Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Let's Get This Thing Started!
So, I'm basically brand-new at this blogging thing. And even if I hadn't told you that up front, I'm sure you'd be able to tell. Something else that you've probably already figured out by now is that my ramblings will be based on my running adventures--both training for and the actual races. I figured since I've spent so much time reading others' blogs that it was high time that I return the favor and start one of my own. Though I don't know how much of a favor it will actually be! And I hope that you don't mind that more than likely, I'll be including some other day to day aspects of my life as well.
I suppose that since this is my first post, it would probably be a little helpful to tell you a little about myself. My name is Missy, and I'm a pretty down to earth 32 year old, born and raised here in the Peach State. I love living here and pretty much consider myself a country girl at heart. I was raised around dirt-track racing, so that's always been one of my passions. I also love Country music, and it's pretty much all I listen to 99.9% of the time. My hubby, Mike, and I will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary on September 11th. We both love to travel, and as you will come to see--our favorite place in the world is Walt Disney World! We love it there and it's definitely our "Most Magical Place on Earth"! Nothing beats being able to "escape" the real world and being able to be a kid time and time again!
Now, I should probably get on to the actual subject of this blog and explain why I've decided to share my adventures with you. All of my life, I've been out of shape. And while I was never actually overweight until adult hood, I could never run more than 30 seconds without feeling like I was going to fall over and die. I remember absolutely HATING the time of year when it was time for the Presidential Physical Fitness tests roll around. Though I did consider myself "somewhat" of an athelete, I never had any sort of aerobic ability. Running the bases in softball was as much as you were gonna get from me. So somewhere during adulthood when the extra weight settled in and I began to realize that I was no longer happy with myself is when the battle began. Of course I would diet for a couple weeks and lose a few pounds only to gain it all back, plus some. I'd get a tiny bit of motivation and decide to join a gym or fitness club only to pay my monthly dues and only get my butt in the door maybe once or twice. Then came the time when I had to be put on 2 medicines because of my eating habits and my weight--one to control my blood pressure and one for my extrememly high triglycerides. At one point in time I was very much against being on medication for anything that I could control myself, but then I just got too lazy to even care. I went on being fat and on medicine for a while, until one day when I was on these fabulous message boards called The DIS. It's a message boards that are pretty much nothing but Disney, and I happen to love it there. Well, I happened upon a thread that mentioned the "Princess Half Marathon" and it immediately caught my attention. Ooooh...a Princess themed race in Disney....so what if I have to run 13.1 miles...it still sounds fun! So, I talked to the hubby and he said, "go for it!" So, I did! And to make an already long story short...that race lead me to where I am today. I did successfully complete the 2010 Princess 1/2, but I fell right off the running bandwagon very shortly after returning home. And even though finishing those 13.1 was a very tough challenge for me, I decided that I wanted to do it again for 2011-and I did! I once again finished and have the medal to prove it.
And again, I bet you can guess what happened after I returned home from that Princess...yep, I fell right off the wagon again! But before long, I knew that running was the one thing that caused me to push myself to get to a goal like nothing else ever had before. So, I decided to start the C25K method in hopes of becoming an actual true-blue runner. I did complete the program, and while I have not ran a race since, I did sign the hubby and I up for the Inaugural Tower of Terror 10-mile race, once again in Walt Disney World. (Anyone sense a theme for my running destination of choice?) And that my new friends leads us to the present day and where I am at this very moment. I am down to 45 days before we leave for the race, and am working hard every week on being prepared and well-trained. For both of my Princess races, I chose to train by the "Marathoning for Mortals" plan, but this time I wanted to try something different. After starting off using a 1/2 marathon app and not feeling very comfortable with it, I decided to try the highly praised Galloway method. I never thought that running small increments could actually make you faster, but after having trained with it for a few weeks, I'm a believer. I just hope that on race night I will still be a believer.
So with all that rambling being said (and if you're still reading along, then bless you), my future posts will include updates on our (me and the hubby) training along with actual race reports. I also want to mention that not only do we have the Tower of Terror race coming up, but we're also registered for the Athens, GA half at the end of October. So I know that will help hold me accountable once we return from the ToT race...I will definitely have to continue training to make sure that I'm ready for the Athens half. It will be the first time for me, but I'm very excited about the course as we'll be running through the hedges of Sanford Stadium--and being a big UGA fan, that totally excites me!!
