Fun Friday!

Today has been such a good day.  First off, its Friday - I dont really need to explain why that makes it a good day, also Friday's are half days at work so I've been off since 1pm, yahoo!  Second, its payday - bringin home the bacon baby!  Only to have it go straight to bills and groceries, but you will come to find out that going to the grocery store is pretty much my favorite thing to do.  Third, I had another bombtastic early morning sweat session

Workout: TM run 4 miles, 1% incline
                20 min. weights

Another successful, painless run!  Also, the weird feeling in my lower leg/shin wasn't there, so I'm pretty sure it was just tight.  I felt really good.  I went a tad faster this morning than my run on Wednesday, and did the 4 miles in about 33 minutes.  Also, I started at a 1% incline, but the last 1/2 mile I gradually bumped it up and finished at a 4%, which isn't much, but its a step in the right direction.  It felt good to sweat a little more and work a little harder.  Tomorrow a.m. there is a running group that meets at the gym at 7:00, and I am going to go down and run with them.  We usually do 10 miles, but I think I'm still going to take it easy and do a "long" run of 5.5-6 miles, we'll see, but I'm feeling positive about it!

Lastly, we had our yearly fall/Halloween get together at our friends house!  We carve pumpkins and eat tasty treats. I cant remember how many years we've been getting together to do this, but its always fun, plus our friends always have a giant bowl of candy corn that I pretty much dominate.

Halloween popcorn!

BOO! Ghost cookies!

in progress...

my final product!

It was a good night!

the best day of 2012! (and 2009)

Good morning!  I had to do a quick post because I'm just to excited!  Remember when I told you I was "back"?  I had mentioned that we were getting ready to travel to Cincinnati, OH to be a part of my brother's wedding in September.  Well I am happy to announce that the wedding pictures are up!  Our wonderfully talented cousin was the photographer for their wedding and she just posted it up on her blog.  They pictures and slide show turned out simply lovely.  She has such a great talent, and captured my brother Sam and his now wife (!) Evan just perfectly.  I think I have looked at these a million times this morning, and will probably keep looking at them all day.  They make me smile and take me back to that day.  I wish we could do it all over again!  Chelsie, you're photos are pure magic, please never stop! :)

Here is the link to the pictures, enjoy! San and Evan are married! Finally :)  oh, and when you get to the bottom you HAVE to watch the slide show - it's perfect.

Also, J-bob and I were lucky to have Chelsie be the photographer for our wedding 3 years ago, feel free to take a peek at those while you're there.  aaaah memories....

Have a great morning friends - I'll be back later....I mean it :)

noodle arms

Hiya friends!  Hope everyone is have a great Thursday.  Its really rainy and dreary here today, I'm already looking forward to going home, throwing on my sweats and eating my after work snack of popcorn and hot chocolate while watching The Office.  Yes I  just started that tradition yesterday, and yes I have a feeling it will be here to stay.  Makes me feel like I'm back in elementary school to have an afternoon snack - its awesome, you all should try it :)

so I'm not in sweats, but I did put on my favorite fuzzy socks so that counts for something right?  Also, I'm aware I'm using a Christmas mug in October, but cold weather like this makes it ok :)

Workout: Spin Class 45 min.

This morning I went spinning at 5:15.  Back in the day I used to teach spin at our gym.  I got a little burnt out so I dropped down to just being a sub, but I haven't done it in SO long.  I forgot how much fun it is!  The instructor was super nice and gave us a good workout.  Throughout the class we did sets of pushups for a total of 7 sets.  Except the first set started with 25 pushups and by the 7th we did 31.  Man!  I could barely lift my arms to put on my makeup when I got ready.  That probably explains why people keep giving me weird looks today - could be the mascara all over my eyelids.




recycled pic from about 2 1/2 years ago as an instructor - pre weight loss and pre fashion sense (those pants and top aren't doing me any favors)


Another successful early morning workout is in the books.  Dare I say I'm looking forward to tomorrow already, but it could also be that its Friday tomorrow too...

Have a great night peeps!

what time is it?

Hey guys and happy hump day!  Well since I'm writing this post I guess it means I survived getting up with the birds, and no babies, seal cubs or fluffy kitties were punched in the process, although I have no idea what time it is, or day for that matter, getting up at 4:30am has me all screwed up.

