Fitness Friday: Tri-ing Again!

How crazy is it that the one thing I bought on Cyber Monday was my first race fee for 2013??? Even crazier - it's a triathlon! This one is longer that the tri I finished in 2012 so I'm now freaking out a bit. Longer swim and longer run, but the bike distance is about the same.  Good thing I have until July to train!

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If you live in Michigan (or nearby), I've heard great things about Tri del Sol and as far as triathlons go, it's very reasonably priced.  Anyone want to come "tri" with me???  If you click this link, you'll find a very short (3 question) survey and a discount code towards ANY of the races.  The survey will be open until tonight and the code is good until Feb 1st.  Tomorrow morning, I think I'm going to register for a half marathon that's coming up in May in Northern Michigan.  It always sells out and I've heard it's beautiful and FAST.  So much for not training for any distance races in 2013.

Remember....

(stolen from FB)

Thankful Thursday: PT

I'm thankful that I finally took the plunge and started PT for my calf/shin issues.

That's a sexy look, isn't it?

Yesterday I got Active Release Therapy, e-stim (weird), and the recommendation to try some OTC orthotics (which I picked up last night and I'll try running in this afternoon). I've been told to keep running but not add anything new (distance or speed) for the next few weeks. I was expecting to get some exercise or stretching homework but not yet.

Now let's just hope it works.

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Weigh-In Wednesday: Changes

I had a completely different post all ready to go today. It was full of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and shit. But the fact of the matter is that I'm not feeling very rainbow-y. Not even a little.  I'm definitely not feeling sunshine and unicorns.

When I started this blog several years ago, it was called "Diary of a Shrinking Chick". I was very involved with The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans and used this space to chronicle my weight loss. It morphed into more of a running blog & that's totally ok. Everyone evolves & changes.

But sometimes we slide backwards.

Sometimes it seems we've forgotten everything we learned about eating healthy and taking care of ourselves.

Sometimes we are very unkind to ourselves and our friends call us out on it.

I need to be called out because right now I'm NOT being very kind to myself. I really don't like the place I'm in. I'm not taking about just my weight (we'll get to that atrocity in a minute). I'm talking about the need to be accountable and the need to love myself again. The desire to love what I see in the mirror and be proud of the work it took to get there.

Today I weighed in at 153.6.


This has been my log for the past 3 months. Yes, I'm posting my weight again and the number really makes me want to puke. Even worse is the fact that I was down to 148 (10 pounds from "goal") just a couple weeks ago and I've gained almost all of it back. The trend that line is taking is scary.

So, this space is changing again.  At least on Wednesdays.  It might just be a picture of my scale or I might talk about what's going on, but in either case, it will be my one day a week to make myself accountable to the world (or at least those of you who follow me here).

Hopefully I'll see that number shrinking again - I figure, it worked before, maybe it will again.

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Training Tuesday: taking a break

At the moment, I am on a little hiatus from training which makes writing a "Training Tuesday" recap a tad difficult.  It's taken some time to get my mojo back after tanking at Disney and frankly, I'm not excited about "training" again.  At least not yet.  I need to rediscover what I love about running and working out in general.

No races are scheduled and after knocking my spur-of-the-moment 5k out of the park on Thanksgiving morning, I'm inclined NOT to race again this year (although some think I should try and get in a 10k for a killer PR attempt before the end of the year, but there just aren't any "official" ones close by now that the snow is starting to fly and what if I f*ck it up? I'd rather end the racing year on a high note, thankyouverymuch.).  For the time being, I'm content to run when I want, hop on my trainer (that I finally got set up in my basement - LOVE IT!) and just ride, and throw in a little strength work if I feel like it.  I haven't been a complete slouch.  In the past week, I completed 1 strength workout (ok, major slouch there), cycled 3 times on the trainer for over 2 hours total, and ran twice for almost 10 miles - and both of those runs were the best runs I've had physically and mentally in a very long time.

I'll take it.

Tomorrow I start PT for my calf and shin, something I probably should have pushed for back in April, but hindsight and all. Blah blah blah.  I'm sure the PT will give me some specific exercises, stretches and whatnot to add into my (currently nonexistent) routine. I'm sure it will hurt like a sonofabitch. I kind of deserve it after what I've put my body through this year.

