New Year, Same Chelkie (Except Bigger Better Goals!)

[Chelkie]

Well mostly the same. Over the break my boyfriend proposed to me and I said yes! 

 

Both my fiancé (which is still weird to say) and I agreed pretty much as soon as we started talking about the future wedding that we were both pretty unhappy with how we looked currently. So, before we take our engagement photos we wanted to focus on our diet and exercise goals and hopefully get into a better place. 

 

Also I’m exciting for these new NF challenge changes, 4 weeks vs 6 should be interesting. Hopefully it help some people keep their focus as I’ve noticed around week 4 people have a habit of straying for their goals. (I’m also guilty of this)

 

So without further Ado, Goals!

 

Goal 1 – Base Building

 

I’m 9 weeks out from my first half marathon of the season the Lake Sammamish Half in the Seattle area. It’s supposed to be a super flat straight course, so I’m hoping for a PR. Well honestly my dream is to break the 2hr mark this year, but I’m not sure if it will be this race. So to prep for this upcoming event the plan is to spend this 4 weeks continuing my base building portion of training. 4-5 days of running with one threshold run and one long run. I’ve been really bad so far with skipping out on my long runs because I only have an hour lunch break where I run during the week, and I have a really hard time finding motivation to go out running on the weekends. This challenge though I shall suck it up and do a long run, hell or high water!

 

Goal 2 – Count Calories

 

I have the motivation of upcoming nuptials and my race for losing a bit of weight, so counting calories is pretty key. The past couple of months I haven’t been watching what I’ve been eating, and I have been putting on some muscle, but also a bit of a tire. The goal is to try to slowly chip away at this by having a deficit of about 500 calories after accounting for exercise. I feel like this shouldn’t be too hard if I’m running at least an hour a day, but upping my mileage does make me pretty hungry. 

 

Goal 3 – Eat Out Less

 

I had this goal last challenge and it was fantastic. Not only did we eat much healthier but we also saved a bunch of money. Both of these things are good, especially the saving money part. From my small amount of research, wedding planning is freaking expensive! Yeesh. I’d like to keep this as a recurring goal until we can naturally eat out less without needing to monitor it. I'm going to try for one lunch and one dinner out a week.

 

Life Goal – Keep in Touch with Family! 

 

Last year I was really bad at talking to my family and keeping up to date on their lives, this is just sad. I love my family and I want to be closer to them this year. I’m going to try to call my parents at least once a week!

 

 

My starting stats:

 

Weigh: 127.4

V02 max (estimate): 29.3

Body Fat (estimate) 26%

Waist: 29.5

Hips: 36.5

Arm: 11

Thigh: 23

Calf: 14

Butt: 40

[german]

Congrats on the engagement!, your goals for this challenge seem great!

[Bee]

Congratulations!  Being married is fun  I like your goal about keeping in touch with family.  I'm working on that, too!  

[Terinatum]

Congrats!! Yay.

You are in good company, a few others are already headed into training for long races.

I'm also working on a better budget, good luck to both of us!

[Princess Pineapple]

Congratulations and good luck for the next 4WC.

[tinkerer]

You're back! Congratulations on the engagement; that is super cool news! Although about the time you get used to saying fiance you have to master and even bigger change in title!

 

Sometimes it helps me to plan a long weekend run in advance. That way I'm more prepared for part of my day to be taken up and can actually look forward to it.

 

Good luck!

[theophilus]

Congrats! These are great goals. Same as tinkerer here, if I don't schedule my long runs they don't happen (see: last weekend).

Can't wait to see how you do! Good luck on that 2 hr boss!

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[Chelkie]

Thanks everyone! I'm a nice equal mix of excited, happy, scared and stressed. Elopement is seeming better and better the more research I do. Like why is a venue allowed to charge a certain price for a business dinner but if you mention the word "wedding" they are allowed to jack up the price like 6x?

 

You guys are probably right, I schedule my other runs (1:30-2:30pm) every day and it helps not to have to think about when or if, I just lace up my shoes and go. The only problem is my love of weekend mid day naps. I'll have to tell myself no naps until the running is done. 

 

So I got some new awesome Icebugs for Christmas. They have these crazy treads and carbide studs, also they are made of water resistant fabric. 