I'm alive!  and gym locker rooms make the BEST backdrop

Workout: TM run 4 miles 1% incline
                Elliptical - hard intervals for 10 min.

I made it farther than a mile and am happy to report that I had NO knee pain!  I guess all that sitting on my arse paid off :)  I did have a weird tight feeling in my left lower leg, it kind of felt like it was asleep/dead, but I'm thinking that it is probably just really tight since that's the leg that's been hurt.  I will have to do some major stretching when I get home.  Also, anytime I run on the t-mill I always do at least a 1% incline to add a little something since I'm not outside in the "elements".  I ran VERY slow (compared to what I'm used to) this morning, I think it took me like 37 minutes just to go the 4 miles, but the fact that I was able to run without pain is a win in my book.  I know I will get my distance and speed back sooner or later.

It actually wasn't to horrible getting up this morning, and I'm kinda pumped to know that I'm done, and I don't need to stress about if I'm going to workout later or not.  Exercise shouldn't be stressful, it should be fun and something to look forward to, so I think this new routine might work to get me out of my rut, yahoo!

On another note, my boss got me this cute little fleece for Stella - she really is happy to be wearing it, she's just trying to act cool.

  

Tomorrow there is a spin class at 5:10 so I think I'm going to hit that up instead of run, I really want to keep my legs feeling good and get back to where I was and better, so cross training will be key.  Have a great night!

Cha cha cha changes!

Hey, so I know I said I would be back  after my last post, but things got kind of busy 'round these parts and I never made it a priority to come back and blog like I said I was going to.(*cough* excuses).  I know I know, I'm a terrible person, but aren't we all :)  So I figured I would make it easy on everyone and just start with today and keep the train a rollin'.   Plus, so much time has gone by anyway that I highly doubt you care what I did 3 months ago - you probably didn't even care in the first place.  But now I'm forcing you once again to read this pointless drivel that I call my life.

So lets start!  I've been running like a fool these past few months, and about 3 weeks ago was up to my longest run ever of 11.85 miles!  I never EVER would have thought I could do that.  I was runners-highing like crazy, and had a goal of hitting 13 miles in November.  Well all that came to a screeching halt, when after a hard 9 miler my left hip/side quad (is that a thing?) started to hurt.  It wasn't a sharp pain, but more of a dull ache that made me feel like the outside of my left leg was sort of "dead".  I took 3 days off running, but still did the elliptical and stair climber like a mad man, and foam rolled the shiz out of the IT bands.  I tried to run after that and this time had a sharp zing of pain in my left knee, it caught me off guard enough to stop me in my tracks.   I walked a bit, then started again and made it about a half mile and had to stop.  I stuck it out and ran  the last 1.5 miles home (total of a 7 mile run).  My hip/leg/knee continued to bug me the rest of the day.  Since then I have tried to run a few times but once I hit 3 miles, I can feel my knee starting to hurt so I usually stop.  So far I haven't run further than 5 miles :(  It was such a weird pain too, it didn't feel like it was the muscle around the knee, but the actual knee cap itself.  I have heard of something called a "runners knee"  and from what I've looked up and read up on Chondromalacia it sounds like it could be what happened to me.  I'm no doctor but I play one on this blog, but it seems to make sense.

 Last Wednesday was the last time I ran, or did anything besides eat my feeling for that matter.  I've gotten pretty bummed and feeling like I'm stuck.  I decided I needed to change my attitude and maybe change my routine.  Since its Fall here, its starting to get darker earlier and that causes me to want to just go straight home after work and throw on my sweatpants.  I know, Jake is SO lucky to be married to me :)  I figured I needed to get out of my rut and change things up a little, so I decided to become a morning person! Trust me, for the longest time these were the people I hated.  Always so cheerful and excited to be up before the sun, but I think they might be on to something (or just on something,  Lance, I'm lookin' at you buddy) so I'm going to give it a try.  That way I get my workout done and don't have to feel guilty when I want to sit and be lazy the rest of the night, win win!  I may sound pumped now, but ask tomorrow at 4:30am if I still think its a good idea - I have a feeling I am going to hate life....

Oh well, onward and upward, I'll let you know if I feel great or if I feel like punching a baby.  Either way, I'm going to test out running and even if I only make it a mile I will be grateful :) 

and this blob will be at 5am!