ONE disabling injury and 15 pounds ago....

(no idea how I came up with that title so just go with it.....)

Again I have gone much too long since I've posted anything so a quick recap to get you caught up.  Weight loss has been going pretty good.  Kind of hitting another plateau lately at 140-141 but that means I'm down 15 lbs from the beginning of the year.  I feel so much better about that!!

As for training.......below is a picture from the Monster Dash 10-mile (Oct 30th)

And here is a picture of our backyard, two weeks later, Saturday Nov 13th

So how do you think my past few weeks of training have been going.   Shitty, shitty....  1) because of the slippery, snowy trail conditions and 2) because my IT band has been giving me serious trouble, especially when slipping or trudging through snow.  

Mark has been amazing trying to keep me from freaking out but.....I'm still freaking out.   About 6 weeks ago I started having IT troubles when we would run past 15 or so miles.   Due to the major snowfall two weeks ago when we were supposed to do our second 20 miler, we did 10 miles in the snow (MISERABLE!!) and my IT was pretty tight by the end.   We drove home to do the second 10 miles at home where the trails were better but I didn't even make it 2 miles before I had to stop.  My IT was locked up and it felt like there was a knife shoved in behind my knee cap.  (^$}{!$&*}**&%#$*(%*!!!!!)

I've been taping, stretching, rolling, Adviling and havent run more than like 5 miles in two weeks.  Yesterday we went out for a 12 and I thought everything was feeling pretty good.   But again, mile 5 my IT started to freak out.   Inside my head I was just pissed but we continued the 12 miles, stopping about every mile for a very quick stretch since it was really cold out and we didn't want to cool down.  

And now this morning my entire IT band is on fire.   Treatment....no running until Vegas :( :( :(   I really think it's the only way I can get through it successfully.   I don't want to further injure myself and I have done enough training that I have the endurance.   I'm just so frustrated that I was on pace to give Mark and myself new marathon PRs for our wedding before we start the tough training for Boston Qualifying.   Our long runs have been averaging 9:20-9:25min/mi.   

I don't want to hobble through my wedding so it's off running until Vegas.   I'm a runner, take away the run in me and I'm miserable but I know it's the smart thing to do.   It's potentially going to cause me to slow my overall pace and probably struggle a bit more through the last few miles but I'm counting on adrenaline to carry me though and the ultimate goal for me is to successfully finish my first marathon as Mrs. Kuhn, hand in hand with my husband, and celebrate our new life together (not on crutches ;)

SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE HAS SUGGESTIONS ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD DO FOR MY IT BAND BETWEEN NOW AND THE RACE, PLEASE POST A COMMENT.

Marathon Training and Wedding Updates AND...another job added to the mix

Sigh....again I come to my blog with a thousand things to write about which means....I have no idea what all to say.  I'll try to slam down some categories and then go from there.

1) Training and New Shoes -
I really felt like training was going pretty well up through the Birkie Half marathon.  I felt great at paces faster than what is on our training schedule.  Then....we both spent nearly 2 weeks being sick.  The first week took us nearly completely out of the game.  Got in a few really easy runs but my sinuses were on fire and it just made me feel dizzy.   A couple runs I think I ended in a near panic attack because I was so %^@! frustrated at feeling like this cold was making me take steps backwards in my training.  Damn it.....
Plus I made the decision to buy different shoes than I've been in the past few years.  Mostly because I was fit for them and they are at least $40 cheaper.  So far I think they are ok.  Knees were heating up a little bit and damn near failed on me during our 18 miler last weekend but they seem to be recovering.   I just hope that the shoes I'm going to be running in (which are my old brand/model again) are going to be ok.  

Wedding Shoes, my usual brand



New Shoes for Training, new brand

We had our first long run LAST weekend.  (Strangely enough we are starting to call anything up to 13 a "run" and if it's over 13 it then becomes a "long run")  It was a 16 miler so we plotted out a fairly flat course around the lakes and down the parkway.  We had a good breakfast before we left and I brought 3 gels to take about every 4 miles.  Everything was going pretty good until mile 13ish.  SMACK!  (Who the hell put that wall there???)   Our bodies were going downhill fast.   My problem was more that my knees and ankles were starting to get weak and very sore and Mark was out of fuel.   The last 3 miles were awful and we had to walk a bit. 
Some definite adjustments when we did our 18 this past weekend and luckily it was much cooler weather.  I had caffeinated gels with me and a pack of Sharkies as a solid food.  I probably took 4 miles to slowly suck on those and actually finish the pack and I think that made a big difference in keeping my energy up better than just gels.  

