Working on the Loose Ends

You all have been so patient with me through lice, car accidents, general stories about my kids and oftentimes boring runs. :) I am trying to have the same patience. I decided that this week would be the week to pull myself together from the mess that was the beginning of January and start February out fresh. It's not easy to recover from some things, they require phone calls, coordination and often time off of work. But forged ahead I did. I was feeling badly about the dying poinsettias and the wreath still on my door until I saw this.

(not her, the reindeer)  :)

The car I knocked a good ding into is in the shop and hopefully will be done tomorrow. Today I called in reinforcements and had the lice lady come and treat my daughter and me. I have a contractor coming on Friday to look at a longstanding leak in the shower. I got back to boot camp today and have been keeping up with my running.

I won't dwell on the lice lady (as she called herself), but it was so nice to finally have someone to share the load. I have been the only one pulling and tugging and trying to get my daughter rid of all the little buggers. After having a breakdown on Sunday when I found more bugs, I decided to take the leap and open my wallet for some piece of mind. She gave me a prescription I am taking advantage of right now.

Today was a gorgeous day in VA. I missed it. :( Until the last hour when I managed to get out of the house.

I was glad we took some time, but bummed I missed the warmth of this rare winter day.  I did get in a short run in my new Athleta Swagger skirt. I received a gift card for Christmas and had ordered a skirt online. The cut and color weren't what I expected and I really wanted to have another skirt. I headed over to Tysons to exchange it and see what they had in the store. I have to say I was kind of underwhelmed. I think I am so used to picking up workout clothes at Target or Ross. Anyways, I finally settled on the Swagger skirt. I wore it today for the first time and liked how it felt.

I can't explain my she held the camera crooked, but there you go.

So bugs out, new clothes in and a sunny day. One step in front of the other.

#dietbet

It indeed was icy-ish this morning and boot camp was cancelled. Bummer. But I did 30 day shred, level 2 with my son. I was proud to say I got through most of it without stopping and used my 5 lb weights!

So I think I mentioned that I had joined a dietbet. This website was clearly doing a social media blitz because there were many sites/bloggers offering bets. Essentially what you do is bet on yourself. You have 28 days to lose 4% of your weight. You take a picture of yourself and the scale on day one.

I was full of Christmas (ok- multiple holidays) bloat, so I was feeling pretty confident I would be able to get 4%. You get a word of the day to go with your weight.

Yikes, that 154.5 was tough to see. I was fully dressed and it was the afternoon, but still. I had gotten to the point where I was only seeing 14x on a daily basis, even in the evenings before bed.

During the 28 days you have a forum where folks can share thoughts, activities, encouragement, despair. Whatever suits your fancy. They even have "quick updates" such as "I just ate something bad." or "I just finished a workout." Folks were a little wrapped up in the game at the beginning. Especially when some folks were starting to weigh in with 100% of their weight loss achieved. You could submit "unofficial" weigh-ins throughout the game. Eventually that went away and the folks encouraged by social interaction stayed around.

I have to admit that my only goal was to not lose my $10. Not that it was so much money, but I should have been able to get back to my pre-holiday weight in a month. I am working out 5-6 days a week and more importantly have settled back into the food cycles I had before the treat truck came along.

Today was the last day of the bet and I knew it was going to be close. My son had his black belt pre-quals on Friday night and we went out to Italian afterwards. I had already done several meals out and was just ready to dive into some pasta. I should have special ordered what I wanted, but didn't and ended up with a heavy cream sauce. Ugh, pair that with a large glass of wine, and the pound I gained was no surprise. When I keep to my eating after a night like that, those pounds gained usually come off about half a pound day. That is what happened this time and I sneaked in with a 148. My scale only measures half pounds, so we will have to call that good. I had to take pictures again with the word of the day and they verified my weight loss.

I had to use my kids to take my pictures. I don't know why but I am a little private about my online activities with my hubby. He isn't on Facebook or Twitter and doesn't read blogs, so I feel like he isn't quite as on board with the friendships and motivation you can find online.

