Disney Princess 1/2 marathon 2/24/13

Well last Sunday on 2/24/13, I started & completed my first 1/2 marathon. It was the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon. It was a very well organized race, with water & poweraide every 1.5 miles, frequent medic tents along the race, & cliff shots at mile 8.5. There was also lots of spots to stop for pics along the way. We only stopped for 1 pic though. At the 1st of the race I was really enjoying myself & the magical feeling of running through Disney. However about mile 8 my left foot really started hurting. I had been nursing back an injury of tendinitis in my left heel for the past few weeks, not even able to really run or walk prior to the race. I did keep up with my other cardio routine though. So I had bought compression sleeves for my legs, to save my calfs & shins. I do believe they helped a lot because my tendinitis didn't start to flare till about mile 11. So I was feeling pretty good other than left foot pain (felt like a rock in the ball of my foot), & I could feel a pulling in my right knee. So I finished with my aches & pains. We still did 2 Disney parks after the race on Sunday, & sun night I realized I had 1 massive blister on my right foot. I guess it was my battle wound! Lol. I was even more sore on Monday, hobbling around like I was 80 yrs old. It's fri now, & I'm still a bit sore, but it's getting better. I took this entire week off from the gym, with school all week & being sore I didn't wanna push myself too hard. I had a sports massage on wed afternoon, & he said my glutes, lower back, & feet were all still very swollen. I joked with him saying "yeah I think I almost put my body in shock on sun." My feet are still very swollen, can only wear my running shoes. But most importantly I have already been doing my research to see which race I wanna tackle next. I do want to do another 1/2 marathon. I'm looking at maybe the Diva 1/2 in myrtle beach for 2014 or the rock & roll 1/2 in savannah for 2014. Next on my agenda is the cooper river bridge 10k in April. I did this race last year for the 1st time. Since I only work weekends now, I probably will not have any more big races the rest of the year. Gotta focus on finishing school, & getting a RN job in the hospital, then I can regain at least every other weekend back! In the future though I will deff do another Disney race!

Time to be more positive!

I am as guilty as anyone else. I tend to put too much time & effort into picking out what I don't like about my body image. You know how it goes. For me my big negatives are my stomach, my flabby arms, & my love handles. Well I have decided to try, & have a more positive body image. Even if that just means picking out what I like best about my body! What I like the best about my body is my legs! My legs are pretty awesome in my opinion. I took dance for many years so I have always had muscular looking legs, & now that I have picked up running & working out well they have only toned up more. My next fave feature would probably be my hair. Lol. I have a harder time picking out what I like about myself, but I am going to work at this in 2013. It's another goal I have for this year, to like my body better. I tend to think I'm more critical on my body now, than I was when I weighed over 300 lbs. So I encourage you to do the same. Pick out your best feature, & be proud of it. My legs tell a story, because I wasn't born with muscular calfs! :)

Weak moments

Well I had been doing really well with my clean eating, until about 2 nights ago when I came home with a sore throat & wanted some "I feel sick" comfort food. Searched the pantry for chicken noodle soup, because it usually soothes my throat. Well we were out so I ate some saltine crackers, big mistake. Well the next day I went, & bought some chicken noodle soup for myself, to help sooth my throat. So now we are on the winding path of destruction. Today I wanted some more chicken noodle soup for lunch, & of course I needed saltines for it. So tonight when I get home; I'm tired, exhausted, & I ended up letting my self have a little binge. Ugh, I'm sure I'll pay for this tomorrow, because it generally tends to wreck havoc on my body & makes me feel terrible. In my binge I ate, 12 Doritos, said chocolate pudding cup, a chocolate bar, & then needed to cleanse my palate with an apple. I'm always do disappointed in myself when I let myself loose control, & let food control me. I have got to come up with better strategies to steer clear of this mess! So I ask you, what are your methods for preventing your weak food moments?

Tomorrow starts it all....

I start school back tomorrow....nursing school. It appears that pretty much every day this week I will be at school from 9-2, & then will drive an hr & have to be at work @ 3. Not sure when I'm gonna find time this week to work out, but I'm gonna pack my clothes & hope to get out of class early some days I guess. Now I drive approx 1 hour each way to school, therefore I will have to take all 3 meals for the day with me. So I have spent the last several hours tonight prepping my food as much as I could for this week. Because not only am I eating healthy, I'm eating for the most part clean, so I can't just run through subway or something like that. It will be a challenge this week to get it all fit into the week. Also I plan on somehow running 3 days this week at least. I have a new goal, to transfer from treadmill to outdoors I'm gonna run the local park at least once a week, & run out in the country at least once a week. If you haven't ever run out in the country, around here well it's a bit of a challenge. There is normal curves & dips in the road, but the road also slants to the right. So after my sat morn jaunt I felt like my right leg was longer or something & my right hip was a bit sore. However that Feb 1/2 marathon is approaching very quickly so I gotta keep at it. Also gotta get my costume together for my race. We finally booked a resort to stay at in FL, now to get the extra gear we need...I'm thinking a hydration belt of some sort, & get our costumes together & purchase our theme park tickets & we are set. Whitney & I are very scared, & excited all at once!!!! So goals for this week are to keep up with school, get my workouts in, get my runs in, & stick to my clean eating 12,000 calorie diet! As Sunday night comes to an end, I'm already looking forward to next weekend! :)