Nov Tally

The Numbers:
- Running: 24.5 miles
- Biking: 59.5 miles
- Swimming: nada
- Gym: Completed 7 upper body strength workouts
- Races: 1 5K Finished (Hobbler Gobbler), 1 5K DNS (Doggie Dash)
- Weight: lost total of 2.5 pounds against goal of 8 by Feb

Thoughts:
- Running mileage way down, but my knees and hip are thanking me for it.
- Increased gym workouts as planned.
- It's neat how things turn out. What I thought would be a fun 5K with Bandit didn't work out at all, but a spontaneous one in cold windy weather that should have been miserable turned out to be a lot of fun. :)
- Good progress to weight goal. Yay!

December Outlook:
- Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis (10K) as part of 8 on the 8th.
- Maintain gym workouts; add legs.
- Ramp up running volume again. :)
- Begin plan for 2008

Random thoughts

Well, my vacation week is coming to an end. Time to face reality tomorrow. Wahhhh!!! I really really really really really don't want to go to work tomorrow. Sigh.

While I was off, one of the things that I did was clean out a closet, a desk, and one of the kitchen cabinets. Husband cleaned out several more kitchen cabinets. I can't say that we're quite done as there are things that need to go somewhere still, but I am happy with the results. However, I did have to envoke a new rule in the house - no more starting to clean out something until all of the stuff from the last cleaned out something have been dispositioned.

Another thing that I did, as mentioned in my last post, was run a 5K on Thanksgiving. I just now looked at the results. I was 5th of 10 in my age group. Sure, I was close to the back of the pack for the whole event, but I was dead smack in the middle for my age group. I kinda' like like that.

Black Friday was more like White Friday here. We actually got a little bit of snow, but it's gone now.

Ran/walked 7 miles easy today. I took water with me, rather than my usual Accelerade in the hydration belt. We'll pretend it was an experiment, rather than an oversight. Won't do that experiment again anytime soon, I hope. Accelerade wins over water.

Punpkin pie is evil. I'm afraid to weigh myself tomorrow. EDITED: The scale was kind to me. Amazingly, it returned a slightly smaller number once again. I am now -2.5 of my goal of -8.0.

I just officially signed up Husband & I to run the Jingle Bell 10K on Dec8th. Its a run for the Arthritis Foundation - very special to us.

Assuming I am able to complete that event, it will bring my 2007 race totals to 2 5Ks, 2 10Ks, 2 sprint tris, 2 oly tris, 2 half-marys, and one oddball - Tammy's run on Jan 1 in over a foot of snow (shortened to an 8K). I also had 2 DNS and one race registration forwarded to next year's event. Overall, I'm quite pleased.

It might not seem like much to most of you, but I need to put this in perspective.

In 2006 I finished six 5Ks and one sprint triathlon. In 2005, I finished one and only one 5K (my first!) and I learned to swim. For 40 yrs prior to that, I basically did nothing.

It's all relative. I'm planning to chalk up 2007 as a GREAT year. :)

Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for awesome kids and a great husband. For a roof over our heads, plenty of food in the house. For employment that provides more than we need to survive. For my pets. For friends, co-workers, family, and fellow bloggers that give me encouragement when I need it. I'm thankful for good health and finances that allow me to run, bike, swim, be it race, train, or play. For freedom. For living in the USA, here in beautiful New Mexico. The list really goes on and on.

Case in point: I had written off participating in any of the local trots on Thanksgiving morning because of concerns that running hard may further aggravating my troublesome knees and hips. But then I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from a friend indicating that she was coming into town a day early to beat the storm and wanted to know if I'd be interested in running the Hobbler Gobbler.

Who am I to say no? We HobbleGobbled our way for 3.1 Miles on a blustery cold Thanksgiving morning. It was cold and at times I wondered why the heck we were doing this, but I'm so thankful to have a friend to nudge me out the door and share the experience.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Vacation Day...

Second day off work this week...and what do I have to show for it?

For one thing, I think I'm now a Guitar Hero groupie. Does this count for something?!?!

My son totally rocks this game, and has already completed intermediate mode. Me, not so much. I'm in awe. But I've found "my song." I'm practicing "Stricken" and my high score in beginner mode on this particular song is 98,000-something at the moment. If you play this game, leave a comment re:your fav song, where you're at, etc.

Oh yeah, I bet you now think that I've wasted the entire day rockin' in my PJs. You are So.Wrong.

Husband & I actually went on a nice 40mile bike ride with lunch break today. He asked me what pace we were going at one point, and I informed him that we were going at precisely "a leisurely pace." What did he expect? It's the off season, and I'm on vacation.

Actually, I must say that today was an insanely nice day, 67deg or something. We're expecting snow on Thanksgiving, so I think that may well have been our last nice day until spring.

Topped it off by going out for Chinese food for dinner.

Danger Will Robinson! Diet gone awry!!

