Yesterday Rocked!

 I really should be cleaning my house right now but the baby is asleep and the girls are playing so nicely that I'm taking a quick minute to document yesterday's awesomeness.

Two things:

1) Went to my Weightwatchers meeting (finally!) and was down 2 lbs!! It was so motivating to see how close I am to lifetime status. 3 lbs to go!

2) Taber told me about a local 5K just 10 minutes from our house that was going on last night and said I should run it. I was hesitant because I haven't been doing any speed training and it was 89% humidity last night with temps in the mid seventies. Ideal 5K weather for me is more like in the 50's. Anyway, I didn't want to run unless I could beat my last 5K time of 27:11 and I honestly didn't know if I could do that in the muggy conditions. 

Taber was Mr. encouragement though and kept telling me I could do it. He believed it enough that I started believing it too and said, what the heck, I'll do it!

The race was small, only 327 runners. But it was well organized and the course was relatively flat for New England. There was no chip time so I knew that whoever I didn't pass was going to beat me, and that was pretty motivating. I ran the first mile in 8:23 and the second mile was also 8:23. At that point my lungs were burning and the humidity was oppressive, like running into a hot steamy towel.  I saw a couple of older gentlemen in front of me though and I knew I could beat them.  I pushed through the jacuzzi air past the old guys and caught up with a tall middle aged guy with about a quarter of a mile to the finish. He didn't know I was behind him but I decided in my mind I was going to beat him and started closing the gap pretty quickly. As I came down the home stretch Brinley got excited and came running out onto the course. I briefly left my quest to beat the tall guy and slapped her some skin then I was right back on him as we battled it out for the finish. According to the official results he beat me by 1 second, but it wasn't chip timed remember? so Taber caught it on video and even though it's hard to see, I think it might've been a tie. Here's the clip.

Overall I was thrilled with the race. My official time was 25:37 (8:16 pace) which is a huge improvement from my last 5K and put me 6th place out of 43 for my age division. (On Facebook I said 5th because that's what it said at the race, but today the results online said 6th. Either way I 'll take it!)

I'm so grateful to Taber for pushing me to get out there yesterday. It made a good day even better and boosted my running confidence. And I know I'm all red faced and sweaty in this pic but when I saw Cam holding that little cowbell I decided it was too cute not to post! I really have the best cheerleaders ever!

Wal-mart ego boost and a double digit run

Last week the fridge and pantry got pretty bare because I could not bring myself to do a major grocery shop with all 3 kids. When things got desperate I finally decided to hit up Wal-mart at 10pm and just get 'er done.

It was pretty glorious shopping by myself and totally worth the late night outing for the low stress experience. As I was checking out, the cashier noticed the diapers, baby food and other kid items and asked me how many kids I had. I said, "Three," and her eyes just about popped out of her head.

"Wow you do NOT look old enough to have 3 kids! How old are you?"
I told her I was 30 and her eyes popped out all over again. "Well you don't look close to 30 at all! More like 18!"

Thank you cashier lady. You are my new best friend.

And her nice words kept coming. "Well it must be all this healthy food you eat. You didn't buy any junk at all! Are you a nutritionist or in the medical field or something? I can tell you read the labels because this is all such good stuff."

Disclaimer: I am nowhere near the clean eating awesomeness of many of you healthy eaters but I try to at least avoid tons of processed pre-made foods (except for the eggos, which my kids are crazy about so I buy them in whole wheat.) Anyway, it made me feel good enough about my "healthy" loot that I brought it home and took a picture. (and yes, there's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in there, great source of calcium and um, vitamin D?)

So that was my little Wal-mart ego boost that made me feel young and healthy, even if I do get a little crazy with S'mores every now and again ; )
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Training went well last week. Not quite up to the 6 days a week I was shooting for but I got some great runs in. Here's what my week looked like:

Monday: 9 miles, outside, 9:11 pace

Wednesday: 3 miles, treadmill, 8:55 pace

Friday:  4 miles, treadmill, 8:38 pace

Saturday: 10 miles, outside, 9:33 pace

The 10 miler was kind of a big deal to me because it was my first double digit run since having Cam. I ran it with Taber and our friend Joseph who's running the Applefest too. It was awesome running with those guys and it made it go by quickly. We tackled some pretty serious hills and I'll admit, at one point I started having a mental panic attack and freaking out about signing up for such a hilly race. I have a bad habit of feeling doubt or anxiety during tough parts of a run but Taber always tells me, "PMA!! positive mental attitude! you can do this!" And it's true, the one thing running has taught me is that I can do hard things. So I switched over to PMA mode and willed my fanny up those hills. Even though my lungs and legs were screaming, I pushed through to the end and felt a great sense of accomplishment afterwards.

When we were done I stretched really well but I could feel the the old plantar fasciitis flaring up again. I iced and rolled it and wore my inserts all the next day. It's feeling a lot better but I think I'm going to need some new shoes before I attempt another long run.

This week I'm shooting for 4 runs and 2 cross training sessions for 6 days of workouts. Hopefully I fit it all in because I can tell my legs and core could really use some strengthening!

Time to Buckle Down

So I guess it's been a month since I've blogged. Oops! My blogging frequency seems to be directly related to how well I'm doing with my Weightwatchers and exercise goals. The better I am doing, the more I blog, (and vice versa). So my month long absence on here should give you a pretty good idea of how much I've slacked off...Um yeah, summers are tough.

I hate to say it but my awesome dedication to 30 day Shred has completely stopped. Haven't done that workout in 3 weeks. : ( Luckily my running is still going well since I kind of have to keep that up with a half marathon in 6 weeks, but my weightwatchers tracking has been non-existent and I haven't gone to a meeting in 3 weeks. yikes!

Last weekend we took the family camping (don't the girls look cute?) and I think I may have consumed my entire week's worth of WW points in one night of S'More roasting. 

As I shoved the 19th or 20th S'more in my mouth (I lost count after the first dozen), I felt the sugar buzzing around in my brain and the discomfort of being stuffed beyond stuffed and I thought to myself, "Becca, it's time to buckle down." (Naturally I meant AFTER the campout and pit stop on the drive home that included a mushroom burger, onion rings and coconut soft serve ice cream. Can't buckle down without one last hoorah. : )

So now with a month of gluttony behind me I am back on track! As in, tracking all my points and bringing back the 6 day a week exercise plan. I have 5 lbs to go before I hit lifetime Weightwatchers status and get to go to meetings for free! 5 LBS!! I can totally do this! Just got to buckle down.

Yesterday I ran 9 miles to make up for the long run I missed while we were camping. Even running on marshmallow fuel I was happy with my overall time of 1:22:58 for a 9:11 pace on a course with some serious hills. The run gave me a lot of confidence and made me think for the first time since I had Cam that maybe, just maybe, I could break 2 hours at the Applefest. That would mean I'd have to crank out a sub 9:10 pace on a hilly course which is ambitious for me, but good to have something to shoot for.  So that's my goal, that and to be a lifetime WW member by the time I line up at the starting line : )