By the numbers

It's been awhile and I'm thinking, maybe I'm not cut out for this blogging thing.  At least not to the point where I'd have loyal followers and I'd make money off this thing.  Every once in awhile though,(usually Sunday mornings while I'm running ungodly amounts of miles) I have a good idea.  So here's my life by the numbers.

9- The number of miles I ran yesterday in my quest to achieve 13.1 in just 6 short weeks.  Why, a year ago, did I think that doing this as my "bachelorette party" was a great idea? A year ago I was in the middle of dealing with plantar fasciitis and coming to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be running a marathon with my daddy at the end of October. Now I'm for the most part healthy (other than an IT band that doesn't like my funky stride) and running is fun, but I may not be cut out for this over 10K thing.  Sir Fianco helped a lot by bringing home a foam roller so I could massage my entire lower body, but now my upper body is sore from holding myself up as I was rollin'.  What a dilemma.

2- The number of months we will have had our adorable pup Jake in our lives on October 1st.  He just graduated from beginner dog class on Saturday and while we're learning as much as he is, I don't think Sir Fianco and I would trade him in for anything.

21.8- The number of pounds I've lost since June.  I've been telling people 22 because I think it's close enough.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  This is the first time in pretty much ever that I've been at a healthy weight and used healthy means to get there.  Problem now? Already did my first wedding dress fitting and with all the running, I'm still losing weight.  I know people would consider that a "good problem" but really I don't have the money to be getting more substantial alterations just weeks before the wedding.  So I've started basically eating whatever I want.  I still lose weight but not as fast as I was while I was still following weight watchers to the "t".  Anyone who wants/needs to lose weight, do Weight Watchers.  Your life is worth every cent you pay into it.

45- The number of days until THE day.  I've already ordered most of the decorations, figured out bridesmaids gifts, we've booked the hotel room for the night of our wedding, booked the honeymoon, finalized flowers, finalized cupcakes, we have a tasting on Wednesday (food and alcohol), a meeting with the DJ next Sunday, booked hair and makeup appointments, and started getting RSVPs back.  Now I can focus on little details like the ringbearer pillow and the something borrowed/blue/old/new.  Little things that will make this wedding, our wedding.

Those are the numbers that are ruling my life as of now. I can't wait for the wedding.  Mostly because we will have everyone we've ever loved (minus the few who can't make it and we'll miss terribly) in one place and be able to share the happiest day of our lives thus far with them.  Then we can move on to babies.  

skinny jeans and honeymoons

Hi friends! Runaway Bride here... Haven't been running away too much lately, it's just so darn hot in the South and my true half training doesn't start for another 4 weeks or so.  Spinning though, I've been doing a lot of!  I got back into it at the end of May when my MOH (Megarama) and her hubbie (El Padre) were in town.

See, Megarama and I are running the Rock n Roll together with my dad so I thought we should start working out together even if we're across the country from each other.  So we signed up for spin on a Saturday morning and I got hooked back in.  I've been going 3 times a week for 7 weeks and have no doubt that's aided in my weight loss.  That's right, I've lost 10.2 pounds in the last 6 weeks!  Weight Watchers is just one of those things that works.  For me, at least.  I've noticed that my problem what not what I was eating, but how much and when I was I eating.  Don't get me wrong, I haven't become one of those people that measures and weighs everything I put into my body (who has time for that, plus I'm half Mexican and we never measure anything when cooking!) but I have paid closer attention to how many and how big the servings I get are.  I'm sure if I did get all crazy about measuring and weighing I probably would have been further along in my weight loss, but I'm really quite satisfied with where I'm at.  I put my skinny jeans on this morning and they were loose.  Which is 1. GREAT, but 2. Kinda sad because I love my skinny jeans.  They still look pretty good (probably even better because I've lost a bit around the hips) but I know one day I'll have to retire them and just get a new pair!

Another fun thing that happened this week was the booking of our honeymoon!  We had been looking for the perfect vacay since we basically got engaged.  There's so much we want to experience together, narrowing it down to one trip for our first married trip together was super hard.  We didn't want a completely beachy destination (totally not our thing, anyone who knows me knows I cannot just sit on a beach and relax) nor did we want a place where we had to move around too much when we wanted to do something.  So we decided a cruise would be best, but to where?  We've both been to the Bahamas so that was out. Europe was way too expensive. Alaska doesn't work in November.  So I looked on websites and found a cruise to Honduras, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel.  Sounded pretty cool since it wasn't all about the beaches and had some cool "teaser" excursions.  After doing lots of research (again, if you know me, you know I can't do something without thoroughly researching all possible options) I realized this was it.  Our honeymoon.  Of course, I was keeping Sir Fianco informed of all this and he was just very excited to be on a boat where we could eat 24 hours a day and go to 4 different places in one week.  I have to admit, that sounds pretty exciting to me, too!

