Thursday, February 9, 2012

Goals? What Goals?

Where should I start this post?  Maybe with my failed attempt at yet another bunch of goals?  Getting down on myself is not going to help the situation though, so I'll just do what I always do and move on.  What were my February goals and how am I doing on them 9 days into the month?

February Goals Update

#1 - Take my multivitamin and iron pills daily.  Wow, I started this one out great!  For 3 days I took all my vitamins!  And the last 5 days...nothing.  I'll start over today.

#2 - Not eating any candy/sweets or chips this month - Jodi made herself a list of challenge goals for the month (read about them here).  I decided to partake in this one particular challenge.  And I did great for 4 days!  Until last Saturday when I was out to dinner.  Someone ordered coconut cream pie, which was the "special" pie of the day and of course they shared it.  Without thinking...I took a few bites.  Didn't even realize what I had done until I was driving home!  And can I tell you, it was the most delicious few bites of pie I ever had in my whole entire life!  Light, fluffy, fresh, mmmmmm.... (drool).  But even though I was upset that I accidentally broke my challenge, I wasn't going to let that deter me from doing the challenge for the rest of the month!  Until it happened again a few days later.  And then the next day...I just said "screw it", the challenge is ruined.  Ugh!  I'm so disappointed because I was really excited and into doing this challenge!  What I think I might do now is wait until after my birthday and just re-start the 30 days over.  I'm not happy that I blew this challenge.  Not at all!

#3 - Find a strength training program - I haven't found a steadfast plan to do.  But I have tried to incorporate a few things into my routine a couple times.  And I did find online a list of core exercises that are good for runners.  I've done some of them before and I think it will be a good thing to incorporate.  When I try it, I will share with you all. I don't want all the work I did with my personal trainer last year to be ruined!  Runners need good core muscles and good shoulder strength.

#4 - Start Swimming again - Ha!  Something I actually did right!  I joined the local fitness center for 4 months bc they have a pool.  It's a small pool but didn't seemed to be used very much when I went there last week.  I did the stationary bike for 25 mins and then went to the pool.  I decided to swim for 30 mins and see how much I would do.  My dad and I used to swim laps at the gym many years ago and we would typically swim for 30 mins or so.  The pool at the Ballys gyms were actually 19 meters long (weird but true).  I found out after swimming at the fitness center that the pool is 25 meters long, which is pretty standard.  I was happy with that length.  After about 4 laps in the pool, my arms felt so tired!  I was definitely not used to swimming laps!  But after a while, I felt better and got the hang of it again.  And in the 32 mins that I was there, I swam 50 laps/lengths.  I took about 3 short breaks and didn't do any flip turns.  I was actually a little bit scared to try!  lol.  I haven't done flip turns in the pool in a really long time.  The last time I tried and did a few, I became really breathless and tired!  Plus there was a family in the pool at the time and I didn't want to look like an idiot...come to close to the wall and scrape your feet, too far from the wall and can't touch the wall when you try to push off with your feet!  I thought I would just save the flip turns for the next time I went there and I try them then.

#5 - Complete my mini indoor triathlon - I have no doubt I will complete it.  It's not very long.

#6 - Be more conscience of my eating - here is another one I was completely on track for at the beginning.  Somehow over the last few days...I dropped it all together.  I'll try and pick back up.

#7 - Lose 5 pounds - Ok, I did get a little crap for this one from a couple people.  I'm not supposed to try to lose weight while marathon training.  Actually I know this.  I just forgot I was marathon training!  lol. How did I forget this?  Because I just know that I gained weight and freaked out because I didn't want to be that statistic where you lose weight and gain it all back.  Yes, I'm far from gaining it all back but it starts somewhere.  So in my mind...I needed to lose weight.  And I also thought that 5 pounds a month was not too drastic of a goal.  But right...it was brought to my attention that I was marathon training.  So, my goal is to just try not eat as much crap...and be healthier so it's easier to train and run the marathon.  If I lose 5 pounds (or 3 pounds) as a side effect of eating better, that's acceptable in my mind.

#8 - Drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water per day - Another goal that started strong and has fizzled out the last couple days.  I'm back to it today.

#9 - PR my 5k on February 11th for my birthday - So...this is another one that I got a little crap for.  You are not supposed to try to PR anything while marathon training because you could injure yourself.  Right.  I know.  I also know that I'm stubborn.  I also know that the people who gave me a little crap for this (you know who you are) are also stubborn and probably speaking from experience...So, here's to getting a 5k PR on Saturday!

