Very Merry (Belated) Christmas!

Christmas came and went so fast this year. We had a wonderful one, several celebrations, lots of food, presents and family. Our girls are so spoiled, both by us and the rest of the family; shoes, bean bags, furr-real animals (bounce around puppy and baby butterscotch), color wonder art supplies, dream-lites and barbie cars just to name a few things that now clutter our house! LOL. I got a garmin for the car- no more mapquest for me! I also got a kettlebell and YoNanas amoung other things and James got a soda stream and weight bench. Awesome presents- gifts that keep giving :) I did a kettlebell workout on Friday, my heart definitely got pumping. I was doing a move called "around the world" and accidentally threw the 15 lbs bell WHOOPS! James came running upstairs thinking someone got hurt; nope, just me being clumsy :) I've had 9 days off work now, it's been so wonderful. Still haven't been able to really sleep in because the girls get up early but I've fit in quite a few workouts to offset all this holiday eating. I've run 19 miles since the 21st of Dec , a yoga class, 2 insanity workouts, and a kettlebell sampler. Tomorrow is my final half marathon of the year (# 3 for 2012, #5 lifetime) so I took yesterday and today off to keep my legs fresh. I should probably have fit a short run in this morning but I was feeling lazy.

I'll post a race re-cap tomorrow and probably do a little New Years piece. I LOVE goals and planning so this is such a fun time of the year for me. I love fresh starts!

Oh and on another note I just started AND complete reading "Run" by Dean Karnazes. AMAZING book. So inspirational I highly reccommend any runner, no matter how experienced, check it out. I'm now starting "Born to Run" I've heard nothing but good things about it but will let you know what I think in about a week or so.

Finding the "Get With It" button

Hey all! Can you believe tomorrow is alread Christmas Eve?!! Where did the time go?

I've been MIA for the past few days, totally off my program this week. I have a pretty busy job, so working all day then coming home and thinking of being a mom, wife, cleaning the house, prepping for the next day, making dinner etc just gets to me some days. This week it was hard to pull myself out of the slump. We have BK for dinner one night, Taco Time another. I made several stops at Starbucks and consumed about three too many sugary beverages. My supervisor treated us all to lunch at a burger joint one day, we had a code potluck another....and it all reflected on the scale.

Tempting Pastries!!

But I'm baaaack. Friday I stopped the downward spiral and ran 2 miles with intermittent ST (strength training). I got suckered into working OT Saturday, then we had a Christmas celebration with my grandparents so I didn't get a workout in that day but my eating was as in check as it could be for a Christmas party. I consumed a chai tea and 2 pieces of dessert BUT didn't get out of control and that's what counts to me right now. This morning I got up and went to the Y at 8 am. The family had already woken up so I made scrambled eggs, and ate a banana for pre-workout fuel. Sara met me there for yoga but since class wasn't until 9:15 we ran 2.45 mi on the indoor track, 9:43 pace, and did a 15 minute interval workout on the stair climber. There was a new instructor for yoga today, she was interesting, think quilt-making, yoga practicing cat lover and it might paint a decent picture. We focused on bridge during class but did a few other moves like one she called "chasing your tail." Any yoga lovers out there....is that legit? Lol. Good stretch though. Sara actually like todays class better than last week, but last week was more of my style.

Tomorrow will be packed full of activites so I doubt I'll find time to blog but the plan is to meet up with some running groups for a Christmas Eve run at 8 am. PNWdailymilers, West Sound Triathalon Club, and PSNS/IMF Fast Attacks are all suppose to be there. I heard last years Christmas Eve run had 70-80 runner show. It's mainly a social jog through the CC Trail and then coffee at Starbucks afterwards. I don't see how that many runners will pack into Starbucks though...and think of the smell...ewww!

