45 Days and Counting

Today marked 45 days and counting until the Baltimore Marathon.  This was quite the eventful week for me too in regards to that.  For the second strait week, I had a very good week of running.  I ran 44 total miles and my 7 mile time was one of my best ever (I almost beat it today, but slowed up between miles 3-4).  Even my long run of 17 miles was ran below my marathon goal pace.

This all led me to officially signing up for the Baltimore Marathon.  This past week I registered, sent in my shirt size and am gearing up to go.  I would like to thank my mom for taking care of the registration as my birthday gift.  I look forward to using it to finish my first marathon.

School has started this week causing life to need a little balancing.  With all the classes I am taking and all the driving (out to Orrville, OH twice a week), it is going to take me a few days to figure out a new routine.  I didn't run the first two days this week but was resting Monday and just didn't find the time or energy to do it yesterday.  Today I pushed out my 7 miles and think I may need to start running mid day.  Going to have to start bearing with the heat! Haha, just kidding, its CLEVELAND!  The mid day temps are already not bad at all.

As I am here eating my hearty salad for lunch, I figure with 45 days to go, 'Lets see what I can do'.  I have already beyond surprised myself at my new fitness and running ability/passion.  I wonder with 45 days of being super good with eating and running, what pre-race fitness level could I attain?  Judy has been strong with me while kicking sugar to the road for 30 days and that is half way through.  This wont be too hard to add to it?  Will it?

Sign Me Up!

I had a really good training week this past week.  It was quite hard to push through at a point but made it through.  A quick recap of the work:
Monday - 3 miles
Tuesday - 1 mile warm up, 3x 1 mile runs, 1 mile cool down
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - 7 miles
Friday - 10.5 miles
Saturday - 15.5 miles
Total -41 miles

With such a good week, I am going to start running with a watch again to really work towards the marathon. I even ran today and made my 3 miles in 19:20 which was pretty good.  The biggest part of all this is that now I will be signing up for the marathon.  Baltimore Marathon, here I come!

Baltimore Marathon Running Festival 2012

Before I sign up for the marathon, I have started to look through their charity pages.  I have never tried to run for a charity before and am interested in learning more about it.  The one that really caught my eye was the Best Buddies charity that worked on inclusion in schools and professional positions.  I sent them an email and am waiting to hear back on more information.

Best Buddies Maryland Charity

I am going to poke around a few blogs too and ask some fellow runners if they have ran for charities in the past and why they chose who they did.

Stay classy Cleveland, OH

Is it really a success?

So this past week, I finally hit my goal of breaking 100 lbs in weight loss.  I weighed in at 183 Wednesday morning and from my original base of 285 that is 102 lbs overall so far.  The whole time since then though it has not been such a 'joyous occasion' as I was expecting it to be.  It is very great in my mind that I am at an acceptable weight that is healthy, lowers my chances of diseases, I worry less about diabetes and other issues.  Overall healthy.

What comes to mind though that I cant get out of my head is everyone keeps on saying nice things to me about how well I have done losing weight, but what about before?  People don't go walking around saying to fit people, nice job, looking good, way to get it done.  Maybe they do for workout partners.  I high five Donny after a hard workout, mentally wish people good luck in the gym when I see someone struggling, and so on.

The biggest issue is that do I really deserve people saying great job for the weight loss?  It is more so because now I am at a healthy weight, but what did I do before?  How horribly was I disrespecting myself as a person before to even get to 285 in the first place?  People who don't have to go through this already respect their bodies in a way that wont cause a weight loss.  I think it is great that people work hard to lose weight and it is difficult, but it comes down to what was I doing to myself to let this happen in the first place.

I dont mean to be disrespectful but I do get disgusted going to fast food restaurants and seeing the people there eating.  There is a sense that I get looking around and thinking to myself what I used to do to myself and the results of it.  Now I am healthier but the USA and the world needs to start learning to respect themselves.  I keep thinking to myself when I get a craving 'I need to eat tomorrow too, why not wait to eat this extra food until then.'  The theory is there is always tomorrow, no need to gorge anymore today.