Guess Who’s Back?…

Who finished the song lyric in their heads? (Ralph??) Lol!!

Anyway, I’m back as in back to the blog-o-sphere and back to running, but let me tell you, I am not back as in “running shape”.

Back to writing— In this point of my running life, I’m in a vulnerable state. I’m the heaviest weight wise I’ve ever been not pregnant and the most out of shape I’ve ever been since I’ve started running.

So of course I want to write and share all of that with you. 😀

Back to running— The itch to get back into the running game is strong, the goal running game, that is. The I-Feel-Like-I-Want-To-Die-While-Training running.

On a serious note though, I’ve always loved reading about real people and their journeys. It’s what motivated me to start running in the first place–I NEVER thought I would qualify and run Boston Marathon. But I’ve seen what I can do when I put mind to it, test my limits, and become comfortable with uncomfortable.

I think I’m ready to do that again. And I want to share that journey with you–that even if you think you’re starting at a really tough spot (and maybe you really are, because I certainly am), it’s okay. It’s okay to be vulnerable. It’s okay to be scared–of failing, of quitting, of whatever. I’ve learned that through sticking with the training, just seeing what would happened if I showed some discipline, man…amazing things can happen.

LET’S DO THIS.

xoxo,

helly

–Do you sometimes feel defeated before you even start training? How do you get out of your head?

–Do you keep goals attainable? Just hard enough but still realistic? Or do you go big or go home?

Progress, Not Perfection

Welp, I’m T-minus 3 days for race day!! I mentioned a 10k I have planned for on Sunday and my intentions are to run it FAST. I’m a little scared, lol!!

Truth be told, I really want a PR. And considering I haven’t actually raced a 10k, a PR isn’t too farfetched. I last ran a 10k about two years ago when my friend Amber visited me to do an Arizona race. I recommended Lost Dutchman because of its beautiful desert scenery.

Except it was cold, cloudy, and torrential down pouring that day 😦

Fun times

Despite the awful weather, we both had decent races. She placed 5th female overall and 2nd in her age group for the half marathon and I placed 1st in my age group for the 10k (even after stopping to tie my shoe!).

Amber the Runner and me ❤

I ran a 47:14 with a 7:35 average pace.

Fast forward almost two years and I feel like I can beat that…

…but by how much?

That is the big question.

I have a number goal in mind…an ambitious one, but my hope is to run the race HARD, whatever that might produce. I know my “hard” is different than my “hard” from two years ago so I’m curious to see what I can make happen given good race juju.

I’ve had some pretty good training runs lately that has boosted my confidence. But, my diet has still been realllly bad #storyofmylife

I was invited to work with a trainer at a gym called PNP Fitness (Progress Not Perfection) and while at the beginning I thought we’d be talking more things fitness, our conversations have turned to all things diet.

You all know I’ve struggled with food/eating healthy for a looooong time. I feel like each time I try and change my habits, I fall back to the same unhealthy patterns.

Meeting with Will from PNP these past few weeks has been some good tough love I’ve needed. He’s really made me confront some of the reasons I go to fast food and convenience.

Some things I already know:

-I know fast food/take out is expensive.
-I know fast food/take out is for the most part unhealthy.
-I know I’m not teaching my kids healthy eating habits.
-I know that some home cooked meals can be quick if fast and convenient is what I’m looking for.

I know those things, but I really don’t care or as bad as it sounds, care enough to change.

And that’s pretty much the honest truth right there. I don’t care enough to change my eating.

The dreaded ‘why’ question

Will started breaking out the ‘why’ questions. And I hate them, they’re annoying, but only because they make me think about something I don’t like thinking about.

He asked me why I qualified for Boston. This was interesting because it wasn’t how.

I qualified because I worked really hard, trained really hard, wanted it really bad.

I cared.

Post Boston I don’t really have anything I care about as intensely. Will asked if I wanted to get faster or if I was satisfied with where I was.

I don’t know. Sometimes I want to get faster, and sometimes I don’t care.

Will I be bummed if I don’t PR on Sunday? Yes. But I have to realize that just focusing on running can only get me so fast. At some point, other aspects of my training will have to change.

Like my diet.

Do I care enough?

.

.

.

–Is your diet an area you struggle with? Have you ever talked to someone about your diet?

–Do you struggle with caring about things?

Check out my Instagram on Sunday to see results from the 10k–wish me luck!! xoxo, helly

 

Half Marathon Training: Week 1

A pretty uneventful week one, but I’ll take it! As I mentioned in my previous post, I take full advantage of easy days, lol!!

7/2-7/8

Monday:

5 miles, 9:03 avg.

Tuesday:

3 miles, 8:50 avg. Cross train at gym. I hate burpees. I hate mountain climbers.

Wednesday:

5.5 miles, WU-3x1mile (w/90sRI)-CD

I had low expectations going into these mile repeats as 1.) it’s hella hot here in Phoenix and 2.) i’m hella out of shape. Keeping that in mind, I didn’t sweat (ha!) the fact that my paces were not close at all to what I expect my mile repeat to be at (which I don’t really even know, lol).

7:24
7:15
7:06

Focusing on positives (which is the only way to go), I was pleased that I was able to negative split.

Celebrating ‘Merica with the run club and the fam ❤

Thursday:

Glorious rest day

Friday:

3 miles, 9:30ish pace??

The watch died mid-run and when I realized this, I cut the 5 miles to 3 and called it a day. Because does the run even count if it’s not on Garmin? Really though, I started way too late at 7 a.m. and it was 96 degrees out. I was done anyway.

1% ain’t gonna cut it, Helly

Saturday:

10 miles, 8:50 avg.

This was a hard run. It was hot (notice a repeat here?) at 90 degrees at 5 a.m. It’s just been hard for me to get going. I love the heat and much prefer it to freezing temps, but for some reason, I have not acclimated well this summer.

I’ve been finishing with a last one fast one to help my self-esteem and I was happy that I had the strength to finish the last mile at 8:03.

 

26 total miles–And that was week one in a nutshell. I can tell this is going to be a rough cycle already, but I’m going to channel my inner Phoenix Marathon training to get this done. It’s awesome to improve as a runner, but it only gets that much harder to keep on improving, lol!!!

–Are you ever intimidated by your own progress? Like, you’ve set a monster PR and then you wonder how/if you’ll top that?

 

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