Please send happy, healthy, unpainful thoughts for my knees at this weekend's 20 miler...

 

New Work - ZapEvent Marketing -
Work has been going great and we are looking at some definite growth over the next year.   The scary/exciting part for me is that I've decided to transition myself out of the customer service roll and into strictly Marketing (note....I have little Marketing background!)   It's going to take me some time to get my feet under me and figure out what exactly I need to do to be successful in 2011 but I think I have great support from Jeff to make it happen.  Some days I get really nervous about being able to be successful at it but I'm going to give it my best....

More New Work - Examiner.com -

My Profile Pic - I'm up in a tree and NO
I'mnot being impailed through the
shoulder.  The short branch in front of
me just lines up nicely with the one
that's behind me :)

As if I didn't have enough going on already, I submitted an application to be the writer for Examiner.com specifically about Minneapolis Geocaching.   And I got accepted!  It's not something you do for the $$ but it's a lot of fun researching ideas for articles and getting to do profiles on my local geocaching friends.  Some days I get stressed about the fact that I basically added a 3rd job and get sick of not being able to just sit and watch TV some nights.  I am going, going, going until 11pm just about every night lately.

Some days between ZapEvent work, USAT work and wanting to post an Examiner article AND having personal items to do (clean the house, laundry, lawn/garden work, misc projects, wanting to actually cook dinner, keeping up on blogs, paying bills....see my problem?) I just feel like my head is spinning and at any given moment I'm not fully focused on any one thing.   

Diet -

Been pretty good with eating healthy on round 2 of the 3 month "diet".   I do really hate calling it a diet since I'm hoping it's more of a reduced calorie learning experience so that when I reach the end of my weight loss I can maintain my weight with continuing to eat better.

I've been stuck at 143.5 for like 3 weeks now and it's driving me nutz.  While looking at healthy recipes in my Runners World Magazine, I got all obsessed with wanting to buy healthier food but since our money is really tight we don't buy fresh groceries as often as I would like.  I told Mark a few days ago that I wanted to get a subscription to Clean Eating.

He earned SERIOUS brownie points when I came home yesterday to the latest Clean Eating Magazine and all the ingredients for a watermelon salad recipe I pointed out that I wished we could try.  I was so excited to actually get to make a new healthy recipe for us :D

Wedding -
Not much real planning to do any more without the reception so we're basically just down to making sure we have all of our outfits in line.   Mark picked up his wedding shoes this past week so we are going to use them for short, clean runs to get them broken in between now and the wedding.  I picked up my tulle and some other shiny, sheer fabric.  I've got some fun ideas for my veil but now just have to figure out how in the heck to actually put it together.

The Course Map and Elevation Chart are also available now if you are interested in seeing the RnR route.  The second half is a LOT of twisting and turning but luckily the final 6 miles are nearly all at a nice downhill grade.

You can also sign up for runner tracking HERE if you are interested in keeping an eye on how we are doing on the marathon.  We will be running all of the marathon together so you will only need to really get updates on one of us :)

I'll finish with this cute picture of my Maverick tearing apart his favorite toy.....my roll of paper towels.

He's too cute to be mad at :)

Living With Dogs

Rule #1 - Nothing that is food, smells like food, looks like food, or is nearby to food can be put anywhere below 5 feet of the ground. Made the mistake of putting a bag of baking items in a reusable bag in the closet. While we were gone, one/two of them opened the bifold door and ripped apart the tupperware containers of sugar, flour and even the Hershey's cocoa powder. Mark and I were pretty much already at the end of our sanity ropes by time we got home and saw the mess. Truffle (our miniature pincher) was COVERED in flour and cocoa powder. (BUSTED little girl!!) Lesson learned....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark and I have been working non-stop to get me moved into his house. He's been doing some remodeling projects and I've been trying my best to consolidate everything from my townhouse. We've also put a bit of time into re-arranging things for the dogs to now have access into the basement. It seems things are all falling into place and our stuff is all fitting together pretty well. Moving just is never fun. I'm so excited for us to be in one place but so much of his stuff and my stuff has to be STUFFED into a storage locker. I did a more detailed write up on our A Life More Complete blog that should be posted soon.

Diet - out. the. window. Another product of moving. Our time has been so cramped and half my kitchen is in boxes so in the past 4 days, 3 of them included pizza and pop. I know when we get settled and the kitchen is in one piece and we have money to go buy decent groceries again we'll be back to our normal eating healthy routine. This morning I woke up feeling so "blah" that I dug out the last two pieces of frozen chicken and am going to do just that with mixed veggies for dinner.

