The Sugar Blues...........

To throw away or not to throw away

A couple of days ago I decided to make a more concentrated effort to cut sugar out of my diet. As I have said before, I don't need to lose weight, that would be nice, but in a way its a lot harder to be a conscience eater when A) you work out all the time, and B)when you are just trying to be healthier. Wouldn't it be great if in our country people woke up and said my New Years resolution is to be healthier, instead of saying this year I am going to lose weight? Being healthy just doesn't sound as appealing as being skinny. Sad but true. 

Anyways, I am cutting the crap/ I mean minimizing the sugar in my diet. This has been incredibly hard because sugar is in everything. The other day I went to go get milk and couldn't find milk that had under 5g of sugar in it. The closest I got was coconut milk at 6g. Most cow milk that i looked at had about 12g of sugar. My one victory in the last couple of days is that I have switched from sugary coffee drinks to cappuccinos.  Guess what, I think I like cappuccinos better, they are just richer. Also, I had an apple today, and it actually tasted really good. Going without processed sugar makes me appreciate the natural sugars all the more. 

More on my sugar rant later..............

Last night I hit the track for the first time in a week to test drive my knee. The bad news is that afterwards it hurt a little bit. The good news is that it definitely feels a lot better!!!! After running I came back, and I just wanted to go back to the track and go farther. I am definitely an addict. Instead I hit the pool again to get my cardio fix. 

I swam 100 laps in an hour. I don't quite know how to deal with this because truthfully my race time for that distance used to be 20 minutes. To be fair I was doing sets of 100's and 50's with 200 warm up and cool down, and rest in between sets. But...... Its almost hard to fathom how far away my level of swimming fitness is from when I was a teenager.

Still people always compliment me on my swimming. They say ahhh you are so beautiful when you swim, you are so smooth in the water. It always cracks me up to watch people jump in the pool and expend 4 or 5 times more energy than I do in 1 lap yet manage to go much slower than I.

Even though I have been swimming a lot,  I miss running. There is something more simple about running, and perhaps a little more primal. Either way both running and swimming really makes someone own up to themselves, and their own strengths and weaknesses. 

Breaking in the body

There is this documentary (and its name escapes me) that was about how if we make a few small changes in our lives we can utterly transform our realities into brighter futures. For me this small change is the practice of exercise. Like a drop of high contrast dye in water, exercise has kind of spread through my existence changing the colors of my perceptions. What I mean is that working out has forced me to eat healthy, it has kept me emotionally sober, and helped me deal with personal crisis. As I watch my body transform, so to does my life, and the people in it.

I keep reminding myself that transformation is never easy. Or....at least in most cases it is not. I look at my friends who run massive amounts of miles, and I know that I could get there. I just first have to break in my body. The muscles in my feet, the usage of my knees, and all of the little intricacies of my body have to come into alignment. They have to work with me to achieve this goal.

In the past my body has been something that I have carried. It has been a burden, and a cross to bear. Now it is becoming a tool which I am honing to use to my advantage.



Workout Summary:
1/25/2011
1.5 hours swimming

1/24/2011
1 hour yoga
2 miles on treadmill

1/24-26
rest and recovery

1/27
1 hour yoga class
40 minutes of swimming

1/28
1 hour Swimming

1/29
 Yoga warmup
2 miles on elliptical
25 weights abs

Stretch and Swim

So the last two days I have been swimming and doing yoga. This is pretty much the only exercise that my body will allow me to do without re-injuring my leg. I love to swim, and I am a pretty good swimmer.....Or at least I was at one point in time. Swimming is a practice that will keep me cardiovascularly fit while being kind to my joints. I love running, but in my personal opinion there is no better sport than swimming, which is to say that it has very little impact on your body, but still manages to be an intense exercise.  I want to run while I am young, and swim in my 70's.

