Plantar Fasciitis

SUCKS!

Perhaps my last fit process , my first at Big Peach Running Co, which lead to my Mizunos, went horribly wrong because I never had this problem in my Asics.

Now that I have recovered from the trauma of the death of my blackberry and a panel interview at my job. I can concentrate on my foot.
Seriously, a 6 person panel. Try not being nervous about that, and I am a recruiter. Ok so maybe I am still a bit traumatized by the interview...

Perhaps some new shoes are in order because isn't that the American way? Just throw money at the problem. sorry couldn't help myself =)

Mardi Gras

Happy Fat Tuesday Everyone!

I am looking forward to a day full of indulgencies. Mostly in the form of sugar and diet coke =)

Enjoy your day!

4 "Ps and an "E"

I have no exciting news on the running front. Just 3 miles here, 3 miles there on the treadmill and the occassional icing of the foot. I intend to just keep to easy runs mostly for sanity and calorie burn. If I can keep up things up on the exercise front I am almost certain I can find success on the weight loss front. I am telling you this Beck Diet Solution stuff is earth shattering for me.

First, let me say that while the book allows you to choose the diet plan of your choice, I am not into diets. I am not low carbing it, I am not low protiening it, I am not cutting any food group out and that includes sugar, prior to Fat Tuesday that is. I just want to eat quality food ( a majority of the time).

One concept discussed is Planning. Many years ago in another lifetime I was introduced to the 6 Ps - Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance which I have found to hold true in most situations. I am a planner. I love to plan. Parties, projects, etc, not what I am going to eat. But damn it if the book didn't prove to me yesterday that Prior Planning Prevents Poor Eating! Monday and Tuesday I planned out all my meals and snacks. Crossed things off as I eat. Didn't panic when hunger struck.Truthfully I felt hungry a good portion of the day. (I've increased my calories slightly today too see if I could spend a little less time hungry) Any way, Tuesday night rolls around, then Wednesday morning and laziness sets in. Really how hard is it sit down spend a couple of minutes planning what to eat? That's laziness at it's finest. So as you can guess Wednesday's eating was out of whack. Nothing damaging but just more than needed.

Today I am equipped with my plan and I amazed at the power this written plan has on me. I am hungry right now but my snack really shouldn't take place until about 3:00ish so I will happily wait, because that's the plan, and it's on paper.I kind of get annoyed that I am such a stinkin rule follower but if planning my meals on a piece of pink legal pad paper leads me be a fit size 4 rule follower again than lead on...

For a smart girl, I often wonder why can't I lose that pesky ten lbs,which has alarming hit close to 20lbs in the last few years. I know what to eat. I like to run. Should be easy. Calories in, calories out. I've considered things like fear of failure, no self control, my sugar addiction etc, but still end up back at why is this so hard?

Then I happened to stumble across this book recently. Below is an excerpt from a review

It all starts with how you think. With other programs, you think about nothing but food: counting, weighing, and worst of all, food you can't have. This way of thinking inevitably contributes to diet failure. The Beck Diet Solution is the only program that helps dieters use Cognitive Therapy methods, based on research to forever change those treacherous thought patterns that lead to overeating, cheating, excuses, and other dieting downfalls.

What do you mean my thinking has something to do with it? This has been a big eye opener. Concepts such as Eat Sitting Down. This in itself has been life changing. I was amazed at how rarely I eat sitting down. Not just meals, but snacks, a taste here, a taste there. I can't believe the amount times I caught myself putting food in my mouth and realized I was standing.

Another concept Pratice Hunger Tolerance, hunger is not an emergency. Some of you fit and trim girls maybe laughing but it always felt like an emergency to me. Where I got this feeling I have no clue but I sure become one cranky girl if I get hungry.

This is the first thing I've read about weight loss that hasn't made me feel that it takes some kind of magical combination of what you eat, when you eat, and the moon and stars aligning to be successful and it has nothing to do with low carbs, counting points, or having food delivered to my door.

Many, many, many years ago I made an easy decision to be a "happy person", to stop focusing on the negative and just be happy.I will be completely floored if all years of weight struggle, many when I was a perfect size but could not see it, could have been averted if I just chose to be a thin person. Make that a happy thin person.

New Sensation

Pain in the arch area of my foot and an occassional pain in my hip. Am I falling apart?

Morning Routine

Although I got one of these for Christmas

This is where I do all my running.
The treadmill on the end, we have a love/hate relationship. What you don't see is if you look to the left there is a mirror that runs the length of the wall. At moments of weakness when I don't feel like running it serves as a reminder of why I need to be in the gym. I fear that some of my fellow morning gym goers may think I am vain turning to look in the mirror periodically but it's really one of those "car crash" reflexes. You just can't help but look and think Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is that really what I look like, ugh. If that's the side view, I'd hate to see the view from behind, and so on...

So for now this is where I run 4 days a week. Now I just need to work on days 5, 6, and 7.

Nothing Much New

Just 3 miles here, 3 miles there all on the treadmill.