Training - see the above response to "Diet". Another reason I'm feeling totally "blah!" We have put moving/cleaning/remodeling as priority #1 and therefore we haven't run, swam, biked, lifted in like two weeks.

This weekend can't get here soon enough! The goal is to have me and the kitties staying at the house starting Saturday. We will gain ridiculous numbers of hours a week back that we currently are spending driving back and forth between houses so training and eating better will be so much easier. Plus we are working to get my townhouse rented out so the extra income will allow us to crawl out from underneath our credit card max limits.

And I can get back to wedding reception planning <3

5k Training and Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon

I feel like I've bounced back and forth with wedding updates.   Tonight my write up is on our "A Life More Complete" blog so go there to check that out. 

I just wanted to quickly update on training.  We are still concentrated on 5k speed and Wednesday we went to Core/Speed class at ALARC where luckily the "speed" part of the group was doing track repeats.   The schedule was to do 1 mile repeats but a few of us were kind of doing our own thing.   Mark and I needed to do 1/2 mile race pace repeats with a few minutes rest in between.   I did manage to make each of the 5 repeats on pace but my heart rate was averaging high 180's and my legs were Jello.   I did what I needed to do but I can't help but keep thinking.....how the hell am I going to keep up THAT pace for 23 minutes and 18 seconds?!?!?

And unfortunately when we got to the Wednesday night training, we got out of the car and out of no where I started feeling a pinch in my right glute/hamstring.   It hurt when I walked but was ok while I ran.   By the end of the evening and most of the next day it was tight and painful mostly behind my knee (argh!!!)  But luckily today (Friday) it seems to be mostly gone.   I've been taking Advil and using BioFreeze so I'm guessing that helped it heal.

Short easy run tomorrow morning and then we are off to a geocaching 10 year anniversary event for the afternoon and getting to go to the Owl City concert.   I managed to win tickets from 101.3 KDWB on Twitter :D   Then we are both hoping for a soak in the spa.   Sunday morning is the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon.   We haven't been training for this distance so we are mostly doing it for fun (and the 30 year anniversary finisher's medal).  I keep telling myself this race is for fun but subconsciously I know I want to still pull at least an OK time.   Not wanting to push for a new 13.1 PR but at least well under a 10 min/mile pace average.

We are hoping to maybe make some time and find mental/physical energy to get out on our road bikes this weekend.   3 weeks until the Gear West Duathlon and I feel like my attempt at that race is going to be a complete joke at this point.   I haven't been on ANY bike for probably more than a total of 3 hours since last September.  (another sigh....)

Weight loss is ok but very slow since I'm not honestly trying very hard.  I want to be but just not quite sticking to it.  Especially with all these free dinners and drinks we have been getting lately for wedding events.  Still targeting another 4 pounds by my birthday (June 7th)

Trying not to be too depressed over our housing situation.  Absolutely no idea how we are going to come up with the spare cash to make the downpayment so I get really bummed out thinking we are going to be married and still live in TWO houses :(  In the meantime we are working on going through all of our stuff to get rid of what we can at my family's garage sale at the end of May and get my placed cleaned up for showing.  Whenever that can actually happen.  Stay tuned....

Wedding and Biking and Triathlons...oh my!

The weeks have been busy as always and when I do finally make my way home, I just can't pull myself up to the computer to write up a blog entry.   I find more and more lately that staring at my computer all day makes me uninterested in looking at it in the evening, especially when we have so little time to sit still as it is.  But I really do think about catching my blog up just about every day.  Maybe sometime soon I'll find a pattern that will make me more consistent :)

Mark and I have been back in the pool a few times and have promised ourselves to get our butts back to Masters in April.  He's been working on bilateral breathing and I'm trying to concentrate on technique.   Still not done any biking but I'll touch on that more here in a minute.  Running has been the bulk of our exercising and it's been great since the weather is finally getting nice.  We are in the base week of a 5k training plan aimed at the Irvin 5k on June 18th.  Unfortunately due to our crazy schedules we've missed the sunny early evening and get stuck running near sunset but I just try to breathe and remember that hopefully somewhere in the next year our housing situation will be resolved.

This weekend is ALARC core class Saturday morning, a MNOC orienteering event at Hyland park in the afternoon, Wizard of Oz at the Orpheum that night THEN Sunday morning an LTF Indoor Triathlon again in Maple Grove, the big wedding expo in the afternoon and possibly a bike ride on our new bikes after that.  More about the "new" bikes in a minute.....

