I Walked 7.11 Miles

Please understand that this walk was the farthest I've ever walked or run for exercise.  Previous to this, the farthest distance I ran was 6.2 miles.

My mom is walking a marathon for charity (the Boston Marathon course, in fact).  She said I could do it with her if I wanted.  I thought to myself, well, I never had the desire to run a marathon because I don't think I'd have the stamina, but walking it would be a lot easier.  So she's been going for her training walks and I've occasionally been joining her.  Last night she was going for a group walk with the team she is on.  So I tagged along.

She made it sound like these women would only be up for about 4 miles.  I knew I could do 4 miles no problem.  When we got there, they said they'd like to do a 2 hour walk.  I was doing the math in my head and at the pace my mom and I walk, it would be about 6 miles.  Again, no problem.

Then we started.  And it turns out these ladies walk a lot faster that my mom and I do.  They do 15 min/ miles.  I kept up with them for the first 3 miles, which we did in 45 minutes.  And then the mosquitoes started biting me.  And my head started to pound (shouldn't have left my water in the car).  And walking is the most boring thing ever.  And I'm really not in that great of shape because I've been lazy. 

My mom and I started to fall back from the group.  I reverted to our normal 20 min/mile pace.  They go a ways ahead of me and then we turned around.  Unfortunately it didn't take them long to catch up and pass me.  My mom was nice and didn't ditch me.  We walked a bit longer and finally my head started feel better.  Then she asked if I wanted to jog a little.  Now I'm thinking are you out of  your mind?  But then I realized how bored I was.  So we ran until we caught up with the group.  And then we fell back again.  And then we ran again.  And then we finished walking.

7.11 miles and almost exactly 2 hours later we were done.  Let me tell you right now, I will not be walking a marathon.  Walking has to be the most boring thing ever.  I think I'd rather run one (no, that's not happening any time soon either).  I think the bigger issue is I don't have the mental stamina to do.  Obviously this is something I need to work on.

I've got a great giveaway coming  up tomorrow, so stay tuned!  Any fun plans for the holiday weekend?

Back on the Bandwagon

My mother pointed out last night that I hadn't blogged in awhile.  She's right.  It's been about a week.  But I told her that this is supposed to be a healthy living blog and it would really help if I had some healthy living to share.  Besides, I didn't want to torture you any further with talk about my job hunt or how awesome I am because I graduated.  I also didn't want to whine about the fact that I was sick all weekend, have been left with a residual cough for most of the week, and how it's rained here every day since Sunday.  No.  I don't think anyone really wants to hear about that.  So let's talk about things in my life that are healthy.

In case you have picked up on the hints in my last few posts, I've been busy.  I graduated, moved home, started back at my summer job full time, and am seeking permanent employment, which is my other full time job.  You can imagine that eating healthy and exercising have been put on the back burner.  Really, all these things are not excuses.  I know that I'm responsible for making choices, blah, blah, blah. 

Anyway, now that I'm settling back into a routine, I've made a conscious effort to get back on the bandwagon.  I'm still doing Weight Watchers and so I decided I needed to focus on one thing at a time.  This week I focused on staying within my points and making healthier food choices.  I weigh in tonight and I think it's going to pay off (I'll keep you posted).  I didn't want to overwhelm myself by trying to do that and workout a ton on top of.  Besides, with the cold I had, I thought it best to rest.

Last night I got out for my first workout in about two weeks.  My mom and I did a three mile walk around the neighborhood.  So my focus for this week is to exercise 3-4 times while still eating healthy.  Hopefully the weather cooperates a bit better this week so I can get outside!  Sunshine motivates me.  As does having my mom as a workout buddy.  We both do better when we're around each other because we push each other to go even when we don't really feel like it.  Plus it gives us time to chat.

I'll have some more interesting things to share in the next few days.  What have you been doing lately that's healthy?

TGIF!

Don't forget my CSN stores $50 gift certificate giveaway!  It ends tomorrow.

All I can say right now is "Thank goodness it's Friday!"  I haven't been this glad to see the end of a week for quite some time.  I don't know what it was, but something about this week was exhausting.  Two of the mornings I literally had to drag myself out of bed.  I felt like I could have stayed in bed all day long.  It must have been the heat and the humidity.  That has a tendency to zap all my energy and motivation to do anything productive.

I did, however, convince myself to go for a walk with my mom last night.  I hadn't done anything exercise related since Monday and I was justifying it by telling myself that is was a "recovery" from my triathlon.  Except that my legs felt fine and I was really just being lazy.  Whatever, it is what it is.  We got out last night around 7:30 and it was refreshing.  The sun had started to go down and it was much more bearable out then when I got home from work at 3:00.

The race photos from the triathlon I did last weekend are up.  For the first time, I actually like some of them  Too bad they're $6 a piece.  Is that not ridiculous?  And I can't even steal borrow them from the website and post them here.  Total bummer.

The other thing we did this week was meet with our DJ for the wedding.  Oh yeah, my wedding is like 3 weeks away.  Crazy!  Back to the DJ.  Do you ever have expectations about someone you've never met because you've heard so much about them?  Well, Patrick had told me all about this guy.  Really, the music is probably the one thing that Patrick is actually excited about for this wedding.  So I had a certain idea about what the DJ was going to be like.  Well, he was nothing like I imagined and I was totally thrown off.  I felt bad because after the meeting I was a little flustered about the whole thing and I was just trying to process.  Patrick was practically beside himself because I wasn't as excited as he was about our DJ.  I know he's going to be awesome and everything is going to work out, but sometimes you feel a little let down when things don't meet your expectations.  Would you agree?

Sorry for all the randomness.  Hope everyone has a great Firday.  Anyone have any cool weekend plans?

New Things

So I finally laced up yesterday and got out for a run.  The rain has finally stopped and although the sun wasn't really out, it was still good running weather.  And I was able to try a new loop that I've been wanting to test out for awhile.  Here are the stats:

Miles: 4.25 mi

Time: 47:31 min

Pace: 11:11 min/mi or 5.4 mph

It felt extra good because I didn't walk at all!  I haven't done that or run that far since February.  Even on my shorter runs I've been taking walk breaks lately.  I was really proud of myself that I pushed mentally and didn't stop.  Besides, it's always so hard to start running again after walking.

Yesterday I also did some shopping and stopped by The Natural Living Center.  I've never been before.  Imagine Whole Foods, but a mom and pop version of it and you get The Natural Living Center.  It smelled so good in there and I could have literally gone crazy and bought tons of stuff.  I restrained myself and only bought a small jar of almond butter, a small amount of chia seeds, and a handful of chocolate covered peanuts (a snack for the ride home!).  I've heard good things about almond butter and about chia seeds so I figured I'd give it a try.  I liked that you can buy the chia seeds in bulk, which means that you can pick how much you want to buy.  I know you can probably get a better deal by buying a big bag somewhere, but I wanted to try them before committing to them.

Today I did a recovery walk.  The sun is shining, but it's really windy out.  I was thankful I was walking and not running because running into that wind would have really been crappy.  I walked at a pretty good clip and feel pretty good.  It's not often that I just go out and walk, but it was a nice change.  I was able to notice more things - like all the buds on the trees and flowers starting to pop up!  Summer will be here soon enough!