some new best friends

meet mr. oil of oregano.
not really my favorite, but we’ve spent some quality time together today.
trying to boost my immune system to kick this cold I feel coming on.

meet mr. tea
hopefully these hot liquids will help.

breakfast was a bowl of hot oatmeal (sorry no pictures. too early).
lunch was scrambled eggs.

eggs placed on top of a toasted english muffin with a little dab of syrup on top.

a lot of time has been spent on the couch again.
I haven’t made the gym yet. unfortunately. today is a cross training day according to my plan. I am thinking of just taking it off completely so I can give it my all on my interval run scheduled for tomorrow.

Hubby and I managed to pick up our finished V-Day masterpieces.
want to recap? v-day 2011

they both turned out great. I can’t wait to do it again!

certainly not a productive day

 

after waking up to this…and 1* temperatures. I quickly lost all motivation.

I really wanted to get to the gym this morning and stretch out after my run from yesterday. But with little motivation…I struggled though the whole 40 minutes of my time spent with the elliptical. And my time lifting weights was useless. I did get all my reps completed, but the whole time I kept thinking about giving up.

I had to test out some new kicks that I got for my birthday (my birthday was over a month ago. guess that’s what happens when you order customized stuff only couple weeks before my birthday) from the Rents.

pretty sweet, huh?
I designed them all by myself. The Rents say they are a little to wild. But I like them. They felt good. I’m not sure I want to run in them. Even though that’s what they are designed for.

this is where I have spent the majority of my day. lounging. I don’t know what is going on, but I’m thinking I need to listen to my body. I have never really felt so…blah. I’m not sore, my body just aches, ALL OVER. Maybe I’m not refueling properly. hm….

definitely need more of this! this is only my second glass today. could be the big culprit to my ginormous pounding headache! I tried to take a nap to hopefully sleep some of the pain away, but as soon as I got to sleep the landlord called. ugh, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I got out of bed to let Hubby sleep comfortably (he has to work tonight). I came downstairs and hung out with the dogs and kitty.

this isn’t from today, but I couldn’t resist showing this picture of my lazy kitty snuggling with my momma last night. soooo jealous!

I’ve spent my afternoon with my new best friends

DL-ing some new songs, making new playlists, and showing Mom and Dad how to skype.

I’m hoping that you (YES! YOU!) can send me some encouraging words and what I am doing wrong for the body aches. Currently I feel them in my lower back. I have never had these before and I’m almost 2 months into working out steadily. I didn’t do anything high impact today, just the elliptical. Maybe a day off is in order tomorrow?

solid 5 miles

good morning!
well its almost afternoon, and may be afternoon depending on where you are and when you read this.

I had a good morning. I actually when to bed excited for my gym session today. I couldn’t wait to get up and see how solid of a run I could do. Yesterday was my “rest” day. It was tough to just relax, but I managed to do it. I did clean the house and did a little grocery shopping and meal planning for the week.

So I did burn some calories.

This morning I woke up giddy. I was super pumped for my run. I am trying to remain patient for summer so I can attempt a run outside considering I woke up to this.

Fresh snow flakes and a Winter Storm Warning.

Even though there wasn’t enough snow accumulation to make the roads slick the gym was surprisingly quiet this morning for a Saturday. I felt no pressure to NOT feel like a whimp on the treadmill.

I gathered my gear and made a new play list.

I’m starting to re-love itunes, and even more in love with the fact we have fast internet!

I felt great throughout my entire run. As I hit 4.75 miles I thought about pushing to do a 10K, but I remembered yesterday answering a question from Lindsay @ COTTER CRUNCH about refocusing. I planned to refocus on actually follow my training plan. Yesterday…”rest” day; today…5 miles.

I don’t have a Garmin watch, but totally wish I did. After I purchase new running kicks, totally saving my money for a Garmin! So until I do have enough money…this will have to do.

Great! Grand! Wonderful! I hate a great time and really felt great throughout the whole thing. I averaged a 9:30 mile the whole time.

Came home. Showered. Smoothie.

mmmm….strawberry banana!

