Tag Archives: Janathon

More Random Thoughts About Running and Weight Loss

Posted on by Run DMT
6

Janathon/JuneathonBetween a cranky baby and doctor appointments, my running routine got all screwed up suffered.  But the good news is I lost another 2.5 lbs for a total of 6.5 pounds and my belt moved over another notch.

 

Go me! Go me!  Long live Janathon!

 

During the Janathon and the first month of my Weight Loss Challenge, I promised to avoid dining out, which means no MNO (Mom’s Night Out) or LNO (Ladies Night Out). But the sacrifice will spare me from all those extra calories and help save money too.  A fat wallet is good, but a fat butt not so much.

 

Saturday night, my husband and I attended a business-related dinner at Café Ponte with his work colleagues and I tried to be so good.  I only had one glass of red wine, limited my helpings of the Hors d’oeuvres, ate only one slice of bread, ordered the Chilean sea bass instead of chicken or the filet, and ate half of my chocolate torte.  After the dinner, we attended our friend, John’s 40th Birthday shindig and throughout the whole party, I only drank water during and avoided the food.  Shocking, I know.

 

But enough about the food I did and didn’t eat.  Onto my Janathon running stats!

 

Last Wednesday morning was a wet one, so I decided to run in the afternoon, but Little Lion Man didn’t like that idea and only let me finish 2.5 miles.  Running with a stroller offers a decent amount resistance training, but I don’t enjoy it very much and obviously neither does Liam.

 

January 12

2.5 miles

Time 33:02

Ave Pace 13:14

Max Pace 10:14

 

Thursday I visited my allergist and wasted hours sitting in his office.

 

On Friday, I joined my BFF Sharon Mann for another 50 minutes of boot camp.  I think Sharon was happy to see me again because she treated me much nicer than she did previous week.  The 1000 squats and lunges didn’t hurt as much, but it might have had something to do with muscle memory.

 

All those squats and lunges really helped prepare my legs to take on 7 miles on Saturday.  I ran much faster and at 6 miles, I noticed that I beat last week’s time by 5 minutes (1:13:02).  NICE!

 

January 15

7 miles

Time 1:24

Ave Pace 12:08

Max Pace 8:51

 

Here’s the best part.—> Calories Burned: 697 (So freaking AWESOME! All that running made room for DH’s business dinner.)

 

Sunday, I passed on the yoga and walked 2 miles with my family.  It felt good to get out and move again the day after a long run.

 

Monday morning brought some scary thunderstorms and heavy rain.  I swore that I would run later that evening, but that never happened.  Why do I even kid myself? I am always way too exhausted to run in the evening.

 

Today, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to fit in 3 miles because I was NOT going to lose another day, not after I’ve been doing so well.  And no joke, I AM doing really well.  I shaved another minute and a half off my time.  SWEET!

 

January 18

3.1 miles

Time 36:15

Ave Pace 11:41

Max Pace 9:13

 

At this point, I am really proud of my progress and my Gasparilla half marathon goal appears attainable.

 

***Proudly submitted at The Un Mom’s Random Tuesday Thoughts, because when I blog about my runs, it’s usually pretty random.***

randomtuesday

 

Random Thoughts About Running and Weight Loss

Posted on by Run DMT
5

Janathon/JuneathonYou may have already heard me proclaim my desire to lose 40 lbs of baby weight before my 40th birthday this July.  You also may have already heard about me joining the Janathon.  Well, one week of the Janathon under my belt and I’ve already ran miles and lost 4 pounds!  WOOHOO!

 

Last week, I ran nearly every day.  I watched my food intake by reading the serving sizes on labels and I recorded my food with the help of a food/diet application from Sparkpeople.com as suggested by @BigBadEd and @jellisfl.  I also seriously cut back on the number of beers I drank last week.  Normally, I’ll drink one or two beers at night or a glass of wine, but this week I drank a total of FOUR.   I replaced the glass of wine I drank at dinner with a glass of water.

 

Who would have thought portion control, reducing my alcoholic consumption, drinking more water and increasing my activity level would have helped me lose weight?

 

It’s genius, I tell you!  My tweep and virtual running partner, @boutdrz suggested I brand this idea and sell it as a weight-loss program.  I could call the Florida 40 Diet.  I’ll make MILLIONS!  I’ll get to work on a prototype program ASAP.

 

I have to admit.  I love food and I run so I can eat as much food (within reason) as I want.  But until, my body slims down and my miles go up, I need to watch my caloric intake.

 

Portion control bites.

 

Moving on to something a bit tastier, here are my Janathon miles:

 

I set out Saturday to run 6 miles, but I didn’t start my run quite as early as I had hoped to.   As I set off at 9:30, I worried about running 6 miles as it’s been over a year since I ran that distance.  However, I truly impressed myself when I ran 2 miles without stopping.  Maybe it was the gorgeous weather or the wind, but the next 2 miles seemed to fly by as I looked down at my Garmin in disbelief.  I didn’t feel like I had run 4 miles yet.  Though I think I celebrated a bit too soon, because the next 2 miles were definitely the toughest.  But I did it.

 

Janathon Day 8

6 miles

Time 1:18:18

Ave Pace 13:03

Max Pace 9:51

 

Sunday, my legs were stiff and sore, so I decided to rest and recover with 50 minutes of yoga.  Later that day, my family and I strolled around the neighbor.  It felt good to move after the huge brunch we enjoyed earlier.  But not to worry! I only ate one helping of Allan’s sweaty brekkie because I didn’t want to undo all of last week’s efforts.

