It's still raining...

The first week of recovery after the Marathon went by and the first three days of it were slow going. I continued to try and keep up my protein & carb consumption to help fuel my muscles recovery. As the weekend came so did Mothers Day and a never ending barrage of sweets! I can only handle so much so on Monday I went back to restricting my sugar to less than 30 g a day, Tuesday less than 20 grams a day...

Unfortunately I was up all night Tuesday into Wednesday with horrific stomach pain. I took it easy Wednesday, only managing to stomach about 500 or 600 calories and now that Thursday has come I am feeling as though my tummy is on the mend....fingers crossed.

Beyond the stomach issues, I am feeling great being "off the stuff". Sugar is evil. I am convinced. I know when I consume large amounts of sugar I feel like crap after the 'sugar bliss' wears off and while the first few days of detoxing myself suck, the end result is a much happier, much healthier, fat-burning Krystyn.

In other health craze related news, I have registered for the Pittsburgh Triathlon Adventure Race again this year! Its on August 1st...2 mile Kayak, 20k Bike, 5k Run. I really need to work on my biking because the first half of it is essentially uphill and last year it absolutely killed me. My legs were burned out for the run big time because I didn't prepare enough for the bike. I spent most of my time training on flat trails, this year I am going to try and crush the hills with my training.

Last year I finished 3rd in Athenas but wasn't happy with my overall performance because of the bike. The kayak took me 33:26, the bike 1:06:00 and the run 47:11 with transition 1 2:27 and transition 2 at 1:27. The bike was a horrible pace of 11:30 and the run was even worse at a pace of 14:45. Overall Time 2:30:30

My goals for this year are:

Kayak 30:00
T1 2:00
Bike Under 1 hour
T2 1:15
Run Under 40 minutes

Goal for Overall Time-- Under 2:15:00

In order to do this I need to get back in the boat and try and improve my time a little bit while also working on my upper body strength and core by doing lots of pushups & planks outside of my training. I plan on spending a lot of time on the bike up and down hills, all sorts of different terrain. By continuing to work on squats and lunges I should be able to help with the stability of my hips for the bike and the run. As for my runs, they just need to get better. I spent so much time working on endurance that now I need to work on pumping up my speed as well as Brick workouts (bike then run) to get my legs used to that feeling.

I have so many goals for myself but I need to remember to take everything one day at a time. Be proud of each little accomplishment and keep pushing myself.

In addition to all of this I feel as though last year Sara was really held back in the bike since we planned to start and finish together. I would really like to be better for her. If there is one thing I don't like it's feeling like I am holding someone else back or hindering their progress. I know that she would really like to medal this year for her age group and I don't want to be the reason she doesn't.

As for today I will stay the course with my low sugar intake and work on a training plan for the upcoming weeks.

My First Half Marathon: A race against time, weather and a ravioli bomber?

Well it's official! I have completed my very first half marathon!

I started the day off by waking at 1:30 in the morning ready to go run and quickly realizing I didn't have to be up for another 4 hours. I willed myself back to sleep and slept with one eye open fearing I wouldn't wake up to my alarm and would miss the big race with my friends and family standing in the rain with no beefcake to cheer on.


Once I got my day going I choked down a bagel with peanut butter and Jason and I headed out to brave the traffic after a big good luck kiss from Max. We parked in the North Side and walked across the 16th Street bridge into the Strip District. There were people everywhere! We walked and walked to find the 2:30 pace team. Once I got there I stretched, Jason took a few photos and I stood there waiting for the race to begin. I saw the balloons launch and we were off...well almost...15 minutes of shoulder to shoulder crawling later and I crossed the start line.


Distracted by the guy dressed like a shark weaving in and out of people, Mile 1 goes by quickly and then the rain starts to come down harder. After Mile 2 I see Jason as I am about to cross the 16th street bridge. He brings such a smile to my face and inspires me as I cross my first water stop and head through the North Side. Somewhere along this route a spectator on the side noticed that my bib said "BEEFCAKE", he screamed it out and started cheering for me. It brought a huge smile across my face and made me laugh out loud.

