Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Friday, October 31, 2014

Trick or Treat...

Here come all the trick or treaters!! 




Happy Halloween

Just  a few spooky costumes from past years... 






I have no idea of what the kids are going to dress up as tonight. It's kind of a last minute, find what you can around the house. 
I'm copying this idea. I really wanted to paint Celina's face but I might just have to settle for doing it to my own. She has other ideas about her costume choices! 

 Maybe I'll recycle my Katy Perry costume? 
Logan made some holiday cookies.. not Halloween Holiday but Raspberry Thumbprint that we usually only make at Christmas. They are soo good. I'm not sure why we don't make them that often. He had to make cookies for science class. Convert the recipe to the metric system. 
Already showing baking talent!

Time to report on my post soccer running.. Knowing my big toes are messed up.. black toe nails and really, really sore from soccer. I attempted to run on Excedrin for the pain.. and caffeine. It did the trick after putting 3 layers of band-aids on my big toes. 
I ran just three short miles. My toes felt okay. I just didn't have enough time to run more miles and never got around to it later on in the day to finish up those extra miles. That's my issue.. I never feel like running later on when I have afternoon down time. Something to work on.. 
It's a chilly 29*F morning.. How do you get motivated to run outside when its this C O L D? 
Here's my way to ease into the idea of running in the cold: 
1. Do planks to warm up my body quickly
2. When waiting for my GPS, I do 50 squats and 30 lunges outside. 
3. Dress in layers, jacket, shirt, tank top, arm warmers, and gloves
4. Stay close to home so I can always run home to warm up. I do warm up after 1 mile so this is my mind game I play to just get out there. 


Thursday, October 30, 2014

#23 I have so much to tell..

That's me.. number 23! 
My first soccer game was last night. I had so much fun! It was a lot and I mean a lot of running! I played Center Mid. The team kind of figured out that I am a runner! Some of those guys from the other team were really speedy! I am going to get faster if I try to keep up! 

That blurry person going after the ball is me.. Steve was nice enough to come with to watch my game and take photos. I had him just use my cell phone so the photos aren't that great! 
I need to work on my foot / ball control. Considering I've never played a soccer game. I did okay..missed the chance to score a goal.. 
I really should have known better then to wear soccer cleats that just fit my foot. Not a lot of toe room and I quickly found out again why its soooo important to have running shoes much larger then your foot! 
My left toe is going to be black under all that red nail polish. I some how landed on my toe running full speed ahead, then stopping abruptly. That toe nail was throbbing big time last night. It's just kind of floating there on a pool of blood under that nail. I was thinking, if only I could drill a hole in my nail to release the pressure of the blood pooling up. I don't think I could take any more pain and the thought of drilling anything into my nail makes me feel a little light headed.. did I pass out yet? 
It's going to be fun seeing how much I improve over the next 8 weeks during my speed soccer sessions. I'm now going to look into a 5K race to test it out!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Chilled Buns!

A chilly morning to run. Its still pretty nice to be able to run outside. My buns are ice cold! 
6 miles done and the miles felt really good after only running just one little mile yesterday. I really do see the benefits of taking rest days. My times really do get faster without any extra effort. 10:10 my easy effort average pace. 
I'm going to have to invest in some better legging for running this winter. I don't need ice cube buns!
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I'm am sure to get more of these...

That's a nice big bruise on my leg and I have no idea of when I got it. I'm always walking into things and forget completely how I got the bruise. 
I have a feeling soccer is going to leave me pretty bruised up. I just hope those soccer shin guards really do work. Tonight's the night.. My first game. 

I was trying to talk Steve into coming with just to take photos but he said no way.. this is your thing! Great support! hum....! 

Running didn't go so terrific yesterday morning and I didn't go back to finish running later either! I only ran our path 1.3 miles and was done running. I ran into the path mowing crew and really didn't want to keep running by a huge 5ft wide lawn mower. The guy was nice enough to stop mowing and put up the mower so I could run by. It did freak me out thinking all he would have to do is drop the blades and I'd be chopped to pieces. Not a pleasant thought. I gave up and just told myself I'd finish 5 miles when I got home. Silly me.. I should know myself better! I hate going to workout in the evenings.. I took a 30 minute power nap instead. 
It's that running time.. off to run 6 miles.. at least that's my plan! 

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

This might be the last time of the entire YEAR!

You have to do it when you can.. and yesterday was an almost 70+F day for the end of October! Almost unheard of warm temperature for October! It will be the last ride of the year I have a feeling.. days like this just are very few if any! 
I wanted to go visit Kendra and Evan and they live only 4 short miles from our house. I can bike taking my favorite dirt road with a little road construction detour to her house. I didn't get to see them over the weekend. He was a sick little boy, in the hospital for bronchitis over the weekend so Kendra was home on my Monday that I spend usually with Evan. 
I got in a nice 9 mile bike ride and got to visit.  A nice way to spend a Monday afternoon. 
This is a super cute Halloween idea!

Sunday night our door bell rang. No one wanted to go to the door because who comes to the door at 9pm? We didn't find anyone out there only this left on our door step. 
Candies with a note...
Such a cute idea.. Now off to Boo someone else! 