Quick note on that, Mark has landed a new job that he will start in a few weeks and will becoming an employee of the contract house so we should be able to start looking at qualifying for loans in another month of two.  I think I mentioned this before but we want to stay somewhere on the west side of the cities and need a two level house.  Cat level and dog level :)

This last weekend we volunteered for the Team Ortho Get Lucky 7k which was fun.  We did packet pickup at Kieran's new location in Block E on Friday evening and stuck around for a drink and dessert.  Saturday morning we course marshalled on the west river pkwy and thought we could take off for a run right after that.  Unfortunately we got roped into a few other volunteer jobs and didn't get out of there until noon.   Due to needing to get ready for evening plans we didn't get in our run.   Mark went gaming with the boys and I was out for Girls Night with Joni and Deb.  Always a fun time to catch up with them and we tried out the new JJ's Coffee and Wine Bar in EP.  Great place to hang out for a simple dinner and glass of wine and great service.

Sunday we slept in ( yay!! :D) and headed over to a small wedding fair in Chanhassen.   I think we came out with a few good ideas and even won a 50% discount on DJ services which we think we are going to take advantage of.   It's always fun to walk around those expos sampling too many pieces of cake and telling people about our destination wedding and waiting to see if you get a "wow fun!" reaction or a deer-in-the-headlights "what the hell would you do that for?" look and a "oh, wow, that's nice" reaction.  I personally like getting a mix of both to keep things fun :-P 
We do have the big Twin Cities Wedding Fair coming up next weekend and after that we are going to start making some decisions and probably putting down the depositn on our reception site.  I think the Garden Room is still coming in first place due to the great space and price but we'll see if we find anything else.   Still struggling with that to do for the wedding party for the reception in terms of their attire....

Diet has been going ok although we have been letting ourselves slide quite often here and there but still feeling like progress is being made.  Maybe just a little slower than I would like.   One thing I taught myself again (for about the 20th time) is NOT to go running on an empty stomach.  We tried to go for a 3 mile tempo run last week around Lake of the Isles after work and I hadn't eaten anything since lunch.  Horrible stomach pain and thought I was going to puke a few times.  Argh....  hopefully I've learned THIS time.
I have come to what has been a barrier for me in the past.   Last week I weighed in at 145.5.  145 has been a sticking point I have gone down to and back up again a few times now over the past years so it will help me physically and mentally to get below that number.  Yesterday....still 145.5 (sigh...)   I think my body naturally wants to stay at 145 and getting below that is going to be hard to do and maintain.  And maintain enough strong muscle for racing so we'll see if I get much below it in these last few weeks.

And Mark and I made the decision to buy mountain bikes and start adding that to our repertoire.  Since we've gotten into trail running, this will now also get us into off road triathlons and adventure racing as well.  I am a complete novice at real mountain biking so this is going to be a learning experience for me.  Hopefully one that doesn't include any broken anything on my body!

And i'm looking at buying a tri bike.   I just CAN'T tolerate the idea of ever getting back on my road bike.  It's a mental thing but I think I would break into tears if I had to use that for another season.  So I found a barely used 2008 Felt S32 for sale and long story short, I'm picking it up tonight and putting down a deposit to try it out for a week.  I want to try it out and get some opinions on the price he's asking.  I've been told from two sources already that I shouldn't pay more than around $700 for it but he's asking $925.   But I'll work negotiations once I decide it will work.
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And to finish off, my random little story of the week:
I had gotten another betta fish a few weeks ago and one day we were sitting near the tank and I looked at it....looked at Mark and said "uh...where's my fish?"  He had no idea.  I thought maybe it died and he was nice enough to flush it for me before I saw it but that wasn't the case.  After much confusion and a little investigation, I figured out that I left the tank lid open and he jumped out, falling to his death in my recycling bag.   The bag was all crumpled up too since the cats were trying to get at him but they failed.   We found the poor little thing dead in the bottom of my paper recycling.   I was truly bummed but learned never to underestimate a normally docile betta.

Week 6 and 7, Wedding Updates and Training

I feel like I start out this way alot but once again I'm behind in blog posts!  I think about writing all the time but just don't seem to actually get around to it.  So I'll apologize if this one is a little "jumpy" in topics!

The diet is going ok although we have been letting ourselves slack a little this past week.  Last week I weighed in at 146.5 which I was happy with.  But this morning after two days of overeating I was up 1.5 lbs.   Argh!   But I guess the good thing is that I know why I didn't lose weight this week.  It's my own fault and now I just have to work to correct it.