Downward Dog

I gave yoga another try today. It's probably the 5th time in 3 years I've attempted to fall in love with yoga. People swear by it and I can definitely see the benefits but I have a hard time spending an hour at the gym and not walking out of there drenched in sweat. My friend Sara joined me which made it fun. We decided since we run so much we need to take the time to let our muscles recover...and get more flexible. I had the hardest time switching my weight to my finger tips (the peace fingers as the instructor called them) instead of supporting myself with my wrists. Explains why I was always hurting my wrists before at least- I was doing it wrong! I'm going to attempt to go every Sunday morning for a nice post long run-Saturday stretch. I always feel akward at the end of class when you just lay there are suppose to let your mind zone out. My mind DOES NOT zone out. The instructor told us to relax the muslces in our face; it was crazy, I didn't even realize I was using so many facial muscles unintentionally. Then of course I spent the next 3 minutes fighthing my jaw and eyes to relax. I'll get better each week :)

On another note I got some new shoes a few weeks ago and wore them for the first time last night.
I'll include a pic because it's the only pic I have to share tonight. It would have looked a bit odd to be snapping pictures during yoga class. I wore them with a dress and leggings to Wally World and felt a little too dressed up, well then again that's not hard to do at Walmart., most people tend to wear in PJ's. I always think of What Not to Wear or those DIY home improvement shows where they ambush you...I'd hate to be in PJ's!

This one is short tonight. My girls are sick, hubby is even coming down with something. We tried to put them to bed early but KK is downstairs begging me to come cuddle. How can I say no? I guess we're going to watch Cinderella. Goodnight.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Talk about a cold run this morning. I think I was shivering for about 3 hours afterwards. The temperature was 36 when I met up with some daily mile friends at a local waterfront park at 8:45 this morning. Starting at a waterfront park in the winter probably isn't the smartest idea, the way the wind whips off the water makes it feel at least 10 degrees colder than it actually is. BRRRRR. It wasn't clear and cold either, it was pretty misty out, sometimes the mist turned into actual rain. I couldn't find my underamour insulated pants this morning so I wore Nike running capris, a tshirt, light jacket then gloves and a headband to keep my ears warm(ish). It actually just really made my head itch so I kept adjusting it throughout the run. We planned on doing an 8-10 mile route. The ladies I ran with this morning all had very different paces. Two of the girls (LaRee and Jenny) seem to comfortably run a 9 min/mile, Jill and Cheryl were more 11's and then there was a 12 min/miler. I happened to fall around 9:45 this morning so I just kept bouncing back and forth between running with LaRee and Jenny for awhile, then hanging back with Jill. At one point I was by myself for about 1.5 miles. We were doing 3/1 intervals but my watch didn't have a fully charged battery so I was estimating my intervals- I guess I ran a little too far cause when I turned around I couldn't find anyone! LaRee and Jenny had actually turned back to find the last of the pack (she had stopped at a gas station bathroom) so I wasn't sure what to do. I eneded up turning around and about .5 mile behind me I found the group all together. About this time we realized we were running during the first snowfall of the season! Big white flurries started coming down- it didn't last long though, after about 20 minutes the rain came back. The majority of the last 2 miles was on this awesome trail we have that cuts through the backside of town and at one point I looked up and saw my new DM buddy Diana who was on her own 14 mile run. She joined us as we headed back to our cars. 9.2 total miles, 1 hr 39 minutes about a 10:45 pace. I ended up some SOAKED clothing, and bright red nearly frost bitten limbs!

On the other hand KK (my 4 year old) is very sensitive today and I'm going insane. Thank goodness my husband has been very helpful. He not only let me go run this morning (yes I say let me because he is a stay at home dad and I know by Saturday he's probably ready for a break), he also dealt with bath time, cooked dinner tonight and oh most importantly let me nap earlier this afternoon :) He even got me hot cocoa after my run because I just couldn't warm up. Anyway, it's nearly bedtime for the girls and as I'm sure most parents can relate I'm counting the minutes. If I get some more chores done tonight tomorrow I'll be able to relax a little more. A few days ago we made ornaments with the girls but we didn't get a chance to paint them all so it'd be fun to finish that tomorrow and listen to some Christmas carols or maybe drive around town some neighborhoods and look at the Christmas lights.But tonight will end with laundry and finishing watching War Horse. Movies seem to take me like 3 different "sittings" to get through, anyone else?

