Week 5

I know I should be on like week 7 but I went home and my Ipod broke so I just ran 2miles every other day with Aaron so I'm not counting that towards the C25K.

Anyway, tomorrow starts Day 1 Week 5! Holy moly! And my 5k is only 20 days away!

My Dad and Mom are coming down for the weekend of the 5k. Dad's running it with Aaron and I and Mom's watching the boys.

I'm so nervous. I don't know why I psyche myself out about it so much. I know I can run it. I can run it without stopping and run it in under 30 minutes. Which is always my goal but I still get so nervous about it.

I just want to try and keep pace with Aaron or my Dad. I was going to keep pace with my Dad the last race but he just took up and finished the race 4 minutes ahead of me! LOL. But I should be faster by now and I'm praying that I can just keep up with one of them.

I also want to go to Virginia Runners and get myself some nice, fitted especially for me, shoes before the race. Maybe if we can find a little extra cash we can do that.

Anyway, Week 5, Day 1 tomorrow. We're going on base to run it so that means I get to wear a purdy little glow belt. Lol. I'm going to (try) to talk Aaron into watching the boys in the morning so I can just run by myself. If I do that, I'll bring the dog. If Aaron wont watch 'em, I'll take the boys and leave the mutt. I can't do both on base because the road just isn't wide enough..

I'll letcha know how it goes!

W3D2 Complete

We're down a running partner. Ash went home to visit family. But Diana and I are still plugging along. We finished week 3 day 2 this morning. Tomorrow will be the final day of week 3. Then I go home. But I plan on continuing at home by myself.

Anyway, this morning started off hard like it normally does. Its take at least the first 2 intervals to get me "warmed up." And in week 3, there are only 4 intervals. So by the last two, I'm ready for more.

At the end of interval 4, I sprinted. Bad idea. Well, let me back track... last Friday, I did my normal run/walk in the am and that night, I wanted to go on the treadmill so I could get an accurate time for 3 miles.

So I hit the gym and do a mile easily (or so I thought) I did it on a 2% increase and ran it at 6mph. But when my 1st mile was up, I looked at the time and did it at 10minutes. Which really sucks because I was thinking that I had been improving a lot in time. I though atleast 8-9 minutes. So that was very discouraging.

So I walked for 2 minutes and then started up mile 2. I ran that at 1% and ran at a speed of 6.8mph. By the end of the mile, I was dying. Not with my breathing or anything but my shins we aching! so I stopped after the 2nd mile and my time was a whole minute faster. (Nice.) Buuut I totally injured my shins. (Not so nice)

Anyway, I couldnt stand the thought of trucking in another mile so I walked for a few minutes and quit. I was so disappointed in myself. I know better then to push that hard. I knew that I would most likely get hurt but I did it anyway becuase I'm obsessed with time. And that in itself is annoying. I should be worried about distance and stanama but I just cant get the thought of time out of my mind.

I think it all goes back to highschool. In highschool, you ran a mile like twice a year. Normally I ran it about 7-8 minutes. Once I ran it in 6. Which is awesome, I was a teenager then and I COULD run it that fast. I'm 25 years old. I shouldn't be worried about what my time was in highschool. It's just stupid.. but I think it's just that competitive part of me. Weather Im competing against myself or someone else, it's always a competition to me.. and that's my problem..

Anyway, I'm a little sore in the shins but Ive been trying to RICE it all day and we'll see how it goes tomorrow..

W2D3 Complete!

Yeah, we kicked it's ass this morning.

It was nice and cool, sun was under some clouds, and we ran a different route. Which I like WAY better.

Friday when we go, I'm bringing my camera. I shouldn't have to take the boys so I should be able to snap some good pictures.

Oh annnd, I found out today that there is a 5k on Base on Saturday! I'm signing up. It's $30 normally but if Aaron and I do it, it's free I guess because it has something to do with his work. I dont know but I'll do anything that's free. Especially since we're trying to save as much money as possible for our trip home next week.

Anyway, here's the link:http://www.marinecorpshistorichalf.com/Left_Nav/MCM_Event_Series/RunStock.htm

and if you're interested, it even gives a download to see what the course is going to look like.

Now, I'm not positive that we're doing it yet. When I talked to Aaron, he said we'll talk about it when he gets home. (Which is tomorrow) but even if he would just watch the boys, I would love to be able to run this one by myself.. just to see how I could do ya know? But he probably wont let me because I know he wants to run it, too.. Hmph. I guess we'll have to suck it up and take the jogger. That is the reason we bought it, isn't it? Well, yeah it is but boy does it suck to run with.

Anyway, I'll update once I know more..

As for the C25K ladies - keep up the awesome work! I'm so psyched that so many of you have joined! We're really kicking its butt! Has anyone else signed up for a 5k yet? C'mon ladies! You can do it!