Last night I went for a swim and an older man joined me. I could tell he wanted to quit right away but that I was pushing him to continue on. He was a good swimmer, and it was apparent that he had been swimming all of his life. It was really nice to get back in the pool with someone who actually knows how to swim, and who doesn't thrash the water like they are losing a battle against drowning.  In the end though he got out of the pool, thanked me for the challenge and I continued on, swimming against myself.

It is becoming very clear to me that in the past I was not a successful athlete mostly because I let others push me, and that I was not self motivated.  Now with me fully behind the wheel I am excited to see how far I can go. 

This is Why You're Fat

Jackie Warner's  This is Why You are Fat and How to Get Thin Forever sits on my counter next to my cookbooks.  I am not fat, and truthfully, I am a little embarrassed to own a book with this title. However, a good portion of the book is dedicated to talking about why our bodies are the way they are. Not only that, but this book makes complex bodily processes understandable to people who aren't in med school.

Personally I am a nutrition and fitness geek, so I really enjoyed reading about the organs in our bodies and the  processes involved in gaining and losing weight and/or building muscle.  I am making this sound complex but it really is very simplified in this book.

One of the chapters that I am most drawn to is her chapter on sugar. Warner claims that we are all sugar addicts, and I would hazard to guess she is right. Sugar is such an insidious, and almost invisible element to our food that we often don't realize how much of it we are taking into our bodies. To eliminate sugar out of my diet completely is daunting and well impossible. But, it is possible to only cook with agave and honey.  It is also possible to buy products that have less than 5 grams of sugar, and that is my goal for the next two weeks.  We will see where I will go from there.

Taking anything out of our diets is hard, weather its fast foods, or meat. Over the last 6 months I have become a vegetarian. First I cut out beef, than, chicken, and finally fish. I definitely could not have gone cold turkey (hahah get it) off of meat. I think the same is true for sugar, its going to take months to minimize my sugar intake. But......after doing some research on sugar, I am sickened by the image of my clean healthy body taking in this nutritional crack, that has no value, and does only damage.

Anyways, the chapter on sugar can be summarized  into one very simple statement: Sugar makes you fat, sugar weakens your immune system, sugar is addictive and changes your brain chemistry, sugar grows cancer, sugar ages your skin, and sugar makes you stupid.  Look I am not saying that I won't ever eat a piece of cake ever again, just like I may sometimes indulge in an elk steak, or a piece of sushi, but when i do eat something with high sugar content, I want it to be decadent. Eating something sugary should be a splurge not a 5 times a day occurrence.

The bottom line is that life is not a weight loss show. It is going to take months, maybe even years to transform eating habits, but I feel like the biggest threat to our health is the foods in grocery stores. This book really talks about how we can eat clean, and strengthen our body with our food choices, instead of being destructive. I have to say that I work out to damn much to counteract all my hard work by eating crap.

Over the next week I will go over in more depth this chapter on sugar as I try and cut it out of my life.

Snap Crackle and Pop - my new name for my legs

So here it is: I have been benched, taken out of the game, and set back a couple paces.  Sometimes this process feels like two steps forward and one step back. But.....anyway I took a step back. My knee has called a time out. I have been told to rest it up until it doesn't hurt anymore, and after some research I have found out that it may take 1-2 weeks. What???? I am hoping that I can start running a little quicker than that. Like maybe in the next two days.  :)


So I guess tonight I will hit the gym. Do some swimming and lift some weights. After a two day hiatus from exercise, I absolutely need it.

Add caption

So Dear Legs,

Please heal. Please...Please. please. I want to take you out on a nice beautiful Portland day and hit up some trails. They will be soft trails I promise.

-Love
Cassie

The difference between I can't and I won't

I hit a wall yesterday that I have never hit before. I went to the track tried to run and couldn't. When most people say I couldn't run today, what they really mean is I don't WAN'T to run. Yesterday I couldn't run. Pain radiated through my knee with every step and I could hear and feel my knee pop,  It scared me. Can I do this? Am I designed to run? It is so not fair. Please Body, do this for me. I went a mile and then threw in the towel. It wasn't stiffness or soreness, but a different type of pain.