Run training has been going ok.  Since the weather is finally getting up in the 40's (F), Mark and I have been outside for a few good runs.  The current plan is to concentrate on 5k speed but get our long runs up to 1hr 30 min before the Lake Minnetonka Half on May 2nd.   I know I still owe you all a list of which races we are signed up for :)

This past weekend Mark and I did the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon at the Eden Prairie club.   I think had we not signed up and paid for it ahead of time we may not have made it there.  Motivation and sleep has felt low lately and I'll get into that more in a minute.   The indoor tri was 10 minute lap swim, 10 min transition, 30 min spin, 10 min transition, 20 min treadmill run.  I knew I couldn't push too hard on the swim or bike since training in those areas has been lacking but I was basically ok with how my swim went.  The spin was ok, just found a comfortable mid-level pace where I could still talk and managed to keep my legs moving.   I have been on a bike seat MAYBE 2-3 times for a spin class since IMoo.   The bike was really what makes me regret all the time I wasted on that one stupid race.  But someday I'll come out of that funk and maybe accept my finish.  May require a good psychologist but definitely no budget for that.

I digress....

The run was the one real spot I felt (and I think the same goes for Mark) that I could really try to push a little.   I started off at 7.5mph and felt pretty good only being 0.5mph behind where Mark was but of course as he increased his speed, I had to throttle back to 7.0 for the last few minutes and then bumped up to 8.0 for the last minute or so.   Heart rate average was somewhere in the mid 180s topping out at 193.   Here's a link to the results if you wish to see:  LTF Indoor Tri - EP

We also have been passing back and forth this nasty head cold over the past month and that's been our reason/excuse for not getting back to swim training at Master's in the mornings.   I am feeling increasingly guilty ever day I'm still not going to swim training but at the same time I am SO tired in the mornings that getting up seems much more painful than another hour or so of sleep.  We do still enjoy going to Core with ALARC at least once a week for strength/core training.

I am looking forward to the trails clearing and drying up soon as I want to get out for some trail runs.   I'm looking forward to giving that more of a try this year.  Just to mix it up a little and it will also come in handy for our other adventures of adventure racing, orienteering and geocaching mega events that will be talked about on our combined blog. 

Wedding plans are going pretty well.   I had the thought of unveiling the plans more grandly than this but I think I've got to just find one of those planner pages to fill out and keep you connected to as I make updates!   (Suggestions anyone other than The Knot.com?)  So the countdown clock on my blog is headed for Dec 5th, 2010.  For those of you that don't know, we have decided to run the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon that day and get married at their "run through" ceremony.   Go to the website and click on Entertainment and then "Run Through Wedding Ceremony"  We run/walk to mile 3.5 where about 50+ couples will either be getting married or renew their vows under the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel, we kiss to seal the deal and then take off to finish the marathon.   We met running, got engaged on a run and now will get married on a run.   We wanted to do something different and unique and what would be more fitting?   We are planning to come home and have a reception dinner and dance probably the following weekend.   We have checked out a few venues, one in Eden Prairie right now is the front runner.   The top choices we looked into were Guthrie Theatre or Mill City Museum (can we say WAY expensive!?!) and the MN Zoo (which will be closed for rentals next winter for construction).  

Kinda bummed that money is coming in the way of doing something downtown since we both also have a love for going to downtown shows and restaurants but I guess it's more important we try to save some money to hopefully get a house together.

Currently we still aren't in a place financially to be able to house hunt so our motivation and sleep has been lacking to due the fact that we still need to do a LOT of running back and forth to end up in the same spot in the evenings and keep the cats and dogs taken care of.  Hopefully we can at least start looking before we get married as I think it will be slightly depressing to be looking towards our first anniversary and still have two separate houses.

So this weekend is a fun 5k for St. Patrick's Day.   OSE Shamrock Shuffle.  Results to follow....hopefully less than a week later :-P

Week 3 and 4

The past few weeks have been a little trying on the diet since we had quite a few things going on.  So the past two weeks basically ended up a wash.  No gain, no loss.   Sigh....   I'm trying not to invision any changes showing up tomorrow either and I guess I'm better off with no expectations and be surprised.

We've been out running a few times which has been refreshing although I still struggle with feeling like my athletic ability is ever going to be anything worth anything.  We've also been to the pool a few times but no adventures on a bike seat (which will likely crush my mental stability to a pulp for awhile) 

We are hoping to get back in the pool on a regular basis starting in March with a new morning swim training routine.   Running just happens whenever possible and we try to fit in strength training once a week. 

