Cardio Overload: A Case for Strength Training

s my recent bikini pictures post in the Success section of the message board show, I've come a long way. But I've been thinking this week about what I really need to do to finish up this journey. Being stuck for 6 months hasn't really been a plateau, as much as it's accidental maintenance. I'm doing enough to keep my body in a steady state, building some muscle since my body fat percentage has dropped, but I also haven't lost enough fat to really make a noticeable difference on the scale. So, here's a few things that are causing it, and a few things I"m gonna change to fix it

1.) CARDIO OVERLOAD!

I realized this downfall started when I got a gym membership in December and started with a trainer right at the beginning of the year. The trainer had me work with him for 30 minutes a week (mostly strength training) but then whenever I was at the gym otherwise he told me "cardio, cardio, CARDIO!". So I did it. And my weight loss came to a grinding halt. Those 30 minutes of strength training was quite a bit less than the 3 times a week I had been doing before with a Chalean Extreme/Turbo Fire hybrid. And I let myself fall into a habit of just doing cardio at the gym when I wasn't with my trainer.

And then I discovered running and well, I ran away with the cardio idea even more. I've been averaging 4 runs a week, most recently it'll be something like a short, fast run, a normal distance run (like 3-5K), an interval run, and one long run (5k+). With one training session mixed in, and the occasional extra day of... you guessed it... cardio!

2.) FOOD OVERLOAD!

More specifically, restaurant food overload. I'm awesome when I can cook for myself, choose on my own, etc. Monday-Friday I'm steallar. Then the weekend hits, I spend time with my kickball team or my boyfriend, and the beer starts flowing. The food gets ordered. The boyfriend gets an ice cream craving. And even if I saw 149.X or even 148! on Thursday morning, it's long gone by Saturday or Sunday morning.

This is where the maintenance part comes in. I might eat a calorie deficit during the week, but even with my calorie zigzagging schedule, I was eating more than I should on the weekends. And being this small with a somewhat low BMR, it was enough to keep me at roughly the same weight. The one weekend where I didn't let myself go in the past month, I was in the 140s the whole week. Then came more restaurant food and beer and soft pretzels and... welll... you get the idea.

3.) BRAIN OVERLOAD!

There's something to be said about focus and determination. It's essential to have to succeed... and then it drives you nuts. Obsession with numbers... weight, waist measurement, calorie count, protein count, number of miles run... you name it, I count it (you've all seen my excel spreadsheets by now with my weight chart...). I've been fixating on this so much that when it doesn't go the way I want, I'm blinded to the reasons. I know strength training is important, but it doesn't burn 600 calories in one workout. And I know it's important to eat more during the week, but I was saving up calories for the weekend. All bad habits... all fueled by numbers.

So, in general I've been pretty overloaded lately, and it's got to stop. I have one more 5K on June 5th, so 2 weeks away, not even. After that I'm cutting back on the running. I'll aim for 3 times a week: an interval run, a short to normal distance run (even speed), and a long distance run (slow speed). The rest of the days I'm going to make sure strength training makes an appearance! I have Chalean Extreme, I'm dusting off the DVDs and going to follow it again. I'll probably just do the Lean phase workouts and Burn Intervals. Just because I have a gym membership doesn't mean I have to spend 5 dyas a week there. I can go 3 days a week and fit the DVDs in the other days, it's not cheating on my gym... haha.

And as for my weekend issues. I'm just gonna have to sacrifice a little. If Randy wants pizza, I'll gently nudge him to a place with more options for me. If he wants ice cream, I'll get a tiny cup, not a giant one. Instead of guzzling 4 beers at kickball, I'll stick to one or two rum and diet cokes and not eat the bar food. It's small tweaks but I'm still happy and social and not being fussy. 

I'm really hoping this all starts to come together. I do love the bikini picture, but as my sister put it "it looks great except for the tummyness". Well, that tummyness has got to go, and toning up with an infusion of strength training and a defusion of junk food is the way I'm going at it. And I'm sticking to the calorie zigzagging... within reason. I'm gonna knock the calories down a bit, maybe by 100 on the high days and raise it 100 on the low days. I can't do 1900 on a regular day.

Any tips and comments are appreciated! Or suggestions of other strength DVDs to folllow. I think I have another Biggest Loser DVD lying around that I haven't opened yet. 

