Stats

As I said in yesterday's post I want my blog to be brutally honest and with as much information as possible for you and for me to log this journey.  I will enjoy going back and being able to see my progress and my failures.

So here are the cold hard facts:

Weight: 185.0
Measurements-
Neck:  13.25
Upper Arm (L):  13
Upper Arm (R):  13
Chest: 38.25
Diaphragm:  35
Waist: 36
Belly Button: 40
Buttocks: 42.5
Upper Thigh (R):  24.5
Upper Thigh (L):  24.5
Calf (R): 15.5
Calf (L): 15.5
Upper Knee (R): 17.25
Upper Knee (L): 17.5
Total Inches: 345.75

I took this picture after a run so I'm out of breath.

I hate my belly.

Well there you have it friends.  All my glory for you to see.  My goal is to lose 30 lbs while training for a marathon.

Tomorrow I will lay out my running plan for January.  I need to add in core workouts and strength training.  Need to add in some yoga too.  I am dedicated to getting this done in 2016.  now I need to remember where I left my motivation.  Oh, I wanted to add the reason I plan to run a marathon in January of 2017 is not just because its in Hawaii but that my long runs (those over 8 miles) will take place in the fall when the weather is a bit cooler.  I didn't want to be training for a marathon in the summer months.  I mean who wants to run 15 miles in the heat and humidity. I will be training to run a 1/2 marathon at The Akron Marathon in September, that's enough.

No running today, Its pouring rain outside and has been all night.  I like to run in the rain but I don't like to run through large puddles...my toes get cold and wet and that is not pleasant.

Have you set any goals for 2016?

Who? What? Where? Why?

What is Eating an Elephant? It comes from the joke "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."  My elephant is to run a marathon.  26.2 miles.  When I first came up with the idea to write a blog about me dream it seemed like eating an elephant was just as impossible as I was only able to run for .2 miles without having to stop and catch my breath and walk for a little while.  I would have to be able to walk .2 run .2 for just over 65 times. That is crazy!!  It would take me about 6 hours to complete a marathon, that is without stopping to take a "nature break" or to grab fuel, or to run up a hills or anything that might slow my pace.

My goal is simple...  to run a marathon in Maui in January 2017. (Because if I'm going to run a marathon...why not do it in Hawaii.) I would like to run the marathon at a 9:30 pace and figuring in a few this and that's that would have me finishing the race in 4.5 hours.  Seems totally do able.

I have charted this whole idea out and on paper it looks totally doable.  It makes my think I can eat this elephant.  However, for those of you who don't know me let me introduce myself.  I am 46 years old.  I started running in September of 2014 with the Couch to 5 k program.  I was doing great and then I tore my Achilles Tendon in my left leg in October of 2014.  I started to run again on January 1st, 2015 and took it easy to start.  Unfortunately other factors were at play with my body and I struggled to run for just 30 secs at a time.  My frustration grew and grew as I struggled with my running, and also with a health issue I wasn't really handling well.  Finally in July I went to my doctor and let him know something was wrong because before I got hurt I was running really well and now I just didn't have the stamina to keep up the pace.  Turns out...I had developed Crohn's.  Yea, that was the condition I was ignoring.  Today I am on meds and while the Crohn's is under control my running is not coming back as fast as I want.  But today!  TODAY  I ran well. TODAY I hit a goal.  TODAY running a marathon seems like I can do this.  TODAY I know I am crazy.

Now as I said in my first paragraph when I came up with this idea that I could run a marathon I was only running for .2 miles at one stretch.  That was about 2 months ago.  Today, December 26th 2015 I ran .42 miles and .44 miles without stopping. One was at the start of my run and one was at the end.  I didn't get much more running in the rest of my time but I can live with that.

The whole point of this blog is to record the journey I am trying to accomplish.  To write down my goals and keep myself accountable to those goal. To be brutally honest with you the reader and with myself. I want to relish my accomplishments and acknowledge my struggles so that I can learn what I'm doing wrong and try to fix them. I plan to record my weight, pictures of myself, all the messy stuff on here so if you are not interested in reading about how I had to pee in the woods..again, this might not be the blog for you.

Tomorrow I will give you my stats as this entry is getting long winded. I hadn't intended to start this blog today but was going to wait until January 1st but since I had a major woo hoo moment I had to start this today.

Thank you for reading.  What's your ELEPHANT?

-Tammy