I'm feeling a little spratic today in my writing but I wanted to get something down.  The lack of sunlight and mileage driven on a daily basis definitely takes a toll on our free time.   And yes I'm sure you've noticed most of this entry is "us" and "we" (and I love it btw :)

Wedding plans are slowly taking shape.  We are going to a few wedding expos over the next few weeks and will hopefully find some fun creative ideas and then I can give a better report on the plans.   In the meantime, you'll all have to watch my wedding day countdown clock, make your best guesses on why we chose the date we did and be patient until I have enough to "unveil" to you.   :)

Week 2 Update - And Multisport Expo / InStep 5k

So first thing yesterday morning we did our check on how the weight loss is going. I was excited to see a drop of 4 pounds after only losing 1 last week. Mark was quick to say "I told you so" since he's been telling me since last week that I would surely see a change. Yes honey, you were right and I feel better now actually seeing the change :) Looks like he and I might be flip flopping weeks. He loses more one week, I lose more the next. Works for me as long as there IS a loss of something.

Plus I've been feeling much better physically. The first week to 10 days was torturous on my physical and mental energy. I had stomach pains and just felt like not moving, I was OUT of energy. But the past few days I've been feeling much better. I think my body is finally in a rhythm with my new eating habits. (excluding Sunday when driving home after the 5k race in the morning and a full afternoon of caching I thought my body was going to shut down I felt so crappy and hungry!) It dawned on me today that what I'm eating during the day too has taken a drastic change for the better. Before, my foods were WAY excessive in calories and carbs. Today I looked down at what I packed for food and was pleased to know I was happy bringing an apple, clementine, raspberry yogurt with pomegranate seeds and a little leftover cornbread stuffing to get me through the day.

So back to recap this weekend.....

Mark and I were extremely impressed by the Multisport Expo we attended in Milwaukee this past weekend. Below are a bunch of pictures of what they all had going on. There were a lot of high profile vendors, great speakers and fun activities. I even ran into a couple of the Midwest USAT council members that had booths there and we all agreed it's crazy that USAT didn't have a presence there. I got to meet the Event Director, Hank, to briefly discuss online registration but I also connected with him that I would hopefully be able to bring USAT to this expo next year and spread the word to Twin Cities clubs about this event and the bike time trials. To be at something like this and NOT see Gear West red everywhere was just odd :-P I promised to pass the word along to Kevin at GW.
Here are some pics from the Expo

A view of some of the booths

The endless pool available to try

The portable showers :)

Team Bike Time Trials

Saturday night we took it easy. Mark picked up take out from TGI Fridays and a bottle of wine. We did some geocaching queries and then relaxed in the spa tub for quite awhile. It's so rare we get a relaxing evening since we spend a lot of time driving back and forth to care for his dogs and my kitties.

The next morning we got up to run the Instep 5k going on at the Expo.

Super cute puppy that ran the course

There were a few hundred runners there and it was a great course. Through the WI State Fair Park and around the Milwaukee Mile Race Track.

Here's me passing the Cattle Barn

Nearly perfectly flat so it was a perfect benchmark race to log for the beginning of my season. I didn't push hard but I didn't slow up either. Mark, as always, encouraged me along and I'm sure contributed to me being faster than I would have by myself. I was very content knowing I can mark the start of my run season with a 5k time of 27:20 (8:48 min/mile) and an avg HR of 179. Feeling like my 7:30 min/mile pace is actually reachable by mid-June although I know it's going to be a tough road to shave off 4 minutes.

Post race with my cup of pretzels

Here we are in front of the main park sign

After the race, we spent the afternoon geocaching through the area before heading home mid-afternoon. We will get the write up of the fun caches we picked up on our "A Life More Complete" blog soon.

Other updates - I've been going to Beginning Jazz dance classes at Zenon on Tuesday nights and that has been a lot of fun. I really miss dance. Although I have found I still suck at double turns :-P

We have Core/Speed with ALARC tonight which has proven to be a great addition to our weekly workouts.

Diet Update and the 2010 Great Lakes Multisport Expo

This week has gone pretty well but I must say that my body has not been happy with this diet.   My doctor swears I'm not diabetic (two people in my family are) but with how crappy I feel sometimes when I'm really hungry I have to figure something is off.   Tired, headaches...just lethargic.   Bleh.....   But to try and combat that, I've been attempting to stretch out my eating during the day as much as possible as to not have massive gaps in between munching.   Monday we went to Core/Speed after work and I felt like my body was going to shut down.   Luckily Mark was full of energy and felt fine but part of me wanted to knock him over and steal some of that energy for myself.  It was awful....

And to add insult to injury, he shows a noticable change at our one week "weigh in" and I only drop 1.5 pounds.   The problem being that I have been flexing between 153-156 for months now so for it to go from 155 last week to 153.5 this week felt like I made no progress through all those days that I felt crappy.  One week down, 11 to go.  Sigh.... hopefully next week will show better results.