W2D3 (C25K)

Well, today was the start of week 2 day 2. Tomorrow will be week 2 day 3. Not sure how many we're going to be doing for week 2. We've just kind of been doing whatever. You're supposed to do 3 times a week, one day one, one day off.. but when we started last week, we started Tuesday (I think) and ran Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I guess we feel like we're getting a foot up because we're not skipping a day. We allow the weekeds for rest. Although we don't completely rest. We'll normally walk one night and run one morning.

Our 5k is in 6ish weeks. The program is supposed to take you 9 weeks so I think we're kind of stepping it up because we didn't allow ou sleves enough time before we signed up for this 5k.

I'm excited to see what my time will be. I know it's all about running distance and taking your time but for me it's not. I have to beat a certain time.. it's my goal.. that's all.

Here we are. Lets compare.

This is me at 170lbs in June of 08.

The picture with the belt is from Feb 6th 09 and the picture with my black tank top on is from today (aug 7th 09) Cuz I can't figure out how to put the pictures side by side. I suck at blogging.. =/

Okay, so I dont see much of a difference between Feb and Aug. but there is. Weight wise anyway. On Feb 6th, I weighed 141. Today, I weigh 131(ish.) So what you're looking at is a 10lb difference. Nice. Still have the crappy stretch marks but so does every other Mom I know. I'll live with it. I like to think of them as my battle scars! :)

Some pictures.

This is my stomach as of August 7th 2009



Still not "flat" But we're getting there


These hills are the reason I'm getting into better shape

And these ladies are my motivation

Oh, and these cute little guys too. :)

I would love to post some pictures of my legs.. but right now Aaron's working and I had a hard enough time getting the self timer to work for my stomach.

I know some people are reading this and probably thinking, "Get over yourself, Jackie"(I know I would..lol) But ya know what, I work hard and I am proud of what I'm doing and how far I have come. If you don't like it, don't read it. I deserve to have a little pride and God forbid a little confidence once in a while.

I'm getting there. As of right now, I am 10lbs from my goal weight of 120. My goal for this month was to get down to 125 before I go home. (which is August 20th) I think, if I work real hard and eat real healthy, I can get there. Problem with that is, I wont have any clothes to wear! LOL

That's the worst part about losing/gaining weight. You have to go out and buy an all new wardrobe! I think I have one size 6 pants that I'll be able to wear when I get down to 120. Thats it..

Anyway, I'm going to go back to my January posts and dig up my before pictures and compare. I hope I see a big difference!

And to all of my fellow C25K followers - KEEP IT UP! You're doing awesome! I'm so happy that I get to share something like this with you all! You inspire me!

Things I need for my workout.

My double jogger and 2 kids(Ben not pictured)














My trusty k9














My Ipod Nano














My kick ass Sigg water bottle














And my awesome Nike RunChi's

I've started this: http://www.c25k.com/ It's basically a site that will get you running a 5k in 9 weeks. It rocks. Now, I've already ran my 1st 5k buuut this program kicks butt and if it's going to help me improve then you bet your ass I'm doing it!

If you download the pod casts, it'll walk/run you through the whole 9 weeks. It tells you when to run and when to "walk briskly" It also has some nice motivation words thrown in there.

My neighbors and I have decided to take the challenge. we started Tuesday and have gone every day since. Although the program wants you to take the day on, day off approach, we feel we can run week one over 5 days instead of 3. And we also think there is less chance of us quitting as the weeks get harder. PLUS, our 5k is in 7 weeks instead of 9 so we have to crunch and work really hard and do more work if we want to make it.

If everything goes as planned, we'll be at the starting line on September 20th at 8am. My goal: 25 minutes. Can I do it? I have no idea.. but I'd like to find out. I'm going to try and keep pace with Aaron. And he can run it in 22 or less.. so we'll see..

More updates to follow.

September 5k

My neighbors, Diana and Ashley have been walking the "hills" with me every day for a month now. Ash and I do 3 miles in the morning and 3 miles at night and then we run on either Saturday or Sunday. Leaving one day of rest.

I showed them this: http://www.c25k.com/
(Couch to 5k)
It's awesome and we're starting the program tomorrow. We have 7 weeks. (even though the program takes 9) to get ready for our 5k. I figure we've already got a nice head start considering we've been kicking the "hills" asses for over a month now. Plus, Ash and I have been running..

So they're coming up in a half hour and we're registering for it.

Aaron and I are supposed to do a 5k while we're back home but he's having second thoughts. He thinks we're not going to have enough time while we're home and the race is an hour away. BUT, I really want to do it. And my Dad does, too! He even bought new running shoes. So maybe just me and my Dad will sign up. We'll see. But in the mean times, I'm signing Aaron and I up for this 5k in Stafford:http://www.racetimingunlimited.org/ The Margaret Brent PTO 5k.

And what are we going to do with the boys you ask? I have no idea.. we'll have to figure that out when the time comes.. LOL