31 October 2010

Almost there

Yesterday was insane. MS and I, and my Mom after I conned her into helping, spent the AM packing up most of the rest of my apartment and loading up MS's truck and borrowed trailer. God bless that man; he let me go to lunch with my sister and niece while he unloaded it all. I had pulled a muscle in my back yesterday AM before we started so I was hurting. What a doll.

Then he came back after I finished with Lisa & Em and we packed up his truck and my car with some more. We were both so tired we went to bed at 8:30. Sheesh.

Today, Mom came over after church and breakfast and helped me with the icky part - cleaning. We got my bedroom done and the blinds in the living room cleaned off, and the windows washed. It's amazing how dirty my apartment became...of course I hadn't really been living in it for awhile, and I had left my window open. :)

Tomorrow will be the final step. Finish the living room, bath and kitchen. Vacuum and wash the floors and empty out the refrigerator. *sigh* It'll be good to have it finished so I can move forward completely.

29 October 2010

I did it again

I did it. I signed up for NaBloPoMo for November again. I haven't been blogging on a regular basis but the challenge of November is to blog at least one post each day. I've been doing NaBloPoMo for a few years now. In fact, it's how I "met" several of my blog friends - Kat, Jill, ericjay - to name a few.

And in light of my last post, I decided I should sign up for this again. I love a challenge and this one I should be able to keep, even with a vacation in there and moving. At least I'll have things to write about. :)

27 October 2010

Wow...where have I been?

I just got a little shock as I looked at my history and realized that I haven't been writing much at all this month (year). That's sad, because I like writing, but I don't have a good place to do it right now. Nor have I had the time.

After the marathon, I took a few days off from everything but work and then I started packing and boxing up my life so I could move to MS's. Every waking moment, it seems, has been devoted to packing and moving and resettling at his house. It's been great because I know the outcome will be my sanity of living in one place so I can focus on other important things in my life - like running.

But so far, I'm still packing. Well, not right now because I'm on a work trip. Blech. But time is running out. Not that my lease is up because it's not actually up until the end of November (a poor timing issue on my part), but I really want to be out before Veteran's Day so I don't have to think about it the rest of November. MS and I have a trip planned (I need a vacation) and then he works every other day when we get back which doesn't leave a lot of time for packing and moving. Plus, I'm just ready to be done. D.U.N. DONE.

I'm really excited for this next chapter in my life and I think it's helping MS too. We've been in a Discardia mood - sorting, rearranging and organizing. We fixed up my office on Monday...MS spending 3 1/2 hours helping me clean, sort and reorganize. I love my updated digs! I've been really focused and motivated for work lately and it's rubbing off on MS. He spent the last two days going through all my kitchen stuff and all of his rearranging and organizing our kitchen. Of course, he's putting things where it makes sense for him...but since I'm the baker/cook between us, I may have to move a few things to make it make sense for me. :) It's not like I'd rearrange the garage. :)

But back to the original thought for this blog. I'm hoping that once I can get settled I can get back to writing a bit each night. I miss it, and it's good therapy for my soul. :) Plus if I ever want to really write, I need to get into a groove and do it on a regular basis. It's just like running. You can't just lace up shoes and expect to finish a marathon without training. Well, you can...but it won't be pretty. Likewise with writing. While I can just start typing and a product would be produced, it won't be pretty. And I wouldn't mind if I could get something else pretty in my life.

24 October 2010

4 weeks or 28 days

4 weeks ago was the last day I drank a soda (save for two sips of a diet coke during the Expo when I had left my water bottle in the car). So 4 weeks ago, September 26, to be exact, was the last day I savored the taste of a Diet Mt Dew (several, in fact). But because the marathon was to be run the following Sunday I stopped drinking soda so I could focus on hydration, hydration, hydration.

Well, I haven't had a soda since. And I haven't really missed it, which is good. I thought maybe I'd lose some weight this month since I'm taking in oodles of soda anymore but I haven't lost a pound...in fact I think I've gained (but I haven't been exercising regularly either).

But it occurred to me this weekend that me giving up soda didn't really do me much good, other than saving my pocketbook. I drank diet pop only so I wasn't taking in extra calories. And when I was drinking soda I'd drink more water too because after awhile the 'sugary' taste was too much so I'd drink water to compensate. But now just drinking water is getting annoying so I'm drinking Crystal Lite, which has calories.

So where was the benefit?

22 October 2010

Random catchup

I know it's been a long time since I've written. Things have been pretty crazy in my world as of late. Lots of changes and busier than snot.

So I'm moving in with MS and so the last two weeks have been filled with work, packing, moving boxes, packing some more, sleep, work some more, pack more, move more, taking a day off to spend with Mom, and more packing.