We are headed out to Milwaukee this weekend for the 2010 Great Lakes Multisport Expo.   I actually found out about this at work since I was researching RACC and attempting to contact them and see if I could convince them to try ZapEvent for their online registrations.   They actually put on the event and considering it's going to be full of race director's and event info, Mark and I figured it would be a fun reason to get away for a few days, check out more events to possibly participate in and network a bit for my work. 

While we're there, we will of course take the opportunity to:

1) Geocache the Milwaukee area

2) SLEEP IN!! without being woken up by dogs or cats (but please note I will miss them dearly while we're gone :)

3) Run in the Instep 5k Race Against Childhood Cancer on Sunday morning

The Geocaching piece will be documented in our "A Life More Complete" blog so check there over the weekend for details on our adventures and finds.   We are bringing a few of our new 2010 Coffee Love Pathtags along so drop in the area.

Farewell for now....

Securian 5K

So now while in Day 4 of our strict diet, Mark and I were off to run our first "race" of the season. The Securian 5k. This was more of a "get the body back to moving" race, just for fun and to get the cool swag.

A big ol' mug and they had cool shirts this year but they cost us extra.

We started out by watching the half marathoners take off and wish good luck to Steve in a Speedo, who in this picture is taking a picture of the crowd lined up.

Here's me trying to stop shivering long enough for a quick picture

Anyway, I was feeling quite hungry at the start of the race but was hoping the bagel I had for breakfast would carry me through. It was quite a chilly start, a little windy and a little drizzly. Since we had to keep track of our own time, we just started at the back as to not get forced into a too fast pace or get trampled.

The first mile I felt pretty good. Didn't feel like I was moving very fast but not making any big push to go fast either. Second mile I started to feel the weakness in my legs. Crap....fuel tank was starting to be obviously low. Somewhere around here we ran past the caterpillar of runners from a local run group so I gave them a high five.

Mile 3....somebody drag me! I could tell I had no fuel anywhere in my immediate digestive system and I was running on mental energy alone. That carried me through (barely) and a drug myself up the final hill to the finish. Ugh.....  You can see the "2" behind my head.  Clocked showed 29:52 when we crossed.  So minus the 35 seconds before we crossed the start line, our final time was 29:17.

What did I learn?? There is a VERY good reason to fill the tank before every race. I felt like crap for the rest of the afternoon. Tired, week, cramped stomach. Luckily (or unluckily for my diet) we were having dinner at my parent's house so I got in a good re-fueling. We went a little over in our calorie count for the day but oh well.

29:17 was our final time. Check our Mark's blog write up too if you get a chance. Faster than I thought it would be. Avg hr - 173

Here are a few other pictures from after the race.   Of course we went straight for Caribou Coffee to warm up and had a quick chat with Dave Ryan, local radio talent. 

And on the way back to the car we saw the mascot for the race and grabbed a quick pic with him as well.

Then, since we were in downtown St. Paul, we buzzed by where the ice sculptures were being displayed for the Winter Carnival.   While I was freezing, it was just around freezing air temperature so many of the sculptures were dripping a bit but still very detailed and very cool!

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I've been doing very well keeping to my calories of this diet but have been feeling "bleh" more often than not. Especially when we exercise. It often feels like I'm going against everything I've been taught. You must feed your system in order to have energy to workout properly. I know it's just about losing the fat right now and needs to be about cardio workouts and calorie burning but it makes me frustrated that I feel weak and light-headed from time to time and can't keep up with the group. I want to be getting faster and stronger this year. How can I do that while feeling hungry and weak? Sigh..... The first few weeks are going to be rough but then we up the calorie intake a little for Month #2 to properly accomodate our workout schedule. Hopefully then I can feel like I'm making progress on both the front of weight loss AND speed/strength training. For now, I just have to keep muddling through and know the end result will be worth it.
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Next weekend Mark and I are headed out to Milwaukee for a Multisport Expo. Reason #1 to go and check out what's up and what's new and #2 to network and hopefully make some connections for work. There will be a lot of race directors at this conference and I hope to get to know a few of them enough that they will at minimum return my emails :)

And PS - I can't even begin to tell you how disappointing the Vikings loss to New Orleans was on Sunday.   I'm going to be distraught about that one for a few days.   Many mistakes lead to them losing that game and....I thought I would never say this but.... I actually feel bad for Brett Favre.  

The Next 90 days

Well actually today is Day 2 so technically it's 89 days.  But anyway......

I'm totally going to cheat and cut and paste some information from Mark's blog since he's very nicely given the details on what our plans are for the next year, race-wise.  I will try to get a complete listing up in the right hand column soon!!