Being inspired by Carly's cleanse, I decided it was time to clean up the damage I did over the holiday vacation. Nothing too drastic just cutting out the suagr and staying within a manageable calorie range. Just need to make it through these first couple of days. I expect them to be uncomfortable and I love comfort but I am so tired of trying. I ready to do...

Hopefully I am on the road to wellness (thinness)

Goals

This year I am keeping it simple. I posted about my 2009 goals on my other blog The House of Fowler, weight and finances. So here I'll speak to running. I am hoping the running will help with the weight loss however I am still traumatized by the weight I gained when I ran a half marathon about 5 yrs ago. This may or may not be why that has been my only 1/2. But I digress, my goal is to run 800 miles this year. Should I say that is 800 miles of running/walking for full disclosure. My mind still hasn't completely embraced that running with walk breaks counts as running but my 42 yr old body has. That averages to 15 miles a week not earth shattering but attainable. I am hoping that by making the goal attainable I'll be able to blow it out the water ~ the whole under promise over deliver thing.

Full disclosure - I haven't ran yet today, but I will. I am planning on 1 mile at a park on a half mile track - boring. Lord, I wish I lived in a nice flat neighborhood...I gotta go find my motivation...

The End of The Year

I just finished reading several blogs about the last run of year. Why didn't I think of that? I'll tell you why, because my inner fat lazy girl has taken over. Seriously, who am I kidding? She's really not inner anymore since I've taken to wearing only things with an elastic waist for close to a week. Damn you sister-in-law for those wonderful, comfy pjs! My inability to get dressed and off the couch lays on your shoulders.

As 2008 closes, I didn't go out running and I am pretty sure I didn't start the year running either but 2009 will be a different story. 2009 will start and end with a run. What kind of run is left to be seen. I am most certain that the last run will be strong than the starting run but you gotta start somewhere.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve. See you in 2009. Dear Lord, please let the weather be warm and dry tomorrow...

Thank You

I'd like to thank AKA Alice and Southbay Girl for your comments. They motivated me to out of my pjs and get up off the couch. I finally got up and ran (ran/walk) on Monday. Not long, not fast, but I got up off the couch and that's a start. I strapped on my garmin and prepared myself to embrace a crappy run. I think the total was 2.46 miles. Most of 1.46 was walking but that first mile ~ well that was done in 9:42 which included 1 minute of walking. To me, not too crappy. Now there's nothing left to do but keep at it...

Weak

7 days and counting - no running, no exercising. Just plain laziness. Must go eat again...

Eating My Words

40 minute run, piece of cake I said. It will be fast and done before I know it. I should know better than to be cocky. Right from the start yesterday, my run was a struggle. My legs hurt and my shins where just taunting me to try and run faster and longer. Somewhere around 20 minutes into the run the inner dialogue went something like this "maybe you should slow down, walk more. No slowing down is for wimps. Boy my shins are starting to hurt, this is just a training run, yes but you've become a run/walker..." It's at that point that I realized, was my ego really going to push me to the point of injury and vomit for a freaking training run? Seriously? Shouldn't this running thing be fun? What's one bad run? One bad run was yesterday 40 minutes 3:37 miles. Tomorrow could be a different story....

Magic Mile

Todays training run was 40 minutes which consisted on a Magic Mile. A magic mile is a mile time trail to judge your race pace and estimate your finish time. Through out the training you should improve upon your magic mile time. Well all I can say is I hope so. Today's magic mile was done in 10:19 and I ceratinly didn't feel like I could sustain the running pace for a 15K. Total distance for the 40 minutes was 3.37 miles. While I am not feeling the magic I will press on with the plan...

1:23:03

That's how long it took me to run 7 miles yesterday. I hit 5 miles at the one hour mark. Knowing that if I was just running and not following the training plan (walk breaks and pace 2 minutes slower than race pace) I would have hit 6 miles at the one hour mark was a little distracting. However the dull pain in my right shin that kicked in after 40 minutes made me rethink my ideas of speeding up.

1 hour 23 minutes and 3 seconds is a loooong time on a treadmill. Sooner or later I am going make it outside. My Christmas Garmin has arrived but I have yet to try it out. I have to make sure I've read and understand the instructions. A premature attempt to use it could be traumatizing.

Today starts the beginning of Week 4.

Mon - off

Tues - 40 Min Run (MM)

Wed - off

Thurs -40 Min Run

Fri - easy walk

Sat - 4x800

Sun - off

the orginal plan calls for the long run to happen on Sunday, I prefer Saturday but actually have had to switch back and forth depending on what I have going on. While I am glad this week's long run is not the 8.5 I have to look forward to next week, I am going to have to actually read up on the 4x800. Hope that's easy to track on a treadmil....

New Gadget

I bought this after Running School 2 weeks ago and used it for the first time last week. Love it! Makes this run/walk stuff a breeze. I don't have to watch the clock to know when to run and when to walk. I just set this baby and off I go. If you are in Atlanta you can find them at Phidippides http://www.phidippides.com/ if not at http://www.gymboss.com/