Love Your Heart 10k race

For the second year now, the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) has sponsored a "Love Your Heart 5k/10k" race here at Ft. Campbell.  February is Heart Awareness Month, so the name of the race is very appropriate. One of the main goals of the race is just to get people out of the house and acitve on the course. The particiaptes can be walking their first 5k, or their 50th. Everyone on the course is celebrated.

A few friends and I ran the course last year. They ran the 10k, and since I was returning to running I participated in the 5k. For 2013 the weather was horrible. It was FREEZING cold, very gloomy overcast kind of day. I had on ear warmers, gloves, long sleeve shirt, coat and tights and it took all three miles of my race to warm up!

See, don't we LOOK cold?!?!

This year the hospital made a few adjustments. The place was changed so more people could find it (thus making the course flatter) and the starting time was pushed back. Both had their pros and cons. Since the race started at 0930, I dressed in capris and a long sleeve shirt for the anticipated 42-degree weather. Yeah.....I should have dressed a little lighter. I told my husband that if I had been alone, I would have taken my shirt off, it was that hot!! I think my Garmin showed a temperature of 52-degrees. Very un-February like.

The race was pretty good, but there could have been bigger water stops for this warm weather race. I loved how flat the course was, as there was only one small hill we had to conquer, and I beat it! In fact, I passed several people on that hill, and did not see them for the rest of the race. 

I am pretty satisfied with my results. My last 10k race was Labor Day and I ran that in 1:13:26. My Garmin today gave me a final time of 1:10:02. I was TWO SECONDS slower than what I wanted to me! GRRR!!! But I also took 3 minutes off my time! YEAH BUDDY!! Maybe those speed workouts are truly working.

 

These guys would finish the last hundredish yards with 

almost every person in the 10k. What an awesome 

morale booster it was to run with them!

Looking back

For most people, they do not like to look back in their past. They might have experienced some tragic event, or had a heart broken. But for me, I look back over this past year and smile at the gains that I have made in my fitness journey.

Last January 31st I registered for the Women's Half-Marathon in Nashville. I was not a serious runner at that point. Running three miles was considered my "long run". But I signed up for the race before I could chicken out, and in the summer trained with Fleet Feet Nashville to help me achieve my goal. Not only have I check off "run a half-marathon" but my confidence in running has taken off as well. Here is a list of accomplishments I have done over the past twelve months.

• Run a 10K--first one
• Registered for another 10K, instead of the shorter 5K that is offered
• Run a 5K PR (took three years, but hey....better late than never)
• Registered for a 15K--first one
• Registered for my second half-marathon
• Started running speed workouts....and found out I LIKE them!

This might seen like a short list, but taken into account the small amount of time it has occurred over, and I am pretty proud and excited about it. I still have no desire to run a full marathon, but I do see more half-marathons in my future.

Weight on Wednesday--02/05/2014

Another Wednesday, another weigh in.  I do weight myself during the week as well, but I don't put those numbers on paper. I feel that would be TOO many numbers, so I decided to only "officially" track myself once a week.  Good thing, because the day after the Super Bowl was not pretty!
So here are the numbers:

1/29/2014  ---2/5/2014 Weight 149 148 Fat 35.9 36.3 BMI 24 23.9

Not exactly the best with my body fat percentage going up, but life is always about improvement and learning what to do.

I also started taking my body measurements, because as we all know, I can still weight 148 pounds, but if muscle is denser than fat, I will be skinner in inches and the scale will not budge.  On that front, I do have some good news!

	1/22/2014	2/5/2014
Bust	37 1/2	36 3/4
Chest	31 7/8	30 3/4
Waist	35 1/8	34 1/8
Midway	36	34 3/4
Hips	39 1/2	39 1/2
Knee-Left	16 1/8	16 5/8
Knee-Right	16 1/2	16 3/8

I do believe some of these numbers are pretty spectacular! Losing 3/4" off my bust in two weeks? Heck yeah! And losing 1" off my waist? I'll take it! Or rather...not take it. So while my weight is staying the same, it seems that some parts of me are slimmer. I can tell you that I dug out a pair of shorts that are a size 6, and they fit! I have not worn them in three years at least, probably more like four years. But by golly, I am going to keep working out, and will stay in those shorts all summer long! (And when I say "they fit", that translates into "they zip up and I can sit in them, but losing a few more inches would make them look a lot better.")

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Pump....YOU UP!

I recently started going to the gym to lift some weighs. But I realize that I am a follower. A homework completer. I don't necessarily need a personal trainer to get me through each workout, just one to create a workout for me. And while I have a list of exercises in my workout book, trying to decide what to do each day is just not my thing. My head starts to swim, and I usually just "phone in" the workout.

At the gym I go to the most often, I saw an advertisement for bodybuilding.com.  I had no idea what exactly it was, but decided to check it out while watching mindless tv one day.  It was pretty interesting, and had a place where you could click through and decide which plan you wanted to follow. You enter stats like your weight, what is your final goal (transformation for me), how long you have been consistently lifting weights, what kind of body you would like to have, and come up with an end date for your goal.  I chose to have a swimsuit model's body. HAHA!  That will probably NEVER happen, but it was the option with the most body fat at 20%, which is the most realistic for me.

Yesterday, February 2nd, was Day One for me. And I can tell you that after the workout, my triceps hurt more than they have hurt in years! Even though I am not directly reporting in to a personal coach,  I am logging in my workouts and that makes me want to push myself a little bit more.  But the workout felt great, and I am very excited to have a roadmap to this adventure.

Day One was 3 sets of 12 reps for each of the exercises:

• Wide Pushups--on my knees
• Dumbbell bench press--done with 10 pound dumbbells
• Cable Pec Fly--finished with 16 2/3 pounds on each side
• Narrow Pushups--on my knees
• Overhead Tricpet Dumbbell Extensions--done with a 10 pound dumbbell
• Tricep Pushdowns--finished with 60 pounds

That last one was really exciting for me, because I started my first set on 40 pounds, and for the next two sets did it on 60 pounds! Holy cow, my arms will crush you! :)

Seriously, after two days on this program, the "newness" has not set in, and I am eager to go to the gym each day to do this workout. While it is not running related, my ultimate goal of losing inches and body fat will hopefully help in my running adventures with a faster time, and more enthusiastic athlete.