Today Alex  my friend who is getting ready to take his medical boards pulled, prodded and rotated my knee. He told me my hips/pelvis was out of alignment and readjusted them, which was awkward because it involved him pushing my right knee into my armpit as I lay with my back on the couch. Then he said the B word. Burritis. Its common, its sucks, and I hate it.  Essentially my knees aren't lubricated. Great. I am sure there are some dirty runners jokes out there about how my knees must not be getting excited about the road the way they used to.

The good news is that hopefully I can strengthen my body and get it used to this kind of mileage. Tonight I am headed to the gym. I will try out the treadmill but might end up on the elliptical.

Summary

1/22/2011
run 1 mile

1/23/2011
elipitcal 4 miles
weights arms and abs

9 Miles.....

As I write this I am ashamed to admit that all I want to do is whine.  I want want to whine about my feet and knees in the worst way. True it would be so much more impressive if I had ran the 9 miles and been like yeah no big deal, I have knees of steel and they sure showed that pavement.

Here is my hope: I hope that my body just needs to adjust to the miles and that all of this will get better.....still 9 miles is pretty damn good. 

My Own Private Island

MHCC Track

So Many Good Running Memories Here

The track at MHCC (Mount Hood Community College) is my own private island. I love running on this track. It usually is pretty empty, especially during this time of year. Quiet often I will be the only person on the track. I know it is a bad habit, but I love to run here at night, or when the fog settles on the track so that you  cannot see in front of you. When I am here the whole world fades away and I am a sole survivor. Nothing else matters except for one foot in front of the other.

This track makes me very aware of my body, my muscles, my heart, and lungs. In the dark with nothing but my body moving forward I feel the immediacy of my own athleticism. Its like being alive happens in a series of complex processes, and my time on the track makes me very aware of what is happening to my body.

Here living is painful, wonderful, and complete.....all in .25 miles. When I am on the track late at night, I imagine that there are people running all around them, that they are there with me, these ghosts of the past and present. We are all running to our own pace, in different times, and different places to the rhythms of our own heartbeats.  Isn't it beautiful how the body exists???????


Training
1/17/2011
Run 3.5 miles
(most painful workout I have ever had to do).

1/18/2011
5.5 miles
on the track
each mile was faster than the next

1/19/2011
I took a day off. I am giving my feet some time to recover they are still very very sore.

1/20/2011
Am going to do speed training for the first time....WISH ME LUCK!!!!!

Cascade Half ----Debrief

Most people's first race is not a half marathon.  It really shouldn't have been mine, but I did it..... I FINISHED!!!!!! In other news I think that one of the reasons why we run is to atone. I am not sure why we think we can atone for our sins by running, but it hit me right around mile 9 that this was a lot like tithing. It also occurred to me that I have never done anything bad enough to deserve the pain I was experiencing.. Anyways I digress.

So here was what it was like.

I woke up at 4:00 am and packed up my gear and I don't know.... I felt kind of like a badass. I seriously underestimated how much stuff was involved in running a 13.1 mile race. As you can see I took pictures. 

1. Running Shoes

2. Wind Breaker

3. Socks

4. Gatorade

5. Super Sports Bra

6. High Powered Snack for run

7. Water bottle

8. New timex watch to track my splits

9. Headband

10. Running outfit

11. duffle bag

12. deodorant 

 13. change of clothes

14. Towel

About 5:00 I got on the road and drove to Turner Oregon which is in Salem. Upon arriving I discovered that I hadn't been registered for the race. For some reason my online registration did not show up on their roster. So we straightened that out, and I changed my start from the early start to the late start.  It was so cold outside, and there was so much rain, and so much wind. The weather forecast used words like "torrential downpour"  "tropical storm" "flood warning" and "high winds". It was almost comical standing out there in the pouring rain jumping up and down trying to keep warm at the start point. To give you an idea, over 500 people did the half marathon and I was right in the middle of it all. Also, if you are doing a half marathon in January, chances are you are a serious runner, so I was running with some pretty stiff competition. Very few people showed up to "just finish". 

