Kentucky Derby Half-Marathon

Hellloooooo!!! I feel like it's been awhile since I've been on here, but I was out almost all last week trying to recover from the Earth Day Race LOL I was.in.pain!! I don't think it was necessarily the 15 miles that did me in, I think it was those darn hills!! My leg muscles were sore for quite a few days after the race. I ran a mile for recovery last Monday & then I don't think I ran for the rest of the week. I did continue with my weight lifting plan though.

ANYWAYS, that's old news, the really exciting stuff I want to talk about happened this weekend!! I drove down to KY this weekend for a race. It was the first time I traveled for a race. Originally, my plan was for my younger sister to come with me & to stay with my older sister, but those plans changed due to flooding in the area & my younger sister's sewer backing up into her basement...yada yada yada, I ended up driving down alone! It was a 5 hour drive & it was lonely. I drove straight to the expo in Louisville, which was pretty  fun, but again, lonely doing it alone!! Everyone else had someone to talk to & by that time, I had driven 4 hours & just wanted to go to my older sister's house, which was still an hour away. I did pick up a cute running t-shirt along with my race packet, so that made me feel better LOL I got lost trying to leave Louisville & then I got lost driving to my sister's house (Google maps does NOT know the quickest way to get there!!), so my BIL offered to drive me to the race on Saturday morning. I GLADLY took him up on his offer, so that I wouldn't have to spend the morning alone, AND he knows his way around the Louisville area, so at least I wouldn't be late to the race or driving around trying to leave Louisville after the race.

We woke up at 5 AM (but it felt like 4 AM Chicago time!) and I got all of my race stuff together, but my packet didn't have any pins in it for my bib. My BIL couldn't find any around the house...so I just hoped that there would be some at the race. We drove and talked for the hour it took to get to Louisville & then as we got closer to the race, he let me jump out while he parked. My plan was to go to gear check  & then use the bathroom before it was time to race. I couldn't find the freaking gear check & I wandered around the Start along with many other people looking for the gear check. Finally, someone knew where it was, so I dropped by stuff off & picked up some pins for my bib! YAY!! However, there was a sea of people between me & the potties, so there was no way to go to the bathroom before the race! NOT COOL!

The race started & I was feeling good! I LOVED racing in a new city, looking at all of the sites & taking it all in. The people of Louisville were out, we never went long without coming across someone or a group of people cheering us on. It was really awesome. I held myself back through mile 5, I didn't want to go out too quickly & burn out towards the end. I felt good the whole time & was enjoying the race so much that I forgot we got to run into Churchill Downs!! When I saw that we were coming up to Churchill Downs at mile 8, I was SO excited. We didn't run on the track that the horses race on, we ran in the middle of the track, but we DID get to see some horses running, it looked like they were training, but it was SO exciting to be near the track of the Kentucky Derby AND to see the horses there too! :) I loved it.

This is where my race goes downhill. At mile 9, the marathoners & half-marathoners split up. Up to that point, we were all running together. The Half-marathoners were going to loop back up near the Start to go to the Finish line. The marathoners, however, were going to run another 3-4 miles AWAY from the Finish line, before heading back up to complete their 26.2 miles. Unfortunately, I ended up following the people in front of me, not really paying attention to where I was supposed to go & I ended up on the marathon course. I was still feeling awesome, I was even starting to ramp up my speed at mile 10, thinking that the finish was only 3.1 miles away! Looking back, I did wonder why there wasn't that many people along the route, cheering us on at mile 10, since we were getting close to the Finish line (or so I thought). Finally, we came upon Iroquois Park, which I KNEW was part of the marathon course & where there was a BIG HILL!! This was where I realize that I was NOT going the right way :( I continued through mile 11 and then I asked a runner next to me what race he was doing. He told me that we were doing the marathon!!! LOL

I stopped running to tell one of the police officers along the route that I was not supposed to be running the marathon, I had signed up for the half!! He told me that there was no way to get to the Finish line, but to keep going b/c I was half-way done! UMMM...he is obviously NOT a runner, training for a half-marathon is NOT at all like training for a full marathon!! I wasn't ready to make the 13 mile run back to the Finish line :( I kept going though, thinking that since I knew I wasn't close to the finish line, I could at least go to the bathroom & started looking for porta-potties along the route. No such luck :( I reached mile 13 & didn't know what to do!! I went a little further & there was another police man, along with a few cheering people & an ambulance! I figured they might take me away in the ambulance if I told them my situation. AGAIN, the police officer said that there was nothing he could do and that I should just finish the full marathon. UGH!!

