Hooah!

I ran in the Army 10 Miler on Sunday, hence the title of this blog. The bad: Not my best time ever, averaged 9:49 miles, but it was hotter than Hades, and the course was so crowded that I never really got in my groove and was literally still bobbing and weaving around people up until the finish. They also ran out of water at the 6 mile mark, which freaked me out considering my last race did not end so well :) The good: I think I finally got the "I passed out during (well, right after I finished) the Nashville half-marathon" monkey off my back :) I finished without stopping or walking at all.....the actual course, although overcrowded was awesome and I encourage anyone considering a 10 mile race to do it because you really get to see a lot of D.C......and it was super inspirational to see the amputee team participants.

I'm feeling great about the Columbus half on the 21st, and although I'm not going for a specific time goal for that race, I think I will declare that I want to break two hours for the Indy mini in May. That's just over 9 minute miles, which should definitely be doable if I shed a few pounds and keep up with my running.

Eating is not going as well. MG and I are going to California to visit his best friend exactly 9 weeks from today, though, so I'm now in "Operation Cali" mode. Rather than counting points, I'm going to do the following:

1. Work out every day. I want to do Body Pump three days a week, jog at least three days a week (even after my half next weekend), and do cross training the days I don't jog. Even if I can only fit in a 30 minute/2 mile walk, I need to do SOMETHING every day. Period.
2. Only eat whole grains (bread, pasta, wraps....). This will keep me away from bread baskets at restaurants :)
3. No sweets except for on Thanksgiving (shouldn't really be a problem because I've kind of hit dessert overkill lately anyway)
4. Avoid fried foods. This is going to be the killer - I've gotten in a bad habit of craving nachos lately.....this will have to stop. Other than that the only fried food I eat is french fries at half price burger night every Wednesday, but I'll just suck it up and pay the extra $3 to get a different side :)
5. Limit alcohol consumption to one night a week. I know I said #4 was the killer, but this is the real killer. I'm not an alcoholic and have gone many times without drinking for weeks at a time, but in D.C. especially, Happy Hours are huge. If I can do this one, though, I think I'll definitely reach my goal, which is.........

10 pounds down by Cali. Five pounds will tie my last year low, and five pounds after that would be fabulous. Even if I don't reach the 10 pound goal, though, I should be down the five if I do everything above, which would make me really happy :)