Week 8 weigh in

Woo! Week 8!! lol NO cause time is moving along way tooo fast and the numbers are moving waaay to slow! BUT before we get into the weigh in lets talk about workouts. I currently HATE running. Poor Serg wakes up in the morning and has to listen to me carry on like a child you are forcing to go to school about how much I hate it. He then does the best he can to repeat my motivational sayings to me and though he usually gets them wrong it is much appreciated. Right now I try to run at least 2 times a week and go to the gym 3 times. If I get in an extra day or do 2 workouts in for the day then that is just a bonus.

OH but guess what?! I found my favorite spin instructor. A new LA Fitness just opened so I was looking at the schedule and saw his name but I didn’t want to get overly excited until I saw it with my own eyes. I went Saturday to check it out and saw a few familiar faces from the other LA and knew it had to be him. I cannot express how excited I was to take the class. The class is so much fun, the people are fun, he is fun… I guess you can say its.. well.. FUN 🙂

So annnnyway. The weigh in. For week 7 I lost 4 ounces and much to my surprise this morning I was down another 1.8 for a total of 10 pounds lost!!! WOO!!!! FINALLY!! At this rate maybe I will lose 20 pounds by the end of April instead of 30. I mean I have 7 weeks left. I am sure I CAN lose 20 pounds by then but realistically at this point I would say 10 is more achievable but hey.. who knows. Either way I shall keep it moving!

 

Week 7/8: -2.2

Total lost: 10

7 weeks left: 20 pounds to go

 

Week 3- minus the weigh in

So here we are, week 3, and guess what?! I didn’t weigh myself. No, I certainly didn’t.. Because I enjoyed my Super Bowl Sunday and I treated myself to pizza last night for the first time in a month. I have been doing this for some time now so I know how my body will react. I know I will hold onto more water than I should. I know the scale will sometimes just be there to make me cry. So instead of putting that misery on myself I just got up today and went about my business. I got my run in and I got back on track.

The journey isn’t always easy. It’s not easy getting out there every morning knowing I have to work harder now that I gained some weight. It’s not easy knowing the results won’t come over night but I have a lot to work for. I am starting to feel that emotion I felt when I first started in my workouts. I feel what’s on the line. I get choked up thinking about the future and how things will be.

When I started training for my first half marathon there was a lot of emotion in my runs. I would get all caught up and sometimes want to cry because I knew what I was doing it for. I now feel that again. I now remember why I started in the first place.

I once told a friend it was like a fire inside you but my fire had been put out and I couldn’t rub two stones together to start that spark back up. BUT it’s here and it’s FIERCE! So yea I can go out there and feel sorry for myself or I can go out there and just make it happen.

I have about 12 weeks left. Will I reach my goal of 30 pounds? Only time will tell but you better believe I am going to make damn sure its not for lack of trying.

 

 

 

 

Week 1 weigh in

If you read my blog last week then you know my goal is to lose 30 pounds by the end of April which worked out to 2 pounds a week. This seems simple enough, right? Well so far so good. I am happy to say that I lost 4.7 pounds so far! Even more than that I am extremely excited that I didn’t put on any of that dreaded ‘weekend weight’. I weighed myself Friday to see where I was and then again this morning and to my surprise I actually lost a pound this weekend. I guess its not much of a surprise seeing as how I really tried this weekend to stay focused and even got my butt up to run on Saturday morning. Will I be this good with my food every weekend? Probably not. If it was that easy for me I wouldn’t have put this weight back on in the first place BUT the only thing I can do it take it one day at a time. So here is to 2 more pounds by next Monday and doing everything I can this week to stay on track.

Week 1= -4.7 lbs

14 weeks left = 25.3 pounds to go!

 

“Tell your mind to get out of your body’s way.” – Dolvett

So as you may have heard and/or read in my last blog, I gained some weight and I have been lazy AND NOTHING FITS! And basically I am done with it but it’s not always that easy. It’s not easy to get out of your own head and stop thinking about how you USED to be thinner and healthier or how you USED to be able to run faster or farther. It’s not easy to think about where you could be now if you just kept going. There are days where you cannot get away from it like when this picture pops up on your timehop and painfully reminds you of how amazing you not only used to look but feel.

 

None of those thoughts are easy to ignore but guess what?! They don’t help so they just need to be turned into positive thoughts.

