I talked the other day about my phenomenal 10 mile strategy run I did on Sunday.  You know, the 3 miles at slow pace, 3 miles at half pace, 3 miles at 10K pace and then final mile at slow pace.  Monday, my hips were aching a little just because I hadn’t gone much further than 7 miles since I ran the Austin 10/20 over a month ago.  So, it was a bit of a surprise when I got home from work Monday night and realized I was actually muscle sore, like I’d had a good, hard gym workout, from my run on Sunday.  But, it makes sense because I ran the run like a workout and not just like a regular run.  When I went out for Monday’s 3.3 mile run, I was doing my warm up dynamic stretches (leg swings) and boy were my hamstrings tight!  But my quads, hammies and abs were ALL sore from Sunday’s run.

Oh, and apparently I didn’t do Sunday’s run as my friend Kirsten meant for me to do it.  What she meant was 3 MINUTES at slow pace, 3 minutes at half pace, 3 minutes at 10K pace, repeat.  Oops.  Oh well.  I really did enjoy the way I did it and plan to repeat the way I did it of future long runs.

Monday’s run, I went for a progressive run again.  When I started the temp was fine, however, by the time I had completed mile 2, it was getting warm and, even with water, I needed to take short rest breaks that final full mile.  But, I did 10:36 first mile, 10:29 second mile and 9:36 third mile, then I did the final .3 at about an 11:30 pace to cool down.  At one point during the third mile, I looked down and I was going along at about an 8:45 pace!  And it didn’t even “feel” fast.  Haha!

As I was looking through my Facebook feed before work on Monday and one of the pages I follow had posted a question about GPS watches.  Someone had replied about that they love their Garmin Forerunner 10 (which is the one I’m currently using) but that it only has a 5 hour battery life (I did not know this).  Someone else recommended the Garmin 310XT and stated that it has a 20 hour battery life!  And it’s only about $170 on Amazon!  So…since I’m planning on my first full marathon in December and I’m pretty sure it’s going to take me at least 5.5 hours to complete, the 10 is just not going to do it for me.  So, after I’ve gotten everything settled after I return from my roadtrip, I will be buying the 310XT.  Also, now that I’m trying to pace out each mile, it would be very helpful to have my pace and my distance displayed on the same screen and not to have to toggle between different screens on my watch to see both.  The 10 makes me toggle but the 310XT displays everything on the same screen.

This morning's run was great!  Just 3 miles, but it was progressive.  My splits were 10:58, 10:33 and 10:04.  And guess what!  The final mile was the easiest mile!  I don't know why but it's significantly more difficult for me to hold a slower pace than a faster one.

Friend Making Monday

I wrote about what I did for half of Saturday.  The rest of the day, I went to my friend Yvonne’s house out in the country and had an absolutely wonderful and relaxing evening.  She had made us dinner: homemade potato salad (the bomb!), deviled eggs and baked bbq chicken thighs.  Then, she drove us to the local Dairy Queen and we got ice cream.  YUM!  I left around 10pm and it was so nice out.  I drove with the a/c off and the sunroof wide open again!  I love that sunroof!  And to think, I didn’t know what I was going to do with it a week ago.  Haha.

Sunday, my friend Amanda came over and we headed over to a place called TC Noodle House and got some Asian cuisine.  I got the orange peel chicken and some crab puffs.  The orange peel chicken was good, but I probably won’t get it again.  The crab puffs…omg…so good!  Then we went to the mall.  She wanted to go to Bath & Body Works and I wanted to go to Spencer’s to get a new pair of gauged earrings.  We ended up in Hot Topic and they were having a massive sale on their jewelry: buy one, get one $5!!!  So, I bought 4 pairs.  Haha.  So, we skipped Spencer’s.  We got back to my place and she headed home. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing up some stuff.  First, I glued the cardboard horns I made a few weeks ago to a headband, then I added the necessary photos to the letter I had otherwise ready that I had written to my grandma.  Then I printed that out and proceeded to go to the post office and use the self service station to print out the postage for it and mail it off.  My local post office could process the request, however it didn’t have the smaller postage stickers available, only the huge ones.  So I went to the next post office and that machine wasn’t working at all.  Then, to the next one after that, and finally, a working self service station!  Letter mailed.  Then I got home and threw together my grocery list and headed to the store.  I got to Target at about 8:55 and made a note of how empty and quiet it seemed, then I remembered it was Sunday and they close at 9 on Sundays.  D’oh!  Good thing I didn’t have a lot to get, so I zipped around real quick and grabbed what I needed.  I got home with my groceries and put them all away.  Then, I sat down and made a 10.25 mile route on MapMyRun for my long run.  I filled up my water bottle, put on my earphones and grabbed my pocket knife and headed out the door.  Yes, pocket knife.  I live in a relatively safe area, but I was heading out the door after 10pm.