Perhaps the most impressive thing I saw, beside the University of Oregon runners,  was these old athletic men who kicked my butt. I mean seriously annihilated me, this young 24 year old kid. WOW!!! I have seen the light. My new goal is to be 60 years old and wipe the road with some snot nosed 20 year old. What was also pretty cool was how many husbands and wives I saw on the road keeping each other going every step of the way. It really made me miss my husband who is in Afghanistan  a lot. I really wish that he could have been there by my side, or at least there to cheer me on. It made me incredibly sad that in this sea of people who were surrounded by their loved ones, I was all alone.  

The race itself was very beautiful. It went through the countryside, winding along farmlands, but at some point it all began to look the same. The weather was horrible, the wind was the worst, but I think that it was way better to run in that kind of rain than in blistering heat.

Here is a summary of the race from my attack-point log http://www.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_8773:

Running (half marathon race) 2:10:00 [4] 13.0 mi (10:00 / mi)

Cascade Half Marathon - Turner Oregon

1st miles split 7:30
3 mile split 26.30
3-6 consecutive 9 minute mile splits
7-9 10 minute mile splits
(Lost track after that) but it felt very very very slow

- Lost my feet around mile seven
-My legs didn't give until mile 10
-Cardiovascular/lungs and heart rate felt good throughout the race. In fact if anything my lungs and heart could have ran farther or faster.

-The weather was horrible--torrential downpour with high winds. Salem has a flood warning out right now until noon tomorrow. 52 degree temp. Course was flat and on pavement. 500 some people ran the half.

The finish was wonderful. I felt spent, and when the guy reached down to tear off my little tab from my race sticker I felt so grateful that I didn't have to bend down to do it. 

My goal for the next race is to keep a better pace, finish under 2 hours, train more efficiently, and not do it alone/have someone there to cheer me on. 

Below I have posted before and after picks. As you can see i look way better at 4 am than I do post 13.1 miles

Before 13.1 miles 4:00 am

After 13.1 miles

Pre Race Jitters

I am having some major pre-race jitters.

I ran a slow mile at the track to test out my game plan. It was wonderful. The fog had settled on the ground, but it was not too cold. It was so wet, I like to run in the rain more and more. At some point you begin to feel like a creature of the rain like the water is a part of you.

 I ran without my mp3 player and brand new digital watch and found it harder to get in the zone. Usually I just look at my phone when I start and when I finish. I don't constantly look at my watch.

My nerves are really getting to me. Why did I enter this race? Why couldn't I have done my first half marathon by myself. Why did I need to make it a competitive event?????? Aye. Well I guess the only way to do this is to dive in head first.

1/15/2011
Summary 1 mile
40 minutes of yoga

Day before 1st race

Today is the day before my first race in Salem, Oregon, and I am nervous. There are so many questions in my head.

Can I even run 13 miles?
Can I keep pace?
What do I wear?
Can I really run without my binky/ I mean mp3 player
Should I get a hotel Salem is a couple of hours away
What should I eat tonight?
Can I really do this ?
Oh my god what have I gotten myself into


1/14/2011

 1 hour of Yoga
1 mile

Running timed

Yesterday I hit the track and timed it. Seriously the feeling that I have towards timed runs is similar to that emotion/anxiety of getting on the scale. When I was little I did swim team, and it was all about shaving off the seconds, and then the 10ths of a second. I think that somewhere along the way I lost sight of the sport and forgot why I loved it.  Maybe it was because I was really young, but you can always go faster, no time is ever good enough. When you are a kid and your placed under all of that pressure to be faster you always feel inadequate. As an adult I want to redefine that inadequacy, and recognize my achievements as well as the beauty of the road ahead.