I suppose that since this is my first post, it would probably be a little helpful to tell you a little about myself. My name is Missy, and I'm a pretty down to earth 32 year old, born and raised here in the Peach State. I love living here and pretty much consider myself a country girl at heart. I was raised around dirt-track racing, so that's always been one of my passions. I also love Country music, and it's pretty much all I listen to 99.9% of the time. My hubby, Mike, and I will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary on September 11th. We both love to travel, and as you will come to see--our favorite place in the world is Walt Disney World! We love it there and it's definitely our "Most Magical Place on Earth"! Nothing beats being able to "escape" the real world and being able to be a kid time and time again!
Now, I should probably get on to the actual subject of this blog and explain why I've decided to share my adventures with you. All of my life, I've been out of shape. And while I was never actually overweight until adult hood, I could never run more than 30 seconds without feeling like I was going to fall over and die. I remember absolutely HATING the time of year when it was time for the Presidential Physical Fitness tests roll around. Though I did consider myself "somewhat" of an athelete, I never had any sort of aerobic ability. Running the bases in softball was as much as you were gonna get from me. So somewhere during adulthood when the extra weight settled in and I began to realize that I was no longer happy with myself is when the battle began. Of course I would diet for a couple weeks and lose a few pounds only to gain it all back, plus some. I'd get a tiny bit of motivation and decide to join a gym or fitness club only to pay my monthly dues and only get my butt in the door maybe once or twice. Then came the time when I had to be put on 2 medicines because of my eating habits and my weight--one to control my blood pressure and one for my extrememly high triglycerides. At one point in time I was very much against being on medication for anything that I could control myself, but then I just got too lazy to even care. I went on being fat and on medicine for a while, until one day when I was on these fabulous message boards called The DIS. It's a message boards that are pretty much nothing but Disney, and I happen to love it there. Well, I happened upon a thread that mentioned the "Princess Half Marathon" and it immediately caught my attention. Ooooh...a Princess themed race in Disney....so what if I have to run 13.1 miles...it still sounds fun! So, I talked to the hubby and he said, "go for it!" So, I did! And to make an already long story short...that race lead me to where I am today. I did successfully complete the 2010 Princess 1/2, but I fell right off the running bandwagon very shortly after returning home. And even though finishing those 13.1 was a very tough challenge for me, I decided that I wanted to do it again for 2011-and I did! I once again finished and have the medal to prove it.
2010:
2011:
And again, I bet you can guess what happened after I returned home from that Princess...yep, I fell right off the wagon again! But before long, I knew that running was the one thing that caused me to push myself to get to a goal like nothing else ever had before. So, I decided to start the C25K method in hopes of becoming an actual true-blue runner. I did complete the program, and while I have not ran a race since, I did sign the hubby and I up for the Inaugural Tower of Terror 10-mile race, once again in Walt Disney World. (Anyone sense a theme for my running destination of choice?) And that my new friends leads us to the present day and where I am at this very moment. I am down to 45 days before we leave for the race, and am working hard every week on being prepared and well-trained. For both of my Princess races, I chose to train by the "Marathoning for Mortals" plan, but this time I wanted to try something different. After starting off using a 1/2 marathon app and not feeling very comfortable with it, I decided to try the highly praised Galloway method. I never thought that running small increments could actually make you faster, but after having trained with it for a few weeks, I'm a believer. I just hope that on race night I will still be a believer.
So with all that rambling being said (and if you're still reading along, then bless you), my future posts will include updates on our (me and the hubby) training along with actual race reports. I also want to mention that not only do we have the Tower of Terror race coming up, but we're also registered for the Athens, GA half at the end of October. So I know that will help hold me accountable once we return from the ToT race...I will definitely have to continue training to make sure that I'm ready for the Athens half. It will be the first time for me, but I'm very excited about the course as we'll be running through the hedges of Sanford Stadium--and being a big UGA fan, that totally excites me!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)