NINE MILE RUN… CHECK!

Last Saturday I did my first 9 miler and it was awesome. It took me 1:34 minutes to complete and I felt great!!!. I did the run around my house, and I must confess the weather was a plus plus plus! It felt fresh, cool but not cold, sunny but not hot, it was perfect.

On Monday I did my usual 30 minute run and went great also. I am scheduled for my first half marathon on March 2^nd 2013 and I cant wait!. I am actually starting to believe… I can do it!

The Workout: 

Saturday Feb 2^nd  5 minute warm up

                                  1:34 run

                                  10 minute cool down (walk)

Monday Feb 4^th 5 minutes warm up

                               30 minutes run

                               5 minutes cool down

Good News:  I have lost 10 pounds!!! YAY!!!

Picture of the day:

Can’t feel my nose, or my hands, or my face… but I am running.

Today was a very short and extremely cold run, a 30 minutes that woke me up more than the monumental amount of coffee that I drink every morning.  I realized how important it is to have the right gear when running in cold weather and thankfully I had that part covered.

By the time I got home this morning I was barely feeling my nose, but in the other hand, my hair is shiny and soft… I guess that is a benefit from running in cold weather, don’t know but I am surely happy.

The Workout:  5 minutes warm up

                        30 minutes run

                        5 minutes cool down

Picture of the day:

Cold, Cold, Cold Morning after Christmas

Day after Christmas…yes, got to run

I went to the gym this morning and although the work out was good, it was so cold outside all I could think of was to go back  home and go back to sleep. But by the time my run was over, the kids were up, Hubby was making breakfast and my parents where drinking coffee…

I beginning to think that a treadmill for Christmas 2013 is the way to go! I know is horrible, I am already doing my next Christmas list…

Wondering how to choose the right treadmill?

The Workout:   5 minutes warm up

18 minutes running 

                     2 minutes walk

18 minutes running (increasing speed every 2 to 3 minutes and finishing faster than the first 18 minutes)

5 minute cool down

Picture of the day:

Merry Christmas!

Today is Christmas Eve and my running program said (Recovery Day 30 minute walk, stretch and strength) and my body, mind and soul said Celebrate! Which translates to DRINK! So I was force to look ahead and do my 30 minute run today and have my Rest Day tomorrow.

So I went to the gym at 6:00 am and had a great 30 minute run. Cant complain it was pretty good and best of all…. Lets Drink, Eat and Enjoy (hmm Celebrate)

The Workout:       5 minutes warm up

                                27 minutes run

                                5 minutes cool down

Picture of the day:

December 23rd 2012

Running with Dad!

My dad is my biggest inspiration when it comes to running not only because he has run a couple of marathons, but also because he has been running for what it seems an eternity. So we are training for the Half Marathon in the Woodlans, TX and both my parents came to spend Christmas with us and the kids so it was only natural to do my long run with him… well let’s say behind him.  We run on Sunday morning for 68 minutes (that’s what my training called for) and it was fun, inspiring and dead on tiring!.

Best run ever so far…

The Workout:         5 minutes warm up

                                68 minutes run

                                5 minutes cool down

Picture of the day:

Early Workouts... Snooze!

Waking up at 5 am is not an easy thing. Waking up at 5 am to go for a 48 minute run… well … I must confess I heard the alarm snooze a couple of times. But I did, I got up and got ready and hit the gym (my gym is literally 2 minutes away) and did my workout.  By the time I got home at 6:45 am I was welcome by my two hungry little boys and my dear hubby who was just making coffee.  Yes, I was late and left the house late and got to work late but… the run for the day has been accomplished!

Wonder at what time working / stay at home moms have to do their work out in order to get it done? My personal experience is that leaving it for the afternoon just never works for me so I am forced to be an early bird when it comes to working out…

today good things are happening:

- my parents are coming to spend Christmas with us

- my dad is a marathoner so hurray! for having extra support during the holidays (i. want. to. eat. and. drink. instead. of. 5am. runs)

- my kids are excited about grandma and Camilo (they call my dad by his first name) spending time with us

- my dear hubby and me are excited to have living in nannies for the next couple of weeks 

The Workout:          5 minutes warm up

18 minutes running (increasing speed every 2 to 3 minutes)

                             2 minutes walk

18 minutes running (increasing speed every 2 to 3 minutes and finishing faster than the first 18 minutes)

5 minute cool down

The Training was to do 5 / 18 / 2 /18 / 5, the speed workout was my additional input

Picture of the Day

Recap

So this is Week 3 of my training for a half marathon that I will be running in the Woodlands, TX sometime within the next three months (I still have to register). But to my big surprise I have not missed one day!!! This is huge for me.