Soooo. I ran 3.5 miles in 29:10 on the track. I didn't max out and I think part of that is because I just did not know my own strength and now I do. I know that I can run faster than that, that I have the strength to do so. It is a really good step in a new and better direction. It is good to celebrate the opportunity to be better.




1/13/2011
Run 3.5 miles - 29:10
20 minutes of yoga/stretching

Around the block and down the street

How do you know you are a real Oregonian????
You love running in the rain in January.

I found this really funny yesterday as I was running in Gresham, OR.

Anyway, yesterday I did two runs. The first was a four mile stretch through Gresham and down to Fairview.  The second run was two miler at the gym to get my heart rate going while I started lifting weights.  The run through Gresham felt amazing. It was like the cold rain energized me and nourished me, and the cars driving down the street all contained people who wished they had the strength to do what I was doing.

3 days until my first half-marathon

Summary 1/12/13/2011
4 miles
2 miles
legs/abs weight

And it rained ice

Wow so many thoughts are going through my head since I last posted.

First of all I didn't run 1/9 which I feel so incredibly guilty about. I hate excuses and I hate winers. I hate it when I wine. I hate I can'ts. I won't. It makes me sick to hear it, but we all say that stuff and on 1/9 I said I don't want to run. My feet have been pretty badly beaten up by my new shoes that I had to replace. Its been 4 days since I traded them in and yet still they hurt. Its like running with lead weights that keep me from going into the zone.So what did I do instead, I spent the whole day feeling incredibly guilty.  There I have confessed. Forgive me my friends I have sinned.

OK.......Next...... Running long distances is like joining a church. Wherever you go you find people who speak your language, hold your ideology, and worship at the same temple.  (Maybe thats a little dramatic) but ever since I started running I have found people everywhere with whom I can connect with. Furthermore, I have reunited with old friends and made better my relationship with current friends. Look I expected to get in shape, maybe lose some more weight, and find myself. Whatever. Yadadayadadadyaaddad. BUT I did not expect to feel so connected in a sport that is all about the individual journey.

Why is this? Well originally competition was this lofty idea of two or more people searching to better themselves in the search for something greater. Look it up. Ancient Greece, Olympic games and their origins. It is all there. Somehow competition has devolved into beating people and winning for the glory of it. Yet at one time it wasn't about who won, it was about what people could achieve together, not as individuals. I think runners subconsciously get this.  Ever since I started running I have received nothing but encouragement, love, support, and a sense of this invisible community that transcends distance, time and even level of achievement.

Which brings me to my next point. I have this overwhelming feeling of inadequacy. Yeah sure, most people don't workout like this, they don't put in these miles, and all of that shit.  Yeah I have come a long ways, but............... I can't help like I should be going farther, should be going faster, and harder.  Maybe it is a good thing? It has always driven me towards positive things in the past.

This post has already taken up too many paragraphs, but let me just say. Today it rained ice in Portland. Actual ice. Like not sleet, nor hail, but little frozen crystals. How incredible is that????????




1/11/2010
run--6 miles

1/10/2010
run -7 miles

Why do we run

When I was younger  I used to swim endurance races. Endurance anything can be brutal, because if you are doing it right that its painful and intense and harsh all at once. My race was the mile. In a 25 meter pool a mile is 100 laps. My fastest time was 20:30. I can't describe how incredible that race was, to finish, to compete in and to give it all away was most indescribable 20 minutes of my life.

Here is my question: What makes a long distance athlete? What is that is innately there that enables people to lay it all on the line mile after mile. When it comes to running I am not the fastest, in fact I look like a tank; heavy, awkward, broad, without fines or grace, or the lightness of being, but I know that someday I will be able to run farther than most, longer than most. I know this because it is how I am designed.

