Remembrance Run For Iowa's Fallen Soldiers

This was a great run.  I was really slow today but I also wanted to reflect and think about what the men and woman have done for our great country and just soak it all in.  I lost it when I ran by the 88 flags that represent each Iowan that has died in this war.

It was so cold and rainy today.  When I woke up I was almost thankful for the rain thinking oh good I don't have to go run the race and then I thought wait a second you selfish little....  Do you know how many are out there right now fighting and running for their lives because they have to and they are doing it for YOU!  Get up and RUN!!! JUST DO IT!!!

It was cold and it was rainy but it was great.  It was an amazing time and I'm so thankful I did it.  Thank you to my friend Shelly for telling me about this race!  My official time was 49:56 and my friend Shelly was at 28 minutes...Who should be running the half marathon here???  I'm so excited for the half.  It's going to take me forever to finish but I'm going to do it.  I am going to finish.

Here are some pics from today's event (yes I finally learned how to upload images to my blog)

I'm On The Edge Of Glory...

Today's run was this side of AMAZING!!!  All week I've been run/walking (run 10 walk 5) for 40 minutes (45 after the cool down walk) and today my goal was to do 5 minutes of walking followed by 60 minutes of running for 10 walking for 5 and then at 65 minutes cool down walk.  I DID IT!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I finished this week in 5 runs 17 miles and if I'm up for it tomorrow I'll add a few more in the mix!! 


The first 10 minute run was hard!  I am not used to running in the mornings and my weekend running hasn't been all that consistent (that is going to change).  The first 10 minutes my head is filled with all the negative self talk and I have to literally out loud tell myself to shut up.  I said "Tiffany, don't listen to that you can do it, your strong, you've trained.  This is character building, this is when you become stronger." I don't remember if that was the specific words I used...I'm sure I threw in a few swear words too.  I love Jesus but I gotta admit...I like to swear a little at times, well OK...a lot.  


The next first 5 minute walk went by so fast.  I thought only 30 seconds passed.  About 5 minutes into the  2nd 10 minute run the pain goes away, my breathing is stabilizing, I feel relaxed and I'm just running.  I thought this is what I've wanted.  


I don't remember much other than just running and walking until about minute 35-40-ish.  A landscaping crew was out working and one of the men said hi and tried to actually flirt with me.  Made this girl feel good about herself especially since I was such a hot sweaty mess and my shirt was soaked with sweat.  Some where around minute 40 the song "Edge of Glory" comes over my iPod.  Gosh I really <3 some GaGa.  I get to the 2nd verse and my favorite phrase of the song comes on "Put on your shades because I'll be dancin' in the flames" and I start to cry.  Anyone that knows me knows I'm the worlds biggest cry baby.  I am thinking to myself OMG I'm really doing this.  I'm going to finish this run strong and I kept going.  Then the GaGa song "You and I" came over and I just kept running more and kept off and on crying happy tears.  After those two songs it was time for my 5 minute walk.  Minute 50 comes and it's time for the last run of the this leg.  By minute 55 I feel like I'm breaking down.  I slow my pace which is slow to begin with (ha) and the song "I'm moving on" comes across on my iPod.  I don't like country music at all but my girl Connie introduced me to it and I've loved it ever since.  The part of the song:  I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness. For once I'm at peace with myself.  I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long I'm movin' on.  I have really overcome a lot personally in the last 5 years. I could bore you with the details but I'll spare you.  I will say I'm so thankful for every negative thing in my life because it's turned into a positive.  In the midst of struggle it's tough but coming out of it and growing is priceless!  Being able to see the good in the bad is priceless.  


So all you little kids with the pumped up kicks..you'd better run!!  If you don't run get out there and do some kickboxing or zumba just do something!!!  


