new apartment = new running course

Week three now. Still training. Been a bit relaxed though, moving and all. But getting back into the swing of things.

I'm trying to improve my pace now, since my dad is currently kicking my ass. Gee, that isn't embarrassing whatsoever. Yeah.

I bought Gatorade and Gu (the gel you eat when you run) and a powerbar at Target this week. Have yet to try any of these oh so lovely things...Look at me, trying to be all marathoner and shit. Man, is that even a word. I don't know anymore. My brain (and body) just hurts from walking everywhere.

to the anon. commenter, thanks for the sports bra advice. So far I'm ok with my "we don't need to work out, we're fat at Lane Bryant!" sports bra, but if needed I may have to pay the shipping and get one of those neato ones from the UK company, so thanks for the advice and your very lovely comment!

So I live by a beach now, which is nice, except the sand that gets in my shoes. But there are many hot guys with dogs. Nothing to make me feel like a lameass out there huffing and puffing along in my spandex. Ew. Oh well, all in due time...

I've also invested in ice packs. And some different creams for the lovely heat rashes and stuff that I'm getting. Oh man, no one told me how glamorous training for a marathon is. I bet I'm gonna look so awesome with my gu packets pinned to my t-shirt and my water bottle and fanny pack in my horrid spandex on raceday. So hot.

So the pessimist in me is starting to show, eh? Oh well, back to the grindstone...gotta make up for the lost time this week. Keep checking back and take care!

so it goes...week 2 of training...

Here comes the official week two of training. On the weekend, the schedule makes you work out longer. I've figured out what they are doing. They have you work out longer so you say to yourself "OH MY GOD I AM IN PAIN I CAN'T DO THIS," so that when you finish, and then go back during the week to an easier schedule, things won't seem nearly as bad. I mean, if you workout for an hour on saturday, and then you only have to work out 30 mins during the week, those 30 mins are going to seem like a piece of cake, right?

I'm currently sitting on the floor of my room, with no chair or desk or bed. Moving days are here. I'm moving up north to a great place by a park and running course, so I'm pumped. And I haven't seen a mass amount of homeless at my new place (unlike my old place) so I'm pretty pumped.

GREAT NEWS! I went shopping this past week with my grandmother while back home. She always likes to go shopping. So we went to Lane Bryant (or as I like to call it Lane Giant), where we always go. The LB should give me clothing, I've given them so much business. It's really the only half decent place for a plus size girl to shop. And I mean half decent, because they still got some ugly shit. So anyways, we go shopping, and I walk in and ask the girl, "do you have any sports bras?" She replies, "why do you need a sports bra?" Picture this overweight, giant hipped women with a smirk on her face asking me this, and I reply, "because I'm running a marathon." She sort of snorted and smirked and went and got me the only sports bra they had, a flimsy one with no support, and she didn't ask my size, but gave it to me in their largest size. Well jokes on her, because since I've been working out I WENT DOWN A SIZE IN TOPS! I got all these shirts to try on, and none of them fit, too big! So I had to have her get me a sports bra two sizes smaller than what she gave me. And the new shirts look cute! I looked so cute! It was all soo exciting. You see, I've never gone down a size, only up, so it was a HUGE joy for me. My grandmother commented that she had never seen me so happy in a dressing room. I did a happy dance people, a happy dance. To the bad Tina Turner cover they were playing, and I never dance to bad music!

So needless to say, that was a great moment this past week. I also lost 2 lbs so far. The doctor told me it would take a while for me to loose weight, because I'd be building up muscle, and muscle weights more than fat. Hey, as long as I'm loosing dress sizes and feeling good, I don't mind. I took a salad to my graduation party with my family while I was home, and had it and a half of piece of pizza, and a tiny (like 2 bites) piece of cake. All the family thinks me and Dad are crazy for doing this, but are impressed. It was a very good trip home.

Some bad news...Got my blood test back, and my cholesterol is way bad and I'm the closest to being diabetic that you can be without actually being diabetic. So basically I'm the 21 year old with the health of an overweight 45 year old. Awesome. But the doctor said no meds are needed, because I AM DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. It felt nice to hear that from him. My dad said that if I wasn't changing things, the doctor would have put me on a few different medicines. So, this aspect of things gets added to why I'm training. I don't want to have a heart attack at 25, no thank you.

So training is going, moving is a bitch, and things are going well! Hope everyone is having a great memorial day!

"One more time..."

Today is a Daft Punk day I've decided. For those that don't know, my life revolves around music, (it is my job after all) so I usually have music when I'm doing anything, especially running. Daft Punk makes some pretty good "get pumped cause your gonna walk Missy" type of music. Which I need after the humiliation of my early morning stress test and EKG...

Ok, it wasn't that humiliating. Nothing like rising at the crack of dawn to go have someone slather rubbing alcohol and sticky band aid type patches all over your boobs. Yup, great way to say hello to a new day. Needless to say my heart rate was up before I even got on the treadmill. See, I'm a very modest person, no ones sees me naked, not even myself half the time. So needless to say an early morning medical flashing of my chest is not my favorite pastime.

I did enjoy telling the nurse why I was in for my test though. Here's how it went down...

Skinny chipper nurse lady: "And Lisa, why did Dr. Brackett have you come in to us today for these test?"
Lisa: "Well, you see I'm running the Chicago marathon."
Now very surprised skinny chipper nurse lady: "Oh wow...well congratulations?"

I still get a kick out of telling people that I'm running the marathon. Many people are really impressed and supportive, and thankfully I haven't meet any mean people yet about it, but the best are the shocked people that seem in awe. They aren't doubting my ability or anything, I'm young and I'll bounce back and be fine and all that jazz that they say, but the shock of seeing a statistically overweight American deciding to run 26.2 miles is a lot to take in, and so it's fun to see the reaction from people.

Regardless, things went really well, at least I think they did. My heart rate wasn't too high after my exercise, it was pretty normal, and my blood pressure was good for my age and health (which that health part isn't saying much). I did the program for 7 minutes, and the could have gone a bit longer but could tell I was about to feel light headed. The nurse said people in really good shape usually can go for a max of 12 minutes, including the two 80 year old people she mentioned that were buff that did about 10 minutes. Well, the old people maybe beating me, but for my health I did pretty well.

So it looks like I won't die from this marathon training! Of course my body will try to convince me otherwise around mile 22, but no fooling me! I've got the test to prove it. It's all in my head, so it's now a battle against my own endurance.

Well despite today's schedule calls for cross training today, my Dad just insulted me by telling me that "your walking pace is about like relaxed cross training." Zing Dad! Way to go...ass. So off for a walk I go!

Back to Chicago this weekend, hurrah!