BS Alarm

I always read before bed. Last night I went to open a library book, and discovered the first 25 pages of the paperback missing! I was discourage and went to bed with no reading. A fate worse than going to bed with no dinner.

I normally read during my lunch break as well. With out reading fodder today, I ate my lunch and then headed to the bookstore down the road for some “browsing.” I was hoping to find “Slow, Fat, Triathlete” but had no luck. I had about 10 minutes to kill, so I perused the magazine section. I picked up the newest SELF, mainly for the fact that Zoey Deschanel was on the cover. How gorgeous is she?
Anyhow, as I was skimming, I came upon a quiz. I stopped doing and being entertained by magazine quizzes in middle school, but the title caught my eye “How to tell if you are fat, or will be fat” or something like that. Hah. I thought, I am going to do this, because clearly the mirror doesn’t tell me if I am fat already or not (realize I am coming at this from a societally fat perspective).
The first question, 1) What is your BMI? You select the range your BMI is in, and receive the points associated with that. Well..I don’t know my BMI, wait let me Google it real quick. 38. Yep, obese. Good. So, for people with a BMI of 30 or over you start with 64 points. 64! Hot damn.
Ok, so I keep 64 in my mind, and continue with the quiz.
Some questions:
2) how often do you eat breakfast
3) how often do you exercise at least 30 minutes a day
4) how many hours of TV do you watch per week
5) how stressed are you

Etc etc.
So I start with a BMI that classifies me as obese. But, I live a healthy lifestyle, so I only have to add 1 or 2 points and sometimes I get to subtract some.
The Verdict?

I might end up overweight. Or maybe it said I already am over weight. I don’t remember how many categories there were, at least three. Normal, Overweight and Obese.
So, my lifestyle points are low enough to negate my obesity on the BMI scale? Or….are the makers of the quiz assuming that with a BMI of 38, I probably have a totally un-healthy lifestyle?

Or am I reading too much into this and really this is the editors of SELF realizing that while I might be obese I might also have a healthy lifestyle?

I hate the BMI, it’s such bullshit.

It's Time....

Something’s been bothering me lately.
Well….it’s something that someone said. Someone being my mother. I love my mother, I do. I think she is an incredibly strong and organized woman. I would like to be like her.
But, not in one aspect. Body Image.
My mom, and subsequently I, come from a family of stocky, barrel chested German Native Americans. Seriously, no one in my Mom’s family is taller than 5’7” (her four brothers included) and they hall have some serious mass.
So, needless to say, my mom has always been bigger than what society deems ideal. As a runner in her early 30’s she wore a size 14/16. And she was super healthy and fit.
After she had kids, she gained weight and was overweight and fat all through my childhood. (I’ve written this all before by the way, just can’t get rid of those Mommy issues).
Anyway, I’ll cut to the point, after being on various diets throughout my childhood, after my brother and I left home she joined a gym, and after a year of working out, hired a personal trainer. I’m not sure what her diet plan was, although she has a definte tendency to try whatever someone tells her is the next great thing, lately it’s raw food and food combining.
Anyway, I am also built like my mom’s family, only with my Dad’s families height and legs. At 5’7” I tower over my Aunts and am on eye level with my mom’s brothers. On the other side of the family, my Aunt has an inch on me, and my uncles vary from 6-12 inches taller. I am thankful everyday that I don’t have the bandy chicken legs of my mom’s family. Instead I have, what I call Tree Trunks. My legs are serious from the thighs down. I like them, they are muscular and shapely.

Ok, back to the point. The thing that is bothering me.
My parents are coming to visit us this weekend. My dad had passed through our area a few weeks ago, and after he returned home, my mom emailed me. She said that my Dad told her that I looked really good and he thought I had lost weight. She signed off her email with “looking forward to seeing less of you.”
Oomph. Ugh.

I know that my mom is happy to see me no matter what, and that she loves me no matter what, but I hate that. It doesn’t stop me from thinking “what if I had gained 60 pounds? Would you be looking forward to seeing more of me?” Don’t you want to see the most of me that you can? I realize that it’s an expression and that she doesn’t mean she wants to see me less. Is this something that people say to each other in weight watchers? Where does she even come up with this stuff? This is actually the second time that she’s signed an email like that (in fairness, after I had emailed her about stepping up my work outs). But it bothered me then, and it bothers me now. I’ve come a long way from where I once was with being able to stick up to people and tout my HAES values, but something about me regresses when my mother is in the picture. I need to be an adult and tell her. Time to grow up.

Absent but Busy!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a little while! Summer is super busy at work, and my home life has been kinda busy too! But that is ok, Busy is good.

