Dena's **All My Reasons Why**Journal (Please Join Me!)

[RunningLilo]

About to head out for my 6th night of walking in a row! Whoo Hoo! I ordered WISH team bracelets tonight and hope they will be a daily reminder to get my bahunkis out there and move. I got dd one and she's going to love it! I can't wait to see her wear it in next years kid's race! A mini WISHer for sure!

And I'm so excited my dh redid my signature for me. He added my favorite little princess to it! Love her!!!

 

[kimwim8]

OMG - Dena...she is just BEAUTIFUL!!!! What a great picture!

I knew you were a night owl...but had no idea you actually went OUT and walked that late!!! You go girl!! (but be careful)

 

[RunningLilo]

Yep we're night owls. We just got used to walking at night during the summer months and it stuck. I refuse to be out in the hot Florida sun in the middle of the day. Plus at night is the one time we know other commitments won't get in the way. We take dd in her stroller and most nights she marvels at the moon and stars and then falls asleep. Makes a super easy bedtime routine. We pick her up and drop her in her bed!

 

[ScoJo15]

Congrats on all of the walking!!! That's so awesome!! 6 in a row....nice work!!

Love the new siggie too....your little Belle is a beauty

Have a great day!

 

[RunningLilo]

Reason #25
Being in shape makes it easier to run around and have fun at Disney!

Oh that's right! Guess who's going to see ! I'm so excited!!! We will be down there this coming Friday - Sunday. We're poor so we're not staying onsite, but we are springing 50 bucks each for dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table! I've always wanted to eat in the castle and now that I have a little girl I get to claim I'm doing it for her! But we all know the truth. Plus, we just got her a new cinderella dress today. I can't wait to get pics of my little princess with the big princess!!!

Kim & Scott- Thanks for the super sweet words about my dd! She's my sunshine.

 

[kimwim8]

Hey Dena...Congrats on going to WDW!! I'm jealous that you're so close to the Mouse!! I can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[RunningLilo]

Completed my 9th walk tonight making it a grand total of 9.5 miles so far! It's hard to believe that we haven't even covered the 13.1 yet and it's been 9 days! Maybe if they give me 2 weeks I can finish a 1/2 marathon!

But seriously, I've committed to walking 6 nights a week. The first week we did one mile per night. This week we're going a little further- 1.2 miles. It sounds silly to be taking it so slow, but I for pete's sake I want it to be FUN. I remember last year how we increased so fast that I was heaving for breath and the side stitches were crazy making it more of a chore than something I looked forward to. So to all those negative thoughts in my head telling me to push further, harder, faster.

Tonight's walk report:
It was my mom, me, and my in the stroller. I decided to do a rough time estimate of our mile. So we left and as soon as we got to the end of the road decided that she had to peepee. Great. When she says she has to go, she has to go NOW. So it was either wet the stroller or teach her the art of going in the grass. We opted for the grass. She would have rather opted for the stroller. She did not like going without her potty, but she did it! So after that pit stop we treked on. When we got about 1/10 of a mile from the house declared, "Kayla walk!" Hooray! So even though she was wearing pink fluffy socks with no shoes mommy let her out of the stroller and she joined our walk. I've been waiting for the day when she would take interest in the walking instead of just enjoying the ride so I was all excited. Well, until she said, "Run Mommy!" She grabbed my hand and off she went dragging me. Okay. Mommy's running. Then she let go of my hand and took off running all by herself. It was the CUTEST thing I have ever seen! She ran all the way home. She liked running from shaddow to shaddow on the ground. So cute! So overall, with the potty break and taking time to let the walk we came in with a time of 23 minutes for 1.2 miles. Not so spectacular, but it was movement and I'll take it.

 

[RunningLilo]

Copied this from my myspace journal for anyone who wants to read it:

Okay it's been a week since the 2007 Disney 1/2 marathon I think I'm calm enough to write about it now. Did I do it? Nope. Reason: I'm pregnant. Am I eyeing 2008? You bet!

