Good/Bad

Good:  I ran 5k today in my toe shoes with NO PAIN in the ball of my left foot.

Bad: I have two huge blisters on the arches of my feet.

Good:  I finally broke the 40 min. mark for the 5k, coming in at 39 min and 45 seconds.

Bad: I still can't wear heels the pain comes right back.

Good: My husband was able to be home until 1pm today so we got to go for a hike and have a picnic as a family.

Bad:  He still had to go to work.

Good: Express gave me a credit card, and I can fit in their clothes!

Bad:  Express gave me a credit card, and I can fit in their clothes!

A Good Week

Well it's been a hell of a week.  A lot has happened. I started the week of with what I thought was just a little injury but seems to be a bit more serious than that.  We're (meaning my doctor and I) pretty sure I have Morton's Neuroma.  Basically, the nerve between the 3rd and 4th toe (in my case on my left foot) is irritated and a thickening happens around it causing, burning, numbness and pain.  I usually say it's great to know what the problem is but in this case it's difficult to treat without surgery, but we're gonna try!  First order of business is a new pair of running shoes.  I actually did the elliptical in an old pair and the pain was much reduced so I hold out hope that this option will help. Also I'm not wearing high heels at all.  This is a hard one because I LOVE my high heal sandals.  I can also get orthotics but I'm going to try new shoes first and see where we go.

All of this injury business means I haven't run in over a week.  Man do I miss it.  It's so much easier to do that all the other forms of exercise I've been doing to make up for it.  I talked last week about trying biking.  Well it doesn't hurt the foot at all so it's a great alternative for my cardio.  My first ride was sort of disastrous.    I had to pull my daughter in a bike trailer and while she only weighs 30lb that was a lot of extra weight to me.  I, on either a whim of stupidity or bravado,  decided to go around the entire perimeter of base which is just under 9 miles.  Well, that was a mistake.  I had to walk up three separate hills and thought I might die.  I did make it around finally at around 1 hour and 15 min.

I've also started using my elliptical machine again.  I hate using it because it's unbelievably boring but I needed something.  I still get the pain in my foot but to a lesser degree.  I'm going to try doing it today in my toe shoes (you know the ones where your toes each have their own separate area) and see how it goes.   I will say I have noticed a significant difference in my ability to work out.  I knew my runs were getting better but I was able to tell how much more efficient my heart is getting on the treadmill.  I did a complete hour at a moderate workout level and my heart rate stayed between 120-140.  I know that doing just a half hour, 6 weeks out from surgery would have my heart pushing 170+.  I'm pretty happy to see that improvement.

My husband and I were able to get free tickets to the Orion Music Festival in Atlantic City, NJ.  It was put on by Metallica and was a nice mix of music, everything from metal to country.  We were supposed to go both Saturday and Sunday but we just couldn't do Sunday.  Apparently we've aged a fair bit and Saturday just took everything out of us.  I am so thankful for my sleeve and the weight I've lost because of it.  I never would have made 8+ hours on my feet and sitting on the hard, wet ground at 270+ lbs.  It was even a little rough at 185, so I'm very happy that I've lost so much weight.  As I looked around and saw so many morbidly obese people, it took everything in me not to run up and yell, it can be so much better.  I know I have no right to do that and I never would but it's very hard when you feel like you have this secret.

I made pretty good decision considering we were at a music festival.  Only drank water, made good food decisions too.  I didn't work out on Friday or Saturday because of lack of time and by Sunday I was itching to do it so when I woke up on Sunday I hit the gym at the hotel for another hour on the elliptical.  I must be doing something right since I lost another 4 lbs this week to bring me to 181.6 lbs.  Pretty soon I won't be considered obese anymore!

I'll leave you with some pics from this weekend:

Artie and I, an actual decent pic!

Cage the Elephant

Waiting for Metallica

METALLICA!!!!!!!!!!

And Sunday on the Atlantic City Boardwalk

Injury

For about two weeks now when I run, right around 2.5 miles, I get this pain in the ball of my left foot.  The pain is sort of a burning sensation and causes my 3 middle toes to burn and sometimes go numb.  It's never hurt too bad and I've always pushed through it and finished my runs.  That changed on Saturday.

Just as normal, right around 2.5 miles the pain came back, but this time it was much sharper and really burned.  Since it's never gotten too horrible I pushed on.  By three miles I was changing my stride to try and keep the pain to a minimum and at four miles I gave up!  It felt like someone was holding a flame under that foot.  I was a fair bit from home (a little over 2 miles) so I did the unspeakable, and called my husband to pick me up.

So ticked this happened.  Now the pain goes away as long as I don't wear high heels but as soon as I have to stretch those toes back it comes.  It's also an issue while riding but not nearly as painful and of course if I drop my stirrups I'm fine.  I'm going to try biking today and see if that bothers it.  If not I think I'll bike for the rest of this week and then see where I'm at.  Luckily I've given myself tons of time to finish training for the Army 10miler so taking a week off won't kill me as far as training goes.  But, I need to burn these calories somehow so I gotta find something else to fill the spot of running.  Let's hope biking fits the bill.