I started to do the route I had mapped out, but then decided I didn’t want to do that route and changed to what I had originally thought of: a park loop (about 5.5 miles) with my parkway loop (about 4 miles) with a little side jaunt to make it come out to 10 miles.  Some of the park is lighted but some of it isn’t and, well, the moon wasn’t out last night.  Good thing I have my headlamp, even though it’s really not that bright.  It did let me look at my Garmin to make sure I was keeping on pace.  I set out on this run with a specific strategy in mind: 3 miles at slow run pace (approx. 11:30), 3 miles at half marathon pace (approx. 11:00), 3 miles at 10K pace (approx. 10:30 or faster) and then the final mile at slow run pace again.  Other than the first mile, I did a great job.  I ran too fast on the first mile…11:00.  Oops.  I really need to watch my pace on that first mile because when I got to mile 7 I felt the effects of running too fast out of the gate.  But, otherwise, I felt GREAT on this run and plan to do this every time I do a 10 mile run and I will adapt this strategy for shorter long runs because I really liked it.  That 3^rd set of 3 miles was a little tough, but I just kept repeating the mantra: “comfortably hard, comfortably hard” and I made it through it just fine.

Animals

1. What is your favorite domestic animal?

cats, my second favorite would be fancy rats but they don’t live very long and I tend to get very attached to my pets, so I can’t have rats anymore because of that

2. What is your favorite farm animal?

hmmm…longhorn cattle…or, actually, the Scottish cattle!

3. What is your favorite wild animal?

all of the spotted cats, leopards, jaguars, ocelots, etc.

4. Which animal describes you the best?

cat, really.  I love to lay around and do nothing, but every now and then I love to run.

5. If you were able to come back as an animal which one would it be?

spoiled house cat

6. What do you think about zoos?

I enjoy them because you get to see all sorts of animals that you wouldn’t see otherwise and learn a lot about them, but like SarahLou said, it’s a little sad because they’re not in their natural environment.

7. What do you think about animals in circuses?

I enjoy the shows, but I also know it’s not really fair to the animals

8. Do you have a favorite animal charity you like to support?

I don’t monetarily support any charities…I know…bad me.  But, if I did, it would be Cat House on the Kings

9. Do you have a favorite 'animal' movie?

Homeward Bound, hands down

1st Week with the New Car

So, this week has been pretty good.  It was my first week with my new car, Dori (named after the blue fish in Finding Nemo…I’m sure you figured that out, though).  She is aaaaaamazing…let me tell ya.  The other night, on my way home from work, it was super nice out so I turned off the a/c and drove with the sunroof wide open.  It was weird because I could hear all the traffic sounds from the traffic around me and I could smell the exhaust from the big trucks, but other than that, I really enjoyed it.  She drives so smoothly.  It’s so nice to not have the check engine light on all time.  It’s taking some time for me to get used to driving an automatic transmission (the beetle was a manual transmission).  Monday night it was pouring down rain and I had to drive 40 on the highway the rain was coming down so hard.  Because I was hovering at 40, it kept shifting up and down between 3^rd and 4^th gears and that freaked me out a little bit because it made me think of the beetle when I would start misfiring there at the end.  It was also very nice to have windshield wipers that actually wiped the rain so that I could actually SEE through it instead of just smearing it or not even wiping it because the spring were bad in the arms and wasn’t holding the wipers snugly against the windshield.

Other things that are so nice about Dori compared to the beetle…my windows all roll up and down, the cruise control works, and I have cupholders that I can actually use!  Speaking of…guess how many cupholders I have.  EIGHT!  What the heck?  There’s 2 in the front console, one in each door, 2 in a fold-down console in the back seat and one in each side of the car in the back seat.  Crazy.  The only thing I don’t like about the car is that the power plugs don’t stay on when the car is turned off.  Oh wow, if that’s the only thing I don’t like about it, I’d say I’m doing alright…wouldn’t you?

Fancy schmancy stuff Dori has…leather seats, heated front seats, cooled driver’s seat, heated steering wheel, Bluetooth connectivity, satellite radio, navigation system, estimated miles countdown until an empty gas tank, average gas mileage display, steering wheel controls for the radio, a trunk I’m sure is big enough for 4 people to be stuffed into...haha.