The question becomes: What is it that transcends the muscles, the body, and genetic design that enables one to sacrifice and give of their body for such a long period of time? What is it? I have some theories, but I haven't settled on a definite idea.

Here is one of my theories, take it for what it is worth which isn't hardly anything. I think people are born with certain burdens, that are certain weight. Some people's burdens are heavy and some are light. All our lives we carry these burdens and sometimes pick up new burdens, only sometimes do we set these burdens or shed them all completely. These burdens make us strong, hard, they shape us and transform us. This is good because this how we are made, how we grow.

Running, Swimming, biking,  and any sport really, is all about setting down the burdens, and being weightless. When you have been carrying around so much weight, to be free of it, for a just a moment--is indescribable. Look I don't want to talk my burdens, those that I was born with, nor the ones I have been given, but they are heavy, they tie me to the ground. However, out on the track, in my tennis shoes, my body wrapped in sweat, I escape.

The question now becomes, how long can we live without our burdens? How long can we go without them

1/8/2011
2 mile run
1 hour swim
ab workout

Run baby Run

So.......I had to get new shoes. The ones I got hurt the tops of my feet. Still I ran in them hoping they would break in, but after thinking about it I realized that shoes should not hurt your feet this much in the breaking in process. SO I traded my ascis in for a lovely pair of new balance shoes. Wow what a difference.  Still my feet hurt from wearing the asics and I have been icing them every day. Its almost like the tops of my feet feel bruised. What was I thinking!

Anyways I look forward to running some more. I am jonesing for a good long run where my feet don't give out before my lungs. Even though I haven't gone very far in the last couple of days I have kept my New Years promise, just knowing that DGR is out there doing it to makes me feel better.




12/7/2011
1 mile
12/6/2011
4 mile
1 hour yoga

The Last Two Days on the Track

The last two days have been a little strange. I had to get out of the gym. Putting mileage on a treadmill is just not the same as putting mileage on the track or the road. My first half marathon in Salem is looming, and I know that I need to be putting some serious mileage out there. For this race, all I want to do is finish. I have never run a race in my life, although i have swam competitively and played other sports.

 Running has always been my demon and to start this journey is to take something that I have struggled with all my life and kick the crap out of it. In away I am angry at it, and how hard it has been for me.
I am not natural runner, It doesn't come easy for me, and I don't have that inbred talent that some people are just born with. Last night I was telling my roommate how I would pray to have a broken ankle so that I didn't have to run the mile as a kid. I dreaded it. Up until my junior year of high school I couldn't run a mile under 10 minutes. Sure I could swim and play ball, but being there in the moment with just running was horrible. Now is a different story, and taking this journey is finally taking something I have really suffered with and triumphing. If I can do this I can do anything.

So in other news......I bought a brand new pair of shoes with a gift certificate my brother got me for Christmas, and breaking them in, in the last two days is killing my feet. The tops of my feet hurt, my toes quickly become numb and it just hurts period. I also got a pair of running gloves which are amazing. You know its cold when you run and run and run and your not taking off your gloves. Still it feels so damn good when you finally do get warm.







Summary
1/4/2011
5 miles

1/5/2011
6 miles

5 miles

Two things.

Normal people think that 5 miles is a long way to run. I used to be normal, but last night I only put in 5 miles and was so disgusted with myself. 5 miles has become the new 1.5 miles for me. I need to be running 8 + miles a day and truthfully could do so right now. Its just bad planning that keeps me back. I always wait until too late in the day to do it.

There is something about running on a treadmill that I am beginning to hate. 5 miles on a treadmill is painful. You have to check out in order to run at all on that thing. For the first time in my life I can run, really run, and I don't want to check out every time I do it. Furthermore, the miles are so much shorter when you put on your shoes and hit the road.

The second things is. My shoes are shot. After 5 miles my feet ached. My back and joints hurt to. I know I have been procrastinating about this but it feels like I just bought them, three months ago, and shoes should last longer than that right? Yeah for normal people. Oye.

