Something New

Do you all remember when I posted in January about the fact that I joined a virtual challenge to cover 2,017 miles in 2017?? I never really thought that I'd hit 2,017 miles by myself and I was totally OK with it. Here's the last milestone I hit........

I'm actually only about 55 miles away from 1500 and let me tell you, I am PROUD of that. There are people who joined this challenge as a group (of 2 to 4) and people (like me) who decided to go it alone. I figured what the heck was the difference of me going alone to try to get 2,017 and me doing it with another person and feeling like I succeeded as long as I hit 1,008.5?? Anyway, that's the update on that. On December 31st I'll let you know what I officially ended the year at.

I brought that up because one of the things you get when you sign up for this challenge is to be part of a Facebook group. I'm not very active in this Facebook group, but I have been pretty happy to be in it this year. There have been many informative posts that continue to teach me things regarding my health and fitness. One thing that several members have been talking about is this notion of "maffetone heart rate training" or MAF. You can google it and learn more (like I did), but the idea behind it is that you can become a faster runner by SLOWING down in your training runs.

I've been hesitant to try this because I am already so slow that the notion of slowing down is frustrating. However, I've read some testimonials from people who have been trying it and it has really intrigued me. I got especially intrigued when someone (who actually stopped doing it because it drove them crazy going so slow) said that the one thing they did notice was their weight loss DOUBLED! I have heard other people say things like, "if you want to lose weight stop running". That never really made sense to me since running (for me) burns SO many calories (according to my Garmin). But, burning calories is all well and good, but constantly working in an anaerobic state keeps your body in a glucose burning state rather than a fat burning state.

Right now I truly have NOTHING to lose by implementing this practice. What's the worst thing that will happen?? I will NOT lose more weight and will go back to having even slower training runs. OK. Doesn't seem like that big of a risk to me. What's the BEST thing that could happen? My weight loss can actually kick itself back into gear and my running speed actually IMPROVES! I think the potential rewards are worth the risks.

I'm not necessarily following any specific training plan perfectly. I briefly read things on MAF as well as other articles on Heart Rate Training and weight loss. The biggest thing with MAF training is that they believe you should first build a strong aerobic base. They indicate this could take up to 6 months. The idea is that while you build this base you will increase the speed at which you can run while staying at the same heart rate. But, until you build this base all of your training should be done at a pretty low HR (by my standards at least).

To give you more of an example of what this all means; my average HR for my last 4 mile training run was 159. I hit a high of around 192 during that run. That 4 miles was also the fastest I've covered 4 miles since 2012. I used the MAF 180-formula to calculate my HR zone to build my aerobic base. My MAF heart rate is 130. Today I set my Garmin to alert me when my HR was not in a zone of 122-135. I did the run on the treadmill and after a 5 minute warm up I ran until my watch alerted me my HR was too high. I then walked until it beeped that it was too low. I continued this for 45 minutes. The result of the run was that my average HR was 125 and my max hit around 145. My average pace for this "run" was 14:38. I was actually not upset about that at all. The last time I ran on my treadmill was back in September. I ended up not really feeling like running so I spent a good amount of time walking. My average pace that day was 15:48...but my average HR was 125 and my max was 160! I can look back at my treadmill runs from January and see that there was a day that my pace was 16:11 and my HR was an average of 162 (187 high). Wow!

What this all tells me is that even without doing any official HR training, I have really improved my aerobic ability. I can already run faster at a lower HR than I could back in January. I am actually excited to focus on my HR for now and not worry about my speed. I am also excited at the notion that it might help me lose weight more efficiently. I also need to stop eating as much for that to happen though! 😝

So this is my new endeavor. We'll see how long I'll last doing this. If I can see my weight decreasing and my speed increasing I can't imagine I'll stop. If my weight starts increasing and my speed decreases then that'll be another story all together! 😆

Hot Chocolate 15K

Race #5 of 2017!

Writing these race reports this year is more fun than they ever were before. Every race I do this year means more than any race prior to 2013. It is amazing how getting sick changes your perspective of things and allows you to really be grateful for what you have and what you're able to do.

But I digress......

