Breaking Through

This is Part II of the post I wrote last night. If you haven't read it yet, click here and do so. Don't worry. I'll wait.

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Done? Good. Now you've got some context.

The 12 minute mile last night did not happen. I'm not at all disappointed however, because I still shaved more than a minute off my previous PR of 13:31 which is over a year old at this point! Last night I finished at 12:21 thanks to my trainer who kept pushing me when my brain was ready to give up.

Stupid brain, it was ready to throw in the towel before we were even half way through! It was hard, don't get me wrong, my legs burned, my chest burned and at a few points, I really didn't think I could go on. It took everything I had to go from 5mph to 3.5 or even 3. I did go down to 4.5 a couple times, and at one point, went down to 3.8 for a few seconds, but finished strong at 6 to close it out!

:)

The new mile time was not the biggest thing that happened last night, however, I learned 2 very important things. First, make sure to take proper recovery steps! I cooled down and stretched, but I didn't do any kind of recovery shake or meal until over an hour after I finished. Bad idea. Later last night I developed a migraine that didn't go away until less than an hour ago!

The second thing was more of an epitome than a lesson. My belief about myself and what I could do shot through the roof! 21 seconds is nothing. I will beat that before the month is out. :)

In closing, to those of you who read this and encouraged me online, over the phone, or otherwise, thank you!

On a side note, this blog post is very applicable as well. Check it out!

How fast can I run a mile?

Heading to the gym tonight for a Monday workout with my trainer. I've made it a rule to never miss a Monday workout, unless I have a mixer scheduled, but that only happened once a month. Even then I try to get one in during my lunch break at work.

Anyway, I digress.

Tonight's going to be tough and I'm really nervous about it. Last week we did fartleks on the treadmill. Apparently he was quite impressed and thought that I could do much better than my current mile time of around 14:30. (Up from 13:31 last year. :-( ) He said that I have a lot of mental blocks to break through and that I could definitely go much faster at the current fitness level I'm at.

I think he's crazy.

He went on to say that at the session tonight, we're getting on the treadmill again, and going at 5mph for a full mile. That's a 12 minute mile for those of you like me who's strong point is not math.

Now I know he's crazy!

I'm trying to talk myself out of being so nervous, but I really am! I really want to be able to do this, but this really puts me face to face with a lot of my insecurities and doubts about myself.

In a way it's very much like my AdvoCare business. There's a lot I want to be able to do, and think I can do, eventually, just not as quickly as getting it done tonight!

I know I've told many many people that running is 80% mental. I thought I've broken through a lot of the mental barriers I had, but apparently, there's a lot more that still need to be shattered.

What if I can't do it? What if I do it, but I'm breathing and heaving so hard that everyone around me wonder's, what's that fat girl think she's doing? 12 minute mile? What's the big deal? Why am I making such a big deal of this? If I can't do it tonight, big whoop. I'll get it done later on. But I really want to! What an accomplishment to say I've done it! What if I can't do it though? What if people hear how hard I heave and think that AdvoCare's not all it's cracked up to be because the fat girl on the treadmill obviously isn't very fit and healthy like AdvoCare reps should be?

See what I mean? I've been going through this cycle all day. I wish I could just tell my brain to shut up!

This has become a very vulnerable post...

Anyway, one way or another, I'm getting my workout in. We'll see what happens!

Results

I almost forgot what a great workout felt like. Even more so, I forgot what it was like to be excited about results and progress!

I've been a member of LivRite for around 2 years now. For a while I worked out by myself and it went to just fine. However, I'm doing the Imdy Mini this Spring, so I'm training for it now. I've read a lot of conflicting information about endurance training, weight loss, toning and strength training. As a result, I decided to work with a trainer at my gym.

Tonight was my second session with Steve. I'm excited about the progress coming in the next few months. There was even progress tonight! It was nice to have some structure and instruction in the gym.

The work out tonight alternated between cardio - running - and resistance - squats. We finished by doing sqats on the bosu ball, which was different and challenging, but a lot of fun!

I'm excited to see the scale go down again, my mile time go down again, and my waistline go down again. Finally, I'm excited to show other people that just because you're almost 400 pounds, does not mean you're stuck there. It's not your lot in life.

Leg Day!

Okay folks, I stole this workout from another website (Credited below). Taking my O2 Gold, Muscle Fuel, Catalyst, and keeping my Post workout Recovery ready for when I hobble out. The goal for tomorrow is not being able to walk.

And. Here. We. Go.

• 10 minute warm up on cardio machine of choice.
•  2 Warm up sets of squats - light weight, high reps, just enough to get the blood flowing.

• Wide Stance barbell squats - 4x10
• Narrow stance hack squats - 3x15

• Walking lunges w/ barbell - length of the gym and back  -3x (Thankfully my gym isn't HUGE!)
• Stiff leg deadlifts - 4x15

• Leg Extentions - 3x15. Last set to failure
• Hamstring curls - 3x12. Last set to failure

HT: Muffin Topless

  

Take Ownership

I have a confession to make... the past several months I've been lazy, and really fell off the horse as far as disciplining myself to keep moving forward.

I've stagnated, and even regressed a bit. I don't work out regularly like I used to, and my eating choices have taken a few steps backwards.

I'm not as bad as I used to be, but if I don't get back up, I will be.

Did you hear that? That's the thing. I'm not as bad as I used to be, but IF I DON'T GET BACK UP, I will be.