6 Month Plateau... Is It Still Considered A Plateau

Plateau doesn't even begin to describe it anymore. It's more like a long endless flat plain where you can see the bend in the Earth because there are no hills or anything.I know lots of people would be happy to maintain a weight this low for 6 months. I've lost 65 lbs and kept it off. Not a single pound has crept back on. But at the same time, I haven't lost any more weight either!

I think I set a reasonable goal weight for my height: 140. It's right at the top of the (semi-useless) BMI scale. At 150 I can still see problem areas where fat is definitely stil stuck (namely my stomach and my thighs). I have muscle and most of me looked toned except those areas. So, it should be possible to get another 5-10 lbs off my body... but it's become practically impossible.

I've been trying a few things in the last 6 months, I tried to eat more base calories and eat back some exercise calories. That seemed to work at first but the scale didn't move for good. Same with zigzagging my calories. It was working the first 2 weeks and now it's stalled again and I'm back in te 150s. It might be a few bad days are enough to completely counteract everything I'v been doing, but who knows. And I've kicked up the exercise with running at least 3-4 days a week, interval running, speed running, and longer running sessions all mixed up.

So, I don't really quite know where to go from here. I can't imagine I'm the first person to get stuck for a prolonged period of time. When does it stop being a plateau and start being my "happy weight"? Because I'm still not 100% happy. I really dislike having a small roll of fat over my size 6 jeans. And having to buy one pant size larger because my thighs won't fit. I didn't come this far to settle!

I have two routes I can go at this point:

1.) Keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best. Maybe I'll end up staying the same, maybe it'll go down. I'm at a place where it's not hard to maintain this weight and that's a good thing. I can still enjoy dinners with my boyfriend and drinks with my kickball team and the occasional treat. A few days of eating better and drinking water and I'm back to 150 again.

2.) Push myself even further, try something new... I don't know.  I don't really know what else I can do! Eating more, eating less, working out more, more strength, less cardio, more carbs, less carbs, more protein... 

I'm open to suggestions... or a pep talk. I haven't come this far to give up with 10 lbs to go. But there's a point where I don't know if it's worth it to focus every little bit of my energy on getting rid of them... 

EDIT/UPDATE:

I've gotten awesome advice in the comments below!! I think I've narrowed down my plateau reasons to overindulging on the weekends and not holding myself accountable for it, and not enough strength training. At the moment, I only strength train once a week for 30 minutes, not enough! And I'm also going off track Thursday nights with kickball, and then on the weekend with my boyfriend. So, I'm going to try to focus on both those things so I stop derailing my progress every single weekend. I'll start getting there by Thursday and then it's back up again. With such little wiggle room, I can't keep going this way and expect to lose. I could pull it off when I was heavier, but at my lowest weight right now, it's not something I can keep up. So thanks for all the tips and I'll keep you posted on how it goes! I'm going to keep zigzagging my calories too, it's important to keep eating enough. Lowering my calories further won't do me much good... 

Bitten By The 5K Bug

This weekend was my second 5K race, 3 weeks since my first one in DC and it was quite a different experience from the first one. I was on my own as opposed to running with a buddy, instead of perfect running weather it was humid, drizzling, and threatening to downpour at any moment. The course was a winding, somewhat hilly route through my neighborhood (I ran past my apartment! haha) instead of a flat street in DC. And I woke up with a stomach ache instead of feeling 100% ready to go. So needless to say, I didn't have the highest hopes for this race.

But once I started running, things were questionable. The stomach ache was still there, and I started to get a side stitch entirely too early on. But I cranked up the iPod (thank you Glee music...) and kept moving. This race didn't have markers for each kilometer, just each mile, so my planned pacing method got thrown off. I had no idea how fast I was really going. And then I get to mile marker 1. Alright, 1/3 of the way done... and the girl with the timer  calls out "11:45 since the start!"

WAIT, WHAT?????????????????

I don't run sub-12 minute miles. Not in races, not in practice, only have done it twice on the treadmill and I only ran a mile and then stopped. So, needless to say I was thrilled. OK, I'm feeling not horrible. I can keep this up. As I run up a GIANT HILL! And then they gave me water, thank god.

And then it started raining for real. Bleh. Luckily only a few minutes but enough to get me a bit soggy and uncomfortable. But I kept moving after a short walking break for the water pit stop. We round the bend in the road, get a few nice downhills to pick up some time. And after a small hill climb, i see it. Mile marker 2. And the woman who had the stopwatch said "23:15"!

