One Run, One Meal, One Day

A question for tumblr land

In August I started my final preceptorship for nursing school…this means working 12 hours shifts, 2 days, 2 nights, 4 days off.  I want to train for a fall race, but will not be able to commit and register until I get my shift rotation in the first couple weeks of August. 

The possible races are:

-Bellingham Bay Half (Sept 30)

-Rubber Ducky Half (Oct 12..I think, the official date isn’t set yet…it’s a small local race)

-Boundary Bay Half (November 4)

-Seattle Half or Full Marathon (November 25)

I really want to do Seattle again.  I did it in 2009 and it was a great weekend away. My question is should I train and stay in half marathon shape and race whatever race I can make or do I start a marathon training schedule and hope I can make it to the race in my shift rotation?

First solo 10k in forever

I can’t remember the last time I ran more than 7km when I wasn’t with the husband or my running group. Today. I set out to run and enjoy it. I had to real distance in mind. But I did want to explore an urban trail that I have only run part of before. I was a beautiful and perfect run. The air was cool, and my tempo fell into a nice and easy groove. It wasn’t my fasted 10km run by a long shot, I finished 10km in 1:13:45 for a 7:29 avg km but I kept the negative thoughts out of my head and kept even walk run intervals.

The only downside to this trail is that it brought me to the base of a mountain and to get home would have been another 10km back around the base or 5 or so straight up and over. Therefore I grabbed the bus home. Smart runners pack bus fare just in case. Thats something my pace group leader taught me in the marathon clinic.

How much do you make?

I’m almost at the end of nursing school and now near the end this status making the rounds on facebook means even more.

You’re a nurse? That’s cool, I wanted to do that when I was a kid. How much do you make? The nurse replied,

“How much do I make? I can make holding your hand the most important thing in the world when you’re scared. I can make your child breathe when they stop. I can help your father survive a heart attack. I can make myself get up at 5 a.m. to make sure you’re mother has the medicine she needs to live. I work all day to save the lives of strangers. I make my family wait for dinner until I know your family member is taken care of. I make myself skip lunch so that I can make sure everything I did for your child today is charted. I make myself work holidays and weekends because people don’t just get sick Monday-Friday. Today, I might just save your life. So, how much do I make? All I know, is that I make a difference.” 

Repost if you are a nurse or love a nurse. Happy Nurse Week

Moving forward…

I weighed in at Weightwatchers and since April 10 I’m down 0.6lbs….that’s not a number I’m especially pleased with, but it is reflective of the amount of effort I was putting into healthy eating and exercise.  For me, the big thing was just going on Tuesday night.  I know after a half marathon, between the physical exertion and the eating I do afterwards I retain fluid for 3-4 days.  But the accomplishment was that I went and got on the scale, because historically if I knew the number wasn’t going to a loss, or going to be a tiny loss I would just not go and then eat my feelings.  Sounds like a vicious cycle, now doesn’t it?

Yesterday still feeling sore from my half marathon the husband and I walked to the grocery store to pick up some veggies for taco salad for dinner.  Then this morning I got up and went to the gym and did 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical and 30 minutes of weights and core.  

I’ve also come up with a new running goal.  While I’m still considering another half marathon this year (In August or October), my body needs a bit of a break and so does my mind.  Therefore my new goal is to run a FAST 5k.  I’m not fast at all, the fastest 5k I’ve ever run is 30 minutes even on a training run. I’ve never run a 5k race and so now the focus is on running a sub 30 5k.  Today I’m working on choosing a goal race and making the training plan, so I’ll keep you posted.

The one where my priorities weren’t straight….

Two months ago I made a personal decision that the BMO Full Marathon, was not the right timing for my first marathon.  School and work meant I could only get out to run 3 days a week at the most and just couldn’t adequately train to run the race without getting injured.  It was a decision I cried many times over and often second guessed.  But looking back at how hectic and crazy this semester was for nursing school it was really the right decision for me.

However since I’ve made that decision I just haven’t been focused on training for anything.  I’ve run here and there, gone to the gym here and there, taken a bike ride here and there, but nothing serious.  This has led to the scale slowly creeping up, and none of my clothes fitting quite right.  From there I had a few study days at school, and busy days at work where I through caution to the wind and had that old feeling of…”I’m off the rails now, so let’s just have some fun”.

Now the semester is winding down, I’m probably running a half marathon on Sunday and I’m slowly learning to make those good choices again.  I’m not gone, I just disappeared and had a couple of woe is me months.

So here are the straightened out priorities:

-Keep going with WW…meetings and online tracking

-Pack food for work, so I’m not tempted to buy junk

-Find something to train for, even if it’s small (We just put an offer on a house so I’m reigning in race spending so it has to be inexpensive)

-Positive thinking

Weigh In 4/14/12

loseforgood:

Ah! So happy. I lost 1.2 pounds this week. That puts me at 163.4 pounds; with a total loss of 76.6 pounds. I’m 3.4 pounds from being what my drivers license says, and 3.4 pounds from being at a healthy weight (FINALLY!) for my height. Loving life.

So inspiring!  I love reading loseforgood because she reminds me that weight loss is a journey.  Now that I’m back doing WW trying to take off the 30 lbs I’ve gained back in the past three years, this reminds that it works, it just takes persistance.

How I spent my Sunday morning…

Running farther than I ever have before!  Yesterday morning I ran farther than a half marathon for the first time ever, and certainly not the last.  Since I missed the 23km clinic run, while I was running a half marathon, I jumped right up to 26km.  Mentally it was tough because it just seemed like so much, but once I got to 16km, I just told myself it was only another 10km and that I had run 10km a thousand times.  

Our route was a bit windy and encompassed some of the old BMO marathon route.  

It was also interesting because we were running through some more urban routes in Gastown and downtown Vancouver.  The looks large groups of runners get always makes me smile, especially because at one point we were cheering quite loudly about being done 22 km and only have 4 left.  

Overall the run was a success, but I’m looking forward to a nice easy 19km next week.  Never thought 19 would be a nice stepback!