Leap day

How was your weekend? Mine was quick but good! They all go by far too fast!

My weekend was jam packed full. 

Friday night Steve went to happy hour with his brother while I worked late. I usually don't work in the evenings but I wanted to pick  up a new customer and that meant working when they got home from work. Fine by me! I managed to get home by 6:30pm so it wasn't too late of an evening. I completely misunderstood Steve's text to join him for dinner. Instead I picked up taco's for Logan and I. Hum.. dinner out would have been a lot more fun. I was tired from working and needed a shower anyway. I was fine staying in for the night. 

Saturday was all centered around running and Celina's birthday with her friends. I ran six miles, cleaned the house, went shopping at Cub for party food, helped Celina make her birthday cake, put up a few party decorations and had lots of puppy duties. The party started at 6pm and we were serving dinner, cake and then at Buckhill till 10pm. 

Sunday, Steve and I made a brunch for the girls that slept-over for Celina's birthday. I made up pancakes since it was national pancake day, I cut up fresh fruit, Steve cooked the Canadian bacon and made hash browns all homemade from scratch. I had to wait till after my run to eat. 

I forgot to mention that Saturday we had 60+F weather. I ran in a tanktop, sat out front and soaked up the sun for an hour. 

We took Zoe on a few walks. 

Its Monday and I get to spend the half the day with this cutie. The other half is going to be spent with Logan getting his four baby teeth removed. 

I completely forgot about Logan's Sunday afternoon soccer practice. It's the second week in a row. I felt really bad so when we were at the store, I picked him up a special dessert in a chocolate coffee cup along with a croissant. I'm hoping next Sunday I remember! 

Happy Leap Day.. Feb 29th

Building up miles.

I haven't been running much this winter since I chose cross country skiing over running for weeks. Now I'm back to running outdoors and need to build back up my miles on the road. It's never a good idea to think you can just pick up where you left off. I really try to do this by running six miles and then I get hurt some how. Wonder why.. doing too many miles too soon is a recipe for injury. I always end up finding this out the hard way. 

My morning running plan was to do an easy 6 miles on my favorite neighborhood path loop. I ran two loops, stopped at home and realized, the front of my calve on my right leg really hurt. So much that I was walking with a limp and it hurt to touch my leg. This is a sign that pushing on and doing too many miles too soon, is just not a good idea. I really wanted to finish my miles. I had to just remember that if it hurts this bad right now, I could do more harm then good. I don't want to risk not being able to run. Its better to stop at 3 miles then push through six and not be able to run for a few or many days after. 

This week here's the break down of my running miles.
Monday- Zero 
Tuesday - 4 miles in snow, felt like 6 miles
Wednesday - 6 miles
Thursday- zero miles
Friday - 6 miles
Saturday - 6 miles
Sunday - 3 miles
Total running road miles = 25 

7 days of my planks/daily exercises. 

I think the rule is no more then a 10% increase per week. A few years ago I'd run 7 days a week, 6 miles a day but most of those miles were indoors on the cross ramp with very little chance to get injured. Road and trail running is completely different then indoors. I'll build back up to running more miles fairly quickly. Maybe less rest days. I'm getting more laid back in my workout schedule and that's not necessarily a good thing. 

Last night, Steve and I hung out at Buckhill for two hours while Celina and her friends went tubing. It was for Celina's birthday with her friends. 

While they were all tubing, Steve and I hung out in the Restaurant/bar. We had a drink and shared some wild rice soup. 

 They changed up a few things and put in new fire place heaters outside and added ski's in the restaurant. It sure looked a lot nicer then last year. Guess it helps when new owners take over the ski resort. 

We had cake for Celina. She made a vanilla bean cake with raspberry butter cream frosting. 

Breakfast with her girl friends the next day. 

 Plus, a cute Zoe puppy photo 11 weeks.. 

60 degree February day

How nice is a 60 degree day in February! I did my 6 mile run before it hit 60. We were more like 37 degrees which still felt pretty warm after 2 miles. Running in a tank top felt pretty good! This is my running weather!

