My Second 5K!

Yay for my second 5K!  You can read about my first 5K here. 

I had been running more in the past month (than normal) but my runs were never longer than 2 miles or so.  This made me nervous.  During the first 5k, which was soley in a neighborhood, SwimSis and I were able to run it in the evenings a couple of times before the race.  This time, part of the race was on a major road, so that was pretty much a no go.  And in June, we started one of our practice runs at 9pm.  Now it is almost pitch black around 6:30ish.  Again, another hinderance.  But I have stepped up my game in the fitness department since then, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best!

The best part about this Thanksgiving morning race was that it started/ended at the YMCA meaning NO PORT A POTTIES!  Oh indoor plumbing how I take you for granted!  It is only the second year for the race, so there were still a few kinks.  There were "corrals" as in "runner, walker, stroller".  But they weren't well marked and people who got into place later were stuck with slower people.  It was also difficult for the participants to line up toward the back as the road wrapped around the back of the YMCA.  The start was sort of lopsided with people properly lined up at the road and some coming in from the side of the YMCA.  Overall, it ended up being a rather smooth start.  At the beginning, I felt like a lot of people were passing me, but I passed a lot (for me) in that first mile.  Most depressingly during that first mile (and really she did it throughout), there was a girl/woman (18ish?) who was SKIPPING.  The whole 5K.  I passed her again around the water stop at Mile 2, but wow I don't know if it was awesome or stupid. 

My major goal was to run the portion of the race that was on the main road (as opposed to winding through a subdivision).  When it turned into the subdivision, I was free to walk! Also, I could not, for the life of me, find my watch.  IDK where I put it!  (*Update:  Found it!  Was in my suitcase from the week before*) So I was stuck with keeping my cell phone in my bra.  Super classy.  So I just looked at my cell after I crossed the start and it said 8:06.  The main road was rolling hills which some dislike, but I enjoy the change. Because of the rolling hills, I could not see where the road turned into the subdivision till I got closer.  But I got there and the "Mile 1" sign was on the corner.  Score!  I looked at my watch and it said 8:19 - 13 min/mile, awesome!  Very proud of myself.  TeenSwimSis had said she wanted to keep up with SwimSis (being the fastest), then she said she wanted to keep up with me, then she said she would just keep up with our dad.  Well, I passed her about a half mile in where she was walking with her shoe untied.  LORD.  I told her to go to the side and tie it and then catch up to me, but I wouldn't wait on her (because my goal was the run the first mile).  She never caught up.  I was gaining on my dad and kept sight of his bald head during that first mile and I finally caught up with him and told him to go wait for her.  hahaha 

I walked for that second mile more than I should of and then I realized we were running in the same subdivision as my first 5K, just a different route.  I decided I would be really disappointed if I walked as much in the last 1.1 miles as I did the second. During this time, I had kept the shot blocks from my first 5K (June) in a plastic baggie...5 months later, those puppies were not soft and chewy.  I put one in my mouth and it was like a now and later!  I spit it out after the race was over.  lol!  When I finished I knew I was faster than my last time by a few, but I didn't know how much.  Final time:  44:02!  That is 2:37 faster than my last 5K!  14:11 pace.  Very happy about that! 

SwimSis squeaked in under 38 mins.  We watched my dad come in at about 52 mins.  That dude was seriously whistling while he was strolling to the finish.  hahahaha!  He said he had gone back for TeenSwimSis a couple of times, but she had just been too slow.  Finally we saw TeenSwimSis strolling in.  I went back onto the course and ran it in with her.  She finished in 55 minutes.  I think that was 3.2+1 point for getting my fam out to exercise.

I'm Squinty McGee on the left.

I then attemped to recreate my grandma's sweet potatoes (not bad!) and was the last one to shower before we hurried out the door.  Thanksgiving was nice.  I shouldn't have gone back for a second plate of food, but I did get some more.  I was so stuffed, I went and lounged for an hour!  I had a headache forming, but ignored it and I went back for some pie.  Pumpkin looked yucky and all the apple pie was gone, so I was stuck with pecan pie.  I ate too much of that and soon it was pretty near a migraine.  So I went to lay down in the study (lol so sounding like the 1950s here).  We went home and everyone went black friday shopping except for myself and SwimTot.  I stuck SwimTot in the bed next to me with the iPad and I tried to sleep!  She needed a snack and wanted a piece of cheese.  I knew she would want another snack later, so I just gave her the cheese, a bag of marshmallows and she went in her room to watch whatever was on TV.  haha!  I fell fast asleep!  When I get headaches like that (once every month or two, I don't even bother with medicine, I just want sleep! I mean, medicine might work, I just never give it a try because sleeping always makes it go away). I felt terrible and I contributed it to majorly overeatting whether that was the cause or not.

