Friend Making "Monday"

I realized later Sunday night that I didn’t really fully review the Sunshine Run.  I talked about the packet pick up and then up to the start of the race and then I just stopped.  D’oh!  So, let me try to finish it up.  There was only 465 people registered for the 10K.  I initially got all excited that I was 17^th in my age group until I noticed that there was only 32 ladies in my age group.  Haha.  Joke’s on me.  Anyway, I ran the Schlotzsky’s BunRun 10K last year at the same time.  The BunRun is moving to a currently unspecified date in the fall with a different beneficiary for its charity donation and the Sunshine Run has taken over its mid-spring date.  Not only did it take over its date, it has taken over its course route.  So, while this was the first year for the Sunshine Run, it was not the first year for the course we ran.  It’s the exact same course I ran last year.  Last year when I ran it, I ran it 4 minutes faster than I ran the Capital 10K that happens 3 weeks prior.  I replicated these results this year and ran the Sunshine 4 minutes faster than the Cap10K.  YAY!

One cool thing about the Sunshine Run was that they had cameras attached to drones flying over the start/finish area and, toward the end of the race for the last ½ mile they flew over us too.  That was pretty cool and should result in some nifty shots. 

I wore my new Paradox shoes, even though I had only worn them for one 3 mile run a few days before.  Usually, I like to wait to wear them for anything longer than 4 miles after I’ve had them for a couple weeks on short runs.  They were great!  My feet never got tired, but the tops of them did start to ache a little bit at about mile 4 or so.  They didn’t hurt.  There were no seams poking into me or rubbing me raw.  They just made the tops of my feet ache a little.  It barely bothered me. 

There was one band on the route, at about the first ½ mile mark, so it’s a good thing I had chosen to wear music.  However, when I ran this course last year, it was the very first time I had run without music because I forgot to bring my earbuds.  The experience wasn’t bad like I had thought it would be.  I wore my Red Fox Wireless earphones that I bought at the expo for the 10/20.  I haven’t had to charge them since I got them.  I’m sure they’re getting close to needing a charge, but not yet.  They had the first water stop at about mile .85.  Then, it was about mile 3.5 to 4-ish and mile 5-ish.  I walked all the water stops plus took an extra 50 second walk break after a hill kicked my butt.

The finish area was sparse.  They had bananas cut in half and some peanut butter sandwich crackers.  I didn’t grab a banana, but I did grab some crackers.  But, there was nothing at the finish “festival” so I just left.  Overall, I really liked the run and plan to do it again next year. 

Monday, I worked a double shift, so that meant no workout this morning and the rest of the week was up in the air as far as overtime.  I didn’t want to repeat last week where I only ran twice, so I went ahead and ran Monday morning.  As it was, I kept hitting snooze and almost decided against running, but in the end I did it.  I tried to run faster and took a breather break at mile 1 and 2 (I ran 3 miles).  The first mile I did in 10:20, the second was 10:44 and the third was 10:21.  It was warm out.  When I stopped at mile 2 to breathe for a minute, I tried spitting and it didn’t work so well for me and I started dry heaving and almost threw up the banana I ate before heading out.  So, that just tells me I need to start taking water with me when I run again.  It’s now too warm out not to have it with me. 

I was hoping to run this morning and I’m thinking I’d like to get like a 2 mile run on Friday morning to start off the month of May with.  I’m a little excited to add up my mileage for the month of April tomorrow morning and find out how many miles I ran.  I’m thinking I’ll be “lucky” to have logged 60.  I only had one big mileage run this month, the 10/20, so I know I definitely won’t get almost 70 like I did last month.  I didn’t end up running this morning because I picked up another overtime shift last night, so I was sleeping this morning.  I would run tomorrow, but I think I’m just going to sleep in and then pay bills.  I’ll run Friday morning, 4 or 5 miles…maybe that 5.5 route I ran the other day?  I’ll decide when I wake up on Friday.

Something else I did over the last week was buy a Garmin for my bicycle!  Yep, now I HAVE to ride more often!  I bought the Garmin Edge 200.  It comes with a little bracket that twist locks onto the back side and you secure it to your handlebars with an O ring…which I don’t like.  So, I did what any logical person would do and ordered a bracket mount for it that way I can just twist it off and put it in my pocket and don’t have to worry about losing the O ring for the mount.  I had also bought a nice, bright tail light for my bike and that arrived the other day and is now installed under the seat and works just fine.  It’s rechargeable and came with a USB plug to charge it with.  Fancy, huh?  I kinda want to get a super bright headlight for my bicycle, but I really don’t do or plan to do much night time riding, so I’ll wait.

