Zumba Love & Weigh In

Tuesday is my weigh day and start of my new week of points.  I weighed in at 204.2, so down 2.2 pounds.  YES!  I was really needing a good loss mentally because if I'm working my ass off and not seeing it on the scale, I get discouraged and it makes me want to eat, because what's the point!  So to see the scale go down was just the boost I needed.

At lunch, I did the 45 minute Sculpt class and then in the evening I had run clinic.  Our distance was 5 km steady run and I actually did it.  No walk breaks, just 5 km straight running.  Slowly, but still.  That's the longest I've ever run without a walk break.  Even before when I was covering distances shorter or longer, I was always running 10 & 1's.  It was funny because the more the time clicked away, I just kept checking my Garmin for the pace rather than 'when is my walk break?' It also seemed to make it easier to keep going knowing that I wasn't going to walk.  I just have to keep going and stop when I'm back at the store.

Next up, ZUMBA!  I knew I liked Zumba.  I've been doing a 45 minute Thursday class at lunch at work.  I was looking for something to do on Mondays and a groupon came up for Zumba classes.  It was super cheap so why not!  Two friends from work also got them so the first class I went to, I met one of them there.  It was 60 minutes and oh man, it was SUCH a workout.  Every song was fast-paced and I could totally feel that extra 15 minutes.  I LOVED IT.  Coming up that weekend, I wanted to go again so I actually just went by myself on Saturday morning and it was just as awesome.  Once my 10 classes is up from the groupon, I'm definitely buying passes for more classes.  I'd like to do them Monday, Thursday (yes twice on Thurs, work and eve) and Saturday morning.  It goes by so fast and I sweat just as much as when I run, if not more.  On Monday night, my whole ponytail was soaked.  Gross and awesome, haha!

As far as my goal for 13 races in 2013, I'm on track.  However, tonight I was registered for a small fundraising run.  It wasn't a set distance, you choose your own number of laps around the park.  I was falling asleep on the bus home and when I got inside, I set the alarm on my phone for 30 minutes and I lay down on the couch.  I woke up 2 hours later, run already in progress/over.  Sigh.  I think I am still, even with losing this one tonight, on track to finish the 13 because I registered for a Halloween run.  It's a twilight spooky run 5 km.  I just need to come up with a costume.  I'm thinking something easy that I can make and that I can run in.

Meal regret - I had lunch plans with some work folks and I had previously looked at the menu and chosen what I was going to have.  The veggie goat cheese omelet with side salad.  Then we got there and the girl at the next table had a crazy awesome looking burger and then everyone at my table ordered the burger and before I knew it, I was ordering the burger. . . with fries.  Don't get me wrong, it was delicious.  And I counted it, overestimating as I do when I'm not sure but I really think I would have liked the omelet just as much.  Must remember that for next time.  Choose ahead of time, don't open the menu.  

So for the rest of the week -- two Zumba's tomorrow.  Friday, I'm going out for a delicious breakfast and then driving to North Dakota for a race weekend.  Doing a 10 km on Saturday morning, followed by shopping, shopping, shopping.  Drive home on Sunday and back to my regular week by Monday.  Depending what time I get home on Sunday, I'll try to get in some Zumba on the Wii so that I can get  some activity points.  My goal is 70 points a week.  Not necessarily 10 per day but 70 over the week.  Last week, I JUST made it and this week, I'm off to a good start.  :)

Hopefully, I'll get a race weekend recap up early next week instead of months later.  Woohoo!

Start Where I Am

I worked out a lot this week.  And I ENJOYED it.  I've come (finally) to the realization that if I don't enjoy it, I'm going to dread it, and ultimately, I won't do it.  This little transition happened over the last couple of weeks.  I signed up for a 5km/10 km running clinic just to keep myself running.  I signed up for the 10 km portion which was probably a mistake.  The first two weeks of weekday runs were awesome.  I usually take frequent walk breaks and the first night we were encouraged to take it slow and run as long as we could before a walk break.  14 minutes!!!  Then the following week, I ran the whole 4 km straight.  The weekday runs have been between 4-5 km and I'm loving the distance.  Then I ran a longer Sunday run and my shin splints started to pop up again.  This is my body telling me that I'm increasing my distance or speed too quickly.  Then I realized that this is why I stop enjoying running.  I enjoy it for the first while but then whatever clinic I'm signed up in moves up to longer distances before I'M ready for it.  So the plan for me, is to stick to the shorter distances from now until the end of January.  And enjoy running.  In the past, I've always moved on to the longer distances and struggled because I've never gotten to the point where 5 km was a so-called "easy run".  Haha - that being said I am registered for two 10 km's.  Once next weekend and one in mid-October but i'm okay with that.  Run what I can, walk the rest.  It's how I've done them all in the past.  And hey, maybe my 5 km time will see an improvement.  I know already that my ability to run straight without walk breaks is improving and I'm loving it.  I think I'm loving it because that's where I am.  It doesn't make me feel bad that I can't do more yet because that's where I am.

This morning, I woke up thinking that I didn't want to run.  But I'm really trying to earn activity points every single day through exercise.  I thought about it for an hour.  I could have been out and back in the time it took me to think about it!!  Finally, I jumped up, got ready and was out the door in 7 minutes.  I told myself I only had to do 20 minutes but I had to try to run it straight AND I DID!!  It was so nice and brisk this morning.  6 degrees.  Dang, that is my kind of running temperature.  I also wore my fargo half marathon race shirt.  It's the first race shirt that I've loved AND selected a good size.  Baha!  I should actually check the size and make sure I select the same again for May 2014.