As I come into Mile 5 I realize that encouraging the people around me makes me stronger, my stride a little longer and my smile a little bigger. Before I knew it I was at Mile 8 and I was officially the 'happy girl' who everyone was either scowling at or talking to! I slapped the hand of every group of cheerers along my 13 mile route and kept smiling no matter what. As I rounded Fort Duquesne Boulevard I ran through a rain puddle of epic proportions! My feet were officially a squishy mess and I could feel the blisters forming underneath each step.

There was one gentleman who I ran pretty neck and neck with up until Mile 6 and then he seemed to take off vanishing over the Pittsburgh horizon. As I came over the West End Bridge and onto West Carson Street there he was unconscious on the side of the road being loaded onto a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance. It became very apparent that pacing myself was much more important than trying to break any world records on a hot, humid, rainy Sunday.

I headed down West Carson and started to pass through Station Square. In front of me I see a girl hobbling along and then down she went! I ran up to her as she tried to get back up and asked if she was ok...she sat back down and asked me to get a medic. About a mile or so from the next water station I booked it to find someone to go back and help this girl. Once I did my legs seemed to run out of steam and my chest started to tighten. I was hitting a wall of exhaustion and pain. Surrounded by a team of women I saw a girl struggling along and decided to talk to her to distract her and well, let's be honest here, me! We started running together and before I knew it I was talking to a whole crew of women about why I was doing this for me. I told them about my weight loss and they cheered me on, I felt great coming across Mile 11. Shortly after this I was passed by yet another ambulance. Shortly ahead some spectators were helping a women who seemed to be struggling walking off their porch and to the ambulance. I couldn't believe that all of these people who look so fit were medically unable to finish. I spent my whole life being unfit, unhealthy and overweight and I am feeling great!

Across the Smithfield Street Bridge and into downtown I can practically smell the finish line, they keep rerouting us in every direction. No one knows where the finish line is! I see Jason and my father, then Sara, Liz, Nikki & my mom with their signs and still no finish line! Then another runner just standing in the street looking lost tells us that they have shut down the course due to a bomb scare and there is no where to finish. My frustration was mounting and myself and a team of runners just kept going, weaving in and out of hoards of spectators trying to find some place to go! We weren't the fastest of runners but we weren't the last 5 either. There was thousands of people still out on the course who would face this same thing.

Eventually someone sent us in the right direction, we could see the finish but were literally sandwiched between spectators on the sidewalk! People were yelling, "runners coming through" but no-one seemed to move or care. Finally a marathon volunteer sees us through the crowd and opens the fencing to let us through. We ran through the finish line from the wrong direction, made a u-turn and right back through for the timing chip. This guy crosses right behind me, runs past me and immediately collapses! It's sheer madness at the finish! I made it! I can't believe it! I am handed a mylar blanket, a steaming hot banana and my medal and along with it a sense of accomplishment I could never have imagined.

I throw out the hot banana, find my mother and father, Nikki, Sara & Liz through a fence and tell them about the crazy finish! I believe my exact words were "I didn't run 13.1 Miles to not cross a fucking finish line!" I make my way around the fence and hugs and celebration ensue.

Then there is my hubby, my biggest supporter, the love of my life. It is such a special feeling to be hugged and loved by someone when you are such a smelly, dirty, disgusting mess. I love this man more with every breath I take. I have an amazing family and friends and I can't get over the support from everyone that came and braved the rain, Jennie and Mama Jen via text and my lovely Facebook friends.




We hang out for a while taking photos and talking and then go our seperate ways. Across the 16th Street bridge for the 3rd time today the pain starts to stab in the back of my knee. I stop to take a rest. I used to feel great, what happened?!

Finally making it to the car and then home, I am overjoyed with emotion and questions about what exactly happened to the finish line. We start talking about the events of the day and then read in the news that the great bomb scare was actually a microwave on the street full of ravioli! The bomb squad robot actually blew up a microwave full of ravioli in the center of the marathon so they had to reroute everyone...one major flaw in their plan, they forgot to actually reroute everyone for a good 45 minutes.






As the excitement died down and the stiffness set in, we spent the day relaxing around the house until we went to celebrate Barb's graduation! Dr. Barb deserves celebrating tired or not!

A few beers later I was ready for a good nights rest. The next morning, waking at 6am, I am feeling things in my body that hurt. My neck, shoulders, back, hips, hamstrings, calves, feet and basically well my everything hurts! I took the day off so I am going to relax, stretch as often as possible and relish in the glory of a race I will never forget.