 

Life Skills

1. Do you know how to drive a stick shift?

Yes, my very first car was a stick shift and my current car is a stick shift.

2. Do you know how to jump start a car?

Yes.  I also know how to jump a starter.

3. Do you know how to perform CPR?

Yes, as a matter of fact, since I am employed by a law enforcement agency and am somewhat considered a first responder, I am mandated to be certified in CPR and I get recertified every 2 years.

4. Do you know how to hang a picture?

Yep and I’m very OCD so if it’s at all crooked, it drives me bonkers.

5. Do you know how to ski?

I used to.  But, even when I used to ski somewhat regularly, I spent the first like 3 times down the slopes tumbling all the way down before I got my “snow legs” under me

6. Can you draw a basic map of the world?

Probably not, but I could try.

7. Can you do a decent dive into a swimming pool?

Probably not.  I used to be really good at swimming.  Missed out on being a lifeguard as a teenager because of the stupid written test portion of the application process.  In the army I was on my company’s swim team and was the strongest female swimmer we had.  Now, however, it’s been years since I swam regularly and in anything other than a recreational capacity.  So, yea, if I tried to do a dive now, it would probably be super sloppy and a half belly flop

8. Can you open a champagne bottle?

Yes and they scare me every time it pops out

9. Do you know what to do if you spill red wine on the carpet?

Club soda?  But I don’t drink wine, so I would never have to clean it out of my carpet

10. Do you know the proper way to fold a fitted sheet?

I know the way my mom taught me and, to me, that is the proper way.  I’d explain it but I have no idea how.

Sorry I've Been Silent

Last week was a little lacking when it came to exercise.  I ran twice and rode my bicycle twice.  I would have really liked to have gotten in my usual 3^rd run, but when I had the time to do that first on Thursday, I had just gotten my car back from the mechanic and had to run some errands, so it didn’t happen Thursday.  The next opportunity was sometime Saturday afternoon/evening.  I went and picked up my race packet for the Sunshine Run and by the time I got home, it was just plain too warm, so I wrote it off without regret.  So, there you have it 4 workouts.  Technically, I met my goal of getting in 4 workouts a week.

By the time last week was over, I was so exhausted.  Why?  It took me a few moments for it to dawn on me.  The 2 weeks prior I had worked 3 day work weeks (sure, I worked 5 shifts in those 3 days, but still, only 3 days).  Last week, I worked not only 5 straight days, but 3 additional shifts in overtime.  So, yea, I was plain worn out.  I worked double shifts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  All day on Friday, I looked forward to being able to sleep in on Saturday.  I had set my alarm for 1:30pm on Saturday, but woke up somewhat awake around 12:23pm.  Oi.  I managed to doze off until the alarm went off, then got up and got about my day. 

I hopped in the car and plugged in the address for the race packet pickup and off I went.  I knew the general area where it was, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t just drive right past it.  The restaurant was new to the area, but I had eaten in the same suite that it was located in years ago when it was a Korean restaurant on a date with a Korean guy.  So, I walk in the door and then make my way to the patio where the pickup is at.  The guy holding the door to the patio is holding a tray of samples of the restaurant’s food and I chose their homemade hummus.  So yummy.  And you could tell they make it themselves because it wasn’t perfectly pureed, it was still a little chunky like it is when I make it at home in my mini food processor.  I walk over to the tent and got my bib and goodie bag.  Not much in it, but then this is the first year for this race, so I didn’t really expect a whole lot.  There was the shirt.  It’s a nice orange color.  YAY!  I don’t really have any orange in my running gear. 

After I got my goodie bag and bib, I went to the next tent and they had a spin wheel that you could win prizes on.  Before I spun it, the lady asked had I ever been to a Noodles & Company.  I hadn’t, so she gave me a coupon for a free entrée!  Then, I spun the wheel and won another coupon for a free entrée!  Woohoo!  I had already planned to eat there after I got my bib and such, but now I got to eat for FREE!  All I had to pay for was my drink.  I got the Indonesian Peanut Sauté.  It was the perfect level of spicy for me (aka – not very…haha).  It was very yummy.  I just wish there was more peanut in it.  The peanut flavor was a little “mild” to me.  But, other than that, it was super yummy and I would totally eat it again!  They have noodle bowls, salad bowls and soup bowls.  Also, the tear away portion of my bib had a buy one get one coupon for salad.  So, one day soon I will go for lunch and get one to go to eat for dinner.

