Saturday, December 31, 2005

Week in training 12/25-12/31

Started out really well, but ended in a disappointing blah.

Monday - 3 miles, felt really fast. also did some upper body weights
Tuesday- 4.6 miles on the eliptical, planned 5 but a migraine decided it wanted to visit.
Wednesday- still recovering from migraine
Thursday - planned rest day
Friday - another migraine, weee!
Saturday- more recovering, sucks.

Total 7.6 miles, very sad.

I'm thinking my migraines could be brought on by chocolate, ate my weight in chocolate this week, hehe. Or could have something to do with my chronic sinusitis. My sinuses hate me again this week. I am going to try and see a new dr next week, we'll see what happens.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Goals for 2006

I don't know why, but New Years Revolutions always bug me. So I'm setting some goals, same thing you may say, but its my blog so I can call stuff what I want ;)

I've made great progess with my goals this year. Next year I plan to fine tune my physical goals and then work harder on some personal and spiritual goals.

First, exercise:

Run my first marathon.
Run the Freedom run 10k and beat my time from 2005
Run a half marathon in August and beat my time, shouldn't be that hard since I was sick and dehydrated, lol.

Second, eating:

I have spurts where I do really well and then really, I mean really, bad. I hope to have the healthy spurts last longer. Not only for myself, but for my growing children and my husband. Yeah, my husband needs to gain a few pounds, maybe eating better will atleast make me feel like a better wife :)

Third, less computer time:

I know I can get good grades in college, sure its harder, but I'm a smart girl and can do well when I focus. Problem is that I don't focus, I play online instead ;). So I'm going to limit my computer time to once or maybe twice a day for no more than 45 minutes.
I also want to spend more time with my kids doing crafts, reading, hanging out and just being silly.
Keeping the house clean is a huge stress relief for me. I don't worry about someone stopping by and me being embarassed about a messy house. And hearing "mom, I don't have any clean socks" or "I can't find my books" because there are huge piles of clutter everywhere. Plus its hard to run when all your workout gear is dirty :P

And last but not least, personally and spiritually:

I plan on reading the scriptures daily, also spending more time following the given scriptures that go with what I am reading. Learning more about the gospel and all that goes with it.
I also want to spend some time meditating and just relaxing, whether it be first thing in the morning preparing for the day or last thing I do before bed, contemplating how the day went. Just a little quiet time to ground myself and hopefully help relieve stress and other things related to raising children.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

A special thank you to my family!

My husband reads my blog, so I decided to make sure he and all my friends get to see how much I appreciate him.

My hunny always stands by my side, he always supports me in whatever goal I set for myself. He doesn't complain when I get up saturday morning and go running for a couple of hours and then come home and shower. He always goes to my races, though only 2 thus far. Dragging the kids along and entertaining them for an hour or two.

He also puts up with the "need" for new gear and gadgets, the newest race that I want to try. The sore muscles and afternoon naps after a hard training week. The endless questions about my butt looking more firm or my thighs being less squishy :).

Without my husband and kids, I wouldn't have the same strength and support to reach harder and do more to better myself and enjoy my life.

I love you my hunny!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

My week in review, 12/19- 12/24

This week was a pretty successful week, if I do say so myself. I have a head cold and get to deal with sinus headaches, but other than that I'm feeling pretty darn good :) Maybe its because all the Christmas gifts have been purchased and all my sewing projects are completed. Well, the ones that had to be done anyway ;)

Monday 3.2 miles, felt really good and fast, woot. I also did some upper body weights.
Tuesday - took the day off, cold just started, ugh.
Wednesday - slept in, but took my treadmill out and worked out at home. Hardest 4.15 miles of my life, so it seemed. Glad thats over.
Thursday - another day off, blech
Friday - 5.3 miles on the eliptical and two blisters to prove it. I think I'm too uncoordinated to use that machine, I'm always doing something embarassing on it :P
Saturday - finally some warmish weather, I got to run outside, woohooo. 8 miles :)

This weeks totals = 20.65

I'm back on track, I haven't run more than 15 miles in a week since August and nothing over 6 miles since then either. Maybe I wont gain 5 pounds this holiday season :)

Monday, December 19, 2005

Remember how I said I was competetive?