One of the ladies who was there cheering for her husband over heard me talking to the police officer & told me she was heading to the finish line, once her husband ran by. FINALLY!! I only had to wait about a minute or two, he stopped by, she gave him a bar of some sort, he hugged his kids & then he was on his way. So we went back to her car, along with her 3 kids & we start to head to the finish line. Unfortunately, it was hard to find it since most of the streets were shut down due to the race. It was nice to talk to her, she had twin boys who were 10 & a little 5 yr old girl. So we chatted about twins & the difference between boys & girls. She was really sweet!! Our drive to the finish line took about an hour! My poor BIL was waiting for me to meet him at the runners' reunite meeting area. I told him that I would be done in an hour, but now it had been 3 hours!! I didn't have a phone on me, so there as no way I could let him know what had happened! :( I felt SO BAD for him!! When we got close to the finish line, I thanked the nice lady & ran off to try to get back into the race.

The first police officer I talked to told me that once I was off the course, I couldn't get back on :( I REALLY wanted to run through the finish line and get my metal at that point. I was SO upset about the way the race went. There was another man who I talked to, who went & talked to a few other people & they waved me into the race. I was FINALLY able to run through the finish line, with my official time being 2:49!! GAH!! A whole hour longer than my 13.1 run :( BUT I did get my metal & my BIL was right where we agreed to meet, so we could finally head back to my sister's house.

Thankfully I had my Garmin on & I was able to see that I definitely made my goal of finishing 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours, but it wasn't official :( I went from enjoying the race & loving every second of it, to my world crashing down as I realized I wouldn't finish at 13.1 miles & might possibly have to run a FULL Marathon!! CRAZY!!! I am finally at peace with how things went, but I really had to process my emotions about it. I was mostly disappointed with myself for not realizing sooner that I was on the marathon course. I hated the way I felt at the finish & wished I could have run triumphantly through the finish line under 2 hours. I am SO upset that it didn't happen that way, but I am also proud of myself for reaching my goal. It's a bittersweet feeling though. I am now on the lookout for another half-marathon to crush!!

Me with my medal after the race!

Earth Day 15 mile run

Today I ran a 15 mile race. I hadn't really thought about it or trained for it this month b/c of the flu & then the cleanse. It definitely showed!! I had a hard time making it through the last 5 miles, thankfully I was running with a buddy and with his encouragement, I was able to finish strong!!

The good things about the race were; it was a 5 mile loop that we ran 3 times. It was REALLY well marked, it was mostly dry, there was only 1 muddy spot. We stopped at the aid station 3 times & the people there were REALLY sweet & encouraging! It was great :)

The bad things were; the hills!! I was SO unprepared to run hills today. I tripped over a brand/tree root & I fell in the dirt. My legs were cramping SO BAD after the race, I couldn't sit, I couldn't walk, I couldn't stretch! NO matter what I did, I was in pain. It showed on my face & a kind soul had mercy on me & offered me some tylenol. I GLADLY took it & have been feeling awesome the rest of the day. Mental note for my next race: Pack Tylenol! LOL

So my next race is Saturday! HAHA! I am really excited about it though. I'm driving down to KY with my younger sister & we're going to stay with my older sister. I am so excited at the prospect of a sister weekend!! I am running a half-marathon down there & part of it is on the Kentucky Derby race course! I am super excited about it. It's a road race, so it will definitely be a smoother course than the trail run I did today. I am learning to love trail runs though, they are more intimate & you get CANDY at the aid stations :) My meal plan was lifted for today & I definitely ate candy at the race. If you can't eat it when you're running 15 miles, when CAN you eat candy?!?!

The Cleanse is OVER!!!

