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Bull Crap

So one of the "pros" of moving to Birmingham was that we wouldn't have harsh winters.  I'm not going to pretend that the mild winters was enough to outweigh the cons of moving from a city like Chicago to Birmingham but it was the MAJOR pro for me.  I was heavily looking forward to the day I would go for a ride outside in a tank top and then text my friends back in Chicago who were still stuck on a computrainter keeping themselves protected from two feet of snow outside.

Well, this year has been one of the warmest winters for Chicago in ages.  Average temperatures are something like 6.5 - 11.5 degrees above normal (depending on the source you refer to).   Most of my friends keep posting that they are enjoying their runs outside along the lake front and how awesome it is to not have pulled out their snow boots yet. 

It's been nice down here in Birmingham.  The coldest it got was 26 degrees one night which was totally fine because it was 48 degrees the next day.   Most of the time the days are pretty mild, like in the 45-55 range which is great.

But still, the whining will continue.  Chicago could you please get a little colder so I could enjoy this "pro" a little more. 

This is just wrong

http://betchacanteatjustone.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/chocolate-chip-cookie-n-oreo-knock-your-socks-off-brownie-bars/

These bars are just bad.  It's everythign I love just wrapped into one bar . . . .

Weighing in

So last time I talked about my weight was the weekend before Thanksgiving and I had hit my goal of 30 lbs. Since hitting that goal I started running more and also didn't stay as focused on losing weight.  Like many others, I find this time of year hard to manage.  There is a holiday party at least once a week.  There is always a luncheon to attend with amazing food and of course I crave Christmas cookies like it's my job (although I have not had one yet).  For a couple of weeks I took "off" from dieting.  I'm still making healthy decisions, keeping a food journal (on most days) and trying to avoid carbohydrate heavy food choices.  Some days I am still able to stick to 1200 calories a day, other's I'm lucky to stay under 2000.  Those days tend to be the days where there is a party.   Obviously I'm still learning how to not over eat.  It's hard.  I hadn't weighed myself since right before Thanksgiving.  The first time back on the scale was this morning.  To  be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The result was that I had gained 2 lbs.   I'm not super surprised about this.  I'm not excited or happy about it, but I'm not at the point where I'm super frustrated with myself.  I'm using these two pounds as a happy reality check that I need to stay focused and continue to log my calories and make smart decisions in social situations. 

One thing that I'm still learning and trying to balance is how I fuel myself before hard runs.  Yesterday was a 3 mile recovery run.  I ran after work and at that time I had only consumed approximately 600 calories.  I was only running 10 minute miles and I felt like it was hard to just have the energy to do it.  This was so different from my long run over the weekend where I had consumed a burger and fries the night before and 2 eggs in devilled egg style for breakfast before hitting the state park for some fun running in the woods.  My long run, which included lots of hills and a faster pace, felt easier than a 30 minute easy run yesterday.  I think some of this will be the timing of when I eat.  I don't know the best way to handle this situation.  I'm going to try eating 100 calories right before I go for a run.  Maybe that will help.

2012 Goal #1

I can't remember if I officially announced this but I am running the Birmingham Half Marathon.

I've also decided not to use a coach for this race.  For the last two years I have trained with Elizabeth Waterstraat.  When I was finished with Ironman and decided to focus on weight loss so I took a break from her.  Liz is a phenomenal coach, athlete and role model.  I can't say enough good things about her.  I was one of her less successful athletes (although she never made me feel that way).  Most of the people she coaches are winning their age group, qualifying for Kona or making their appearances at the ITU World Championship.  She taught me a lot about what it means to really go out there and give it everything you have, redefining what it means to be committed to something.   Doing your best means being committed to the goal everyday and working everyday toward that goal.  When I decided to run a half I thought about my goals and decided that it wasn't time to go back to her.  At this time I'm not ready to go back to the triathlon world.  I know that she can coach single sport athletes but I really want her to coach me as a triathlete.  I'm still not ready to sign up for a triathlon.  maryK and I are still on a break from each other (my bike).  I also know that when I go back to her, I want to be committed to the race goal.  Right now weight loss is still more important to me and I will put that above training. 

Since I'm not using a coach I decided to use a hal higdon intermediate training program.  So far it's good.  I still have to use a lot of my knowledge for the workouts as the free version just provides a skeleton schedule. 


My goal for this race is to run a sub 2 hour half.  I haven't done that since I was 22 years old.  I'm really focusing on running at a fast pace during my training runs.  In order to reach my goal I must run at a 9:05 minute mile.  I think I can do that.  I just have to stay focused and continue to lose weight. 

How much do I weigh?

There have been a couple of anonymous blog posts asking me how much I weighed before I started loosing weight and how much I currently weigh.

Readers, don't take this personally, but I'm just ready to post my weight on the internet.  It's just slightly more personal than I want to get on this blog. If you want to know what I weigh, feel free to email me and I will tell you.  c.tory.harper at gmail.com

Best,
Tory

The Tattoo

To tat or not to tat, that is the question. 

After completing an ironman it is popular to get an ironman tattoo.  Many athletes use their creative juices to come up with cool places and artistic interpretations that can incorporate the Ironman Mdot.  Here are some examples that I've seen out there:

I've never been much of a tattoo person.  I don't have anything against tattoos, I just have never had anything that I felt like I identified with something enough to have it put on my body for all to see for a really long time.   

Lately I've been thinking a lot about getting an mdot tatoo.  These thoughts come about usually when i'm at the gym.  It's almost as if I feel like the Mdot would tell people "Yup, I'm a badass" or "don't give me that look just 'cause I'm on the elliptical, I've done two ironman races".    I don't know where I would get it.  Maybe the back of my calf, but then when I wear skirts to work everyone would see it, or maybe my shoulder.  I don't know why I really care what people at the gym think of me but I do.  Obviously it shows that I'm a competetive person if it's important to me that the random people at the gym think i'm a badass. 

Part of me also struggles with the fact that right now, the Mdot is a symbol of the Ironman company.  There are other companies out there that host the ironman distance race but cannot actually call themselves an ironman because one specific company owns that term.  I am actually rather annoyed with the Ironman coorporation (which is owned by the World Triathlon Coorpoation) because of some of the regulations and policies that they have in place for their races.  I also still think it's rediculous that a friend got lost on a course and as a result ended up missing a race cut off time and didn't get to finish, but I'm starting to get off track from my original point.  My point is, I'm not sure I want to do free advertising for that company.  Perhaps there is another way to express the 140.6 miles that is cool without putting the Mdot on my skin.  

I probably won't get one, but it's really weighing on my mind right now.

So the question is still, to tat or not to tat?