So would I do dietbet again? No way. My mind was on the weight more then ever before, which is saying something for someone who weighs in twice a day and writes down her morning weight and workout each day. I was happy to lose 6 pounds last year and if I was able to get to the same place (getting down to 142ish) and have those splurge days and hard workouts in between I will have won. While I was much better about my eating this weekend, Friday excepted, it wasn't joyful. Interestingly enough, I didn't totally splurge today like I expected. Who knows what the scale will say tomorrow?

What are some of your motivations? Would money change how you approach being healthy or losing weight?

Weekend in Review

Friday was cold, very cold and snow was coming. Not so much snow that this California driver was scared, but the schools still closed 2 hours early.

I managed a quick trip to my local running store to try on and walk out with my new running shoes.

It must have been fate - they were green! Just the perfect shade to match my Tiana outfit for Disney. I totally don't buy shoes for the color, but it was nice they had a little spunk to them. My very first pair of running shoes were Saucony Progrid Omnis. I bought a second pair and when those wore out, I ended up with Brooks Addictions. They are a much heavier pair of shoes and I eventually got used to them. I bought them mostly because the store didn't have Omnis in stock when I was there and the online reviews said the new models were very different. Any rate, I am back with the Omnis now and hope they work out.

With our found time on Friday we popped up some corns. Made with Olive Oil, it is one of my favorite treats.

Saturday I decided to do the 30 day shred and ran two miles on the treadmill. I was feeling guilty about blowing off bootcamp on Friday. :)

Sunday morning was a treat. I met up with a mom that I connected with on Moms Run This Town. We met at my neighborhood park and took in 4 miles on the trail. After that I worked on my Tiana outfit.

But then I was distracted by daughter. She wanted to make a quilt, so we did.

Ice is scheduled for tomorrow. Ugh. My plan is to go to bootcamp and to drop the car off at the shop to finally be fixed. Then the cub scouts are coming to my work to see the TV studio. Let's hope it all pans out as I plan.

Guest Blog Post

This evening I had the chance to blog for Vienna Mothers Run This Town. This is a group that is very active on facebook and also on the trail.

Hope you enjoy - http://momsrunthistown.com/viennava/the-runners-four-letter-word/

Warrior Mother Runner

The kids woke up on their own this morning. You know something is up in my house when the kids wake up on their own.

Sure enough it had snowed and we had a two hour delay. I had a dentist appt so I took my chances on the hill by our house and headed out. It was a little touch and go there for a bit, but I made it! After I finished my appointment I was informed of a "situation" at school that required me to head back home and then to school. By the time I got to work I was tired of driving on snow covered roads! And we only got an inch.

Today I managed to get in all 4 miles without stopping to take someone someplace!

So I ran my first (and only to date) half marathon in October. I was the proud owner of three black toes by the time my training was over. From what I could gather from the web (yes, I self diagnose on the Internet) once they turn black, they always fall off. My race was the first weekend in October, so it has been quite awhile. Today my first toenail fell off.

The good thing is it took so long, that there was a full baby nail underneath. Well, maybe not a baby nail, those suckers are sharp. This nail is flimsy and paper thin. But let's face it, I have seen worse and I think this is just another sign I am becoming a bad ass mother runner!

What makes you feel like a warrior runner?

Its Getting a Little Competitive Around Here!

Today was a rest day - from working out, but I did a little working out on the computer.

I love being in a running town, there a lots of big and small races in the area.  But you have to be on the ball, like sitting at the computer essentially when the race registration opens for some, others you can ponder your participation. What is so hard is that how is a new runner to know what they may be ready for in 6 months? Trust me when I say there will be other races and other years, but for me the desire to run a race is what drives me. It is hard to remember that sometimes.

Anyways, the craziness that was Wednesday.

