Let's play catch up!

Sorry about the silence since last week.  Work has been crazy busy as have my evenings!  I'm hoping to settle down into a better routine eventually but between working late, going out of town a lot and other things, life has been crazy!  How about a cute picture of Lily to get us started??

Friends?

Today is my grandparents 59th wedding anniversary!  We'll be celebrating later tonight!  

How cool is 59 years?  

I say it's pretty awesome!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Catching up:

Last Tuesday, Robin and I took our mother-in-law to a cooking class for her birthday.  We did this last year and had such a good time, we did it again this year!  I thought the class would have posted pictures by now, but I just checked and they haven't.  The theme was Julia Chiles, so you know the food was good!  Our little group of 3 was responsible for cooking rolls, a carrot souffle and a love salad.  A lot of her famous recipes were cooked by each group in the class and we feasted at the end!  Bonus, they give you the recipes so you can take it home and make everything you like yourself!

Wednesday was my last training run before the race.  I got out of work pretty late and wanted to try to beat the darkness so I got in 5 miles...last mile was an 8:40.  Yay! I also found my love for compression sleeves, which I also enjoyed at the race last weekend.  I feel like they helped my calf muscles not to be so sore later and I had no problem with my shins!

Thursday, I went to a huge Tupperware tent sale they have to benefit the United Way each year.  I got a ton of stuff for only $61!  Check out my loot!

I met my friend there and we shopped away.  My second mom works there and it was her birthday so I got to spend some time with her too!  

Friday we were off to the races!  You can read about that here.

Is anyone else loving this time change as much as I am?!  I popped out of bed the last two days!  Last night, I wanted to go to bed before 8 haha.  The time change is helping me get back on my desired schedule!  Up early and to bed early!  I'm even thinking of trying to get up and run in the mornings now that it'll be light out!  Score!

Savannah Half Marathon

This was the first of the Rock n Roll series races I've done.  I've always heard awesome things about them, so I definitely wanted to get in on one.  We had originally planned on picking up our packets on Friday, but John had changed projects and is in the busy stages of a new, big building starting to go up, so, we didn't leave until around 5 on Friday to head up to Savannah.  I knew this ahead of time, so after initially freaking out about not getting our packets at the expo, I called and they said we could pick it up the morning of the race.

We got into town around 10, got checked into our hotel and got everything ready for the next day.  We were asleep by 11.  The alarm went off at 5:30.  We got dressed, ate some food and went to pick up our packets, giving us enough time to walk back to the hotel and to the start by 7.  We were lucky enough to be less than 1/2 a mile from the start.  They only gave us our race numbers before the race and told us to pick up the rest after the race.

We eventually got in the corral and waited for the race to start.  The national anthem started was sung a few minutes before the race start, accompanied by "I Love Rock and Roll", but they finally got it together and knocked off the background music.

I was representing the Disney Marathon.  I wish I had another shirt I love so much to run it, but they give out a comfy shirt!

About 20 minutes after the start, we were off!

Brothers

Go Robin!

We started out running over an overpass, through some sides roads, and then through some neighborhoods.  The residents in this area really came out to cheer!  They were all happy yelling 'good mornings' and clapping for us!  It was pretty fun.  Then we had a bit of time where we were running through industrial areas.  We were keeping at a 10:00/mile since none of us were sure how we'd do that day.  We were feeling pretty good.  Around mile 6-7 we had to make a pit stop to the port-o-pots and then we were on the road again.  

I believe it was around mile 8, we started getting a little more into the downtown area of Savannah and there were crowds everywhere.  It was great and made me want to punch people all at the same time.  I enjoy the crowds cheering.  Love it.  Need the motivation.  And I know watching a endurance running race isn't that exciting for those who aren't passionate about it, but get off the course!  There were people way off the curbs causing us to have to go through bottlenecks every so often.  It annoyed me.  I feel that there should have been race officials making sure people stayed off the course. Disappointed.  Rant over.

I had a side cramp starting at mile 8 and became ridiculously crippling between 10 & 11.  Robin and I fell back from the guys because she was also battling a side cramp and walked a little.  I'm pretty sure it was where we were running in the roads and the slant because they were both right side cramps under the ribs.  Haven't had one of those in forever!

Somehow going through mile 12, the cramp disappeared and I sprinted out the last .2 miles.

I thought the half race course was pretty good. It is in a pretty city, but you don't go through it as much as I expected we would.  The course was pretty flat.  There were a few elevation changes, but I didn't think they were too bad at all.  I would probably rate the race a B+.  I'm not sure if I would do it again there, but I had an enjoyable experience.

BOO!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  I did!  We got a lot done, have a plan, and are ready to tackle the whole finish-up-the-house-projects-we-need-to-do-before-we-sell-it list!  That makes me very excited as it isn't as much as I had built up in my head.  It's quite a bit of work, don't get me wrong, but it's not a horrible amount either!

P90X

I really enjoyed the workouts I did with P90X.  I plan to continue through the next 12 weeks with the program, but with my own tweaks to the schedule.  I will be doing the legs, back, chest and upper body routines every week.  I would like to do the yoga and one of the cardio based workouts each week, so I will have either the plyometrics workout or the kenpo workout, not both.  I would like to continue running and biking and know that if I try to do all 6 workouts each week plus the other things I already enjoy, something will be missed.