I’m relaxing on the couch with a heated rice bag on my knees.

 

Only a little sore, but should be good to go by tomorrow and most definitely by my next run on Tuesday.

Hopefully everyone has a GREAT weekend. I’ll let you know how snowed in we really are tomorrow. They are calling for 5 inches of snow just tonight. Should be a fun trip to the gym in the morning!

happy feet!

there are a couple of things that need to happen in order to have happy feet.

STEP 1

pick out colors.

STEP 2

endure the tickling. Jenna has super ticklish feet…she struggles through this part of pedicures.

STEP 3

show off your finished toes. yesterday was amazing here. 60*+, not a cloud in the sky. I did wear flip flops and capris.

today. we’re not so lucky. and this definitely happens every time Jenna and I have our monthly pedicures. no snow…yet. But its definitely cold enough to snow! The day isn’t over yet.

STEP 4

be able to run in your favorite shoes without getting blisters. The first time I took off on a run in these I got a blister on my heel. Not fun! So…I switched out shoes. And the other shoes worked GREAT. No blisters. I felt good until I was about 7 days of running in them. I started feeling pain in my right foot…right along my arch. It was like STRESS FRACTURE kind of pain. No, no! This can’t be happening. wahhh! So, I decided to switch back since my blister had healed. I just tightened the laces. I’ve done two solid runs on them and no pain.

I LOVE MY SHOES!

my workout today was solid.
a short walk warm-up; 3:30 at 4.5mph
1 mile run at 6.0 mph; 10:00 mile
2 mile run (short distance pace) at 7.0 mph; 8:34 mile
1 mile run at 6.0 mph; 10:00 mile
a short cool down; 3:30 at 4.5 mph
total time=44.25; total distance 4.5 miles.

I came home and made a quick breakfast.

fruit, pear and apple

add to oatmeal with a little brown sugar and nutmeg. most tasty bowl of oatmeal I’ve had yet! I only had room for half of each, so I saved the other two halves for a snack later today.

can’t forget to re-hydrate. I saw this on Kath Eats Real Food. I thought she was crazy, but then I tried it. BEST. IDEA. EVER! It makes drinking water so much easier for me.

I’m off to clean the house, right after I finish this weeks Biggest Loser. Company is coming on Saturday…and it might just take me up until the last minute to get this disaster spick and span.

v-day 2011

First of all...HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Second of all...welcome the newest addition!

We bought a new laptop! We also broke down and got internet at the house! So far...best decision!

Today was the day I chose to celebrate our anniversary. 6 years ago today...Hubby and I went on our first date together. And on the 17th..we became an official couple. whoopeeee!

I had something very special planned. Hubby was a bit on the nervous side. He had no idea what we were doing.

The clues I gave him were pretty vague. But ever since that first year of US...I had always mentioned that what we were going to do would be such a cute date. So I took matters into my own hands.

I was so excited. You see...I was debating on going on our little adventure tomorrow, but was just too dang excited! I bumped it up to today. I couldn't contain myself any longer.

YAY! Pottery day! I was thrilled when I saw this cute little shop in town. I couldn't wait to test it out!

Hubby's face was priceless when we walked in. He was in complete shock. This is the last thing he would have guessed we were doing.

There was a wide array of items to choose from to paint. Everything from dragons and toucans to bowls and plates! It took Hubby and I a few minutes to decide what to paint. But we managed.

Me...a fish...since that's my M.O.

Hubby...a turtle...its a soap dish.

He's working hard on his masterpiece!

Focus.

He was so cute. He had to use both hands to paint the black lines.

The finished products. His turned out awesome. My fish just looks like he got a black eye. :(

I think Hubby had more fun than expected. I know I had a blast. If you're ever looking for a fun afternoon activity...pottery is the way to go. It wasn't too expensive either. We paid for each of us as a "studio fee" $8 each...included the choice of 6 colors of paint and any type of brush. Then we paid for the pottery pieces. They weren't overpriced at all either. We got out of there in under $45. They put a clear coat on our pieces and fire them. They will be ready for pick up in a week. They are all dishwasher and microwave safe. I can't wait to see the colors, because the "before firing" colors aren't as bright as the "after firing" colors.