Happy weekend all 

Running .... Keep Running

The count down is on to the Des Moines Marathon. I'm only doing the half. My goal for this year is to finish. I don't care about the time but just finish. Since hurting my knee in May and going through physical therapy my therapist told me I should not run the whole half to avoid future injury. She said the best training program for me would be to run 10 minutes walk 5 and do that until I finish. Right now I do about an 11-12 minute mile so I'm trying to get my time down to 10 minutes but if I don't no biggie...I just want to do it and be able to finally say I completed SOMETHING.


That has always been my downfall...I have great hopes and dreams for success and go at it hard in the beginning but then fizzle out. I've done this with my weight for years! While I still slip up more than I should I can feel and see a change in me. There is something different this time. This time I'm not going to fizzle out. This time I have made a choice to be stronger to not give up.

All I have running in my head right now is Eminem's song 'Til I Collapse...
'Cause sometimes you feel tired, feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength and just pull that s* out of you and get that motivation to not give up and not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.

So this year I finish, next year I run the full 13.1 and when I'm 40 in October 2013 run the full 26.2!

Running...Keep running...If you don't run then move...just move!!!

Thankful!!!

I am so thankful that I can run.  In May I injured my left knee because I went took my miles from 3.2 up to almost 5 in one run and come to find out I was wearing the wrong shoes for my feet that didn't support me the way I needed support and they were too small.  Yes I did buy them from a "running" store that was supposed to ensure I had the correct shoes for me.

A little PSA & advertisement for a local small business owner here before writing more...If you're in the Des Moines area you must go to Kyle's Bikes in Ankeny.  They record you running on a treadmill barefoot and slow it way down so they can see how your foot hits and then find the best shoe from there.  I then tried on shoes that were designed for my type of foot, ran more in each shoe, watched how I hit and how it felt for me and then bought the perfect shoes for me.  They spent about an hour with me making sure I walked out with the perfect shoe for me and shoe that would help in getting to my goal of running the half in October.  They even told me to first run a few times on the treadmill and if I didn't like how they felt after those runs to bring them back and they would exchange them.  Needless to say I love them and didn't need to exchange them.

So back to why I'm thankful.....I am so thankful that I have fell in love again with running.  I used to run cross county in high school and I did like it.  I was always near the end of the pack but I always felt so good in finishing and how it felt.  It is also such an amazing support group...Runners IMHO are some of the nicest people.  It's a great way to re-connect with old friends and make new friends.  Today I had the honor of running with my friend from high school, Shelly.  Until facebook and our 20 year high school class reunion we totally lost touch.  Had it not been for these two events I would have most likely gone with out ever seeing her again and I'm so thankful for having these outlets to re-connect (same with many I went to HS with and now I think of the Friday night of our HS reunion and I still can't stop smiling and laughing.  It's like we never missed a beat we just got better!).  I told her I'm super slow and to run a head if she wanted and she ran with me for a while and then went off to her own until the end.  It was so fun to run with her, talk to her, get to know her more outside of a high school setting.  She still looks the same as she did 20 years ago but it's great to see how she's grown into a woman..it's been great seeing how all of us grew into great women.

I'm so thankful for my DailyMile family.  For those that don't know DailyMile is an online social network for athletes (in my case I'm not an athlete but I like to play one on TV).  It doesn't matter your skill level it's just a big community of like minded people who push one another to exceed what they thought possible.  I've never met most of them face to face but they are always there for me with a word of encouragement when I feel like I'm not succeeding in my sport and there to cheer me on when I kill a run or a work out.  

I am so thankful that this injury did not totally take me away from running and that I've learned from it.  How to not get injured in the future and how to teach others not to injur themselves.

What I've learned in this journey (not just in running but in life really) be thankful for all good and bad.  In the bad times it is not fun but when you get to the other side and look back you really realize it's all for a reason and when you peel the layers of the onion back you realize it was for your own good, you learn and grow from the struggles.

