349 Days Until Race Day!

 Life has been kicking my butt for the past however many days. A lot of things are up in the air right now which is making it hard for me to really focus on my training. I don't even know if you could call it training at this point. I've done great with the walking. Me and my favorite walking buddy are getting the miles in. It's been sooooo hot, though. In the mid to high 80s for a week or so. We're drinking plenty of water and giving ourselves a frozen fruit bar when we get home. So at least that is going well. 

I haven't been doing my strength workout which is frustrating because I can feel what a difference it makes when I'm not doing it consistently. Boy, I'm old! :)  I gave myself a stern pep talk and I'm working to get myself back on track. Those goals are not going to reach themselves. Even if there was a magical pill I could take and instantly be in great shape, I don't know if I'd take it. Obviously, I would give it serious consideration at first, but then I'd probably think about it and realize that the struggle makes reaching the goal so much more rewarding. Or maybe it's just me. I do tend to always do things the hard way. 

357 Days Until Race Day!

 It's funny how much life has such an affect on my running and training enthusiasm. I'm currently in limbo, so to speak, in regards to a job and housing. I'm attempting to transition in both areas but there just seems to be so much waiting involved. Exercise has always been a way to reduce my stress, so I'm certainly making use of that right now. It's just frustrating because I want to really get focused on my training, yet other aspects of life seem to be pulling my attention away from the excitement of my adventure back into Track and Field. I know I need to stop letting other worries take away my enthusiasm for running. It's sooooo hard, though!

Well, anyway, my training is going well. I'm getting plenty of walk time in with my favorite walking buddy. I included fartleks this week. Every time I came to an intersection, I jogged across instead of walking. I was pleased to note that there wasn't as much extra jiggle around the tummy as there used to be so I must be doing alright with the eating and exercise adjustments. Yay!

Eating did get a little rocky because for some weird reason I was craving Pretzel M&Ms. No idea why but I just was. So I bought a small bag and ate some and shared the rest. They were ok, but not worth the calories. I try to keep these little snack packs on hand that seem to help if I need a healthy snack between meals. They have almonds, cashews and a few chocolate pieces. I actually enjoy those more than most candy because they have some salt, some sweet and in general are healthy. So I guess next time i have a weird craving for a sweet treat, I'll eat one of those packs first and see if that takes care of it. 

361 Days Until Race Day!

 I'm feeling stronger each day and think I might be ready to try adding some short bursts of running into my daily walks. I'm thinking of just doing a couple hundred yards 2-3 times during my loop (which is approximately 1 1/2 miles). I'm curious to see how that would feel. I'm hesitant to do too much running until I lose more weight. I'm being cautious because I don't want any injuries and I'm afraid trying to run after so long without running and with all the extra weight, it very easily could result in injuries of some sort. 

So next week I'll test out running with just a few bursts, what we used to call fartleks. And as a kid I used to call them fartlets because well, of course I thought that was funny. Honestly, I still smile when I say it. I'll try adding some of those into my walks next week and hopefully all will go well and I can lengthen the bursts until I'm able to jog the whole loop and beyond! 

I have to say, I'm feeling very nervous about my 3rd goal of trying to beat the time of 5:41. I can't imagine how great of shape that woman must be in. I beat that time when I was in my best shape but that was oh, so many years ago. I'm having doubts about that even being remotely possible, however, I keep trying to remind myself that I have to at least try. I'm tired of regretting that I gave up on my running. And there is no better time to get going on my goal than right now. I'm not getting younger and I certainly doubt I'll invent a time machine, which means, I just have to buckle down and focus on my goals in a positive light. All I can do is try my best. If I fail, then so be it, but at least I tried.

363 Days Until Race Day!

 It's been a little busy here with my favorite walking buddy graduating tomorrow. I can't believe it! We've still been getting our walks in, though. It's been pretty warm but we've been bringing along our 50oz. water bottle so it hasn't been too bad. No soreness and I can easily hold a conversation. I even jogged a couple times today...to cross the intersection...so not far but it didn't feel terrible so maybe some short jogging ventures will be in my near future?

I haven't been super focused on losing weight, however, I have been eating less so I have noticed that I am lighter. I haven't weighed myself and I'm not sure if I will any time soon. I don't know if it is helpful to depend on the scale so much. I don't want it to discourage me if my weight doesn't drop quick enough. It's getting a little easier to make healthy food choices so I'm trying to focus more on positive things I'm doing so I don't get caught up in guilt tripping myself to eat better. 

I found another exercise to add to my strength routine. It's called a single leg deadlift. You can just use your own body weight or add some intensity by using a kettlebell. To start, I'll just use my body weight and see how that goes. I added it because I wanted to target my hips with some more exercises. I'm worried about my hips being weak. Last year my dad fell and broke his hip so now I'm worried about my hips being too weak. Well, this exercise also benefits my back, glutes and core, so yay!