Well, its bad. I belong to a message board where we have some of our blogs listed and we decided that it would be fun to have blog "challenges" where we have different "assignments" to help keep up on our toes and maybe to keep my blog from being so boring :P
Today's challenge is to incorporate certain words into our blogs. I was going to cheat and just list the words, but decided that I wasn't a cheater. So now i have to think of an interesting story or something.
Hmm....
Oh, this morning I was running on the 'mill at the gym, they have about 8 tv stations going on the different tvs so I can channel surf rather than staring at the wall and going insane. So I'm watching fox13 and they are talking about a store in Salt Lake. Big Buddah is doing the story, the store was a Hawaiian store and when you enter there is someone there to give you a Lei (is that how its spelled? oh well, too late) and a kiss on the cheek. So of course Big Buddah has all the pretty girls kissing him on the cheek. Then the last person was a man, Buddah decided to try and kiss him at the same time? anyway, they ended up kissing each other on the lips and I busted out laughing. They were both these hugs Polynesian men bright red and embarassed. Too funny.

Well, that didn't cover any words. Lets see about fitting a few in here. I just got an email, I was accepted in the Moab Half Marathon, woo hooo!! I'm so excited that I could run to Texas or ride a bus, maybe even fly on a dragon. Or maybe I could make a gingerbread house or get dinner at Subway. I'll also do my wicked cool happy dance until ten o' clock tonight. I hope I don't get a bunyon or make the alluminum siding fall off the house :)

(yeah, I cheated in a way, but I got all the words, hehe. Oh, not the "bonus word" fart, there :) )

Renewed optimism.

I don't suck, really I don't! I've slacked so badly the last few months, really since August, that I've been mentally beating myself up for a long time. I would have a great week with working out, but I'd suck horribly at the eating and vise versa. So I decided that I needed to find some motivation, some goals to work towards. Not just weight loss or completing a marathon, but short term goals that really don't have a "big" reward.
If I lost weight, then my pants would fit better and I'd feel better about myself. If I completed a marathon then I'd be very proud and would make sure everyone knew what I did, lol. But I need something else. Something that will get me up at 5:30 a.m. most mornings. Something my tired little brain could grasp and decide it was worthy of getting out of my soft, warm, comfy bed.
What could it be? what would work well enough that I wouldn't have to think about it, just do it? A challenge! I'm a very competetive person. Usually the person I'm competing with has no idea that I'm competing, lol. I'm a pretty shy person and I hate confrontation. So I usually just yell at them in my head and call them names :)
During my half marathon I would pick someone ahead of me that looked to be doing the same pace and I would vow to pass them and not let them pass me. It worked wonders when I was struggling to just keep moving or to keep from passing out :P They probably had no idea how much strength I recieved just by passing them and smiling or saying "hello" all friendly like :)
I decided that I am going to beat my loser self. I will run the planned miles this week and I will lift the planned weights. If I do then I will think of some little reward. If I do not (well, unless I have a great reason) then I will have a harder workout the following week. Worse than was previously planned.
I don't know why the threat of the loser winning works, but it does.
Oh and other good news. I ran the last 1/4 mile of my run at 7 mph and I didn't die! Thats the fastest I've dared go in a long long time. I'm excited to try it again on Wednesday when I have my next short run planned. But I plan on trying it for 1/5 mile instead :)