So, I’ve spent the last week getting to know Dori and, well, I’m in love.  I thought I loved the beetle, but after meeting Dori and finding out what true car love is, I realize now I just really liked the beetle.  It’s so nice not having to worry about breaking down.  I didn’t realize how stressed I was about the beetle’s condition.  I thought the beetle was fun to drive…heh, that beetle had NOTHING on Dori.  Nothing.

Alright, enough blabber about my new car and how amazing she is.  Onto exercise.  I ran 3 times this week.  Once was downright horrible and the other 2 times were fabulous!  I had “scheduled” myself to run 3 or 3.3 miles Tuesday morning, but when Tuesday morning rolled around, I wasn’t feeling a run.  So run was postponed until Wednesday.  Good thing too because I’m sure my legs appreciated that extra day of rest after Saturday’s super speedy 5K and Sunday’s horrible 7 miler.  I set out Wednesday morning and planned for 3 miles.  About a quarter of a mile into the run I said @(*$ this, I’m running 4!  So I did.  I felt great and ended with the first 2 miles both at 10:36, second mile was 9:55 and the third mile was 9:57 and into a serious headwind…or it would have been faster.  Hands down, great run.  I worked a double shift Wednesday evening/night, so no workout Thursday.  Yesterday, I ran 3 miles.  It was a bit warmer than it was Wednesday but about 15°.  Also, I forgot to take water with me.  So, I kept having to stop to let my heart rate come back down.  I did 10:12 first mile, 9:57 second mile and 9:47 third mile.  Wish I had done that without rest breaks, but it is what it is.  Maybe next week I can repeat that without rest breaks.  I really need to get up at 6 or 7 to run, even if it means showering and then laying back down for an hour or so to sleep some more…of course, I’m not sure I could go back to sleep.  But, it’s coming into summer in Texas, so it’s just going to get warmer and warmer until it’s as hot as hades out.  So, first off, I need to NOT forget my water and, if I do, go back inside for it.  Maybe I’ll stick a note on my door about “do you have your water?” or something like that.  Second, the whole getting up earlier to run really needs to happen.

On running, I haven't yet gotten ahold of the race photos from the Stand Up 5K but I did get ahold of my official results.  First, I would like to express my complete shock when I say this...my first mile time per my Garmin was NOT a glitch.  My official time was 29:09 (11 seconds off from my Garmin, but that's because I forgot to turn my Garmin on before the race started and didn't hit start on it until...well...11 seconds after I crossed the start line)!!!  WOW!  I placed 5th in my age group, but was 2:02 minutes shy of hitting 3rd place.  I was completely correct in assuming that if they had done 5-year age groupings I would have placed.  Dammit.  In the female gender, I placed 18th out of 62.  Overall I placed 63rd out of 150.  I love small races! 

I worked another double shift at work yesterday so I slept until early afternoon today.  Well...it was *supposed* to be a double shift.  It was only a shift and a half.  They sent me home at 2am because they didn't need me.  Boo!  I lost about $80 in overtime pay as a result, but I got a lot more done today than I would have otherwise gotten done if I had worked the whole night and been asleep until 2pm.  Instead, I was up by 9:45.  I went to the new bank and opened up a second account to be used for making car payments and saving up some moolah.  I plan to put almost $25 more than what I need to put in the account for my car payment every payday (I'll put half the car payment in the account every payday as I get paid twice a month...so, almost $50 extra in the account for a savings every month!).  It won't be a lot, but it'll be more than I've got going on right now. 

For next week, I’ve got 10 miles scheduled for tomorrow’s run after lunch out with a friend and then another friend coming over to get my spare key from me so he can cat-sit for me while I’m on my roadtrip next month.  Then I’ll run again on Tuesday and either Thursday or Friday.  I wish I could get in a workout on Monday, but I need to go to the gun range for some shooting practice and then I have a doctor’s appointment, so probably no time to workout Monday morning.  If I don’t work overtime on Wednesday night, then Thursday or Friday (whichever day I don’t run) I can get in a strength training workout.  Then, Saturday next week I go pick up my race packet for the following Sunday’s 8K.  Maybe after that I’ll go for an 8-10 mile bicycle ride.