365 Days Until Race Day!

 So the Senior Games, more specifically the Track and Field events took place this past weekend. That means, I am in the official countdown to next year's games. Ok, technically I was already counting the days but now I'm doing it more officially. :) I'm going to set my goals, include my schedule for this week and give my status update. 

When I was a kid, I used to set 3 goals for a big race. The first goal was one I could achieve as long as I put the work in. The second goal was harder and required extra effort. And the third goal was really tough but still achievable as long as I give it my best. 

My three goals are:

1. Compete in my age group in the 1500m run.

2. Place 1st in my age group in the 1500m run. (I just looked at the 2022, 2023, and 2025 results and only 2 women ran this event each year)

3. Beat the 2025 best time for women in the 1500m run (5:41.70 )

Ok, all of those goals will require me to get my butt in gear and be focused, however, I know that if I give it my all, then I can accomplish at the very least, the first and hopefully the second goal. The third goal is definitely going to be extremely difficult. It wouldn't be a challenge though, if it was easy.

My schedule for this week:

1. Strength training routine - 4 days/week (2 sets of 10 reps/exercise)

2. Walking - 4 to 5 miles per day

I might add an eating aspect to my schedule at some point but for now, I'll hold off on it.

My status update:

I walked for approximately 3 miles today. I need to make sure I increase to at least 4 miles starting tomorrow. With the Summer break starting soon and bringing the hotter temperatures, I may move my walking to mornings when it will hopefully be cooler.

Day 45, 46 and 47

 Still working out and that is going well. I think next week I can up the sets to 3 for each exercise. The warm up and cool down also make such a positive difference so I'm glad I added those in. Walking is going great and yesterday I did an extra long walk...almost 2 and 1/2 hours. Whew! And then another 45 minute walk with my favorite walking buddy. And best of all, I wasn't sore or anything. Woohoo! I'm eating better. Still having some chocolately goodness but I feel like overall I'm eating less junk and fewer snacks, so that's good. I'm also being more aware of how I feel as far as checking to see if I'm hungry before eating. That has worked well especially at night. I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't eat past a certain time in the evening so that your body has enough time to process food before sleep. So I try to keep that in mind when I decide whether or not to have an after dinner snack.

To continue my backstory, I did so=so in Cross Country for my Junior year and then Basketball wasn't good. All the years of running and jumping on the concrete floor finally caught up to me and I was diagnosed with "Jumpers Knee" in both knees. I don't know what the scientific name is but it basically meant I had to do some physical therapy for most of the season. Unfortunately, it didn't help. I wanted to quit Basketball but caved to peer pressure and stayed on the team. I wasn't able to run track that Spring and that did not help my attitude at all. Then, for my Senior year, my anger continued as well as my bad decisions. I ran Cross Country but didn't do very well. Then I played Basketball even though I knew it would mean no Track and Field. See, with my knee injuries, it wasn't obvious from the outside that anything was wrong. I would tell people about the pain I was in but since they couldn't see it, they didn't really believe me. Which of course just made me angrier.

I understand that ultimately, I only have myself to answer to for choices I made. And I absolutely have regrets about not speaking to my parents about this. Sadly, we can't go back in time and undo mistakes. Instead we can only move forward and try to learn and grow from them. For me, that took quite a few years. Eventually I got back into running and even completed a mini triathlon and two marathons. However, raising a child and going back to college to complete my degree, along with other life experiences, took my attention away from running. It's always been a part of me, I just ignored it for a while. But now, it's time to stop ignoring that call of the road (or track) and see what I can do. 

Day 41 - 44

 Walking is going great! So much so, that I think I'll increase the distance even more. And I think I'll increase the pace, too, since I'm able to carry on a conversation with no problems at all. I did get a little jump scare today, though. When my favorite walking buddy and I were walking our usual route, a coyote suddenly raced across a yard and passed only a few feet in front of us on the sidewalk. It didn't pay much attention to us, instead it quickly made its way across the street and away from us. I had my pepper spray out and ready but didn't need it. The coyote just wanted to get away from that area. Ever since COVID we've had a lot more coyotes wandering into town.

Exercises are going good but I feel I'm not quite ready to increase the reps or sets yet. And my knees have finally forgiven me for using them so much while packing up my lego-like toys. Now I need to see where I can donate them. I feel kind of bad having them just sit around and collect dust instead of being played with. Anyway, I really like the exercise bands I use. I wish I would have known about them sooner. They are easy to store and easy to use. They come in different levels of stretchiness to make things harder or easier to do the exercises. I especially like the fact that I don't need dumb bells or exercise machines to get a good workout for my muscles. 

To continue my backstory, I kept training with my dad throughout Junior High and to the end of my Sophomore year of High School. That final track season, I did the best I had ever done. I felt great, had no injuries and ran the best 1500m of my life. I got 5th place overall and was thrilled. Then, that summer, my dad told me that if I wanted to really keep running, it was time for me to train myself. Other parents had been telling him that he was working me too hard and he finally caved to the peer pressure. Unfortunately, instead of me talking to him about it, I just felt hurt and turned to being angry. I had no idea how to train myself and I was too mad to ask for help.