I was organizing my drawers yesterday and as I sat there miserable looking at all the clothes I can no longer fit into, cursing myself for ever even buying any of them, I thought to myself well.. Now when you lose the weight again you won’t have to go out and buy new clothes because you already have so many nice things right here waiting for you and then I started getting excited about fitting into them again. Small VICTORY.

I have a goal of losing 30 pounds by the end of April which pretty much breaks down to about 2 pounds a week. This is totally doable and there is no reason I cannot make this happen. I am really going to have to work on my weekend eating habits though.. those are always dangerous for me. All I can do is keep moving forward and take it one day at a time so that is what I will do.

Later 2013

Geez I haven’t written a blog in over a month! I have thought about it a few times but just never actually got around to it. Lets wrap up 2013 and get 2014 underway shall we!?

I will start with some sad news. On December 10th my grandpa passed away. He is the one I wrote about in my I run because I can blog. It was really tough to know he is no longer with us but at the same time I was happy knowing that he got to heaven just in time to spend Christmas with my grandma and the rest of the family. I honored him by eating pizza and cannoli’s like any good Italian would and spent time with the family talking about the good ol days. RIP Gramps. You will always be in our hearts.

December of course is a busy month. We celebrated my little brothers birthday which is December 4th and my mom’s birthday which is December 28th.

I had off from work from the 20th of December until January 2nd. That was a glorious yet of course not long enough vacation. Mom and I baked up a storm for days as we do every year. We do tequila shots and listen to Christmas music in honor of my grandma who passed away in December of 2001. We laugh, sometimes we cry. We (I) throw flour around my mom’s kitchen. It’s a good time.

While I was off from work I did get in some runs and workouts including my 9.5 mile run as part of my training for princess half marathon. I added up the total number of miles I ran in 2013 and it came out to 447.42 miles!! I went from 0 half marathons to 4!

We spent NYE with some good friends and then had a nice little family dinner new year’s day.

Oh and I only gained about 4 pounds over my 2 week vacation and believe me when I say that I ATE.

I am looking forward to pushing myself more this year and continuing this journey. I will be turning 30 in a few months!!

I joined my first dietbet! Its starts today!

My next half marathon is next month. I will be looking up some more races once I am done with this blog so that I can add some more to the race calendar and keep myself moving.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a very happy new year!

Let’s get moving!

I run because I can

A few months ago my grandpa was going in and out of the hospital with pneumonia. He had been put in a rehab facility and we had planned on going to see him over the weekend when my mom got a call saying they weren’t sure he was going to make it until the weekend so we both left work and headed up to Fort Pierce to see him. He was in bad shape, he could barely talk or move and honestly we all pretty much just sat there and cried. But he did make it. He got a little better and then worse again. I am almost positive the people at the rehab place were trying to kill him and you cannot convince me otherwise. We would spend the weekend up there so we could visit him and spend time with him and some days we would walk in and he wouldn’t have his oxygen, he wouldn’t have anything to drink.. Anyway that’s the sort version. It was really hard for me to sit at home during the week and wonder if he was thirsty or if he ate his dinner. I would sit there and wonder what it would be like to not be able to get out of bed when I wanted to, to not be able to get a drink when I was thirsty or go to the bathroom by myself. He has Alzheimer’s and dementia and is currently living in an assisted living facility I guess you would call it. He has good days and bad days. The last few times I saw him he was sleeping. I’ll tell you what though, on his good days he is still as funny as ever.

Gramps: Brittany go over there and smack that guy around a little
Me: Ok grandpa.. I’ll get him on the way in
Gramps: Are you refusing a direct order from a Maresco

… Italians…

A few months ago I had written a wonderful blog about this and it sounded so much better and had more details but sadly.. I wrote it in my head. Don’t things always sound better when you are just lying there thinking or running.

I had been going back and forth about running this half marathon for a few weeks (ok months) but one day while I was sitting there with him I thought why the hell not?! Just do it! So when I got home I registered right away. I registered because I can. I registered for this race for everyone else who can’t and wishes that they could. Maybe they don’t wish they could run but maybe they wish they could just walk or brush their own damn teeth. Things that we take for granted every day.

“I run because I can. When I get tired, I remember those who can’t run, what they’d give to have this simple gift I take for granted, and I run harder for them. I know they would do the same for me.”

Don’t get all caught up in how you will do or if you can. Because if you train and if you try you will be fine. Do it while you still can. Who cares how long it takes for you to finish. Who cares if you are the last one to cross the finish line. Celebrate the courage to try! because if your dreams don’t scare you they aren’t big enough.