Just a little bit more...

It's only Half Empty when it comes to beer...

So it seems as though there is a budding trend in my life when it comes to accomplishing more. Apparently I am never satisfied even when I have met my goals. I work towards setting more modest goals and being happy to reach them, but it never fails, as the race approaches or the milestone seems close in the distance I start the self-doubt.

In less than 3 days I am about to compete in my very first half marathon. I've had my fair share of mechanical setbacks, aches & pains, but it is the mental part I am still working on. I know that I can bust my ass and I know that I can finish that half marathon. Being that it's my first shouldn't I just be happy with finishing, even if it is in last place? I constantly strive for perfection and in unrealistic circumstances. As it leads into the marathon I continue to tell myself you are doing great and you are that much farther ahead just by participating, however, when it comes to race day will it be enough for me? I fear I will be unhappy with my performance. I know because of my hip I am going to have to walk part of the half marathon. The new Krystyn says to be proud of what you have accomplished instead of upset of what you haven't...the old Krystyn says you aren't good enough and you never will be.

How do I stay in this place of self-love without the past ever coming back to haunt me? If anyone figures it out, let me know...

In the meantime I will continue to keep my head up and fight for my right to love myself. When I look in the mirror I am proud of what I have achieved. When I look inside my heart I am proud of the person I am. When I look at my life I am an extremely fortunate woman with a fantastic husband, a dog who affectionately wakes her up with a smile each morning and a changed kitty who's started showing affection...when I look into the past I am full of doubt with no direction.

It's good to be in a better place, now let's try and make it stick.

13.1 Miles...Ready or not, here I come!

When the going gets tough, the tough go to a chiropractor?

I am a year and a half into my training...working hard, eating healthy, getting ready for Spring and starting full swing into my marathon training and BAM....I can't stand up. I have had problems in the past with my hips and my knees but never really had a measurable amount of back pain until now. The day before the pain hit I got up in the morning, tried out the Jillian Michael's "No More Trouble Zones" DVD and then hit the treadmill for 5 miles. Shocking, I know, I didn't stretch. The next day I spent hanging around the house cleaning, bend over to pick up a piece of paper I dropped and can't stand back up. What exactly happened?!

After days of pain and not being able to walk, lay or sit, let alone run, lift weights or do cartwheels, my trainer talks me into the Chiropractor. Never having been, not knowing what to expect other than the predetermined notion that he could potentially paralyze me and being at the end of my rope with pain, I sucked it up and went to see what it was all about. Now I am a pretty spiritual person when it comes to the energy of the earth and the power we can tap into within ourselves, however, I am not interested in managing this type of pain with the holistic approach. I was pleasantly surprised to meet someone knowledgeable, charismatic and for lack of a better word, not a quack. He spent a good deal of time talking to me, educating me as so what he actually does and performing a series of tests to better help him diagnose. The entire time I was texting my dear friend Barb.

She is smarter than most people should ever think to be and in her last few months of Physical Therapy school. If there is someone I trust with the health of my back, its her! After much deliberation and evaluation and twenty-some texts later, I agreed to the adjustment to fix my 'rotating pelvis'. Although it sounds like something that could potentially give me Shakira-eque moves and abs to match, it couldn't be farther from that latin delusion. Common in runners, he decides to snap that pelvis back in line. After a couple days of soreness I went back for my follow up adjustment and essentially my official sales pitch. (It took me a couple days to cope with the fact I am a now considered a runner and no longer the obese girl barely capable of touching her toes.)

While I am not ready to commit to a 18 week plan of 3 days a week at $25 a pop, I am interested in continuing my 'treatment', at least throughout the duration of my marathon training. Feeling better and back to body weight strengthening and walking, I was feeling like I still might be able to compete in this thing in 14 weeks. Then, 2 weeks after the initial paperweight injury, it happens again! This time I am bent over in the washer...that will teach me to ever touch laundry again. I should know better than to try and take over Jason's duties.

After my first experience with this pain, I have learned to stand up slowly, gently walk upstairs, take some Advil and gingerly start the stretching process. I can't even think of touching my toes at this point but I get comfortable, pour myself a glass of wine and spend the night nursing my back. I decide to save the whining for later, stretch it out and go to training on Monday morning. I think I have diverted disaster by stopping and taking care of myself when the pain struck.