Every time I came across some ice across the path, I jumped over it. I wanted to practice my fire jump if I do another Rugged Maniac where you have to jump over a burning fire. It's good practice to jump all the ice. 

Easy miles with a sprint to home at the end. I have more blisters between my toes. I'll have to figure out this band-aid thing soon or I'll have blisters between every toe. 

Zoe loves being outside. It's been pretty hard for us to get her to come in. She'd rather sit outside and enjoy the outdoors. 

Time to shower and get ready for part 3 of Celina's 16th birthday. Party with friends tonight. 

Happy 60 degree Saturday!

That's more like it...

My run felt 100% better this morning. I just kept running non-stop 6 miles and Bam, I was done! I have to confess, most my runs I stop after each loop, to rest a few seconds and to drink some water. Not today, I just wasn't thirsty and I didn't feel the need to stop. I just wanted to keep running. Not looking at my GPS was nice too. I wasn't worried about my pace and over all running time. I just wanted to enjoy my run after completely not running yesterday. 

I had good intentions of running right after Celina's drivers test but I didn't. It was really nice out too. I was hungry and just crashed instead. Choose poor foods, like kettle popcorn and two tortilla's to go with my salad. Sure the salad was healthy, but I should have ate the fruit we had in the frig. 

Okay, not exactly 6 even miles, but close enough. 

I am happy to say, we have a new driver in the family! Celina passed her driver test. The driver test almost didn't happen yesterday. Good thing we left 2 hours early or we would have completely screwed that up. The old location was closed and we could not find the new location for the driver test. Talk about stressful. I think it took a full hour of driving around town, googling the address etc.. We found the location and still had to practice parallel parking and the 90 degree back in. A little trouble figuring out both but she did it good enough. I was so happy that she passed! Now she can drive herself to the gym to workout. 

My cookies yesterday turned out delicious. I had to try just one. I'm off to work to give away more cookies! 

Hello Thursday

Hello Thursday! We are just a little closer to the weekend. 

I went for my run in the afternoon and I didn't like it at first but then it was okay. Its always the same regardless if its morning, afternoon or evening. The first two miles are going to suck most of the time. My stomach kind of was burning from the salsa and chicken I ate for lunch. This is why morning running is best before I eat anything that will hurt my stomach while running. Eventually, the burning went away and I could feel a nice blister forming between my toes. There is always something to deal with when running. You just get over it and move on. 

I made some sugar cookie dough this morning and am now baking some cookies to give away. Logan wanted me to save him some for an after school snack. That I can do! 

The birthday girl who is sixteen. We celebrated again last night with just dinner.

 eef tenderloin (probably the best we've ever ate), roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes, with a side salad and some small fingerling potatoes. We all shared a little slice of leftover carrot cake from her family party on Sunday. It was even better then on Sunday. I might just have to make another carrot cake. 

Zoe thought it was pretty funny to lay on me this morning while I was trying to do yoga. It's cute now when she is a little puppy. I'm not so sure I'm going to like her laying on me when she is full grown at 45 pounds. 

I get a lot more exercise having a puppy. I never get to sit long before I need to get up and let her outside. It's better to make too many trips outside then less. We are having less accidents and I like that! 

I usually try and not drink calories. Last night, I wanted a little wine while playing some cribbage. I figured it was a special occasion, Celina's birthday and it was okay to have a glass or two. I was over on calories for the day with the wine and some bread with blue cheese and of course the carrot cake. Back to healthy eating today and trying to control the number of calories I eat but more importantly, just make better, healthier food choices and get in my cardio exercise for the day. 

We have a 16 year old!

It's officially Celina's 16th Birthday today. Oh to be sixteen again.. maybe not! 

Life is about to change for this girl tomorrow if she passes her driver test. She will finally get to drive solo. Lets just keep our finger crossed that she passes her test. I'm looking forward to her driving to the gym. I won't have to make a special trip there and back every single day. 

