Hi everyone, welcome to my blog. For those of you who know me personally, you are familiar with my passion for fashion which has overtaken my love for running over the past several years. Unfortunately, I have been blaming "life" for getting in the way of maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle. On this very blog, I plan on documenting my comeback (and hopefully post-comeback) my best self which includes fitness, fueling, and fashion. Honestly, it's been almost three years since I trained for a marathon and truly focused on my health.
Once upon a time, I was running almost everyday before work, putting in a long run (12 miles plus)every Saturday, running several races a year, and limiting my alcohol intake to the weekend. As a byproduct of my lifestyle, I was also eating pretty clean -- not perfect but definitely not having dessert every night! Flash forward to today. I'm an incredibly happy woman. My amazing new hubby Adam and I live in a cute house (with an entire floor that I claim as my closet) in a great neighborhood with our dog, Hutch, and we are fortunate enough to have the ability to do whatever we want. We go to the orchestra, we travel around the world (ok, mainly country), we go to great restaurants, etc. But, I'm fifteen pounds heavier, workout three or four times a week, and still consider pasta a major food group.
I've known for a while that I needed to make a change, but I couldn't get the timing right. (Warning: excuses ahead!!) My MBA took all the weekend free time I had available, and just like long runs, after I was done with classes or writing papers, I just wanted to crash. The wedding planning was incredibly fun but extremely overwhelming. And, I'm in my first "office" job in a while, where I'm finally back on a predictable routine schedule. There are no more excuses for cancelling runs because of meeting conflicts. And, because I want to be very honest here, my dad's sudden passing took a toll on me psychologically. It's been hard to picture my "running" life without him. But, the fact of the matter is, my dad passed away from a sudden heart attack, and my current lifestyle is only contributing to those risks.
The transition is going to be a tough one. I know this because I ran two miles last night, pushing hard at a 9 min/ mile pace. Yikes. I'll be aiming for a BQ at the Twin Cities Marathon on October 9th, but I haven't run a BQ since Disney 2012. I start Hal Higdon's Marathon 3 Program Monday April 25th and am adding Orange Theory Fitness to the cross-train days. I know I'll need to re-commit to waking up before work a few times a week and that I'll really need to focus on my strength training and speed work like never before.
But first, I'm trying to tackle my nutrition issues. I'm currently on Day 2 of the Whole 30 which I completed a year ago and promptly went back to wine, cheese, and chocolate. It's such a wonderful program, and without really trying to lose weight on it last year, I shed about 7 pounds. Personally, I know I need to get to a fighting weight to have a successful training season. Other benefits for me with the Whole 30 were seriously glowing skin, less headaches when I woke up in the morning, and generally less sluggish throughout the day. I look forward to those positive changes over the next few weeks and hope I can keep some of those healthy habits in my regular routine post-Whole 30.
So what can you expect from this blog? Over the next few months, this is going to be about my journey to fit and training for the TCM. But, in doing so, I'll be posting about things that excite me too -- like fueling that's getting the job done, awesome gear I want to show off on my runs (warning: there will be lots of pink), and work outs that I truly think are making a difference in my training.
Hope you enjoy it!