Not a fan of WSF today

Oh my god, just got three paragraphs typed and the internet went crazy...so has been my day.

Starting over, argh...



Running wo-man

Normally Sunday's are very peaceful around my house. We watch football, do chores, prepare for th week etc. Today started off normal enough with a weekend run, Sara joined me. We did 3/1 Intervals with a few laps of speedwork thrown in at the track, total distance 8.2 in 01:29:00ish. I accidentally paused my garmin and didn't notice until we had covered about another 3/4 mile, oops. So we combined what my garmin HAD tracked with the stats Sara's phone had kept, and agreed upon a total distance and time. Oh, and I decided to try out my newest Target pants for the run to see if they were canidates for my next half (12/31) and that was an adventure. About 1/2 mile into our run they started falling down to the point that my buttcrack was going to be exposed. So I held them up while running for probably about 1/4 mile when Sara realized she had an extra hair-band. So I rolled my pants up in front to get some extra fabric and scrunchied them like it was 1995! It worked though, so the rest of my run I didn't have to worry about flashing the neighborhood. Guess I'll have to stick to cross training only in those pants.

I should have taken these two small misfortunes as an indicator how my day was going to go. In short, I had a lia sophia meeting in Seattle to attend at 4:30, took my girls to my parents cause my husband was working tonight, then planned on catching the 3:00 ferry (it's an hour sailing) and walking a mile to the resturant for the meeting. Well apparently yesterday one of the ferry's started taking on water and they have a replacement ferry only its slower than the normal one so all the ferry sailings are messed up. The 3:00 turned into a 4:00 sailing, luckily my friend (and orginial lia sophia recruit) Emily was on the ferry with her car, so I jumped in with her and we drove to the resturant to save time. Only problem was traffic was crazy!! So we got to the resturant about 5:45, and guess when our returning ferry was? Any guesses? 6:45....so we had about 45 minutes to enjoy our team maters and high tail it back to the ferry. Well we left on time to catch the 6:45 only to find out that it was canceled, so the next sailing was 7:55!!!!Long story short we caught a ferry to a different city, drove around and now almost 9 hrs after I left to drop off the girls they are tucked in and I'm finally able to sit down for a second and write, although I should be in bed!

I don't want it to sound like my whole day sucked though because at our Lia Sophia meeting I did win "Queen of Sales" AND I beat my unit managers sales for the month of November so I earned a $75 cash bonus! Score! That's two months in a row!! Last month I hit up DSW for some new boots. This month it will go towards Christmas shopping, but first it did buy me a Salted Caramel something or other, yum. I practically NEVER drink, like almost ever, but Cupcake frosting vodka, with rum and caramel and a salt/sugar rim = I couldn't say no.

Thirty minutes til Freedom!

TGIF!!! Probably every blog I type on a Friday will start off with this exclamation!  It’s been a long and slow week at work. Today was made interesting when they shut the power off in our building for the last 4 hours of the day so I had to find a new desk to work at a few buildings down. And every office seems to be so darn cold, don’t people believe in heaters anymore? As I type this my fingers are stiff, screaming, and just want to be tucked into my jacket pockets.

 Our YMCA

Last night I was going to do an Insanity video but was really tired, I knew if I stayed home my workout would be half ass so after the girls went to bed at 8pm, I decided to go the  Y and get a short run in. I can never run for very long on the dreadmill, I get un-motivated and bored, so I aimed for 3 miles, then I would allow myself to change activities.  Some people say they run faster on the treadmill, I don’t know how in the hell they do that,  because I feel like I have to put out so much more effort running on that stupid belt than when I am outside- and I like the change in terrain and scenery! Anyway I started off running on a 0.5 incline at 5.6-5.8 mph then would do short 30 second bursts of 6.0-6.2,  after 2 miles of this I realized I was running an overall slower pace than I wanted (should), so I started to increase the speed. I have to pat myself on the back and say I am really happy with that last ¾ mile. I ran ½ of it at 8:20ish pace, then the last ¼ mile I sprinted at a 7:40ish pace. For me to hold that speed over ¾ of a mile is a win. My fastest run EVER I ran 3 miles with an average of 8:35 pace but I stopped twice for air (and paused my garmin of course) and when I was done I felt miserable. Last night was tough but I didn’t feel dead.