In a couple weeks, I plan on getting back on the scheduled training bandwagon - when I figure out what I want my focus to be in the next year. But for right now, recovery (physical and mental) IS my training.

ps - the original winner of my Chica Bands giveaway from Suddora never got back with me, so I drew again.  Congrats go out to....

Ally!!! (@ali_konu)

Email me your address and I'll get your Chica Band sent out to you :)

Motivation Monday: FOUND! aka Turkey Trot 5k Race Report

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I've really lost my motivation lately and running (heck, working out in general) is just HARD. In an effort to rekindle my passion with running, I signed up to run a local Turkey Trot 5k Thanksgiving morning.  To say it helped would be an understatement.
I picked up my race number Wednesday afternoon & was excited about running - a feeling I haven't had since Disney. Thursday morning I headed downtown (the family wasn't even up yet) and got some random stranger to take my picture near the finish line inside the arena.

My plan? Pee, warm up for 1/2 a mile (oops - I started out at about a 9m/m pace), stretch, do some strides, pee, and then run like a deer with a target on its back - and front :)

The plan worked like a charm. I put on my playlist from Wine and Dine but on shuffle and all the right songs hit. It's amazing how that works sometimes.


 I freaked a bit at the end of the first mile when my watch read 9:36 and the mile was mostly uphill. I thought I was screwed - no way I'd hold out. By mile 1.5 I knew I had a PR (and I was wondering why there was no water on the course - first race I've ever been in with ZERO aide stations). By mile 2.5 I knew my PR was going to be huge but the paths near the river were hard to maintain a good pace on because they were so crowded and narrow. I saw my friend, Julie in the last 1/2 mile, plus a ton of students from GRPS were high-5'ing people near the Ford Museum. The course got really crowded on this section, too, with some tight curves and I got stuck behind some slower runners. Once I got to the blue bridge I tried counting "kills" - I passed at least 2 guys on the bridge and a bunch more as we rounded the corner to the arena.  There's a special level of satisfaction in chicking dudes and no way was I going to slow down. One of my friends always says, "You can breathe when you're done" and that was my mantra for the last 1/2 mile.  I was sucking wind, but I saw some high 7s on my watch in that final stretch!

SUB-30!!!!

My watch lost the signal in the arena & was really bouncing around outside with the tall buildings and overpasses (you should see the Garmin Connect data - it's insane), so the course *might* have been .1 short, but I don't think it was (other people had distances from 2.9 to 3.2, so I figure the course was accurate). I wish they'd had the screens on in the arena, but it was really dark.  I saw a volunteer who I had chatted with before the race and he said "you made it - no one shot you!" He gave me a hug and I headed out to find water.  Outside I ran into a couple other friends and it was awesome to celebrate my run with them (one of them hit a HUGE PR of his own - holy fastness, Batman!).

My official results: 28:15 (9:07 ave pace - who am I?!?!?)
28/94 in my age group - top 30%!
315/920 women
847/1745 overall

I CRUSHED my previous PR by 5 min & 25 seconds!!!!
I guess all that distance work, speedwork & tempo runs weren't for nothing. Want to know how to train for a banging 5k? Train for a half marathon :)

That's one thankful, happy, little deer :)
Did you turkey trot this year? How did it go?

ps - I drew for a winner of my Chica Band giveaway from Suddora on Thursday but haven't heard from her yet. If I don't hear from her by Tonight at 8 pm, I'll draw another winner!

Winner! @SuddoraSports #giveaway

I feel blessed and very lucky to have my readers here - thank you for reading and following this little corner of the bloggosphere. I just LOVE giving away goodies on my blog - thank you to everyone who entered my Chica Bands giveaway & to Paul from Suddora for the opportunity.

Without further ado....




Congratulations Lisa!! DM or email me your addy & I'll get your headband sent out to you!

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(Semi) Wordless Wednesday: mantras

I need a new mantra - care to take a vote :)

I'm running my first official 5k since 2009 tomorrow. I'm actually excited about it - and I haven't been excited about many runs lately, so that's HUGE.  I have no clue how it's going to go or what kind of time I can expect, but I plan to have fun and not stop until I cross the finish line. 

Then I can come home and eat all the things :)