That's pretty much it from here in the muggy, sweaty, and hot Savannah.  Hope everyone is staying cool!

Keep on running,

Runaway Bride

I'm baaaaack

I read someone's running blog today and it made me nostalgic.  So, here it is.  I haven't updated this thing since September 30th of last year which is quite ridiculous. A lot has happened in that time. Including me not running the Marine Corps Marathon.
But!
I did run the MCM 10K which was pretty awesome.  It allowed me to finish my race and watch my dad run the marathon pretty much from mile 16 on.  Why didn't I run the marathon you ask?  Well, turns out plantar fasciitis sucks. A lot.  I got the diagnosis around the time of my last post.  The doctor even told me not to do the 10K, but I felt pretty good the whole time during the run.  As soon as I finished, I got my medal, got my clothes and ran to the metro to get to the 16th mile marker to cheer on my dad.  Thanks to mobile websites, I was able to track him pretty easily and cheer my little heart out.  By the end, he was pretty tired (who wouldn't be after 26.2 miles?!) but super pumped that he was done and had completed a marathon!  I've never been so proud of my dad and even though we weren't able to do it together, I felt like it was an experience we'll always have to look back on.
Fast forward to today.  We're about 4 months out from the wedding.  Everything is very ready to go and I have become so anxious (in a good way) to get to our date.  On the exercise front, I have been doing spinning since May and started running again this past week.  One of my Matrons of Honor and my dad are planning on doing the inaugural Rock and Roll Marathon Savannah on November 5th, 2011.  I really excited about this because I've heard great things about the Rock and Roll races and it helps that it's in Savannah!  I love that I'm going to be a part of the inaugural run.  We plan on making obnoxious shirts about me getting married and just having fun in general.
I hope I can be better about this over the next 4 months, I think since my training is picking up and I'm sure wedding stuff will pick up as time goes on this will keep me accountable on all ends. :)

Keep on running,

Runaway Bride

Engagement Pictures and the Fine Art of Looking Good

So, SF and I planned to have our engagement pictures right before the marathon since I would be in tip top shape and feeling good about myself... Well plans change but our engagement shoot certainly has not!  I came to the conclusion that It really doesn't matter if I look like I can run a marathon in my pictures because SF doesn't wanna marry me for my ridiculous running skills.  I think there may be something more than that to have kept him around for the past 6 or so years.  

However when it comes down to it, I'm still a girl and I still wanna look good so I decided to 

about all the bad exercise stuff that's happened and start doing something about it!  In addition to spinning, I've started on the elliptical which is actually less stress on my foot I think than spinning---based on how it feels for the entire day after, as well as rowing.  Back in the day I used to think rowing on those machines was T-O-R-T-U-R-E.  It's actually not too bad when you have music and a "pace boat" on the display screen motivating you.  

I also started with weight lifting because I never did that while training and I think it probably could have helped me a lot with my form and maybe even helped prevent a few aches I've had along the way.  I'm nowhere near being figure competition ready (nor do I wanna be, those girls are amazing with their self-control in terms of eating bad food) but I feel better about myself already and it's only been two weeks.  I have a little over two weeks left before our pictures and I've set my own personal goals relating to inches and the fit of my clothing over the next couple weeks and beyond.  We'll see how it goes, but I've been *mostly* good with eating healthy foods at home and when I'm not home, I try to get something not too horrible.  I've found that portioning is really the key to it all.  

Keep on running,

Runaway Bride

Turning into a Spinster

Hey kids!  Sorry for the long delay in posts (whoever reads this) but I've been going through a bit of a low point.  The move went well, of course we're still unpacking and everything is still in disarray but would it be Sir Fianco and me if it weren't?  :)

So I'm sure everyone (all 3 of you) are wondering how the training is going. In two words: It's not.  You might remember during my 100 days post, I spoke of heel pain.  Well the pain continued to increase or my pain tolerance decreased.  Whatever it was, something was definitely wrong.  I took a week off and tried again but the pain was ridiculous.  SF did his different tests on me and we tried icing and came to the conclusion that most likely, I have a stress fracture in my heel.  It's not really worth going a doctor when I don't have health insurance if that's what it is (or if it's even something less serious) because they'll say and do the same things SF would.  So I asked what kind of exercise I could do since I was going crazy from lack of physical activity.
"You can ride a bike."