I am always terrible about holidays (and my birthday) in the sense that I don't think about them in the weeks leading up to them and then they pass and I'm sad that they are gone already.  I like to be sentimental about things and when I don't give myself the time to do that, I end up posting things like a list of things I am thankful for a full week late :)  So here we go on a few (mostly fitness) related things:

-I am thankful for my body not giving up on me.    I was headed down a bad path.  I'm glad to be (literally) running/swimming/pilaties-ing/yoga-ing the other direction. 

-I am thankful I can be brave and try new things even when I have some anxiety. 

-I am thankful my family is supportive, but not overbearing.  Having someone tell me what to do is the last thing I need!

-I am thankful I have a job.  I didn't have one last year and the security of a job makes an emotional change.  Also, I'm thankful my job pays me well enough to replace the box of frozen breakfast sandwiches (I'm addicted) that someone stole out of the freezer here at work.  Jerks. 

-I am thankful for being on the swim team growing up.  Even though I am slow and out of shape at other things, I feel like I kick ass at swimming (most days).  It is like riding a bike when you get back into it.  Same motions, just improve your strength/cardio capacity.

  -I'm thankful for Pilates.  Not only does it make my muscles feel like mush every Saturday (and sometimes Mondays), slowing movements down and focusing on precise movements rather than relying on momentum to carry me through has helped my self-esteem.  When you're obsese, you often feel like a big blob of person.  Pilates has helped me find and use each little part of my body that I was not able to acknowledge before. 

-I'm thankful for Swagbucks and Amazon's lightning sales.  I got a new pair of Asics for $30 when all was said and done.

-I'm thankful for this blog.  I'm like to be sentimental, but am terrible at writing in a journal.  I was reading some early posts and it feels like a lifetime ago although it was only 9 months.  The support of the blog community is so awesome, sweet, and most definitely funny!

HBBC - Week 1 - Complete!

I've never done a "challenge" type thing before, but this one seemed good and I could get in and go on my own pace.  Here is what my week shaped up to be:

Monday:  A little swim instruction for my sweet niece (no HBBC points, just love to be w/that kid!) and then 45 Pilates class with a sub instructor who TOTALLY kicked our booties. (see what I did there?) Definitely a lot of Level 1 stuff, not a lot of beginner moves (it was the beginner class!) 45 mins of Pilates was 2.25 points.

Tuesday:  I bought a Living Social deal for Yoga.  The place is a couple miles from my work and promised that Beginner 1 would be super basic, which is what I wanted.  I paid $45 for 6 weeks of umlimited classes.  There are 4 options for classes I could go to each week, but I think I will stick with 2.  Class was great and I'm glad I've added Yoga to the mix now! Class was 1 hr 15 mins so that was 3.75 points.

Wenesday:
I had to grocery shop for sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner and I went to CVS to do some of their Black Friday week deals (OMG love!).  After an epic dinner fail and the arrival of my dad and TeenSwimSis, we went to get our packets for the 5K that was on Thanksgiving morning.  TeenSwimSis was being such a B about not wanting to do it - flat out refusing.  I took a call and stepped out of the packet pick up area for a minute and I came back in where my father had bought TeenSwimSis a cupcake.  She stated that she would do the 5K for this cupcake.  Ugh, you mean all of that yelling could have been avoided for a cupcake?  :) 

Thursday:
Race day!  My second 5K and I had trained some,  but not necessarily well enough I just wanted to finish! I will do a separate post on the race, but my time was 44:02, which is 2 mins 37 seconds faster than this summer!  I got 3.1 points for that and 2 bonus points for getting my fam active!

Friday:  Black Friday.  I had zero obligations. No work.  No planned workouts.  Just me, my jammies, netflix, and some games/books on my Kindle Fire.  This is when I wrote down my week 1 goal for HBBC - To only overeat once!  We didn't have any leftovers from Thanksgiving, so I thought I was safe, but then SwimSis decided we needed Thanksgiving 2.0.  That got me up and cooking (but still in my jammies!).  We made green bean casserole (fresh green beans), sweet potatoes, ham, a pie, and I made deviled eggs.  I am getting pretty good at timing how long they need to cook!  They looked perfect this time. I made us all eat on salad plates as to not overdo it too much.  Plus I had 8am Pilates on Saturday, so I know I defiintely did not want to overdo it.  No exercise on Friday, but I loooooved not doing ANYTHING. 