Still not quite right and afraid to start my running back, I am forced with the decision...go back to the chiro, call the doctor and set up an appointment for weeks from now and lose all this time training or push through the pain and risk hurting myself?

The thought of running 13.1 miles on May 2nd right now is scary but the thought of not being able to reach my goal and even compete in the marathon is terrifying. I have spent so much time envisioning myself crossing that finish line and reaching a brand new goal that I can't imagine abandoning my training now.

With 14 weeks left to train, I am hoping that my back, hips and knees cooperate and I can proudly cross that finish line. I suppose time will tell...

2010: A Year of Do rather than Resolve to Do

I have so many goals and aspirations for the year 2010, however I am attempting to "do", "live" and "achieve" more often than the time I would usually spend planning these things. While I made great strides in 2009 in this direction, it wasn't really a goal of mine, it just happened.

I'm excited to compete in my first half marathon in May (pending a much happier back), and I'm looking forward to any other races I decided to participate in this year. I would resolve to 'reach my weight loss goal" but i have realized that my goal all along was to be happy with myself and be healthy and enjoy my life. In 2009, I accomplished all of this and now I just need to live out my life in this manner and continue working towards the goals I set for myself.

Don't get me wrong, I do want to reach that big goal and I CANNOT WAIT to hit 100 lbs lost but whenever it happens, it will be phenomenal. I can resolve to not putting myself down in the interim. Any steps taken in the right direction are still steps taken.

Now that I feel like I have a handle on the thing that has literally consumed my whole life I can work on other goals. I resolve to enjoying all the little moments in life and work on destressing and smiling more. Every moment should be a moment worth smiling for if you have your health, your family, your friends and respect.

I am realizing that I reach goals I never knew I had by living out every day of my life to it's fullest potential.

I am thankful for 2009 and excited for 2010. Will we really decided that this is the year to try and get pregnant? Only time will tell. I do know we will celebrate an entire decade spent together and that makes me very happy and extremely fortunate.

Cheers to the past and everything that has yet to come! Happy New Year!

5 Months...150 Days, 12 Hours, 11 Minutes, 52 Seconds

I have high hopes for the next five months. Getting so close to my goal weight, I am excited to get there already! In the next five months I have delusions of grandeur that include nutritional greatness, perfect training schedule, extra hours in each day, lots of stretching, a flattering race photo and inevitably running the perfect race...I know better. I will be happy to just finish that damn thing with all limbs in tact and the strength to lift a water bottle.

Nutrition...

The more people I tell about my goals, the more accountable I am for my eating habits. I have learned over the course of the last year and a half that I can keep myself motivated and on track by simply sharing all the information I can about upcoming races. Sometimes I wonder if my family is sick of hearing about it...if so, I'm sorry to say that they can deal! :) I have to keep talking to keep myself moving and pushing towards my goals. If your ears start to bleed I apologize.

Training...

I am starting to think about how exactly I will balance everything once I get closer to the race...personal training, a decent running schedule, work, teaching and still having enough energy to enjoy my husband, my friends and my family. I should probably try to factor some rest and relaxation into that mix as well.

The Perfect Race...

I recently received an email from the photography company from the Pittsburgh Great Race...

Celebrate your special day this season by capturing the moment in a holiday card ready to send to your family and friends.

Attached to this email was a little slice of photographic heaven...Um, Not Really! It was the worst photo quite possibly ever taken of me. About 3/4 of the way through my first 10k, I look like I am about to pass out! Who wants this coming to them in the mail during the holidays and am I supposed to photoshop Jason on a treadmill beside me??

Ever since this email I have been hoping for the perfect race photo in the half marathon. I know this does not exist and the closest thing to it is probably a hundred races away. But still...did they really have to send that photo...they took plenty of others where I was not quite as close to passing out. The first mile photo would be just fine with me!

I might as well share this horrible photo...




Going Beyond the Photo...

Not quite as worried about the race photo as I may seem, I really am more concerned with surpassing all my goals. I have not been able to master the art of being happy with just reaching the goals I set, I have to go above and beyond. If I continue on this path, I wonder if I will ever be satisfied with my performance...

I know one thing, I won't get there eating donuts.

Some shots I took this fall...