WHAT?!

That's right.  Ride a bicycle.  After I have been running mostly longer than 5 miles for a couple weeks I'm supposed to sit and move my leg around in circles.  Now, no disrespect to cyclists.  Professional ones are pretty amazing, but when you're substituting it for running it's b-o-r-i-n-g.  So I thought, "What about spinning?"  I had done spinning once before in Lynchburg and really liked it.  It's intense, but it's still a bicycle!  So I tried that out on Saturday and loved it.  I think standing up while riding was a little too much pressure on my foot so I talked to the instructor and she gave me some good tips!  So I'm turning into a spinster while I'm engaged.  I admit, it sounds funny but it's at least something that gets me feeling like I might die (in a good way!!!)
I'm trying to make the best of this situation and transfered my registration from the marathon to the 10k on the same day.  I figure if I keep up with my cardio and start running a bit before the race I'll be good to go so I'm not just watching my pops run 26.2 without me.... which is what hurt the most when my marathon dreams for 2010 went up in smoke: I couldn't share this with my daddy.  We had been working toward this since April and now I feel like a quitter, even though everyone has told me I'm doing the right thing, including my father.  I'll see how the next 6 weeks go and hopefully my heel will cooperate.  Such is life...

As for the wedding, SF and I have pretty much nailed down our DJ... we're going for a consultation some time this week and are super excited about them.  We're going to do our engagement pictures in October and probably send out those really lame picture Christmas cards as our Save the Dates because well, SF and I are super lame.  It's why we get along so well. :) We're getting really excited that the countdown is getting close to one year.  We've been engaged for a little over 6 months, enjoyed every minute (well not EVERY minute, some have been stressful) and plan on continuing to enjoy it until we are husband and wife!

Keep on running (for me because I can't!)
Spinster Bride

Double digits!

Hey there friends,

Sorry it's been so long.  The last two weeks have been ridiculously busy.  SF and I moved into a new townhouse complete with a little more room and tons more storage space.  It's really helped out a lot!  I ran only 7 miles last week on my long run.  My body hated me before I even started running from all the moving so I knew it'd be a long long run.  Confession: I was really only going to do 5 miles that day.  And I probably should have stuck with that goal but I was feeling so good at the 5 mile turnaround point, I decided to go a little farther.  So by the time I hit 6 miles, I had to walk.  I felt really bad about it.  But I had to.  Anyways, that was last week.

This week, I'm Wonder Woman.  Or at least I felt like it last night.  Let me explain.  This week, I was bound and determined to do the scheduled long run of 10 miles.  I went to Fleet Feet Savannah yesterday to get the necessary fuel  for my run this morning.  Except I didn't run this morning.  That's right.  I failed at my original goal. Because I ran last night!!!  That's right. I kicked 10 miles in the butt.  I had taken a late afternoon nap and when I woke up, it looked like a storm was coming in.  I assessed the situation and realized it was probably cooler and less humid at that moment than it would have been at 5 o'clock this morning.  So I  made a rash decision, which under normal circumstances with running 10 miles, you shouldn't do.  But I did. And it was glorious.  The first five miles flew by, as did the next 3 or so.  I tried Gu for the first time and while I wasn't a fan (the texture is ridiculously disgusting) it definitely did its job and got me through the last few miles.  The weather was PERFECT.  It didn't end up raining, in fact it just got nice and breezy with a beautiful sunset.  When I got to the apartment complex, SF was waiting for me to walk back to our apartment.  He told me that his Best Man, Curly Stu, said I was Bad ass.  My response? Duh, I just ran 10 miles and feel great... of course I'm Bad ass.  So I finished with my stretching, took a nice cool shower, soaked my feet in ice water, rolled my hip out on a foam roller, ate some oatmeal (14 grams of protein!), drank some chocolate milk, paid some bills and went to bed.  Waking up was a bit difficult.  But now that I've gotten some stretching done and food in my belly, I'm great!

As for wedding planning, we have not even looked at anything in the last week.  Actually we met with a "day of" wedding planning company and absolutely fell in love with them.  So we're going to tackle that next but we're not in too big of a hurry right now.  SF is heading back to full time football camp work and I'm trying to get my employment straightened out so we have a few other things on our plate!  Til next time kids.

Keep on running,
Runaway Bride

Giveaways are always fun!

Hey everyone, I'll update this a little later this afternoon, what a crazy weekend it was! But I had to tell everyone about this great giveaway by The Wedding Studios!  I won their last giveaway for a free massage and facial, and definitely think this one would be just as amazing!  Here's the link! Good luck to everyone!