I run to burn calories
I run to clear my mind
I run for the bling
I run for PRs
I run for good days
I run to make bad days better
I run because I keep signing up for different races which forces me to keep running
I run for the feeling I get when it’s all over. That 10 second high when you cross the finish line
I run because even though it kills me it makes me feel alive

I run for several different reasons but the main reason will always be, because I can

How do I feel about running half marathons on back to back weekends. Right now I wish someone would have punched me in the face when I came up with the idea. Surely I had said it aloud to someone!. . but this is the race I signed up for first and this is the race I wanted to do. Truth be told I had been thinking about it since last year when I had done the 5k portion of this race.

So Sunday, good or bad, I will dedicate my race to my grandpa.

Grandma and Gramps

Me with grandma, grandpa, TIffany and Sambuca

Mom and gramps ready for the Gator game

A few months ago when he was able to eat dinner by himself. What a great visit

being silly

Boca Sun Capital Half Marathon recap

Yesterday I completed my 3rd half marathon of the year! My 3rd half marathon ever actually.

I was kind of excited about the time change so I would have an extra hour to sleep but my phone didn’t turn itself back and woke me up an hour early. Yes, so that is how my morning started. I think I slept 4 hours that night. Oh well. I tried to go back to sleep once I realized the time was wrong but I couldn’t so I laid down for maybe 30 minutes and decided to just get up and make something to eat. As usual I had a bagel with peanut butter. After I ate I got ready and waited for Andrea to pick me up.
We got there about 45 minutes to an hour early, I used the bathroom twice, we chatted and before we knew it, it was time to line up! That is when I really started freaking out. I really don’t know why I get nervous. It’s just a run. There weren’t that many people there though so that didn’t help. I was sure I would be the last to cross the finish line.

It’s funny how right before a race everything starts hurting. Legs, toes, ears, teeth. It’s like your body is trying to convince itself it cannot take on the task ahead. Shut up body I am in charge here and we are doing this damn thing

Once we started running I just got into my groove and the nerves went away. There was a beautiful sunrise but I didn’t have time to take pictures. I actually didn’t take any pictures of the race this time. Ain’t nobody got time for that! One of the reasons I like running different races is because you don’t know the course. Obviously you can look at the course map and see where it goes but it’s an unfamiliar run so my mind doesn’t know when it will reach mile 1, etc.

Anyway so the 5k and half started at the same time. Andrea took off into the crowd of runners and I assumed she would finish the race an hour before me and might have possibly eaten my donuts by the time I got there. I was pretty much in the back the whole time. I was worried that once all of the 5k runners did the turnaround I would be completely by myself. Good news is that there were still a few people behind me. I ran a lot of the race alone. Like I said I was in the back. There were people behind me but not near me and the only time I was with a bunch of people was when there would be turnarounds or if they were coming out of a loop. But I didn’t mind it. It was just like running a training run alone. It was actually pretty cool because there was no one to get in my way. My garmin was right on point with the mile markers for about the 1st 4 miles which surprised me.

One thing I had been worried about was the bridge because I hate them and we had to run over it twice but it was actually a baby bridge and I had to laugh at it.. you call this a bridge?? Right.. I reached the 5 mile marker somewhere around 1:01 or 1:02 and I was surprised I was still keeping up with the pace. Surely I was going to die out soon but I figured might as well push it while I can. At mile 8 I noticed I was still keeping good pace (for me) and I was trying to calculate in my head when I would finish if I kept it up. I thought for a second hey buddy you can reach your goal of 2:45! Before the summer when I was thinking about running the half I am running next weekend I had set a goal to finish in 2:45 and then the summer came and it was hot and miserable and I didn’t run as much or as long as I should have so I thought whatever, just finish and be happy. After all if you don’t put in the work you only have yourself to blame and no excuses in the world will make it better but I digress. Holy smokes I had a chance!! Run run run, back over the bridge and we are heading home at this point. YAY! My favorite part. Until I realized around mile 9 that there were people coming towards me which means they were looping back around which I don’t like! I am going home!!!!! Not backwards!

::beep beep:: I saw Kevin, Mom and Sergio driving by. Hey guys! I saw the mile 12 marker for the turnaround and hoped they didn’t see it and assume I was almost done but turns out they saw the mile 9 so they knew I wasn’t almost done. Well I was almost done compared to where I started.