I will second Mark first by saying that 2010 is shaping up to potentially be a banner year.  Finally back in a full time job, getting slowly back on my feet financially, have a wonderful new relationship.  I'm very excited for what is in store.  The past few years have had anything BUT a bright outlook.  I feel like I've finally plugged back into the world and am moving excitedly forward, For those of you that don't know, we also have a combined blog “A Life More Complete”. I invite you to take a look and see what we are up too when we are not racing or training, which is the subject matter for this blog.

When it comes to the fitness, racing, running, triathlon, multisport front, we have now pretty much nailed down our schedule for the year race wise, and we are now putting together the specifics of our training schedule. From a 10,000 foot view 2010 is shaping like this:

Jan 20th – April 20th: will be our 90 day get back into shape for the season and I will explain the 90 day thing in a minute.

April – June: will be focused on running speed with our goal “A” race being William A Irvin 5K where we both hope to set new 5K PR and in particular, I have a goal of a 7:30 pace, while Mark will fly by me shooting for a sub 20 minute 5K.

June – mid September: We switch to the multisport side of things and work on our speed during Sprint Triathlons & Duathlons, with the final race being a strange mix of speed and endurance at Burrito Union 10 Hour Triathlon as a two person relay team. (One of us completes a full sprint triathlon and then the second person starts the “next leg”, another full sprint triathlon on the same course, and then we alternate for 10 hours.  I've heard such great things about how fun this race is so it should be quite the experience!

I also will be signing up for Minneman Tri again.   PRAYING the equipment gods send me a new bike for this summer and I can again beat my time from the prior year.  This race is definitely my "benchmarker" season to season.

September- December: Will see start switching back to running but in an endurance mode with plans to run the New York Marathon (I've got my name in for the lottery, Mark is already running for sure) in November, Las Vegas Rock & Roll Marathon in December and then after the first of the year, Goofy’s Challenge – Half Marathon on Saturday and Full Marathon on Sunday at Disneyland.

It is going to be a full year! Not only with our race schedule but we are also adding new components, winter sports (XC Ski and Snowshoe), Trail Running, Orienteering and Adventure racing as well. Most of those items we will blog about in our combined blog but I'm sure I'll touch on them from time to time here as well since some of that activity will be race type events.

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So the 90 day thing......as usual we both gained a few pounds over the winter off season but honestly I've been wanting to lose a few more pounds than just getting back down to where I was last summer.  I feel like I'm in "ok" shape now, last summer I was in "good" shape...but I'm shooting for "great".  I haven't felt "great" for years in terms of how I look.  Now that I have Mark in my life to help me better myself and be there training/racing right along side me, I feel confident I can reach my goals.   I've been ridiculously over-eating and continuing on that path will lead to poor race condition for this summer.   So Mark came up with the idea that we are going to take 90 days and get back into shape.  Diet and Exercise.   And it just so happens the end of that 90 days is Mark's 40th birthday.  Figure it I get all back in shape I can count it as a present for him :-P

So here goes....all the stuff a woman normally won't admit too.  But I want to get down all the "yuck" about where I'm at now so that I can have a "YAY!" blog to show how great I've done.   Hold me accountable people.....

Current Measurements:

Arms - 11"
Waist - 28"
Hips - 40"
Legs - 23.25"

Weight - 155lbs

I don’t have any particular goals for the measurements, those are just interesting benchmarks; my major goal is my weight. The plan is to be down to between 140-145 lbs, lean and a low body fat percentage and then we are looking at doing the V2O Max and a new Bod Pod testing for body composition for additional benchmarks going forward.

So how do I (we) get from here to there in 90 days? We have joined ALARC and are attending their Speed & Core class; the classes are on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday morning, which we plan on attending 2 sessions a week. We have also found a different Masters Swim group that is at 6-7am Wednesday and Friday. As much as we both love Scott’s Hopkins Masters group, the 5:30 is just too early for us and the 6:30 is just a little too late before work. We are also going to be on a diet and closely track what we eat with Livestrong.com’s Daily Plate.

We have already started getting back out and running this past weekend and our first race, just for fun, is this coming Saturday, the Securian Frozen 5K. A great swag race as they give out a nice coffee cup for finishing the race.

So there it is.  We're in Day 2 and due to the massive calorie reduction I feel like I'm going to fall over!  And thank the heavens I can still fit in my morning coffee with cream!  But it feels good to know I'm doing it and I'm going to make it work.   We didn't take "before" photos yesterday but I think we will do that tonight.  But I might not post them until this is all over :)