My Story Part 1

About 18 months ago, I decided I wanted to get back in shape. For most of my 20s, I was fairly active, had a gym membership, did spinning, step classes, rollerbladed, biked, did some running, but once I got pregnant, all of that went out the window. So after almost 5 years of doing NOTHING, I decided to start running.

Running for me began with one 12 minute mile around the neighborhood. I started to build up slowly and got talking with my Kyle about possibly doing a race. He started talking about his Dad and running (Shout out to my father in law, Kevin Robison, who has done 26 full marathons and countless other races) and I thought maybe I could do a half marathon. Why start with a 5k?! A half marathon would for sure be motivation to get out and run because I would have to prepare for this long ass race! So that was that. I recruited my co-worker, Ryan, best running partner ever to be at the time, to train with me. We picked a training plan and dedicated our weekend mornings to running (and chatting). My first half marathon was the Niagara Falls International, finished in 2:13:something and accomplished my goal of breaking 2:15!

So, amazing right? I finished my first half marathon! I was damn proud of myself and even got emotional at the finish line (fully intend to post on the finish line high in the future). I had gained a new confidence in myself, I felt I was mentally stronger.
But, in the weeks after, I realized that there was one benefit of running that somehow eluded me. I ran 4 times a week for 6 months, and I started running to get fit, lose a few pounds and tone up, but my body looked exactly the same as it did when I started.

For most of my adult life, I was the same weight. Not overweight, not skinny, kinda average I guess. I was never really unhappy with my body. I was never down on myself about my body. But, I would see women my age with abs or really nice arms and think "If they can have that, why can't I?"  I knew I wanted to make a change, and kinda knew what it would take, but wasn't ready to go there.

When spring rolled around and we started training again (signed up for the Buffalo half right after the first one), I decided that I wanted to add some resistance training and clean up my diet to see if it would make a difference. Would my body change? Could I run faster? So I tried a few free random workouts on my iPad, even subscribed to a couple, yeah, didn't happen. Didn't stick with it. Kept thinking about eating cleaner, decided I wanted to do these things, but just didn't have the motivation, support or accountability. What happened next changed my life forever, changed my body, my mentality, my health and my running. Stay tuned...