Friday, December 16, 2005

Christmas stresses and joys

Holidays can be so joyous. Seeing family and friends that I rarely get to see, is one of my favorite parts of the season. Another thing I love, is finding a gift that fits someones personality perfectly. The anticipation of their reactions or the helping someone in their lives is what I strive for. Maybe a little humor to help during the work day, or helping them look nice as they are out and about.
This year I decided to make the gifts for our gift exchange. Why? I don't know, to use up fabric that I have or to save some money. Or just plain insanity, yeah thats the real reason ;)
So I'm stressed more than ever, finals are finally done, my house is somewhat clean and the kids are fed, for the mostpart :P. Anyway, when I stress I get really tired. Which means, I sleep in and don't run. Not running means I don't handle stress as well, which makes me more tired. Vicious cycle!
So today I am finishing the quilts I started and then tomorrow I can go running and hopefully the cycle will end.
One other thing that I've tried to do recently is to focus on the little things that are fun for me. I was challenged to write about our Christmas stockings, what I do with them and why. Growing up we always got an orange and peanuts, with other little fun trinkets. I haven't really done anything fun like that with my kids. So this year I got oranges and candy canes. Plus some new toothbrushes, my kids think that is the best! And some cute little toys to go in there too. I always put the stocking in front of the little gift pile for each person, so they know immediately which pile is theirs. We usually go through the stockings last, find cute little treasures to play with. Oh and I decided to get some of those little boxes of cereal plus a juice box, nice and easy breakfast that isn't super loaded with sugar.
Whew, nice and rambly post to go along with my blog title :)

Why do I run?

I'll tell you :)

This is the conversation I had with my 3 year old while making cookies.

Me: Ian, you need to stop playing with that. (the black knob used to hook attachments on the mixer).
Little man: why?
Me: because its not a toy
Little man: why?
Me: because it might break
sound of something hitting the floor
Little man: sorry mommy
Me: Ian, pick that up
Little man:what up?
Me: the black thing you just dropped
Little man: what black thing? oh, this?
Me: yes, thank you.
Little man:where does it go?
Me: Ian, you know where it goes
Little man:oh, yeah
Me: thank you Ian
Little man: why?

yeah, stress relief and time to myself. A great reason to run :) Not to mention the ability to eat more Christmas goodies and not gain weight ;)

Saturday, December 10, 2005

I hate it when that happens!

I have to play mindgames with myself whilst running on a treadmill. I have to keep distracted so I don't get bored and give up. It can be watching someone lifting weights or another runner in front of me. Sometimes I will listen to a song and then speed the 'mill up or slow it down, depending. Other times I get lucky and catch a show on the TV that is interesting.

This morning I decided to cover up the control panel and just run as long as I could until I got tired and then I'd see how far I had gone and go from there. I ran for quite a while and nature called. Rather than looking to see what my mileage was and then starting over, I pushed "pause" on the control panel and went to the potty. I came back to it being reset, grrr! So I guessed a little low, just to be safe. I'm pretty sure I ran over two miles, but not sure how much more. So I just said 2 miles and then ran 4 more.

My first 6 mile run in a long long time, woot! Back on track and it feels awesome! :)

Friday, December 09, 2005

So I didn't get three days in a row, so shoot me!

I took thursday off, but I don't feel at all guilty :P. I did however get a very nice run in this morning. Not as long as I would have liked, but I ran out of time. I did learn one very important thing, I am a big giant wuss. I planned to do my arms/upper back weight workout on thursdays, but since I took thursday off I decided to do the workout today.
I thought I would do a great job on some of the weights because I carry my 35lb 3 year old around regularly (yeah, I know he is spoiled). But alas, it has done nothing. I could not do a single thing with the weights about 30 lbs, 3o lbs!!! you know how freaking light that is? sheesh! I guess it has helped to renew my desire to strenthen my upper body, I want those awesome fit arms I see all the other fit women have!

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Two days in a row?

I must be setting records, lol. I haven't run two days in a row for a long long time. And its not even the end of the week. A couple of months ago, I only ran two days in a row on friday and saturday because I felt guilty for slacking off the rest of the week.
Not this week, tuesday and wednesday! woot, go me :) My legs hate me now, but the rest of me feels great!! Lets see if I can do three days in a row and then I'll take a little break and ride the bike on friday instead.
Watch out world, this flabby lady is gonna be leaving and one hot mama will be in its place.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

I'm back!

I have only run once since my last blog entry. I've been in a big rut and chronic sinusitis hasn't helped.
Anyway, I decided that I really need to get my butt moving in order to have a fun and successful first marathon. So I got myself up and over to the gym. I am so out of shape, its pathetic. I ended up running 4 miles and walking .5 mile as a cool down. Its nice to be back on the 'mill again. Though outside can be so much fun! I need some better outdoor gear first, all mine is really heavy and holds in moisture, not good.