I am excited, and loosing weight (that’s two for one), and although in order to make it happen I have to run around 5:00 am, well… lets say I am turning every light in the house off by 8 pm (not even dear hubby can argue that one)

The Workout:   20 minutes upper strenght

                        15 abs

                        20 minutes yoga / stretch

The Training was to do strength and stretch exercises

PICTURE OF THE DAY:

Week#1 Day #4 - Not closing ... Yes closing... no closing...

On Monday we got the best call ever, our loan went through and we could close on our home on Friday 13^th!. Then yesterday, we got an email from the loan originator pretty much asking for another document / info. Needless to say we are not closing Friday and we do not have a new date either…

I feel defeated, sad, frustrated and ready to move on. But holding on to patient and hope as there is really not other option.

Work Out:

            The training called for a 3 mile run hard so I did my best. I run the 3 miles at the part at a pace of 10.11 a mile and with the heart monitor pointing out a 191 heart rate which is beyond my comfort zone.  I did good and feel happy about it.  10 minute walk (5 min pre run and 5 min post run). It was HOT outside, but breezy so it felt good.

Food Intake:

            Veggie Juice and Superfood / Mushroom juice

            Coffee

            ½ Banana after run

            Salad for lunch

            Fish and Veggies for dinner

Appreciation Journal:

          I am appreciating having my husband, with who in the adversity can still crack a joke and laughing we hold hands and await for tomorrow.

Picture of the day:

Week 1 Day #2

Today was a rainy day to say the least. I kept looking through the window and thinking the run is not happening (and not happy about that).

Around 2 pm the rain started to stop and took my oldest son for a long walk around the house (he was driving everybody NUTS specially me and the only way I thought this kid will take it easy is by making him walk, and I mean walk a lot), it did the trick and he became way less hectic.

I took my energy drink and my big hopes of no rain and hit the park. I drove the park that was the more far away hoping for clear skies, and although it was drizzling it was very little and with a tower in my hand I did my four mile run and it was fantastic!!!  It was even a little cooler than yesterday and not so humid.

Workout:

          Goal:  3 mile easy

          Total:  4 mile easy / 1 mile pace

          Walk:  5 minutes pre warm and 5 minutes post run

          Time:  50 minutes total

Food Intake:

            Breakfast:  Banana, Coffee, Green Juice, Vegetable Juice

            Lunch:   Tuna salad sandwich

            Dinner:   Korean different plates including veggies, kimchi, white rice, etc

Appreciation Journal:

        Today I am thankful we finally have a closing date which is this Friday!!! We are buying our new home on Friday!! Yay!!

Picture of the Day:

First Day... Rainy Day!

Today has been a hectic working day, one of those in which you see the clock and is 7:30 am and you have all the readiness to work holding your big cup of coffee as if your life depends on it, and you look again a few minutes later and is 11:59 am and the cup of coffee starts to feel embarrassed because you didn’t even finish half of it.

Good News: In about three to four days we closed on our home in Houston, its been a long way to go and we are actually truly excited and feeling very fortunate that the “transition period” is almost over.

Today was the first day of Half Marathon Training and feeling great. After many times failing to stick to this training I have been running 20 miles plus for the last 6 weeks trying to build myself better to endure the training. I think it pay off…!

Workout:  Goal: 3 mile easy Run

Actual Workout:  5 minute walk/ stretch

                             33 minutes run

                             7 minute walk / cool down

I ended up running about 3.25 miles, so I was happy with the workout. I was also feeling GREAT at the end which totally bust my enthusiasm for tomorrow 3 miler again.

Food Intake:          Green juice (the “elixir” like my hubby calls it is fool of everything that is great for you and therefore taste horrible)

                         Veggie juice (mix of beet, carrot, celery, lemon, lime, orange, apple, ginger and garlic) It is DELICIOUS!!!

                         Tuna Salad Sandwich

                        1 piece of chicken tight and white rice

                        Salad (bell peppers –yellow and orange-, tomato, cucumber, sprouts, mix greens, black bean and northern been)

Appreciation Journal:

            I am mostly thankful to “sudden” cooler days in the middle of the summer.

Picture of the Day:

Oh Oh Summer...

Yesterday was my rest day and I really did enjoyed. I did some core / strength / stretch exercises to keep it going, but no running…

Today on the other hand… I had a 3 mile non stop goal so I prep myself and hit the park around 3:10 pm, the heat was so intense I was sweating during my first 5 minute walking warm up.  But I did it, slow, steady and sweating… 3 miles complete in 32 minutes. I kept the running in intervals for another 40 minutes and completed an amazing 1 h 15 minute workout in the summer heat. It was superb!!!