COME AGAIN??????????

That's still running an 11:30 second or so mile pace. And I WALKED! I'm KILLING the pace I had in my first 5K by minutes. And this is an entirely different beast than the first one. So, I started crunching the numbers (shocking, I know :P). I had 16  whole minutes to get to the finish line. And I still had enough steam to run. So, I kept going, hauled my butt up the biggest hill in the race, running almost all of it. Took a 2 minute walking break and then kept going. I was closing in on the starting area in Town Center and I was thinking...

My 39:33 record is going down!

I'm definitely running out of steam at this point. I can't get my heart rate below 190, I'm having trouble keeping a steady breathing pace. But, I can see it getting closer so I keep moving. Rounding into Town Center, I know it's close to the finish. And then I turn the last corner. 

DAMN IT THEY MOVED THE STARTING LINE! 

So my final sprint just got 2 full blocks of distance added to it. Another tenth of a mile. Ugh. I was about to pass out at that point, so I walked for about 15 seconds and then I made a dash for the finish line. And I got there, heart rate hitting 196 or so, dizzy and naseauous. But, I was done, and what did the clock say.

36:25!!!! 

I was in shock. Partly because my heart was threatening to crap out on me given how fast it was going, and partly because I didn't even know I could run sub-12 minute miles for that long. It's amazing what the body can do when you're focusing on a goal. So, my 5K experience was quite different from my first, but in a good way. I feel like a runner now. I finished 227/576 women and 32/53 in my age group. Not too shabby at all. And I'm gearing up for one more 5K on June 5th. I figured I can always sign up for one the day of if I want to run in the summer and it happens to be a cooler morning without thunderstorms or something.

But, I share this to prove to anyone that you can be a runner. I'm 5'2", I like 13 minute miles, and somehow I was possessed by the running gods to finish with 11:44 minute miles. AND I WALKED for short breaks! I can't wait for my next race. I totally have the running bug. And my boyfriend even said he thought about getting into running! WHOOT! 

Plateau Busted Again? I Sure Hope So!

I thought I had that thing beat almost 2 months ago! But alas, my body has other ideas (and my brain and my stomach and my liver.. .haha). I was doing everything I said I was going to in my How To Bust A 3 Month Plateau blog. Eating more, upping my workouts, running a few times a week, strength training, eating more protein, less sodium. But I partly kept derailing myself will overindulging. It's just proof that even after doing this for over a year, it's easy to slip back into old habits. I still enjoy getting beers with my kickball team or my boyfriend. And that tends to lead to not so great food choices.

But, step 1 is identifying the problems!

Problem #1 - Still not eating enough?

Well, that one I took care of with my calorie zig zagging schedule that I've been following for a week and a half. In that time my weight has stopped bouncing all over the place and started to settle into a nice steady decline. I had one blip after Cinco De Mayo, and its been going down ever since. I was able to log a 1.4 lb loss this week. I'm now 149.3 and it feels amazing to see those 140s again (hopefully for good!)

For how to zig zag, refer to my good MFP pal AggieCass's Blog and this website to get your own plan: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Problem #2 - Not enough working out?

I admit, I was getting a bit lazy. Skipping working out from Thursday-Sunday isn't gonna cut it  I need to MAKE time for it! And I'm really enjoying running and the progress I've been making. I ran an 11:25 minute mile! That's crazy!!! I actually went running around the neighborhood yesterday (wow it was hilly, so running/walking). But I'm aiming to run 4 days a week now, plus my personal training session (where I usually warm up with a short mile run). Especially with the amazing weather we're getting. I have my second 5K on Saturday morning and one more scheduled for June 5th. I really want to improve my time of 39:33!

Problem # 3 - Overindulgence

I think this is one we all relate to! Bag habits creep back in. Boyfriends that love to eat and drink and get ice cream all in the same night!!! Friends that want you to have one more beer and stay at the bar for a while. Or that damn cupcake cart at the mall! Oh how I have trouble resisting your gourmet chocolatey goodness. Right, back to the problem at hand. It needs to get back under control. And I've been keeping an eye on it for the last week. And look, 140s! I have to stop sabbotaging myself! Not have 5 drinks at the bar. Or the calorie-laden dinner. I got the single crab cake with veggies on date night last weekend. Was it hard? No! Was it delicious? YES! And did I still have my 2 beers? You betcha! It's all about balance.

