Fitness, Running

Run On

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Running Stats 
(Taken from my Garmin GPS Forerunner 110 Watch and the Treadmill Dashboard when appropriate) :
27.65 Miles Ran over the Last 7 Days with
2,371 approximate calories burnt running 
(The calorie burn isn’t entirely accurate because it only calculates the calories burnt outside and not the treadmill calories. You can probably add around 500 calories for the days/miles I was on a treadmill)

As you know by now, I have been in a health and fitness journey since January 2010. I will rerun my “Fat to Fit” blog sometime to give you the details of this journey, but the basic summary is that I’ve struggled with weight my whole life and reached an all time high about 12 months after my second son was born and at the door way to turning 30. Aging isn’t an option, in fact it’s a great alternative to the other choice which is death, but being fat and old is a choice. I chose to enter my 30’s with a completely new mindset. I turned 30 April 23, 2010, 4 months into my journey, ran my first half marathon 9 months into my journey, and sit here now, 2 years into my journey with 55 pounds forever gone, 4 half marathons run, and on day 64 of my first ever #runstreak. I’m more toned than ever, more fit than ever, look better than ever, and hardly ever get sick. I’m sure it’s all related. On one of these blogs I’m going to talk about the fountain of youth. You really can live longer (barring some catastrophic accident or illness), feel better, and accomplish all of your dreams. God made you for a forward moving journey. Don’t allow defeat and stagnation in any area of your life, especially your fitness. Bring that flesh under subjection, and in the process of getting lean and mean, you’ll grow in God. One of the FAQ’s I’m going to address this week is on fitness and fasting. You really don’t want to miss it. When you add and grow in one discipline in your life, every other discipline will line up accordingly. God knew what he was talking about in His word. He made you. He formed you. He fashioned you. He didn’t mess up.

Yesterday my #runstreak occurred at 6 AM and I stumbled out the door in “Rocky” mode. It was single digit temperatures out and my neighborhood had not been plowed yet. The sidewalk areas that neighbors had snow blown or snow shoveled were more akin to ice skating rinks that clean areas. I couldn’t let the streak end though and knew that with my church, leadership, and prayer schedule yesterday I wouldn’t make it to the YMCA during the hours prior to their closing. I do have an elliptical machine at home that I used to do as a cross training element on days like this, but now that I’m an official member of the #runstreak club, cross training can’t count towards maintaining the streak. So, since I treat Sunday’s as my workout day “off”, I rarely go further than 2.1 miles anyway, I knew I could handle the arctic blast and snow for at least the bare minimum #runstreak requirement of a mile and perhaps go my full two miles. I bundled up like Rocky, in fact, I later discovered I had too many clothes on. We’ll address what to wear in my second FAQ blog this week, but as a preview I’ll tell you that you don’t want to overdress or you’ll overheat, even in the frigid air. The only part of my body not overdressed were my precious little fingers which had on some cheap little Wal-Mart gloves and almost fell off. My husband had the advantage of a heads up on this because he left to do his #runstreak when I got home and I advised him to wear Ski Gloves and he was fine. Anyway, I ran in the middle of the road, dodging in and out of tire tracks trying to find a path where I could get some speed going without hitting ice. I only had one minor run in with a snow plow who didn’t see me running. It could have end badly, but thankfully my cat like reflexes put me out of harms way. I only did 1.75 miles because I was getting tired of trying to find a strip of road acceptable for foot traffic. The bottom line though is, NO EXCUSES. I got the run in and was able to enjoy the Lord’s Day worshipping with my church family and my run really was very fun. It is nice to have days that are not status quo.