So Tuesday was Day 7 of my cleanse and it.was.HARD!! It was a deep cleanse day, which means, NO MEALS :( I did get to have 2 shakes & 2 chocolate/green tea treats (which were HEAVEN!) but that was it for "food". I started the Maintenance program yesterday, which is 30 days & it consists of 6 small meals a day, so I'm eating about every 2-3 hours. I am still getting shakes a few times a day, but I finally get to have a breakfast that I can CHEW! It's awesome LOL Plus, I get 2 dinners, it's pretty awesome LOL I am loving it!!!

So the results from the detox/cleanse are in. I lost 3 pounds total, I lost an inch from my waist & an inch from my hips!! AMAZING!!! I am seriously happy with the results :) It makes me determined to stick close to the maintenance program so that I don't go crazy & gain a whole bunch of weight back. I want to keep up the results & hopefully gain muscle. I saw something earlier this week that said for my body type, an ecotmorph (naturally thin, with long limbs), to gain muscle, I need to be eating a lot of small meals. I haven't tried that before, so I am looking forward to seeing the results at the end of the month!

So I might be slightly obsessed with buying workout shirts with cute sayings on them LOL When Nick sees that I bought another one, he always asks "what does this one say?" HAHA. So here's the pic of all of my cute work out tees. I didn't realize it, but I was missing one from the pic:

Here is me in my newest one:

 I love it! And I plan to get a workout in wearing it today! I can't wait :) 

Grieving for Boston

I am still in shock & grieving over what happened at the Boston Marathon yesterday. As a runner, the bombs hit a little too close to home. This could have been any race....

As I posted on my health & fitness page on Facebook, a race is not a one time event for runners. It is the culmination of hours of training, eating right, focusing on form, and sometimes even blood, sweat & tears. What should have been a joyful ending to a prestigious event was marred yesterday. Runners consider it an honor to run the Boston Marathon. You have to qualify to run the race & you hear rumors of Heartbreak Hill & just flying out to run a race has a certain glamorous air to it. So it is sickening to think that what should have been a joy filled event for every runner of that race was reduced to a terrifying event. To think that some runners, so close to crossing the finish line with their arms raised high & a smile on their faces, were instead thrown to the ground, hit with schrapnel and sent into a panic. It just kills me. I've heard that the bomb even seems to have been made to go OUT into the race, it didn't even go through 2 pains of glass of a nearby building, it was loaded with extra bbs just to create more damage. These were runners, their friends, their families, people who gathered to celebrate an athletic accomplishment, there was no ill will towards ANYONE running yesterday & instead those people were hurt & some even killed. It was a completely senseless crime. I don't understand why it happened.

To this end, I am fired up, even more than ever to run in Boston some day. I would LOVE to be there next year, but that would mean running a marathon this year with a qualifying time. I am not sure I can do that yet :( I am resolved to volunteer at the Chicago Marathon this year, I didn't even try to sign up, and after all of the craziness surrounding the lottery and all of that, I was glad I didn't. However, I want to support our community of runners, I want to be a voice & take a stand against these kinds of senseless acts of violence. I know it is a small act, but I am wearing a race shirt today to support the runners of the Boston Marathon. It is not much, but it is what I can do right now. I love runners, they are accepting & kind people. The crowd that gathers at races are always encouraging & uplifting, runners that finish their race, generally stick around to cheer on those that are still running. It is a good group of people & I am proud to count myself among them.

Cleanse Day 6!!

I'm on day 6 of the cleanse!! YAY!! I have to say, it was a lot easier when I had the flu & didn't want to eat any real food LOL I definitely noticed that it was harder to not eat food that you chew a few days ago. Now I am fantasizing about donuts, oranges, cereal, ANYTHING!! It makes it hard that my kids are eating all of the time. Even if it's fruit, I want it! The cleanse is going fine though, I tried beets for the first time and quinoa. Hard to believe, but I've never had quinoa before. It was delicious. I will probably add it in small amounts to my diet after this.

