TexasMama

OK, maybe not.

Ha, ha, ha!  So much for those resolutions.  To recap:

1.  This is the only one I'm doing well on, I think.  I ran the marathon.  I finished it, and made my time goal with 33 seconds to spare, at 4:14:27, so yay. And I ran the whole thing, which was my biggest goal, despite the fact that I don't think I could feel my legs at all from mile 24 on.  I felt them the next few days though!   And I am down 3 more of those 9 lbs, so 6 to go.

2.  Umm... yeah, anyway.  I'll try again.  And forget the ADD meds thing, not TTC, pregnancy, or nursing compatible so maybe in 3 years or so...

3.  Hmm.. am perhaps slightly better here.  Will work harder.

4.  Need I say anything?

5.  Ah!  Another with some progress.  He actually did sleep all night two nights this week.  And one of them I even managed to sleep all night as well and got 7.5 hours of continuous sleep for the first time in at least 3 years.  Heaven!  Of course he was up twice last night so...

6.  Have not begun work on this yet but I still have time.  I will do it.

7.  No progress yet.

8.  This is now dependent on me finishing another project as soon as possible so we can move into it.  It's not going well so far though.

9.  Well, I went off the pill and am now on CD11.  DO the math and you'll find CD1 was marathon day.  Lovely.  I missed one pill and she just showed up 12 hours later.  Much faster than usual.  Oh well.  I'll be having fun with OPK's soon.

Resolutions, Again

I went back and read all my blog entries from last year.  It made me realize how glad I am that I started this blog.  I'd forgotten so much of the little stuff.  But it was pretty depressing reading my old resolutions  are going, since I managed to stick to, well, none of them.  So this year's resolutions are much the same:

1.  The utterly cliched get into shape resolution.  Same as last year.  To be fair, I am in much better shape, after all I ran 20 miles a few weeks ago and plan to run 26 next Sunday so that is clearly saying something.  However the other part of my goal was to lose 17 lbs and I plateaued after losing about 9.  So this year (barring immediate pregnancy) I want to get off those last 9 lbs.   Really, I want to do this by May when TTC will begin in earnest.

2.  I will actually work while at work.  Same as last year.  Yep, this one was a spectacular failure.  I really will work harder on this.  I'm planning a schedule of sorts that sets specific times to write posts, check message boards, accomplish tasks at home, etc.  Hopefully it will help.  I'm also going to try more ADD meds.  The first two I tried made me nuts.

3.  I will be neater.    Same as last year.   Hoping the idea of the schedule will help here too.

4.  I will update my blogs more often.  This one is a variation on my resolution to send email updates more often.  I have a blog for family and friends that I post pictures on etc.  So I kind of kept that one.  I still need to be better about it.  I want to break it into two blogs, a running blog and a William blog.  That way people won't be utterly bored with the other entries.

5.  Get G- to sleep all night.  Similar to last year.  Well we have made a lot of progress since last year.  Most nights he is only up once and he now sleeps until 6:30 ish.  But he's 31 months old, he should be able to go all night sometime soon.

6.  Get tax info to the accountants ON-TIME so we can actually file a real return in April instead of October.  Related to this I want to get all out household expenses up and running on Quicken.

7.  Make Baby Books for G-.  I only made it though 4 months.

8.  Get our house under construction by July.

9.  Get pregnant and stay pregnant.

Hopefully I can do better this year than last.  Last year was the first time I had ever made resolutions and I really didn't do too well.  I'm determined to keep them this year.  So here goes nothing.  Oh and I've decided that if I am able to cross anything off this list as complete, I'll add a new one to take it's place.

TMI

So... umm... did you know there was such a thing as runner's hemorrhoids?  Yeah, me neither.  But now I do.

Exercise Update

ceMarathon training is going well.  I'm up to 7.5 miles on my long run and it wasn't too bad.  I'm also trying to get in 2 3-mile runs, a 4-mile run, swimming laps, one day of weight training, and one day of yoga with weights.  So far, I haven't done too well on the weight training, I miss swimming about every other week and I miss one of the short runs most weeks too.  Will try to do better.

