Starting the 30 Day Shred!

I started the 30 day shred yesterday.  I have been slacking lately on running, so I have let myself go a tad.  Plus, post girl scout cookie season, I knew it was time to get back into shape!
We are going on a cruise in May, so I figured I have two months to get my arse in gear!
I really want to be like this again, this was me last summer:

I want that back! So I'm determined.  I started really running again last week, and then had the stomach bug over the weekend and feel like this week is my grand re-start.

So here are my before pictures for my 30 day shred, which I started yesterday:

My p90x results...

Last summer my husband and I did p90x.  We started on April 1st, and we did 60 days before we got too busy with life & summer.  So I don't have the full 90 day results, but here are our 60 day results:

Before:

After 60 days:

My husband's results, before & then after 60 days

We would have gotten much better results if we would have gone the whole 90 days.  I was very pleased with the results we did have, though! We were also eating healthy and I was running 3-4 days a week.  We didn't do 100% of the workouts, though.  Some nights we were so tired we only did 20 minutes.  But it was better than nothing!

If the YMCA does it, why don't restaurants?!

This is totally off topic, except for the fact that I have been running at the Y every day for the last week because I'm a sissy and can't stand the cold.  50 degrees? I love you.  30 degrees?  Why don't you just rip my ears off and shove my head full of ice cubes?!?!
Anyways, I was thinking, the YMCA has childwatch right? (Thank goodness, considering I have a tagalong 3 year old!) Why don't restaurants have something like that?  You go in with your special someone and send the kids to the "kid" area, filled with toys and slides and teenagers that will chase your kid around for a small fee while you enjoy a nice romantic dinner.  Seriously, how freaking amazing would that be?
And I'm only telling you this because I don't ever plan on opening one of these.  So you need to.  
We will one day be opening a microbrewery, as long as things go as planned, but for some reason I feel like a childwatch at a microbrewery would be inappropriate?? So go ahead and steal my idea.  I dare you. 

My first half marathon! Iron Horse Half Marathon in Midway, Kentucky

So i did it. I ran my first half marathon today.
 I haven't been training as well as I had wanted to.  I was sick for a few weeks and we were on a vacation for a couple weeks, so I slacked.  The week before last my dad and I ran over 8 miles and that is the longest that I had gone.  

So I went in today thinking I would probably get hurt, or do very poorly, or maybe die.

Anyways, we left our home state of Indiana yesterday and got to our hotel last night in Midway, Kentucky. We got up this morning at about 6 a.m. and got to the race at a little after 7, later than we wanted to.
My brother hadn't done much running lately either (he was just elected as an Indiana State Representative so he's been BUSY!) so he said he'd run with me most of the way. 

We started at 8. It was absolutely beautiful, rolling hills to look at, beautiful horses running right along the road, etc. But I had NO idea that there were going to be so many huge hills! The whole course was hills, something that I'm not used to in flat ole' Indiana. As soon as I would catch my breath after climbing a hill and feeling great again there would be another huge hill to climb 10 seconds later.


The first 4 miles my brother and I were averaging around a 10:25 pace (About a 9:30 pace for the first mile and then realized we needed to SLOW down!). At 5 miles we ran completely uphill for almost the whole mile, and we were around an 11:30 pace. Mile 6 and 7 seemed to be an even mixture of uphill and downhill at around an 11 pace. At 8 I was silently cursing my dad for choosing this course for my first HM, and decided I needed to start power walking up hill or I was never going to make it. After that I completely lost track of my min/mile, because my brother ran on and he had been the one keeping it for us (He also was holding my phone for me, which is what I would normally use). 
At mile 9 we went uphill for about 2 miles, and since the road was split at that point, that meant the last two miles would be completely down hill. I was looking forward to that! I did a mixture of walk/run until I reached mile 12. My legs were very tired but I knew I was so close so I trotted along. 
I had no idea my time at that point, I was sure I was going to be 3 hours and I was pretty bummed. I felt disappointed!
And then at 1/2 mile left my dad and brother appeared at the side of the road and told me I was doing awesome and that I was actually at 2 hours, 31 minutes. That instantly boosted my spirits and picked my step up. I sprinted the last stretch and finished at 2:36:00. 
I am overall pretty happy. Yeah it was stupid to go into it without training very well (only totaling about 15 miles/week for the last month) and without realizing how many hills there were, but it was beautiful and every other HM should seem like a piece of cake from now on! Haha! My dad and brother said that course was the hardest they have ever run. 
So I feel good. I'm sore and tired but nothing is injured and the free massage after the run made it all worth it!

