Breasts vs. Half Marathon Training

If you're like me and fitness hasn't exactly been your thing for most of your life, you learn things every day that you didn't know before. The thing I'm learning now? Sports bras wear out. I just never thought of that type of thing, but they do. You wash them, you wear them, they stretch, they shrink back... it's tough on the elastic and eventually they just don't hold up to an hour straight of bouncing bust. And then your trapezius muscle starts to hurt on your right side and you're trying to run and force your shoulder blades together to ease the pain. Maybe that's just me...

So I finally broke down and bought a couple new sports bras, especially because my mediums were obviously too big. I think the strap under the boob area could actually be pulled down to my navel. Okay, I exaggerate...

Picked up a couple EXTRA SMALL sports bras and ran with one of them this morning. Definitely helped. I still really should double bag because despite the fact that a large quantity (emphasis on the tit) of my weight loss over the past year has come right off the FRONT, there's still that whole moving thing and gravity and yea... doesn't go well with the running.

And running is what it's all about now. Today actually should have been the day that I shared with you the 60 day results from ChaLEAN Extreme, but I'm now a week behind. Really, I'm only two workouts behind but I want to repeat the whole three workouts... and I'm going to have to be more realistic about how I do it. It's Half Marathon training time. Sacrifices must be made to get that one rest day a week.

I'll go through my week and share how I'm UP FREAKING FOUR POUNDS (it's nearly mother nature time, so I'm trying not to get too down on myself) and how I put in 13 miles this week.

Monday: MEMORIAL DAY!!! That means all kinds of memorial things but really for me all it meant was a day off from work to get my run on and get my homework done. Unfortunately, there wasn't so much emphasis on the homework, but at least the running was accomplished. Memorial Day was the Day 1 of Half Marathon training for my first ever Half Marathon on September 8^th!!! I'm pretty stoked and every day I'm so sure that I can do it. Running has done so much for my belief in myself.

I'm following the beginning Half Marathon training in my Half Marathon/Marathon Runner's World guide. The program is 10 weeks but I have 14 weeks until my race, so I'm doubling up on some of the weeks (this will also help just in case I get sick or if something happens that I can't fit in the proper length run). The first couple of weeks are easy to figure out and this week it goes: 2 mi, 4 mi, 2 mi, 5 mi LSD (long, slow distance).

That means Monday was 2 miles. Nailed it. 2 miles is pretty standard for me now... I go down the street a mile, turn around, and come back. I've also started using MapMyWalk (because I had already bought it and I see no use in buying MapMyRun since I can track running on the walking one...) to track my runs instead of Bridge to 10k. I decided this because 1) you don't put in a goal into MapMyWalk. You just go. And 2) it tells you your pace and your splits at every mile without having to look at the screen, which is helpful when you're trying to keep a certain pace (even if you suck at pacing, like me).

The cool thing about MapMy(Insert Exercise Here) is the data you get from it! And I'm kind of a data junkie! I love keeping track of where I ran, how fast I ran, what the weather was like... and this app will tell me what the elevation was (it bases calories off this information too) and it tells me how I did compared to other people who have ran on similar streets.

Back to Monday...

Tuesday and Wednesday:  To be frank, I ate like a pig.  I've been eating like a pig.  I can't eat enough lately which makes me do things like eat out and eat bad things because I run out of good things and because bad things are generally faster to prepare (i.e. open a bag).

Wednesday I met a friend for dinner (shout out to her, because I know she reads this!) and I went home with every intention of getting in some weight lifting.  I had so much homework on my brain that I couldn't get through the workout.  I stopped midway.  I've not done that in forever.  Of course, that's what the weight of a 15 and a 12 page paper (both due a week from today; one is now complete, one has not been started yet) will do to you.

Thursday:  Someone forgot to tell New Hampshire that it isn't Kentucky... because I went to my car to head to work and the air felt like a Kentucky morning.  And then by the time I got off from work, it was 90 degrees.  Last year, I didn't run in the month of July because, honestly, I run my best at 40-50 degrees.  What's changed from this year?  Oh, I can run in shorts and a tank top now and I don't think I look like a hippo going all Fantasia down the road.  Seismic activity in the thighs and belly.  No more.  I should know, I check myself out in the windows I pass.  Gotta be sure.