On a more positive note I have lost 7 of the 12 lbs I am trying to lose and am due for some new pictures.  I am beginning to think the black dress will simply not fit again as the tightest spot is now across the chest and it does not appear that that is going to change.  Before I got pregnant, I was a comfortable 34B, I peaked at a 36DD/F and then settled to a 34D.  Well, he weaned 7 weeks ago and in that time I have lost at least 6 pounds and I am still a 34C and sometimes 34D depending on the bra.  I think this new size is here to stay.  And I guess I'll trade the dress for my cool new boobs. 

Of course they are a bit saggier than before, but that's nothing a good bra can't fix.  Actually I've found even the Victoria's Secret pasties work really well for lifting.  Still, I'll wait till the last 5 pounds are off before I give up entirely.  And nearly all the rest of my clothes fit again so I am pretty happy.  Now I just need to work on the muscle tone thing.

The Truth

People ask me all the time why I am still nursing a 2 year old.  I give all the great reasons like we both enjoy it, it's good for him and me, etc., etc.  But keeping nice boobs is the real reason I nursed so long.  Now that he's nearly weaned, I'm really not looking forward to going back to normal.

Before

I posted my "before" pictures in an album on the sidebar.  I took them today and have actually already lost nearly 2 lbs so they were worse before.  When I bought that dress 7 years ago, it did not pull anywhere, it skimmed perfectly.  I was wearable again briefly before I got pregnant with G- but it hasn't really fit since about 6 months after I bought it.  It's been my goal for a long time, but this time I intend to get there.  And maybe have a little muscle tone too!

And so I will run...

Well, since I won't be having a baby in January, I thought I'd run a Marathon, instead.  That seems like a nice trade, right?  Sigh  OK, perhaps not, but I need to do something and I've been toying with the idea of a Marathon.  I've signed up for a training group with a friend and I've started running on my own again.  After 3 weeks off, I'm set back a bit, but yesterday and today I ran 2 miles, each time in just over 18 minutes, so I feel good about that.  3 months ago my mile pace (for a 3 mile run) was nearly 12 minutes.

My current  goal is to complete the marathon in 4h30m.  That's roughly a 10 minute mile pace.  We'll see how I feel about that goal once I get into the longer training runs.  I plan to slowly increase my distance, from my current 2 miles, while keeping my pace about the same.  By the end, I should be running 4 times a week, 2 3-6 mile runs, 1 6-10 mile run, and one 12-24 mile run each weekend.  The plan I have now will allow me to run with G- for all the runs except the weekend for at least 3 months.  After that, at least one of the runs will have passed his 5-6 mile limit and I'll likely be running it with the group so having him with me really won't work. 

I'm also starting the Body for Life for Women 12 week program.  I'm still carrying an extra 10 or so lbs. from my son, and my eating habits just aren't that good.  So next week I'll make a photo album and put my "before" pictures in it.  The program suggest picking an article of clothing that is too tight and using it every 4 weeks as a gage.  I have a dress I've been trying to get back into for years so that will be it.  There will be a picture of me in the dress and one in a running clothes.  Keep in mind, this dress fit back when I was barely a 34B not my current 34C/D.  And as my son is very nearly weaned, that alone should help how the dress looks.

So instead of 33 weeks until a new baby, I have 31 weeks to get into shape for a marathon.  Oh, and we will be entering the fertility game again as soon as the marathon is run.  Hopefully all the diet and exercise will help keep my PCOS under control.

Wow, I suck.

Seriously.  I knew I was in crappy cardio-vascular shape but my run/walk today really surprised me.  It was the maiden run with the new stroller, yay! and the first day of my new training program.  So I ran the first mile.  Time - 8:45.  Not great but could have been worse.  But the scary part: my h/r at the end was 182.  OK, so your maximum h/r is supposed to be 220 minus your age, right?  That makes my max h/r 189.   Ummm...  what happens if you hit it?  Do you just keel over on the spot?  Obviously that number is just an estimate, but still.  Basically I suck, and have a lot of work to do.

Then I walked the rest of the loop.  My goal was to keep my h/r between 100 and 120, since 114-ish would be 60%.  It took a full 5 minutes of walking very slowly to get down below 125 and it just would not go lower.  So not being one to give up, I simply revised my goal to below 125.  Hey, that’s fair, right?  In order to maintain that rate, I had to walk at less that 2.5 mph for the next mile.  By the end of the loop I was up to a slightly more respectable 3 to 3.5 mph., but it really felt like doing NOTHING!  I certainly hope that improves over time.