The Color Run and the Color Me Rad

I ran the Color Run in July 2013 in Fort Wayne, IN.  I did it with my mother and my best friend.  I ran the Color Me Rad in August of 2013 with a large group of friends.

This is going to be quick, and basically a comparison.  I overall liked the Color Run better because it was less crowded, and they actually got color on you.  In the Color Me Rad, the crowd was definitely more pumped but it took 30 minutes to even start the race once I got at the start line because of how crowded it was.  They didn't throw any color on us, we had to scoop it up ourselves.

Neither were timed races so they were just for fun.


Picture time!

The Color Run

Color Me Rad

So, guess what? I am running a half marathon in October.  AHH!!! My dad signed himself, my brother, and I up.  It's in Kentucky! I'm really nervous.  This month we have gone on vacation and I've been sick with bronchitis, which totally wiped out 3 weeks altogether of training time.  

I don't even know what my goal is at this point, we'll see how the month of September goes!

The Diva Dash 5k

My first ever organized run/race was the Diva Dash 5k in Fort Wayne, IN on June 15 2013.
My best friend found this race for us to do as both of our firsts.
At that time a 5k seemed like a really long race haha. I had only ever run further than that a few times, and only about a mile farther, so I was pretty nervous.  

The race was an all women race and there were about 175 participants.
I woke up that morning feeling awful and sick with a sinus infection. Ugh!
My goal had been under 30 minutes but with my ill feeling I ended up at 31:26. I was fine with that because I ran the best that I could the whole way despite feeling so sick, and it was a personal PR.
After the race they had pulled pork, oranges, water, granola bars and bananas for us. They also did some door prizes and then the other awards.
I really loved this race and had a great time!  I want to do it next year again for sure.  

I recently ran the Color Run, and I will do a post about that as well.  But for now here are some pictures from the Diva Dash!

The start

Yours truly!

After the finish (my BFF, her MIL, and me)

4 MILES, BABY

A month and a half later, and I finally ran 4 miles!
Between now and my last blog post:


I was running between 2 and 2.5 miles for a couple of weeks.  Part of me gets antsy, I get tired, I get bored, etc.  So I was cutting myself short.  I always made sure to sprint the last little bit so I was giving it everything I got, but I knew that I was stopping before I really needed to.

So I went for a little run, hoping to get to 3 miles but not setting my hopes too high because I know myself.

Problem (not) is that I got lost.
I got lost in the neighborhood across the street from mine and ended up running exactly 3.1 miles when I finally got to my driveway.  I was so excited to have run my first 5k! I won't lie, though, I was worn the F out when I got home.  I may or may not have collapsed (bad, bad!) on the carpet when I got inside.  But still, I was pretty happy.

Since I still didn't know my way around the neighborhood I started using that as my go to run, knowing I would always run farther than my self discipline would allow.  So I was running 3-3.5 miles every time.

I went on a run with my dad and brother last night, and we did a run throughout downtown Fort Wayne.  I didn't have my GPS going but my brother did, and when we got back to our starting point he looked and said we had run just a little over 4 miles.  WHOO HOO!
So I have met my goal from the last post.  I have my first 5k on the 15th of this month, so we will see how it goes!

Goal:
Run the 5k in 30 minutes or less! (My best 5k I've done at home was 31:54, but I was lost and had to slow down a few times)