After I hopped off the dreadmill treadmill I decided to hop on a spin bike for a few miles, ended up going 4 miles in 10 minutes, nice round numbers so I traveled down to the weight machines. I love the feeling I have after a good ST session but I am not completely knowledgeable nor do I keep stats on what I lifted so I won’t elaborate now except to say that I want to work on my arms A LOT more!

Food was in check yesterday, in check today. I have a Lia Sophia show tonight so we’ll see what happens. I have a really hard time controlling my diet when I don’t have time to sit down for meals. I will get off work, have 15 minutes at home to (gently) throw my jewelry in the car, and then head off to one town over.  Normally the hostesses of these shows will have all kinds of goodies out, brownies, fondue, wine, cheese and crackers…I’m hoping tonight it’s chill, just pretzels and good ‘ol H20, it’ll make it much easier to stay on track. Thankfully I have this whole weekend off, I’ve had a few 6 day work weeks lately and my home projects have been neglected. We got this really neat hand-made real wood dresser from a family friend a couple months ago and I want to re-paint it espresso to match the rest of our bedroom furniture but haven’t had time yet. And my garage is disaster; it’s like the cleanup project that never ends! I’m debating if I should post a picture or not so you can share in the horror.

 

You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round



Ahhh spin class- I missed you so! After a full (and very busy ) work day I really just wanted to plop on the couch with a pizza, followed by a hot chocolate, then I’d probably end up eating some of the girls’ fruit snacks just for the heck of it. I’m have binge tendencies. Food and I have a complete love/hate relationship. I’ll go out to Mexican with my mom and sister and they’ll say “just eat a few chips”, HA! It doesn’t work like that for me- I really wish it did.  Three baskets later, I’m miserable. I didn’t want to hop onto that roller coaster last night so I told my husband, James, that I wanted to go to spin class. It’s been a few months since my last class, I’ve been making time for long weekend runs but my weeknight works have been almost non-existent since I took my new job in September. I’d tell you about my new job, but it’s super secret and then I’d have to kill you…ok not really, well kind of. Really I would just rather talk about working out! After I got home I spent an hour with the girls, and put in a Lia Sophia (jewelry) show order.  I intended to run to Target really quick and exchange a super cute pair of compression pants I bought last week. I bought a L because they didn’t have any M in stock and I’m kind of funny when I find something I like, I didn’t want it to slip away so I figured I’d rather have them in a L than not have them at all. I tried to take some pics of them but of course the girls saw the camera and came running :) Anyway Target told me they are discontinued so they won’t be getting anymore in- bummer, stuck with the L.

I got to the gym at 5pm thinking spin class started at 5:30. I lifted weights near the welcome desk and waited 10 minutes and they passes still hadn’t been set out. Policy for the Y here is they put out the passes 30 minutes in advance to give everyone a chance to snag one of the 30 or so bikes.  I decided to ask the front desk staff what the deal was and then they set them out...for a 5:45 class. Ok 15 minutes may not sound like that big of a difference, but James had to be to work at 7 pm, so it made a ton of difference for my evening plans. I would have just gone for a run but I hadn't even brought my headphones or iPod so I decided to do some random strength training (lunges, squats, abs) while I waited for class to start. It was worth the wait- Hollie is one of my favorite spin instructors and she delivered an amazing workout to a packed class. I wedged my bike near the back of the room cause I knew I had to sneak out a little early to get home and switch duties with James. I still have "Barbra Streisand" stuck in my head- that dance song, not the actual singer. By 6:30 my legs were jello and I had to head home.

