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Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Days 19, 20, and 21

Day 19 (01/07/2018):  Sunday, mercifully was a rest day.  So I restfully watched one of the worst football games I have ever seen and then a pretty good one.  The AFC is a joke and I fear another Patriots v Steelers AFC championship is unavoidable.  But enough of my football rambling... Day 20 (01/08/2018): Goal: 3 miles  I know I need to be doing more of my training on trails so I made my way to the park.  I was not in the groove for this one.  I hypothesize that I poorly timed my breakfast because I was already starving when I parked my car at the trailhead.   I made it through though with my best trail average speed to date, about 11 min per mile.  Yes I know, I am ridiculously slow, but three miles faster than I was last year.  I will continue to progress.  I did however punk out a little and I avoided the more technical bits of the trail due to the large amount of mountain bikes I saw.  I have a fear of getting hit by a bike in the denser more forested areas that have a lot
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Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Days 17 and 18

Day 17: Friday was my longrun day.  Now I'm still very much new to distance running, so my long run was only 8 miles.  I can't wait to work up to more respectable distances, but for now it is what it is.  This was another morning where I was not feeling very motivated.  I had to force myself to go through the motions of my morning routine and I got up later than I should have.  I toyed with the idea of going for the run later, but I decided that the best course of action was to lace up and get on with it.  I wore my new sports bra that my stepmom got me for Christmas and big thanks to her because that thing is amazing.  It keeps my boobs secure and it didn't rub annoyingly or painfully over the course of eight miles.  The weather was a little chilly, in the 40s, so I set out with a hoodie.  I didn't end up needing it and tied it around my waist before I had made it two miles.  The run was hard, I had a few good stretches were I felt in the zone, but it was punishing.
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Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Day 16

Today is a rest day so I thought I say a little bit more about who I am what I'm trying to do. Three years ago I used to weigh 184lbs.  I now weigh 120lbs.  I made many changes to accomplish this.  The first of these was giving up animal products and embracing a vegan diet which I adhere to still.  I enjoy this way of eating as well as not harming animals.  I recommend it to everyone, though I recognize that not everyone is there yet.  If you can see your way to doing so, start cutting back.  It's good for the planet and the critters. Another big step I took was getting help for my disordered eating.  I did not seek the advice of a professional therapist, though I hear its always a good idea to do so.  I joined a support group based around food addiction and with the help of that community, I am now 9 months binge and stress eating free.  I owe so much to that group and the people I met there for my recovery.  If you want know more about this group, please write me and ask.
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Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Day 15

Hello, everyone! I am back to tell you about another day of training.  I went out for my run later than usual, about 11:15 because I was waiting for it to warm up.  Boy am I glad I did.  The weather was really pleasant, about 45 degrees when I hit the trails.  I was still pretty sore from my 4 miles yesterday and lifting the day before that.  I am not used to that many days of consecutive training, but an aspiring ultrarunner needs to learn how to run on tired legs. I drove to my favorite trail running spot in Austin and was thrilled to be met with a mostly empty parking lot.  I like that Austin is full of active people but I don't like being almost taken out by mountain bikes or being chased by dogs.  I was a little annoyed/frightened by a man that approached me after I had set my strava and was headed toward the trail.  His English wasn't the best, but I heard him out.  From what I could gather, he lost his dog and some other park goers had stolen it.  He wanted to know
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Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Days 13-14

I said I would post about yesterday's training yesterday, but it turns out that I lied.  After returning home from the gym I made my husband dinner, cracked open a Karbach Hopadillo and watched a replay of the Chiefs/Broncos game. So, to business.  Day 13 (01/01/2018) I am very glad that I had to return that o-so-cool Jeep Compass to the car rental place yesterday morning, because I think I would have let inertia keep me at home.  But I had to return the car.  There was no one to give me a ride.  I was to cheap to try and order an Uber on the morning of New Years Day.  There were only two ways to get home: run or walk.  Given that it was cold as hell (and let's face it, 25 degrees is super cold in Austin) I thought running was the smarter choice.  I was scheduled for 3 miles and the run back from Hertz turned out to be 2.5 miles.  I am little disappointed that I didn't run another half mile just to meet my goal, but I was pretty miserable out there.  A lot of the run w
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Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Day 5-12

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The holidays were an important lesson for me.  In terms of planning and my own limits, I learned a lot about how to prioritize.  There are also some mistakes I should be wary of making the next time around.  Let's break this down day by day to see what I did (and didn't do). Day 5 (Christmas Eve) - This was a scheduled rest day, but I knew that I wouldn't get any work in on Christmas day itself, so I decided to attempt some form of training.  My major mistake on this day was putting off my run until later in the day. I lounged about the house and watched football.  My beloved Chiefs did not disappoint against Miami, but I was a little disappointed in myself.  I ate a lunch that seemed enormous.  I may have fudged a little on my portions in order to eat up some food that was going to be thrown away otherwise.  When the time came to hop in the car and drive to the gym, I was just not feeling it. I decided to use the gym's treadmill because I figured I could just go pi
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Day 4 Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training

Well, here I am again.  I went to the gym just as planned and did day A of Bret Contreras' Strong Curves program.  I cannot say if this is a good program or not, because I have never given it enough effort to know for sure.  So, I will keep you informed of my progress as I work through it.  I can say, that my butt (well glutes rather)...hurt.  I know that being sore is not the best measure of success, but at least I know I am activating them.  Is my utilization of this program part of some vain plan to "get dat booty" ?  Yes and no.  Since I have lost 65lbs, my ass and boobs have deflated like the world's saddest basketballs.  It would be nice to be "curvy" again. Since I can't really build boobs with weightlifting, I'll settle for a nicer butt.  However, aesthetics are not my chief pursuit, because they can't be.  I will explain in another post exactly why exercise for appearance and body shape is too dangerous a path for me.  For now, I will s
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