I’ve been doing “okay” with my eating.  For the most part I stick to my Shred Diet foods, but sometimes not.  I’ve feel better the last few weeks than I have felt over the last few months.  No acid reflux problems, for starters.  Even though my clothes are still a little tight, I feel like they’re not as tight as they were a few weeks ago.  But I haven’t weighed myself in a few weeks either.  I’m just going to try to eat as healthy as possible between now and my roadtrip, then I’ll do my best on my roadtrip.  For the actual driving part, I’m taking apples, string cheese, and PB&J fixings.  Oh and a bunch of sparkly waters to sip on.  And I’ll take some 5 hr energy shots with me instead of stopping frequently to get iced coffees from Starbuck’s.  It’ll be cheaper, for one.  And really, anywhere I can pinch a penny on this trip, I’d really like to.  There is going to be a couple times where eating out can’t really be avoided, but for the most part, I really want to eat “at home” food that I put together or that my mom cooks. 

Friend Makin' Monday

Okay…so…Thursday I had to get a ride to and from work from my friend Steve because my car was driving like crap.  Thankfully he was able to do that because when I went to drive my car to the mechanic Friday morning, I didn’t even make it a ¼ of a mile from my apartment complex when it shut off and refused to start again.  I called my roadside assistance through my insurance company and a tow truck was dispatched.  It took over an hour for it to arrive due to the insurance company’s policies when it comes to hiring a towing company to assist one of their members.  While I was waiting for the tow truck to arrive, traffic built up behind me.  It’s amazing how many people will just sit behind a disable vehicle with its flashers on and then honk at you when you don’t go when the light turns green.  So, a police officer pulled up behind me and waited with his lights on until the tow truck got there.  I actually knew him from my work in the jail, so that was nice.  We talked a little and he even offered me a ride if I needed it, but thankfully the tow truck driver allowed me to ride in his truck to the mechanic.

We got to the mechanic and they weren’t able to figure out what was wrong right away and said that it wouldn’t be an easy fix.  So, I went next door to Enterprise and tried to rent a car.  However, it was Mother’s Day weekend so they had no available cars.  So, I called my friend Claudia and asked if she could possibly give me a ride to and from work…thankfully she said she could.  On our drive home after work that night we started talking about the possibility of me just trading my beetle in for a new car.  I said it would have to be a new car since I was still paying on the beetle and only a new car purchase would roll over what I owed into the new car’s financing.  She drives a Kia Forte and was talking it up.  Kia has always been top of my list for cars…well, over the past few years since they’ve really come up in the world anyway.  Oh, and while at work on Friday, the mechanic had called and left a message and didn’t sound very optimistic, so I was stressing.

Before leaving work on Friday, I stopped a guy that works the night shift and asked him if his offer to pick me up Saturday morning and give me a ride to the 5K was still a good offer.  He said it wasn’t a problem and that he’d see me in the morning.  YAY!  So, Saturday morning, he picks me up and drives me to the 5K.  While I was waiting for him to pick me up, I had texted one of the night shift supervisors in my area of the jail to see if she could give me a ride home since I knew she would be there and she said she could do that…and rejected my offer to give her gas money.  We get to the 5K and I find said supervisor, Paula, and after we check in and get our packets and shirts, we go back to her car and stash them.  While we’re waiting for the race to start, the other night shift supervisor, Karen, arrives and when she found out that Paula was giving me a ride home and that I lived in the complete opposite direction, Karen said nonsense and that she lived a couple miles from her and she’d give me a ride.

Onto the 5K.  It was the 2^nd annual Stand Up 5K and benefits the Anti-Defamation League, which is an anti-bullying organization.  Last year it was pretty small, they said about 140 people participated.  It wasn’t very well promoted last year, either.  This year, they promoted it a little better and included more than just my agency (which is the county I live in), but also the main city agency (Austin, TX city agency).  There really didn’t look like there was much more people than there was last year, but they said they raised almost double what they did last year.  But, that could have just been from more people doing a donation on top of their registration fee, which was an option when you registered online. 

The race is held in the Oak Ranch manufactured home community in Del Valle, TX.  Last year the course was just mapped out by the race director, probably in Google maps or something to be a 5K and it was 2 loops of 1.55-ish miles each.  It was boring.  It was my first race ever, so it was still exciting to me even though the course was boring.  Oh and the community hadn’t been open that long so there was a LOT of open lots last year.  There was still a lot of open lots this year, but nowhere near as many as last year.  Anyway, they hired a professional course mapper type person to redo the course so that it would be an official 5K.  The course was a HUGE improvement over last year and I loved it. 