Really feeling good!!! Oh and I noted a few pounds less…

The Workout:          5 minute walk

                                    30 minute run

                                    1 minute walk

                                    13 minute run

                                    1.5 minute walk

                                    10 minute run

                                    1.5 walk

                                    4 minute run

                                    1  minute walk

                                    3 minute run

                                    5 minute walk

Food Intake:                            coffee

                                       3 rice cookies (small)

                                       1 shake (protein whey, ¼ 1% organic milk, water (lunch)

                                       1 banana

                                       ½ fish pan fried

                                      ¼ tofu with eggs and kimchi

                                      Non spicy kimchi soup

                                      ½ cup of rice

Picture of the day!

Father's Day Weekend

Its been a fun weekend.  Yesterday we went to the Jackson Square in New Orleans downtown, it was great. Hot, but great. We will really miss our city and me and dear hubby made a pact to comeback at least once a year with the kiddos so they always remain connected to their city. We bought a beautiful painting for our new house in Houston that will for ever and everyday remember us of New Orleans.

Today was also fun, we are in the process of selecting our new furniture, so is fun going to stores and looking what is out there. It gives a sense of purpose and happiness. We decided to buy a house within our budget (not above) and now we can furniture the house to our like, which is great for us.

On and all, I was able to managed two runs of 1 hour each, yesterday at the park and today, Sunday (Father’s Day) by the neighborhood. It was great!!! Is hot and humid, but it was fantastic. My left knee got hurt yesterday, so I am just taking it easy, but enjoying the ride.

The Workout:          5 minute walk

                                 55 minute run (intervals from 5 minutes to 7 minutes with a 1 minute brake)

                                 5 minute walk

                                   

Food Intake:           1 Cup of Coffe

                              1 small pancake (no syrup)

                             4 small vegetarian grape leaves

                             1 small salad

                             1 cup of noodles

Picture of the Day:

Day Three... Oh Oh the summer heat!

Yesterday rained and it was a bummer! I made up my mind not to let go of the training and switched days, so I ended up doing core / strength training while talking to the kids, watching Disney channel and following exercises in my Ipad. Not bad at all.

So, today I was determined to go for a run. I did all my duties at work early (I do work from home) and had lunch with my husband (who yesterday had his “last day of work in New Orlenas”, lunch consisted of spicy chicken salad and it was great!

After some more work done in the afternoon and gear up, took a caffeinated drink and embraced the heat. Running under the summer heat is tiring, sweaty, exhausting and invigorating. The heat it’s a constant reminder of how much you can push your body and I definitely had a very gratifying 55m under the sun. I wanted to cover 2 miles and sure I did, so today was a success.

The Workout:   5 minute walk

                          10 minute run

                          1 minute walk

                          10 minute run

                          2 minute walk

                          8 minute run

                          2 minute walk

                          6 minute run

                          1 minute walk

                          5 minute run

                          4 minute walk (post workout)

               

The Training was to do a 2 mile and it was completed!.

Food Intake:      1 Cup of Coffe

                         1 brownie (bad, bad, bad, so delicious)

                         1 Spicy Chicken Salad

                         1 Drumstick (baked chicken)

                         ½ white rice

                         1 cup of salad (or more)

PICTURE OF THE DAY:       

RECAP...

Its been a couple of months since my last post, and I have several good excuses:  buying a new home in another state, moving to another state (TX), kidney infection, working two jobs etc, etc, etc.

The good news is that I have been able to loose some weight (thanks to the kidney infection) and have managed to continue to run.

I am beginning today a 12 week half-marathon training but there is no half-marathon, just the training part. I am planning on repeating the training every week for two weeks, so the total training should be 24 weeks.  Houston does have a half-marathon in January… so perhaps that is something I can accomplish… will see.

So back on track, first day was today and it was a good run. 3 miles in the 5 o’clock summer heat was just what I needed to start highly motivated. With my heart rate at 192 just 12 minutes into the running, well, it was wonderful!. It felt invigorating, cleansing and fantastic.  After the run I took the three kiddos (niece 2 and sons 4 and 1) to take a shower outside, they loved and I got refreshed.

So here we go, working it out, trying to stay tune…

The Workout:         5 minute walk

                                30 minute run

                                8 minute walk

The Training was to do a 3 mile and it was completed!.

Food Intake:       ½ egg (scrambled)

                               Croissant

                               2 Ribs and white rice (lunch)

                               Spicy Soup with white rice

                               1 peanut butter egg

                               2 ½ cups of coffee

                               8 glasses of water

PICTURE OF THE DAY:

Yoga, Running and ... Vegeterian??

Yes, thats right. I have lost about 6 pounds and the right way.  I am doing hot yoga 3-4 times a week and running a minimum of 15 miles a week. Training for the half-marathon and doing some additional weight lifting on the side. Oh yes, and I am becoming a vegetarian. It is a slow process and I am not quite sure I will be cutting out meat (beef/chicken/seafood) entirely, but it will be for sure, a very minimal percentage in my diet. And I am loving it!!! Is been two weeks of veggies, some fruits, plenty grains and tofu and some fish and I am feeling 100% great!!