Today was warmer, around 24 degrees, when I left for my run. I ran out of time yesterday to buy my ice cleats though and regretted it immensely. On Monday’s I do weight training at the gym in addition to my run, so I usually only run 3 miles as a muscle warm up and cardio event. Today I did 3.2 miles outside and it felt like I was running in a sand pit. Because it is MLK Jr. day, I didn’t have to run as early as normal. I went out the door at about 9 AM, and while that was great, it posed a problem in that I couldn’t just freely run in the middle of the road without risking a run in with a Mack Truck. The sidewalks in my neighborhood, and on the main road outside my neighborhood, still varied from snow up to my ankles to ice skating rinks. I really could have used those snow cleats. I had trouble getting any speed up and only averaged a 9:32 mile. It felt more like an 8:58 per mile average though because I had to pick my legs up higher and push against resistance. The result was that I was able to work muscles in my run that aren’t normally worked. I may run on the beach some this summer to mimic that feeling and get other areas of my legs prepared. I then went to the YMCA and did a fast 1 mile run on the treadmill because I didn’t like my 9:32 average. I wanted to get in an “all out” mile at least before my weights.

Today started week #3 of my new weight training routine and I can see wonderful results already. My biceps, triceps, shoulders, and back are finally starting to look healthy and toned. When you are a runner your legs and glutes get quite a bit of work, but you have to go out of your way to strengthen your core and upper body. This helps guard against injury and makes you run stronger and faster.

In other related news, I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought a pair of ice cleats for $19.99. They attach to your regular tennis shoe and provide a grip in the snow and ice. They are metal coils on the bottom and will make your shoes non slip. I bought one pair and my husband and I will share them since we don’t run outside together. While there I peeked at the clearance racks and found a super cute running skirt for only $8.98. You can’t even imagine the steal that this is. Running skirts are all the rage right now because you don’t have to sacrifice fashion for fitness. Since they are the rage, the cost is usually a fortune to find one that covers more than your hiney. Anyway, we’ll cover clothes on my clothing FAQ blog, but I wanted you to know that Dick’s has lots of cute shirts, bottoms, and fitness gear on clearance with an additional 50% the lowest price.

Fitness, Running

#Houston2012

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Today the #runstreak tried to defeat me, but I overcame. Due to a very hectic schedule today, a foot of snow on the ground, and the fact that the YMCA only has childcare for limited hours on Saturdays, I could’ve possibly been persuaded, in a weak moment, to abandon the streak. Afterall, can this really continue through the rest of the winter? Is it really worth getting totally geared up, bundling up 2 wiggling kids, and hopping in the sled just to pop out a couple of miles on the treadmill? Not to mention the fact that my poor kids already had a day of being drug all over God’s green earth with on the agenda and this was just adding to their to do list. (I’ve found though that a happy, healthy, in shape mom makes happy, health boys. They also love the YMCA kid watch and all of the activities. It’s just getting them out the door that is a marathon in and of itself,) Going to the gym seems reasonable on weight/strength training days, but I really prefer to just be able to jet out the door and log my miles near home on running only days. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, running outdoors is significantly more appealing to me anyway. The  #runstreak so far has been suprisingly easy to stick to, and I’ve had very few times I’ve wanted to abandon it. Even on Christmas morning I had no problems, as I ran at 6 AM past neighbors sleepily getting into their cars for early morning mass enduring stares of wonderment at the sight of some nut logging miles on the blessed holiday morning. However, today was different. It is a random Saturday in January and the weather isn’t looking good for the perceivable future and I’m facing a long term sentence to the treadmill, so is it worth it?