Ugh! This is such a tough topic for me. I don't know why, but the Disney 1/2 marathon is something I have to do. It's one of those way down deep inside you goals that make no sense but you have no choice. It's part of you. Imagine my surprise when I realized this. The fat girl with no athletic bone or muscle in her body is supposed to do 13.1 miles on foot. Ha! God you're kidding right?

So Adam and I set our training into motion. We started out slowly by just walking around our neighborhood. At night mind you- didn't want anyone to see the fat girl plodding along. And we just kept going. Adding on miles and adding in small 30 second intervals of running. When I was able to run 2 minutes/walk 3 we did our first 5k "race" the Festival of Lights. Shouldn't really call it a race since the only people I was racing was the cleanup crew! LOL! But I survived and didn't even come in last. It felt great! I was hooked.

We spent the next 6 months doing a 5k per month. We ran in Fernandina, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg, and even a few in Georgia. During this time I dropped 50lbs and had worked up to 4 mile runs with run3/walk2 intervals. Quite an improvement! We were well on our way to the 1/2 marathon.

BUT...

It was time for baby #2! Giving up the '07 1/2 Marathon was the hardest decision I've ever had to make. I still get teary eyed thinking about it. But in my heart I knew the baby was the right choice. I mean really, a medal or another child. There was no question. So I was perfectly okay with the decision or so I thought.

On January 5, 2007, at 3AM I had a breakdown because I was missing my marathon. I sat here with the stark realization that I should be at Disney waking up for the 1/2. I didn't realize I still had all those feelings bottled up inside. I woke Adam up (at 3AM!) and asked him to go walking with me. And to his credit he didn't even look at me funny! But I knew that night was a breaking point- either I was going to give up on the dream forever or I was going to get back out there. I had to go. I spent the next 30 minutes walking down the road crying like a loon. But that was the moment I knew the dream was real.

So now that I've put the '07 race behind me I'm focused ahead on '08. I don't really know how to train while pregnant so I'm just going to walk as much as my body will allow. With the race only 6 months after giving birth I don't know if I'll even make it to '08. But one thing's for certain- I'm darn sure gonna try.

 

[kimwim8]

Dena - you SO can do it in 08! Six months, even 4 months is plenty of time to train to run/walk or walk/run or walk the 1/2. I'm trying like hell to get there & it would be awesome to meet you!!

Thanks for the insight into your feelings about this whole crazy thing. It sounds to me like you have an awesome DH!

 

[RunningLilo]

I had a little visit with a WISH angel today. I was feeling really down and got an uplifting private message that was exactly what I needed to hear. A great big Thank You to my !

Did a really easy 1.2 tonight because I've had a pickle of a headache all day. But I had to go anyways since it was a mini celebration for it being the 10th day!

Oh, here's something funny for you guys: Back in September DH and I committed to a gym membership. So with the contract we've been paying every month for 5 months now. What's so funny about that? Well, we haven't been to workout a single time! We are such dorks! Hope they're enjoying our money. We've got to commit to going for cross-training/weight lifting soon. I just don't know how to motivate us to get up and go. I'm sure we'll be fine after the first visit. It's just some sort of mental block with me. Any suggestions?

 

[RunningLilo]

Reason #26
26. I don't want to be stared at when I go back to China.

When we turn 30, DH and I are adopting a little girl from China. In case you haven't noticed all Chinese people are skinny, well except for those in America. During college I spent 2 weeks in China and we overweight American tourists sure gave the Chinese something to gawk at. They would stare and even come up to us and make all kinds of comments and gestures. Thankfully they were speaking Chinese cause I probably would have decked them one if I had known what they were really saying. But I don't want that to happen when I go back. It was awful and I'd hate for it to happen in front of my little girl. Ugh!

Completed #11 1.2 miles tonight!

 

[kimwim8]

Wow!! You guys are SO sweet! I can't believe that the Chinese people would make guestures at you like that. How rude!!

You're doing SO great with the walking. How have you been feeling? Keep up the great work!

