Living in Cleveland at times can be extremely rough... weather wise. Since coming back to Cleveland from Israel, it has been a cold, snowy, wintry mess. I know what most people are thinking, 'It has been a nice mild winter this year! It was even in the 60's in Jan/Feb.' Well that just isn't good enough! I miss running on the beach but today was a good booster. I was able to run outside in the 68F that it was today.
It was a good run overall running a total of 7 miles. The first three were ran in 20:10 which was a great time! However, with Cleveland comes wind! I remember reading one of INSPIRUNNING's blog posts about the least windy places in the USA. Well, I totally agree! Running up the hills of the Cleveland HEIGHTS/Shaker HEIGHTS was difficult, but not as bad as the Jerusalem hills I endured.
The final four miles were ran in 32:20 which was a good finish, however I could have done much better. As my only second non-treadmill run in the past 5-6 weeks, it was a good sign of what is to come. If I keep pushing, I don't think that anything can stand in my way!
Onto the 'Winning' portion of my post! It has always been difficult for me for the past year + to lose the final little bit of weight I wanted to. Since returning home, I may have let myself go on the eating front. Even though I had been working out hard and daily, my base weight for some reason creeped back up to 203. After seeing that on the scale for a few days strait and always saying I was going to take control, I finally did something about it.
At the end of last week, I signed up for MyFitnessPal.com Here is where I have been keeping track of my eating. I have done real real real real real well at reeling in my diet and keeping track of every morsel of food that I ingest. The good news is that after starting off strong, I am back below 200 to where I came back from Israel (and spent the better portion of last year at) to 198. According to the website, I can be at my goal of 185 by the second week of April.
I miss the feeling of hoping on the scale and seeing the new weight that I achieved. I remember seeing on my Facebook all my posts about each new weight I got. Well it is time for that again! I am on target to get there and get there strong!
I am not sure how possible it is, but between the running, yoga, weight lifting, swimming, daily abs, and dieting, I have been saying I want to have a six pack by the marathon. I don't think that is possible with the amount of toning/skin loss to achieve from the weight loss,but it is something I am going to strive for. Even if it means I get it during the summer and swim suit season :)
On a side note, I am wondering where is a good place in Cleveland to run distance outdoors? For my Sunday long runs, I'd rather run through parks than through city blocks.
Never give up! Never surrender!