 

 

I was worrying that I wouldn't get a chance to test them out because Alaska is currently experiencing an El Nino. Ha. This is what the trail looked like yesterday:

 

 

 My conclusion, the Icebugs are AWESOME. I hadn't really needed the studded shoes before, I mean I could get by with regular trail running shoes, but this week they were mandatory. I saw some poor other sap get onto the trail ahead of me in regular shoes and he was down for the count after about a 100 yards. The reviews I had read were right, the tops are definitely a bit stiff and could potentially cause chafing, but I think after I break them in they will be just fine. I'm a bit worried about transitioning from ice to asphalt after the ice melts a bit and it tearing up my studs, but the website insists the shoes are made of what winter tires are made of, and that they were designed to withstand the abuse of asphalt. We shall see, they are still really comfortable on asphalt from what i've experienced so far, though they are pretty noisy. I kind of like it actually, better than wearing a bear bell. These are definitely going to stay in my winter running arsenal and I would recommend them highly to everyone.

[Strickland5]

Snagged a pair of adidas Duramo Cross X for any field/trail but snow ... yeah we don't get much of that here in GA

[Chelkie]

Strickland5 - I'm not sure we get much snow here either anymore...*looks outside and doesn't see any snow...in January* The last year we got a record amount of snow was in 2012 when we got 135 inches and this was a thing:

 

 

I'm not sure if I miss it all that much.

[theophilus]

The last year we got a record amount of snow was in 2012 when we got 135 inches and this was a thing

Holy Elsa, Batman! I survived the record year in Boston last year at 100" - I cannot even imagine another three feet.

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[Chelkie]

Holy Elsa, Batman! I survived the record year in Boston last year at 100" - I cannot even imagine another three feet.

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I once had to dig my car out of my office parking lot with my hands and windshield scraper, there definitely is such a thing as too much snow. The past 4 years have been really warm though and hardly any snow, or if we get snow we get a lot of it fast and then it melts after a few weeks. Ice is definitely easier to run with than deep snow though, so i'm not too disappointed. If it snowed that much again i'd need to take up snowshoeing instead of running...which the thought has crossed my mind. 

[tinkerer]

Thanks and no-thanks for the review of the Icebugs. Thanks because they look awesome and really helpful in icy conditions. No-thanks because I was just thinking that I was content with the running gear I have now.

 

How is calling your parents going? This is something I struggle with and have ever since my wife and I started living together. I never feel like I should just go sit and talk on the phone when there are people around.

[Princess Pineapple]

I'm English, we don't cope with more than an inch of snow.

[Chelkie]

tinkerer - I'm constantly thinking that, and then I see something cool and i'm like...well...I could use this.

 

Princess Pineapple - I feel like that is the way most of the US is, it snows an inch in Georgia and they shut down the freeways, you see videos of cars getting into 100 car pileups, it's crazy. There is a big military base here in Anchorage and you can always tell the ones who got newly assigned here, because they are in the ditches.

 

Went for another run yesterday and they finally buffed the ice down on the trails again so my shoes weren't mandatory, but still helpful.  I was trying out a tempo run, and the extra traction was useful. 

 

I've come up with a schedule for the next 9 weeks of training, running 5 days a week, first 5 weeks its tempo, easy and long runs and the last four mixes some sprints and speedwork in. Hopefully this and my winter of base building will help me get at least close to the 2hr mark. 

[Chelkie]

Alright everyone, Week one report!

 

Base Building - Did pretty great on this one last week, ran five times for a total of 25 miles (this is actually a personal best) I ran a tempo, easy runs and I attempted a long run yesterday but I ended up only running about 15 minutes longer than normal because I started to feel sick. Oh well, try and try again. 

 

Count Calories - Did really well with this quest too, counted calories all week and ended with a deficit of about 2800, not quite the 3500 I was working on but still quite respectable for how hungry my increased running is making me. 

 

Eat Out Less - We ended up only eating out once this week for dinner and I didn't buy lunch, so i'm ahead on this goal. 

 

Keep in Touch with Family - Did soso on this quest, I was going to call my parents this weekend but got sidetracked. I did email both of them throughout the week though, so i'd say that's half credit. 

 

Oh also, here is the link to my new NF character!

 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/character/58672

 

I like what they did with it, I can see it starting to grow towards more like this other site I use Habatica which is a really great checklist for life stuff. 

[tinkerer]

Alright everyone, Week one report!

