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Hi, my name is Alli and here on the forums I go by TLE. 4 years ago, I completed the Capital City half-marathon. Here's a completely legitimate photo (that I definitely didn't screencap from the website) of my father and me crossing the finish line at the illustrious time of 3:38:13:  Since then, my weight has fluctuated but I have peaked at about 211 pounds. I am 5'3" and 23-years-old. This is what I look like now:  A few years ago, I read Born To Run and like many was totally captivated by it. I bought some Vibram Five Fingers and did a decent amount of running in them. Then I got lazy and stopped. I attempted the Portland Marathon (in regular running shoes) with basically no training and got about 12 miles in before calling it quits. My family is generally athletic so I pretty much have no excuse for letting myself get this bad. Both of my parents have completed 5 marathons. 15 years ago, my father was obese, got sick of it, and started running. He has stayed relatively fit ever since. I know I can better myself through running, I know I can change myself like my father did. I've decided to make a log here and challenge myself with the total transformation challenge in order to keep myself accountable. Every time I take a go at training for a long-distance race, I do fine but pretty much just lose motivation and quit. I was derailed by an ankle injury when training for the PDX marathon but I could have easily restarted training and I didn't. Luckily, I have completed a long-distance race before so I have a lot of the mental work out of the way. I just need to put the physical work in and I am fully committed to it. I signed up for the Vernonia half-marathon on April 14. I would eventually like to work up to an ultramarathon of some kind, but for now I have my eye on a second half on June 1 and a full marathon on August 4. My training plan will be a basic reverse-tapering plan with 5 days of running for the first half, adding some speedwork for the second. After that, if I can afford it I would like to join a gym and add in some weights and other cross-training. My toxxes: 1) Complete the Vernonia Half-Marathon in less than 3:15. 2) Complete the Timberline Half-Marathon. I will make a time goal after I finish the first one and see what's realistic. Ideally I would like to finish in under 3 hours. My hope also is that in training for these races I will get back to a healthy weight. I am fortunate to be in good health but I know I am on a short list to bad health problems if I don't change. Link to my fitocracy. I don't have any real meal plan but if ya'll have any good ideas for an EMT with very little time I am all ears. I can pack a lunch but I don't have reliable access to a microwave or anything like that. I look forward to all your feedback and comments! Thanks in advance.
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| # ? Jan 28, 2013 04:59 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 07:31 |
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Also I did my first run today. Pretty happy with the pace considering I forgot my inhaler and had to walk quite a bit.
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| # ? Jan 28, 2013 05:21 |
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In on the ground floor with this running log! You are so right, the biggest hurdle in long-distance running is mental, and you have a huge advantage with your prior race experience. About meals/food, do you have any protein powder? If you're pressed for time you can mix a scoop in milk (or almond milk); it's fast and filling. I can't think of any other ideas off the top of my head, but have you checked the Goons With Chickencheese thread in YLLS? Lots of fast and healthy recipes.
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| # ? Jan 28, 2013 20:40 |
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pandariot posted:In on the ground floor with this running log! I have Whey Isolate which I generally drink after a workout. I will definitely check that thread out. I signed up for a cooking class at the local food bank which is designed for lower-income adults like myself and hopefully I will learn some good stuff!
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| # ? Jan 29, 2013 01:40 |
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The time is a few minutes off because the app froze but I'm very pleased with the run. Rembered my inhaler and was able to run the whole thing.
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| # ? Jan 30, 2013 04:10 |
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TMI, Forgot to go to the bathroom before I went out so I had to walk a lot to calm my bladder down so my time was longer than I would like. Had fun though!
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| # ? Jan 31, 2013 03:50 |
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Happy first long run day, thread! I will be heading out in a few hours. My Friday run:  Got weird pain in the top of my feet after the first mile... the kind you usually get when your shoes are tied too tight. As I am wearing FiveFingers I am not really sure what is causing it. I still made pretty good time though despite having to walk a little bit. I took yesterday off just in case it was some kind of overuse injury. Also did my first weigh in, 209.4. Yeehaw. Will post my run when I get back. Thanks for reading pandariot 
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| # ? Feb 3, 2013 17:49 |
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Welp I think I figured out my pain issue... thinking it's just my muscles hating me for running in FiveFingers. Gonna do the next few runs in regular running shoes to give them time to heal a bit. I ran through the pain like a  and killed it though! Woohoo! That puts me at 13.54 miles for my first week. Not bad, not bad at all.
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| # ? Feb 3, 2013 21:57 |
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Awesome job! Keep up the great work! Started following you on fitocracy to track your progress. Hopefully I'll someday be able to run some of the distances you have under your belt.