I am just hoping I can keep this one up!.

Sunday workout: run for 46 minutes (10 minutes medium speed and (8 x 1 min intervals of medium and high speed) and 4 minutes slow run until heart rate was good (170) and continue the rest of the run at same pace (10:00 min/mile)

Monday: Yoga

Tuesday: Rest day

The Honest Way to Change your Health (loose weight, tone up, eat good) JOURNALING!

Bikram Yoga: First class and I am loving it. Besides the fact that I sweat until I was so wet I did not care anymore. My clothes were dripping in sweat but ahhh what a feeling!

It was the best 90 min I have spent on a work out in a long time!!!!

Loving it and sticking with it!!!

Food? Coffe (three cups today), a slim fast shake, left over pork (about 6 small cubes), a bran muffin and soup/seafood for dinner (Korean style)

Weight? 155 lbs! ( I was the fattest person in at the yoga class today... talk about motivation)

Not bad at all and quite happy about it!!!!

Feb 1, 2011

Day #2: CHECK!!

I woke up at 3:30 am (please put your eyebrow down!) and worked for a couple of hours. My oldest son came upstairs (where the home office is located) and we headed downstairs to start the breakfast-making-putting-uniform-changing-diaper-let-me-have-my-cup-coffee show.  After I dropped my oldest at school, I went to the park. I had an honestly hard time yesterday with the heat, so early morning run it was.

The morning was cool, but it could have been way cooler. After a guy asked me if the wheels of my car where of two different colors and I corrected him with a big smile: No, the ones in the back are just dirty, I stretched, and warmed up and starting running.

My right knee was hurting so I had no other choice but to go very slow for the first 1 ½ mile, after this, I was able to speed up, until I felt that I needed to start slowing down again (usually after 3 or 4 minutes once my heart monitor reaches 184), but then, all of the sudden this pretty, skinny with super good running attire decided to outrun me and …we just don’t do that, so my competitive side mixed with envy and jealousy decided to show her… you see me, now you don’t. And as I outrun her, I finished my 3 mile run and continue to run for another ¼ mile and finished the last ¾ mile by doing the 1-1-1 minute intervals (as yesterday).

It was good, it was tiring, it was rewarding. Today was a good running day! Oh and the pretty girl? I finally saw her again on my post stretch work out and yes, I smiled (nicely) to her.

Best Song in my Ipod today?  Fireworks from Katy Perry!! 

DAY #1 - CHECK!

DAY #1

So right after I wrote about the Challenge, I started having doubts (excuses), but I brushed them off, put my running shoes on and drove to the park. The sun was burning me and there were probably 4 other people doing exercises (not running I may add). It was that hot.

I did my first 1 ¼ mile and had to do a  quick bathroom trip and continue for the next 1 ¾, when this was done I did the last mile as

1 minute walking

30 minute slow pace

1 minute high speed

30 minute slow pace

1 minute walking

It was pretty good and finished the four mile, tired, sweating, dehydrated, but hey, I finished.

First day: check!

Wondering: What is the best food to eat after a work out? Today was yogurt and fruits, I read somewhere (Running World maybe?) that is was good. It felt great. But what else I can eat right after the run that is refreshing, filling, and most important that it tastes good!.

Below is the picture that resumes the whole run

30 DAY CHALLENGE : 3 MILE EVERY DAY!

Starting TODAY! 30 days of sticking to a 3 mile every day no matter what!   I am thinking this is the inspiration I might need, so here it goes. We start today and in about a hour I will start my first 3 mile at the park.

Its hot so it will be a great run. I will be posting through the 30 days challenge. 

I am not a happy camper. It seems that for every four / five day of consistent training comes the meltdown of letting go.  I believe I am doing plenty taking into consideration that I work over 40 hours a week, that I have a husband that also work and that is a priority in my life, that I have to young sons under 5 and that I live in a home with 9 other people (we are in the process of moving to Houston and we sold our house and are currently living with my Mother-in-law and sister-in-law and on top I try to put my work out on top. But is hard, I am tired (exhausted), I don’t like been away from my kids after I finish work or they come back from school and after waking up at 3:30 am to get my work done by 2 pm well, is overwhelming.

What makes me happy? Running!, yes is a great escape to clear the mind, body and soul. But on what time? As I try hard to figure this one out, I am keeping myself motivated. I failed to do the half marathon in October here in New Orleans, but I am determined to do the Houston one in January.

Can we have more hours on a day? I urgently need some more!

Keep on running, keep on moving…

Oct 17^th, 2011.