 

An ugly thunderstorm rolled in Monday morning, but I wouldn’t let that stop me.  Thankfully, I had arranged to meet some mommy friends at the gym for the first weigh-in of our annualBarbell rollout Weight Loss Challenge (a friendly weigh loss competition).  After the initial weigh-in, @jellisfl offered a core conditioning class but my body resisted.  My abs did not like the strain I put them through and decided to hurt me back.  As I wheeled the barbell out in front of me, my chin slammed into the wooden floor.  My abs suckered punched me. Now, I know why they call them dumbbells.   I won’t be repeating that exercise any time soon.

 

After the class, I set out to run 2 miles on the dreadmill.  I’m not a big fan of dreadmills, but with rain in the forecast, I was grateful to see it.  Honestly, with the slow pace that I run these days, the dreadmill wasn’t too bad.   But then, just after I finished my first mile, they paged me to the nursery.  Liam wanted his mama and that was the end of my running attempt for Monday.   The Gods just didn’t want me working out.

 

Janathon Day 10

1 Sad Mile

Ave Pace – Slow as shit

Max Pace – Dashing to the daycare

 

This morning, I woke up 5:00 a.m. to fit in 3 miles because I was NOT going to lose another day, not after I’ve been doing so well.  This time, I remembered my mace and a flashlight, but borrowed DH’s MP3 player since mine was dead.  I don’t know if it was his playlist or all the strength training, but something made me shave a minute off my time.

 

Janathon Day 11

3.1 miles

Time 37:42

Ave Pace 12:11

Max Pace 8:58

 

***Proudly submitted at The Un Mom’s Random Tuesday Thoughts, because when I blog about my runs, it’s usually pretty random.***

randomtuesday

Janathon Day 3 and Day 4

Posted on by Run DMT
5

Janathon/JuneathonBy Day 3, my legs started to complain about all this running I had put them through.  My hamstrings were sore and my shins felt tight, but I ignored all the pain and pounded out another 3 miles.

 

After the first mile, the tightness faded away and my pace picked up a bit.  In fact, I shaved almost 2 minutes off Day 2′s time!  Now, if only I could shave 40 lbs off my weight.

 

Day 3
Distance 3.1 miles
Time 37:29
Ave Pace 12:05
Max Pace 9:19

 

After a long weekend, Allan returned to work this morning, so my late morning runs would have to come to end.   Being so committed to the Janathon and bringing sexy back, I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. to squeeze in a quick run before hubby woke up.

 

Then, around 3:00 a.m. the baby woke for a feeding.  As I fed him, Liam and I drifted back to sleep but shortly that 5:00 a.m. alarm startled me from my short slumber.  It took every ounce of energy I had in me to get out of that bed but I knew I would feel so much better once I got it over with rather than wondering when I would fit it in after hubby left for work.

 

It was now or never.  So, I grabbed my long sleeve Mickey marathon shirt for motivation and to comfort me from the cool, damp Florida morning and I headed out the door for my first early morning run in nearly a year and a half.

 

But, I forgot how dark the roads are at 5:30 a.m.  Note self: Lay mace next to MP3 player and Garmin charging in its cradle.

 

It’s so surreal running in the dark early morning hours.  Although street lamps light most of the way, the roads adjacent to the Cypress swamps are pitch black.  In those spooky pitch black spots, it feels as though I’m running in mid air because I can’t see the road ahead of me.  Note to self: Lay flashlight next to mace next to MP3 player and charging Garmin.

 

My body may need to get accustomed to running in the early morning hours again because I ran a little slower on Day 4 than Day 3.

 

Day 4
Distance 3.1 miles
Time 38:30
Ave Pace 12:24
Max Pace 9:02

 

According to the Runner’s World First-Timer Training Plan, tomorrow (Day 5) is supposed to be a rest day, but according to the rules of the Janathon, I have to run.  So to please both programs and not kill myself, I will do some boot camp strength training stuff and then run one easy mile.

 

***Proudly submitted at The Un Mom’s Random Tuesday Thoughts, because when I blog about my runs, it’s usually pretty random.***

randomtuesday

Jumping Into the Janathon

Posted on by Run DMT
6

I am determined to get back into running this year and the Janathon is just the motivation I need to kick my ass things into gear.  But it’s more than simply a determination to get back into running.  I refuse to be fat at 40.

 

I’m a committed to being fit at 40.

 

And so, January 1 after a long lie in, a blueberry muffin and a mimosa to start things off right, I still procrastinated.  After a late night of heavy drinking and my last splurge of fatty food, I took full advantage of a lazy day and my lazy hungover ass didn’t run until after dinner, which is something I rarely do.

 

But I must admit, it really wasn’t all that bad.  Don’t get me wrong. It was a tough run for me after weeks off from running and recovering from a pretty nasty head cold.  But I did it and that’s all that matters.  And for my effort, my neighbors celebrated my commitment to running with fireworks (at least that’s what I like to tell myself).

 

Day 1

Distance 3.10

Time 39:41

Ave Pace 12:48

Max Pace 8:54

 

Because I prefer to run in the morning, I decided to spring out of bed Sunday morning to get my run over as soon as possible and not stall like I did the day before.  Ok, it wasn’t quite so much a spring but more like a slow slide out of bed at 8:30 a.m., which is late for me.  During my prime training days, I preferred running at 5:00 a.m.  But again, the time of day doesn’t matter, but the time I commit does.

 

Since my legs were sore from Day 1, Day 2 run felt like a harder runner.  Funny how I always think these things but then the results always prove me wrong.

 

Day 2

Distance 3.10

Time 39:02

Ave Pace 12:36

Max Pace 9:08