The Hot Chocolate 15K is a race I have been wanting to do since 2012. I couldn't do it in 2012 because the race fell on the same weekend that I host my family for Thanksgiving. There are 2 distances offered for the hot chocolate race; 5K and 15K. Last year I thought about doing the 5K because by November I was running 3 miles (slowly) pretty regularly again. I eventually decided spending the money to travel to Columbus and pay a lot for a 5K just wasn't worth it. I wanted to do the 15K and since I wasn't there yet I'd just have to wait another year.

I'm not even sure when it happened, but at some point this year I decided THIS was the year I would make this happen. I was training for the half marathon in May so I knew that by November I could do 9.3 miles (or at least I had hoped). I eventually asked my mom if she wanted to make a girls weekend of it. I suggested that she and my daughter could run the 5K and I would do the 15K. At some point during our weekly runs this summer she decided that SHE would also do the 15K! Since we were both doing the farther distance we decided not to take my daughter since I wouldn't want her alone on the course and waiting for us after.

We headed down to Columbus on Saturday and went to the expo to pick up our packets. One of the reasons I wanted to do this race is the swag always looks so nice! I was NOT disappointed. The sweatshirt is amazing. It's soft on the inside and that nice tech fabric on the outside. The best part was that you could try on other sizes and switch in case the one you ordered wasn't right. I wasn't sure because I ordered the XL and they are the dreaded women's cut. I decided to try the XXL on and decided that I was right and that one was too big!

My sister and her husband ended up coming to do the 15K as well so we met up with them at the expo and headed to Buca di Beppo for dinner.

We stayed at a hotel within walking distance to the race so it was SO nice not to have to wake up at a horribly early hour to get there. The race corrals didn't open until 7 and the race started at 7:30. We left the hotel around 6:55. I kind of liked the way they did the start,  but kind of didn't. They called it "one wave" and said everyone started at 7:30; but that wasn't really true. The first corral went at 7:30, but then they had a 3 minute wait between each corral. What was cool was that we got to be closer to the start line than I've ever been before. But what I didn't like was that it took that much longer to just get started and it ends up being a lot of just standing there. I much prefer the other races I've done where they blow the horn and you just go. When you're in the back of the pack it still takes a long time (sometimes) to get to the start line, but as least you're moving the entire time.

Anyway, we were eventually off and feeling good. Very rarely do I ever feel bad to start a race. My wrist beeped for our first mile and I was a little worried about our pace. I knew there would be no way I'd keep that pace for 9.3 miles. We finished mile 1 in 12:04. I also noticed again that my watch was alerting me about .1 or .2 before the actual mile marker. No biggie, but towards the end those .2 miles are the devil! I felt good and my mom is always faster than me so I just kept going trying to keep up with her. Mile 2 was in 12:01. I was starting to think maybe I shouldn't worry and just go with it. Mile 3 was a little slower at 12:23 and I thought that was more the pace I was wanting at the start. The pace starts to go downhill from there. Mile 4 was 12:56 - still feeling good that it's under 13 and knowing I had done miles 1 and 2 faster than anticipated I was still feeling good about my pace. I should add that I did NOT go into this race with a goal. It's an instant PR because I've never done a 15K before.

It's not a great pic, but I love it because I
look like I'm actually running fast! 

But, I always want to try to do at least as well as my training runs or do better than the last official race I did. Mile 5 was 13:10 and I was even still OK with that. Mile 6 I'm feeling like it'd be really awesome if this was a 10K. 13:42. Mile 7 I really want to take extra walk breaks, but I don't want to slow down my mom. She seems to be totally rocking it still and I am struggling. 13:36. Up to this point I'm perfectly content with my time. Yes, I'm slowing down, but I knew I would. Mile 8 I think I hit a wall. I added walk breaks. I felt guilty for slowing my mom down and I was arguing with her to go ahead. She didn't want to because I was struggling and feeling a little faint so I was making her nervous. I tried to tell her I didn't feel any worse (or even as bad as) than the 10 miler in June so I'd be fine. Finally when her Garmin showed 8.8 miles she said she was just going to go. I said GOOD! :) I HATE feeling like I'm holding someone back. (I think that's probably another blog post in and of itself). Mile 8 - 15:10. After my mom went ahead I no longer felt guilty for walking. I knew I'd finish and I was really fine with it. I walked a lot in that last mile. Mile 9 - 15:12. But then I was approaching the last corner. I knew that right around that bend was the downhill to the finish line. I started running again and finished the race out at a better pace. My Garmin has my average pace faster than my official pace since it had me going farther than 9.3. But, official results were: 2:09:03. My mom finished 2 minutes faster than me.