Thankfully, it was worth it and will continue to be worth it. As I read my Runner’s World tweets about the USA Olympic Trials and all of the records being set today in Houston, I shamelessly imagined that I was an Olympic Hopeful as I ran my 4 miles on the treadmill. I’m not embarassed to say or ashamed to admit that in my own fantasy world I’m the leader of the pack. I would’ve gone even further and longer, but child watch was closing and I had an agenda longer than said 4 miles to accomplish today. I’m happy that day #62 came and went and I am victorious. I am blessed with the health to run and I want to never take that for granted and celebrate it everyday. I already have my plan for tomorrow morning ready. Sunday’s are my light day. They are crazy, hectic for me, so I rarely to never run further than my 2.1 mile loop I have in my neighborhood. It’s always dark as I stumble out the front door at 6AM, so I stay in my subdivision where most people have their porch lights on. I miss all the Christmas lights beaming on my path, but enjoy the solitude, fresh cold air, and time to get my mind on the greatness of our God before the Sunday rush really kicks into high gear. Because I will not be able to go to the YMCA tomorrow and use the treadmill, I will be running in the foot of snow. I’m hoping there’s not a lot of ice because I don’t particularly want to be sprawled out in the middle of the street with a broken leg at the crack of dawn. The temperature looks like it will be single digits and windy, so I’ve got all the cold weather gear laying out, ready to eliminate any excuses I might conjure up. Since Sundays are my running “day off” of sorts (I don’t actually take the day off. I just run short and light), I will be able to proceed with caution. Running in the ice and snow without the proper shoes, which I don’t have winter running shoes yet, isn’t advisable if you are pushing distance an speed. I have a trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods on my to do list though to check out shoe gaiters and ice cleats. I’m not sure if I’ll buy these items, but running outside means a lot to me so it might be a worthy investment.

Whatever you want to do and accomplish in life, just start doing it now. Start it today. Don’t put it off any longer. Imagine where you want to be next year and take the steps today to make it happen. Tune in this week for my first two “Frequently Asked Questions”. They will be “What do you wear for running?” and “How did you continue your runstreak while fasting?”. I am going to address the fasting component of running nutrition before I address other nutrition questions because so many people are in the middle of a “First Fruits” fast for 2012, including myself. Tune back in for answers to these questions, more #runstreak musings, some Biblical inspiration, and some Bridge Church musings.

Anecdotal, Personal

Friday Thought Flights

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Don’t even get me started on Angry Birds stories and Anecdotes. You’ll be reading for days.

I love being a mom. Sure, there are things about it that are daunting, annoying, and down right irritating, but the laughter, love, and supreme feeling of accomplishment that I get from my role as mom can’t be found anywhere else. So, in keeping with the spirit of motherhood, you will have to endure anecdotes about my 6 year old son Reese and 4 year old son Gentry. Over the course of the day today two random things stood out to me:

1) I hate cutting tiny fingernails and toenails. This has always been one of my least favorite “chores” of motherhood. As bizarre as it sounds, I disliked this task more than changing diapers when they were infants. I had a complete fear of slicing open their delicate skin or trimming their nails painfully short and I could never get them to lay still or position their appendages in a direction that provided ease. Thankfully, the shrieks of terror, all out wrestling matches, and 8 hour trim sessions are a thing of the past. However, we still get to enjoy extreme bouts of drama every time the clippers come out. Gentry thinks I’m going to cut his toes off and yells at me not to touch the little ones. (I eventually get in there and get them all safely and effectively trimmed) And, Reese shuts his eyes, delicately spasms his body, and moans as if I’m extracting his nerve fibers one by one, even before my hands have gotten near his feet. The fact that I used to have to get Jonathan to sit on Reese for me to cut his fingernails and toenails is no joke. Cutting Reese’s nails and toenails used to be a full aerobic workout for me complete with sweat soaked clothing. It got so dysfunctional at one point, that while I was still working at a job outside of my home, I used to strategically not cut his nails so that his babysitter would do it. She was a patient woman. She probably had horrible thoughts about the type of neglectful mother I was because Reese would occasionally show up at her house with talons on his feet and hands. Now that I’m blessed to have my office at home, no babysitter is around to bail me out. Today went somewhat smoothly in the trimming department though, and they both were rewarded with a pack of fruit snacks. This brings up another horrible parenting strategy of rewarding  your kids with food and bringing emotion into the eating process, but, sigh, you can’t be perfect all of the time. Someday they’ll have to explain to their therapist why stressful situations with positive endings induce sugar cravings 🙂