As you all know I am running the Disney Princess in February with my buddy and one of her friends from CA. Ever since we registered (not on day 1 or day 10 btw) we have been mulling the Coast to Coast. Essentially Disney gives you another medal for running a race at Disney World and Disneyland in the same year. My parents still live in So Cal, as does our 3rd runner for Princess. So when the registration for the Disneyland Half opened yesterday, and hit 74% Sandie registered. (Remember this is a short drive for her - not a plane ride across the county.) Then when I logged into facebook this morning it was at 92%. I panicked. If I wanted to run this race, I would need to act fast. Ahh - what to do?? I pinged Laura and let her know the status of the registration. She hadn't talked to her husband and I had done all my planning in my head.

Since my parents are there, I decided to go for it. Worst case I just flushed $181 down the drain, which I don't take lightly, but let's be honest the race is 8 months away! The sting would lessen by then. *sigh* I still don't know if I did the right thing, but then Laura registered as well. That means she is flying from Ohio to join Sandie. I have a feeling after the Princess I will do anything in my power to get me and my running shoes there. More to come on this for sure!

Then at noon the registration for several Marine Corps events opened up. There is a half in Fredricksburg, but that conflicts with Green Bay (ack! and a story for another day) and a 17.75k in March. I love that the 17.75 stands for the year the Marine Corps was founded. So before I hustled off to a meeting, I registered for that too. Wow, was I lucky, the race sold out in 1 hour! If you run this race you have a guaranteed entry into the Marine Corps Marathon in October. I have heard wicked things about the hills on this race, so it is no where near the top of my list. But a guaranteed entry for a race that sells out in minutes....do you pass it up?? At least I have until March to decide. But then I only have 36 hours to use my access code. The pressure!

Have you ever registered for a race due to peer or time pressure?

Oh and the Disneyland Half sold out 2 hours later! Crazy I tell you.

Balance

Today was just a worker bee/mom/friend day. Despite lots of things going on, it all ended up being surprising balanced. One of those days when you think "I can do this!"

Work: Started the day with an email that needed my full attention and basically spent the day working with spreadsheets to update 3 powerpoint slides. You all already know how much I love spreadsheets. In the end 2 out of 3 were completed. Also led a good meeting for icing on the cake.

Home: Kids were picked up and dropped off when needed, including a last minute pitch hit for hubby, who was stuck in traffic. Homework was started, but I did not feed them, that was up to hubby.

Workout: I managed 3.1 miles before emergency pick up and then came back to finish my last mile, by bumping up the incline and the pace just a tad.

Friend - Managed to meet a good friend for dinner and we were able to catch up. (and I kept my eating in check and enjoyed a lovely cup of tea instead of the usual wine.)

Whew.

Oh and yesterday I went to the mall (this happens about twice a year) and saw this.

Is this really where we are headed? Back to Jr. High? Neon?  Oh save me!

I also spent my bonus day working on my Tiana costume. Not ready for a reveal yet, but it went from tragic to maybe passable.  Getting excited for Disney!

How do you find balance in your life?

Goals

So I have many goals this year.

One to feel confident in a bikini.

Despite it being January and the windchill on Tuesday expected to be zero - the bathing suits are all out on the store shelves. While bathing suit season is technically 5 months away (at least!) I thought I would grab a few bargains. I ordered one from Victoria's Secret for a nice deal, but I was worried the colors made me look even more washed out and pale then I already am. I bought another one from Target that was a fun navy blue, and I think it looks better, but hubby is undecided. Maybe have to think on that more, of course, the real goal is to feel good. Looking good wouldn't hurt either. :)

For my goal of 750 miles in 2013, I am moving along nicely. 5% seems like a good place to be 20 days into the year. I need to hit 62 miles for the month. With half marathon training in full swing, I should be good to go.

Now to only decide what races to show off my improving pace.

A Weekend of Goodness

This weekend wasn't terribly eventful, but I managed to get quite a bit done and it was WARM. Not warm for January, but Springtime Warm. I completely missed the boat on Saturday, spent too much time at the computer trying to figure out summer camps for the kids. Yes, I know that is crazy, but it is true. This is the life in suburban DC. We were supposed to get together with some friends on Saturday night, but the sickness that has been going around hit their family and we ended up staying home. The plus side was I had decided to make a fancy salad with red potatoes, corn, red pepper, feta and tomatoes. It was yummy and I had it again for lunch on Sunday.