 

Base Building - Did pretty great on this one last week, ran five times for a total of 25 miles (this is actually a personal best) I ran a tempo, easy runs and I attempted a long run yesterday but I ended up only running about 15 minutes longer than normal because I started to feel sick. Oh well, try and try again. 

 

Count Calories - Did really well with this quest too, counted calories all week and ended with a deficit of about 2800, not quite the 3500 I was working on but still quite respectable for how hungry my increased running is making me. 

 

Eat Out Less - We ended up only eating out once this week for dinner and I didn't buy lunch, so i'm ahead on this goal. 

 

Keep in Touch with Family - Did soso on this quest, I was going to call my parents this weekend but got sidetracked. I did email both of them throughout the week though, so i'd say that's half credit. 

 

Oh also, here is the link to my new NF character!

 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/character/58672

 

I like what they did with it, I can see it starting to grow towards more like this other site I use Habatica which is a really great checklist for life stuff. 

Way to go on 25 miles! What sort of surfaces are you running on these days? Ice? Snow? Frozen tundra while being pursued by a pack of wolves? I suspect as you keep gradually increasing your distances that will become easier and easier to do.

 

Nice job on the other quests, also! You are off to a great start.

[Chelkie]

tinkerer - Easier to run from wolves? Mostly ice this month actually, we're currently experiencing an el nino which in Alaska means warm icy winters that are super windy. Super glad I got the icebugs, but actually if anyone is considering them you will probably need to buy new shoelaces for them. I'm looking into some of those elastic ones for them because the material the ones they come with are really slick, and thus they are constannnntly untying. Super annoying. 

 

In completely unrelated news, if anyone else plays LoL you might appreciate this video about Lux:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTaOzFVZIIY

 

Lux has always been my favorite, rainbow laser beams of death? Yes please! 

[german]

Great first week! I cannot run below 5º (and that is Celsius, I think it's like this much______________in farenheith), so kudos!

[Chelkie]

Man this week i've been tiiiiiiiiired. I can only imagine it's my body adjusting to not having an unlimited supply of carbs anymore, but it's been pretty bad.

 

I've knocked out an easy run and a tempo run this week, so I need at least another long run and an easy run, but if I can manage two easy runs would be better. 

 

Happy Friday everyone!

[tinkerer]

Did you get either of your runs in yesterday?

 

On the shoelaces thing, I totally sympathize. I don't understand why companies would make bad shoelaces at this point...we have been using them for centuries^{[citation needed]} and it seems like there are plenty of successful laces out there. It's really frustrating to spend a bunch of dollars on new shoes and discover that the laces just don't work. Good luck finding replacements!

[Chelkie]

Had a wonderful long weekend, so my update is a bit late.

 

Week Two! 

 

Run - Managed to only run 4 times this week, but one of those was a moderately legit long run of 7.28 miles, so i'm still feeling pretty good. Total mileage for the week was a little over 21. 

 

Counting - As hard as it was this week I counted every day, and was under by 2422 calories for the week. 

 

Eating Out - Ate out twice this past week, which is right on track.

 

Keeping Up w/ Family - Called my mom and talked to her for about an hour, it was her birthday this past week so I called to say hello and happy birthday and then we chatted about the upcoming wedding.

 

Overall I think it was a pretty solid second week, especially for being a holiday long weekend. I'm still having the hardest time getting out running on the weekend. Going to be the biggest hurdle this challenge I think. 

[Terinatum]

Looks like you know what's ahead for your Week 3. Best of luck!

[tinkerer]

Had a wonderful long weekend, so my update is a bit late.

Late updates are still appreciated! Glad to hear that you're still kicking butt...

[Chelkie]

Terinatum - Yeah, ever more running! I have a whole new respect for people who do even 50+ miles a week, i'm struggling with my 25. I'm sure part of the issue is my miles are so slow it takes me the same time to run 25 as some people run 50, but I have faith it will get better. 

 

tinkerer - Kicking butt, taking names, the usual. 7 weeks until my half marathon and i'm having a hard time guessing what my race time will be. One I always run quite a bit faster during a race than I do in training, probably from the adrenaline, and two i'll be running on dry pavement which I won't have done in about 5-6 months. I've been pretty slow though in my training runs, between 11-13 min/miles which is slower than I was running this summer. Do you find that you slow down in the winter? Or is this my lack of speedwork showing?