When comparing my results to other races this year I was faster than the half marathon in May and the 10 miler in June. My average pace was slower than the 10K or 5 miler, but those are significantly shorter distances so you really can't compare those. All in all I'm happy. I realized after this race that I have really improved this year up to about the 10K distance. That just means that now my goal is to work on getting faster up to the 10K distance and THEN add more distance.

Next up race wise? I haven't signed up for anything yet, but I am pretty certain I am going to do the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. It's a 4 mile race in the town next to mine and I've done it at least 3 times before. I know I won't be beating my best time, but I'm OK with that. I'm actually not even certain I'll do better than my worst time at this race, but that's OK too. It would be race #6 on the year. The MOST races I've ever done in one year was 9 in 2012. To be at 5 or 6 this year is amazing to me. This year started with me wanting to get back to the half marathon distance (which I did) and has resulted in me absolutely making a comeback!

It's unfortunate my eyes are closed
because otherwise I really like this pic.

So even though I haven't lost a single pound since May 1st (and have gained back a few), it's not that I've given up. I am still here. I am still going. I have the exercise part down and just need to focus on the food part. The good news is that 2 days ago I really started focusing on ONE DAY AT A TIME. Each morning I am texting my friend with my goal for that day. So far this week each morning I have texted her to say my goal is to stay between 1800 and 2000 calories. That's it. Just for today. I have managed to string together 2 (and so far today) days of meeting that goal. We'll see how the rest of this day pans out and what my goal will be when I wake up tomorrow.

The Importance Of.......

........NEVER giving up; even when you feel like the biggest failure there is.

I can't stress enough (to myself) how important it is that I truly never give up. I started this blog more than 5 YEARS ago and yet I am still on this journey. It's funny to me because I actually weigh within 2 pounds of where I was in November 2012. Why is that funny? Because I have been struggling for 5 YEARS to get NOWHERE. Or at least that is what it would seem.

In reality I have had a pretty rough go of things in these last 5 years. I am actually quite happy of the fact that I am finally back to where I was in 2012. In 2014 when I hit my highest weight EVER I could have just thrown in the towel completely. I could have said it was clearly pointless since the scale just kept going in the wrong direction (completely because of my behaviors). But I didn't. I saw that number and realized I had to do something about it. The good news? I have NEVER seen that number again.....and plan to never see it ever again.

I could have given up again in 2016 when I re-gained the weight I had lost at the end of 2015, but I didn't. I could have decided it was pointless over the last 6 months because I have no lost a single pound since May 1st. But, because I haven't given up I have been able to maintain my weight within about 5 pounds in these last 6 months. I'm not sure if you realize how absolutely amazing this actually is. What this means to me is that for as many times as I have fallen off the wagon; I have jumped back on for at least a little bit. In the past if I had a span of 6 months where I wasn't losing, I can guarantee you I was actively gaining.

I hit my lowest weight since 2012 on May 1st. I haven't even seen that weight again since then. But I'm here to tell you I have NOT given up. I failed my own 52 day challenge. I haven't used that as an excuse to give up. I am falling off the wagon on a WEEKLY basis; but I am also jumping back on for at least a few days every week. Once again I am jumping ON the wagon and feeling good about it. I don't know how long I'll stay up here before I jump off again. I could be falling off the wagon again tomorrow; but I will get back on. In the last year the wagon has never gotten so far away from me that I couldn't pull myself back up to it. It may take me FOREVER, but if I can at least keep doing that I will eventually get this weight off of me.

So, whatever you're struggling with, DON'T GIVE UP. You've got this. And so do I.