That's all for my goals.  Now for an update on my calf issues.  I did end up going to a chiropractor who subsequently beat the ever living crap out of me! gave me some adjustments and massaged my calf.  She just said I had a minor muscle strain.  I actually went back to her earlier this week and she did some more adjustments.  Definitely a strange thing if you've never been to a chiropractor!  But I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and my calf felt great!  And ran 6 miles yesterday and after a few miles, my calf felt a little tight but afterwards I stretched and foam rolled it out.  Doesn't hurt today so that's good.

I also went and bought new running shoes.  When I went to the doctor in December, he told me my arches fall inward (and my knees point outward) and that puts a lot of pressure on my knees to compensate.  He told me that I needed a motion control shoe to prevent my arches from falling in.  But he said until then, that I could just buy arch supports, which I did.  I can definitely tell a difference in my foot strike with the arch supports.  And after buying them, I can totally tell what the doctor was talking about!  So I went to the running store to buy motion control shoes.  They actually only carry one pair of motion control shoes, which are Brooks.  But he also brought me a stability shoe (my old shoes were cushion shoes).  I tried on the motion control shoes and could definitely tell they did not let my arches fall at all.  But I'm so used to a cushion shoe that this shoe didn't have that same cushion feeling.  I tried on the stability shoe but even then, it just felt like there was no arch support in them and I'd probably just buy arch supports for them too.  So after much consideration, I decided to try the Brooks motion control shoes.  I wasn't 100% sold on whether the shoes are the "right" ones for me...but I think it's just because I'm so used to the feel of my old ones (the last 3 shoes were the same cushion shoes).  And last night, I went for a run in them...

New Brooks shoes - and my huge feet!
Not the most glamorous shoes but it's all about function.  The shoes felt pretty good while running.  The only slight issue I have is that I have other issues on one of my feet and I could feel that a little bit.  But I'll see after a few more runs what I think.

Actually my run last night wasn't too bad.  I was kind of dreading doing the 6 miles by myself in the dark and decided to change up the route a little bit.  I pretty much try to stay on busy streets while running alone in the dark for a multitude of safety reasons.  Changing the route definitely helped a little bit. And with 6 miles to do, I wanted to make sure I would have a long enough route to do 3 miles out and 3 miles back (so I didn't have to run past my house and think of quitting).  It's funny...when I run I think of a million things!  In fact, I pretty much write about 10 different blog posts in my head (that never get published!).  lol.  But what I have trouble with is analyzing and over analyzing everything...every single step I take, every single pain I feel, my breathing and how out of breathe I might feel, and the million things I'm dealing with in my every day life.  I have negative thoughts about how I suck at running and that I want to be faster, better, stronger, etc.  It's hard because I try to push all that out of my head...but sometimes those negative thoughts creep back in.

I wasn't too worried about my pace last night.  I just wanted to make it through the run after my little injuries and skipping two runs last week.  So when I looked at my watch after 1.5 miles, I realized I was running a little fast for me to keep a comfortable pace for 6 miles.  I generally try to stay as close to 10 mins/mile for "longer" runs.  The next few miles were around 10:15.  During the last mile, I noticed that I was running faster (10:04), then faster (9:54)...so I just decided with less than a mile to go, I would just give it my all...and I was feeling really good that last mile! I wish I felt that way my whole run!  So when I finished and looked at my last split compared to the rest of the miles, it put a smile on my face.  Yes, it wasn't super fast but when looking at the rest of my splits...it was pretty good.  These were my splits from yesterday's 6 mile run:

Mile 1 - 9:47
Mile 2 - 9:59
Mile 3 - 10:07
Mile 4 - 10:13
Mile 5 - 10:16
Mile 6 - 9:42

My splits told me a few things...I need to start out a bit slower and maybe be more consistant in my splits.  And it also tells me I have more in me than I thought by pulling a 9:42 split at the end and feeling great!  But after just trying to make it through the run, I was pretty happy with my overall pace of 10:01 (I was shooting for 10:00).
I also ordered compression sleeves for my calves online.  I ordered them online because I had points that I could use on my amazon credit card.  So I got the compression sleeves (and a kindle and kindle case) for free!  Super excited about all of that.  But I won't get the compression sleeves until Monday.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on a great 6 mile run! We'll get that PR on Saturday that I know you've wanted since November! The course is flat and cold--so we'll want to run fast to finish and be done! :)

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    1. Sounds like a plan Kelly! Don't let me slack!!

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  2. Oh, my gosh. Did I forget to click "Publish"? Typed a big long comment to you earlier, but it's not there! Ha ha! Oh, well.

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    1. What was it Reen?? I want to know!! Haha!

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