2) What you say and what is heard are rarely the same with children. This category will be explored at length with many musings, but my anecdote from this fact of life for today is humorous. Gentry loves the Wii he and Reese got for Christmas. In fact, while I was working on budgets and finances for our church all day, Gentry was glued to the Wii after pre-school. When Reese got home he kept saying, “Reese I got the goose. I got the goose.” Finally Reese said “What goose are you talking about?” Gentry said, “You know. The one on Wii Sports Resort.” Reese said “G, there is no goose.” Gentry said “Yes there is. You know, the duck on the basketball game”. Jonathan stepped in after this banter had continued for quite sometime and said, “you mean you dunked the basketball.” “Yeah” Gentry said. “I guess it was a dunk and not a goose or duck.” I laughed out loud for a while on that one. Kids come up with the craziest things. I love it.

Fitness, Nutrition, Running

The Streak Continues

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Remembering these moments keep me going!

Last 7 Day Report: 29.79 Miles Run, 3,230 Calories burnt running

Yesterday I celebrated day 60 of my #runstreak (That hashtag groups all the people on twitter together that are participating in a runstreak.) with a 6 mile dark, rainy run in the morning. Today, however, I had to do one of the things I hate the most and that is run on the treadmill. Runners affectionately refer to this as the “dreadmill”. Some people do well with indoor exercise, but I am self diagnosed ADD and need the stimuli that running outside gives me to escape from my own head. You would be amused if you knew the lines of reasoning and logic that come to me on my runs. Oftentimes though, I have acute mental clarity and use my runs as a time of meditation, worship, and personal development. I can’t complain too much about the treadmill though. I do live in Cleveland, Ohio where the winters are brutal. I’ve dodged a bullet this year though. Because of our mild winter, ice, wind, and single digit temps have driven me onto the treadmill only 3 times.

I will be blogging about my streak, what it means to me, my struggles and victories with it, and my new fitness routine I’ve started this year. I will also start a “Frequently Asked Questions” portion. I get E-mails from friends and acquaintances all over intrigued with Jessica 2.0. You have to understand that athelete was never a word anyone would’ve ever used to describe me and now people frequently tell me I’m the most dedicated, physically fit person they know. I wouldn’t go that far, but I am dedicated to my new way of living and I want you to experience the same sense of accomplishment and endorphin rush that I feel now.

The streak began in November when Runner’s World issued a twitter challenge. If you want to run, or currently do run, you absolutely need to subscribe to Runner’s World magazine and follow them on twitter. This is a valuable resource for all runners, especially novice and recreational runners. Runner’s World said we needed to fight against the fitness losses and weight gains that we all experience in the Holiday season, remove excuses, and end 2011 strong. They proposed that people join the #rwrunstreak on Thanksgiving Day and run everyday through New Year’s Day 2012. When I saw the tweet it was the week before Thanksgiving and I had already run 4 days in a row that week. I thought, I’m going to take on the challenge. My husband also took the challenge and that friendly comptetition always feeds my running, so I was glad to know that on the nasty days he’d be out there too, not just me. We don’t get to run together much because of our 2 small children, but just knowing that he is going to run at some point drives me out the door to push harder, further, and faster.

So, I took the challenge and ran everyday from then on. I ran on Thanksgiving Day (5 miles in fact). I ran on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I ran on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I ran distances ranging from 2.1 miles to 8 miles on my streak and felt so good after New Year’s Day that I decided to continue the streak into 2012. According to the US Running Streak Association all you have to do to keep a streak is run a minimum of one mile a day. This sounds easy, but sometimes getting out the door is the hardest part. The run is the reward. Getting up in the dark at 5:30 and 6 AM in the winter to get a run in is not always appealing. My bed is comfortable. However, in keeping with no excuses, I know that if I don’t do it then it won’t get done. As a mother and someone that works in ministry, my afternoons and evenings are jam packed.