Eventually I turned into the park and had to run up the hill back out and back down to where I just came from. At this point I was upset. I don’t think that was the best way to have the course. There was a fork for the finish or to head back out. Would anyone notice if I just went to the finish?? But I couldn’t cheat myself so over the hill I went. I was so thirsty I had to stop and fill up my water bottle at the only water fountain I saw. At this point there was some kind of bike race happening and they had us running in the bike lane so they bikers weren’t happy and I wasn’t either because they kept yelling in my ear. Whatever I just had to make it to the turn around and I would FINALLY be going home.

In the distance I thought I saw Andrea but I couldn’t tell because I am blind and she was wearing black. Next time do me a favor and wear bright orange or something mmmkay. Thanks! Turns out it was her and she had just turned around to head to the finish line. I gave her a high five and kept going. Reached the turnaround and kicked it into gear! At this point I was seeing all of the ladies I had run some of the race with, I was now kicking their butt. We cheered each other on and I kept going. Ran by Andrea and told her “let’s go! We are almost done!” Back into the park and made my way to the finish line. There right before it I saw my mom, Kevin, Sergio and Andrea’s crew. I pretended to fix myself up and I ran across that finish line! BOOM! 2:43:24 that just happened

2:43!!!!!!

I got my medal and heard Andrea say behind me something about getting medals. I don’t know.. I still had my headphones in. You see before the race they had sent out an email saying they might run out of medals.. MIGHT RUN OUT OF MEDALS?? But we got ours so it’s all good. I found myself heading towards the medics.. No! I was fine but I just happened to be walking that way so I thought it was funny. We got our donuts, found us some bananas and called it a day.

Kevin took me, mom and Sergio out to breakfast. Thanks Kevin! And thanks again for coming to cheer me on guys! After breakfast we went to the old house to finish up a few things.

I am not going to lie. I was really stressed out about this half marathon because I had been in the middle of moving (BUT ITS OVER NOW!! THANK YOU SWEETBABYJESUS), driving back and forth, my legs were hurting, mentally I was tired and the list goes on but I am really happy with how well I ran. I am not expecting much this weekend for my next half just because this is my first time doing back to back weekends and I ran so hard for this race I have no clue how my body will react but I am going to try my best and see what happens.

Pros about this race

Medal
Donuts
Nice view
Cheap

Cons

I am not crazy about the medal
I didn’t like the way the course looped around
When the course went through the park (twice) there were cars driving around. I feel the course should be closed for runners safety.
When we were leaving there were still runners trying to reach the finish line and there were even more cars for them to have to worry about – ridiculous in my opinion
Not enough water stops. Not even close!
Since it was for the Boca PAL I thought there would be more of a police presence… at least to cheer you on

But like I said.. it was cheap so I guess that’s the price you pay!

Congrats to Andrea for completing her 2nd half marathon! Awesome job girl!

And a big congrats to Judy for completing the NYC marathon!! You beast! I kept tracking her times thinking how is she keeping that pace?! If I had to do another half after my half I would have died. Way to go Judy!

February, April, November

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ToT race recap coming soon.. maybe.. but until then

I wanted to write a recap of the race this weekened but I can’t. I am struggling. Actually a lot of it is written but I am not sure I want to publish it as is so I am going to sit on it for a few days and see if my attitude about it changes. I really don’t know what my deal is.

In the meantime! I am pretty excited (mostly nervous) about my next half. That will be my 3rd half. I can’t believe it is only 26 days away. I also can’t believe my 4th half is the weekend after that. So whats that?? 30 something days. Its crazy. I hope I am ready but ready or not here they come!

I guess I better get moving with my training. I am not even sure how many miles I am going to do this weekend or the weekend after but those are the only weekends I have left to get in long runs as I will need to lower my milage the weekend before the race. SWEETBABYJESUS! Where does the time go??

This also means I will have at least 5 half marathon medals after Princess half marathon weekend in Febraury of 2014. I am thinking of adding in maybe 1 more or maybe 2 but I kind of like the sound of 5 for some reason. Lets not get crazy though. From 0-5 in one year would be amazing for me.

I can’t believe its almost Thanksgiving. Those holidays sneak up every year. Fat people holidays as I like to call them. If you can lose weight during the holidays good for you but I love me some Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t even get me started on Christmas cookies and egg nog. Hopefully all of this running will help balance it all out!

