Haunted Half

So, back in August, my friend and I decided it would be a good idea to sign up for a half marathon in October, since both of us were struggling with motivation, and a race always helps with that. Well, fast forward to the week of the race, and boy were we cranky about it. It was almost like someone had forced us into doing it, instead of the truth, which is that we paid our own money to sign up. Neither of us had trained as much as we wanted, and with interruptions to normal life like vacations, getting sick, work trips, and dog sitting, we just didn't feel ready. But it was SO much better than I thought!

Bald...always a good look!

So in Utah, there are a lot of really pretty canyons that people like to run down. This race started with a bus ride to the top of Emigration Canyon, which is close to downtown. It was pretty chilly up there, but considering that it could have been snowing, we counted ourselves lucky that it was 40 degrees. The first 7 miles were downhill, so I was making good time. Then the course turned near the University of Utah, and the rolling hills began. Most people were walking because mile 7 was pretty much all uphill, and it was tough. There were some really fun things at the aid stations, like mini cake bites, bobbing for apples, and eating a doughnut on a string. I didn't do any of them, since it seemed like a good way to have runner's gut for the rest of the race, but it was a fun idea.

Miles 9-10 ran through Federal Heights, which is a really cool neighborhood in SLC. Sometimes when Chris and I like to dream, we imagine ourselves living in a house up there. Part of mile 11 ran through 2 cemeteries, but luckily nothing jumped out or tried to scare me. There were a few more uphill parts, then a few more downhill, but it wasn't too bad. The last mile was on a walking path through a park, and then I crossed the finish line! I immediately requested a drive-thru for a diet coke, and Chris obliged. It's always fun to see a friendly face at the finish line, and especially when that face will walk to the car and pick you up, instead of making you walk an extra half mile to the closest parking spot.

This medal glows in the dark, which probably makes it worth the run!

I would definitely run it again, but I would add more hill training!

Also just signed up for the AF Canyon Half....coming up in June!

Remember...

Remember that time when I decided I was going to blog every day to help keep me on track with all of my goals?

...yeah...

But here I am again, trying my best to get back into the groove! My half marathon is 43 hours away, and boy am I nervous. I ran a half in June, but haven't quite done all of the training runs that I should have done, so I feel very unprepared. I read this interesting post about what to do when you're not really ready for a race, which helped. So I'm trying to let it go...knowing that the runs I did do will help, and that it's not my first time running a half, so I know what to expect. It's okay if I don't have an awesome time, because honestly, I don't care much about time anyway, and I never really have an awesome time, even when I train :). I still beat everyone on the couch!

So that's what's up. Also, I had a very fabulous vacation last week. Chris was on fall break from school, and one of my besties scored us buddy passes for flights and a free hotel room that was only a half mile away from Disneyland, so that's what we did! We actually left a few days earlier and went to San Diego to visit Chris's grandparents and my other bestie, who is living down there for grad school. The buddy pass situation was a little crazy, since we couldn't get on any flights to San Diego, but it ended up working out just fine because we got on a flight to Orange County and then just rented a car. It was so fun to see friends and family, and then on Sunday we headed back to Orange County to pick up my friend and her little guy at the airport. They had some flight troubles too, but finally got to the Ontario airport around 10:30pm.

Coronado Island

Beach = Love.

The next day, we went to California Adventure, which was awesome. They built a new area called Cars Land, which looks exactly like Radiator Springs from the movie, and there are a few rides and shops. Plus, there is an AWESOME ride - we actually waited in line for fast passes as soon as we got there at 10am, and the fast pass time was 6pm! It is so popular. The ride takes you through the town and gets your car ready for the race, and then you come up next to another car and race through the hills of Radiator Springs! So awesome. The last ride we did was a water ride, and we got totally soaked and freezing, so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed at like 9pm that night.

In line for the fast passes

On a very crazy, very fun Mater tractor ride

Here's a trick: fill your bag with lollipops to entertain a 3 year old in line. You're welcome.

Then the next day was Disneyland, which was super fun (as always). The lines weren't too long, and we figured out some tricks with fast passes so we were able to go on more rides. My friend's son is 3 1/2, but is unbelievably tall, so he could have gone on every ride in the park except Indiana Jones. We took him on Pirates, but he was pretty scared, so we stayed away from roller coasters and anything else that might have scarred him for life. The coolest part of the day was when we went to Mickey's Halloween Party! They sell separate tickets for the party, and you can come into the park starting at 4pm and get a wristband. Then, around 6pm, they kick everyone else out who doesn't have a wristband, and the party starts! Everyone (except Chris) dresses up, and there is trick or treating, tons of cool decorations, and the rides are pretty much empty. So we walked onto a bunch of the bigger rides, plus got about 4 pounds of candy each! They don't mess around. It was awesome, and I want to do it every year until I'm 100!

