Meeting Ali Sweeney

The highlight of my Las Vegas work conference happened Wednesday!!!

Walgreens launched the Walk with Walgreens campaign a few months ago and Ali Sweeney was one of the faces for it. She was at our meeting in Las Vegas at an expo doing a meet and greet. When I realized she was there I just said to myself I have got to meet her!

Now I do watch the Biggest Loser. I do not agree with the way they have people rapidly lose weight and I do feel it is healthy to lose slowly 1-2 pounds per week every week. But I will say this, there is something I cannot deny: that show helped me realize I needed to snap out of the obese funk and get healthy. It was season 10 and it was the first season I had watched.

I will never forget the contestants running a marathon, I was inspired. I was in awe, I was empowered. I knew right then and there that I was fully capable of running and I would do some races. And so my journey kept going :)

Ali was so nice!! She was excited to hear about my weight loss and even wanted to shoot a quick little video! Here it is: Video Link.

In the video you will also see another Walgreens manager who has lost 20 pounds! She was a sweet heart as well her name is Angelina!!

It was a nice feeling to see someone else who has been through the weight loss battle and come out on top. It was fun meeting Ali and getting my picture taken! She is so beautiful!!!

How was everyone's week?

Vegas Day 1

I am away in Las Vegas for work.

It has been quite the challenge being gluten free, dairy free, and wanting to exercise early in the morning in a city that seems so focused on drinking, smoking and gambling. To make a long story short it has been miserable in many ways.

For work our itinerary days breakfast begins at 5:30AM and ends at 6:30 and your shuttle leaves at 6:35. Your first meeting begins at 7:30 AM and you are in meetings all day. Lunch was around 11:30 and next meeting is at 1PM. I know you are thinking oh cool a long break. It takes almost 30-40 minutes to get there and get food. Did I mention there are over 9,000 people at this conference? Oh ya. Fun times.

I am staying at the MGM grand, and let me say this: I am glad I did not pay to stay here. Every where smells like cigarette smoke and you have to walk through the casinos where people are smoking to get anywhere. Needless to say it stinks for someone who quit 4 years ago and now detests the smell.

There is a hotel cardio room which is open from 6AM to 8PM. Too bad I am in meetings all day right? Where is my time to run??? On Sunday before meetings began Monday, I headed to the cardio room to get in my long run of the week 6 miles. I am so thankful I will be home before my 15 miler that is on tap for Sunday!

I woke up Monday morning at 3:30AM here and met up with one of my running buddies and did an hour out in an empty parking lot of loops and strength work. This morning I hit snooze and did not make it out there till 4:30AM. He was finishing up, I felt bad but what can you do. So I set out to do my 3 mile run this AM in the parking lot.

It is so hot, it hits you as soon as you start running. My power aide in my hand held bottle was warm in 7 minutes. My body was angry, confused, and tired. My legs were a bit sore we have been doing a lot of walking to and from things and in dress shoes it is causing me some grief when I start running.

So that is where I am and what I am doing this week. I refuse to let this derail training though, so I will continue to push through the morning runs and stay on track with my eating. I will post about that tomorrow, how to stay on track with all the unhealthy options! Sorry it seems this has turned into a complete whine fest. Tomorrow I will try to do a more upbeat post LOL

Today I am cranky, tired, and missing my home.

Marathon Training Week 6

Wow it is already 6 weeks into marathon training?!?!?!?!?!

I find myself getting more and more comfortable running early in the morning and it has become so routine that I actually look forward to it. In fact when I do not run I obsess about working out until it gets done. My body just itches for that stress relief and I really look forward to it.

This was a normal week, I did Cross fit Monday and Wednesday which were both great workouts.

Tuesday I did a nice 4 mile run in 40 minutes.

Thursday I did a 3 mile run in the morning in 31 minutes, it was disgusting and humid. Then that night I went to TRX for 30 minutes to get some more strength training done.

Friday was hell run LOL I went out at 5am and it was already 80% humidity and 78 degrees outside! I did 5.75 grueling miles in 54 minutes. What made me get through this run was the Rock N Roll Providence half marathon I have in 2 weeks! I know that my body needs to adapt to running in heat and this run did just that. I was a mess when I was done but it was worth it.

Saturday is rest day so I use it as my own day to do what I feel like. I ended up at the gym and ran 2 miles on the treadmill for 17 minutes to warm up for a 35 minute weight workout using 20 pound hand weights. It felt good.

Sunday... Well This will prove to be a challenging week for my training, I will get it done but it will take some obstacle course jumping lol. I am in Las Vegas for a work conference and we have a packed schedule so running will be tough to sneak in. We landed today and after flying for hours honestly I needed a good run. I headed to the cardio room here at the MGM and got in a speedy 6 miles on the treadmill. I did it in 48 minutes! It was nice.

I am trying to figure out the rest of the runs this week. I looked at my itinerary and laughed, breakfast is at 5:30AM everyday and our first meeting starts at 7AM! We do not get out of meetings until 7-9pm.... The hotel cardio room is only open from 6am to 8pm. So it looks like I will be toughing it out in the Vegas heat this week.

Stay tuned...