Monday Morning Cheers and Jeers

Cheers

First off, Boys and girls, Husband and I took the week as vacation. I cannot tell you how happy I am to not be going into the office for a whole week.

First thing that I did on my day off was step on the scale for my Monday morning weigh-in. To my surprise, it returned another smaller number. I'm now -2 of my goal of -8 by early February. Unbelievable. This next week is going to be a challenge with Thanksgiving happening, but it's all a matter of portion control. At least that's how I'm approaching it.

And a double cheer on this last one. The kids happily bagged up leaves from the backyard so they could earn the extra money they needed to buy Guitar Hero for the Wii (they had most of it already, but needed a little more). And then they bought the game which has turned out to be a lot of fun. While I have time off work, I just may spend time unleashing my inner Guitar Hero. LOL.

Jeers

My knees and hip continue to bother me. As a result, my recent runs have been shorter and slower and with more walking. I probably ought to see someone if still an issue next week. Sigh.

We're in the market for a new water softener (btw, this is probably the root cause for why we had to repair the dishwasher).

Strength Training

I have been going to the gym for upper body strength work once a week for the past few months. It's taken me a while to appreciate the time spent doing exercise that seems to be very boring to me. However, everything I read says I should be doing this 2-3 times per week to maximize results. Since I'm starting to enjoy the slow pace of strength work and the mornings are pretty chilly these days before work, I've decided to commit to twice a week effective immediately...at least until the morning weather is a little friendlier.

Anyway, all that's left now is for me to make it happen. :)

Monday Weigh-In thoughts

Yes, I know it's Tuesday. Just ignore that one little fact, please.

1) Mr.Scale tells me I'm -1.0. That's good news. I'd love to celebrate by eating badly, but instead, I'll celebrating by posting that factoid here. Not quite as fulfilling, but it will have to do.

2) So many kind comments about me looking fit. THANK YOU. I admit, I had to look again at the latest photo and I am amazed at the person I see. You really have no idea how much progress I've made in the past two years because (conveniently) I don't have a before and after photo (I managed to avoid the cameras in the before phase). You'll just have to trust me on this.

3) Not happy about still having knee and hip issues. :(

4) We had to put Boots down a year ago yesterday. Still haven't buried his ashes in the back yard as intended (they are in an urn in the Study). Will make a point to do that sometime in the next few weeks. He was a good dog.

Five things I've learned this weekend

1) Pick a time of the day for weigh-ins and stick with it. I'm sure there is some scientific reason for it, but it seems to me that weight fluctuates all over the place during the day. For now on, I'm only weighing myself in the morning. It doesn't matter one bit what my weight is at any other time of the day.

2) There's a reason why skirts specifically designed for running have built in briefs instead of shorts. As such, my most favorite skirt for running is the chocqua one I bought from runningskirts.com and happen to be modeling in the photo to the left. NOTE: I'm wearing big 'ol goofy headphones, my ears don't really look that weird!! Also, the sun was low in the sky when the photo was taken, so the photo turned out dark. Sorry about that!

3) Half a bagel with peanut butter and an apple makes a much better pre-workout meal than fried potatoes topped with green chile and cheese and a side of ice cream. No need to thank me, I'm here to help.

4) A calm voice reminding a teenage boy to keep the car centered between the yellow line and the side of the road actually yields better results than a look of panic while shouting the he's too far to the right.

5) Sometimes checking out a new trail/path yields leads to a great find. Other times it leaves you breathless walking your bike at the top of a steep hill wondering how the heck you'll get back down. Either way, it's a blessing to have good health and another day on this earth. Don't get frustrated, be happy.

Making the most of things

Love Mary Gee's comment (inch by inch and it's a cinch, yard by yard it's very hard). How true.

Today I decided to simply address the dishwasher issue. I was actually able to get a repair person to come out during lunch time. He thinks the motor needs to be replaced (ouch. that's about $400 with labor), but possibly soaking it with vinegar water might remove some deposits that are keeping it from working properly. Decided to try the vinegar route before committing to a new motor.

Somewhat out of the blue, I decided to start painting the kids bathroom. I have the kitchen in somewhat of a half-painted state and should finish that before starting something else, but I felt like painting something and working in the kitchen seemed like a bad idea with the dishwasher issue.

Why am I telling you this? Well, yesterday morning I did my normal upper body strength workout, but I upped the weights on a few exercises. As a result, my arms, shoulders, back were a little sore while I was painting, but in a good way. And it made me smile. :)

Is it Friday yet?

My job has stress that comes in waves. Lately the waves have been of the tidal variety and I feel like I'm being swept around beyond my control. Today was a particulary cruddy day.

Wouldn't be so bad if I could just run it off. But with the time change, I'm encountering darkness right when I'm home and able to run. And I just don't like running in the evening dark. Morning dark doesn't bother me so much, but evening dark does. Not sure why, but it does. And when I'm under stress, I don't sleep well. So it's hard to get up early to run because I'm really tired. Bummer.

