Author: mrsartis

I’m signed up for 5 races ALREADY this year. FIVE. That’s how many I did total last year (and most of those were 5k). Three of the races I’m signed up for so far are half marathons. And there will be more. Oh, there will be more.

WHO AM I?! Sometimes I’m not sure, but I know that I like it. 😀

Yeah, 4.46 miles isn’t long, at least not to me. But after being sick all week it felt triumphant. I was too weak to get through even a mile on Friday, so doing more than 4 straight felt really, really good.

Ran outside again. It was cloudy and overcast, in the 60s. A rarity for January in PA to be sure. Not good, from a global climate standpoint, but I will take it. Capris and a tee in January? I’m in.

Looking forward to getting back on schedule this week–5 easy on Tuesday, 4 tempo on Thursday, 6 miles on Sunday (my longest run of this training cycle–can’t wait!). My last week of 3 training runs, then I’m back to 4 days a week, and I can’t wait. I’m really working on getting the XT in there because I know I need it for other reasons, but I can not WAIT to run more. I ::heart:: running.

After the run I came back, bantered with a friend, took a nap, had some food, and got caught up on my Steelers reading for the week (hey, if I can’t watch ‘em, I gotta get my fix).

Got to run outside today. After treadmilling it for the past week or two, I was so happy that I could just go outside, even though I was flying solo. I was nervous about it because pacing has always been my weak point. In Vermont (and sometimes even on trips home to Ohio) I tend to go slower and not push because I’m by myself. Or I start off way to fast and run out of gas after the first mile and have to walk for awhile to recover. But today was golden.

1) I love running in the cold. I don’t mind bundling up to run. I’d rather run in cold than heat. True facts.

2) It flurried while I was running. I love running in snow flurries. It makes me feel bad ass. Adding to the bad ass feeling? The hardest flurries were while the Iron Man theme was playing on my phone. Rock. On.

3) My splits and pacing were awesome. Not negative, but I don’t care. I was solidly in 11-11:30 territory for the entire run. By myself. I was relatively consistent. By myself. I really am improving. I didn’t blow out too fast, and I kept pushing. If I started to flag I kept my goals in mind (race times and knowing that I’ve challenged a male friend of mine and I’m determined to chick his ass).

I’m having the LAZIEST day ever. EVER. I didn’t change out of pajamas until 5:30 this evening. And then I put on new pajamas because I needed to wash the old ones. I can’t tell you the last time I did NOTHING at all when I wasn’t sick. It feels amazing. I really needed it today. I’ve done nothing but chill with the cat and play on the internet.

So I have this bikini. It will likely never see the light of day because I can’t imagine getting my body to a point I’d be comfortable enough wearing it in public, but hey, never say never, right? At any rate, I occasionally take pics in it just to see progress. I usually do, but being me, it’s not dramatic or ‘enough’ really. Today while going through some files on my computer I found the pics I took in it last January.

Holy. Fuck.

I look completely different. I’ve lost 30 pounds (which to me doesn’t sound like a lot, even though I know it’s a significant amount) since I took last year’s pictures but the difference is astounding. I won’t post them (sorry), because I’m not comfortable with that, but damn, being able to actually see the difference in my body makes me feel really good.

Maybe I’ll share them someday, but I’m not ready yet. Right now the girl in the before picture is a little too fresh. I still *feel* more like her than the girl in the during picture (it’s not really an after because I’m not ‘done’ yet). Putting that out there will make me feel a little more naked, a little more exposed than I’m comfortable with.

I am learning so much. Which is awesome, because I’ve never been a dater, and I have much to learn.

149.5 this morning.
I have not been below 150 in 7-8 years.
*does happy dance*

Everyone in the office is bringing in their leftover holiday junk food. So far it has been easy to resist. It looks delicious but it’s sweet stuff that is easier for me to pass on. Smelling the marshmallows at the grocery store seems to do enough for me. LOL

Today Fed Ex brought us bagels. From Panera. With cream cheese. I still passed. I wanted one, to be sure, but I’m so freakin close to the 140s and I want that more.