The girls were in a mood last night too. Normally working out totally calms me down and makes me fairly patient, but last night they were pushing my limits. They decided to un-decorate the tree, which I expected, but Macayla (4 yrs) decided to throw a Minnie mouse ornament and it broke into 3 pieces. Then she proceeded to pull the ottoman over to the side of the couch so her and Bailey (2 yrs) could jump over the arm of the couch and roll down it like a makeshift slide. 8:30 was nearing and I decided to put them to bed, I was tired myself, and end the craziness. Before taking them upstairs I turned the oven to 350 to bake some of the pre-made cookie dough I bought from a co-worker's son's fundraiser. Once my little love bugs were tucked in I went back downstairs to peace and quiet....and turned off the oven. Small Victories :)

As for today my eating was on track. Dinner was meatless meatball subs. The "meatballs" were from Trader Joes and very good- even my picky husband ate them and gave a thumbs up review. I wore my new workout pants for Insanity Cardio Recovery tonight- it's not much of a recovery workout though, my quads are killing me from all the lunges and squats. Now I'm getting ready to watch the newest Batman movie with the husband and snack on some popcorn. Don't mind the crinkled bag- I had to grab a handful before snapping a pic.

Beginnings

Welcome to my little piece of cyber-space.

I've never written a blog for the world to see before. I've been a member of an online health/fitness website since 2006 where I would occasionally blog but it was a close knit community of people with similar goals and motivation to change their lives. Blogging on google feels strangely different, but I decided to make the leap. I recently watched Julie and Julia, while not the greatest movie, I was connected to the main character's desire to pursue her goal and fervently blog about it- even if no one was there to read it. I've also been obsessed with other bloggers rambling, particularly those who are striving for a unique level of fitness. We may never meet, but some days I find myself wondering "what has Katie been up to lately?" Runsforcookies, here is my little shout out to you! So here I am getting ready to invite you into my life. You'll have to bear with me, I have no intention of spending hours of my day editing this blog; it’s going to be real, and raw, spelling errors, run-on sentences and all. I hope you keep reading anyway.

I grew up slightly overweight. I remember being 190 lbs in 9th grade. I cried before soccer practice, dreading running what the coach referred to as "The Box." Ever heard of it? It's a terribly simple and demeaning way to humiliate an out of shape teenage girl. We, the soccer team, would run in a square out on the field and if you got tired and couldn't go on you would simply stand in the middle so that the other girls could run around you and make you feel like a total fatass. Fun huh?! I quit soccer, started skipping P.E class and therefore became even more um…soft. It’s amazing how many times in life we feel sorry for ourselves and then our actions actually continue taking us the opposite direction of where we really want to end up. It should be really simple, live like the person you want to be….if only it were actually that easy to change.

 

But I did it! Well started to change at least. Early 2007 I decided I didn’t want to look in the mirror and always despise what I was seeing. I would sweat my ass off wearing a jacket in the summer because I thought it would hide the fact that I was fat- wrong! Everyone just probably thought I was fat AND crazy. For me to detail all the changes I’ve made over the past few years would take more time that I have on my lunch break but I’m always willing to answer questions. I will tell you that I didn’t turn to any fad diets, just eating right and exercising like crazy. I learned to love the exercise, and then I became obsessed with exercise- not in a negative way- just in a I’d rather be running all day long than have a job type of obsession- eh, but what are you going to do. So I sit here at work, on a lunch break, writing this blog and not running. Don’t be mistaken though, while I will probably ramble about a lot of things, it’ll probably always come back to running <3

I lost 94 lbs- I sit about 85 lbs down from my highest weight right now- life happens. I’m trying to hit 100 lbs weight lost! Since 2007 I’ve run 17 races; broken down that is 10 5k’s (3 were mud runs), 1 10k, 4 Half Marathons, and 1 Ragnar Relay, which is in a field of its own J  As 2012 wraps up I’m confident that 2013 will be my year. I’m captaining a new Ragnar team, planning on signing up for a few more half marathons and drumroll please….I am running my first ever FULL marathon! I signed up for the Eugene 2013 Marathon in April so you are sure to be given detailed descriptions of all my training highs and lows.

Stick around. It might be comical to watch me balance this with motherhood (2 perfect little girls), being a wife, working full time, part time lia sophia lady, training, wanting to go back to college to earn a second degree, oh and did I mention I would love to become a spin instructor? Grab the popcorn (air popped please.)