Sunday was a record of balancing for me. I had 9 miles on the calendar and an invite from my friend Irma to run. The weather was great again and I couldn't turn down a buddy run as I spend so many miles by myself. She seemed a little daunted by the 9 miles, so I got up to run 4, raced to get my daughter to a playdate, met Irma and ran just over 5 and then raced back to pick up from the playdate. Somehow the timing all worked out and I didn't end up missing anything. I don't want to do that with my workouts every week, but it was worth it. Irma kept me moving for the most part and I feel like it was a successful day. The afternoon was spent soaking up the sun at the park.

Tonight I had booked a babysitter, as it is restaurant week in Alexandria. DH and I had a great dinner at Morrison House. So needless to say I have watched my weight creep up each day as I drink and eat myself through the weekend.

Tomorrow - back at it!

Getting it Done and Letting Go

Friday - a good day by any estimation as it is the beginning of the weekend. In our case a 3 day weekend to celebrate MLK and the Inauguration of Barack Obama. I feel somewhat bad that I have lived here for so long and still have not attended an inauguration parade or ball. That is one of my long term goals. It seems no matter how nice it is leading up to the day, the actual day itself is typically freezing. It is DC after all. And me? I am just a weather wimp. I am getting better - see the Christmas Eve when I hauled my family to the National Christmas Tree and beyond for holiday bonding time. No engraved invitation to Ball arrived in the mail either. Perhaps because I don't donate to political parties? Anyways, this year doesn't seem to be the year. :)

I went to boot camp, which was awesome because she spent quite a bit of time on stretching. Based on my run on Thursday, I needed it, so win-win! I then had a telecommute day, which I spent throwing laundry in, answering emails and even got some returns done over lunch. I was feeling good about my to do list, but hovering in the back of my mind was the 5 mile run I hadn't done on Thursday. Because I skipped my long run last weekend, I needed to be extra good about this week leading up to my 9 miler scheduled for Sunday.  Time was short though, I volunteer for a school club on Friday evenings and needed to be out to door close to 5 pm. 5 miles takes over an hour for me, so I can't just pound it out like some runners. I made a deal with myself that I would cut away from the computer at 3 and get moving. 3:00 came and went and I hadn't made my big move to change clothes.

In the end I got down there. It stresses me out to be running against this big clock on the wall. I usually have such a tight window to run and being a turtle like me means I need to be right on the mark with my pace. It all worked out, but I would prefer to have a bigger window - especially when a shower is so necessary!

I can tell my pace is picking up, so that is a big bonus I still plan for 15 minute miles even though I am closer to 13:30. I always need to stop to go to the bathroom or drink water. If I tried to drink full speed on the mill I am sure I would hurt something!

I mentioned I am doing a dietbet, I will talk about it more once it is over, but suffice to say, it is stressing me out. I am super close to my "goal weight" but the fact is that in 2012 it took me 12 months to lose 6 lbs. I am completely ok with that, as it is about feeling good and working in the right direction. The fact is that I am a working mother of 2 ES aged kids. I don't have time for Biggest Loser sized workouts. But I am doing the best I can for now. So I embraced pizza night with gusto and had 2 glasses of wine last night. Yes, my weight jumped up this morning, but its ok. I am letting go of the stress and doing what I have spent the last year doing - working towards my goals and living a healthy and fun life. I worked out twice in one day for goodness sakes - that is not something I would have been doing even a year ago!

How Do You Roll?

So I have decided my life isn't very exciting. :)

I don't know how some of these bloggers do it. Well, a lot of them show off what they are eating, but that is even less exciting. Tonight we had tortellini with a creamy sauce made from milk and flour. See, what I mean? Exciting. I will say that we do a good job of cooking and eating at home. Especially considering how busy our kids are.

