Half marathon - check!

Susan and I completed the Kirkland Mother's Day half marathon, and all went better than expected!  I had heard the hills on this half were killer, so I was expecting to be really hurting.  I did do a fair amount of hill training and for the most part I didn't mind them too much.  I walked the really steep ones, and the rest were a nice rolling up and down.

I had planned to come in around 3 hours, and beat that at 2:48.  I think that's not half bad for my first half!  I could have pushed harder, but I didn't want to risk injury or even just hobbling around sore for days.  As it was, I felt pretty wiped the rest of the day, and somewhat sore the day after.

Some notable things:

•  I was very nauseous for the rest of the day.  This has never happened to me after a run before.  Maybe it was dehydration?  I drank a cup at every water stop, maybe I need to carry some too.  Will definitely research this more if I ever sign up for another half.
• Towards the end I decided to try the Gu gel shot.  It was disgusting and a sticky mess, blech!!!  Why did I do that for the first time on a race?!  From now on I'm definitely sticking with the blocks.  They are actually pretty tasty.  Maybe the gel had something to do with the nausea.
• Running sometimes takes me to a weird emotional place.  I kept thinking about a friend from my days at UW.  She died a few years back, complications from anorexia I believe.  We lost touch long before that, and I regret not keeping in contact with her.  I choked up a bit thinking about how I missed her.
• I made a pit stop at mile 10 and my energy dropped off a cliff after that.  I knew I could finish the next 3 miles but it became much more of a slog after that point.
• The last mile or so it hurt just as much to walk as it did to run, so that gave me a little motivation to rock it out till the end.
• It was pretty quiet at the finish line.  I kept imagining all the cheering and celebration that would be going on.  I was somewhere in the last 1/6th of runners, so I guess they'd all packed up and left by then.
• Training is over, yay!!! At times training was really cool and it was gratifying to be able to go on longer runs and feel great, and other times it felt like a huge burden.
• Now that I have run the longest distance I ever care to, I want to spend some time focusing on speed.  For most of my runs I just take a leisurely pace and enjoy it.  I think it would do me some good to try track workouts or intervals and see what I can accomplish.

Game over!

My first round of Game On ended this last Monday.  Our team didn't win, so I'm out $100.  I'm ok with that though, I lost 5 pounds and have finally gotten back on the calorie counting bandwagon, which I know works well for me to lose weight.  That's more than enough to count it as a win in my book!  I also found a few recipes for making healthy food ahead of time.  Why have I not done this before?!  Having a bunch of cooked chicken breasts and sweet potatoes doesn't really take that much prep time, but it's very versatile for cooking a quick weeknight dinner, or throwing together a work lunch.  In general, I'm fine eating the same thing over and over.  As long as I'm not hungry, it's all good!

A new round is starting next Monday, and this time there's a lot more people from work playing, so it would definitely make things more interesting.  I want to join, but need to think about a fitness challenge.  Each week you get a 20% bonus for losing 1% of your body weight, which for me is very challenging.  However, if you are close to goal weight you can opt to do a fitness challenge instead.  Since I'm signed up for doing the Mother's Day half marathon and I should be on week 2 of my training plan, but have not really been following it, maybe my challenge should be to do all the training runs.  I am only hesitant though because I don't want to set myself up for injury by over training.  I have struggled with plantar faciitis years aga, and tendonitis in my hips when I tried to start back up after Tilda was born, and it sucks!!!

Goals and Resolutions

New Year's resolutions are silly things, usually tossed away before even February arrives. But if there's one thing I'm sure of about myself, I am motivated by a goal. I always have lists. To do lists, shopping lists, things to think about for the future, recipes to try, on and on. It's my go to organization strategy for both work and personal progress. It's the only way I can keep track of all the things rattling around in my head without going crazy. And so often, nothing feels better than crossing items off those lists, so why not do it more?!

For some reason though, I have never made New Year's resolutions. Well, not since the half-hearted "this is the year I quit smoking!" from so long ago (that was so long ago, it feels like another life time). 

Lately for work we are doing the yearly review and goal setting process, and I thought that when done right, it's so helpful. Why not try something similar for personal goals? 

With that, here are my goals for 2014: 

• Workout/run at least 3x a week. Barring sickness of course, which we have had a lot of lately. I have been doing this consistently for a few months now, so just need to stick with it. 
• Mother's Day Half Marathon - just finish! I kind of can't believe I am really going to do this, but I think if I can follow the training plan I will be just fine. Walking is ok, just want cross that finish line.
•  Lose the baby weight - get back to 150. I have been really slacking here. I was letting myself have whatever I wanted while breastfeeding, and now that's over I don't need all the extra calories. It's just 10 pounds. It doesn't seem like that much, but it really brings me down sometimes.
•  Cooking - cook more meals at home and plan ahead for the week. I need to come up with a more specific goal here, but this is one that's been nagging at me bad lately so I'm including it anyway. It's even more important now that Tilda is cramming solid food in her mouth left and right. Nutrition is important, and I want to teach her healthy eating habits from the beginning. 
• Sewing - clean and organize the craft area, finish the blanket and top in progress, start using up fabric stash, sign up for sewing classes. I think about sewing a lot, but procrastinate out of fear and laziness. Knitting is just easier so I never get up the energy to move my butt off the couch and into the craft room.
• Reading - one book a month. I don't set aside much time for reading, so maybe I need to schedule it. 

I think all of these things are reasonable if I keep focused. The last year has been all about baby, and that's ok. It's how it should be when they are so little. Now though, it's time to get back to other things I love, that drive me and challenge me. I'm excited to see how tracking them will help!  I'm ready, let's do this 2014!!