In case your wondering, Kendra got her this cute car for her birthday. She won't be getting her own car for awhile. There is no real need right now since she can use my SUV anytime after school. We'll see how long this workout for me without a car. Well, I'll have Steve's truck to use. 

I had such a hard run yesterday morning in the snow. I'm looking forward to clear roads today when I go run. My run will have to wait till later on today. I have a sick son who might have strep throat. Plus, work and then I can run. Should also be warmer out later on in the day and that means tank top running weather! It might be only 30, but that sure feels good after a few hot and sweaty miles. 

I picked up my new #9 journal yesterday morning. I'm happily back to recording my fitness and todo list every day. It's kind of my security blanket for fitness. I'm hoping it will keep me on my diet goals too for healthy eating. It's a work in progress. 

Diet progress, I was doing so good for eating healthy all day. I switched up my lunch from a big salad to just veggie soup at 160 calories. I felt the need to eat something else for a while. After dinner, I had a greek yogurt then reached for a peanut butter cup and before you know it, my hands were back in the M&M jar. Good news for the M&M's, they are almost all gone. We might have 10 left at the bottom of the bowl. I should switch to dark chocolate which is healthy for you, rather then milk chocolate which is just empty calories. Small changes are needed for my night time. 

Here's the plan. Because you must have a plan to make a positive change.

1. do evening yoga as a stress relief instead of reaching for some high fat comfort foods. 

2. Do a few planks or more daily exercises at night to help me sleep better

3. Read a good book

4. Go for a walk with Zoe. 

This might sound a bit weird but I read that brushing your teeth, having something minty keeps you from wanting to eat. I'm going to start brushing my teeth a lot more in the afternoon and evening to see if that might prevent me from eating crap. Can't hurt to try it?

Lastly, who's on our deck? Besides some of the random neighbor dogs that come eat the bread we put out for the animals. 

A Snowy Four

I had a snowy four miles of running this morning. It started to snow before I even got outside to run. Lets just say, I was not excited to run this morning even before it started to snow. Remember, running is hard 99% of the time. 

It looked stupid with my visor on with my head band warmer so I opted for sunglasses to block the snow falling into my eyes. It worked okay till I tried to clear my sunglasses of snow and then it made a big smudge mess. 

By Mile two I was running with out a jacket, sunglasses, head warmer and gloves. The snow was coming down in those big cotton like flakes. I felt like I was in a snow globe running in circles with falling snow all around. 

I didn't want to risk getting hit by a car on our busy road. I  have to run a short distance on it to loop around our neighborhood. Instead, of the big loop around the neighborhood, I did our small street loop, around and around for 4 snow miles. 

Running in the snow felt super hard. I would slip a little with every step. I just felt weighted down. Plus, I am trying the no caffeine mornings. I use to take a half of a caffeine pill every morning at 5am. Well, by the time I was skiing late in the afternoon there was really no reason to keep taking it. I didn't need the boost from the caffeine to work out any more. I just don't want to be dependent on any drug to make me feel good or not so good if I don't take it and get a headache. 

Mile 1, I wanted to quit running
Mile 2, I really wanted to be done running
Miles 3, I should just run one more mile because this is really hard. 
Mile 4, I should really run six miles but four miles feel like six in the snow. 

4.18 miles at a slow pace, 43:42 minutes total. 

Look who was waiting for me at the top of the driveway. Zoe came out to play in the snow. She is getting so big at 10 weeks. 

Last night we ate dinner super late at 8pm. I still wanted something for a dessert after. I got back to having a greek strawberry yogurt at 80 calories and that seemed to do the trick. It was enough of a snack that I wasn't feeling sugar deprived of my evening snack. I just need to do this more often. 

Off to pick up my new Fitness Journal. Wow, I feel so lost with out it. Its acts as my weekly planner too. I like that sense of accomplishment from checking off my todo list every day. 

I have a full day of tax records to finish up. I'd like to get our tax info to the accountant by Monday next week. I am just getting far behind and need to finish this up today or the weekend for sure!