Band Concert with a whistle controversy!

Celina's First Fall, Freshmen Band Concert.

 Lets just say it was a very eventful night and that might be an understatement!

It's Celina's 5th year playing flute. 

There are so many kids in band they have 3 bands. The first 2 bands are just Freshmen, the last band is a combo of all the band kids that are not in the marching band, 10 - 12th grades. We had to listen to all three play last night. 
It's nice to see the improvement in the bands over the years. We were treated to five seniors in the auditorium hall playing their guitar, drum, trumpets and saxophone as we walked in to sit down.  
Parents have to get to the concert at least 30 minutes before the start to give the band kids time to set up. Logan didn't really want to go and was super grouchy. Once we got to the high school and he heard the kids playing instruments in the hall his mood began to change. When he is happy, he whistles. I can not whistle myself and I've tried.. really tried for 44+ years now.. ever since I was 4 years old I can remember wanting to be able to whistle. My Nana was a hummer and I do the same when I bake. I'm just happy and I hum just like my Nana use to when she baked. Logan started whistling a little, while people were still being seating, talking etc.. before the concert started. The man in front of us with the tall head, blocking my view told him to stop whistling. It just made me mad. Here was a kid that only 10 minutes before was all angry and upset he had to go spend the entire evening listening to a band concert. His mood had turned happy.. after hearing the band sounds from the hall and this guy was telling him to shut up, stop whistling.  The protective, angry mother in me came out but I just said calmly. "Geeze, what's wrong with being happy?" It's not like he was whistling during the concert. People are loud talking and getting seated all around us. The guy didn't like me saying that and turned around to confront me. He told me he said it nicely and if I had a problem we should go out into the hall and whistle to the band. I just said he is 11, and is happy. The guy and his wife got ugly after that comment. The wife piped in and said " what if he was kicking my chair", Which he wasn't at all, I might add and I told her that! If Logan was kicking a chair I'd totally understand and would have asked him to stop too. After they suggested not so nicely that we move some where else, which I said I was fine right where we were. They got up and left in a huff. My mother in-law had to add her comment and call the wife a B i t c h to her face... Yikes! Didn't want to start a fight over some whistling. I know not everyone likes to hear whistling, but we were at a music concert. MUSIC.. noise..toe tapping, loud drums..he wasn't doing that annoying loud whistle.. just a little tune.. Logan likes whistle when he is happy! Apparently, this guy does not like to be happy. The woman sitting next to me said, "Band parents just don't act like that. They must be new to the program?" 

What's your opinion on whistling? Does it make  you happy or mad? 

What are some of the things you do when your in a happy mood? hum, sing? 

Monday, October 27, 2014

My finds...

The Bread Smith is one of my favorite finds. We absolutely love all their bread. We made a special trip to the store on Sunday. It's in St. Paul and a 30 minute drive which is not close to home so we don't go often enough. This chocolate bread is my weakness. I got not just one little roll to share with Steve but went for the whole loaf on this trip. We sat in the car and ate half of it before even leaving the parking lot. 
 I love getting new cleaning equipment to try out. This one is cordless/re-chargeable, which I am going to like not having to deal with the plug being pulled out of the wall. It's also bag-less. Not a lot of room to collect all the crumbs/dirt but we'll see if the bag-less saves time. I just need to wait 21 hours before I can try it out.. Waiting.. still waiting! 

I forced myself out the door. Well, Logan did.. he missed the bus and needed a ride to school. Not a great way to start a Monday but it got him at least to school and me to the park to run 6 miles around the lakes. 
It was another really nice fall weather morning. No wind and sunny.. 
I was wondering how does trail running compare to road running? I just read that trail running is slower then road running and you can burn 10% more calories!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Crisp and cool..

It was a cool and crisp October morning. After taking a few rest days due to being overly busy working and then volunteering early in the morning. I was back at running trails and it felt really good! 

I enjoy photography as much as I do running. Stopping a billion time to take pictures is kind of a must do especially when I'm running on trails. There is just too much to take photos of that I want to capture. 
A little frost covered parts of the trail.. 

It was pretty quite out on the trails.. I didn't pass too many people walking their dogs. 

Easy, slow miles just to enjoy running in the woods and taking the time to stop and take photos along the way. 
I keep thinking about running a mock marathon. I'd just spend the entire day going out and running a few miles at a time and by the end of the day have completed 26 miles. I'm just not sure when I want to do this.. It sounds like a good idea but would take a whole lot of effort on my part. Once I cool down and change into dry clothes, I am kind of done running for the day. I'm positive I could go the distance.. but I won't know until I can prove it! 
We walked some Trails of Terror last night...deep in the woods along the river. 
I don't scare easily any more.. like I use to.. It was still fun but not scary. 
Logan and Celina hid behind me and made me go first into all the haunted trails and houses. I didn't mind because I know its just people trying to scare you. I was more scared of not being able to see where I was going.. and touching something gross. 
We bought 3D glasses to go through a haunted house maze. It by far was the best one. I was blinded by light a few time and couldn't see where I was going. That did freak me out! The effects were really good and we all had a fun time. 


Happy Halloween....