So, now that I've gotten myself on track again, I just need to stick with it. Summer is coming, I've been trying on my bikinis and not crying when I see the reflection in the mirror. It's a great feeling and it's helping me to keep moving forward. I can tell how much body fat% I've lost since January, even though I haven't really lost weight. Now I'm ready to see the scale start to move again too. I'm so close to a flat stomach (at least the top pooch, the bottom is still a work in progress). But I feel much better being back in the game. Maybe my body just needed these last 5 months to readjust. Get comfy with being smaller. And now finally it's moving again, yay! 

A Year of Blogging: Before and After

I just checked and it was a year ago (and 5 days) that I started my MFP blog. That was a few months after starting MFP itself. I decided I needed an outlet to vent all the stuff I was thinking about with weight loss and MFP is a darn good audience. I had no idea when I wrote my first blog that so many people would relate to it and read it! I'm not even a writer, I'm an engineer for goodness sake! hahaha

But in my first blog that I wrote in May of 2010, I explained a bit about why I'm doing what I'm doing. And at the end I said:

" I really can't wait to be a before and after picture..." 

Well, not that I wasn't confident, but it's kind of mind boggling that the picture you see to the right is my before and after picture! Well, mostly after. I'm still shrinking, albiet slowly. I was jumping for joy in my first blog about having lost 15 lbs with MFP in a few months. And that I was finally buying smaller clothes. Now a year later I'm still buying smaller clothes, MUCH smaller clothes and I'm dancing around the 65 lbs lost mark.

There's definitely something to be said about the community on here. I was pretty clueless when I started about nutrition and exercise. But I read blogs and message boards and talked to more experienced MFP users and absorbed it all like a sponge. And now I regularly field questions on my own "expertise" in the matter. Food, zigzagging calories, dealing with challenges, RUNNING (yeah, didn't see that one coming a year ago)... you name it and I'll help you with it :)

If you want to see what can change in year... here's some numbers (you know I love numbers by now...)

Pant/Dress Size: 16/18 to 6/8 (always petite/short, haha, I'm still 5'2")

Top Size: Started at  XL (if I was lucky to fit in XL) to S/M

Weight: I was around 185 last year, starting weight 215. Currently 150.3 (and shrinking!)

Waist: 39" to 29" (10" lost!)

Hips: 45" to 36" (9" lost!)

Body fat %: 33% to 27.2% (from Sept 2010 when I started keeping track to now) 

Fastest Mile: You want me to run a freaking mile? Yeah right!!! to 11:25 yesterday :)

Fasest 5K time: Same as above, I'll jump off a bridge before I'll run 3.1 miles to 37:30 (39:33 official race day PR)

Bikinis owned: None (in my dreams maybe) to no less than 6, haha

A lot can happen in a year. And I've written down all of it (as you can see in the archives on the right).  I don't think I'm really the same person who wrote that first blog a year ago. I'm happy and confident and feel sexy and ADORE shopping for clothes since they all fit perfectly. I could stop now and be perfectly content. But I set my goal at 140. I've been right around 150 for 5 months now, despite thinking I busted my plateau over a month ago. But it's moving in the right direction and I've cleaned up my act. Running, eating more, and behaving better on the weekends (that boyfriend of mine is a bad influence, haha). But I'm thankful for it all. For my readers and MFP friends. I thought this website would be all about the numbers, but it's way more than that to me.

Does Clothing Size Really Matter?

I bought size 4 jeans from Tommy Hilfiger this weekend! And last weekend I bought size 13 crop pants from Macys juniors dep't... clothing sizes can drive a girl absoutely nuts. Especially a girl who has already lost a lot of weight and is trying not to focus all my energy on the numbers. The scale is already stressful enough, clothing sizes shouldn't be too. I'm usually a size 6 or 8, depending on the store, but I've bought quite the assortment of sizes, and everything fits!

And you wanna know something really shocking. That purple dress that I'm totally rocking in my profile picture, it's a size 14! Yes, FOURTEEN! I almost didn't want to buy it because of that (this was back in January), but does it looks like a size 14? Helllll no.

But I've started to realize something. It doesn't matter too much what the clothing size is, it all depends on how you look in them! Do I really look any different in size 6 jeans than size 8 jeans? Or a size 10 dress versus a size 6 dress? I'd bet most people couldn't guess my size correctly just based on how I look and not knowing what I weight, my body fat percentage, etc.I'm gonna buy clothes that fit and make me look my best. The whole point of clothes is to look good! So I'm gonna buy clothes that are slimming and fit my body right. I'll look heavier if I buy the size 6 jeans and have muffin top than if I wear the 8s that fit correctly!!!