Frederick Douglass said it best,  "If there is no struggle, there is no progress"

Ode to the outdoors

So I haven't written in a long time.  Way to long.  I have a physical therapy appointment tomorrow and chances are I'm done with PT.  WOOT HOOT!!!  I can say that I have learned a lot about myself coming out of an injury.  I learned too that my injury was due to shoes.  My shoes were to small and not right for my feet.  I now have the perfect shoes and my knee and I are in love again!!

Recently it began to cool down enough to run outside again which is so choice.  I have missed running outside.  I have picked up a running buddy at work.  In the last year she has run 2 marathons and she hurt herself this last time and had to scale way back so now she's on my level (LOL).  We've ran together twice and I'm so thankful for her.  She is just the sweetest person.  Another co-worker started the C25K program based on my raving about it.  She was off to a strong start but then her knee started acting like mine and I told her she has to stop, make sure she's got the right shoes and showed her some of my PT stretches.  Then she caught my sinus infection...Sorry girly.

Today marks a milestone since my injury...20 minutes running up hills with out stopping.  It was a *beep* of a run but I loved it!!  What is that...the more it hurts the better.  The more it makes me internally want to quit the better.  I think I love it because for once I will not give up and that pain is the kick in the ace that I need to get me to the next victory!

My PT thinks I should expect to run the whole half but to finish for sure and that this year is my goal.  I want to finish...I have so much doubt right now but I'm running through it and pressing forward.  Next year I'll do it to run the entire thing then train the following year for the full.  I want to be almost 41 and running my 1st marathon.

Sorry this is short but I just felt like writing a quick not.  Now off to rest and do it all again tomorrow.

Grateful

I never thought I'd say this but I'm really thankful for hurting my left knee.  It's not about just finishing but it's about enjoying the journey.  Before I hurt my knee I did love what I was doing but I was out to really just prove more to others that I can do this more than doing this for me.  I thought I was doing this for me but the more I reflect and look back I realize I did this more for others than myself.

While being on the injured reserved list in the beginning I was pissed off that I got hurt but you know what I think that injury was the best thing that ever happened to me.  I'm now re-building and really taking the time to listen to my body and learning when it's OK to run and when it's not or when it's OK to go all out on non run days or not.

While being out of commission I really was aware of what I was eating.  Granted I could have done better but I was in a funk mentally over being injured that I maintained.  The old me would have put a lot of what I've lost thus far back on.  Now I'm writing in my sparkpeople.com journal almost daily, reading more about leading an active and healthy life, really being grateful during work outs that I'm able to do this.  I live to sweat...The more sweat I get the more I just love it.

Today I was out running and it was beautiful.  A little windy but all good.  I purposefully ran into the wind so I could get more resistance and while running and the wind hitting my face and the sun beating down I was so thankful and I looked up to the sky and spread my arms out and said out loud (yes I talk out loud to myself while running) "THIS IS LIVING" Then to myself I said a little prayer thanking God for giving me the ability and the willingness to run.   Today while running I was doing time goals.  I would pick a mark up in the distance and say by the time my C25K app tells me to walk I want to be at that traffic light or that light pole.  It was a good way to help test myself and keep my speed up.  Now when I say speed know that I'm S-L-O-W!

Over the weekend Andy went on his annual fishing trip with his dad, brother, nephew and uncles and the kids and I were solo.  Usually when he goes on his trip I spend the weekend with my mom and dad.  I love the time with them and so do the kids.  Saturday morning my mom wakes me up at 6:45 (because I told her to so we could get the run in before the storms that were coming) and she woke me up in a manner that took me right back to childhood.  She came in and with her sweet and loving voice while rubbing my back saying "It's time to wake up".  I thought I was 12 again.  Man how I loved that!  So we get up, get stretching and off we go.  My mom can RUN.  I told her she needs to run more often!  Granted I'm super slow right now (doctors orders) but she took off.

