Race For The Cure

On October 23rd I will be running the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in honor of a family friend, Sheila Menezes, who is in the process of kicking breast cancer's butt! If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help find a cure for this disease, click here. Every little bit helps! If you would like to register to run or walk for this amazing cause, click here. Thank you all for your support and hope to see you all out there!

Yay For Eating!

I posted yesterday about the effects that eating had on my energy during my run. Just a quick update: In one day I lost 1.6 pounds! Needless to say, I will be continuing my new eating habits. :)

Alright, Alright! You Were Right!

I would like to start off by saying that I am a woman. Therefore, I don't like to admit when I'm wrong. But, I can't deny it now. Old habits die hard. Really hard. My eating has been less than ideal for the last week. I had kinda hit a plateau in my weight loss and thought what better than to just about stop eating all together. I will admit that for the last week, I ate one meal a day. Which, according to all the experts (aka: runner friends, trainers, and just about anyone with common sense) is not the way to do it. But I, being the know-it-all that I am, know better. Right? Ha! Hello weight gain last week! I was not a happy camper. So, today I consumed three small meals and 1 small snack. My stomach has been thanking me all day! As was my body during my run.

I had been getting quite frustrated during my runs because I just could not seem to decrease my finish time, no matter how hard I tried. I was still averaging about an 11:45 mile, which after 9 weeks of training is just pathetic. Today was a completely different story!

Mile 1: 10:12 Heck yeah! Fastest mile...ever!
Mile 2: 10:18
Mile 3: 12:00 Apparently I take my cool down miles very seriously.


That makes for a 3-mile finish time of 32:30! I couldn't be happier, and I'm hoping it has something to do with my change in eating habits. We'll see what the scale thinks on Friday.

Warning: TMI Post!

Let me start by saying this: The women in my family are chesty women. And I'm definitely not lacking in the "cup runneth over" area. One thing I am lacking in? The "my boobs still look cute" area. I have nursed two little boys suck-the-life-out-of-mommy's-breasts-monsters. And I know that currently being 56 pounds lighter than I was when I delivered CJ doesn't help with the lack of volume. Add on top of that the fact that I'm on my way to losing another 25 pounds...well suffice it to say I am coming to terms with the fact that it's not gonna be a pretty picture.

I also inherited another wonderful trait from the women in my family. Stretch marks. And for everyone out there that's about to tell me that their mother's best friend's hair stylist's dog-walker swears by some cream that costs $90 for half-an-ounce...bite your tongue. I. Tried. It. All. None of it works!

I can accept the fact that my body is a different shape after having children. I can accept the fact that I will always have dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. And I can also accept the fact that 6 out of 7 days of the week, my hair will be in a ponytail. But...there are ways to fix my other two problems, and I'm not against going to those extreme measures. Here's where I run into a bit of a snag: I'm a Christian and I get tired of hearing people telling me that my body is a temple of God and He created me the way I am so I should just accept it. No, God didn't make me this way. I abused this temple and now I just want to fix it so that it's back to the way he created it. I look at it like this. If you had a bunch of tattoos all over your body (and please don't go there about tattoos being bad too, because I have 4) and decided you really didn't want them anymore, would you be against removing them?

Now, I'm not saying I want some ridiculous Heidi Montague-esque twins, in fact I wouldn't mind them being a little smaller. I just want them back where they belong! And my tummy? Yeah let's tuck that too while we're at it.

So that's that. I'm a heathen who's facing eternal damnation because of the choices that I'm making. What do you all think?

I Think I Can...I Think I Can!

Tonight I had one of my best, if not the best, solo runs to date. I was just mentioning to one of my runner friends that I get frustrated when I'm running by myself because I can't seem to decrease my time. I guess it's true what they say...talking about your problems really does help! Because tonight, my first two miles of my 3-mile run were each under 11 minutes and my last was under 12. Not great by other runners' standards, but darn good for me!

A Week Filled With Lots of Running

I ran a total of 13.3 miles over 4 runs this week! I can feel myself getting stronger, and it's so nice to come home after a 4-mile run and know that I actually did it! I'm beginning to really love not only the physical changes I'm seeing, but the mental changes as well. I know I can do this, when at one point I doubted myself. I'm going to keep going and not let anything get in my way!

Nikki and I after our 3-mile run.

To Run or Not to Run?

I just got back from my first run (3.2 miles!) with my new iPod. Thank you so much to my amazing friends! :) And it dawned on me how much easier it is for me to run now. Being the over-achiever, and basically crazy person that I am, I'm beginning to toy with the idea of running my first half in November. By the time of the race, I'll be 15 weeks into my 18-week training schedule, so I won't be quite there, but I know if I push myself hard enough I can do it. What do you guys think?