Being an engineer, I love numbers. And the scale has been stuck right around 150. Calorie zigzagging is really starting to help tho. I saw 150.8 lbs this morning, which is quite a low number lately for Monday morning! Usually I've ben 152+ and then I spend the whole week trying to get down to 150ish. This week I can start low and get lower! But a personal trainer at the gym asked on Wed. if I had "lost a ton of weight" since joining the gym in December. I haven't technically lost a pound! She replied "well then your body fat % must have really dropped, I can tell a big difference". This coming from someone I don't really see that often, it's hard to see these changes in ourself.

But anyway, back to the original point. Yes, it's incredibly exciting in our weight loss quest to fit in a smaller clothing size. But when you get to the point that I'm at, nearly at a goal weight, still losing body fat percentage while building muscle, clothing size is a fickle thing. I may have gone overboard with shopping in the last 2 weekends, but I really started not to care about what size I was buying. If the size 4s fit, AWESOME! But if I need size 10 because the thighs run narrow in those pants, I'll get it. It makes sense to buy the clothes that look the best (and don't cost an arm and a leg) rather than squeeze into the size 6 and look like crap. 

So, I will produly wear my size 4 jeans. And my size 13 crops. And my size 10 American Eagle dresses. And my amazing size large bikini top that I bought this weekend (thank goodness those didn't shrink that much!). My boyfriend doesn't even completely understand women's sizes anyway. I was like "i want to be a size 4" and he's like "i have no idea what they means but I think you look good whatever size you are now". And that's the important thing :) 

Fat Clothes to FABULOUS Clothes

I recently had a revelation about some of my bigger clothes. Chop them up and make them look good again! I wanted to do something fun with my kickball team tshirt, and I did a bit of googling for neat ideas. I came across two differnet ideas that I merged to get this lovely result below. It took me 20 minutes and a pair of scissors. No sewing (bonus!! I can't sew well) and it was just tweaking things as I went along. The final result is a HOTT tshirt that I'd wear in public instead of a baggy men's tshirt that doesn't show off the curves. 

I went onto amazon and order a book with 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special (http://www.amazon.com/Ways-Trim-T-Shirt-Something-Special/dp/0307345564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304606210&sr=8-1) and I'm looking forward to doing more with my baggy tshirts! I have some generic men's tshirts in size medium from college, plus some smaller but still baggy women's fit shirts from American Eagle and such that I might take a pair of scissors to. Here's some instructions for taking a plain tshirt to this:

To get the open shredded v-neck look, follow the info on this awesome blog:

 http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/cut-up-the-front-of-your-t-shirt-simple-diy-tutorial

And to tie the sides of the shirt so it pulls the waist in,  here's some instructions. But it's really straightforward. I also cut off some of the sleeves to make them shorter.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5720133_make-shirt-knots-side.html

I'm planning to spend some time this weekend chopping up my fat tshirts and turning them into FABULOUS tshirts, since my book is arriving in the mail tomorrow. More photos of my fabulous new wardrobe to follow :) 

To Infinity and Beyond!

Coming off the high of running my first 5K, I started thinking about "where do I go from here". I've proven to myself that I can handle running a 5K in a respectable time of under 40 minutes (39:33 to be exact), I wonder what else I can do. Maybe running more will help the scale start moving! So, I've come up with a bit of a plan...

First off, I'm jumping on the calorie zig-zagging bandwagon. I have my nice spreadsheet (thanks Cass!) all set up and I know what I'm aim to eat every day. it varies from a low of around 1300 to a high of around 1900 (which is today, no idea how I'm gonna eat that much but I'll go for it, haha). And I'm lining up bigger workout days with higher calories days. Its also nice to have a bit more of a cushion on the weekends too. I've read that people have had success busting plateaus with it, and I'm hoping it'll help FINALLY bust mine. It's a nice combo of eating more while changing things up constantly. As you can see from my chart, I haven't really gotten anywhere in the last month... that line is a 7 day moving average. I was good for a while, then Easter came along...

