Run like a boss- part 2

Remember how in my last post I got crazy and ran a 5K? Well, I got crazier.

If you're from a big family, you know that nothing stays a secret for very long. So with Dave having a family of 10, word spread fast that we were running a 5K. And not too long after I finished the race, one of Dave's sisters, Casi messaged me asking if I wanted to train for a marathon with her.

To be completely honest with you, I didn't know how far a marathon was, so I googled it. 26.2 miles. Twenty-six point two miles!!! And I actually AGREED to it after receiving this information. Sigh, sometimes I still wonder what the heck I was thinking.

If any of you are training for half-marathon or marathon, I strongly suggest that you use halhigdon.com. It's written by a guy who has run dozens of races. There are tons of training schedules on that site, each based on how far you want to run and what level of running you are at. So naturally, I used the schedule for super new beginning runners. I also love his schedules because he is completely realistic about marathon expectations. For example, he talks about the importance of walking during your long runs to build your muscles. Because in actuality he knows that you're not really gonna run 26.2 miles without taking a walking break now and then. He says that he actually ran a 2 and 1/2 hour marathon while walking through every water station!

Our training schedules had us running shorter runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We rested Friday and then had a long run on Saturday. Originally, the schedules had us doing cross-training on Sundays, but we moved it to Mondays so that we could avoid running on our Sabbath. That's the fun thing about these schedules is that you make them work for you. And to be honest once again, I think I may have cross-trained one time during the whole 18-weeks. I usually just used that as an extra day of rest. Once again, this is where having a training partner definitely came in handy. Every Saturday, I knew I was going to get a text from Casi asking how my long run had been.

The way the training schedule worked is that it had us run up to 20 miles straight, two weeks before the race. Those last two weeks were used to run shorter distances so that we wouldn't burn out before the big day. And the big day finally came! It was 40 degrees outside and winds were blowing at 40 mph, but we finished! The whole 26.2 miles, we did it! It was such a huge adrenaline rush. When I crossed the finish line, I cried for a whole 5 minutes. I was so emotional and completely blown away that I had actually run for 5 hours straight.That's how overwhelming it was to finish such a huge feat.

See? That's me! Bawling like a baby. Casi is the one in the blanket, she finished an hour before I did.

Now do you have to run a marathon to be healthy? Absolutely not! But this experience showed me that I could push my body to do what I wanted. And that's also what losing weight means- to push your body to be what you need it to be. For me, being healthy means the ability to be able to do whatever I want. Sometimes that's being able running a ridiculous distance, something that's just being able to have energy to play with my kid.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! The training was super difficult and really just sucked sometimes. The first time I ran seven miles, I thought my body was either going to die or kill me. But that feeling when I crossed the finish line on race day is one that I will never forget. Anything that is worth doing is always going to be hard. Whether it's losing weight or just eating healthier, it's going to suck at first (hopefully not too much!) and it's going to take effort. But in the end, crossing that finish line or stepping on the scale, it's totally worth it and you would absolutely do it again.

Boring scientific note: You may have heard lots about cholesterol. Like, how bad it is for you. Well, to be honest, your body actually needs cholesterol. However, it doesn't need you to eat cholesterol. Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs on its own. When you eat large amounts of cholesterol in your diet, that's what it gets bad and clogs up your arteries. There are two types of cholesterol- one is good (the LDL type) and one is bad (the HDL type). LDL cholesterol is what you would get from dietary fats in your diet, a lot of it from meat. But, HDL is our hero cholesterol! It actually takes the LDL cholesterol from clotting the blood!!! Yay for HDL cholesterol! There is only one way that you can get more HDL and it's not through eating. It's through...drum roll...exercise! Exercise is THE only way to increase your HDL levels. I'm not even kidding. Interesting, isn't it?