Anyways, I had 45 minutes tonight to get a run in. I was scheduled for 5 miles, but my legs were tired and my time was short. I will have more time tomorrow, so I am hoping I can work through those 5 miles then. Today I ran my No Snow 5k.

We were supposed to get some snow today, but it all stayed south. The storm reports only started yesterday, which is amazing considering usually folks are panicking in DC days in advance. Anyways, all for naught as we were crushed by the dry slot again.

I felt really tight during my run and ended up walking .25 of each mile. I haven't been stretching as much with my missing boot camp several days. So I pulled out the foam roller I got for Christmas.

It hurts so bad, but does really help. I am just learning about so many of these tricks/techniques that runners use. I feel like a rookie most days, but spending time on some fun facebook groups and reading blogs has helped me get some insight.  Hopefully I can share these tips with you too.

4%

I am at 4% of my goal! I have run 29 miles this month. Considering that I didn't do anything at all from Thursday to Tuesday. Wednesday is usually my rest day, so I am pretty proud of the fact that I got back on the treadmill and did another 4 miles today.

I will admit it bothers me somewhat that my week is all turned around, but I couldn't honestly take a rest day after having 4. I am just happy I got back to it and did what I needed to.

I joined dietbet at the beginning at the month through runwithjess. I started at 154.5 - which I want to state was clothed and in the middle of the day. :)  Today I weighed in at 149 (granted morning and naked), but I am still a pound away from my goal. This allows me to get my $10 back and apparently a share of the pot from anyone who didn't meet their 4%. I lost 6 pounds in 2012, which just speaks to how much I drink perhaps? I specifically am working on strength with my boot camp, but am not sure how that will impact my weight. I want to lose inches more - for sure. It is about feeling great and great in my clothes - that is what I am striving for.

So far the dietbet has been interesting as many folks reached their goal in 1 or 2 days. For others, that seemed to be very discouraging. I am much more competitive with myself in that, perhaps that comes with being the turtle on the course. Some folks aren't updating their weights, so it is hard to know how they are doing. There are also 749 people in this game! It is somewhat difficult to determine what the trends are with so many people involved, but the pot should be encouraging, regardless of what other people are doing.

Anyways, I am pretty sure I am going to meet my goal this time, due to post Christmas loss. I mean just cutting out the cookies and not drinking was worth 3 pounds. I have 12 days to complete my challenge - cheer me on!

Have you ever done dietbet or gympact? Was it motivating to you?

Back At It!

I went to bed last night ready to conquer this week and whatever cloud I had hanging over my head. It was past time and I did it!

This morning I woke up and made it to boot camp. We were 6 strong this morning and everyone seemed a little sluggish to me, but perhaps that was just my sleepy eyes. I didn't go all out, because I definitely was still feeling the effects of whatever cold I had. I just knew if I didn't go today (Tuesday) then I would have my long run on Thursday to balance, and, and and. Basically it wasn't going to be easy to get back to it after a week, but the only way to start was to get there. As always, once I am there, I just do what I am told and the hour goes by quickly. The sprints at the end almost put me over the edge energy wise, but luckily the clock was on my side and we were stretching before I had to call Uncle.

My lunch time was productive with a trip to get the car estimate done, 10k! Wow!! That seems like a lot for a bumper and the underlying fender. Guess when I do something, I really go for the gusto.

So thankful for the insurance! Then I grabbed lunch and filled up the car with gas (yes, the light was on - a pet peeve of mine) For 40 minutes, I felt like I crossed several things off the list.

After work I was able to sneak in just over 2 miles on the treadmill. I felt good and it was an even 30 minutes. A nice re-entry into running, with my last run being 5 miles on Thursday.

The boys went off to a scout event and DD and I did out thing. Lice check and game.

I am still finding those nits! UGH. It is definitely much less each day though. Another few days and we will be washing with the Killing Shampoo again. Yes, it actually says that on the bottle.

The rest of the week is looking good and I am feeling better! I think I have turned the corner. Perhaps January 15th should be the start of every year!

Let's Talk about Running shall we?