July (so far) has held two main things for me:

I joined Angela’s Summer Glow Boot Camp. I watched when she had her first boot camp, and decided that when she rolled out this new boot camp that I was going to participate. I took my measurements, printed off the monthly calendar and saved a copy of the exercises on my desktop, so I can always have them handy.

I’ve REALLY enjoyed this! Angela posts such thoughtful topics, and her guest posters have been awesome. One of the topics that Angela wrote about for the SGBC was setting Goals. I’ve been over how I’m not much of a goal setter, because I’m not a goal achiever (that is a whole other post really). But I decided to set some small goals for the month of July.

My Goals:
1) Lose one inch off my waist -ideally I’d like to lose more, but for this month, the 1 inch is my goal-small measureable goals people!
2) Eat dessert only 3 or 4 nights a week-this is a tough one for me. Sugar is my weakness and the sole source of my mindless eating. It’s what I go for when I am stressed and bored. I also have to be careful of this, as restricting sets of my tendency to binge. It’s more of a goal to be mindful about what I put in my mouth and not to eat dessert just because I am low on calories for the day.
3) Complete all of the SGBC strength exercises- I chose this because I want to be accountable and actually do this. Also, this ties into goal 1 and lost of the exercises focus on core strength.

So, yeah. I like it and check out Angela’s blog, it’s awesome.

The other thing that has been big for me is I’ve been reading this book

Umm...this book is amazing. I wanted to read her first book “Slow, Fat Triathlete”
But the library system in my valley only has this one and it’s is phenomenal. It’s the Health At Every Size book that I’ve been looking for. The author is funny and witty and so right on about being an “imperfect athlete.” Each chapter is short and makes a point, and many of them have “exercises” at the end, mental exercises, things to get you in the right frame of mind for exercising. Seriously, it is so so so so so so so so good. I think I’m going to buy myself a copy (and I NEVER buy books). I love books so much. If I bought every book I wanted I would be broke.

Here is an excellent quote from the book:
“When you tap into your own unstoppable commitment to do everything within your power to follow your dreams, that makes you a superhero too.”

Seriously, check out the book.

quoted!

The fabulous Kelly, of Every Gym's Nightmare quoted me in an article she wrote for Twirlit.com.

Does this make me almost famous?

It's funny, because I had written and re-written that a comment on her personal blog several times before I decided on what to say.

I have mixed feelings about Celebrities and their public "weight battles." But I do believe what wrote, I dig the fact that even though Oprah has yo-yo'ed her career has only sky rocketed.

speed racer.....

So, as I stated in my last post, I am going to sign up for my next 5k. Because the race is so big to have a timed run, you are supposed to be able to run the 5k in 35 minutes. I’ve looked over previous year’s results and this hasn’t always been the case, but I’d like to make a concerted effort to be as close as possible.

Why not just sign up for a non competitive run/walk wave and run it anyway you ask? Well, you can’t. The race is so big that you cannot find a rhythm in the main waves. My sister-in-law and I tried to run/walk it two years ago and gave up and just walked the whole way. And trust me, I need to take avoid any opportunity to give up.

So, I need to increase my mile time. I went for a run yesterday (I have been dying to be able to say that for years!!!!!!!!) and I wasn’t planning on a certain distance or a certain time, just going to a jog in the morning. I ended up running 1.77 miles in 24 minutes. So a 13.5 minute mile. This would put me at a 42 minute 5k. So I need to shave off 7 minutes of time.

I’ve done a bit of reading about this. I know that I shouldn’t increase my speed too much, or I’ll aggravate my shin splints, but I’ve been thinking about speed training. Running spring/jog intervals. Does anyone have experience with this? What works….what doesn’t.
Help!

race day

So, on Saturday I had my 5k race.

I woke up at 5:30 and couldnt' get back to sleep (the alarm was set for 6:00am). I got up putzed around, and got dressed. My stomach was a ball of nerves. I had planned on eating a half of a peanut butter and jelly sammie when we got to the race site. I knew I would need to eat before then so I forced down half of a banana. Here is my...i'm eating and I'm nervous face....

We got to the park, and were extremely early. I picked up my race chip, and walked around, stretched and went to the bathroom like 10 times before the 5k started. Prior to the 5k starting, about 100 women took off on a Half Marathon! About 20 minutes after they left, the 5kers lined up. I got behind the 12+ minute mile sign. The gun went off and it took me about 45 minute to cross the start line....and I was off...

