Lisa vs. the dreaded bridesmaid dress

Sometimes things can seem very daunting.

I am in a wedding on June 21st. Yup. A good friend called and asked me to be a bridesmaid for her upcoming wedding, and since the lovely couple are going to have to rush the wedding a bit (he's got a job and they have to make a big move for it, plus they've been dating since our freshman year of high school, so I think we won't miss much on the planning, haha), so it's June 21st.

And the dress we shall wear? Strapless.

The fear of God is now coming down upon me. Do you know how much effort and coaxing it took me to wear a one piece bathing suit this past summer? And I still kept most of myself covered in the damn thing. I've never worn a strapless outfit of any kind. I am fat. I have fat arms. No one needs to see them. Oh god, I'm about to hyperventilate...

so yeah, that has been the thought process the past few hours since I got the e-mail with the "what do you think about these dresses?" link in it. I think I'm gonna look like a whale next to the size 2 and size 8 or 10 bridesmaid. Blimpy McGee, here I come down the isle, waddle waddle waddle.

As strong as I've become since I started running, as much as I've changed and realized that I am a beautiful women despite my size and that I am amazing, these negative horrible thoughts still pop in my head from time to time. Hey, I know, nobody is perfect, but I've just had a long history of dealing with body image, so it's a pretty big hurdle I've been jumping over (and I'm getting there!) the last almost year since I started this crazy journey.

So, enough bellyaching. It's just a dress. And I WAS fat, I'm just working on it at this point. Hell, I'm currently typing this while wearing jeans that are four years old and until now haven't worn in years. I have all the way until June 21st to make myself even more snazzy. The day isn't about me, and no one should or will care what I look like, but I still want to look my best for my friends, because they will cherish these photos and wedding video forever. I want to look nice for them, and a bit for my sanity too.

SO FOLKS... Who here has some killer techniques to work on my upper arms? What's the best type of exercise to gets these puppies looking better? Any suggestions?

If this doesn't keep me getting up and running in the morning, I don't know what will. I think the marathon is less scary to me then a bridesmaid dress, because in running we are expected to look ridiculous in our outfit, and who cares at that point, we are amazing athletes. But I'll be damned if a bridesmaid dress is going to beat me down.

just a quick update...

the shin is hurting today, but it isn't too bad. I think we shall be ok...

And we're back!

Well, just got home from Coney Island, and it was desolate, but safe, so all is well!

Actually, I think I may have found one of my new favorite spots in NYC, especially to run. It's barren, retro, a bit depressing, but totally beautiful. Granted you're running on a boardwalk, which somehow I feel wood planks aren't the best surface to run on, but you have a great view (one side is the ocean, the other side the pier and the people) and it's a nice path to do a decent size run on.

And the best part? MY LEG IS OK!!! Yay! It really hurt around .80 mile and 1.1 mile, but I ran through it, and it subsided. I also did more of an interval type run, which I think helped. It made me slower overall on pace, but it got me farther without feeling pain or feeling tired at the end. Here is what I did...

Every 1o minute mark, I would power walk for 3 minutes (so run until 10 minutes, walk to 13, run to 20, walk to 23, run to 30, walk to 33) and I did this all the way up to the 1 hour point, and then I just ran the rest of my workout, which wasn't far at all. In the next few long runs I'm going to slowly decrease to walking for 2 minutes instead of 3, and then walking 1 minute, and then try to space them out farther as I go along. I think this is a nice way to soften the shock of running again on my body, especially on my screwy shin.

I also noticed my stride more, and watched my posture while I was running, so I'm working slowly on improving my technique. Here are the final stats for my first "long run" of 1/2 training:

4 Miles in 1 hour 8 minutes and 3 seconds
Average Pace was 16:59 min/mi (damn you 3 minute walking pace cramping my style!)
Calories: 821

I'm also really stretching a lot more in general, and starting a plan to work on my core, since the weight I'm loosing is coming off in odd places (belly be gone, cmon!) and a tighter core helps you run better.

So yeah, I'm stepping my game up in a sense. I spent yesterday and tonight I'll finish combing through some old Runners World and some other books, and I'm really making a more detailed training plan. Higdon has a good base for training, but I've got to do more to really improve. I've got three months to get ready for the 1/2, four months to get in better shape for being in a wedding (oh boy, bridesmaid dress), and then October is the next big date!