Super quick race recap - I ran the 10 & 10 on September 8th.  There's a 10 miler and a 10 km, I ran the 10 km.  I remember the first half being okay and the second half being really hard.  I knew I wasn't out there trying to get a personal best or anything so I just enjoyed the scenery.  It's a pretty course through an old area of HUGE beautiful unique houses and lots of mature trees.


When I crossed the finish line, I was about to mow down the food tables (sponsored by Subway) and then I remembered that I was doing WW and while completing 10 km does give me activity points, it doesn't give me unlimited points.  So I grabbed a 6" veggie sub and put some mustard on it.  I took a water and I skipped the chocolate milk, the juices, and the cookies.

I still want to talk about Zumba and food but I don't want to lose people with super long posts :)  My week in activity was this:

Monday - Zumba - 60 minutes.

Tuesday - Sculpt class - 45 minutes.  Run club 3.87 km, 32:00.

Wednesday - Pilates - 45 minutes.  Run club 5.02 km, 41:40.

Thursday - Zumba - 45 minutes.

Friday - Oops.  I have a hole on Fridays and I need to figure that out.  Likely a short run is in order since Wed to Sun is a long stretch with no running.  And maybe some strength stuff at home.

Saturday - Zumba - 60 minutes.

Sunday - Solo Run - 2.60 km - 20:17.  I'm going to try to get in some time on the Zumba Wii later today so I can hit 10 activity points for the day.

I leave you with Sweaty Saturday Zumba face. :)

DIY!

I don't know about your race bibs and medals but my race bibs and medals have been living in multiple places.  Piled in the junk drawer . . . stuffed in a cubby box . . . and most recently, stuffed into my last Nike shoebox.  A couple months ago, I was staring at my pile of bibs and medals trying to think of a way to store/display them.  I figured lots of people had the same system that I did but somebody out there must have a better way.  Enter Google.  Turns out there is lots of ways to store them!  But my favourite way, was a wooden plaque I found on Etsy.   The price was anywhere from $35 to $55+.  Gulp.  Plus shipping.  I left it at that.  I was going on vacation and would revisit it when I got back.  I thought about it and decided to get it because what else would I do.  Entered my order, all ready to spend $50 and then I see that they don't ship to Canada.  Well crap.  Kept looking for a place that would and then thought, wait, how hard can this be?? 

Turns out?  Not hard at all.  Last night, I painted it.  This morning I glued the letters on and put the hooks in and VOILA!!

I bought a 12 x 16 unfinished pine plaque with a fancy bevelled edge from Michael's.  Michael's is a bit pricy so the regular price was $25 but they put coupons on their flyers so I had a 50% off one.  I bought the already white painted letters from there too at $1.69 each.  I had leftover blue paint from my bedroom and I bought square shoulder hooks in two sizes from, about $6 but I have so many in the packages, I could easily make some plaques for friends who have already expressed interest them.  So for about $23, I made myself a display that I LOVE!!  It was really quick too.  The part that took the longest was measuring where to put the medal hooks so they were an equal distance apart. :)  I could have bought a cheaper plaque that was 11 x 14 but that would have been a little snug.  If you'd like to make it cheaper, you could cut a piece wood yourself!

And if you're not into DIY but you love the look of this, here is the Etsy shop where I saw the variety of displays . . .  www.etsy.com/ca/shop/runningonthewall

Happy DIY-ing!

Oh Ankles, I've Missed You!

I've had an on and off problem with my feet swelling.  Being a side effect of hypothyroidism, I do experience it from time to time but most often during travel or heat.  My feet started swelling on day two of my road trip at the end of June.  We spent 17 hours in the car that day and covered A LOT of ground.  I then walked Seattle for a few days and got back in the car, then walked Vancouver and got on a plane.  My feet kept getting bigger and bigger.  Then the heat wave hit and I noticed that even my lower calves were retaining water.  I could actually make a dent.  I was constantly trying to keep them elevated to alleviate.  I felt like my whole lower half was larger than normal because my jeans that were fine, suddenly became tight.

I started counting my points last Tuesday and weighed in at 215.4.  Two days ago, the heat wave broke for a couple days and I noticed things were starting to feel better.  My jeans were looser and I could actually get my sandals on my feet.  This morning I weighed in at 207.0.  8.4 pounds!  I would bet that was 7 pounds of water and 1.4 pounds of actual weight.  Here is a before and after of my feet.  These pics are only two weeks apart.  My pregnant friend messaged me that her feet were super swollen so I took a picture of my foot and said mine too.  She replied with "Holy Sh*t!  Why is that happening?"  Haha - I said "Probably because I'm fat and it's hot."

SERIOUSLY!!

In activity news, our new session of work classes started up and I'm loving it.  I even got another friend to try the classes and she signed up for two a week.  Love that I have one more friend going.  I go Tuesday (Sculpt), Wednesday (Core & More), Thursday (Zumba).  I also joined a 10 km clinic at the Running Room that started tonight so I cranked out just over 4 kms.  Had to get back into running REGULARLY.  Not just sporadic 5 & 10 km races everywhere.  The heat has really killed me.  Plus the foot swelling didn't really make it comfortable to lace up my runners and pound the pavement.  Seems like a great group and the beauty of this clinic is that it will start off in heat (tonight was 27C/81F), and it will just progressively get cooler until it's Fall which is my favourite running time of the year. :)

That's it for now!  Hope everyone is staying cool!