So the cleanse is a lot of drinks, I'm not sure what I expected when I signed up for the cleanse. It surprised me how little we get to eat & how much we drink! My favorite is a green tea drink that you can add cold or hot water to. The tea with hot water is my favorite evening snack! There are these delicious little chocolate treats, but you only get 1 a day :/ On the deep cleanse days, you get a few more, but that's the only food you chew on those days. I can't believe I made it through this week! Nick took the kids out for pizza & ice cream Friday night. Guess what I had? I brought a shake with me & sipped on that while everyone ate their food. Thankfully their meal kind of grossed me out b/c I knew there was no nutritional value to it. I wasn't too tempted thinking of how I would feel afterwards, if I ate the meal with them.

SO- tomorrow is our last cleanse day & it's a deep cleanse, meaning no food :( I will be hiding out in the house all day. I can imagine that I will be a little cranky LOL BUT on Wednesday I get to go back to eating. YAY!! I start the maintenance schedule of 6 small meals a day. I can't wait, I'm really looking forward to it. This has been an interesting experience. I am glad I tried the cleanse, I know it has helped me get closer to my goal of burning fat & adding muscle. I have lost 2 pounds doing the cleanse & before I even started I lost 2 pounds from the flu, so I am down a total of 13 pounds since January!! So I am where I want to be in fat loss & now I need to focus on building muscle. I read an article today that outlines different body types & what kind of exercises & nutrition you need to build muscle for those body types. Turns out I am an ectomorph, which has a hard time gaining muscle, which means I am supposed to eat a lot of small meals. Perfect!! That's already been my plan :) So I hope to see a difference in my muscles when I am done with the plan, in May.

Cleanse Day 2

Today is Day 2 of my Isagenix cleanse with Cathy Savage. I have never done a cleanse before, so I didn't really know what to expect. Basically I have regimented meals & supplements and then I also got a workout schedule to go with it. I am supposed to eat my meals at specific times & take supplements at specific times & then do specific workouts each day. The spacing between the meals is important, I guess, I think it has something to do with blood sugar levels or something, I am actually not really sure. Anyways, I got my big box on Tuesday & was excited to see all of the stuff in it :) it's been interesting using all of it b/c I feel like a professor mixing things & measuring them LOL However, I've been sick with the flu, so it hasn't been all that fun :/

The meals for the cleanse have specific timing, but I napped a couple times yesterday, which spaced out my meals weird. THEN the biggest thing I did was not take my pre/post workout supplements correctly b/c it was placed in the schedule in the afternoon & I workout first thing in the morning, so I was looking at the morning part of the schedule rather than the afternoon part of the schedule. Sheesh! All of this stuff is complicated. Thankfully I've been home yesterday & today and that's made it quite easy to get all of my meals/shakes/supplements in, I can't imagine having to bring all of this stuff with me when I'm out, to keep with the timing, so we'll see how tomorrow goes when I have Bible study!

Honestly, I can't tell if I have more energy/feel great on the cleanse b/c so far I haven't felt that great, but that's b/c I've been sick. I DID workout today & yesterday though. Yesterday was supposed to be a cardio day, but my stomach was upset, so I just did weights. Today was a lower body work out, which I did & then I tried to get a run in. BAD IDEA! I ran for 15 minutes before feeling awful, so I stopped & started to walk upstairs when I got light-headed and dizzy & I ended up throwing up :/ NOT COOL!!

I am hoping tomorrow is a better day & that I feel better. I am looking forward to the workout schedule that has been put together, the cardio looks different & fun from what I normally do (running on the treadmill), I think my normal workout room companions will think I am crazy, but I want to do everything the schedule says! The strength portion of the workouts seems cool too, I think there are some new & different moves than I've been doing from the plan on bodybuilding.com. I love learning new things, so I'm really looking forward to these new moves in my repotiore!

Here is the schedule I've been following for the last two days, the meals & the workouts:

And here are my trusty supplements/shakes/etc:

Happy Monday!!

Oh Monday, the day everyone loves to hate! Well, the sun is actually shining right now, after a big rain storm, so that makes me happy :) I am also excited about a few things happening this week!! But first let me tell you a little bit about the 5K I ran on Saturday.