Wow, 2013 has certainly thrown me for a loop. The good news is that I am ready to talk running for a change - but first a short family update! I had a great weekend with the family, even with not feeling so great.

Saturday night the Packers played and we are nothing if not Packer fans in this house!

They are a little blurry, but I promise you the enthusiasm was there. The outcome was not what we wanted, but there is always next year! Sunday I slept late. Today's bribe for my daughter to sit still while I picked through her hair was a manicure. 

We even figured out an easy way to do polka dots. Fun. The picking, not so fun, but it goes by faster each day and she seems to understand why we need to keep after it. 

Back to running! I considered doing my long run today, but I decided against it. Time was running short and I wanted to take it nice an easy. I am not sure how, but I would love to get it in tomorrow. Even if it is a partial workout. Still undecided about bootcamp though. I like to know Sunday night what my plan for the week is, but sometimes you just have to listen to your body. In my case, I need to push it a little harder. :) 

Since I only had an hour I decided to work on my outfit for the Disney Princess Half. That's just as good as a workout right? 

Here is my inspiration. 

This is a headband I got a year or so ago when I went to New Orleans for a meeting. My daughter has taken it as her own of course, but I think I could borrow it for just 1 weekend, right? Actually today is when she put two and two together that not only was mom running a big race, but she wasn't doing it in town. Wait until she figures out I am going to Disney World! Oh my!

I really want to be Tiana. 

Anyways, I hit up Party City for a white petticoat and then Joann's for some green fabric. I had bought a tank top at Old Navy a few weeks ago. The colors aren't an exact match, so I think it will do. Although looking at the picture, I am a little more unsure. Thoughts??

I will show you what I come up with. Next weekend is a 3 day weekend, so I hope to make some progress (as well as fit in some good runs). 

Have a great week everyone!

Girls Night Out

I did have one victory this week. The first item crossed off my goals/to do list. Most of the items on the list are goals, but since my list is broken out by month, some are the things I would like to accomplish on the house or plan for family enjoyment. Keeps my eye on the prize and feeling like I am moving forward.

I had the plumber come and look at the kids' tub and the garbage disposal. The tub in the bathroom has never drained correctly. We have lived here for 11 years and it was high time we did something about it. When the kids took baths it wasn't a big deal if it drained slowly because we were usually busy getting them dry, dressed, etc Let's not talk about what our guests had to deal with. I am a bad hostess, this is simply evidence one. Anyways, long story short. The plumber found a full sized playmobile character.

I am pretty sure it is from the previous owner of the house, as my kids have never had playmobiles in the tub. At least not to my knowledge. Lots of tub toys for sure, but not these guys. Anyways, total victory.

Then I got to do more laundry. I swear the washer has been running non stop since I found out DD has lice again. I am washing everything in sight, so don't sit still too long!

The nitpicking continued with DD on Friday evening. Not fun, so we decided to go on a girls night out. First was a trip to buy birthday presents, then another stop to buy this shampoo - Fairy Tale, which is supposed to have rosemary to repel lice. I am ready to try anything at this point.

We then hit up Subway for dinner and decided to chase that with some frozen yogurt. I am totally back on frozen yogurt. We used to eat it all the time in CA, but since moving here there wasn't really any options. Well now there are frozen yogurt places all over and I am loving it!

After our yogurt, we hit up the local HS gymnastic meet. There were 5 schools competing in a meet and we went to cheer on our girls. We don't know anyone on the team unfortunately, but it was still fun.

After it was over, we went to go get autographs. The girls couldn't have been sweeter to my daughter and it was a nice way to end the night. (I think they felt good too!)

No workout today. My sore throat is turning into a cough and I just didn't have it in me to push through.

Where is the Corner?

I so want to turn the corner, and was having a good day. Today was a telecommute day, I was getting some clean up done around the house and working on a presentation for Monday. Good meals for breakfast and lunch.

