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!