Well it's also Monday, so that means I owe ya'll a weigh-in.  I weighed in today at 185.4.  Tomorrow will be my three month surgiversary and as of now I've lost 49lbs since surgery.  I think that's pretty awesome!  If I can keep that up I'll be at goal around the end of Sep.  I don't think I'll be able to repeat that loss because as I lose more weight it becomes more difficult to lose, but I think my original goal of being at 130 by Christmas is definitely doable.  In just 5 lbs I will no longer be obese, just overweight!  That's pretty exciting right there.

Oh and I almost forgot.  I've gotten a new hair style to go with my almost rockin' bod!  Here ya go!

I also got a shocking blue color put in but not until after the pic.  Anyway, I love the new look!

Progression

Well I thought it might be fun to see the progression of my run times just by looking at my 4 mile runs.

May 20 - 4.0miles - 62 min - 15:30 pace

May 27 - 4.0miles - 63 min - 15:57 pace

June 3 - 4.0 miles - 56 min - 14:13 pace

June 12 - 4.0 miles - 54 min - 13:34 pace

June 14 - 4.0 miles - 53 min - 13:15 pace

That's quite a difference in four weeks I think! I've knocked over 2:30 off my pace in four weeks.  Obviously that's not something I can keep up for too long but I'm thrilled with this.

I'd also like to say that I finally broke through the 13 min mile and finished one of my miles on my run today in 12:24!  Obviously this was a bit too fast as I didn't keep up with my 13:09 on the 5 miles on Sunday but still I'm thrilled.

So there you have it, a little sweat and a lot of determination and you can really get those run times down.

Negative Splits

No, that is not some sort of reverse gymnastics move!  Negative splits is a running term used to say that your mile times get faster as you go along rather than longer.  The basic premise is, if you run the first half of your run slightly slower than the second half  you will have a better over-all performance.  It also helps reduce the chance of injury because you are well warmed up and joints lubricated before you really start pounding the pavement. If you're interested in more information on negative splits and how they work in a running program check out Running Planets list of how and why negative splits work (and when using them may not be the best idea)!  Anyway these were my times for my four mile run this morning:

Mile 1 - 14:17
Mile 2 - 13:41
Mile 3 - 13:27
Mile 4 - 12:50

I just went and checked and that last mile is my fastest mile yet.  I know it's slow but I'm getting there.  I have my next 5k race on July 4th and I'm hoping to run it as close to 12:00 as possible.  I don't know though because it doesn't start until 0900 and it's in Virginia so I expect it to be really muggy and HOT.  All in all I'm really happy with my progress.  I really do feel like 12 min/miles for the Army 10 miler are totally doable.  We shall see!

Not Too Much

Well not too much has happened since yesterday's run but I do owe you a weigh-in and some measurements.  Unfortunately I didn't start taking measurements until about 2 weeks after surgery so sorry I don't have them all the way from the beginning but it's still nice to see progress.

	3/19/2012 (or closely thereafter)	Today	Total Lost
Weight	234.4	188.6	45.8 lbs
Waist	49.75	42.5	7.25
Hip	50.5	44	5.5in
Neck	15	14	1in.
Arm	15	14	1in.
Thigh	24.5	22.75	1.75in

There ya have it.  Not too shabby right?  I lost another 2lbs this week and as I get lower and lower on the scale I know it is going to be a struggle to continue with 3 and 4 lb losses so I'll take 2lbs.  I know I ate right and I'm exercising A LOT so I can't do more than that really.  I have my next 5k on July 4th so I'm looking forward to seeing how much my time improved from May.

I leave you with a picture of me on my mare I'm leasing.  This is my first lesson on her and my first real ride.  I'm so happy my weight loss has allowed this back in my life!

That was FUN!

So I'm in week four of my half-marathon training.  This means a five mile run for my long run, and that's today.  I decided that I was sick of running around Andrews AFB.  I asked a friend of mine, who started training in Jan. if she wanted to run the National Mall with me at my ungodly slow pace.  She has a race next week and needs to just do some slow/short runs so she was nice enough to accept.

I woke up at 0515 and picked her up at 0530.  Off we went to Ft. McNair to park and start the run.  The first two miles FLEW past.  It was great, of course she didn't even breath heavy, but I wasn't doing to horribly either.  We ran past the Potomac and the fish monger (smelly) and up to the reflection pool.  The reflection pool has been completely gutted and the left side of the path is closed down, so we ran past on the right and up to the Lincoln Memorial.  Then took a right in front of that and then another right in front of the Vietnam Memorial and down by the lake in that area.  Up past the WWII Memorial across a few roads, around the Washington Monument and back onto the Mall.  Somewhere around the Washington Memorial is when I really started to die.  By 3.5 miles I was relatively sure my legs were going to cramp, but they didn't.

I made us stop and take this pic:

The sun was still low as it was around 0645 but you can see the Capitol Building, so you know I was really there!

We turned down the street with L'Enfant Metro Station and headed back to Ft. McNair.  I sorta underestimated and we ended up doing closer to 6 miles but I only ran the 5 and I did walk, I think, 3 or 4 times.  My goal was to do the 5 miles in under 15 min miles.  Well, I not only beat that I slaughtered it.  My average minute per mile was 13:09!!  I'm so close to my goal of 12:00.  I couldn't have done it without Falen's help and I'm so appreciative that she'd put up with my slow pace.

So that's it at 0845 I've already done my 5 miles.  What have you done today?