On the Matterhorn

Waiting for Star Tours (PS did anyone know they made it 3D??)

A kitty, Frankenstein's monster, and a skeleton!

Positivity

I'm working on being more positive with myself, focusing on the things I accomplish instead of the things I didn't. The comment from my dear sister on my last post helped remind me of that. Instead of being frustrated with myself for only running 5 miles, I should be proud that I got out there and did the 5, even though they were difficult. Instead of beating myself up about eating Yogurtland three times last week, I should be proud that it wasn't seven times.

My job is being the assistant to the director of about 15 medical offices in the Salt Lake area, and every other week, we meet with the managers of all of our clinics to discuss issues, present new information, and talk about how things are going. One of the biggest things that my company is promoting is Living Well, both to our employees and our patients. Since we all will have better health if we focus on exercising more and living a healthier lifestyle, it translates to our jobs and how we provide care to patients. With huge changes in the health care system, we are all going to be held responsible for the choices we have control over, and will probably start to see serious consequences if we choose to ignore the issues.

So part of our wellness kickoff was giving presentations about healthy living to our managers. Each person on our admin team took a topic (Eat Well, Sleep Well, Move Well, Stress Well), and mine was Eat Well. I felt a little silly going in front of 35 people who manage employees and run clinics, since I am not the poster child for healthy eating (see paragraph 1, sentence 4). But I did a lot of research and gave a presentation about what had worked for me: never trying to "give up" your favorite foods, looking at healthy eating as a lifestyle instead of a diet, and fads that don't work on a long-term basis. I don't talk a ton about when I lost all my weight, mostly because I feel like it's not relevant to most conversations, and I don't want to be the person who is always talking about weight loss. But it was interesting to give this presentation to people who don't know much about my history or story, and still give information that was useful. It made me feel good when several people came up to me afterwards and thanked me for the information about how to pack a delicious salad for a quick and healthy lunch, without all the lettuce and veggies getting soggy (pack it in a mason jar), or share their own favorite healthy eating tip that can help me as I continue.

My boss gave a presentation in which she mentioned what she calls "drops of awesome." This is a system that her family has initiated, where you focus on all the little successes instead of the big, overwhelming goals. So my drop of awesome last week was cutting out one Diet Coke per day, and substituting water in its place. Oh, and not going to Yogurtland every single day!

6 miles....almost.

I have had a few problems with the last couple of pairs of running shoes I've bought- one pair rubbed my arch and gave me problems, and another pair gave me blisters when I ran more than 6 miles. I haven't been fitted for running shoes since about 2008, and between then and now, I've lost a bunch of weight and really increased my weekly mileage, so I decided to start from scratch and get analyzed.

I found out that I've been running in a stability shoe to correct pronation, when I actually don't pronate at all. From what I've read, I think this is pretty common after weight loss, since bodies will change how they distribute the weight when there is less to carry, so I should have probably done that earlier, but I'm glad I know this now! I tried a few pairs and was amazed at how much more comfortable they were, but I'm always nervous in the running store because I feel like I might pick the wrong one. After many laps around the fitting area, I decided on Mizuno Wave Sayonara, not just because they are cute (which they are) but also because they seem to mold right to the shape of my foot. Most shoes I've worn in the past feel a tiny bit loose on the sides, which is typically where I get blisters, so I thought this might help.

I had a super crazy week at work, so I didn't get to try them out until four days later. I decided to run 6 miles at Liberty Park- since it's a loop, I could run it a couple times to get my distance, plus it has a water fountain and if the new shoes killed my feet, I had a way out. I was really excited, since I hadn't run in awhile and have been doing shorter distances after my eye surgery, and thought it was going to be an awesome run.

So, it wasn't.

Every step felt like a mile, and I could barely get through 5 miles before throwing in the towel. My feet felt awesome, so that definitely wasn't the problem, but I felt sluggish and heavy the entire time. It was really tough and frustrating.

Runs like this make the good runs so worthwhile. The day before I had my eye surgery, I had gone to the gym to run 3.5 on a day that it was about 100 degrees outside. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but as soon as I stepped onto the treadmill, everything clicked. My playlist was perfect, I kept my speed, and I felt great the entire time. I actually went 4.5 and didn't even realize it. Those days are the best, but some runs aren't going to be like that. I get that, and am grateful for the ones that are easy and fun.

What a Week.

So, last week was kind of insane. Last Saturday I woke up with a stomachache that got progressively worse until I was rolling around on the bed in pain and husband took me to Instacare. They couldn't see anything, but it was right lower quadrant pain so they sent me to the ER to rule out appendicitis. Fast forward to eight hours later... One CT scan and two ultrasounds showed very normal organs. So, that was really weird, and a bummer of a Saturday.