Indonesian Peanut Saute w/grilled chicken

I was up early this morning.  Out of bed by 5:20am.  I had put together my outfit for the race last night.  I decided to go ahead and wear my new Paradoxes even though this is only the second time I’ve run in them and this was a medium length run.  I like to keep new shoes to 4 miles or less for the first few weeks.  Then I decided that I would wear a lemon yellow tank (it’s called the Sunshine Run, duh!!!) and some leggings (yep, leggings, not running tights) that had a pretty cool design on them.  Then, I had a BondiBand lycra headband that sort of matched the leggings and I chose my zebra striped gear belt. 

I had bought what Einstein Bros calls a “power bagel” for my pre-race fuel.  It’s basically a bagel loaf.  It has cranberries and chopped nuts in it.  Other than that, I’m not sure…and their website is no help either.  Regardless…best bagel product I have ever had!  Hands down!  Anyway, I ate it too fast to take a photo of it.  Sorry.  If I manage to get another one for a future race, I’ll remember to take a picture of it for you.

After I ate my power bagel, I made my way to the race start area and to a port-a-potty.  As I made my way into the start area, I snapped a pic of both sides of the start area.

At 6:57am the national anthem was sung and then at 7 we took off!  And boy did I take off!  My first 2 miles were 10:14 and 10:16.  I then paid the price and my splits slowed to 11:07, 10:49, 10:48 and 10:53.  Not too bad, actually, but I wish I could have kept up that original pace, or at least within 15 seconds of it.  I so need to start doing some speed work.  Anyway, final .2 of a mile was at a 9:44 pace, so I did have a nice kick at the end.  Overall average pace for the race was 10:39.  I’m happy with it.  Here’s my official results.

There was only 465 participants in the 10K.  Pretty small.  As I was seeing other people's bib numbers, I started wondering how they assign bib numbers.  I didn't register until a week ago (last minute to guarantee I got a shirt) and my bib was #164.  So they're not assigned by WHEN you register.  Then, in the last mile, I passed the lady with bib #1...so they're also not assigned by your ability.  I don't get it.  It can't be alphabetical because my last name is at the beginning of the alphabet and my number is about 1/3 of the way into the assigned numbers.  Maybe it's all just random?  If anyone knows how they assign bib numbers, I'd honestly love to know!

I then went home and crashed after stretching and showering.  I got back up and did some running around.  

If I take what they say on their Facebook page as it reads, then they'll be posting all the race photos on the Sunshine Run Facebook page in the next couple days and they'll be free to download.  SWEET!  I was totally prepared to pay for photos.  And I still am, in case what they posted didn't read the way they meant for it to read.

Over the last week, I bought 2 new swimsuits, both bikinis.  I am in love with them both.  In both pictures, I am posing and sucking it in as much as I could.  Even more motivation for me to drop the 19 pounds I’ve packed back on in the last 8 months.  I can’t walk around a water park all day sucking in my stomach.  It’s just not practical.  And then, I look at pictures of me when I was at last year’s low of 172…oh man how I want to be there again.  I really, really liked how I looked and loved how I felt.  172 was a good number for me.  Speaking of water parks…not sure if I mentioned this, but they’re building a Hawaiian Falls water park near where I live.  I’m so excited!  From what I’ve heard, residents of my town will get a 25% off the cost of a season pass.  Now, I have no idea how much a season pass will be, but that’s a dang good deal!  I figure if I go at least 4 times, the season pass will be worth it.  Now I just need to find someone (or talk them into it) to also buy a season pass so I have someone to go with.  And my new digital camera is waterproof!  It’s always more fun with friends!

Friend Making Monday

Yesterday, I had planned to run in the morning before my friend Amanda arrived to pick me up for a lunch gathering with some friends at 10:30. That didn't happen. After Amanda got there she told me that we weren't actually meeting everyone until noon...not 11 like I had been told. If I had known that I would have reset my alarm from 7 to 8 and still had time to do my planned run because I would have asked Amanda to wait until 11:30 to pick me up. Oh well. We had some running around to do that we'll were going to do after lunch, so we figured we'd just do it before meeting up.  Every single store we went to was closed. Dang it, Easter.  We stopped for donuts at Krispy Kreme because she wanted to make bread pudding with them. Since I hadn't eaten yet and we were eating an hour later than I had planned, I got one donut to eat and an iced mocha.