The second part of my plan is getting my running to improve. I've decided on two 5Ks that I'm running in the next month. One is next Saturday, and one is Sunday, June 5th. That'll give me a month to really see if I can bring my time down. I've started to do interval runs to try and get myself used to running faster. I did 1K laps around the lake where I ran a little more than half of it (at a pretty quick pace for me) and then walked the rest. I was totally wiped from the running and I was planning to do 6K. However it was landscaping day and my allergies got the best of me. Running with a scratchy throat is NOT FUN!

So, I'm gonna do interval runs a few days a week, and once a week I'm gonna do a longer run (more than 5K) at a pace I feel comfortable about. I'm gonna resist the temptation to speed up at the end to get a better time. I just want to up my milage and that should help my endurance in shorter races (like get used to running 6-7K so my 5K is better). I'm planning my first "long" run on Sat. or Sun. (depending on what night I see the boyfriend).

I'm really getting the running bug, and I'm REALLLLY hoping it helps me start losing weight for real. I'm cleaning up my eating, trying to focus on basics instead of stuffing myself with chicken breast every night so my protein number is sky high. More fruits and veggies and natural foods, less junk. Hopefully less alcohol (kickball on Thursdays is a serious test of my willpower. But I had gotten the scale below 150 and then I blew it and it went back up again, for like the third or fourth time. I just want it to stick! And running faster becomes easier if there is less of me, so there is my motivation. I don't have aspirations to become a distance runner. But I'd love to be a faster short distance runner and get more comfortable with slightly longer distances. So, onward I go... to infinity and beyond! (haha, I may have just watchign Toy Story 3....) 

I RAN!!! My First 5K Yesterday!

I have officially gone from the couch to a 5K! Yesterday was my first race and I felt really prepared for it. I had been running a few days a week since the beginning of March and I had built up from running only half of it and needing to take walking breaks to running the entire 5K start to finish. So, here's the story:

My MFP twin supersarah14 suggested running a 5K together about 2 months ago, and I needed something besides the evil scale for a goal, so I said "let's do it!" and we signed up for the Race for Hope in Washington DC for May 1st. The route went up Pennsylvania Ave. and in front of the Capitol building and back again, and it was a really flat course. I was excited and started training that week.

At first, I could only run for 15 or 20 minutes and then I'd need to stop. And I was a slowpoke... haha. My inhaler was really helping and my lungs started to get used to functioning properly while working out (finally!). And as I kept running at the gym or outside my apartment complex around the lake, I started getting better. My lungs weren't on fire, my muscles weren't dying, I finally sorted out the constant stomach aches I was getting (I have a very small list of snacks I'll eat before running... haha).

Finally about 2-3 weeks ago, I was able to run the entire 5K distance! It felt amazing, my time wasn't horrible, and I could breathe. My comfortable running pace is around 4.5-4.7 if all the conditions are right (i had a horrendous run this past week in a sweltering hot gym where running at 4.3 was hard, haha). I felt ready for the challenge of a real race!

Yesterday morning I was suprisingly perky for getting at at 6am, ate my preapproved breakfast, and made my way into DC to meet up with Sarah. I started to get that boost of addernaline right before the race started. There were around 12000 people participating and about 3000-4000 were running by my guess. But since it was on the streets of DC, we had plenty of room and kept up a good pace. A bit slow to start and then I got in a groove. And to my shock, I was able to talk the ENTIRE RACE! It really helps having a running buddy :) My heart rate settled in the low 180s, which is pretty darn high. Towards the end it was hovering around 190! And when I crossed the finish line, it was 195!!! But once we passed the Capitol for the second time and started to loop towards the finish, I saw the balloons and I wanted to hit my goal of under 40 minutes. Well, one side stitch later, I was bolting across the finish line! 

OFFICIAL Finishing time: 39:33!!!!!!!!!! (just got the results off the website)

That's about a 4.7 mph pace, which I'm happy with as a starting point. I've already got a race scheduled for Sat. May 14th to try and break it.  We enjoyed post-race popsicles and hung out to see the awards ceremony (and David Cook... we saw his hat!! hahaha). Then I rewarded myself with a trip to the mall (Coach wallet, 4 pairs of shorts, 2 shirts, polarized sunglasses, and crop pants... haha, I had coupons!!)

So, my lesson learned here is that nothing is impossible. Even taking my lazy ass from sitting on the couch every night to running an entire 5K. I didn't stop to walk for a second, and I didn't really feel the need to. My mind was focused on getting to the finish line.

And one final bit of awesomeness, we both rocked size adult small race tshirts :)