Making progress

Last night I planned to run 3 miles but ended up running 2 because of the rain. It's been raining like crazy these past few days. I had a small window of opportunity when the rain had temporarily stopped so I decided to head out the door. The temperature was nice and cool but with the 90% humidity it was definitely harder to breathe. I realized this after 5 minutes into the run. I quit after 2 miles when it started to sprinkle.

I uploaded my workout to Garmin Connect and decided to do a comparison from July.

It seems like forever since I last ran in the 11's. It's crazy how much your body can do is just 2 months. I am so happy that I am able to run. Slowly but surely it has to get better. Just taking it one day at a time. So far, I am down 13 pounds since the beginning of August. It's not a lot but I'll take anything as long as the scale is going in a downward direction.

A race with my daughter

When I began the C25K program, I convinced my daughter (who happened to be at home from college for the summer) to come with me to the track to run. After going with me for a couple weeks something must have sparked inside her and she started to enjoy running. Unfortunately she wasn't able to participate with us at the Arlington 911 5K because she had to  go back and get ready for school so we signed up for the Clarendon Days 5k the following weekend.

While she was home, we ran during the week & on Saturday's and we biked together on the other days. She was never really "into" exercise especially running or cycling. I am so glad she stayed home over the summer and we were able to workout together.

The Clarendon 5K would be her first official running race. We got up nice and early on race morning and picked up our other running friend I'll refer to as A.

We really lucked out because we found a parking spot less than a block away from the start line. The only downside to this race was that the finish line was about 1.5 miles from the start line which meant you had a nice little walk up hill to get back to your car if you parked where we did. From what I read, they used to pass out metro rail cards at the finish line which allowed you to ride the metro rail back to the start but due to changes with metro's paper card policy they weren't handing them out like they did in years past. We didn't mind the walk, 1.5 miles more no big deal.

We took a couple pre-race selfies and a shoe shot.

After this shoe picture we got ready to run. We all run different paces so we were on our own once the gun went off. The race is primarily down hill so it's an easy race to PR (personal record). I knew there was no way on earth I'd PR so I just enjoyed the run. My daughter took off and I only saw her 1 time when she was coming back from the turn around point. I crossed the finish & saw where she was waiting for me. She finished in under 30 minutes with a pace of 9:26. She definitely set the bar high. She had so much fun and I am so happy & proud of her.

stop and take a jump picture ~this is what happens when you have to walk1.5 miles uphill to get to your car

I've already signed us up for another 5K race at her college campus in early October and I have written up a training schedule through the beginning of December in hopes of running a half marathon before the year is over.  Let's cross our fingers that I have no issues with Plantar Fasciitis or any other annoying running injuries. I need to continue this progress since I seem to have found my motivation and I am starting to lose some unwanted weight.
Until next time...

not quite 4 months

Ok so it's been close to 4 months since I last posted something. I'm gonna blame it again on 'life'. That seems to be the default excuse for my lack of writing. Actually I have been meaning to write a post for some time, I just haven't had the chance to put it all together. So here goes... 
My summer goal of losing this fat suit wasn't really going that well so to give myself a goal, I signed up to do the Nations Triathlon as part of a relay team. I've never done a triathlon so this was something new for me. I was already cycling 3 times a week so I knew the bike portion wouldn't be that hard but I felt like I needed to mix things up. A few ladies in our running group were planning to start the C25K (Couch to 5k) program in mid July. I did this program back in 2011 and figured this would be a good way for me to ease back into running without really aggravating the Plantar Fasciitis that I had been dealing with since March. To celebrate completion of C25K we all registered for the Arlington 911 5k race. After I registered for it, I realized that the triathlon was the very next morning. Oops- I was thinking oh crap, my legs are gonna really hate me!

Day 1 of C25K

We finished C25K at the end of August and ran the race on September 10th. My finish time wasn't the best but I was just happy to be able to run a race. The last running race I did was in 2014.

mile 2-3 heading around the Pentagon

pre race picture

my running buddy A

I went home after the race and hung out around the house. I got my bag ready for the next mornings race. It was a 4:30am wake up call so I went to bed early.

5 am obligatory monument picture

 I love the excitement of running/cycling events but man do I hate having to get up at the ass crack of dawn. It always amazes me that I can get up for an event without any problems but seem to have this endless war with the snooze button on any other day.
We arrived extra early because finding a parking spot in DC is a joke during events that require street closures. Luckily we were able to get a decent parking spot.

It was such a beautiful morning and the weather was so much nicer than the day before. They cancelled the swim portion due to the poor water quality of the Potomac River so since C wasn't able to do the swim she decided to do the run portion with J.

J, myself & C

We waited around for a little over an hour and before we knew it we were off. The bike ride was much easier than I expected. The only part that was "tough" was the head winds that greeted us as we were riding on I395 going over the Potomac River toward Crystal City. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take my phone with me so there are no pictures :( I was happy with my overall time on the bike.

I came into the transition area, dismounted the bike & handed the timer to J and they took off to finish the run portion of the race.

J & C running to the finish

We collected our medals and got some food & said our goodbyes. It was a fun event, bummer that the swim got cancelled but we made the best of it.
The crazy part about this is that when the results came in and we ranked 3rd in our division and 10th overall.

I have another race next weekend with my daughter. I'll update about that soon so until next time...