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| # ? Feb 3, 2013 22:07 |
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The Light Eternal posted:Hi, my name is Alli and here on the forums I go by TLE. The first step for a real meal plan is up to you. Write down everything you've eaten for the past 4 days. Then we can figure out how to improve your diet. Probably a matter of cutting out 10-20% of carbs such as bread and pasta, starches and sugar. But need to see what you're eating first.
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| # ? Feb 4, 2013 02:54 |
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Binary Logic posted:Hi, Alli. I already eat a lower-carb diet but I will definitely track my food for the next 4 days and post it here, thanks for the idea. Today is one of my off-days but I wanted to make up for Saturday so I put on regular running shoes and went out. My legs felt bad. So I decided to sprint up some hills and do burpees instead. 
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| # ? Feb 4, 2013 19:57 |
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Tough day for motivation yesterday but I made it out. Felt really good about it despite my feet still hurting.
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| # ? Feb 7, 2013 19:51 |
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Had a pretty :3 moment on my run just now. Was about 2.5 miles into my 5k when some guys from my neighborhood pulled up next to me in their SUV. They gave me a thumbs up and said they've seen me running a lot and that I'm doing a great job! It made me feel pretty drat good and I pushed myself to a 5k PR.  Finally reached my goal of a 5k in under 40 minutes! Woohoo! I don't think I've ever been able to do that before which is awesome. 
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| # ? Feb 7, 2013 22:50 |
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Definitely starting to think that running in the evening is not my thing. Was slowwww today.
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| # ? Feb 9, 2013 05:03 |
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Two more down. Lost 5 lbs. Good week so far. 
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| # ? Feb 12, 2013 17:37 |
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Welp today's run was interesting. You never think you're almost going to get hit by a car... while running on a fitness trail at a golf course.  There was some kind of police chase and the fugitive stole a truck and drove it through the golf course and crashed into the fence right across the trail I was running on. I was about 500 feet ahead when this happened. Good times! Anyway needless to say this took a significant chunk of my time as I was standing around for about 5 minutes.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 01:08 |
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The Light Eternal posted:
Wild! Around 8 weeks until the half marathon how are you feeling about it?
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| # ? Feb 16, 2013 09:17 |
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Binary Logic posted:Wild! I am feeling good. My long run on Monday will be 5 miles. I have definitely been having some pain and am on day 3 of resting preemptively. However I have not been having any problems doing the miles besides the pain... no muscle fatigue or anything like that. If I can keep this pace up I will easily be able to meet my goal of 3:15.
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| # ? Feb 16, 2013 17:27 |
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Hi thread, I haven't forgotten about you. Been super busy but still getting runs in. Got some co-workers in on the running as well. We've done 3 runs together so far. Excited for the Shamrock 15k in 2 weeks! Yay! Will post some logs when I get home from work.
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| # ? Feb 28, 2013 00:54 |
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Vernonia half is on Sunday. You ready to run it?
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| # ? Apr 13, 2013 00:30 |
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Yep. I'm excited.
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| # ? Apr 14, 2013 01:30 |
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Just found this log - assuming you're out running right now, hope its awesome and looking forward to a trip report!
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| # ? Apr 14, 2013 13:28 |
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I finished and completed my  . Trip report when I get home from the Timbers game.
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| # ? Apr 15, 2013 01:56 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 07:31 |
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Like I said earlier, #1 completed. It was pretty cold when I got up and mentally it was difficult to get going. I made it to the parking area in plenty of time. We were bussed to the start which took forever, so I ended up missing the early start by a bit. This resulted in my times being discombobulated as my chip got read incorrectly at the start I think. The race started with an immediate downhill and I finished the first mile in 12:18. Around mile two I linked up with an older lady who was racewalking and ran next to her. Sad, I know, but whatever, it kept me going. We stayed together for 5 miles or so when I got tired. Ran with another lady essentially for the rest of the race. Good times were had. It did suck having to ride a bus with a bunch of sweaty people on the way back though. They also ran out of bananas at the aid station which was sad. A banana would have been nice. As you can tell by the thread, I did poorly in the second half of my training. I bought some $20 Pumas and wore those. They seemed to treat my feet nicer than the Vibrams. Still love running in the Vibrams, but I think I need to keep it to one shorter run a week until I lose some more weight. Luckily, the Vibrams dramatically improved my running form and I had no problem mid-striking with the regular shoes. I also inexplicably placed 4th in my age group? I guess only 4 ladies my age ran it. Yay for rewarding mediocrity. I got a ribbon. As for the race itself, I would highly recommend it to anyone in the Portland area. Relatively fast course and beautiful scenery. Can't wait to continue training for Timberline. My MapMyRun screencap:  Me at the finish: 
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| # ? Apr 15, 2013 06:39 |
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