We arrived in the shopping center where the restaurant was located and there is a Big Lots! in the same shopping center, so we went in there.  Amanda watches a bunch of crafting videos on YouTube and some have said they have scored great items at stores like that.  I grabbed so we me toilet paper and a 2-pack of cookie sheets (mine were old and nasty and gross).  We didn't find any kind of good crafting stuff.  Then we drive across the parking lot and waited for the restaurant to open and our friends to show up.  At noon we went in and had some really good Indian food.  It was across the buffet and USUALLY I get 2 plates plus dessert.  I got one plate of food (across tend even left some bites uneaten) across tended just had had a small amount of the mango mousse across tended mound I was satisfied and done.  Success!

Amanda dropped me off around 2pm.  Amazon had delivered a package to my door while I was out and about (not only on a Sunday, but on EASTER Sunday).  It had the case and screen protector for my tablet, the car mount for my phone and the refill cartridge for an adhesive tape thing I also bought off and Amazon (but haven't received yet) for scrapbooking.

About 45 minutes later I got ready and headed out for my run.  I went out without a fully formed plan as to what I was going to do.  I knew I wanted to run at least 5 miles, but not more than 6.  I didn’t get on MapMyRun and map out a route, I just walked out the door and started running.  That’s the first time I’ve ever done that.  I started going in one direction and was thinking on the fly about which way I wanted to go.  I decided I really didn’t want to do 6 and that 5 was more like what I was feeling like doing.  So, I guessed what way would get me to 5 miles.  A little after mile 2, I had to stop and shake out my shins (I need to do some shin exercises, this is starting to become a regular thing and I want it to stop).  At mile 2.75-ish, I had to stop and remove a burr that had managed to find its way to the underside of my left shoe tongue (the grass and such was to my right…I have no idea how it got there).  At mile 3, I took a walk break for a minute.  I ran the rest of the way without stopping or walking.  In fact, I felt really strong in my run from that moment on.  The route I took ended up at 5.5 miles.  Perfect. 

Originally, I had replanned my daily workouts to include a bike ride to the gym and some strength training, then a bike ride back home.  However, when I got home from my run, I didn’t feel like doing anything else.  So, I took a shower and settled in to relax the rest of the evening.  About half an hour after I took my shower, I realized I needed to go buy some groceries.  I cleaned out my backpack and aired up my bike tires (again!  I don’t know why they lost air since yesterday…frustrating) and hit the road.  I rode to the grocery store just to find an empty parking lot.  Dang it, Easter strikes again!  I knew Walmart was open, so I rode down the road to Walmart.  I needed to get some produce and I would really rather NOT buy my produce from Walmart because it’s usually subpar in quality (lots of bruising, etc).  I managed to find some decent produce.  I got everything on my list except the English muffins because I wasn’t sure there was going to be enough room in my backpack without squishing them (there was…oh well…I’ve got my whole grain bread and that will work just fine).  Part of what I needed was 5 cans of soup.  Oi.  That was heavy for my ride home.  When I got home, I had rode 5.85 miles.  Nice.  Sure, not the 16-ish miles I would have done had I ridden to the gym, but it is what it is. 

I was going to do the workout I had planned to do at the gym at home.  I just need a stable “box” to step up on (if I am using a chair, I will just eliminate the jumping up because I don’t want to break my chair), some dumbbells to do my squats to military press, and then a balance ball to do bridges on.  So, really, quite easy to replicate this workout at home.  Then I could add some other dumbbell exercises, push ups and pull ups.  Maybe head out the front door and do some jump rope between sets.  So, I went online and found an adjustable Gold’s Gym brand plyometric box jump and ordered it.  It’ll be here by the end of this week or beginning of next week, so if I can’t make it to the gym or don’t feel like making the drive/bicycle ride there, then I can just do the workout here at home.

