Running

Did any of you other mama's or mama's to be run during pregnancy?   (Or anyone else that has something insightful to say about this topic!)

If so, how high did you let your heart rate go?

I've been trying to run, to keep my weight down and to just stay healthy.  I'm  not going far, maybe 2 miles, 3 at most.  My heartrate goes up pretty quickly, especially when it's hot or humid, so I've been trying to slow it down from time to time.  I have to walk a bit just to keep it down where I feel it should be.  The doctor told me that if I ran before I was pregnant, that it was safe to continue running as long as I was comfortable and that my heart rate could go to about 170's.  Doesn't that seem quite high?

I know exercising can make pregnancy, delivery, and recovery much easier, but it's kind of scary when my heartrate gets too high because I'm not exactly sure how that effects baby Crane. 

Any ideas, thoughts, words of wisdom?

Happy Tuesday!!

Only 5 more days of my last summer grad class EVER!!

Running

So, I’ve taken up running again.  Whether it be the fact that I was getting a bit chubbier than I would like, the fact that I love to eat some ridiculously delicious bad for you foods, or that it’s the cool thing to do, I’m doing it. 

I think working out is a new fad, though with the condition of our health and weight these days, I’m glad to be apart of this fad.

Typically I don’t choose to be trendy, do the cool thing or follow fads, but this is one fad I’m jumping on the bandwagon for.

Back in high school, I ran track, did volleyball and gymnastics.  All of that exercise made me looking quite fit and I felt great.  Fast-forward about 10-12 years, take out most of the exercise and it aint so pretty my friends.

We still play volleyball, but I don’t call 6 fairly out of shape 20-something year olds running around a volleyball court for 45 minutes a great deal of exercise.

So, I’m back at it.  Monday I ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill and Tuesday I ran 3 miles.  As I’m running at the rec center, I’m watching one of the 4 tv monitors they have , while listening to my ipod.  It got me thinking “Gosh, It’d be great if I could watch tv AND listen to what they were saying”.  Low and behold, there’s a little black box that has channel numbers on it, attached to EVERY machine.  I was wondering why people plugged their headphones into them…

DUH Kayla….. So, as I’m running the latter part of my 2.5 miles, I plugged into the “little black box” and was able to have my choice to watch Fox News and The Biggest Loser, among other things.

Sometimes I surprise myself. :-)

Hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday!

The Bix

So, as I said here my goal for The Bix was 1:10:00..... Well I am sorry to say that I failed on that one. I did however run "most" of the entire race, with the exception of two short walks up these two gigantic hills! I mean these babies were enormous! I was not prepared for the hills and those are what kicked my butt.

Warning: This next paragraph might be too much information for some of you, I'm warning you if you read on, I will talk about how I got sick during the race... Proceed with caution!

Before I tell you my real time, I must first tell you why I did not accomplish close to what my goal was.... I did great the first 1/2 of the race (at mile 3.5) I was at 36:06. If I would have kept the same pace throughout the second 1/2, I would have ended with a 1:12:12 which would have been A-OK with me! That would have been great.... However; because I was up at 5:00 am, I was not able to eat anything (I feel sick to my stomach when I wake up that early, weird huh? haha) so, around mile 4-5 I started feeling this "stuff" in my throat.... Well, I kept running and I kept grabbing cups of water as they were offered at about every mile marker.... (Bad Idea Kayla).... An empty stomach, running 7 miles, drowning yourself in water.... Not a good combination. You can see where this is going! So, here I am, I see the sign for the final mile!! I've almost made it I said to myself! I told myself I was not going to walk any of the last mile because I've almost finished and I can do this. Well, I see the sign: 1/8th mile to go! I can't believe I'm almost made it!! Then the "stuff" mentioned above started to continue upwards..... I thought to myself: "This is not happening to me, I'm almost finished! I can make it and finish at 1:12:00! I can do it".... FAIL! I had about 1/16th of a mile to go to the finish line and I had to make a B-line to the curb where I continued to throw up all of the water that was drank the previous 6 miles.... I spent a good 4-5 minutes getting sick, but I got back up and finished the race, that's the proud moment I had! haha I finished sprinting, because I felt so good after getting sick that I had all of this energy left!

So, I finished with an official time of 1:17:30 (or something along those seconds). Not too shabby and I feel that if I wouldn't have gotten sick, I really would have been close to 1:12:00 and I would have been proud of that. Especially since I was not prepared for this race and could not run for the last 3-4 weeks.

All in all it was a great race and I am "fairly" proud of finishing it. We've decided not to do the 1/2 marathon in October, because neither my hubby nor I have the desire to run 13.1 miles ever... 7 was good enough for the both of us. We are going to try and stay on track for the 1/2 marathon just to stay in shape and keep running, but we decided 3 hours post race that neither of us really wanted to do it... :-)

So, my goal for next year's Bix is to be under a 1:10:00 and I know I can do it this time! I will be prepared!

