All's quiet...

Not much going on around these parts lately.  The scale hasn't budged, but my clothes fit just a little bit better.  I'm still in week eight of C25K.  I forgot to run today.  Well.. not entirely.

I wound up staying up until 4:30 this morning cleaning the house, which means I slept until about 2 this afternoon.  Dearest wanted to go to the gun show so I figured I would run this evening.  I've now got just about an hour left of daylight, but I just finished eating dinner - and well I ate a lot.  I was hungry since I hadn't eaten since about 10p.m. last night.  So do I try and run on a full stomach?  Or do I just get up early to run tomorrow?  Decisions decisions.  Perhaps I should let my food settle for about 30 minutes, then go for a run around the neighborhood instead of trying to make it to the park.  I'm afraid they'll be having little league sports there this evening anyway - which means the entire park will be overrun with people.

We had Chicken Lettuce Wraps for dinner tonight courtesy of Southern Plate.  I tossed some bean sprouts and carrots on top with the noodles and they were super tasty.  I have to say, Christy Jordan has made me look to be a much better cook than I actually am.  Everything she does is simple, easy to make, inexpensive and tasty.  Okay so maybe there's not a whole lot of "healthy" food there.. but darn it's tasty.

We also turned on our A/C for the first time last night.  That's pretty big news around here - to make it until the end of May before turning on the A/C in North Carolina, I feel good about that.  Dearest has also been freezing me out since I've gotten used to it being a bit warmer in the house.  I've been bumping up the temp here and there.  Right now I've got it set on 75 degrees and I'm still wearing a jacket.  Go ahead, laugh.  I roughed it out while he was out of town because I was too darn stubborn to turn on the air and I got acclimated to 81 degrees.  I did sleep better last night though.

Well folks, I guess that's all I've got for today.  Hoping to hit the lake tomorrow and get some sun on my ghostly pale legs then too the Zoo on Tuesday.  Oh - I finally got a camelbak, Dearest bought me one for my birthday - it came in the mail yesterday.  Tomorrow should be a good day to test it out seeing as it's going to be 90 degrees out.  Hopefully I'll get out the door early enough that it won't be that hot - we'll see.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!

C25K Update - Two Weeks Left - WOOT!

Yesterday was the most fun running I've had.  Ever.  It was wonderous, stupendous, and awesome.

The weather wasn't bad, it was overcast and cooler than it has been, about 81 degrees or so.  I received a Garmin Forerunner for my birthday a few weeks ago and decided today that maybe I should step off the beaten path.

For the past seven weeks I've been running a pea gravel track at a local park, it's a 1/2 mile loop so after a while, it gets old.  I think that running in the same circles for seven weeks had attributed to the begining of my burnout.  There are however two entrances to local neighborhoods and I decided today that I would take the first one, and just make a lap, see what was back there.

It was a very nice, very quiet little neighborhood.  That just kept going and going and going.  After about a mile I started to get worried.  I realized that I hadn't paid any attention to the road signs or how to get back to where I came from.  Normally this wouldn't be such a problem, it was a safe neighborhood.  It's just that I was late getting out the door and I had to go to work.  I mean I had to shower... then go to work, but before that I still had to stretch and ice my knees!  Well I decided I'd keep going, the road I was on had to end eventually, it was a neighborhood afterall, I figured it had to go somewhere... right?  Finally I came back around full circle right from where I jumped off the track in the park.  *whew*  That was a relief.  All that worry really did help the time go by though!  I felt great throughout the whole run and towards the end I even decided to try and go a bit faster.

I'm not granny shuffling anymore, but I'm still pretty slow.  Right now I'm averaging about a 14 minute mile.  I wanted to see what a 10 minute mile felt like.  I still don't know.  :P  I do however know what a 10:58 mile feels like, so maybe I'll get there yet.

Afterwards I felt wonderful, and felt great for the rest of the night.  A lot of times I'm really sluggish the rest of the night after a run.

Oh and Dearest also told me I looked cute in spandex.  Bonus!  I <3 him.  :)

Looking foward to tomorrow's run.  I'll have to get up extra early because we are also celebrating my Dad's birthday before I go to work, but that's okay.  Hopefully it won't be pouring down rain!

Who Are You Calling a Nazi??

As I was out on my run this afternoon I had so many things running through my head of what to blog about today. Sadly that was almost twelve hours ago and I fear it has all left me.

Today was W7D2 of C25K and I'll be honest, the past two weeks I just haven't been feeling it. I've gone longer between runs and put them off more often. Today was looking to be no exception. The past couple of days have been.. well eventful.

My mom and dad just got a puppy at Easter. She's a cute pup, a chocolate lab. However, she's a pain in the tookus. She's a vaccum cleaner. She sucks everything and anything up into her mouth. Rocks, mulch, shoes, toes, she even tries to chew the brick on the side of the house. So being, she needs near constant supervision. My mom went to the beach last week and I volunteered to stop in and check on the pup mid day. After getting in a nice long walk - puppy style (a completely random route) I got back home, took a nice long bath... and let the water drain...
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.
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"What's that noise?? It sounds like trickling water? Humm" I walk downstairs "Wow, the sump pump is really loud.. and isn't stoping.." I went to check it out - Our sump pump is in a secret hidden closet inside my walk-in closet. I stood there with eyes bulging, looking at the closet door afraid to open it, for it sounded as if water was gushing against the door. I slowly opened it, (for fear of drowning) and I was knocked flat out - by the smell. There was water, but not as bad as I thought it would be - the smell however, was unforgivable and it was filling up my house.