So the summary:

Mile time - 8:45

Average speed – 7.1 mph

Top speed 8.73 mph

Loop time – 46:51

Average speed – 3.87 mph

One point that depresses me slightly: at the end of my first mile, I really pushed and reached a whopping speed of 8.73 mph.  If my goal is to run the mile in under 7 minutes, I need to average  8.57 mph.  And that, my friends, is not much below my top speed today.  A speed I maintained for maybe .05 miles.  And nearly died.  Yep.  I have a lot of work to do.

OK, reading back over that, it sounds a lot more negative than I feel.  I’m proud of myself, and feeling pretty good about where I am.  I’m just realizing how far I have to go to meet my goals. But as we learned today, goals are made to be revised as needed. ;-)   For now, I’ll just see how things go.

Ready to Roll.

Armed and ready with a new, bright yellow stroller.  Yep, that's right, I made my time.  Well, to be honest, I finished the loop in 30 minutes 1 second, but considering I stopped THREE times for lost toys/snacks and twice for traffic lights, I figured I deserved the 1 second.    So we got the BOB Ironman, and boy is G- excited.  He was soooo mad when I put it together and then would not take him out immediately for a ride.   I promised we would go out first thing in the morning.

And I have a new training plan.  I will walk/run four days a week. 

Monday - Walk the loop keeping my heart rate between 110 and 120, the ideal fat burning range  for a 30'ish year old. 

Wednesday - Run (or more likely slowly jog) the loop keeping my heart rate between 140 and 160, the ideal stamina building range.

Friday - Run first mile as fast as possible in order to improve 1 mile time.  Walk remaining loop plus a little for a minimum of 35 minutes. H/R 110 - 120.

Sunday - Run (hopefully sans stroller!) the loop for best possible time.  Leave H/R monitor at home as it would be scary.

Eventually, I should be able to jog the loop still keeping my heart rate down, but it will take me a while to get there.  And once I hit my goal weight and/or fit back into the rest of  my pre-pregnancy clothes, I'll eliminate the lower h/r range and just go for stamina building.  Ahhh... won't that be nice!

Resolutions Update

It’s time to check up on how well the resolutions  are going.

1)      Get into shape – Doing pretty well here.  I have lost 5 of the 17 lbs I would like to lose.  I was doing better on the weight-loss front but then I started running.  I do think it will be worth it though and once I reach my goal, (more on that in a minute) I’ll start mixing in walking again and hopefully that will help the weight/fat loss.

On running:  I decided about a month ago to get serious about running.  Before that I was walking.  In order to really be serious about it, I need a new jogging stroller, but I wanted to be sure the expense would be justified.  So I set some goals I have to meet before getting my stroller.   Run at least twice a week. Check.  For the last 3 weeks I have run 3 times a week.  Hoping to make it 4 soon.  Run my loop (approx. 3 miles) in 30 minutes or less.  My first 3 mile time, about 2 weeks ago, was over 35 minutes.  Last Friday I ran it in just under 32 minutes and today I finished in 30 minutes, 14 seconds.  I am so getting that stroller on Wednesday!  After that I plan to run 2 days a week and walk 2 days a week, since walking really is better for weight loss. At least, if you are in as crappy cardio-vascular shape as I am.

2)      Actually working while at work – Not so good.  Umm see how I’m working now?  The internet is just so enticing…  OK I will get better about this.

3)      Being Neater – sigh  I suck at being neat.  But I will renew my efforts.

4)      E-mail updates – Opps haven’t done one yet.  OK, tonight I promise.

5)      Getting G- to sleep better – I had made HUGE progress on this front by the end of January.  Then illness swept in and we were back at square 1.  I’m please to say that while we are not quite back to where we were in January, we are doing MUCH, much better than in December and I have high hopes the improvement will continue.

Hmmmm… 2 out of 5.  Not so great.  I guess I have some work to do.  I’ll update again in a few months.  Now, if there’s anyone out there, how are you doing on your resolutions?