We started running.  There was someone I didn’t like (a guy I dated briefly about a year and a half ago…the one that told me for the first time that he loved me AS HE WAS BREAKING UP WITH ME…ugh), so I wanted to try and stay ahead of him, so I pushed myself.  My breathing was heavy and I was slightly uncomfortable, but nothing I couldn’t handle.  When I looked at my Garmin at about mile 1.03 I saw that it said 8:something.  WHAT?!?!?!?!?!  No way.  I thought that there had just been a glitch in the satellite.  It’s happened before.  When I stopped to use the port-a-potty at Biggest Loser, it paused or something and said I ran like 45 seconds faster for that mile.  Anyway, I get to mile 2-ish and it says like 17:something.  Hmm.  Maybe this isn’t a glitch.  I cross the finish line and my Garmin reads 28:58.  WOW!  My PR before for the 5K before this race was done at the Run With The Heroes 5K on September 15^th last year with a time of 30:15.  So that’s a PR by 1:17!!!  That’s a pretty good amount!  I don’t remember my official time for RWTH and I don’t have the official results for the Stand Up yet.  Oh and last year’s time for the Stand Up was 33:30, so that means I improved by 4:32 minutes!  Holy cow!  I mean, it’s not as drastic as some people’s improvements.  Some people improve their 5K in a little over a year’s time by 5-10 minutes.  But, then, I don’t do any speedwork and I’m sure those people did their speedwork like good little runners should do.

So, Karen gives me a ride home and I call the mechanic.  He’s a little busy with another customer so he asks for me to let him finish up with that and he’ll call me back.  So I take a shower and he still hasn’t called back.  I leave the ringer on the phone on and set my alarm for like 2 hours later (I slept like crap the night before thanks to anxiety over the beetle and the mechanic’s voicemail) and lay down for a nap.  I wake up and he still hasn’t called back, so I call them.  The owner, Jason, answers and we talk.  He says my car is ready and asks if I need a ride.  I said yes that would be great if he could pick me up.  He says as soon as his brother comes back from lunch he’ll call me and be on his way to pick me up.  About 30 minutes later he calls.  We arrive at the shop and he tells me the deal.  He said he was just tired when he left the message on my phone and apologized for the way I “read” the message.  He told me that the ignition coil had burnt out again and that it was just going to keep burning out.  He warrantied out the replacement of the coil this time.  I told him I was probably just going to trade the car in and be done with it if it was just going to keep breaking down.  I paid $50 toward the $850 I owe them for the work they did and drove home.  After I had spoken with Jason when I called back, I contacted the Kia dealership and made an appointment to do a test drive and such for later in the afternoon.  So, I went home with the beetle and took all the big stuff out of it and then drove to the Kia dealership.

At Kia, I met with Kelly, who is super nice.  When I had talked to her on the phone earlier we had talked about the Kia Forte Koup and I told her I didn’t want a boring, common color.  She said they had a blue one on the lot and would have it ready when I arrived.  I pull up and sure enough, it’s parked out front.  I go in and meet with her and she takes me out to the car and talks me through all the engine stats and such.  I tell her “I bet I’m one of a few females you’ve said all this to that actually understands it!”  She said yes and that actually most get pissed off at her for explaining it all to them.  I get in the car for the test drive and I immediately notice that the set fits me like a glove.  The steering wheel is comfortable.  I like that the windshield isn’t in my face like a lot of newer cars.  After all, I’m used to the beetle with its huge dashboard.  I start driving and oh wow…it’s nice.  I press the brakes and don’t slam us into the dashboard…something that usually happens when I drive a car I’m not familiar with.  The steering has 3 settings: normal, comfort (super sensitive and responsive), and sport (a little “stiffer” and great for higher speeds…also, the one I prefer).  How’s this for fancy, the steering wheel is heated (what, what?) and the front seats are both heated and the driver’s seat is also ventilated (cooled)!!!

We get back to the dealership and I say I want the car.  Long stories short, they give me $2000 for the beetle when I’m sure it’s only worth about what I owe on it, $1250.  I end up having to do a 4 year lease to get the payments where I sort of wanted them (I was hoping for $350 but ended up with $450).  I have the option to buy at the end of the lease and I fully intend to do that.  It’s so nice to have fully working A/C, working cruise control, working windows.  Oh it really is the little things.  Oh, and it’s a very pretty blue color!

