Get In My Belly!

I have finished week 7 of Early Bird training! One more week left before I officially start my Marathon Training. I have seen a lot of positive changes this last week!

~

One, I am constantly hungry! No this is a good thing - i love to eat! And what better way than to burn an incessant amount of calories and then to be able to eat whatever the hell I want! ESPECIALLY CARBS! I love bread, pasta, crackers, fruit...must I say more! My metabolism must be going a mile a minute (a lot faster than I run) - because I can't seem to feed myself fast enough!

~

Two, My body is changing. In a good way - things are tightening up. yeah bikini season! Never thought i would utter those words. I'm starting to think that this marathon idea wasn't so crazy after all. I will get back to this thought in a few weeks :0)

~

Three, My endurance is climbing every day....Sunday I had a 6 mile run. This is the longest i have ever attempted. I did OK...I did better than i thought i would. I was just starving for water the last half of my run! and seriously contemplated and calculated the disease and germ factor if I were to take a few drinks from the creek flowing beside us. Where are the drinking fountains, City of Coralville??? uhhhh..so thirsty....uhhh Just so you know...6 miles is a really long way when you are on foot! Seriously - I can drive that 6 miles in 3 minutes opposed to the hour and 10 minutes of huffing and puffing I did! Oh well - it's all for the greater good, right??!!!?? (yes Cheri, keep telling yourself that!)

~
Other happenings this week.... I went to Running Wild RIGHT after our run on Sunday. Still having issues with the foot so I felt I should consult Running Wild which is a store in Coralville that specializes in running shoes. They really do know their stuff and are very thorough when "prescribing" a type of shoe to a customer. They ask that you bring in your current running shoes so they can inspect your tread - this apparently helps them figure out how you place your foot while walking/running. They also make you walk up and down the length of the store several times as they watch how you place your feet when you take steps-all the while dodging other customers.
~
From just these few happenings, they can decide what type of shoe would fit you best. So after they get it narrowed down to a few different styles for you to try on...they have you jog down the sidewalk and back in the new shoes, all the the while, trying to focus on the feel and if they are hitting you in the right place. Remember... I had told you we went to Running Wild AFTER the 6 mile run...Good God, I thought I was done with heavy breathing for the day! During all of this they asked me a lot of questions about; Where the numbness starts? How it effects me? and is there any pain afterwards? and so on...
~
None the less the experience was interesting - I was informed that Footlocker scammed me into buying an insert that i really didn't need -SHOCKER! (Yes Yes...stupid me for going there in the first place). They also said that my arch in my shoe may be too high which could be causing my discomfort, AND I got to spend over a $100 on running shoes and 3 pairs of socks - AWESOME! but hey, the way i see it -if it makes me feel better when i run it was totally worth it. I do have 2 weeks to try them out and if they don't work I can come back and they can analyze me some more! I am not completely convinced that the new shoes will fix my problem, but i am wishing really really hard that it does fix it.

~
The second cool thing that happened last week...The University of Iowa has a program called "LiveWELL". It is geared toward keeping the employees healthy and making good life choices, instill a good diet, stress management, etc. Basically every 6 months you can fill out their survey which goes over the previous points i listed. The added bonus to taking this survey is that they ACTUALLY PAY YOU WHEN YOU TAKE IT! SCORE! So I got a call last week from a health coach...i made an appointment, she asked what i wanted to work on if anything - and I informed her that i need help with Diet and nutrition. The Husband and I get "C"'s in this department. He's a farm boy -meat and potato's and i have grown up in the Midwest my whole life. We are not terrible eaters - we're just not educated! So this is the deal - i will meet with this dietitian and learn about BMI and the food groups and all that good stuff. AND it's FREEEEEEEE! i am very excited - it's like finding a good bargain! what better time could this have happened for me.
~
So needless to say my spirits are high as I enter my last week of Early Bird training. I haven't tried out the new shoes yet - my right foot has been really sore to the point where it's difficult to walk and i have officially become a ibuprofen pill popper. But Hey I'm still positive - this will all work out!
~ Running For The Kids
Cheri