Saturday:  I went to my 8am Pilates class at the Y and it, again, kicked my butt.  Teasers on the bosu ball never fail to leave me sore for days!  I went into work for a little while and then hit up the 10:30am Yoga class that is near my work.  It was the same moves/cirriculum as the Tuesday class, but a different instructor, which I appreciated the double perspective on Yoga.  I'm not sure I did anything else on Saturday besides some laundry.  I did finish a book on my Kindle.  I only "buy" free books.  This one was 95% anticipation and then the resolve was 5%.  Love story. sheesh.  Will she, won't she? Well, she does and they live happily ever after was basically the ending.  I got 3pts for Pilates and 3.25 for Yoga and zero points for whining about my free book.

Sunday:  I had to deliver TeenSwimSis at the half way point between my dad's house and ours. Before working at the church.  My car is having power steering issues, ugh! So I was in a hurry to get back with SwimSis' car.  When I got there, my dad was 15 mins away, so I left her at Panera and booked it back!  I ate a Cinnamon Crunch bagel and half an individual serving of cream cheese.   I made it to the church and was there for 4 hours in my new (to me) classroom.  I had a kid's size Starbucks coffee and a dixie cup of animal crackers while I was there.  I know 5 hours at the church leaves me exhausted, but 4 was feeling doable.  A different YMCA is about a mile from the church, so I stopped in for a swim!  I only planned to do the 2400 yard workout, but I was feeling good and finished the 3200 yard workout.  It was this workout.  That 1250 ladder was SO hard!  It was 1 length easy, 1 length hard, 2 lengths easy, 2 lengths hard, up to 5 and then back down again.  Near the end I was so tired I was seriously seeing things.  Like images of Disney villans popped in my head.  It was so strange.  I was so glad to be done with that portion!  1250 continuous swimming, 24 mins 30 seconds.  About on the nose.  I feel like the next 700 yards I did of kicking/pulling took the same amount of time!  I'm glad to have got it in though!  I went to the grocery afterwards and didn't have lunch/dinner till 5pm!  I was so ready for bed by 7pm! I got 8 points for swimming an hour and twenty minutes. 

I took a pic after my swim, can't really tell how exhausted I was!

I think I ended the week with 38.25 points if you count my bonus points.

I'm VERY happy that this challenge is encouraging me into doing more activity!

Did anyone see their activity level move either way last week?  Holiday weeks are so tricky!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

I hope everyone has a truly great Thanksgiving.  No official 5k results yet but I think I beat my time from this summer by 2 mins!

now i'm off to try my hand at making some sweet potatoes!  My grandma usually makes them but she handed that duty off this year.  i asked her for a recipe and she could not give me exact measurements...eek!

Proud Swim Aunt

Soooo I made this happen today:

Ugh so freakin' cute!  We (SwimSis, SwimTot & me) went to TeenSwimSis' swim meet this weekend.  During the last warm up time of the weekend, SwimTot told me she wanted to swim like those big kids, but she didn't know how.  Well twist my arm!  I told her that she had to wear her goggles and I would give her a swim cap, any color she wanted (as I have a rainbow's selection of swim caps!).  She chose purple and we were in a time crunch, so we only got about 20 minutes of actual instruction.  She did really well.  She is probably better at backstroke because her freestyle is a mess.  I was trying to teach her to swim a little, take a breath, keep swimming, take a breath, etc.  She would swim as far as she could holding her breath and then come up gasping.  Every time!  Booger!

I also got this at TeenSwimSis' meet:

Sooooo excited!!!!  My only question is why I haven't seen this sooner!

drooling over all those lanes!

I am also doing the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge! that started today yesterday.

 I'm excited to rack up some points and a loss or at least no gain!  I'm still slightly confused about the whole thing, but hopefully I can figure it out!

Speaking of not gaining, I also joined a program at the Y called the "Zero Gain Campaign".  I paid $10 and weighed in last Monday and if I stay the same or lose weight by the second week of the new year, I get a $25 program credit (which is just a few bucks shy of a Pilates class!).  Totes worth it.  I was having such a bad weight day Monday (I had salty foods over the weekend).  I honestly saw my weight go up by 2 pounds Sunday and Monday!  I thought I might as well weigh in with the additional water weight!  haha Luckily I backed off the salt, inhaled the water, and saw this number on Friday morning:

249.6

WHAT WHAT!  FINALLY got past the last couple of pounds to make it -30 lbs offical!  I bought myself a "prize" about a month and a half ago and it has been staring at me from my closet...

New sheets!  And I made TeenSwimSis bring me my comforter/duvet that I had in college that is also green/blue.  Now just to find the energy to put them on the bed! :)  

So life is pretty good over here!  3 day work week, can't beat that!  oh, and I am doing my first yoga class tomorrow...nervous!

PS got asked if I lost weight yesterday!!!!!!   This lady I worked with asked me because she said my pants looked baggy in the bum area.  I was calm when I was talking to her (she has lost a lot of weight herself) but when I left her office I may have squealed and clapped my hands like an idiot :)