Sunday I went for my long run.  I had scheduled 8 miles but really planned on 9 with the route I chose to do.  I started off great, but by mile 5 my legs were doing horribly.  So, I took a turn and cut my run short…I only did 7 miles.  Still a good distance, but the quality after mile 5 was poo.  I kept having to stop because my legs were aching so much.  I’m pretty sure it was due to how fast I ran Saturday morning.  All day Saturday and Sunday, my legs would burn when I walked up the stairs at my apartment, so yea, I’m pretty sure it was my speediness during the 5K.

Oh, and also, my photo from the Sunshine Run arrived so I was able to do my scrapbook page for it.

 

And now for this week's Friend Makin' Monday questions.....

Childhood Memories

1. I know I love posting photos and you guys do too, so this first one you will love. Post a photo of you as a baby/small child.

2. Describe yourself as a child in three words.

tomboy, hyper, bitchy

3.What was one of your first school memories?

I remember in first grade getting in trouble and having to move my desk over to the side of the classroom.

4. How did you get to school?

my town was only about 3-4 miles across, and I only lived maybe a mile from my elementary school.  In bad weather, I rode the bus, but usually I walked.  Or, I would ride the bus in the morning and walk home.  For junior high school, I almost always rode the bus because it was clear across town.  High school, I would walk, ride the bus or, when I turned 16, drive.

5. What was your favorite toy?

My Little Ponies and my Pound Puppy

6. Did you have a favorite place you used to go on vacation to as a child?

there wasn’t anywhere we went repetitively, except for camping.  I LOVED to go camping.  We went to Disneyland, Disneyworld, Yellowstone park…I loved all of those as well.

7. If you had siblings did you ever get dressed in similar outfits?

thank goodness, no.  my siblings are both boys.

8. Do you remember learning to ride your bike?

no, I don’t remember learning

9. Were you a thumb sucker as a child?

nope, didn’t even suck on pacifiers.

10.What is one of your favorite childhood memories?

Since the lady that posted this talked about when her younger sibling was born, I guess I could say it was pretty awesome getting to hold my baby brother, Alan, when he was born…I was not quite 4 years old. 

*sigh*

Every day I get to work about 30 minutes early and sit in my car and scroll through my Instagram feed.  I follow a bunch of cats and a bunch of fitness minded people.  Some of those fitness minded people have lost a substantial amount of weight and are living an amazingly healthy and happy life and these are my role models.  These are the people I look up to.  One these people in particular, lvnfit, has lost 150-ish pounds.  So much that she had to have skin removal surgery.  She looks aaaaa-mazing.  She always posts her workouts and what she’s eating.  Some day when I have nothing else to do, I need to go to her Instagram and write down all the recipes for the stuff she eats and model my diet after what she eats.  I’d also like to do some of her workouts. 

I know I’ve written about this a couple times recently, but I REALLY need to get motivated again and relose this 20-ish pounds I’ve regained since last August.  I don’t know why I haven’t been able to get my butt in gear yet.  I have the desire, but the motivation isn’t coming around.  I think part of it is the amount of overtime I do at work and that when I have the time to sleep in, I take it and then skip doing strength training workouts.  And I did finally get my work friend to bring the P90X discs in that he gave me, so I have those workouts that I can do as well.  And I really like the P90X workouts…just not the YogaX…I hate that workout.  If I’m going to do yoga, I do Bob Harper’s Yoga for the Warrior.  I LOOOOOOOOVE that workout.  Speaking of P90X…when I did the program a year and a half ago, by the time I was done, I could do 5 pull ups on my pull up bar I installed in my bedroom doorway.  I tried to do a pull up the other day.  No go.  I got about halfway up and crapped out.  Ugh. 

So much is just plain frustrating to me right now.  Top of the list is, of course, my lack of motivation to change.  Second is when I think of all the strength I’ve lost over the last 8 months.  You would think that buying 2 new super cute bikinis that I actually want to wear would do something for my motivation, but nooooooo…nothing.  You would also think that the plethora of bad photos of me from the races I’ve done recently where I have thunder thighs and fat lumps on my hips and a spare tire around my middle would give me a nice kick, but again, noooooooooooo…nada.  Why am I like this?!?!?!?!?!  I suppose I should really seriously consider getting some kind of therapy.  And I do plan to, but I can’t really afford it until the beginning of the next fiscal year when I have money in my flexible spending account to pay for the copays.  But that’s so far away!!!!  Ugh!!!  Yet another frustration for me.

