After trying on a lot of different dresses at many different stores I cannot find my dream dress. So, I am going to have my dress made. I am basically, putting my hopes and dreams in the hands of a random dressmaker.

I am in southern California and there are a lot of wedding/quinceanera/prom dress shops nearby my house. I went into about 6 of them and asked questions and got a quote. I took a few pictures from magazines and catalogs of dresses that I liked and then I pieced together everything I wanted in one dress.

Last night I went back and got measured so they could start on it. I am nervous about it, but I kinda felt like I had no choice. None of the dresses I tried on gave me that, “This is it!” feeling. So, I hope my dress comes out like I am thinking.

On a related note: Despite the title of this post, I do not want my dress to be a BIG FAT anything! So, I am started a new chapter of this blog where I actually make an effort to lose weight. More to come…

So, I think I mentioned that we found a location for the wedding. Did I neglect to mention that we set a date? I am getting married in 5 months folks – June 20, 2009. Yes, that’s a 2009. When I went dress shopping recently there was another girl looking for a dress for her June 2010 wedding. I am a year behind!

I am extremely stressed out right now and I have about 283 things that need to get done NOW. In addition to planning the wedding in 5 months we are also trying to keep a very tight budget while doing things nicely. So, this is the challenge of the century. Luckily, I am good at the thrifty game. I have a lot of tips for brides on a budget, but in order to provide good/complete info I am going to wait and post it properly.

Training for a marathon makes you hungry.

This is frustrating. You would think that running so much would mean the pounds are just melting off. Nope, you are burning a lot of calories with all those runs, but that means your body wants more fuel. Spending hours on your feet is very taxing on your body, proper recovery through good food is important.

I was not that hungry the day of my long runs, but the next day I was an eating machine! Then, there would be  another random day during the week when all those miles would catch up with me and I would be hungry. For some reason it was very hard to feel satisfied. I made sure to drink a lot of water too. I wanted to be sure it was hunger and not thirst, but my body still wanted food. I didn’t want to hurt my recovery so I listened to my body and ate what I wanted. I did not lose weight while training for the marathon. That kinda sucks because I really want to, but I am proud of myself for putting my desire to lose weight aside to achieve this goal.

Some people actually gain weight while training for a marathon. This is probably from building muscle mass, so it shouldn’t be looked at negatively.

From my personal running experience I would say that if your goal is to lose weight you should train for a 10K or maybe a half. That is the right amount of mileage to get those calories burning off without jarring your metabolism to a state of starvation. But, no matter what distance you are running – if you are hungry or thirsty listen to your body and fuel properly. If you want to make running part of your life you have to eat like a runner.

Just be warned: Racking up the miles makes you hungry!

Even though you are racking up the mileage in marathon training you have to be careful not to over train.

Over-training and overuse injuries are the  most common reasons people get hurt and are unable to finish training.

To avoid injuring yourself by over training stick to the 10% rule: Don’t increase your mileage by more than 10% each week. Cool Running says:

“Do not increase either your (1) weekly mileage and/or (2) long run mileage by more than 10 percent a week. Doing so greatly increases the chances of incurring an injury, thereby delaying or stopping your training all together.”

There were weeks in my training that called for me to scale back. After 2 consecutive weeks of super long runs on a Saturday the third week called for me to run significantly less. There is a reason for this, and it’s for your own good. The professional marathon training programs that you find online *from reputable sources like Cool Running, Hal Higdon and Jeff Galloway* are written by people who have ran marathons and who know how to keep runners from getting injured. Stick to the plan even if you can do more! This is hard to do when you feel like you can run further, but it’s for your own good.

Staying healthy and keeping your body happy is hard enough during marathon training, don’t make it harder for yourself

Just a few miles left until the race! I ran 4.5 miles today and walked to cool down

Here is my quick review of Jamba Juice’s Oatmeal. We were in Paso Robles and I was freezing outside, but it was too loud to do it inside (with the whirling blenders and all). So, I may be shivering a little Also, I say the topping is cinnamon/sugar – that is not true. It is a brown sugar crumble. I said cinnamon since I always put cinnamon (and brown sugar) on my oats.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2eEU7gSy9c]

The oatmeal has approx 300 cals (to round it up) and the small light smoothie has about 150cals, so this complete breakfast was about 450 calories. Nice!

This is the reality of training for a marathon – CHAFING. It sucks people, but I am not here to lie to you. There will be chafing.

Before training for a full mary I had ran 13 miles many times. I had experienced some irritation, but nothing really bothersome (I don’t think it’s necessary to get into the details, you’re welcome). For some reason when I ran 15 miles for the first time I had the worst chafing on my chest right where the top of my sports bra touches my skin. I didn’t even realize until I got back home and stepped into the shower. The second the hot water hit my chest I realized – my skin was completely raw! It stung and burned so bad! It was painful ;( Boo. I had a very red and inflamed rash for a few days afterwards too.

Lesson to keep – that sports bra is no good for long runs.

Don’t let this happen to you! Apply Body Glide or Vaseline at the first hint of chafing!

Wedding planning aside, let’s not forget - I have a marathon to run this weekend! Crazy. This week is a taper week, I am really appreciating that since I am so swamped with everything else!

The taper week schedule:

Monday – 5 miles

Tuesday – 4 miles

Wednesday – 5 miles

Thursday – Rest/Yoga

Friday – 3 miles

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – 26.2 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I may change up  the schedule a bit depending on how my legs feel. I want to get a lot of rest this week so if I feel the slightest bit tired I will cut back on miles. This schedule is actually  more than my training program calls for so I feel free to cut back if I want. It’s hard to cut back so drastically this week since I use running as an outlet for my anxiety and I have a ton of that right now! Can you blame me?

After 2 weeks of intense research we found a location for the wedding!!!

We are getting married in Paso Robles. You guys know how much I love that place I am very happy. It’s a special place to me and the fiance since he took me to Paso on one of our first road-trips. We have had a lot of good times driving around exploring California and we knew we definitely wanted a “destination” wedding of sorts. Paso Robles is about 4 hours away from us, but it’s still counts as a destination wedding, right?

We are getting married at this winery that actually looks like a castle! It’s kinda crazy and I love it.

So, this is where I’ve been this weekend. The fiance and I had to road-trip it up to Paso to walk through the place and sign paperwork. Sorry I was MIA, but I think it’s fairly obvious that things are crazy around here. I have a ton more to post about, more to come later

#9 – You will figure out your best carbo loading dinners (through trial and error)

Since I had ran a few half marathons before training for the full I had an idea of what foods worked for me, but I did have a few bad pre-run meals that I regretted ;( …like that  night of a huge bowl of  ice cream or that time that I just mindlessly ate a bunch of random crap. Yeah, don’t do that.

I know you’re supposed to carb load before a long training run so I would make sure dinner the night before was full of carby goodness, but some meals worked better than others. For some reason pasta is just “okay” for my body, but not the best.

My super duper long run carb loading power meal is… Thai or Chinese food with lots of rice and soy sauce!!!

I think it’s the carb/salt combo that makes this magical, but I swear by it. I know everyone is different so you have to figure out what makes your body tick  run best. I sweat a lot, no really A LOT. I come back from a long run looking like I just got out of the pool. I think my body needs a lot of salt in addition to carb loading the night before a longy. (If you sweat like a normal person and not a beastie this carb/salt thing may not be for you.)

Figure out what your “super duper carbo loading power foods” are and your long runs will be much more enjoyable! Until you do, you will have hours of running to regret what you ate the night before I mean, what else are you going to think about when you’re stomach is pissed at you and you still have 9 miles to go?