Follow through Friday - A Busy July and a Sub 30 5k

I can NOT believe it is already July… June just FLEW by! I missed updating last week but had time off yesterday so I was able to catch up!

Two weeks ago, I was actually able to work out with G. We never really have this opportunity because of his work travel plus the kids so I was excited to be able to do this. He has a personal trainer who sends him weekly workouts to do while on the road, but he saved this one for Friday when he was home (and so was I since it was my off-Friday) and the girls were still at daycare so we went together to our community clubhouse gym and did it together. It didn’t feel too tough while doing it, beside the crunches, but boy was I sore for days after it! It was also so much more fun to do it with him! Then between being sore, busy, lazy, and sick for one day, the only other exercise I got that week was a 2 mile run. I programmed the treadmill to gradually increase speed (all on incline 1.0) with a small 30 second decrease after the 1^st mile and increase back up so that I would hit 2 miles in 18:30. I increased it a little quicker than the program was set for, and finished in 18:27. It was really tough and I wanted to stop many times but I kept talking myself out of it “it’s only 8 more minutes, only 5 more minutes, only 30 more seconds” etc.  It’s crazy for me to think that there are people whose recovery paces are still faster than this whereas this took everything out of me to achieve. 

Now on to this past week. I started my exercise off on Saturday morning with a MRTT run. Which we actually did two separate runs. A few of us (4 total) met up earlier for a 3 mile run at a little faster pace than the 5k group that we had ran with a few weeks ago and then when that was over, the 5k group arrive and we did 3 miles with them (one of the girls and I continued on and did 3.2 miles). We ended up having 11 of us for the 2^nd run, it was such a great turnout! The 5k group is running their first 5k tomorrow for 4^th of July, this will be the 1^st 5k for many of them, how exciting!! I chose not to that race b/c it is further away and signed up for the local “4 on the 4^th” race tomorrow. Anyways, it is getting SO hot out now that even a run at 6:15 am is pretty rough. I’m so not looking forward to the 8am start time for my next 5k on the 11^th, it’s going to be miserably hot. And then I have another on the 18^th. Totally didn’t realize I had races 3 weeks in a row! Why again did I sign up for summer races??  I also started this “30 Day Sleek Arms Challenge” for the month of July. I’ve never successfully finished a 30 day challenge before, so I’m trying to change that!

I also have big news!! I finally ran a sub 30 5k! I actually ended up doing it in less than 29 minutes! My run on Wednesday was a 5k at 1.0 incline in 28:52!! I don't know how I'll be able to mimic that outside in the heat but it felt SO good to finally do it. I can't wait to do it again and keep improving! 

My eating has been alright, not on par, but not completely out of control either and I did gain this week. I haven’t really been sticking to the carb cycling, pretty much just back to counting calories and reducing carbs on some days but not really sticking to the 5 meals a day either. July is just going to be so crazy too but I need to at least get down to my transformer weigh in weight of 152.3 by July 18/19^th and then if I maintain the rest of the month, I’ll be happy as the last two weeks of July are going to be very tough for me as I’ll be away from home for 14 days in a row between work and personal travel. For the work travel, it isn’t like I’m in one place for several days either,(normally I am), I’ll be flying and driving from multiple locations which will make it really hard to hit the gym but I’m not going to completely write it off and will definitely try!

My stats for the last two weeks:

Week Ending 6/26:

Weight: 153.0 lbs
Exercise:
     .35 mile warm up with 45 minute strength training
     2.00 miles in 18:27 (9:14 pace)

Week Ending 7/3:

Weight: 155.2 lbs
Exercise: 

     3.02 miles in 35:15 (11:41 pace)

     3.21 miles in 39:06 (12:11 pace)

     3.10 miles in 28:52 (9:19 pace)
     

Overall Weight Lost since "Starting Point" 10/24/14: 24.4 lbs.