I got the word from my supervisor that my June vacation for my trip to Oregon is approved.  So, when I got home from work the other night I went to the website for the half marathon I’m going to run while I’m in Oregon and REGISTERED!!!  Then, I went to the website for the hotel that has a deal with the half marathon and is offering discounted rates to participants and reserved my room for the night before the race.  I’m so excited!  I posted on my personal Facebook for my Oregon friends to message me so we can make our plans for while I’m there.  I can’t wait to see my friends and family!  My brother has expressed interest in taking me out for a trail run or “other coolness” while I’m there, so I’m looking forward to that.

I’ve already made plans with some friends for while I’ll be there.  I still have some open time that hasn’t been filled by any meet ups yet.  I spent some time at work the other day deciding what days I want to run on.  So far, I think I’ve decided on 7 days (that includes the half marathon) that I want to run while I’m there.  I want to make one of those the trail run with my brother and another one a buddy run with my friend Kamala…who I need to email so that we can make those plans.

I no longer have the obligation to be back in Texas by 5pm on the 13^th.  So, I first thought that, hey, I can stay in Oregon 2 more days than originally planned…but then I was like, ooooo!  I can go to Crater Lake and the Grand Canyon on my way back to Texas instead!  So, that’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to get up with my parents on the morning of the 11^th, go for a run, shower, pack up the car, go drop the house key off to my mom at her work, and then find somewhere yummy to get some breakfast then I’ll make the 3.5-ish hour drive to Crater Lake where I’ll spend a couple hours walking around and taking photos.  After that, I’ll start heading in the direction of the Grand Canyon.  I’ll get a hotel room near it and in the morning, I’ll go for a quick 2 or 3 mile run (just an out-and-back), take a shower and head to the Grand Canyon.  Again, I’ll spend a couple hours walking around and taking photos, then I’ll hit the road and start the final leg back to Texas.

In happy news, the photos from the Sunshine Run finally became available.  In not so happy news, they are not free downloads as their comment about photos being posted on their Facebook page soon led me to believe they would be.  Boo!  There was 9 photos of me and all but one were basically horrible.  My thighs looking incredibly fat thick, my stomach resembled a spare tire…they just weren’t pretty.  I ended up going with one of my finishing photos, very similar to the photo I chose from last year’s BunRun 10K (as previously mentioned in another post, the Sunshine Run is taking the place of the BunRun by taking over its annual time slot and it’s course route) and they had the same photographer for the Sunshine Run as the BunRun used last year.  So, as soon as I receive the photo I purchased in the mail (a hardcopy is a few bucks cheaper than a digital download), I’ll post it on here.  I’ll also be putting together my scrapbook page for the Sunshine Run when I get it and will be posting a picture of that as well.

I worked double (16 hour) shifts the last couple days.  Ugh.  So exhausting, even though the work isn’t all that strenuous.  The fact that I’m only getting about 5 hours of sleep for 2 days in a row is what really takes it out of me.  That’s why I really try not to do back-to-back double shifts, but if that’s what I can get for overtime, then I’ll take it.  But, I prefer not to do that. 

Monday my eating was generally not good.  I ate bbq sausage, mac and cheese and cake.  Oops.  Tuesday my eating was mostly good.  I ate a blueberry scone from Starbuck’s and a bunch of broccoli that wasn’t on my food list for the day…but what’s wrong with some extra broccoli?  Wednesday, I stopped at Starbuck’s on the way to work again and got another blueberry scone.  I also took some extra broccoli to nosh on if I got snacky/hungry.  So, not too bad overall. 

It’s difficult for me to make it through a boring overnight shift because I’m counting down every 2 hours when I eat.  I’m definitely an emotional and a boredom eater, so this is especially difficult for me as I only bring a certain amount of food with me.  And, as it’s boredom eating urges I’m having, I’m not actually hungry. 

Tomorrow, I plan to do either a P90X workout or the jump box workout in the morning before work.  Then, Saturday, I’ll do the Stand Up 5K in the morning and, in the afternoon…or maybe as soon as I get home, we’ll see how I feel…I want to go for an 8-10 mile bike ride and then whatever I don’t do tomorrow morning, I’ll do after the bike ride.  Sunday, I have 8 miles after dark scheduled.  If I get bored in the afternoon, I might head to the gym and swim until I’m exhausted.  I really, really need to start adding more variety to my workouts.  In the past, during efforts to lose weight, I have ALWAYS been more successful when my workouts were varied. 

Friend Making Monday

Alright, Friday I ran 4 miles…it was alright. 