It was hard for me to get my pace at first. My pants were a little loose and they kept sliping off until I started sweating enough for them to stick to me. Gross right? Anyway....It was interesting for me to run a course I've never run. It was so much easier to no worry about how far I had gone, or how long we had been running when I didn't know distance. I also didn't wear my watch. I was feeling pretty good through mile one. The course didn't have mile markers, but I had studied the race map relgiously, so I had an idea of where the mile markers were. Right after mile one we headed up a small hill. Post hill there was a water station...I remembered from the race packet that the first water station was supposed to be at mile 2. I thought there was no way that I had run 2 miles already, and that i didn't think that mile 2 was until further down the course. I had a gulp of water and threw my cup on the ground feeling like a real runner. At this point I was feeling tired. There was a group of three women in front of me and two women behind me. Both grous were run/walking and we kept passing eachother.

I wasn't too familiar with the course, but since I could see several people infront of me, I wasn't too worried about going the right way.....before i knew it there was an arrow on the ground (i'd been following them all along) but this one had the word "finish by it" at the point we re-entered the park and i knew i only had about half a mile to go. I fought every urge not to walk.

But I didn't. And I ran across the finish line!

The clock had 1:00 hour on it. It didnt' take me an hour, the 1/2 marathon had started 30 minutes prior. I was doing the math and realized It had only taken me 30 minutes! I could hardly believe it......

A volunteer handed me a medal, and took off my race chip. I was still in disbelief about my time. I was truly expecting it to take me 40 minutes. But...I didn't think about it too long and i was so proud of my self for not walking at all...


After the run Scott and I had a picnic with his parents. A ham sandwich at 9:30am has never tasted so good....

So....later that day, I was anxious to see what my race results would be, and I knew that they would be online at spondoro.com.

My chip time was 27:56. Meaning 8:59 minute miles. I was in disbelief. I pulled up the PDF of the race map and realized that there was no way we had run the whole course.

I was still feeling good about my race, but had a nagging feeling about my time and the distance. last week my practice 5k took me 41 minutes. No one cuts that much time off, even if they do run the whole way. I told my husband and he reassured me that even the first finishers had come in super fast. I formulated the theory that the course had been mismarked.

Today, I started feeling a little down about the whole thing. It's just not possible to run sub 9 minute miles on Saturday, when you were running 13 minute miles on Tuesday. While I was in the shower, my husband called the store that sponsored the race. They confirmed that "the course had either been mismarked, or the participants took a wrong turn." Damn.

I feel so jipped! I was so nervous about this 5k and I truly feel let down. I am proud of myself for signing up for the race and going and being prepared to run the whole thing, and running the whole distance regardless of how far it was...but I wanted an authentic time and authentic race.

It's ok though, I'm going to sign up for another local race that is in September. It's also a 5k. It's a HUGE race, literally 10,000 people (women only again) in the race. to have a timed race, you are supposed to be able to run a 35 minute 5k. So....that is my new goal. Aim for a 35 minute 5k in my training, increase my speed and endurance...and try again.

Dork Alert

So, I'm going to a conference in Salt Lake City in October.

I just realized that the conference site is ONE MILE from a WHOLE FOODS!

I'm super excited. Not because I think Whole Foods is the best, but because I've never been. I know it's super expensive etc, but i live in a town with out a Co-op, Trader Joes, etc. NOTHING! No Publix Fresh Market, no Earth Fare....i'm excited!

That same weekend i'm going to Reno for a Wedding...and there is a Trader Joes..i'm stoked for that as well.

And i'm a huge dork.

And getting super nervous for my race....TOMORROW!

Race coverage will begin tonight with packet pick up!

breathe in...breathe out....

This is the race I am running on Saturday. EEEEEEEEEAKLJASLDJALSKJDAS>
I am getting pre-race nerves. Like seriously. Not so much about my ability to do the race, but about having on the right clothes, and not forgetting my sunscreen and what the route is going to look like, and if the XL race t-shirt will fit, and where we are going to park.
Like I said: aajweroiukjanvbopaiufboieng!

I’ve been reviewing my race packet and printing off parking maps and looking at the sponsors website and it’s just going to be so cool!

So for the running part. I can jog 30 minutes with out stopping. But during those 30 minutes my feet only carry me about 2.25 miles. Right, less than a 5k. I’m not sure yet how I am going to work out the amounts of running vs. walking. I really want to run the whole thing without taking a walk break, but I don’t want to push my shins and back. I think my tentative plan, if I need to walk is to run for 20 minutes, take a 5 minute walking break and then run through to the finish.

Or just plod along slow and steady.
This weekend I am running for Chocolate and Champagne…both of which will be at the finish line…what do you run for?