Fast forward, picked up my son and dropped him off at TKD. Then I decided to ignore my sore throat (which still sound horrible) and hit the treadmill. I figured if I wasn't feeling it, I could always stop. This is how I get many workouts done. I just tell myself to start and see how I feel. I ended up doing the 5 miles I was scheduled for! Yea. I felt pretty good. Walked a few minutes, but you can't dispute the victory!

Moved on to dinner etc and discovered that the school had sent home a note about lice. Ugh. Not a good sign. There was an outbreak my daughter was involved in before break. My first and only experience with lice as a mother or patient. Yuck, yuck, yuck. So what do I find but evidence. YUCK. The rest of my night so far has been spending too much time looking at my daughter's hair.

So maybe today was even? Partly good, and partly bad. Things need to turn around soon right?

On the plus side, the plumber found a playmobile in the tub pipe, so that would explain the slow draining. :)

Time to Turn This Around

I have been working out yes, but my mood hasn't been good. I love being positive and energized. This just hasn't been the case. I spent yesterday getting lots of big work things off of my to do list. Today I just had to get through it. Meetings and I essentially lost my voice. Not good when you are the leader! When I left the house I got a surprise call. Another mother who I have kept in touch with since our kids went to Montessori School together. We chat about once a month and try to get out for dinners every once in awhile, so I consider us fairly close considering we don't have any common kid activities. Anyways, she has big news in her life and I was excited to catch up for a few minutes and book a dinner out next week. Step in the right direction, much better then slamming into someone's car!

Today was about leading others through decisions that had to be made and getting to the rest phase of the week. No workout (planned), which is good timing because I am not sure which direction this sore throat is going to take me. Meetings went well and I came home with more energy then I expected considering!

Anyways, enough about the boring aspects of my life. :)

Let's talk about some fun stuff. Not all my goals are fitness related. I am also looking to put quite a bit of money into the house. We completely redid the kitchen 2 years ago and it just drained me of any energy to deal with contractors and having to make design decisions. I am back and ready to go! We have lots of maintenance stuff to do, but some fun stuff too, like landscaping.

We also want to be more social, so I have to figure out how to execute that with kids that seem to be growing social calendars twice as busy my own! I am also working on vacation plans too. That is FUN!

Have a great day!

A Bang Up Day

Exercise makes me feel good. I promise, but the beginning of 2013 has started out as just a big ball of stress. I can see the end (I think) so please bear with me.

Today started out like many others, the debate about boot camp. I had decided Monday evening that I would attend Mon, Tues, Fri. That allowed me to run my scheduled 2 miles on Tues without too much trouble and longer on Thursday without wiping out my energy. So off I went, frost on the car window, yuck. Lots fewer people there this morning then Monday, but we got right down to business.

I had an early meeting, so I was home right afterwards, tagged the husband on his way out the door and got the kids going. We were getting out the door in good time when DS says he doesn't know where his glasses are. Crap. I made him look in the most obvious places, but my suspicion was they were sitting on his desk at school. He really only wears them to see the board and rarely has them out at home. Just in case checked the lost and found on the way into school, nada. I tried to stay calm about it, so he wouldn't freak out and was fairly successful. I had plenty of time to get to the training I was helping to run and BAM.

I hit a parked car pulling out of school. Crap. (that might not have been the word that came out of my mouth)

So I stood like the idiot I am in the empty parking lot trying to figure out whose car it might be. Turns out is was the car of a mom of my daughter's friend. Fantastic. Of course, I didn't put that together during the whole exchange info part. She had been rear ended on Saturday, so to say she was having a bad week would be pretty accurate I think. I guess the good news is that she only has to get the car fixed once? Maybe?

The rest of the day isn't worth going through. I got several things off my desk and decided to turn my time for 2 miles into mental health gains. Essentially, my to do list is stressing me out. Sometimes I do it to myself, but this is all end of year reporting deadlines, so I just needed to get things done and be able to mentally clear the decks. I put that time to good use and got a large piece of work moved to the next step in the process. I am getting sick, so that may serve me well in many ways in the next few days. I will say typically when I am this stressed I tend to take it out on others by getting upset easily, most likely my kids and that hasn't happened. Perhaps exercise is helping me manage more then I realize!