 

[RunningLilo]

Away Message:

GONE TO DISNEY!!!

 

[kimwim8]

Wait. What? Did I miss something?

Don't tell me you've just decided to drop everything today and drive to Disney because then I'm gonna have to hate you, and I really like you, and that would break my heart. (lie to me if you have to)

 

[RunningLilo]

Kim! No, we'd been planning the trip for a couple of months. I just wouldn't let myself get excited about it because we weren't sure the 3 other people going would be able to get off work. But it all worked out!

Highlights:
-DD's face when she saw mickey & minnie for the 1st time (that she remembers) dancing in front of the castle
-DD meeting mickey, minnie, pluto (was her fav.), goofy (scared her)
-eating dinner at the royal table- loved the pretzel bread and prime rib
-watching a couple get engaged at dinner awww!
-dressing dd as cinderella for dinner and had cinderella surprise her with a cinderella dvd
-eating a mickey bar
-had "tinkerbell" deliver a pair of minnie mouse ears and set up glowing princess lights while dd was sleeping at the motel
-watching dh take the time to dance with dd "cinderella" in the middle of the castle on our way out

Lowlights:
-all that walking while pregnant
-dd was so excited she forgot she was potty trained and had lots of accidents
-dh had to miss pirates of the carribbean because she had to go potty after standing in line for 30 mins
-dd got terribly sick in the middle of the night with a dry cough that sounded horrible. wanted mommy to hold her most of the night. (which i mostly didn't mind! i love being the mommy, but oh the preggo backache!)

That's about it. We just did Magic Kingdom on Saturday and Downtown Disney on Sunday. It was a very $$$ friendly trip. But I did convince dh to buy 3 day passes so we can go back for my birthday!!! Yahoo!!!!

 

[kimwim8]

YEAH!! Got any pics to share?? (I know you do)

When is your birthday, btw? So I'm not shocked the next time you disappear and leave such a disturbing away message!!!

 

[kimwim8]

So, what's up? You go running off to Disney World, and then come back and STOP posting? huh, huh?

 

[RunningLilo]

No, I run off to Disney World- get sick- and then stop posting. Ugh! My immune system is shot because of this pregnancy. I've been sick an entire week with a cold and DH got it and will be over it on the 4th day. NOT FAIR!

But it has given me some time to seriously think about my running plans for the upcoming year. I'm having to take giving birth & breastfeeding into account (sorry, tmi...). Kim (and any lurkers ), I NEED your advice. What do you think about this schedule?

July- Baby!
Aug-
Sept- Begin adding run intervals back in
Oct-
Nov-
Dec- Festival of Lights 5k
Jan- WDW 5k (instead of the 1/2)
Feb-
Mar- Gate River Run 5k
April-
May- Minnie 15k
June-
July-
Aug-
Sept- DL ½ Marathon (DH approved a trip to DL!!!)
Oct- Race for Taste 10k
Nov-
Dec-
Jan- WDW ½

It was hard to put the 5k instead of the 1/2 come January, but I really don't want to walk the entire 1/2, which is all I would be able to do at that point. I'd be too scared of the sweepers, and I want to enjoy it. So I'm thinking I'll have to put the 1/2 off until '09. Who'd have thought one pregnancy would cause me to miss 2 years of marathon weekend??? But it's sooooo worth it!

 

[kimwim8]

I'm here for ya, girl!

I'm proud of you for realizing what you can achieve. No need to push yourself and possibly end up with an injury - especially after childbirth. There's no guarantee as to how quickly your body will bounce back after that adventure!

I think your plan looks AWESOME!! As long as we get to meet up in WDW next January (hopefully I'll be there), then I'm good with it. I like how you are slowly gonna build up to running the longer distance races. EXCELLENT plan, and a DL trip in there to boot!!

Sorry you're feeling sick. Hopefully I didn't pass the germs to ya through the journals. I like to share a little too much sometimes...

Have a GREAT weekend!!!

 

[RunningLilo]

Felt the baby kick for the first time yesterday!!! I'm so excited!