Stressful Week

Oh Lawdy, life has been busy lately! Yes I didn't post last week. My weight was up still, but I did some stress eating after my week. I'll let the pictures tell you...

Yup another bike crash. It got pretty swollen after this pic was taken.

Pens Game in Pittsburgh!

Cheesecake Factory. This was my boyfriends, but his was more impressive than mine. I got the Carrot Cake Cheesecake and it was delicious!

Another fender bender! Not my fault!

And though you can't tell from this picture, I had a disastrous time trying to redo my bathroom. It didn't end well!

So you add all of this up plus add on a busy weekend at work and some other craziness going on that is creating stress for me, I am tired! And you get this:

But! I did get in all of my workouts last week. I'm pretty darn proud of that!

Sunday: 2 Miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 5 Miles
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 3 Miles Tempo
Friday: 4 Miles
Saturday: 1.5 Hours Bike Ride
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 8 Miles + 1.15 Miles
Tuesday (Today): 2 Hours Bike

I had to juggle everything around, but it all worked out. And my knee is healing well, with minimal pain.

I've been watching a lot of triathlon videos on YouTube lately. I also got to watch the winners of Kona Ironman World Championship. It was so inspiring!

The inspiration has definitely helped me push a little harder. Duh, I'll never get to the point or as in shape as those people! But I can push myself to become better. And my weight is going downwards, hopefully it keeps going in that direction!

WI #9 and Looking Forward

Another Friday is here! It would be exciting if I didn't have to work tomorrow! As you can see my weight is down to 160. So close to the 150's! So I am down .6 from last week. I'll take anything that is in the downward direction.

I have done more strength training this week than....ever, probably. It's been a little bit of crazy week, so I've done some quick home workouts with strength training. My week looked like this:

Sunday: 6 miles
Monday: Swim 2 feet a little in the river, plus the running around for the transition workshop. Then some arm strength training with light weights and some plank work.
Tuesday: 15 mile bike ride.
Wednesday: Strength training at home which consisted of squats, planks, lunges, and weights for the arms.
Thursday: Strength training at home again sit ups, push ups, squats, and more weights for arm work.
Friday: 1 mile run, 12 miles on the stationary bike, 1.10 mile run. (Small brick workout practicing for next weekend)
Saturday: Some sort of run.

Another point for myself eating wise this week! Skipped out on dessert at a dinner we had at work on Wednesday and just had the fruit I brought to substitute.

YUM!

 Then tonight I soooo wanted to just pick something up for dinner. But, but, I didn't! I was a good girl and came home to cook an omelet with turkey bacon (my latest kick).

I'm a little tired today. I couldn't sleep last night. So I played on Instagram. Isn't that what you're supposed to do when you can't sleep? No?
Anyway this picture got me thinking...

This is the place of my duathlon next weekend. I sooo want to work towards bigger races, but my swimming really holds me back. So I'm going to get stronger and force myself to practice more. I'm already not looking forward to that part, but I'll have to get through it if I ever want to enter races such as the Savage Man in the far future. This race is very close to where I live and one of the hardest triathlons in the world.

The Infamous Westernport Wall

If you have big desires, you have to put the work in, right? But, I'm still so new to the world of running, triathlons, duathlons, I want to start small and make sure I keep having things to look forward to. Having goals such as races is one of the reasons I'm still keeping on track with my weight loss and I can't let it get boring!



Well that's all I have for this week. I start vacation after Sunday, wish me luck that I don't eat everything in sight at my parents house! Yes, very exciting vacation I know...

Perspective

Another lesson learned yesterday.

I know that I am a slow runner and I am okay with this. The fact that I run at all is brilliant for me. Yesterday though, I had trouble of keeping the feeling of failure at bay. I joined up with the group run that happens every Monday after I had already run a few miles so that I could get in my last longish run before the Erie Half Marathon. There were four people that were running about the pace that I needed to go. A little fast for me, but they were keeping it easy so I figured I could stay with them. WRONG. I felt like such a loser when I had to take a minute to walk, because I couldn't run at their pace anymore. They were averaging around a 9:30-10:00 min. mile. It was a simple jog for these people who were obviously much fitter than I. I became so discouraged that after all the time I spend running and cycling, that I still have so far to go. It also doesn't help that I haven't been training as hard lately so that I don't re-injure myself before my race.

But then I have to remember, a couple of years ago, I would never have stepped foot in the running shop or gone anywhere near a running group. Sometimes you have to cut yourself some slack! Yes I still walk on some of my runs and that's okay for me. I'm not a super skinny athlete that has been training for years and years. I will get better, I already have. And I will not be the only one taking a walk break during the Half. I can guarantee that! (Though my goal is to only take walk breaks at the water stops.)