I took the car to the mechanic this morning and got the mass air flow sensor replaced (they said it was absolutely shot).  However, even though the car drives better, it is barely perceptible that it drives better.  It still runs really rough and has me worried.  The owner (who may or may not be sweet on me…not sure) said that he wanted to run a diagnostic on my car to find out exactly what was wrong, when I asked how much that would be (a diagnostic usually runs around/at least $100), he said “for you, we’ll just do it.”  OMG!  So, while I wanted to just go ahead and do it today, the diagnostic tech wasn’t there today.  Phooey.  So, scheduled to take it in Wednesday morning at 9am.  I wish I had an option to somehow not drive my car until it was fixed, but I don’t have a regular (read: non-store charge card) credit card that I could put a car rental on.  Anyway, he had quoted me over $800 to replace the ignition coil, plugs & wires.  I think I can get all those parts for around $250-$300 and then do all the work myself, or have a friend do it for the cost of a nice lunch/dinner out.  He said that the other thing that is setting off a code, the coolant system/thermostat could also be making it drive rough, and I plan to get that fixed as soon as I get paid again.  As in, the morning the paycheck shows up in my bank account, I will be there to get it done…so the 30^th.  But that’s still 9 days away.  So far.

Anyway, there is now a chance that I won’t be able to take my trip to Oregon in June.  This frustrates me and makes me beyond sad that I have to postpone my trip AGAIN.  But, IF I do have to postpone it, I will make plans to go as soon as I possibly can…hopefully February.  And, maybe by then I can get approved for a regular credit card that I could pay for the trip with.  It all just depends on what is really wrong and how much it will cost to fix it.

Daily Routines 1. Do you eat breakfast each day? If so what? What I eat each day varies right now because I'm doing the Shred Diet and it is a huge proponent of variety. It could be a bowl of sugar free cereal (the only one I've found is plain shredded wheat), 2 pancakes & 2 slices of bacon (yum!), cream of wheat, oatmeal, 2 egg whites, some whole grain toast, some not from concentrate juice, some fruit...A bit of a mixture of two or three of these things.   2. How do you commute to work/school and how long does it take? I drive myself to work.  I would love to carpool but I work so much overtime that I can't. My commute takes anywhere from 25 minutes up to an hour, depending on traffic, to get to works and about 25 minutes to get home. 3. What is the first website you go to each day? It would probably be Facebook. 4. Do you check email/facebook/twitter before you get out of bed? Sometimes...but it's not my usual. 5. Do you take lunch to works/school from home? Yes. It's far far cheaper for me to pack my lunch than it is to eat out every day...plus it's far far easier to control what I eat and eat healthy if I pack my food. 6. What time do you normally finish work/get home? My normal shift is from 2 to 10pm...but sometimes I work the overnight shift and don't get off work until 6 am the next morning and then sometimes I'll work the morning shift on my day off and get off work at 2pm. 7. Do you tend to plan your evening meals in advance or do you grab something on your way home? Well...like the breakfast question, I'm currently doing the Shred Diet and it schedules what you eat...it gives you choices of course but the gist is that yes I plan my evening meals.  Also, even when I'm not on this diet I usually plan my evening meals by stocking my fridge with ethic frozen meals to choose from or by baking a casserole of some sort that will feed me for up to a week. 8. What do you typically do in the evening to relax? Peruse Facebook to see what all my friends did that day and watch the Jimmy Kimmel Show. 9. Do you fit exercise into your daily routine, if so how? On the days that I'm not working all double shift at work, yes, definitely. Usually it's running but I do try to get in a strength training workout or a spin on the bike on non-run workout days. I'd really like to add some laps in the pool after one of my strength training workouts. 10. If you had an extra hour in your day what would you do with it? Do chores around the house, workout, sleep if it's a day I worked a double shift...just depends in the day as to what I would do with that extra hour.

Throwing a Little Cycling Into the Mix

Yesterday, I woke up and ran to the store real quick.  Thursday I made some pancakes in my large stove top pan (I’m not sure what it’s called…it’s about a foot or so in diameter and about 3 inches deep) because my Panini press wasn’t turning on so I couldn’t use the griddle on that to make them with.  Well, the pan got a little hot and the batter burned a little and stuck to the pan.  I had to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy at the store (Target) anyway, so I figured I’d just pick up some of the Dawn Power Scrub (I think that’s what it’s called…it’s a degreaser spray) so I could get the black stuff out of the pan.  Well, they didn’t have it.  I got my prescription and stopped at Wal-Mart because it was on my way home.  Well…they didn’t have it either.  An associate just happened to be walking down the aisle as I was looking on the shelves.  I asked her about it and she knew exactly what I was talking about and said that it might be found at HEB (grocery store) or Randall’s (same as Safeway).  She then told me that if I didn’t find it at either of those places that if I take baking soda and vinegar (haha, I had a big bottle of distilled vinegar in my hand for use in my dishwasher) and it should get the stuff off the surface of the pan for me.

