Women Can Run

I’ve always been an athlete. I’ve played some type of sport ever since I can remember. Softball, soccer, tae-kwon-do, basketball. In college, I played intramurals. However, once I started teaching, all physical exercise stopped. I gained about 10 pounds throughout my college career. But since I’ve been married, I gained 15 more. So that’s 25 extra pounds that I put on since high school. Gag.

HAHA! Can you find me?

Then, Griffin was conceived. I lost a few pounds in my first trimester, but once I hit about 20 weeks, the swelling started. And my appetite grew. The day I delivered baby G, I had gained 50 pounds. I mean really…. That’s just unacceptable.

39 weeks

Two weeks after G was born, I finally lost the water weight. 30 pounds. Poof! That was nice. However, everything was different… and squishy! After I stopped breast feeding and went back to work, I dropped another 10 pounds.

But those last 10 pounds were hanging around… I started to watch what I ate, and I dropped a few pounds, but it quickly came back. I was stuck.

12 weeks after G was born. FAT FACE!

Enter…. WOMEN CAN RUN Clinic 2013. 8 weeks ago I began this journey. But first, you must know I’ve never been a runner. An athlete, yes. A runner, no way. I was allergic to running. Seriously. It caused me to break out into horrible, itchy, unbearable hives. It was awful. But with some compression pants and hydrocortisone cream, I could make it through a 30 minute session at the clinic.

900 women signed up for the clinic including myself and my running buddy, Leslie. If it wasn’t for her, I never would have stuck with it this long. The clinic consisted of two sessions with a homework assignment each week. We started off easy… running 15 seconds and walking 3 minutes. The first month, our increments jumped by only 15 seconds. Easy Peasy.

Then the next two weeks, our running intervals jumped by 30 seconds. The final two weeks, it jumped by an entire minute! We are currently running 4.5 minutes and walking 1.

At our mock 5k on 4-27-2013
Still have a very fat face!

Yesterday, I ran my first mile without stopping or walking. It took me 12 long minutes, but I did it. I’ve never been more proud of myself!

We did it!!

I’ve come a long way. A really long way.  I look forward to running and beating my time now. I look forward to getting rid of some of the every day stress by pounding it out. I look forward to being able to wear that bikini again.

Oh yeah, I’m only 2 pounds away from being back to my pre pregnancy size. But what’s better than that, my “squishy-ness” is starting to go away. I can even fit into some of my pre pregnancy pants now. I can’t wait until they’re too big!!

My goal is to loose 25 more pounds after I loose these last two. That will put me back at the weight I was when I graduated high school.

A few other goals:

• Run a 5k without stopping (Saturday is my chance to try!)
• Run a half marathon next year
• Wear a cute swimsuit before summer is over!

Last time in a bikini when Griffin was the size of an apple seed!
Hawaii 2011 - Still 25 lbs heavier than I should be!

And this post was entirely too personal. I think I like writing about my little boy much more, but I want to look back on this to see how far I’ve come. I’m also hoping that by plastering this on the internet, I won’t be a quitter! ha! I’ll try to share my progress along the way!