Any rate, I might run tomorrow (with relief) or not, but I am ok with it. I have 44 days until the Princess Half and I can do it!

Hoping that light I see at the end of the tunnel is my good mood coming back and not something else!

Get out there!

Oh Monday, How You Torture Me

Usually I am not big on the Monday Blues, I am rested for the weekend and ready to go. I got up for bootcamp today as we pretty much had an engraved order  invitation. Today was the first Monday of the new year. Time to get to work. I had went to bootcamp last week, so it wasn't such a big deal for me, but I didn't want to miss any discussion about goals.

When we got there she didn't have us lay out our equipment and mat like usual, but handed us an index card with our goals we had emailed her. She had a space for starting plank time, our height, weight and the goals. So we all did a plank together with her calling out time in 15 second intervals. I stayed up until 45 seconds. My goal is 3 minutes by the end of the year, so I felt pretty good about that. (plus I had only done 32 seconds the night before!) We did the plank with our arms extended, which I don't typically do. I do them on my elbows, which way is harder?

Photo:Self 

Photo: Cooking Light

So for 2013;
     Goal 1: Run 750 miles
     Goal 2: hold a 3 minute plank

My 3rd goal is to do 100 pushups in a row. I originally had crunches, but I figured the planks took care of the core, so the pushups will take care of the arms.

That is 3 goals that are much more well rounded then my 2012 goal of running 12 races in 12 months. However, I think they are going to be hard enough that I can't finish them in like a month (although if I do, I can always set more!) and varied enough that they support each other and an overall healthy movement. They also are part of my word for 2013 - STRONGER!

So what was the torture today? Just silly work stuff. Nothing that I need to keep with me, but it did give me a little pause this morning. Moving on and moving forward.

Have a great day!

Long Run Sunday

Today was my long run for the week. I needed to get 8 miles in, which takes me just under 2 hours. I had a very busy day ahead of me, so I knew I needed to get to it this morning. However, I had the worst night of sleep. I went to bed about midnight as usual, but then our daughter appeared in bed at some point, my husband was snoring up a storm and this morning my son came in to talk football. Ugh. Anyways, I just couldn't get going. I kept going over my schedule and what I needed to get done today, stressing myself out more and more as the minutes ticked by.

Finally I was able to get up and got on the treadmill after some toast with peanut butter. I had EIGHT miles to go. Why am I doing 8 miles on this January day? I am training for the Disney Princess half marathon in February. My long distance running trainer convinced me to sign up, before I knew it I had booked airline tickets and clicked submit. Laura's parent live close to me, so she pops into town and gives me that little push I need to go a little further, a little faster. She is working with a pacing group for Marathoners in Training in Columbus and I am slightly jealous of them. When she was here over Christmas we had an awesome Christmas eve run on a local trail and it was so fun to have someone chat my ear off as we clicked off the miles.

Any rate, I have my training plan all laid out and today said 8 miles. That is one thing I love about training plans, I just have to do what it says and the rest will come. I am a total list person, can you tell? (yes, I have even added something to a list so I could cross it off!)  I decided I wanted to run as much as I could, but still be smart about it. So I warmed up with a .5 mile walk, then ran 2 miles, repeated again. I fueled with some Skittles at mile 5. Then the last piece I alternated .25 walk with a 1 mile run. Mile 7 and 8 was spent negotiating the great balloon crisis of 2013, but I managed to get through it. 6 miles running, 2 miles walking. I listened to some Another Mother Runner podcasts that I wanted to catch up on.

The rest of the day I didn't feel very good and eating was not the most enjoyable. That hasn't happened in awhile, so I need to work on my sleep and food I think.

Had a little flashdance action going on today. Not sure what that was about.

After my meeting, I hustled over to the HS where my son was performing with the Pyramid Chorus. They were awesome!

Now time for the Biggest Loser. The first night is always so hard to watch. I can't imagine working out for 12 hours a day and then coming home and cooking!

Have an awesome day!