One of those runs

I finally had one of those runs that makes you feel like you are on the edge of greatness, the run that makes you feel like you are invincible and nothing can touch you and you are on top of the world. 

It happened on Thanksgiving day.  Surprsingly enough, I had been a litle hungover from the night before.  Wendesday we flew to Albany, NY to Monkey's parents.  His entire mother's side of the family gets together for "Stoutenberg Family Thanksgiving".  The events started with the "Travelers Buffet" on Wednesday night which was a wonderful lasagna dinner and drinks and then Thursday the family went on a hike in the morning and then the Thanksgiving celebration started in the afternoon which includes the thanksgiving play, a singing of Over the River and Through the Woods, Charades and the face game.  Last year was my first year coming to Thanksgiving with Monkey. I was beyond impressed with his family's traditions.   In fact last year I was almost in shell shock at how awesome they were.  But I was also cought a little off guard, I didn't arrive ready to go. 

Well, this year I knew what I was in for, so I came with my game face.  I'm sure you are wondering what this has to do with my run.  Well, after waking up on Thursday with a hang over from the night before (Yes, I drank over thanksgiving, In fact I took a slight deviation from my nutrition plan but that's a different blog) I spent much of the morning hanging around.  My 1:00 my hangover was just about gone.  The headache was gone at least which had been making me go crazy.   I decided a run was necessary given my caloric consumption the night before and the fact that I would be enjoying my share of stuffing.  I also thought a run would give my time to get ready for the family games where I needed to be ready with my game face on.  I started out with my garmin just thinking I would do 3 miles.   After a couple minutes I noticed how good the cool crisp air felt, especially running in it.   After that, it's all a blur.  I remember running past a few people and giving a nod.  I was just in a zone.  I didn't say hello.  I just remember feeling like I was flying, feeling like I had tons of energy and my legs were just pushing me forward without any effort.  For a while I didn't even listen to my music, I just listened to my breathing.  And I did tell myself I was so thankful to be able to run and do physical activities (something I am thankful for all the time).  I wasn't out of breath at any point, I just felt like I was running effortlessly.  It was easy. 

I looked down at my garmin and I had gone 2 miles out, so I turned around and headed back home the difrection I had come.  The neighborhood I as in is windy with lots of side streets that lead you know where and it's easy to get lost.  I didn't want to do to many turns and get myself lots.  I got back home and looked at my watch and I had averaged a 8:57 min/mile.  Not bad for someone who hasn't been running in a while.  I know it's not my best time every, but considering I just started running a week and a half ago, I was pretty happy with it.  I know that some of my faster more elite running friends are probably reading this thinking that I'm slow, and they are right.  I am slow.  But I'm getting faster.  Two months ago when I was 30 lbs heavier I wasn't able to run that pace without my heart going out of control.  I wasn't able to run that and have fun.  

This run, is the reason why I love running.  No one can take that feeling away from you.

30 lbs

In my last post I shared that I had less than a week to hit a goal of losing 30 lbs in 2 months. Well I just got on the scale and I have done it (as you probably guessed by the title of the blog).

I am so happy to be here, I can't share it enough.  I still have to manage through 3 more Thanksgiving dinners but I just had to share that I had hit the goal.

I still have another 10 to lose until I will feel like I can go into maintenance mode but I still feels good to have gotten to this point.

I've been running a lot.  In the last 8 days, I've run 5 of them.  I'm rather proud of myself.  I've already noticed that I'm in better running shape than I was a week ago when I got back on the treadmill.

I know I keep mentioning this but I'm very close to signing up for the Merceded Benz Birmingham Half Marathon.  I just need one more week to solidify that I am enjoying myself.  

Ironically I only lost 0.5 lbs this week.  I don't think that my weight loss and running have a positive coorelation.  I didn't lose as much because I ate a large amount on Friday night at a dinner party and then also went out on a date night with Monkey for sushi and we split a bottle of wine.  Since I haven't been drinking now for almost two months (with the exception of a wedding) Paul volunteered to be the DD that night so I had slightly more of the bottle than he did. 

I'm 1.5 lbs away from hitting 30 lbs.  My goal is to be there by Thanksgiving.  I will do this. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving.  Today marks the first of 4 thanksgiving dinners I will be attending.  Today is the UAB School of Health Professionals Dean's Office Thanksgiving, Saturday is my brother's 6th Annual Thanksgiving/Birthday Party, Monday night Paul's grad school class is having one and then Thursday is the official Thanksgiving holiday and I will be attneding the famous Stoutenburg Family Thanksgiving in Albany, NY.  I've been thinking about how I'm going ot manage these events, the food and my goal of hitting 30 lbs before next Thursday.  Then I realized, I don't actually LOVE a lot of the food at Thanksgiving.  If I was going to have a meal that cost me 1000 calories (actually, probably more) I would rather have pizza, or french fries, crab rangoon, pad thai, or chorizo dip.  The point is, it's just not the food I want to waste my calories on.  Now, I will admit, the one thing I love is pumpkin muffins and stuffing.  In fact, I could eat stuffing (or dressing as they call it in the south) and I would be happy.  So i think the goal will be to NOT show up to any event hungry, or without a a bottle of water in my hand.  I really started to love sparkling water.  It's satisfying. 

Anyway, that's the plan, I will let you know if I hit my goal. 

Here we go :)

3 days

Last week I ran for 3 days!  yes ladies and Gents, I did 9 miles total, 3 miles each time I ran.

I know that is not a ton of miles, but it's something considering I haven't wanted to run in a long time. 

My hamstring is not completly healed.  I've been icing it.  i'll give you updates on if it continues to nag me. 

I'm still not making any committments but I'm thinking about running a half marathon in February. 

A run . . .

So, I decided this week I would start to run again.  It has been 28.5 lbs since I last ran.  Yes ladies and gentleman, the last time I ran was at Ironman. 

I decided I would run for 30 minutes on the treadmill.  It's nice enough down here (We are still having 70 degree days followed by 50 degree nights) but my ipod is broken and I haven't found a replacement yet so I needed the distraction of the TV.  Plus, the road my parents live on is not flat.  You are either running up hill or downhill (my coach can vouch for this).   Since I haven't run a real hill since the Triple-T I figured it wasn't a good idea to start with that. 

The run was hard.  I was running 10 minute miles and it wasn't like my heart was pounding out of my chest or anything, it was just hard to do the movement.  It takes more muscle than the oliptical does (duh).  In fact I was actually sore the next day. 

I am not sure what this means.  I'm considering doing a half marathon in February but I haven't committed yet.  One step at a time with this running thing. 

btw, I weighed in on Wednesday, down 1.5 lbs this past week. 

Just an update

Even with a Halloween Party and a visit from Monkey's parents (think big long dinners with wine, steak and dessert) I still managed to be down for the week,

Weight loss this week:  2 lbs!

Hells bells.

On a side note, I went dress shopping with my mom, Monkey's mom and my sister in law and there were some dresses I couldn't even get around my a$#.  Yup, that's enough motivation to keep me on track.  Looks like I will be sticking to the <1000 calories a day until Mid December at least.