Hope you all are having a great Lover's Day!

corners turned and lessons learned

Good Morning...today WILL be an extremely LOOONG day. I'm exhausted.

Yesterday I waited until the afternoon to conduct my working out for the day.

LESSON NUMERO UNO

If you're going to wait until the "after work" rush hour to complete a workout. You better have patience or be willing to spend some extra time on one piece of equipment for another one to open up. I live in a small town and so the gym I go to doesn't have a lot of room or equipment compared to other gyms in bigger towns. My gym has 5 ellipticals and 5 treadmills along with 2 bikes. And then the normal lifting weight kind of machines. I knew the gym would be busy, but I didn't expect it to be THAT busy. I got there a little after 430 and had no problem getting on an elliptical. When I started noticing people hovering, waiting for an elliptical to open up and saw that there was still treadmills available I opted out of the last 5 minutes of my planned 40 minutes of hill intervals and jumped on a treadmill. Not to mention...the treadmill had a TV right in front of it and I was able to watch the evening basketball games on ESPN.

Before I get into my delightful run...I'll share with you...

LESSON NUMERO DOS

As I drove the gym, I realized I had forgotten a very important piece of my gym attire. I was only a couple blocks from the house when I realized I forgot it, but decided I would be ok and opted out of turning around. I guess I had my mind very focused on getting to the gym to REALLY beat the 5 pm traffic.

Meet my buff.

We are the best of friends.

It has many functions.

1. Keeps the sweat out of my eyes (learned this one last night).

2. Holds my hair out of my face. And keeps all the little fly-aways tucked away so I don't look like such a mad woman..seeing how my gym sessions are most often in the morning before I shower for the day.

3 (and most important). Holds my skull candy head phones in my ears.

(yes, Hubby and I have a Cars themed bathroom...that's the shower curtain.)

See how I usually wear it, and see how happy it makes me. Over my ears and head phones so they don't slip out. I don't know why, but my head phones have a huge problem staying in my ears. And I had to mess with them (seriously!!) every 10 seconds of my 35 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the treadmill. It got very frustrating. I just wanted to rip them out and throw a huge fit. I tried everything. I tried giving them a little "twist into the ear." I tried the "just shove them in as hope they get stuck." EVERYTHING! They managed to wiggle out every time.

This is how depressed I was after last night. No buff. waahhhh!

I have thought seriously about buying a new pair of head phones...the "over the ear" kind for cases like this. And I am looking into it even more after last night episode.

CORNERS TURNED

My workout last night was actually really promising...after getting past the "buff" part.

I hopped on the elliptical for 35 minutes (scheduled for 40, but the hover-ers were making me nervous) of hill intervals. My thighs actually felt really good last night. So I think the tightness and burning comes from working out in the mornings.

I jumped on a open treadmill. I found a college basketball game and saw that there was 11 minutes and some change left in the first half. I decided that instead of counting the minutes on the treadmill. I would watch the basketball minutes. We all know that you can guarantee almost twice of what is actually left on the clock of any sporting event. I figured it would help make the time on the treadmill go a little less painful. And it did. I was sure frustrated when it was foul after foul, and then double bonus time and commercial time. But I managed to hang in there. As I was running I thought to myself...I could run through the halftime show too. But I had up'ed my time, so I was running on empty. I hit my 5K (and better-ed my time!) at 28:05 right as the first half ended in the game. I told myself I could do 2 more minutes and boosted the speed to finish out the time. I'm glad I stopped when I did, because I didn't have much left in the tank when I hit the "cool-down" I was whooped. But, I averaged a 9:05 mile (totally thrilled!). I'm starting to actually feel like a real runner. To do a 10K...I think I'm going to have to slow my time just a little to have enough left in the tank to finish strong. But I'm thinking nothing less than a 9:30 mile should be totally do-able.

