Week 2, Day 10

I did NOT like Adam very much last night. There was event going on at the gym so there was absolutely no way to actually get into it....so I came home after work instead. Adam wants to run outside......OUTSIDE...It's January.....and although, some might call the weather a "heat wave" for Illinois in the middle of winter, a "heat wave" is 34 degrees instead of 10 degrees. Swell....so we ran outside (our puppy joined us!) through the neighborhood. I stopped walking after about a quarter mile and Adam's response?: "Come on, you just ran a mile straight the other day, we haven't gone far at all!" Grrrrrrrrrr.......is that supposed to motivate me? And then I thought to myself: "Ummm, Steph? You did just run a mile straight the other day...stop being lazy," and then I ran ahead. As Adam said, once we started running, it felt great - not cold at all.

So now we are heading out of town to Ohio for the weekend for the wedding. I'm optimistically packing workout clothes, this will be a true test of determination if I actually USE said clothes. :) Have a great weekend!!!

Week 2, Day 9

So a week ago, I wrote about how hard swimming was. Today we swam again - our 4th swim. I have already made significant progress. Today we swam 1500 meters - that's almost a mile!!! (.9320568 miles to be exact) It felt great. I didn't need as much recovery time between exercises and worked on consistency. There's 2 things I want to work on, as a personal goal. I want to be able to breath on both sides (right now it's only to the right) and I want to be able to do the flippy thingy at the end of a lap like the REAL swimmers do. If anyone needs a bit of entertainment or a laugh for a day, please come watch. I tried to flip today and the only way to put in perspective how sad it was - I'm probably sure that the lifeguard stood up thinking "Oh, my! That girl over there must be having a seizure in the pool and is rolling around.....Oh wait, no she's fine..." It was that bad. Maybe I'll wait until a day when the pool isn't as crowded to work on that to save some of dignity.

One more workout this week (Thursday) since we will be out of town for a wedding this weekend. Hopefully we will get home Sunday (after a 7 hr drive) and something will motivate me to workout.....not sure if that will work, but I'll try. Since I am usually fairly successful with meals and workouts when I have a set schedule to follow, this weekend will be my first challenge by breaking that routine. I will try....I keep telling myself I can DO IT! "Only one piece of wedding cake, only one piece of wedding cake, only one piece of wedding cake." :)

Week 2, Day 8 - First Transition

Today was a short but tough day - the workout that is. It was our first transition/combined workout, where we went from biking to running. I first arrived late because I was held up at work and Jimmy and Adam were about done with the bike portion. After a 5 minute workout, I did 3x 3 minutes with high resistance - I did resistance 7....to give you an idea of how pathetic that is, if there was a significant hill on a course, I would have been rolling backwards. HA! I grabbed a 15 second drink and then went straight to the track - ran 3 laps straight and then I had to walk. My legs were tight and sore after only 20 minutes/4 miles on the bike. That's only about 30% of what I will actually bike during the event. Eeek! Just trying to tell myself it's only the 2nd week.

I came home to a home-cooked meal from Adam - still staying on track with the food. Have only eaten out once in the last week and a half - Saturday for Ariana and Patrick's shower. This weekend will be the next test with food. We will be traveling to Ohio for Chris and Lauren's wedding. That means about 4 meals on the road that I'll have to do my best to behave. :)

Tomorrow is going to be a tough workout - 1500 m swim. Can't wait!

Week 2, Day 7 (Day = Workout)

I was excited all day to get off work, especially since I knew today was a swim day! I feel extra good after we are done swimming - my heart rate is up for almost the whole workout and nothing hurts afterwards!

I know I said I wouldn't look...but I couldn't resist. I was drying my hair after the pool and the scale was just looking at me, just asking me to jump on it......so....I did - 178.2 lbs! That's a loss of 2.9 lbs in one week! That definitely helps with motivation. And I didn't do it by starving myself either, which is also promising. I tried to make good decisions on what food I ate and tried to eat less, but I would not say at all that I deprived myself. When I went to Weight Watchers meetings, one of my favorite phrase that I took away was "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." Although the person who came up with that obviously had not tried the chili-cheese fries I ate Saturday night while I was drinking, it does make sense. Even the thought of losing 20 lbs makes me so excited. To be able to fit in half of the things that are in my closet again would feel amazing!

102 days until the triathlon!!

Oh yeah....so last week I said we'd sign up right away to race...however, to sign up you need to know your 400 m swim time. Since I've just started, I want to wait at least a few weeks before I submit a time. I know there is still plenty of room for improvement!

Week 1, Day 6

So...after a night of drinking last night (celebrating Ariana & Patrick's soon to be wedding!), when the dog woke me up at around 7:00am, I figured the only thing I would be capable of doing today was going back to sleep. Adam had a flag football game at the gym and then was heading to The Fieldhouse (where my car still was) to bar tend. So logistically, if I didn't want to be confined to the house today, I had to go with him.

I ran a mile straight!!! I know this doesn't seem like a very interesting accomplishment for most people, but for someone that couldn't run two laps straight a week ago, I was very happy!! I made it almost a mind game with myself - "just one more lap, just a half a lap more....just one more" until I had run a mile! I continued to run/walk for another 2 miles and then walked to finish out about an hour and a half workout! Feels good (without hardly any signs of a hangover!).

One week and six workouts down.....