I know, I know. I'm the worst blogger ever. I suck at it. It's like forever between posts, I want to update more often but I'm hit with a lot of writer's block. I love to write it, but the problem I have is that I'm something of a perfectionist. I want to write posts on a grand and epic scale, not boring everyday stuff that will bore people and make people bored. But unfortunately, my life is kind of boring. Crazy mountain hiking adventures and marathons aside, most of my daily grind is pretty much like everyone else's. Work, family, extracurricular activities, sleep, and so on. Who wants to read about that? And yet we all have unique experiences and at least from what I see on my Facebook, we are all somewhat invested in one another's lives, no matter how boring. So I guess I will try something new, to write from my heart and not from my head, and find things to share that mean something to me rather than things I think will impress the masses. Thank you for reading, even if I'm boring.
It's been just about 2 years since I started this fun journey of fitness and healthy living. When I first started out, I didn't really have a plan in mind, I never imagined I'd reach the point I am at right now. At that point in my life, I wasn't doing anything, and I just wanted to do something. Anything. Well, that Something became Something More, which progressed into Wow, I May Be On To Something and got me to where I am now, at Holy Cow, I Can't Believe I'm Doing This. It's been a fun ride so far, but it's not over yet, so here's kind of a progress report on my two year mark.
As of late, my fitness routine has been going well. I continue to run on a regular basis, currently I run 26+ miles a week, broken up into three days a week. I do a short run on Tuesday (6 miles), a medium run on Thursday (8-10 miles) and a long run on Saturday (12+ miles). Every four weeks I take a "break" by running shorter distances than usual, to give my body a chance to recover and heal from any damage caused by the longer runs I normally do. I don't know if that routine is right or would be approved by the Official Runner People. I'm not a member of a running club and don't follow blogs or read articles as much as I should, but all I know is my routine works for me. I also register for and participate in races to motivate me to keep pushing myself to get out there and keep improving. So far this year, I completed a half marathon back in January and my first full marathon on February 3. I will do a post on that at some point, but that will require more time than I have on my hands right now. All I can say is it was a most amazing and educational experience for me, and one I am planning to repeat in the not-so-distant-future. I will be running two more half marathons in the next two months, and more half marathons and 10k's throughout the year. I'm looking forward to each one and crossing my fingers for some fresh new PR's in the next couple of races to get the Spring season off to a good start!
My weight loss has been stalled for some time now. I have already lost 105 lbs since beginning this journey two years ago, my goal is to lose 20-30 more lbs to reach my ideal weight for my height of 6'. It is hard because I love to eat and though I burn enough calories with my exercise routine to maintain the weight I am at, I am having difficulty moving forward because I'm still fighting my old eating habits, which have a nasty habit of sneaking up on me when I least expect it. I work in an environment that is full of food temptations that come in the form of tasty leftovers, the overflowing dish of chocolate treats in HR, and the all-you-can-eat-all-day-long full service cafeteria that is 27 steps from my desk. Yes, I counted. I have created a meal plan that gives me a specific lists of yes and no options, but sticking to it is tough when surrounded by so many temptations. I manage to stick to it pretty well most days, and my weight has been ticking down slowly, slowly, slowly. I have very little patience, but I have to keep reminding myself that progress is progress, no matter how small.
Looking ahead, I continue with the plan that has served me well for the past couple of years, that is to keep setting short term goals, but with some long term goals in mind as well. As I mentioned, I still participate in races, though I have already finished a total of 4 half marathons, I am working on improving my pace, so I continue to sign up for more. I'm still working on the weight loss, I haven't set a time frame goal for that but I'm hoping to reach it within the next year or so. For the long term, I set my sights on another marathon, to be completed in the Spring of 2014. That will give me time to work on improving my pace and endurance so that when it's time to start marathon training it won't be such a stretch as it was this time, and so I can actually run the whole thing the next time. I know it's possible, I just have to take it a little at a time. I'm up to 16 miles without walking now, I'm optimistic that this goal will be met within the time frame I've set.
That's all I've got for now. I'm going to try to update this more often, even when I don't have any epic adventures to tell about. I hope you enjoy my musings and thoughts, as usual, thank you for reading!