Evil Yaki

Yaki Steak that is.

Went to eat dinner with my dad last night.  Mom is out of town at the beach for a few days and with dearest still at work we decided to dine together, instead of having cereal for dinner over the sink at our respective houses.  We wound up going for Japanese, choices in town are a bit limited on Sunday evenings here - but we found an open restaurant on the second try.  The food tasted great, it had been forever since I had eaten Japanese food.  Dearest refuses to eat it unless we go for sushi, he for some reason is totally opposed to hibachi.   Long story short, I wound up with a nasty case of food poisoning.  Yuck.

A Particular Shade of Blue

It's offical.  I've been horrible this week.  Not only have I been horrible, but I've felt horrible too.  I'm also eating a Little Debbie Devil Square right now, inbetween sentences. 

My birthday was about five days ago, and I pretty much gave myself license to eat what I wished.  Well, not really.  The first night we went out I did well.  I made healthy choices.  Then dear sweet grandmother told the waitress it was my birthday.  You know what that means?  Ice cream.  Covered in chocolate deliciousness and delightful whipped cream.  The three of us split it, thankfully.

Then seeing as how my birthday coinsides with cinco de mayo, there was mexican food.  Lots of yummy cheese sauce, then my mother's strawberry cake - which a quarter of was sent home with me.  I decided if I just ate the rest of it at one sitting it would be gone - out of the way, no more temptation.  Wow.  I was really ready to puke after that.  I think that's when I started feeling super crummy. 

I got a Garmin Forunner for my birthday, which I'm excited about.  Sadly I've only used it once.  That's because I've been super duper slack and disgustingly lazy.  True story.  I think I pushed myself a little too hard on my last run to increase my speed and wound up with a very angry hamstring - just one mind you.  So I decided I needed to take an extra day to rest.  That extra day has lasted about four days now.

I've been so tired lately, probably from the enormous influx of sugars and refined carbs that I haven't been able to get myself out of bed to go run.  Dearest being gone for work hasn't helped much either.

Dearest boyfriend (who should really be more than that by now) has a job that entails him being out of town and out of reach for fourteen days at a time.  Then once he returns home he's home and off work for thirty days.  Needless to say I get a bit spoiled during those thirty days and when he leaves I get a bit.. blueish.  So does our dog, bless her heart.  You've never seen a dog who mopes as much as this one when dearest isn't there to constantly torment her.

So in whole - I've been in a pretty sour mood lately.  I even made a mental list today on the drive to work of things that bother me.  I thought maybe this would help me get to the root of my eating gorge fests. 

I think all it really proved was that I have a lot of pent up hostility when I drive... and road rage, lots of road rage.  Oh well.

Thank goodness tomorrow is another day.  Another chance for a fresh start.

Bazinga!

Week five day three - completed!  I was slow as molasses but I did it.  I ran for actually a little more than twenty minutes, non stop.  I decided I wanted to be able to say I ran a mile and a half, so I went just a little longer.  

The nice part is when my brain shuts off and I forget I'm running.  Those are the "weee" moments.  You know, when you revert just a little bit and you want to throw your hands in the air with a goofy grin on your face and go "WEEEE!"  

I'll definitely say that today was a good test of how to push myself.  ... 

                   wait wait I have to go turn the light off and type in the dark because 

                   my boyfriend just walked in the room wearing his helmet, night vision 

                   and carrying a BB Gun.  No, he's not completely insane.. maybe just

                   a little... different.  ... okay now where was I??

First Goal - Check

Okay, so I did it - I logged a total of 30 miles before my birthday, five days early in fact.  This was a good goal for me because it wasn't outlandish, it was completely doable.  It even gave me a tiny bit of wiggle room incase something happened and I had to miss a day of running, but it kept me going.  It's given me a since of accomplishment to see the miles add up.

I also completed W5D1 today.  I've been pretty leery of week five and I've had a hard time getting there.  The day I was first scheduled to start w5 I realized I hadn't downloaded it to my ipod.  The second day - yesterday I got out to the park and they were having a little league soccer tournament.  There was no where to even park, much less run undisturbed.  Today however, it all fit into place.  I chose to look at it as giving myself a little extra rest time to build up to week five.  It went just fine too.  After my second running interval I felt as if I could have gone a little longer and I was even tempted to do one last sprint during my cool down, which I didn't.. since I was after all "cooling down".

This was pretty reassuring for me, I feel like I'll be able to complete day two on Sunday.  We're not going to talk about day three yet.

So two accomplishments today!  Along with a little bit of a loss on the scale.  Which was surprising.  It's been a trying few days.  I came home Tuesday night and I won't lie.  Not only did I have a delicious grilled cheese that had swam in butter, but I also had two shots of liquor.  Tonight I had a beer.. and some delicious Mexican food.  I feel no shame though.  I hadn't eaten anything else today and you know what I've been reminded of?  We are not promised tomorrow.  So dammit if I want to drink a beer I will.  It's all about control - having one beer then water instead of three beers and then soda.

"You gotta live in the moment, 'cause that's all life is - just a series of moments".