I did the leg workout yesterday again because I knew I would be running Savannah this week and did not want to have tired legs, so I knocked it out yesterday.  Today or tomorrow I will do the plyometric workout because that is also heavy leg work and I want fresh legs Saturday, I just have to see how I feel when I get home today.  I'll report on it every now and then and see what kind of results I get at the end of it!

My favorite breakfast

This breakfast is so simple and tastes almost like eating apple pie!  All you need is an apple, cinnamon and vanilla yogurt (greek or regular, whatever your fancy).  Core and cut up your apple, sprinkle with cinnamon and put in the microwave for 1-2 minutes depending on the size of your apple (your apple should be soft but not too soft).  Then top with yogurt and mix!  I love it!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!  

  

Back from Christina Land

This week has flown by for me.

I've been in my own little land of trying to get through work, my workouts, dinner and sleep this week.  

And healthy eating.  

And you know, I've done pretty darn good.  Not one thing of sweets.  I don't know who I am.  I'm sure that'll change soon.

It is Halloween Monday.  And we have some delicious candy for the kiddos in the neighborhood.  

Reese's Cups.  

The big kind.

I feel like I haven't hardly seen John because he's been working late, we've been eating dinner around 8 and then going to bed shortly after.  

The week has been a blur.  

I'm tired.  

I need to clean my house.  

It's a mess.  

Thankfully we've knocked out a lot of laundry this week.  

I've gotten to the kitchen, cleaned out the fridge and most of the downstairs, but then there's our room.  

I have tons of work to do up there.  I have clothes everywhere!  At least they're clean, right? 

Right.

I've just been focused on getting things done.

That's literally been my week.  

Now, it's Friday!

Time to relax.

Get things done.

Have fun.

Enjoy fall.

Run.

Oh, and my workouts?

I ran.

It didn't hurt.

Happy dance!

I've kept up with P90X.
I had to shorten one day, but it was just a little bit.

I'm sore.

It's pretty darn good.

Still have 2 days left to complete the workout for the full week though.

Honestly

After this week 

I'm happy I made it through them!

Have a great weekend!!!

Good Eats and Exercise

I am exhausted.  The weekend trip wore me out, P90X kicked my booty last night and I have a full schedule tonight.  I'll start out by saying P90X is hard.  They're not kidding when they tell you that.  Oh and I have no chest strength.  So I'm sore today.  Whoa.  I'll give more of a recap next week after I've kicked my own butt all week.  Tonight, I have the plyometric workout for P90X, a short run so I can test out my shin and a bike ride.  We'll see how that goes!

Fortunately for me, I planned chili in the crockpot tonight, so as soon as I'm ready for it, dinner will be served!  I figured I would share the recipe I used, but I will tell you that every time I cook chili it's a bit different.  This recipe normally is a thicker chili.

I start by browning ground beef and chopping part of an onion and green pepper into very small pieces.
Then, I add them to the crockpot with the following ingredients:
1 can tomato paste
1 large can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomato
2 cans chili beans
1 can kidney beans
1-1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Dash of cinnamon (sometimes I trade that out for sugar, takes the bitterness out of tomatoes)

Put in the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours (although today I think mine will be cooking longer) or 2-4 hours on high and it will be done!  Enjoy!

Say It, Do It

Last week was an utter disaster workout wise.  I basically got in shoulders, triceps, back and abs...that's all I remember right now, but I was pretty discouraged about the pain while running mixed with an extremely busy and shortened week.  I think my shin is feeling better (I hope) so I'm taking it out for a test run to see.  Fingers crossed.  Anyway, onto this week.  I'm going to be trying the P90X program.  This will be my first try at this workout program.  I watched a couple clips from it and I think it might be something I will like, so I am basing my workouts on P90X:

Monday: Back and Chest, Ab Ripper X
Tuesday: Plyometrics
Wednesday: Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X
Thursday: Yoga X (I need flexibility!)
Friday: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Saturday: Kenpo X (from what I understand, sort of like a kickboxing/cardio workout)
Sunday: Rest

As I said before, I am going to try to get in a couple runs if my leg is feeling ok, so Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are run days if I'm feeling well.  I'm going to also try to get on the bike once or twice this week.  Hopefully this isn't too ambitious and hopefully I like P90X.  It looks like it has the potential to be a great program.  I'll report back on my findings.  At this point, I'm not committing to the 90 days, I want to try out a week or two before I go all ball to the wall on it!  Look at that...I'm learning!

What's your workout plan for the week??

48 hours up and back...

...to North Carolina.  It was a beautiful time to go up there and we had a great time.  Here's the breakdown of our weekend:
18 hours of driving
12 hours of sleeping
3 hours of sightseeing
15 hours of hanging out with friends and family
We were busy...and we're exhausted today!

We went to Mount Airy which was the inspiration for the Andy Griffin show.  I haven't ever been into the show, but it was neat to see.  We were in the Blue Ridge Mountains where there are apparently a lot of vineyards.  Who knew?  So, I got to knock something off my bucket list!  The wedding was in the middle of a vineyard and the reception was outdoors which gave us a beautiful sunset and an awesome time!  This is probably one of the prettiest weddings I've ever been to...check it out:

 John with the groom.  Not sure why the picture isn't cooperating!

 The bride arrived in a Mayberry Police car!

 Such a beautiful place for a wedding!

The Newlyweds driving away!

 In the vineyard

What did you do this weekend??