Hello? Is there anybody out there?

Hello!!! I've been gone for ages. Lots of stuff in my life that kept me from just about everything but work and my family... everything is great though, and I am definitely at a crossroads. Trying to sell my house and figure out the next steps from here for me. It's both exciting and daunting! The good news is I have a fantastic job and a wonderful family, so I couldn't be in a better place.

Amidst all the craziness, I have actually done quite well with health and fitness. I've had ups and downs like anyone going through a stressful time in their life, but I'm happy to say I am on track and better than ever. I've just gotten back into running and I signed up for the Runners World Half Marathon in October. I actually plan to do the hat trick, which is a 5K, 10K, and half marathon all in one weekend! I have taken up yoga on a regular basis, and it has done wonders for me. So that's what I'm up to!

I decided it was time to kick it into high gear nutritionally though because it is time to make my goal of 140! I've made significant progress, and I only have 8 pounds to go. AMAZING! I brought back those before pictures... trip down memory lane. I can't wait to take the afters! I'm going to do my best to blog my way through to the end... it helps me be more accountable.

Hope you're having a happy and healthy week!

HOTT!

OMG it's hot! Today it's super humid and over 90 degrees, so there will be no running today. I will be doing some kind of circuit training from the comfort of my air conditioned living room!

Week 2 of training has gone well. My "challenge" run this week was an interval run. I started with a 1 mile warmup, then I moved on to 1 mile at 8:30 min/mile, followed by 1/2 mile jog, then repeat. I finished it up with a 1 mile jog at the end to cool down. I have to say, I was a bit nervous about this one! I am only slowly starting to realize that I am physically capable of running faster than a 10 minute mile. It's super fun actually! It really has invigorated me. I was getting to a point where my runs/workouts weren't stress relieving anymore, but when I push myself and reach new heights, I love the way that feels! So all in all, I am really enjoying this! I have a 6 mile run this weekend which will most likely occur before 7 AM tomorrow. It's going to be a hot one again!

In other news, I was chosen as a tester for a new website: www.efitplan.com. It's going to be an online personal trainer of sorts, and it'll be focused on balancing cardio and lifting (from what I can gather). So far I've built a profile that says I want to work out 5 days per week, 3 of those being lifting. I specified fat burning as my goal and 1 hour as my total time, and it spit out some weight routines that I'll be trying next week. I'll let you know how they go!

Hope everyone is having a happy and healthy weekend!

Week 1 of New Training Program

I started out the first of 13 weeks of training for a half marathon in Hartford on October 9 (or maybe the 8th???). I'm really excited because I have definitely kept up my fitness since the full marathon in May! In the past, it used to feel like a struggle when I got on a treadmill and ran between 5.5 mph and 6.0 mph. This week, I did a slow jog on Tuesday for a total distance of 2 miles, and the speed I used was 5.8 mph. I hardly felt it! I was so excited!

On Thursday I did a tempo run, which was 1 mile slow to warmup, then 3 miles at a 9 min per mile pace, and then 1 mile to cool down. My headphones broke right before I started running, so I had to do it in complete silence on a treadmill. UGH. Happy to report I did it and it felt awesome! I wasn't even sore on Friday!! Woo hoo! I think the yoga and the lifting program the trainer put together for me are working! I am well on my way to a sub-2 hour half marathon!

I have to run a slow 6 miles tomorrow, and I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn to do it. We have a heat advisory and it's going to be 95 at the height of the day, so I think I'll be trying to head out my door by 6:30 at the very latest.

Hope everyone is having a happy and healthy weekend!

New Goal and a Little Advice!

I've been spending the last few days looking for a new apartment and packing up my old one. This included a two day trip to CT apartment hunting, including an unexpected stay in DC because of missing my flight. Not good! Luckily I have great friends there, so I had an unexpected visit with them. Needless to say, I have had little time to work out.

Today I went out for a 3.2 mile run and really pushed it. While I was driving around CT looking at places, I was listening to the Top 20 station on satellite radio, and Bulletproof was on over and over. Now, I love it! I downloaded it and played it over and over while I ran. I finished in ~28 minutes, which is awesome for me! So this brings me to my new goal...

Sub 2 hour half marathon!

I need your help though! My average pace right now is probably in the 9:30 to 9:45 range depending on the distance I'm running. The race I'm going to run is in October. So I have a bit of time to get myself going. I need help figuring out how best to make this happen. Any good speed workouts you know of? Or maybe I should run a certain mileage each week with tempo and intervals thrown in? With a couple 5K's or 10K's here and there to test my pace? I have no idea!

Also, I'm looking for a new heart rate monitor. It was a casualty of my flood. :( I think with my new running goals it's time to invest in a GPS watch. I really want something that tracks calories well too though. Does anyone have a favorite GPS watch? I have used a friend's Garmin but the one he had was huge. I want something that's a normal watch size. Thoughts???

Half Marathon!

I made through my half marathon today, and I'm really happy with the results!  Because of P90X, I have not been running at all.  I literally ran 4.5 miles a couple weeks ago, and that was it.  I've done a full marathon before though, and this was my fourth half.  The weather was actually perfect in Pittsburgh today for a long run.  It was in the 50s, and it ended up raining a little bit.  It kept me nice and cool the whole time.  My slowest half ever (when I even trained was around 2 h and 25 min).  Today I finished in 2 h and 26 min, and I even stopped on the course to use the bathroom which easily took up about 8 minutes.  My HRM claims I burned over 2500 calories!  I have to say that I think P90X had a lot to do with my ability to do this.  I think a lot of it is mental too.  

My fabulous friends came out to see me, so that was quite nice!  One of them even wrote my name in huge yellow letters on the road.  So cute!  I'm definitely going to run it again next year, but I plan to train.  My fastest time was 3 years ago or so and that was 2 h and 8 min.  I think I can beat that next year, especially if I keep X'ing!  Of course, I might want to try other beachbody workouts so we'll see what happens!

Back to Business!

I was up bright and early today to get in my first workout. I've actually decided to "run" the half marathon in Pittsburgh in May, so I'm substituting my runs for the Cardio X portion of the Doubles workout. I went out for a 30 min jog this morning. It was COLD!!! It's supposed to be warm later but it was still below freezing! It felt GREAT though! I had no issues at all and really could've kept going. Since I haven't been really focusing on running, I'll most likely walk/jog the race, but that's ok. A lot of my friends are doing it so it'll be fun!

I'm going to volunteer today at the animal shelter and then I'll be back for the Chest workout with Abs. I'm excited! I'm so happy my life is back on track. Without going into too much gory detail, I basically decided to end a 3.5 year relationship over the weekend and I had to deal with that. Soooo, now I am back and planning to workout with full force! I'm feeling awesome today, so that's great! If I have time, I'll post about the chest workout. I have a midterm tomorrow though, so I should really be studying!