Success!

First, to make this post slightly less boring, a photo of me before bed last night after gallivanting in downtown Fort Wayne! :) Last night I spent some time with my friend who came to visit me from out of town. We went downtown and walked a couple miles and then decided to go to a local restaurant - Club Soda. I ordered a caesar salad (sans dressing) and thai coconut chicken lettuce wraps and paired it with a flirtini (I think? my friend ordered it for me. haha). After dinner we walked back to the car, didn't get home til around midnight. Between the martini and the late night, I was petrified about how my run would go this morning. Add to that my hamstrings that were still burning from my 3.5 hours of weeding earlier in the week and I was sure I was doomed.

6 am rolled around and I made myself get up, get dressed and run downstairs. I have been struggling with stomach cramps while running, so I decided to try something different this morning. I ate a plain toasted english muffin and got my hydration belt ready while my friend got ready ready to go with me. We headed to the YMCA trail where I did a combination of the loop around Salomon Farm and the short Pufferbelly trail. I did a total of two loops around the farm and did the Pufferbelly trails 2.5 times. I managed to find someone running around the right pace and decided to fall into stride next to them. We had a nice conversation and it made the first 3 miles much more enjoyable. I made a pit stop to the rest room around 3.4 miles in.

I took two energy shot bloks between 3 and 3.5 miles. This seemed to work better than last week, so I will try that again next week to see if works again. I also plan to try eating a light breakfast before hand - it really seemed to keep the stomach cramps at bay today. My friend must have known I was struggling because they checked in with me around mile 5 and gave me a little pep talk. Knowing someone was there that would know if I was walking gave me the little extra push I needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. At about 6.5 miles in, I gave myself a pep talk and said "I've got this.. I won't let this beat me." Unfortunately my ipod died around the same time. I kept trucking but at about 7.5 miles I was really dragging and was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish. However, at that point I was determined to finish up without walking so I pushed through despite the burning in my legs. I hit 8 miles and I don't think I could have had a bigger smile on my face - seriously felt like a huge hurdle cleared.

Good thing I burned over 1000 calories because I took my friend to breakfast at Flat Top followed by an afternoon snack of frozen yogurt at Yo-Yos! Not looking forward to getting on the scale tomorrow - but, I will have to remind myself I am dieting to be healthy and enjoy life. If I can't have a day where I eat without worrying, its not going to work in the long run. It was worth every calorie - the visit with my friend was overdue and gave me a much needed mood boost.

In addition to the running, I walked 2-3 miles throughout the day to loosen my legs up and hopefully prevent me from being too sore tomorrow. We will see how it goes, praying my approach works. :)

I am planning to head to bed shortly - I am EXHAUSTED.

Readers Question: What did you do this weekend?