Saturday was national scrapbooking day so I spent the day with my friend Amanda.  We went shopping at craft stores, went to Home Depot where I bought some spray primer paint for the horns I’ve been planning to make, then we hit up this local café called Baked & Sconed and got these amazing croissant paninnis with goat cheese and fig jam, chicken and spinach.  Omg, so divine.  Quite possibly the best tasting anything I’ve ever eaten.  Then we went back to her house and commenced the scrapbooking fun.  I scrapbooked my postcards.  The album is now so big, I will have to make a second album for my postcards.  I still have some empty pages, but once those are filled up, that’s it for that album and onto a second one. 

I didn’t exercise on Saturday at all.  I was thinking maybe I’d go for a bike ride or do the jump box workout, but I didn’t do either.  I really need to work on my motivation to do other exercise than running.  If I want to drop the weight, I NEED to do it.

Yesterday I met with my friend Denise and her hubby for lunch.  We were originally supposed to drive up to Canton, TX and go to the largest flea market in Texas that happens there on the first Sunday of each month.  However, a couple weeks ago, he had a mini stroke (also called a TIA).  He still has some lingering short term memory issues and he’s still weak and gets tired easily and faster than before, so going to a flea market and walking around for hours just wasn’t a good idea.  I was perfectly fine with that because Rick’s health is more important than shopping.  Especially since it happens the first Sunday of every month and we can just go some other time.  We went to the Chinese buffet for lunch and it was good, as always.  Then we went back to their house and watched some TV.  After that, I left and went to Walmart where I bought some pink seat covers for my car (I’m tired of being burned when I sit on my vinyl seats…and tired of sticking to them if I’m wearing a skirt or shorts).  I also bought some copper spray paint for the horn making.  Then, I went across the parking lot and went to Ross.  I bought a dress there…a dress I will probably wear to the association Christmas party (haha…it’s May and I’m buying Christmas party dresses!!!).  Then, I went back home and proceeded to work on the horns.  They look pretty good, but I still need to affix them to a headband so they can be worn with my dryad costume I’m going to make to wear at the Texas Renaissance Festival this fall. 

OH!  Speaking of the Texas Renaissance Festival, they had a sale on their tickets on Saturday, so I bought 3.  I plan to camp one weekend with a bunch of friends, so I got 2 tickets for that weekend, plus I’m sure I’ll go one other day, that’s why I got the third ticket.  I probably will not be attending the Scarborough Festival that is going on right now in Waxahachie, TX.  I have something going on every weekend this month and I’d rather save my money for my trip to Oregon next month.

I ran yesterday, my long run for the week.  I had said a week or so ago that I wanted to do 6 yesterday, 8 on the 11^th, 10 on the 18^th and 11.5 on the 25^th.  Then, I’ll taper for the half marathon I’m running in Oregon on June 7^th.  So, I went to map my route out for last night on MapMyRun.  I meant to do 6.5 miles, but brain farted and did it for 5.5 instead.  I didn’t realize my mistake until I had shut down the computer and walked out the front door.  I was going to head back in and redo it, but I didn’t want to waste the time it would take to do that, so I just added the part of the route that I forgot to include when I mapped it out.  My run went from 5.5 miles to 7.1 miles.  And it was a fabulous 7.1 miles too!  I felt super strong for about 85% of the run.  The other 15% was the 2 miles that were 11:00 minutes or more.  Other than those 2 miles, all my miles were between 10:22 and 10:46.  Awesome!

 

 

And now it's time for Friend Making Monday!

Colors

1. When you look out of your nearest window - what is the first color you see?
green…there’s a tree that just naturally draws my eyes to it when I look out the window.

2. How colorful was your last meal?
the last meal I ate was noodles, so not very colorful at all.

3. What color is your car/bike/main mode of transport?

Yellow…I drive a yellow VW new beetle and I love her.  My bicycle is black, grey and red…but it’s only occasionally my mode of transport.

4. What color clothes are you wearing?

Yellow and teal

5. If you have pets - what color are they?

I have 2 cats, 1 black, 1 orange

6. What color is your hair?
it’s a dark blonde with some red highlights

me on the right, my friend Amanda on the left

7. What color ink do you prefer to write in?

Blue

8. What color is your favorite sports team?

Green and yellow (Oregon Ducks, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Stars, Oakland A’s)

9. What color are your favorite pair of shoes?

Well, they used to be my pink Mizuno Wave Inspire 9’s, but now I’m totally in love with my new Mizuno Wave Paradoxes…and they’re white, but they have a cool geometric design on them.

10. What is your favorite flower and if it comes in multiple colors what is your favorite color?

My favorite flower is tiger lilies.  My absolute favorite is the orange, but my second favorite is the pink and white.