I didn’t have time to go to the other 2 stores to see if they had it or not so I just grabbed a box of baking soda and headed home.  I got home and I tried out the baking soda and vinegar.  Sure enough, it started getting the burnt on stuff out of the pan!  It wasn’t an easy thing and I did have to scrub and it didn’t really work if I just did it and let it soak.  I had to scrub while the baking soda and vinegar were reacting to each other.  But it was working and that made me happy.

So, I stopped playing with the pan and started getting ready for my run.  I knew I needed a baked sweet potato for dinner last night and, as I was working a 16 hour shift last night, I had to bake it before I went to work so I could take it with me.  I started preheating the oven before I started playing with the baking soda and vinegar, so when I was finished getting ready for my run, the oven was at temp, so I vented the potato, wrapped it in foil and stuck it in the oven to bake while I was running.  Now, I would like to say that I do NOT like running the oven when I’m not in the apartment to watch it in case something goes wrong, but I didn’t have much of a choice since I had forgotten to bake it the night before. 

I headed out the door for 3.3 miles.  I figured I had just enough time to do the run, get home, stretch, shower and then get all my food together and then head to work on time.  I did the run, felt great.  It was a really good run.  I took a walk break at mile 2, but other than that, I was good.  It wasn’t a particularly “speedy” run for me, I averaged 11:09 per mile.  I guess I should start making some sort of effort to do some kind of speed work once a week. 

At work yesterday, I was talking to Tony (a fellow runner, but with WAAAAAAY more experience than me…he’s run 3 marathons and is hoping to BQ for the 2015 Boston Marathon!!!).  I’ve previously given him my phone number and told him to call/text me so we can get together before work some time and run together.  He hasn’t.  Boo!  Anyway, last night we talked a bunch about how I can do some speed work since I don’t have access to a quarter mile track near where I live, so Yasso 800’s are pretty much out of the question.  He said I could take my Garmin and mark off distances on the sidewalk and that spurred a thought for me.  From the driveway of my apartment complex to the corner of the block is pretty much exactly 1/3 of a mile.  How about I run as fast as I can sustain one direction, then comfortably jog back?…repeat for 20-30 minutes and then done.  Brilliant!  There is also a safe path (read: sidewalk) within a 10 minute drive of where I live that I can do some hill work.  It’s along a road that has rolling hills.  They’re nothing huge but I once rode my bicycle down this same path and it kicked my butt pretty well and at the time I was riding my bike a lot (I didn’t have a car).  So I can throw that run in here and there.  It’d be nice to do it once a week.  Just run out for a mile or a mile and a half and then run back.  There’s a grocery store where I can park my car while I run, so it’s easy to get to. 

But, hopefully, sometime soon, Tony will call me and we can meet up for a weekend run around the downtown “lake” together.  He’s going to have to seriously slow down in order for me to keep up with him.  He comfortably runs at around 8-8:30 per mile, but can obviously run faster than that (heck, he hopes to BQ this year and I have no doubt he will).  I usually run 10:30-11:30 per mile.  He said if I run with him that he’ll slow down to 9:30.  I said that was fine and that I KNEW I could keep that pace for 2-3 miles no problem.  Besides, it’d be good for me to try to run longer distances at a pace faster than I’m used to running at.  I really would like to pick up the pace a little.  I would honestly LOVE for my comfortable pace to be 9:30, dipping down to 9 or maybe even 8:45.  I know I can do it, I just have to do the work that will make it possible for me to sustain that pace without exerting myself to the point of exhaustion.

I started the Shred Diet again on Tuesday.  I did cheat on it Tuesday night when I went out with some friends for a steampunk gathering at a pub style restaurant/bar.  I got a half order of fish and chips.  It was REALLY good too.  I didn’t eat too much and what I ordered was just enough.  Wednesday and Thursday, I ate per the “prescribed” daily food intake schedules.  Well, Thursday, I didn’t eat everything on the list, but I didn’t eat anything I wasn’t “supposed” to eat.  Yesterday, I had everything I was “supposed” to eat and about a handful of jelly beans.  I’ll be “on diet” today and then tomorrow I’m meeting up with some girlfriends for lunch at an Indian cuisine buffet.  I have to see what’s on the buffet because it might not really be what I want and in that case, I’ll just order some lamb tikka masala, which is what I know I’ll want.  As long as they have something in a tikka masala sauce, I’ll get the buffet.