I signed up to run the 5K b/c a friend of mine from church was putting it on. It is for a small Christian school & I wanted to do it to support my friend and the school :) Well, I am SO happy that I did!! I got a PR for the 5K! I started out in front & a girl ended up catching up with me, so instead of let her pass me, I ran with her at her pace. It turned out that we finished the first mile in 8 minutes! That is WAY faster than I normally run, so I held back a little back & went down to a 8:20/8:30 minute mile for the next few miles, but when we got to about 2.5 miles, I started picking up the pace, knowing that the finish would be coming up quickly. I ended up finishing the 5K in 25:59!! WHAT?! That is insane!! A few years ago, my goal was to finish in 30 minutes & I blew that out of the water! I was telling my sister last week that I could probably finish in 27 minutes, so that was my goal this time around, even that goal was demolished! I am SO happy :) I never thought I could run that fast!!

SO- about this week....I am starting another challenge, this time it is with a respected fitness competition coach, Cathy Savage. I bought some Isagenix products from her, there is a pre-workout & post-workout supplement, some protein & a bunch of other stuff. I am excited to have this opportunity to learn more about how to use supplements b/c I have only just started using them and am only using protein right now. I definitely want to learn more!! Anyways, she is also providing a grocery list, a nutrition guide & a workout guide as well. I am really hoping to see some great results b/c I know her girls kill it on the fitness competition stage :) I would LOVE to compete someday, but Nick isn't 100% behind that, so for now I am just training & hoping to change the composition of my body to be more muscle mass & less fat.

The OTHER thing I mentioned in my last post that I was excited about was becoming a Body FX rep. I signed up for FREE!! Body FX is a new fitness company that launches TODAY!! I was really excited about it b/c the products are all gluten free, they use natural sweeteners such as Stevia for their products & the main DVD they are selling now is JNL Fusion by Jennifer Nicole Lee who was a contributor to Bodybuilding.com AND was a fitness competitor!! How amazing is that?!?! I am seriously behind this company ALL THE WAY, but Nick didn't want me to be a rep anymore due to the fact that he was worried I would be pressuring friends & family to buy the product. My approach would not be to pressure people but to be so enthusiastic that they would want to try it out themselves! Anyways, I had to step down from that b/c I respect my husband & what he wants for me & our family....BUT I believe I can still sign people up to purchase if they want to?? I'll have to check in on that. Here are the DVDs that will be available & I'll see if I can find a link to the supplements. BodyFX DVDs Here is an amazing video about the supplements!! It gets me excited :) BodyFX Supplements

Those are the things that are getting me excited this morning!! I hope you are excited to begin a new week, a new DAY to work hard & meet your goals :)

Happy April!!

Can you even believe it's April?! Where did March go?? I feel like it was a crazy, whirlwind month! I had a baby shower & birthdays galore! Speaking of birthdays, yesterday, along with being Easter, was my husband's 31st (golden) birthday!! As you can imagine we celebrated him all day long! I made him a special breakfast that he requested (creme brulee french toast), which is basically sugar crusted bread LOL We went to my parent's house to celebrate Easter after church & we had snacks, I may have eaten a few M&Ms too. Then we had a super yummy healthy meal, I had a chicken breast, a salad, sweet potato fries & asparagus. It was SO yummy, but then the cake came out...it WAS a gluten-free cake...but STILL. After we left my parent's house, we went to my IL's house for cake to celebrate my husband's birthday. By the time dinner rolled around, I was SO full of cake that I couldn't even eat anything. It was insane I tell you!!

Thankfully my kids had their regularly scheduled day at preschool today, so I got to run outside!! They had spring break last week and I wasn't able to get outside at all other than that to run. Anyways, it has been awhile since I've been able to run around outside, I did a quick 5K & finished in 27 minutes!! Awesome!! My pace was sub 9 minute mile!! SWEET!! I think that's the fastest I've ever run a 5K :) Now to get there on my longer runs.

I was thinking of doing the Whole30 challenge again this month, but I found another challenge that I am going to do, that I am super excited about! I also have an opportunity that I am exploring now & am getting excited about :) I'll be able to talk more when I learn more!! All in all, today was a good start to a new month, with lots of things to look forward to.