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?