I may never be like the speedy people at the running group. That is not the point of my journey. My direction is to try new things, work at them, explore, and create experiences. I get the opportunity to run along an island this weekend! That is something special and that is what I need to remember when those discouraging feelings come up. I may not be quick or look good doing it, but I will finish and I will enjoy the journey.

I feel better already.

On a side note: Looks like great weather for this weekend. A little cloudy, but no rain and a high of 80 degrees. Since the race begins at 7am, it should be nice and cool! I'm getting very excited and a little nervous. I always get nervous though. You just never know what will happen on race day! I'll try to get lots of pictures though!

Have a good week!

So Frustrating!

Grrrr!

I finally got rid of my knee pain (yay!), but now I'm having major ankle pain! UGH!

I've taken two rest day this week already, Sunday and Tuesday, with a bike ride on Monday. I just tried running on my treadmill and it still freaking hurt. I even taped it up this time. So I just walked for a little while and now I'm icing. I guess I'll take two days off and work on stretching with more icing? I don't even know.

I just wanted to vent. My Erie Half Marathon is growing closer and I just want to enjoy the experience, pain free.

On a positive note, eating is going pretty well. No sweets (minus a granola bar I had today that had some chocolate on it, not sure if that counts though) and no junk food.

Not Every Week is Great

Life is not all sunshine and butterflies. You know this and I know this. This week and last week have not been great as far as eating goes and today I had a craptastic run.

It really started with some stress from work last Thursday. Instead of going on the run that I knew would make me feel better, my body felt tired from the stress, so I came home and ate the rest of the bag of honey Kernel things that I had. Then, then! we ordered pizza. I ate three slices instead of stopping at two. After that I was supposed to clean house in preparation for my dad coming, nope that didn't happen. I took a three hour nap! Who does that!?! When I woke up (very confused at what day it was) I got a little bit of cleaning done and then went back to bed.

I realize that sometimes your body needs a break and that you have to deal with emotions in some manner. I don't mind that I took a glorious nap, but I do mind that I ate uncontrollably and when I was alone. It felt like I was 240 pounds all over again, hiding my eating from my boyfriend, and then over eating at dinner when he gets home. Frustrated to say the least, but it's all about learning. Next time I'll go straight for the nap ;) or at least take a walk when I don't feel like running or biking.

Of course I ate more junk food then planned over the weekend while I was in Tennessee. Even though I worked out all week, you really can't out work a bad diet. My weight is up this week at 161.2. I know it will eventually head back down, but I tend to do this over and over and that's why my weight loss has been rather slow. Sometimes I just get frustrated with myself and need to vent!

As far as workouts go for the week: I had my 5K on Sunday, did a 1 mile run and 20 minutes on a stationary bike at the hotel gym on Monday, did 8 miles on Tuesday, worked on cleaning our backyard up on Wednesday, 2 miles and 25 minutes on the stationary bike on Thursday, which brings me to my craptastic 10 mile run today. 

Oi Vay, I just could not get my head in this run. I started out already not feeling it and it just kept getting worse. Around mile 3 my stomach started hurting majorly and the bathroom isn't until mile 5. I seriously considered using the bushes, but it creeps me out so I just held on as best as I could. I had to walk a little so that my stomach would settle back down. I made it though. But after the pit stop I just had to energy left. I even ate some new fruit gummies (which I can't remember the brand right now and threw away the package), but they didn't give me any extra energy. My legs felt incredibly heavy and I just didn't have it in me. I didn't quit though. Best things about out and back courses, you have to finish to leave! I did have to walk a lot though and ended with an 11:30 pace. I'm surprised its not worse due to the amount of walking I did.

Well over ten minutes slower than my last 10 miler, but at least I experienced a difficult run and know I can finish it in case this happens at my half marathon. I suppose you could say I hit 'the wall' that runners always talk about. Blah I hope I don't experience it on my next one.

A couple of things could have caused this bad run. Not drinking enough water, the day before or the morning of. I didn't take a rest day the day before and maybe my body was tired. Maybe I should have slept a little longer so that I would have felt more rested. And my water bottle apparently wasn't closed all the way so kept spilling water all over myself and ran out of water more quickly.

Oh well though! It's over and I finished it! For every good run there are three bad ones and I had a pretty good run on Tuesday, so I guess this is just par for the course.

Hope you have a healthy weekend! Maybe 4-wheeling tomorrow with Richard and his family (I'm not that into it, but its quality time together) and then work Sunday.