is nice, this run, I also saw the bracelets, which proved to be a really great reminder to lift my head back up and keep on going... I think these will become part of my running gear from now on. Never Give Up.
Saturday morning (at 7am) Amanda and I met up at the forest preserve that the race is going to be held at (IN ONLY 5 MORE WEEKS!), and although we didn't run the exact course we followed the 7.3 mile loop around the preserve twice (the red trail on this map) with a couple detours to make up the additional 3.4 miles (side note: AMANDA we kept thinking we needed to make up an additional 2.4, THIS is why we were so confused as to how much more we had to run, we really needed to make up and entire mile more that we thought!). I was SOOO nervous to do this run (considering how poorly my 16 mile went) but I was VERY excited to do it with Amanda. And this run went SOOOO much better, both in how I felt during and after, and actual measurable stats. Lets compare.
16 Mile Run 18 Mile Run
Fastest Mile: 11:04 (mile 2) 10:45 (mile 11)
Slowest Mile: 16:10 (mile 15) 13:35 (mile 17)
Average Pace: 12:53 11:52
Total Time: 3:26:08 3:34:00
Our fastest mile was almost 20 seconds faster than my fastest mile. Our Slowest mile was a full 2 minutes and 35 seconds faster than mine. Our average was a full minute faster. And the biggest difference of all, Amanda and I finished our 18 mile run just 8 minutes slower together than I finished my 16 mile run alone!
If you don't currently run with a friend, you totally should think about it (even if it's just a mile or two.. I'm looking at you Sheri!!!). We got to talk for over three hours while doing something really good for ourselves. It was such a terrific thing to share with Amanda, I learned sooooo much about her, and she really kept me going. Celebrating at our mile stones (half way done, farthest run ever at 16.2 miles, and finishing) was SOOO much more gratifying together. When I'm out by myself I get a little bit of a boost, but because we talked about each of these for the next few minutes, they felt way more meaningful. We're planning on doing our 20 mile run together in two weeks (because, honestly, I don't think I can do 20 on my own right now, and I very selfishly begged to meet up again), but instead of doing the course again (because really, neither of us wants to get too used to the course) I'll be heading up by her to do our final long run before we start tapering for the big day. My only regret is that I slowed Amanda down (she'll never admit it, and she'll probably fight me about it in the comments, but she ended up walking more than she would have without me), but hopefully I'll be able to continue improving over the next few weeks and the 20 mile will be even better.
I'll leave you with three photos we took during our run (before, just after 13 miles, and after we had finished running all 18), I swear we ran and didn't just pose in three different places!
1. Train for, and run a full marathon
2. Run another half marathon.
3. Go to Disney world
4. Continue on my weight lose/healthy journey and blogging the details (focus on more than just the numbers).
5. Get a whole new hair cut/look.
6. Work with a personal trainer.
7. Give up Caffeine for 30 days.
8. Go on a vegetarian diet for 30 days (I've always wanted to try, I don't think I could be strict for long, I love bacon far too much, but 30 days, I can probably pull off).
9. Read 12 Books (you may begin suggesting books... NOW!).
10. Make homemade pasta at least 6 times this year (what?! it's a LOT of work!).
11. Learn to make perogies.
12. Learn to cook scallops at home (actually cook them).
13. Get a promotion, or a new job, do not settle for staying in the same role for yet another year.
14. Make bagged lunches a habit again.
15. Visit Sarah.
16. Hang out with Patrick on an occasion that isn't his Birthday or a holiday.
17. Make more time for my friends.
18. Hang the posters and art prints Chris and I have brought over the last YEAR.
19. Make window treatments and pillow covers for my living room.
20. Develop and honor a cleaning routine (rather than cleaning things when they start to look gross, THAT'S TOO LATE!).
21. Add strength training to my weekly routine (this kind of goes along with the personal trainer, but this is supposed to be a more permanent fixture in my life).
22. Eat breakfast every weekday for a month.
23. Get in 74 ounces of water a day for 30 days (they say 30 days is long enough to make something a habit, we'll see).
24. Plan out and shop for an entire week of meals at once. Give Chris a full week off from planning or cooking any meals.
25. Actually get together with my sister Lisa (how many times have we said we would??? This is the year!).
26. Make some actual progress on the Children's book I'd like to write/illustrate (yep, I have a whole concept, and rough design, but I need to finalize character designs and actually rough out the pages).
27. Revamp my wardrobe.
28. Make bread from scratch.
29. Buy a new bike (go on some long rides with Chris).
30. Track my food intake for at least 30 days (again, hoping to make it habit!)