It's never too late to get back up on the horse. Whether you've had a bad mean, bad day, bad week, bad month, or in my case, a bad couple of months, it's never too late to get back on track.

You have to take responsibility for your actions and commit to keep moving forward. I have no one to blame for my regression but myself. It's not my family's fault - it's not their job to make sure there are good food choices at home and encourage me to exercise. It's not my friends' fault - it's not their job to make sure I eat well when we go out and go to the gym regularly. It's not AdvoCare's fault. AdvoCare products work 100% of the time when used correctly, consistently, and when the user is coachable with them. I was none of those and it's no one's fault but my own.

During this time of laziness, my business has also stagnated. It makes sense, after all. How can I ask people to do things to better themselves when I, myself, am not willing to do them? 

That changes today, however. This blog is quite late because I kept pushing it back thinking that what was written above could be written in past tense rather than present. Even now I know there are things that I know I wanted to include, but can't for the life of me remember what they were! Part of that is due to faulty technology - I wrote this entry out in it's entirety but never saved the draft, apparently. Most of that fault, however - 95% of it - rests solely with me for waiting WAY too long to write this.

I want you to take two things away from this post. 1.) Change happens when you take responsibility and ownership for that change. 2.) It's never too late to get back on track if you fallen off to the side, or even back slid.

One Final 5K

I've been stuck at a plateau for a little while now. Not totally without results, but much slower than they were when in first started. Painstakingly slow at times. I suppose something could be said that I didn't quit and totally fall off the band wagon as has been my track record until September of 2011 when I did my first 24 Day Challenge. Here it is, 2013 and I'm still fighting.

I'm ready to see the body fat melt away faster again, and honestly, even more so see it come off other people. :-)

With a brand new race season upon me though, I'm hoping that this will help motivate me to train longer and harder now that results and goals have a more definite deadline. I know that my eating disciplines have slipped a bit, so those need tightening up again. Still no soda, or French fries which have been deemed by my doctor as "unfit for human consumption" which I totally agree with! He also lumps donuts in that group which I agree with about 95%. I'm not a huge fan of donuts, but I like one every 6 months or so!

I digress...

My next goal is in a few short days.

I signed up for what will hopefully be my last 5K until I move up to 10Ks. I can run a mile without stopping - usually takes me about 14 minutes, and the last 5K I did, I ran the 1st mile, walked part of there 2nd, and ran all of the 3rd. This one, I want to run there entire 3.1 miles.

I honestly don't know if I can... I've found, and told other people that running is 80% mental and only 20% physical, which I still agree with, so we're talking about ~45 minutes of mental war. I don't know if I can tell myself I can keep going despite burning legs and heaving breath for that long.

Add to that an injury that happened Tuesday afternoon. I ran during my lunch break at work around our parking lot, which has become normal practice for me, and tripped over a rock.

Cool story huh?

I twisted my ankle and scraped up my knee. The twist is what I'm more concerned about this weekend. It's almost back to 100% already, but still tender. I don't want to exacerbate it further, yet at the same time, I don't want to use it as an excuse to not push farther than ever before.

We'll see I suppose. God sneaked in so many miracles into the human body and it's capable of so much more than we ever thought it could be!

Let's pray for strength and endurance on Saturday!

The ones that matter...

It's not the workout you're excited about that counts. The workout you feel great going into and better coming out of that matters. It's not the workout you have energy for that makes a difference. It's not the workout you carefully took the time to plan down to the second that makes you stronger.

No.

It's the workout you did after a long day at work. The workout you did despite feeling mentally drained. Physically exhausted. The one you dread, but do anyway because you don't accept excuses. The one you took your expensive pre-workout supplement before hand just so you would not talk yourself out of it on your way to the gym. The one that continued to the end only because you kept repeating in your head "there are either excuses or results, but never both".

The ones you drag yourself to the locker room, drenched in sweat, and it takes all the strength you have left to lift your gym bag, and the remaining mental capacity just to drive home. Those are the workouts that make you different from the rest of the athletes on the field. That make you a champion.

True, any kind of activity will improve physical fitness, but only the ones that were just as hard to finish as they were to start improve your mental fortitude.

I'm Not Trying To Lose Weight

Warning: This post is a bit of a rant... Consider yourselves warned.

I'm not trying to lose weight. I hate it when people, especially health and fitness professionals, ask me if I am. If friends at work or church ask me if I am trying to lose weight I don't mind as much because they don't know any better. A doctor, however, should know that a person can be at their ideal weight, or even underweight, and still not be healthy.

I'm trying to get fit. I'm training for endurance races - 10Ks, half marathons, marathons, and Ironman races. Yes, because of my excess body fat, losing weight is a crucial part of my training, but it is not my end goal. I will be at a supposed "ideal weight" long before I complete a marathon or Ironman triathlon.

I don't mind if people ask me how much I have weight I have lost. In fact, I kind of like it! Call it arrogant, but I have lost 86lbs so far and I am proud of that! I've also completed four 5Ks, and a sprint triathlon. Yay me! As my waist has grown over the years I've refused to get rid of my clothes because I kept telling myself that I would shrink back into them, and now, even they are too big!

I'm the smallest and healthiest I have ever been in my adult life. I am not the lightest. I am okay with that.

The scale has no power over me, nor should it have power over you.

/end rant.