One of the counselors where I work, her soon to be mother in law is a retired seamstress.  I have 3 blazers that I bought from Torrid that, while they fit me fabulously in the shoulders (I’m broad shouldered and it’s really hard for me to find women’s jackets that aren’t super tight in the shoulders), they’re fairly formless around the midsection.  I’d really like for them to flare out in an hourglass style.  So, I took the jackets with me to work yesterday and she pinned one of them and then took all 3 home with her to give to her soon to be mother in law.  She said she’ll text me a quote before any sewing happens to let me know how much it’s going to cost me.  I hope not too much.

I had meant to weigh in and take new pictures Tuesday before starting my day since I restarted Shred, but I forgot.  So, I just waited until today to do that.

So, while I am most definitely NOT happy with what the scale says (I've officially gained 19 pounds since August 1st...that's 8.5 months), at least I know where I'm at and where I need to go from here.  I updated my weight loss ticker at the top of the page and, if you pay careful attention to it then you'll notice that I also changed my goal weight form 160 to 172.  I was super happy at 172 last August and I got stuck there too.  My body refused to go any lower.  But, like I said, I was super happy with how I looked and felt, so it was a non-issue that I stalled out 12 pounds above my goal weight.  

Today I was going to hit the gym for "Paige" workout, but that didn't happen.  The car was driving so horribly that I did what I needed to do in the car and then used my bicycle to do the other 2 things I wanted to do (go to JC Penney's and use a coupon that expired today and make a deposit on my prepaid Visa).  I called the mechanic and got a quote to replace the mass air flow sensor and will be taking the car in first thing Monday so they can replace it.  I rode 11 miles (exactly!) on my bicycle to do my running around.  It took me 58 minutes and some seconds.  With each stop, I paused the app I used to track my distance and time.  It was such a fabulous afternoon to ride a bike outside.  So, while I didn't get to the gym, I still got a quality workout done.

I want to run before Amanda comes over, so I’ll need to get up around 7am tomorrow so I can get in my 6 miles, stretch and shower before she arrives.  I can do it.  Heck, because I worked until 6am today, I slept until early afternoon, so I shouldn’t have a problem waking up early.  Then, I’ll have all evening to do some chores that I didn’t get done last weekend.

Since I didn't make the gym today and I will be at the mechanic Monday morning (my next planned gym session), I'm thinking I will ride my bike the 8 miles each way to the gym so I can workout later in the afternoon tomorrow.  So, if I do that, I'll get TWO workouts tomorrow...a 5 or 6 mile run in the morning and a bike ride and gym workout in the evening.

I figure, now that I have weekends off and it’s highly unlikely for me to pick up any overtime at work over the weekends, I have both of my days off to do stuff.  Sunday is usually the day that if I hang out with friends, that’s the day.  Also, Sunday is my long run of the week.  So, Saturdays I can get all my housework done. Also, any sewing that needs to be done.  I guess that would fall under the “chore” category…if it’s for repairs, of course.

Back to the “Paige” workout.  Right now, I am doing most of the exercises in descending reps per set (a total of 3 sets).  I do 12 reps first set, 10 the second and 8 the third.  Certain things, like the ball bridges and front squat to military press I do 12 reps all 3 sets.  What I would really, really like is to a) do 15 reps of each exercise,  b) do 4 sets,  and c) do 4 sets of 15 reps of every exercise.  I think each week (because I am planning to hit the gym twice a week and I will do the “Paige” workout every time I’m at the gym) I will add a rep to each set until I get to 15 reps on all 3 sets, then I’ll start adding in the 4^th set and working the reps on that set up to 15 as well.

When I got home from my bicycle ride, I logged onto the computer and then went straight to the website for the 1st annual Sunshine Run.  It happens not tomorrow, but next Sunday, the 27th.  I waited until the last minute to register for this race.  I just couldn't decide if I wanted to spend the $45 on it or just skip it.  But, I had more money left over after paying bills than I thought I would, so I went for it.

if you live in the Austin area, consider joining me, just go to www.austinsunshinerun.com