This morning workout was minus a run. When my alarm went off at 0500 (and Hubby gladly joined me again) I crawled out of bed and felt slight discomfort in my foot. So I decided I should probably try NOT to but much more stress on it for fear of doing some real damage and then be done running for a while. I just played it safe and jumped on the elliptical for 50 minutes of hill intervals. I was plenty warm and stretched out when I was done. I felt good. And it wasn't until coming to work that I finally got sleepy. Hopefully...I can manage to keep my eyes open and get something productive accomplished today.

Until next time....

getting better by the day!

Ms. Janae...you should be excited and thrilled! I feel like we're becoming bff's more and more everyday. Or maybe your weirdness is rubbing off on me more and more!?

As my alarm went off at 0500 this morning to hit the gym early, I was totally ready to just turn it off and go back to sleep for another 2 hours. BUT(!) Hubby was laying next to me and sounded extremely disappointed when I said "I'm not going to the gym." So his motivation to get into the gym this morning made me super excited to go. I figured (last night as I set me alarm) that I would be making the early morning sweat session alone, but to my surprise he actually wanted to go.

I got on the elliptical for an easy/moderate 30 minutes of a hill interval. I don't know what it is, but no matter how many days I do the elliptical my thighs never DON'T burn. It sometimes almost kills me.

Please standby for the continuation of this regularly schedule blog post for a special, and I mean EXTRA special rant!

Dear Mr "I bring my coffee cup to the gym and drink it while I do my elliptical workout,"

I would really appreciate it if you don't get on the elliptical right next to me. And when you absolutely HAVE to, please turn the fan on yourself blowing AWAY from me! I can't stand the smell of the coffee being sweat-ed out of your body while I am focusing hard on finishing my workout. It really makes the last 10-15 minutes (sometimes WHOLE sessions) hard to finish. I just want to die and run away as fast as I can.

Thanks, Me.

Now, back to you regularly scheduled blogging.

After I died from the "coffee sweat" I was forced to inhale. I jumped on the treadmill. After a few days of forcing myself past the "I want to quit and NOW!"stage I've kind of come to love running on the treadmill. It's really not as bad as I remember it being in the past.

On Saturday, I decided that I was going to run a little 5K and get a time for it. I managed to do it in 29:32. Pretty swell...I was just excited that I was under 30 minutes! Averaged a 9:30 mile. I should mention here that I had taken 4 days straight off of running on getting any exercise. It just didn't really jive with my training schedule that I was attending while in Rapid City, SD. I was sore, my calves were really tight as I pushed through the 3.1 miles.

On Sunday, I boosted my 30 minutes of elliptical to 45 minutes. And decided to just walk it out on the treadmill. I didn't slack there though. I did walk a rather a fast pace, and added some incline to it. I was hoping to get my calves a little more stretched out and strenghtened.

I took yesterday off from working out. I hate having a rest day. I always feel like such a slob. But I forced myself to do it.

Today...maybe I should mention that I'm working a regular 8-5 job this week, so in order to make work by 8...I have to be in the gym at 530 (at the latest probably), which means a 0500 wake-up (to ensure that my pre-workout supplements have plenty of time to do their thing). My goal this morning was to push for a 9:00/mile pace for a 3.1 miles. Start small and work up, right? Well...I didn't quite make the 9:00 minute mark, BUT (!!) I did shave 1:15 off my 5K from last time and I'm sitting at a 28:15 now! YES! Average: 9:11/mile. I'm pretty proud of myself. I immediately began calculating what a 10K would be if I could keep that pace. Yes, it comes out to under 60 minutes.

I felt really great after my morning jog, and if I didn't have my job to get to, I probably would have kept going to see just how far I could have gotten until I absolutely need a break.

I feel like I'm doing pretty well with this whole "I'm a serious runner" business and can't wait for summer to arrive to see just exactly what I can do without a treadmill forcing me to keep putting on foot in front of the other.

On a side note...I haven't been to my blog in a few days (maybe even weeks, I know...I'm awful) but I noticed this morning that I had a new follower, Alexis! Eeks. Welcome Alexis! I don't know how you found me but I'm glad you did! Can't wait to become blogger bff's!

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY...CHECK OUT HUNGRY RUNNER GIRL'S GIVEAWAY!