Wouldn't be so bad if the dishwasher hadn't recently decided to stop functioning. But it did. I'll make a call tomorrow for an appt to have it serviced, but for now we're washing dishes by hand.

Wouldn't be so bad if the dryer was working properly. But it isn't. So it's taking longer to get clothes dried and I'm behind on laundy too.

Wouldn't be so bad if Husband wasn't going to be out of town next week, leaving me to manage all the driving in circles to get kids to and from whereever they need to be on time (rather than our usual divide and conquer approach). Especially since this usually means I need to come in a little late or leave a little early from work which causes me to get further behind at work.

Wouldn't be so bad if my work laptop hard drive hadn't crashed causing me to have to spend a day waiting on a new build only to find that practically every application I need wasn't included in the standard build, requiring a new download/install.

Wouldn't be so bad if the bathroom scale would cut me some slack...just for a few days...so that I didn't start off my challenge to self with my weight going in the wrong direction.

I have a lot of things to be thankful for in my life. A.lot. But right now, my job doesn't seem like it's one of them. And none of those other things on their own would be such a big deal, it's just everything at once that is hard to deal with. But I really seriously need to have the discussion with Husband to reconsider whether I need to be working right now. Life is just too short to be miserable over something as meaningless as a job, don't you think?

Battle of the Bulge - Challenge to self

How to explain this? I really don't think there is anything wrong with my weight if I simply consider the number in comparison to my height. The problem is in comparison to my bone structure. I am really tired of having no defined waistline and extra bulge in the mid-section.

Basically, my self-image is that of a pudgy stick figure. I realize that I'm never going to be one of those curvy women, so at this point I'm just trying to pull off somewhat of an athletic look. The mid-section bulge has to go. And this winter, I'm going to work on shedding a few pounds.

The Challenge: Lose 8 lbs between now and 13-Feb (which happens to be my 43rd b'day).

The Reward: $150 shopping extravaganza for a running skirt of my choice and all the coordinating tops and/or other accessories that happen to suit my fancy.

This will be WAY harder than any of you might realize.

For one thing, I've just discovered that Baskin-Robbins now has peanut butter topping, something that I haven't had available for the 17yrs that I moved away from Friendly's territory. Peanut.Butter.Topping. Have you tried this stuff?!?! Oh.My.Gosh. You have no idea how much of a weakness I have for ice cream with peanut butter topping. It's pure evil. It's calling my name even as I type...

Then there's this little event called THANKSGIVING in which I carbo-load on pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and other yummies until I about expload.

Then the Christmas baking. Aye carumba.

Think I can do it? I'm really not sure that I can.

And if I can't, I'm thinkin' I might as well just belly up to the Baskin Robbins bar and order me a big ol' sundae with peanut butter topping right now...

Today's choice - Champion Running Skirt

I've decided to model and give a report on each of my skirts as I test them out. Today I wore my Champion running skirt from the sale rack at target. I've worn this one to the gym a few times and it works well for that. There is a zippered pocket in back, perfect for keys. There are built-in shorts underneath, from the same material as the skirt. I wore it today hoping to give a field test report from running in it, but that will have to wait for another day.

For you dog people, the hands-free leash is around my waist under the long sleeve shirt. I even got Bandit to tolerate the yellow bandana. We were color coordinated and ready to do this thing.

I arrived early to the race venue to find at least a hundred dogs already there. Some better behaved than others; but most (including mine) in a what can only be described as a heightened state of sensory overload. I was struggling to get Bandit to ignore the other dogs and focus on me. I hadn't even made it from the parking lot to the starting area when I realized that this wasn't going to be a fun way for me to spend my morning afterall. And since FUN is my over-riding goal at the moment, I simply turned around, got back in the car, and headed home. With that decision comes my second DNS for the year.

Just stuff

I've made it through Daughter's B'day without her just fine so far. I think it was worse thinking about it than living it.

My alarm is set at the crazy early time of 1:40am so that I can pick up son who is due back from a Marching Band competition at 2am. Ugggh. It's worth it though. He called a few hours ago very excited that they made finals for the first time. This is their last competition of the year, so it's a nice ending after all the hard work they've put in.

Speaking of son, he's taking driving lessons. I took him out for 20mins of driving practice on Friday before dinner and about had a nervous breakdown.

I've quickly gone from zero to one to two to three running skirts. Love them all. Now I have the dilema of figuring out which one to wear tomorrow.

Doggie Dash packet included a bandana for Bandit and some lamb&rice jerky. He likes the jerky. The bandana...not so much.

Two days at the gym so far this month. And one day shoveling rock for some friends. Not bad, eh?

Well, I need to call it an early night so that I'm coherent when it's time to pick up son. Gulp. A 1:40am wake up. I've tried, but it seems there is just no way to make that seem reasonable.