Feeling good, feeling confident, and glad to be back in the groove of running :)

-Lisa

PS I submitted an application to volunteer in April at the Boston marathon! I figure if I'm still living out in NYC at that point, I'll take the bus up to Boston, and help out! I'd love to actually be a spectator instead of running in a race, and so I put in my bid (although I'm hoping I'll have to decline and hopefully be back in Chicago). I picked my first choice as being a mile marker. Haha. How awesome would that be? The description says I stand with a mile marker sign for on the side of the road for the racers to see. So I can cheer them on. Yay!

If I don't return to blogging...

Um, call the police? Haha. I'm going for an adventure for my first "long run" of training. Heading out to Coney Island to run on the pier, since my "long run" is a very short 4 miles.

So yeah, time to adventure to run in a place I've never been that may or may not be sketchy? We'll see! Good times, good times...

I'll update when I get home later with the beautiful sites of Coney Island, and with a brand new addition to revamp my training plan!!!

-Lisa

and so it begins...

Ah, nothing like the first run of the season. Especially when you can only muster up through half of it :(

Yup. 3 mile run turned into 1.5 miles. More like 1 mile run and .5 mile walk then run then walk. Boo. But I got over a mile, which is great! I haven't done over that since my leg started hurting. And it felt pretty good at the start. I just have to get back in the swing of things.

I also chopped up and froze my bananas the other night, so protein shake season is SO BACK! Yay! I'm not gonna lie, I sort of miss the tasty recipe me and Dad came up with, so it will be a nice welcome back, and affordable for my broke budget. So affordable, I may start living off protein shakes alone, good times.

So yeah, one run down, many more to go. I'm heading to bed now so I can get up and run. See, I'm being such a good little runner, go me!

Hope everyone is keeping warm back in Chicago, and keep running!

OH! One other little fun thing...

So last week I got an e-mail in my inbox with the following in it...

"Congratulations! Based on past performance in the Shamrock Shuffle, Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon and/or Chicago Marathon, you qualify for Wave 1 and a Start Corral (Top 100 or Corral A-D) at the 2008 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K. If you have not already registered, you can register now to ensure your spot in the 2008 event. Registration has already exceeded 22,000, and will close when the maximum 30,000 participants has been reached."

HEHEHEHE!!! I qualified for a starting corral?!?! Um, so my dad thinks that had to be a computer glitch, because we both qualified. I reminded him that we may have qualified in the very back of the last corral, or at least I'm really hoping that is the case, and not some computer glitch. Regardless, it made one chubby girl (hey, I'm working on that part) with big dreams one very happy lady :)

Too bad I moved, I totally would have ran in the Shuffle and used my starting time, regardless of glitch or not, which could have made for an interesting race? haha.

Here we go again...

Well, hello again. Since I last saw the interweb, I have been resting the good old shin, trying not to piss it off because tomorrow starts the longest period of running EVER!

Ok, so I'm being a tad bit dramatic, but tomorrow marks the start of 1/2 marathon training. Hurrah! It's a bit of a lackluster start, with just stretching and strength on Mondays, but Tuesday I get to run 3 miles, so we'll see how the shins do then, and see what type of training the next few months will be (either "yay my shin is fine" or "WTF GET BETTER LEG" months of training).

Feel free to join along in the training, as I mentioned in the previous post. What's more fun than running a ridiculous amount and conversing about it online with a stranger, right?

So back to why tomorrow marks the longest period of running EVER...

You're probably saying, "what are you talking about Lisa, this is just a damn 1/2 marathon, no biggie."

Well folks, did I mention that I merge directly into marathon training after Indy 1/2 marathon? Yup. I do. As of tomorrow I will be consistently training until mid October. Wowie. That is a long time.

But I digress, I am looking forward to the challenge and journey of training again, and especially excited because I have a few friends (and good old Dad again) training with me! Yay!

So keep Me, my Dad, my friends (Erin, Sammie, David) in your thoughts and running prayers, and keep checking back in, because I'll be back blogging as of now. VACATION FROM RUNNING IS OVER! GET A MOVE ON LISA!

Are you pumped yet just reading this? Because I sure am!

Ok, off to bed and then up to do my S&S (stretch and strength) before work! Here we go...

-Lisa

PS Me and Dad got spots in the Chicago 2008 Marathon already , so hopefully I'll see everyone there :)