I haven’t talked about my weight for a while because there hasn’t been much to say. I am tired of talking about the same 10 pounds. I am almost back to pre Princess half marathon weight, or at least I was before I went to Orlando for a nice 4 day weekend and ate everything in site, but still that’s exciting for me. Right before the princess half was the lowest I had gotten during this journey. I am so thankful that while I haven’t been losing weight I have been fighting to not gain it all back. 10 pounds is still a lot but it could be worse. There is still a long road ahead of me and I do not need to keep making U-turns. Maybe by the end of this month I will finally be back to were I was in Febraury and can continue to move forward towards my goal. I’m coming for you 70 pound mark! I haven’t forgotten about you!!

The Tower of Terror is in 2 days!.. And some other nonsense

Here we are. Just 2 days away from the Tower of Terror 10 miler. Everyone keeps asking me if I am excited and my general answer starts with, “If this week doesn’t kill me..” I feel like I wait so long for these things I burn myself out with excitement long before the race even happens. What I am really excited about is having the day off tomorrow! Yeah buddy!
I am not nervous at all, at least not yet, but I don’t think I will be. This is Melissa’s first big race so I will hand the reigns of nerves over to her (You are very welcome). I am more upset that this will be my last race with my first ever pair of running shoes. I will have a little retirement ceremony for them next week. No, seriously I am just too much lately. I am sitting here listening to Pandora and it’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men comes on and I start thinking about my shoes! Really?? Yes, really.

“How do I say goodbye to what we had?
The good times that made us laugh
Outweigh the bad.

I thought we’d get to see forever
But forever’s gone away
It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

I don’t know where this road
Is going to lead
All I know is where we’ve been
And what we’ve been through.”

Oh, you don’t dedicate songs to your running shoes? I didn’t sleep well last night! Don’t judge me!
So yea.. Tomorrow we will head up to Orlando and at some point over to the expo to get pick up the race packet. I will probably wait for Melissa to do all of that because it’s just part of the fun to do it together. We also have to pick up the after party tickets for Mike and Sergio. I will of course be back next week with a post about the weekend and tons of pictures! I know you can hardly wait! Just hold on for a few more days guys! You can do it!!
Tuesday I went for a run and compared my time to a year ago when I first started running and training for the Princess half marathon. I did the same distance but cut 3 minutes off my time. I am proud of how far I have come and I look forward to accomplishing more goals and hopefully crushing my training which WILL lead to some PRs in the future.
Well I’d love to stay and ramble some more but I have to get home and start packing. Last minute doer of everything right here!
Good luck to everyone running this week! See you all there

I think I can, I think I can!!

After my run last weekend I was a little discouraged about my upcoming races. Not so much the 10 miler because its runDisney and will be fun and thats the reason why I am doing it. For fun. Who runs for fun right? I am a little worried about the half I am running in November. Even though I have only been running for a year I also know better. I know that some runs are good, some are great, some are bad and some are very very bad. It happens and I really have nothing to worry about. However, the other day I decided to go back and read about my feelings before the princess half which you can read about here and my feelings after the race which you can read about here. I think I needed to go back and read through a few blogs and remember those feelings. I needed to renew my attitude and stop doubting myself. Am I 100% ready?? Probably not! But I am already registered and it’s happening whether I like it or not so I better work it out.

As you may remember I have been going back and forth with possibly doing back to back halfs in November. . Yes, I was just complaining about being worried about one and yes I am still considering doing two! Of course Andrea had to message me this morning with the link to the course, which looks amazing by the way, and then she went ahead and registered herself. Here I was sitting at my desk nervous as all hell. Nervous like the half is tomorrow, nervous like I could barely breathe, nervous like I was the one who had registered and then I realized I really should just do it. The time limit is 3 hours which I am worried about but whatever. If you ain’t first you’re last anyway right? Plus, you get a dozen donuts for finishing the half marathon along with a pancake breakfast! Oh yea, you also get a medal. On top of all of that the registration fee is only $45 which is awesome. So many pros!

There are also a few cons though. Let’s start with the obvious one which is the time limit. If it was 3:30 I would be good to go. Then there is also the fact that we are most likely moving at the end of October so I will be very busy preparing for that which means a million excuses to miss runs. AAANND the time changes that weekend. FANTASTIC!

But guess what! I’m doing it! I just registered! I don’t know how it happened. I closed my eyes and just clicked my fears away… Or made them even bigger. Oh goodness.. I can’t breathe again. .

So there you have it! I will be doing my 3rd half on November 3rd and my 4th on November 10th. BOOM!

.. And now I need a nap Zzz

“I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
‘Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar”
-Katy Perry *Roar*