Week one is history

Well, I made it through week one of P90X. I'm sore, I'm tired, but I couldn't be happier. I've had a great week. I've worked by body hard and I've eaten as well as possible. If I don't blow it today (and believe me, there's a huge chance I will), I'll have made it one solid week without putting anything (did you read that?ANYTHING) unhealthy in my body. I don't think I've ever done that before.

I need to remind myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint. This is only week 1 out of 10 and I think that if I continue to push myself at this pace, I might burnout. I was very hungry yesterday, so I think I might not be eating enough. I ate when I was hungry but I'm not counting calories, so I may be low. I plan to add that in next week. I was just too much to do this week.

My first weigh in (unofficial) is tomorrow. DH told me not to get my hopes up. Too late. I have to be honest and admit if I don't see some movement on the scale, I'll be very disappointed. I've worked out 6 days this week (two days double workouts) and eaten as well as I know how. If that doesn't work, I don't know what will.

Stay tuned.....

Yoga green bean style

92 minutes of yoga is not what makes me look forward to the day. That's a long time to do something you don't like. Let me rephrase that. It's not that I don't like yoga. I actually think it's beautiful to watch- watch being the operative word here. I stink at yoga. All those moves that look so graceful on other people, look dumb on me. I am not the picture of graceful. I have a memory from when I was on the high school tennis team playing doubles with my sister She lovingly (that's how I look at it anyway) referred to me as "a jumping green bean" when I jumped for an overhead shot. That description does not conjure up images of grace. Green beans aren't graceful. I am not graceful and I'm okay with that (usually).

So I woke up at 4:30 AM and planted my green bean self in front of the TV this morning and attempted to do the P90X version of yoga. Gracefully. For 92 minutes. It wasn't graceful. It wasn't even close. But I did it (well, most of it anyway). And it was hard- really hard. Forget green beans, I was looking and feeling like spaghetti when I was done. Legs were shaking, and I was pouring sweat. But that's okay. I reminded myself that this is about the journey. I'm doing it and that's what matters. It may not be pretty and it may be really hard, but at the end of the day I attempted something and did it and I'm more than okay with that.

Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper, Oh My!

I made it through my workout this morning. The shoulders and arms DVD wasn't that bad. I had a hard time figuring out the right weight, though. I started off using my lightest tension band which wasn't hard enough but when I switched over to dumbells, it was much harder. I didn't use the workout sheet they recommend to keep track of my reps. My goal for today was to just get through the DVD.

The ab ripper was hard. Ouch! He moves non-stop from one workout to the next. It didn't help that my abs are sore from Sundays workout. It's over though, and off to yoga tomorrow which I'm not especially good at.

Yesterday was another perfect eating day. I drank tons of water too and even threw in a 2 mile run to help burn off some calories. Oh, and I had my oldest daughter hide my scale. I told her she needed to give it back on Friday so I can weigh myself early Saturday morning. I'm not going to do an extra workout today so I just need to eat well and drink my water.

I know these are baby steps and I've been here before- but 3 good days down- 4 to go. Yeah!

Cardio X

This 45 minute workout was 3 parts- yoga, cardio and core. I honestly didn't think it was THAT hard. Don't get me wrong, it was hard, but not to the point where I had to stop or couldn't do the moves. My maximum heart rate was 151 and my average was 117. Workout- done. Now all I have to do is eat well today and drink my water.
I ate great yesterday. I didn't track my calories, but there wasn't anything unhealthy that went into my body. Although I'm tempted to weigh myself every day, I'm not going to weigh myself until Saturday.

So far, so good.

Biggest Loser and P90X

Yesterday I weighed in for the official start of The Biggest Loser C-Ville. My weight=158.6. My goal is to lose between 10 and 15 pounds in the next 10 weeks. How am I going to do that, you ask? Why, P90X, of course. My hubby actually suggested I try it. I'm coming off of the 30 day challenge from EA Active. It was okay. At first I was sore, but my body quickly adapted to it and I didn't find it much of a challenge towards the end. P90X is going to be a challenge. If I survive the next 90 days I should see a significant difference in my body. I'm also making a commitment to eating better. This is a 10 week challenge, so I think I can do it this time.
I plan on posting at least a few times a week. I'm hoping it will keep me accountable. The first weigh in is in two weeks so I'm going to work really hard so I can see the scale go down. I'm actually really excited for this and hope it's what I need to get those pounds off.