Thanks for all of the well wishes and good luck's! I know it helped, especially on that first 1/2 of the race! :-)

The Bix

Tomorrow is the big day! We're running in The Quad City Times Bix 7 race. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. This is my first big race since trying to start up running again... It's a 7 mile race and it's one of the most prestigious races in the country. People finish this race in under 32 minutes or better! (Mostly Kenyon runners who sprint the entire thing and win a new car and $25,000 for winning) I however, have my own goals for this race. I will not be running a 32 minute 7 mile race, so I hate to disappoint all of you!

Goals for the Bix:

1. I want to finish and I want to finish running

2. I will not walk any of the race, I refuse to. I don't care if I have to "run" the speed of a turtle, I will run the entire thing. It has been my goal since the beginning.

3. I say I don't care about my time, but my goal for a time is to be under 1:10:00. That's 10:00 minute miles which is totally doable. But since my LASIK surgery, I haven't been able to run much. At one time, I could run a 7.25 minute mile, but those days are long gone. Since LASIK I've only been able to run 4 times, so that's not a good sign.

4. I want to have energy after the race. I don't want to die after the 7 miles, because my next goal will be to run a 1/2 marathon on October 18th.

5. My last goal will be to not keep up with anyone. I want to run my own pace and do as well as I can without trying to run next to someone.

I will check back on Sunday or Monday to let you know how it goes. As far as after the race, apparently there is a huge Bix party that night, so I'm pretty excited to join in on the festivities.

Those also running the race with me are: my hubby, parents, brother, future-sister-in-law, her parents, her sister & boyfriend and a few others. It should be a good time! :-)

Random

So, this is going to be somewhat of a random post....

I'm feeling crappy today, well lately. I'm trying to workout and eat healthier, but it's so hard! I feel like I've gained 100 lbs since college, though I know this is not true. I'm probably 10 lbs heaver than I would like to be (and by taking off 10 lbs, that would put me back to my senior year of high school weight). I've gotten my husband excited about running and working out again, but I can't seem to find the motivation in myself. When he's there and we workout together, I do pretty well, but when I'm alone and I have to get myself up off the couch, it's much harder. I'm only 5'0" tall, so gaining weight is much more noticeable on me than it would be to someone much taller. I'm not heavy by any means, so don't get me wrong, I know I could look much worse. I just want to be healthier, it's not even about the lbs, it's about the satisfaction of knowing that I can do anything and that I am doing my best to stay healthy.

I just bought groceries and spent $100..... I feel like I got nothing because I tried buying more healthy choices. Does anyone have any suggestions for healthy, good tasting, cheap meals to make at home (or do they not exist?)? I know there's tons of recipes out there, I just have a hard time finding ones that I like and that my husband likes. He's very picky, so its difficult to find things to make that are healthy.

Anyway, that's my rant, sorry... I'm just wondering how the rest of you do it! Some of you have kids and are still able to find time to workout and eat healthy! I want to start now, so that when we do have kids, I am in some sort of pattern.

With that said, I'm drinking my Crystal Light and thinking about having a salad for lunch :-)

On another note, any suggestions for running shoes, shorts and tanks? We're running the Bix this weekend and I'm thinking of treating myself to a new pair of shorts and a tank to run in... I know switching shoes 4 days before a race probably isn't the smartest idea! By the way, the Bix is 7 miles people!! I said 7 miles! My goal is to finish running, run the whole time and get a better time than 1:10:00. That is my goal, it's not actually a difficult goal to achieve, because I know I have it in me to do it. So, I'll update you next week as to how I did.

New Purchase

So, thanks to your wonderful comments on this post, I have decided to purchase this:



I'm very excited about it and ran with it for the first time on Sunday. I loved it!! :-) Thanks
again Lucy, Risa, and Meredith!

Born to Run

No, not really.

But I did accomplish something great on Sunday. The hubby has been put on mandatory overtime of 60+/h per week, so I've been trying to keep myself busy. Well, yesterday, I put on my running shoes and told myself that I was going to run for 30 minutes straight without a break, break for a minute and then run the 30 minutes back home. Well, I actually did it! I ran 6.1 miles, though that means I ran 10:00 miles, it is still a great accomplishment on my part! It's the furthest I have ever run!

P.S. I'm dying today......

Happy Monday everyone!

Upcoming weekend agenda

This weekend I plan to do this:

Friday:
Grill out with about 8-10 friends, having a few drinks
and enjoying the beautiful weather we are having.

Saturday:
Sleep in (Finally!!!), get some shopping done, finish cleaning the house
and doing Laundry. Saturday night date night with my husband
(o, how I look forward to these babies!) We will
be seeing the new Terminator Movie.... I know I know,
but it was his choice and it could be worse!

Sunday:
Sleeping in, yet again, finishing up that housework, and FINALLY
buying and planting my flowers!
I've decided that I've waited long enough and things are
looking too bare for my taste lately!

I will try to upload pics of last weekends adventures, as well as,
pictures of my newly planted beauties! On a side note, I will also
need to take a picture of the beautiful flower box
my hubby made me! He is an engineer
and I know it doesn't take an engineer to build a flower box,
but he made it removable and everything! So, I'm pretty impressed
and thankful to say the least!


Also, does anyone have a Apple shuffle? Would you recommend just paying the extra to get a nano? I have a nano, but my husband wants to use it. I just need something for running and I thought maybe a shuffle would be better.... Any thoughts?!!?!?