So after an awesome NYE alone–and I truly mean that, I had the most relaxing bath I’ve ever taken ever and was delightfully tipsy from a bottle of bubbly Moscato–I spent today cleaning up my physical world. Making decisions about old clothes, rearranging some things, getting rid of the “stuff” that made life feel a little overwhelming to me in the past month or so. Now things are cleaner, organized, and in order as they should be. I feel calm. My run this morning also helped–4 miles and I pushed pace, which felt great. I might even be a little sore tomorrow when I do my yoga. 🙂

So I’ve thought about what I want from 2013. And basically, I want to make this year my bitch. There was a time I thought I’d be getting married in 2013. We would’ve been together 10 years this coming April, I thought it would’ve been cool to get married on our 10-year anniversary. And it would’ve, if I had wanted to marry him. So there’s that. Instead, I’m going to do a bunch of things I never thought I would do. Including some of the following:

• Get to goal weight of 130 and maintain it. I need to lose another 20 pounds. This is kind of a loose goal–if I hit 135 and I look and feel the way I want to look and feel I’m not going to kill myself for an extra 5 pounds because I want to be able to maintain it. Similarly, if I get a little lower without a lot of extra effort, I’ll take it. But I want to get into that vicinity and stay there.
• Get half marathon time between 2:30 and 2:45. This is on tap. Might even happen by the end of March. In which case I might revise my time goals as I plan on doing a million lot of half marathons this year.
• Achieve Half Fanatic status. I’m looking at the 3 in 90-days benchmark. That seems totally realistic for me.
• Get my finances in order. I’m working on this and have been since The Breakup. But continuing to pay down debt and build up savings is the plan. Might be difficult given some of my other goals, but I still think I can do it. And by build up savings, I mean have more at the end of the year than I do at the start.
• Move into my own apartment. I would love to do this by my birthday. However, given that I also need to get my car registered and inspected (i.e. worked on) I’m just going to do my best.
• Take a week long road trip to VT/NH to see my friends up there.
• Learn to shoot.
• Go skydiving. Tell mom afterwards.
• Start meeting people. Join a running club. Find a book club. Go to college alumni events.
• Get a full physical. About time. I’ve been scared for years (yes, years) but honestly, my weight is coming down, I eat relatively healthy and I work out regularly. What do I have to be worried about aside from the genetic factor?
• Start dating again. This scares me, but I need to put myself out there or I’m never going to find Future Mate. And since I’m gonna be rocking it old-school-Kelly-style and going on more first dates than seconds, etc., I gotta start somewhere.

I’m flying solo. Totally. It’s gonna be great.

I’m working 8-3

Then I’m going to stop at the liquor store and pick up a bottle of wine. Something sweet and white because that’s what I like.

Then I’m going to stop at a store or two and see if I can find the flavor I want for my SodaStream.

Then I’m going to come home, feed the cats, and RELAX. I’m going to take a bath, put on a face mask, make some dinner, crack open that wine and enjoy the empty house. And probably catch a couple of movies that are disappearing from Netflix streaming on 1/1/13.

New Year’s Day I will run, clean, organize and get my shit together for 2013.

I like this plan.

I fell in love with the half marathon when I ran my first in 2011. It was the Pittsburgh Half and it was fantastic. I love running this city. I loved the training. I teared up at the start and the finish. And even though I was in so. much. pain. when I crossed the finish line (pro-tip: training plans shouldn’t have you stop at 10 miles. You should do at least 11 during training, if not 12) I couldn’t wait to do another one. And I did do one this year. It wasn’t a great experience, certainly paling in comparison to Pittsburgh, but I still love the distance.

Since my life has changed so drastically over the past 5 months, I’ve really been able to fully embrace my passion for running. I don’t feel like ‘myself’ when I don’t do it. I know that when I start looking for future mate this has to be a passion that we share (along with Steelers football). I need someone with the drive that distance runners have and who understands my insanity, and that running, at this point for me, is NOT a choice but a part of who I am.

So my goal for 2013 is to get in the kind of shape where I can run a half marathon any time that I want to. Like my Sunday morning run could be a 13.1 just for the hell of it without giving it a second thought. Then I move on to bigger and badder distances. 🙂