Then, two days later, I had surgery on my eye. I had LASIK 5 years ago, and it was super awesome and fab, but my vision has changed enough since then that I had to get a little revision. It was not quite as easy this time around, and I was practically crying on my way to work on Thursday because it was so sensitive to light and I couldn't see anything. But, now it's a lot better, so I'm not quite as dramatic about the whole experience.

This past Saturday, I basically did all the fun activities I'd planned for the last Saturday (which got ruined by the random pain bursts), except we didn't get to go to the water park because I wasn't allowed to get swimming pool water in my eye. But we did go see Jobs (which was medium), then watch football and eat 1.5 large buckets of popcorn, and then I got to have dinner with one of my favorite Provo friends, Ashley! She is due with her first baby (her due date is today, actually!) and it was so fun to catch up and hear all about her life these days.

I couldn't exercise for 5 days after the procedure, but I'm back on the wagon. I went and did an hour on the stationary bike while husband mowed his parents' lawn on Saturday. Then I did a 3 mile run on Monday morning - husband's parents neighborhood does a Labor Day breakfast and fun run every year, so that was really awesome. Kind of like a free 5K (almost).

I signed up for this race so I'm working on getting back to being a long distance runner. The longest I've run since June is 6 miles....so it could be tough. But I'm glad I can use my running schedule as my part-time job, since husband will be gone a LOT this semester!

A Not-So Awesome Run

So, it's pretty normal to have bad runs every now and then. I know that, and I don't beat myself up too much over it. But I'm getting really frustrated because it seems like every Monday, I have a bad run. And I think I know why. During the week, I have a pretty set schedule - I go to work about the same time, eat oatmeal, an apple, and a banana, and then just work at my desk for most of the day. So I'm in a pretty good routine. And then the weekend hits, and I get off early on Friday, and then I exercise at a different time, and I sleep later or do a race or a class at the gym or go somewhere fun on Saturday morning, and my schedule is all thrown off. Then I can't get back to a routine, plus I generally eat a little more (or different foods) than usual, and by the time Sunday night hits, my stomach is a mess.

So then when I try to get up and run Monday morning (which pretty much never happens) my stomach is still all messed up, and I have to wait until after work to run. And this past Monday, it was still feeling super weird so I could only run 3.5, and the last mile felt like 10. So I have tried everything I can think of - eating oatmeal for breakfast on Saturdays, fiber supplements, drinking more water, and nothing is helping. But I also don't want to get so stuck in a routine that I can never do anything other than sit at my house on Saturday mornings.

Ah, first world problems.

This week, I also started trying to cut back a little on Diet Coke. I'm not trying to give it up, but realized I was starting to rely on it a little too much.

Thinking about signing up with my friend for the Haunted Half in October! Looking at the training plan makes me a little nervous....but also excited because having a race on the calendar is the only thing that keeps me motivated to do long runs.

Yogurtland...step one.

So, on Friday night, I decided I needed Yogurtland. Since I have a voucher that lets me get all sorts of deals on my yogurt addiction, it usually doesn't take too much convincing to get Chris to come with me. Plus, I was running a 5K the next morning, and what better way to fuel than 2 pounds of yogurt and toppings + The Cosby Show? Answer: no better way.

So the 5K was okay, it was actually the ending to a USANA (read: multi-level marketing vitamin and supplement company) conference that lasted all week long in SLC. So it makes more sense now why they never sent out a single email with info about where to pick up packets....pretty much every other person running the race had been at the conference and was fully informed. Whoops! I picked this race because my friend and husband decided they both wanted to run a 5K with me, and August 17 was the exact end date of the Couch to 5K program, so we all signed up. It was $25 which is kind of ridiculous for a 5K, but I was being a supportive runner friend, so I shelled out the $50 (!!) for mine and Chris's registrations.

Fast forward to 8 weeks later....both of them bailed, and I ended up running it with my parents. They ran out of shirts so we all got giant sizes, and the course was kind of lame - just an out and back route on a sort of sketchy, very industrial street. But there were probably a few thousand people running it, so it reinstated some of my confidence since I didn't get lost or come in last.

So, after that race, I went to Seven Peaks with my friend (a local water park) and got super sunburned, and also went on this super awesome water slide. It has about 8 slides all lined up, and you race the other people going down at the same time. It was fun until the very end, when a gallon of water shot up my nose. After that, we called it a day and went home. I spent the afternoon napping, putting aloe on my sunburned self, and then babysitting for a church event.

We had about 40+ kids at the event, so it was a little wild! I was pretty tired by the time I got home, but the whole time I was thinking about how I was going to trick Chris into going with me to Yogurtland for the second time in two days. And here's how I know we are MFEO:

Me: "Chris, I want something sweet."
Chris: "How about Yogurtland?"

Sunday was uneventful, but I did eat many chocolate chip cookies!