Sunday, June 9, 2013

My bat wings exposed!

So I struggled about whether or not to post this picture, but I have never tried to pretend that my bat wings were pretty.  They are pretty bad and I've said that from day one.  This is the cross I have to bear and if it's the only area of concern I have to deal with after a 125 pound weight loss, I'll take it.  I will definitely need surgery in the future because I really want to be able to wear pretty sleeveless numbers in the summer.  So there you have it!  I'm not perfect!  Far from it.  But I'm keeping it real.  My arms SUCK!!!!!!!!!

Regardless of my bat wings.  I love this picture of Carol and I.  We're just
about to cross the finish line of the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon.

I've been so incredibly upset about my metatarsalgia lately.  I ran 9K on Saturday with my orthotics and my toes cramped.  I ran 10.7K on Sunday without orthotics and my toes cramped.  I really want to run pain free.  The rest of me is fine right now.  Just my toes are the issue.  It's so incredibly frustrating and really crushes my confidence as a runner.  When I'm running and I have a lot of time to think, I question whether or not it will ever be fixed.  Running with chronic pain is not fun.  But the chronic pain won't keep me from running.  I'm interested to see what happens at my follow-up orthotics visit on Wednesday.

This is near the end of the half marathon.
I'm in a lot of pain.

I haven't been commenting on a lot of blogs lately.  I'm still reading, just not commenting.  I have actually been catching up on sleep.  I have been going to bed much earlier than I have been and one of my late night vices was blog reading.  So I apologize.  I think I have hit the proverbial wall and really need to get at least 6.5 hours of sleep in a night.  I'd been burning the candle at both ends which is counter productive to a healthy lifestyle.

My stomach is flabby again which means only one thing to me.  I am getting smaller.  Every time my stomach gets flabby it means that I've dropped fat in my mid-section and I have to wait a few more weeks before I firm up again.  Honestly, there's not much left to lose in my mid-section.  It's actually quite bony now.  Please, please drop fat in my thighs and ass.  That's all that's left. Although my massage therapist has told me that my hamstring and glute area has firmed up, I still have about 5 pounds of fat I could stand to lose from back there.  Oh Calgon, take it away! You'd think that since I'm a runner that the thigh and hip area is the first place it would disappear from. Not true.  I have to work at getting fat off those areas.

So my eating is boring and the same as always.  I pretty much cut nuts out of my diet this week. But had some almonds at my girlfriend Elin's house today with my weekly wine.  Other than my daily cream in my coffee, I've been strict Paleo.  My weight has remained the same this week. I'm not sure when I last weighed in (it may have been 2 weeks ago), but I'm still 165.  I'm 165 but my size 8 skinny jeans are getting loose around the mid-section.  They're fitting bigger and I can't complain about that.  I also won't complain if I never get smaller than a size 8.  Never in a million years did I dream I'd be smaller than a size 24!

In two weeks I'm running the Meredith Hagan Inspiration Run with my 10K clinic.  This is not my race.  It's the race for the runners I have guided over the past 10 weeks.  I'm not hoping to get a PB during this race.  I'm going to cross the finish line with as many of my clinic participants as I can. That will make for a really screwed up chip time.  But I don't care.  When you teach a clinic, it's not about you, it's about your participants. I'm so very proud of them.  Some will go on to the half marathon clinic and I hope in part it has to do with the encouragement and support I have given them.  Everyone needs a Carol in their life.  I always strive to be the Carol in the people that I instruct.

This was Carol  and I 17+K in
during my last half marathon.