As a side note- I'm picking up running again, albeit very slowly. I have Morton's Neuroma in my right foot (along with plantar fasciitis) but hopefully the treatment I'm doing is going to help. So far, so good. I ran 3 miles on Wednesday and 2.25 yesterday. It's a good start and I'm encouraged.

I did it again....

When am i going to learn? No, seriously- why can't I ever keep up this blog. I am a blogger wannabe. I have lots of thoughts, I just can't seem to get them out of my head and onto this blog.

So.. the last post was over a month ago. My, how things can change so quickly. I said no matter what happens with the race I was looking forward to some sun and warm weather. NOT! The weather in FL was cold and it poured while we were at the Magic Kingdom... oh and the race was a disaster too.

The race. It actually started out quite well. I had an awesome 9 miles and it completely fell apart from there. Let me back up a little. I did a 10 mile run (supposed to be 12) the weekend before the race and felt great. I was getting my confidence back. Later that night I felt a pain in my heel. I've never had any pain in my foot so I didn't really think much of it. I took Sunday off and ran an easy 2 on Monday with no pain. Then on Wednesday I did 5 and I felt the pain again. It wasn't a really strong pain, just sort of tender when I walked. I took it easy in FL and tried to stay off of it. It was almost pain free by Sunday, race day, so I thought I'd be alright.

The first mile was slow (9:43), but I felt good. I started picking up the pace from there and miles 2-9 were awesome! (9:11, 8:54, 8:56, 8:51, 8:56, 9:02, 8:46, 8:44) I was running pretty effortlessly at a sub 9 pace. I thought I was going to crush my 2 hour goal. However, I started feeling my foot at mile 6. It hurt but didn't really effect my gait. I thought if it didn't get any worse I'd be fine. Then... disaster struck. At mile 9 I felt a tearing in the bottom of my foot and my arch was so tender I couldn't run. I tried not to panic, and started walking hoping it would get better. It didn't. I tried to run a little on and off but couldn't do so without limping. I was trying to hold back the tears and I'll never forget that I couldn't look the green men from Toy Story in the eye as they were giving everyone high fives because I was crying and didn't think I deserved one. Well, I'm stubborn and I just knew I couldn't give up. Even though I knew my goal was history, I was determined to run the last mile. I did it too, but as soon as I saw my husband at the finish- I lost it. It was a combination of disappointment and pain. I don't think I've ever had a running injury that was so painful. My finishing time: 2:05.

I couldn't put any pressure on my foot the rest of the day or the next. Unfortunately, I was in FL for a whole week and couldn't see a Dr. (Well, I could if I wanted to pay out of pocket for it. No thank you!) I saw a sports medicine Dr when I got back and have been officially diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. I actually have a good friend who did an ultrasound on it the day before the Dr appt and told me I tore my fascia. So.. it's been 0 running, lots of rest and some PT. The good news is that it's getting better. I have visions of me running in the near future. I have a parent/child triathlon in two weeks so I'll be running then- whether my foot is ready or not.

This is why I blog

Now I remember. The whole reason I started this whole blogging thing was to be able to look back and see where my training was and see my journey. I haven't used it for this purpose; until today. I'm less than two weeks out from the Princess Half Marathon and I thought I'd look back to see what my pace was for last year. Of course, it's not there. I wrote about the race, but not my actual mile splits. (Note to self: write down the mile splits this year.) I'm bummed about that. I was hoping to gain some insight from it.

However, I did look back and see what my everyday training looked like. I was running MUCH faster last year. That is discouraging. My workout this morning was 6.5 miles- 5 at race pace (9:05) or faster. I was feeling pretty good about that until I saw that last year I was doing things like 5 miles at an 8:30 pace and 11 miles at a 9:45 pace. I did 11 miles last weekend and my pace was close to 10:30. Yikes!

I'm not feeling to good about meeting my goal of a sub 2 hour race. What I'm not going to do though, is let self doubt crowd my brain this week. I've realized that I have a problem of negative talk and I lose before I even start. Seriously I have zero self confidence in this area. I can be running and talk myself into stopping and resting instead of talking myself through it. Every time one of those thoughts creep into my head this week I'm going to kick it to the curb! In my head I'm going to meet my goal. In reality, I may not, but it's not going to be because I talked myself out of it. I have to come up with a positive mantra or something. There was a great article in Runner's World about Kara Goucher struggling with the mental aspect of running. She has words she tells herself. I'll have to come up with some of my own- and quick.

I have a 12 mile run this weekend. I'm going to take it easy and just get the miles in. We leave for Florida a week from tomorrow. Regardless of what happens with the race, I'm psyched to see some sun and warm weather!