Since my first race of the year, the Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus, Ohio, isn’t until May, I’m not smack in the middle of Marathon training and have some liberty with my running schedule. I am just working on keeping my fitness levels high and my mileage consistent so that when I’m in the middle of training I can keep my injury rate down. In a later blog, I’ll discuss my continued battle with Achilles Tendonitis.

In closing, if streaking seems weird to you, it did to me at one point too. It defies conventional wisdom for the bodies need to replenish and rest. I feel like my Sunday runs, which I keep to a quick 2.1 miles, are a day off. When you’re used to running everyday a short jaunt is restful and replinishing. I also realize from reading the #runstreak feed that there are people that have streaked for over 30 years. Several people have been streaking for 1,500 plus days. These people keep me going. I can’t say that will be my future, only God knows. I can say though that for now, in this hour, in this moment, there are NO excuses. We will discuss in our FAQ blogs some of the excuses people use and how you can stop those excuses in their tracks.

Inspirational, Spiritual

What you pursue matters

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Romans 9

30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

        In keeping with my new pledge to blog things that I would’ve posted on Facebook, I wanted to share this scripture. God has really been dealing with me on some issues over the last couple of months. I mainly have a few themes echoing in my life and in my mind at the moment (some of which will be shared over the course of time) and one of them is based on the question asked to the apostles in the second chapter of Acts, “What meaneth this?” Basically it is saying that you can have all of your works of the Spirit and all of your demonstrations and you can say whatever eloquent words that you want to say(all of which was going on in Acts Chapter 2 like crazy), but the bottom line is, how in the world can I apply this to my life. I think that most people raised in evangelical Christianity have failed to ever sit and even ask themselves what it all means. Usually when you are raised “in church”, a majority of your relationships are with other “churched” people and you don’t rub shoulders much with those far from God or those who have never known God. You surround yourself with people that don’t ask questions about the meaning of God because asking questions is perceived as questioning faith. In fact, God wants you to ask questions because He wants to clarify for you how good He really is! He wants to empower you with His Spirit for a life you could never have imagined.
      As someone who was raised in the home of a Pentecostal preacher, I knew all the routines, rules, regulations, and rituals of Pentecostal Evangelical Christianity. I read my bible, indeed I even had and still have entire books of the Bible memorized, I prayed, and I was faithful to church. I even had the truths hidden in my own heart, however, until I bothered to ask what does this all mean, all I had was religion. Do most people that eat, chew, and digest whatever Biblical meal is being served up to them without seeking for themselves even realize all they have is religion? To that, I have to say no.
       Our LifeGroups are currently studying the book of Romans and these verses from Romans 9 are part of our study this week and my Observation/Application/ and Prayer (In keeping with our SOAP journal method) are that stumbling blocks are everywhere. Usually we like to blame people and circumstances on our trip ups, but in fact, our own attitudes, generally rooted in our pride, are what cause us to fall. Your view of God as a Grandfather punishing those who do wrong and so I’ll be the little girl in pigtails entertaining said granddaughter by following all the rules, is causing a major rift between you and experiencing all Christ has to offer. Those that are raw, real, honest, and relentless in their pursuit of the things of God and the mind of God are those that are attaining the goal. Take the pious mask off, quit looking at living for God merely as a list of rules and way to avoid hell, and, with the tenacity of a bull charge every good and perfect thing that he has for you. Live out your faith. Do not pursue rules, ritual, and religious tradition, but pursue Christ. The answer to the question of “What meaneth this” is Jesus. Everything that we say, do, and pursue should be to glorify and honor Jesus and point the way for others to find Him. When you are on the “Way” with Jesus, He will show you the truth and the Life. He is everything. Run this race with reckless abandon and as long as your faith is in His perfected work on the cross and nothing else, you’re not going to fall.

The intersection of mind, body, and spirit