Al Mackler 5K, July goal review & new August goals

1. Eat out less then 20 meals:  Ok I can't find any way to make this not count.  I went out to breakfast with my sister & Bill on Sunday morning.  21 total meals out.  Goal Failed.  I've decided that for August I'm not going to have a meals out goal.  We're going on vacation for 8 days and we will definitely be doing a LOT of eating out.  I'll probably bring it back in September because I think it's a good one for watching my calories and my money.  Instead I'm going to bring back spend free days.  I got a little panicky when I paid bills last month because my savings is lower then I'd like so I'm attempting 15 spend free days in August.

2. At least 25 days with a 750+ calorie burn:

     Breakfast: egg white, broccoli & cheese omelet w/rye toast & home fries = 630 calories

     Lunch: 0 calories

     Dinner: cheddar wurst, 1/2 cheeseburger & corn on the cobb = 549 calories

     Snacks: apple, peach & cheddar popchips = 199 calories

     Totals: 2152 burned - 1378 eaten = -774 total burned, 21 days total.  Goal failed.  Again my goal choice is being effected by my vacation.  I'm obviously still going to count my calories because that's just my way of life now but I'm giving myself a little slack and lowering it to 20 days at 750+ burn.  This way I have enough cheat days to cover all of my vacation plus 3 days for the rest of the month.  I'll have to behave while I'm at home but I think that's a good counter balance to all the bad eating I'm bound to do on vacation.

3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes:  We did the Al Mackler 5K on Sunday.  941 minutes total.  Goal Failed.  I'm not sure why I'm having such a hard time with fitness minutes lately.  I'm being extremely active and still losing weight but I just can't get up there.  Too many short runs I guess.  I'm keeping this the same for August.  I plan to continue my workouts as usual plus Shana & I are going to bring sneakers on vacation to hopefully get a few runs in.  I'm also hoping we'll do some other types of exercise on vacation, I've seen lots of information on hiking, biking, etc that we can take advantage of.

Anyway, back to the 5K.  My friend Christina (from the gym) does this event for her school every year and usually she walks but this time she wanted to run it so she started C25K back in May so she'd be ready.  I passed the word on to my running buddies and we had a crew of about five show up.

It was an early one!  The race was scheduled to start at 7:30am so I was out the door by 6:30, we're pretty lucky it started early because it got hot quick.  I'm a little concerned about this 5 mile race at 9:30am in August, we may all die of heat exhaustion.  I had planned to run with Christina & keep her motivated no matter how long it took us to finish.  Her goal was to be under 34 minutes so I kept an eye on my watch and planned to keep her around an 11 minute per mile pace.  Well she blew me away!  We ran at my normal 10 minute per mile pace the whole time!  I kept telling her she could slow down but she kept trucking along.  We finished in just over 31 minutes!  Seriously, it was awesome!  Although, now I know I need to push myself harder because I wasn't super winded when we finished and was able to talk to her the majority of the run.  Now I know I can absolutely go faster then I have been.

Thankfully the Hilton opened up an auditorium for everyone to cool off in after we crossed the finish line.

It was a very small race and we spanned 3 different age groups so we decided to hang out and wait for the prizes to be awarded.  Shana's cross country coach from high school won the women's overall prize.  I'm pretty sure her time was under 20 minutes!

We were pleasantly surprised to hear all of our names called!  We each placed in our age groups & Michele won her age group!  I did find it a little odd that instead of medals all the winners were given prizes.  The funniest part, I won a really nice beach towel that says "Jackson" on it.  Side note: do you know what happens when you try to leave a parking garage without cash?  When I went to leave the Hilton I realized I didn't have my wallet and they don't take credit cards (really, who doesn't take a credit card?).  I asked what I was supposed to do & she said they take my license plate number and bill me.  So now I'll be sending the Hilton a check for $10.

I had packed a beach bag so that after the race and breakfast we could go over to the beach.  I pretty much just laid on my chair and read my book the whole time.  I was exhausted!  I don't know why races wear me out, it's not like I never run in the morning.

Shana & Bill were a little more adventurous though.  They decided to take the tubes and ride the current down to the other end of the cove.  Apparently it was pretty strong and they we almost pulled too far out a few times.

4. Walk at least 10,000 steps for 25 days:  Getting my steps was extremely easy.  I think I had 8000 when I got home from the beach.  All it took was some cleaning up to knock out the rest.  I think Joe was a little bummed when he came home and asked if I needed steps and I was totally content to lay on the couch.  11123 steps.  26 days total.  Goal Achieved!  If it's not obvious, I love this goal!  I really feel like it's helping me be more active & accountable, I've really stopped sitting on my ass as much.  I'm upping it for August to 11,000 steps and hoping I'll end up with even more cheat days left over at the end of that month.

5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  I did some laundry and put some shoes upstairs but to be honest I was too tired and didn't feel like cleaning.  Then Nicole & Jack stopped by and for some reason I went into a cleaning frenzy.  I think it's because we end up hanging out in the kitchen I can never hold still in there so I end up cleaning.  I even scrubbed the counters & vacuumed.  The only downside was that I had a horrible allergy attack later that evening.  I'm assuming it's from stirring up dust...I was sneezing and itchy, I took a benedryl and the stuffiness has gone away.  But I think the itchiness was my heat rash spreading from the run :-(  19 days total.  Goal Failed.  I'm going to keep this goal because I like that it gives me incentive to clean up the house.  The only thing is I'm going to have to stay on top of it because with vacation I'll only have 3 more days with no cleaning in August :-/