I wasn't going to let the temperature get me down, and since I couldn't run until after work anyway, the sun was lower in the sky so there was a ton of shade on my route.  I started at the Handsome Gentleman's house and ran my 4 miles; I took a little bottle of watered down Gatorade with me.  I'd ran this loop a few times before, but I was proud of that first mile.  The first .8 mi is all up hill and that hill is no joke.  

Cool is that that first portion of the run is actually a "course" on MapMyWalk, so I now have 8th place on that course!  Something tells me everyone else was going the OTHER way...

Came back afterward and made gigantic and tasty salads... so that was at least a better food choice.

Saturday:  Another 2 miles.  This time I wanted to switch it up because, like the day before, it was 90 degrees and I thought it'd be a good idea to run at noon (I had homework and if I didn't run then, it wasn't happening).  I took some water with me, which I never do for 2 miles, but I did it because of the heat.  I also tried to find places that had a lot of tree shade, which is why I decided to run the blocks around the cemetery.  It's very shady there.

 Not as fast as I would have liked, but again, 90 degrees.  My forearms were sweating.  

Sunday (Today):  Last night I spent some time out with a friend drinking alcohol, eating food (we both had salad... and split dessert... so it could be worse), and watching the Bruins beat the pants off some Penguins!  I got home after midnight but I wanted to get up and do my run.  I managed to get out of bed at 7:30, drank my protein shake, put my hair up, put one of my new sports bras on, and hit the street.  This route I've done several times because I really enjoy crossing the river here in Manchester.  It's really something.  I love water.

This is the run for the week that was supposed to be long, slow pace.  They equate it to being able to hold a conversation while running.  Of course, I don't run with anyone else (don't take that as an invitation to attack me, cuz I be kicking yo ass...) so I don't really want to be that kid who is mumbling to themselves to keep pace.  So I tried just going slower than I normally would.  When I hit the first mile, the app told me I had just run a 10:41 mile... and I was shooting for 12:00.  So... that didn't work.  Then, as you can see from the data above, the second mile wasn't much better.  Then I think I started to slow down a bit.  It was warm... it's supposed to be another 90 degree day today, but when I got out there it was 75 with a 100% cloudless sky.  That sun was warm.  I tried to get in as much shade as I could.  I did put sunscreen on, so there's that.  

I know this summer I'm going to have some hot sports bra tan lines.

So that's a total of 13 miles for the week.  Nailed it.  I did all four workouts.  I'm really trying to take this Half Marathon training one workout at a time.  That's why I love the data so much.  Each run is its own unique little snowflake... sometimes I go fast like I want to... other times I just get to enjoy the fact that I'm doing something fabulous for my body.  

I have no food recommendations this week.  I ate bad.  I'll admit it.  We people that seem to have it all together don't always have it all together.  I am learning though that if I do my homework here in my back bedroom instead of in the living room, watching television, I'm less likely to want to eat.  I'm also trying to limit the number of snacks I have around... but sometimes that can be bad.  If I have no little snacks, I reach for big ones...  big, bad ones.  Polar seltzer water is my savior.

What's going on this week?

Well, I'm repeating Week 1's Half Marathon training, so it'll be 2, 4, 2, 5 miles again.  I have a golf tournament to work for work on Wednesday.  I'd really like to do at least 2 ChaLEAN workouts this week (savings the final workout for the second phase for the beginning of next week and then I'll do some pics and stats on that before I start the third and final phase).  I have to turn in my papers at the end of the week.  This first term of Grad school is almost over and if I've only gained 3-4 pounds of water weight over it here at the end, I can say I've accomplished much.

So long as I can find the time like I did today, tune in next week to see how week 2 of the training went.  I hate that I can't post very often anymore, but sacrifices must be made in order to keep the most important things going in my life.  Splitting my time between work, running, homework, and the handsomest boyfriend ever is a challenge I'm willing to kick ass at.