Also, I am beginning to understand why runners get up but early to run. They have to. This part I am dreading, but I know that I am going to have to start setting my alarm clock for super early and hitting the road. My evenings need to be reserved for weightlifting, yoga and swimming.  Maybe I should sign a contract, and post it here so that you my non existent readers who in my mind really do exist, can hold me accountable. Truthfully once you have said something loud enough we as individuals hold ourselves to that goal.

Summary 12/3/2010
5 miles

PROTEIN

Lately I have been getting the worst protein cravings ever. I think that it has less to do with the running and more to do with all of the weightlifting. That and the fact that I have almost completely weaned my body off of meat with the exception of sushi.  Either way, I crave protein all the time. It's more than a little ridiculous. Gone are the days of "needing" chocolate. It's all about the protein powder, the boca burger, black beans, peanut-butter, eggs, and greek yogurt. The other day I came home and had a boca burger with eggs on top. It was disgusting, but my body wanted it. So in the spirit of my insane protein love, I want to share my Super Vegetarian Protein Overload Chili recipe that helps with my cravings.

Super Vegetarian Protein Overload Chili

1 can of kidney beans
1 can of red beans
1 large helping approximately 2 can sizes of either fresh or canned of black beans
2 cups of water

Lightly mash beans and set aside for later.

2 white onions diced
1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper sliced
Chili Powder (to taste)
Hot Sauce (to taste)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Saute onions and chopped up bell-peppers in a generous amount of oil oil. Add chili powder. When vegetables have softened a reasonable amount add the mixture to the beans and heat over the stove. At this point add any desired seasoning like the hot sauce and salt and pepper. Heat only until the mixture simmers. There is no need to cook the soup any longer after the flavors have been married together.

Serve hot with cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes for garnish, and a dollop of greek yogurt which works and tastes just like sour cream, while adding even more protein to the soup.

(Note on cooking soups too long)
Don't cook your soups to long. I don't understand why people do it. No I do understand why people do it, its just stupid. Here is why. Vegetables cook at different rates, that is why you cook them separately from one another. It preservers their flavor profiles. When you add them to the soup base they do not need to be cooked any longer. To do so only destroys the vegetables/and the meat. It takes longer, and doesn't taste as clean and flavorful.



Summary
12/2/2010
Ran 4 miles
Arms
12/3/2010
Ran 3 miles (But didn't want to do anything this day at all!!!!)
Abs

New Years Resolutions

So this is the first post of 2011. In fact today is New Years Day. It is the day of dreams, hopes and promises. I just want to say that last year during this time, I made a promise to myself to get in shape and get closer to my ideal body type. Would I like to be even skinnier? Yes of course. Would I have liked to have gotten in even better shape than I am now? Absolutely. But....When put into perspective I have done pretty well. Look we have to recognize and celebrate our progresses and our victories. Here is my victory. I am a size smaller (Yeah for size 6) and 10lbs lighter. I have worked out 5-7 days a week for a whole year. Not only that, but I have increased my daily millage and speed. Running has become so much easier and truthfully there were many days where I could have ran much farther.

I guess the question is now where do I go from here?  Where do any of us go from here?  So here it is. My friend Denise and I are going to run everyday for a whole year. I am going to run at least one half marathon a month. Hopefully this year I can get into killer shape, like bikini jaw dropping shape. I want to look back on my 20's and say, "damn girl you were fine". I also would like to be able to do a triathlon. Maybe towards the end of summer I will be able to do this.

So in summary for all the world to know. Here are my promises.

1. Run everyday for a year
2. Complete 1 half-marathon a month
3. Become autonomous in my relationships
4. Learn to present my best self every day
5. Write more, read more and get published.
6. Continue on the path of emotional sobriety.


Summary 12/31/2010
3 miles
weights/legs

Summary 1/1/2011
5 miles
weights/arms