This is my mother who one year ago was 90% blocked in 3 of her arteries in her heart.  One year ago she had no idea why she was feeling so crummy.  She would feel ok but then when ever she would go on a walk or take the stairs to her office at work she would have this radiating pain in her chest and back.  My mom was so close to having a major heart attack.  She had a triple bypass on July 1st last year and now she feels like a million bucks!  That woman is my hero.  I love her so much.

OK now I'm crying happy tears so I'll leave for now.  I'm just so blessed in my life, I'm not rich financially but what I do have in life is priceless and I'm so blessed and rich with all the love I could ever need.  I have a husband of almost 13 years who loves me more today than the day we said "I do", 2 parents who showed my sister and I what true love is and what it means to truly love your spouse, my husband's parents who showed him the same and his dad who taught him how to love his wife like Christ loved the Church, a sister who is beyond amazing, she is my rock and although she's 3 years younger than me she is so full of wisdom and at times isn't afraid to share it even when it's not wanted (lol), all of my extended family, in-laws, friends and most of all JC.  For giving yourself for me who doesn't deserve it.

Today while walking into work I think I was grinning ear to ear.  My knee felt great, I felt great, the morning was beautiful, despite the rolling of the eyes I got from my son earlier in the morning the kids were great, they got along and moving along in the AM with out any major blow ups, the air was crisp but warm and it smelled so good outside, just fresh.  Life is great!  It will have it's valleys for sure but for the most part it really is great and in all things negative there is a positive.  I let myself have a pity party but then find the good in the situation.

OK wow that just got way out of hand...Blogger gone wild...Until next time.

Are you there blog? it's me Tiffany...

Oh it's been so long since I last wrote anything.  I've missed blogging but just not sure what to say.  Haven't felt like I've had much to say honestly.  I admit it...I kind of went into a funk.  I didn't eat myself out of this funk but I did kind of lose that lovin' feeling.

As I last blogged about I injured my left knee.  I tore my patellar tendon (the tendon that connects your knee cap to your shin bone) in my left knee.  I have been in physical therapy since the beginning of May.  I was cleared to start running again at a very slow and steady pace 2 weeks ago.  I re-started the Couch 2 5K program.

The good in this injury is I learned that do NOT increase your mileage by more than 10% a week.  No matter how good you feel DON'T DO IT (this is me talking to me not me talking to you).  Second and my most proud is my daughter, Anna, who will be 9 on Sunday has decided to join me in training to run a 5K. I'm so proud of her.  It is so wonderful to see her struggle to run through but then to do it and see her face light up when she did it and see how happy and proud she is of her accomplishments.  She is pushing me and I'm pushing her and it's been a wonderful thing to go through with her.  I can't wait to run a 5K together.

Weight wise I've maintained so that's good news.  I hadn't been that great on logging all of my foods but I have re-started my sparkpeople journal and find that while I don't obsess over calories I realize how much keeping a food log helps me stay true to the plan.

This week has been a good training week.  Monday I ran my week 2 day 1 of the C25K and my knee did hurt quite a bit after stretching and I was pretty bummed.  I sent, Connie  my weight loss and running mentor, a text telling her I thought I was about done with this running gig.  But I woke up Tuesday morning feeling great and went to the gym did a 15 minute core class and then did 20 minutes on the bike and felt great.  Today I ran outside.  I don't know what it's like in your neck of the woods but here it's the 2nd day of summer and it feels like October and it should be time for some football.  Back to today...I ran in the chili summer day, with spitting rain hitting my face.  It was so awesome to sweat with the chill on my face.  There is something I love about being a little chilled and sweating.  I am one of those freaks that if the wind is not blowing and it's 25 outside and the walks are clear for the most part I'm running.  I love to run in the cold and I also really love to run in the heat.  Really I just love to get sweaty gross.  The more sweaty I get the better.  There is truly nothing better than finishing a work out and just basking in the glory of hard work and sweat...

Until next time (and I promise I won't be gone for so long this time).