It's an exciting time, one I never thought I'd be doing (this way), but I am excited for it. For the last year I've basically been living here anyway, so making it "official" is just paperwork, and moving the big stuff. :) It will make my life super simpler - living in one place is so much better than living in 2 places.

It's been fun to see how we merge our stuff together. I have more kitchen stuff, surprise, surprise, than MS has so merging that has been interesting. It's nice to have a big kitchen (finally!) where it's easier to bake. :) Life is good.

Anyway, in addition to packing and moving numerous boxes, work has been crazy busy. I reread my performance indicators today for my yearly evaluation and it's humbling (and a bit scary) to realize that I haven't been living up to my standards as of late. I need to get this move finished and get better at focusing on work. Once I can be settled in my brain and physically I can then better focus on work.

Life is good, folks. I'm a happy camper. :)

13 October 2010

Is it Ideal?

As many of you know I struggle with my weight, and since it's a requirement for my job to stay in shape, I'm always looking for what's going to work best.

For awhile I was strong into South Beach, but I have found that it's tough to stay on Phase I when I'm running. Two weeks of no bread or fruit does not a happy girl make - especially when I'm also burning calories. The extra burn of calories does help the weight loss, but I'm so crabby and unhappy it's not really worth it.

The latest craze at my workplace is the Ideal Protein diet. It's incredible the results my friends have had with it, but I really question some of it's sanity. For one - their Phase I is until you get 95 or 95% of your goal weight loss (that can be quite a long time). For two - you can't have milk or cheese...no dairy. Instead you take a supplement, which concerns me because while supplements are good, they also aren't fully effective. And what's wrong with milk? For three - it's a bunch of pre-packaged bars and shakes for some of your meals. Where's the real food?

I don't get it, but I'm a little jealous of the results my friends are getting. I'm just not sure I'm strong enough to stay that focused. And, as one of my friends is finding, what happens once you meet your goal? Then it's all on you to maintain because there is no maintaining program.

I don't know. I need to exercise more, but I need a plan to do it. Running is great but it's not burning what I need. And eating better would be a good thing...maybe it's time to go back on the Beach, even temporarily.

04 October 2010

TCM 2010

Lots of lessons learned from this race. I'm surprised I finished. It was truly amazing considering all the crap that led up to this one. So let's recap...

So marathon weekend began Friday night. I had to work late and we didn't get supper until almost 8:30. Ugh. Packing/laundry all the fun stuff took place and I thought I was ready.

Saturday, I headed in to work to clean up a few things and MS finished packing up the car. He met me at work and we left my car there. The drive up was uneventful, other than we were cutting it close on time so we didn't eat lunch (and breakfast was a granola bar). This is where my horrid need to follow the plan I set up came into play and proved detrimental.

I had my per-race massage scheduled at 1230 with Keith. I snagged the bathroom while he was finishing setting up so I wasn't there when he and MS met. MS mentioned his lower-back issue that he has had constantly (and the chiropractor isn't helping - shocker!) so Keith asked if he could borrow MS for 10 minutes. I said sure. Then he came out and needed 30 minutes (MS is a mess). So that shortened my massage - which was okay, I didn't need that much.

So then we busted down to the hotel to check in (opposite side of the city) and traffic was horrendous. So a quick check in and back up to Keith's for kinesio taping - which took an hour longer than we had planned and we still didn't do what were supposed to (which hindered me Sunday). And we still hadn't eaten. At one point I was standing up arm stretched out to my side and my head turned the other way and I became nauseated and had to lie down...twice. Luckily Keith had some yogurt, which helped. It brought my sugar levels back up so I was clear headed again.

Then it was off to pick up my packet. It was 6pm and the expo closed at 7pm. Ugh. Not how I had this planned, but in hindsight the packet pickup was EMPTY so I was able to get in and out super quick, and the handouts were numerous because people were trying to get rid of their stuff. We got 3 cups from the Fargo Marathon (an option for next year) and handfuls of mini Larabars. Mmmmmm.

Then back to the hotel to drop off the stuff and time for food. It was after 7 before we got to TGIFriday's (which seemed a better option than Chevy's or IHOP), but they were sooooo sllllooooowwwww. We finally got our food at almost 8, snarfed what we could and then I took half of mine back to the room for Sunday AM (but forgot a fork so I didn't eat it anyway).

We were so tired. We both showered and then crashed around 9:30 and crash we did. I was exhausted, nutrition starved, and very nervous for Sunday.

Sunday AM - I woke at 4am, wide awake. At 4:22 I got up to go to the bathroom, then went back to bed to cuddle. I need cuddling because I felt like I could throw up. A little before 5 I got up and got ready. Of course I ended up realizing that I had forgotten a few important things - my pace tat, my accelerade, my endurox, to name a few. But I figured I could do without them. MS walked me to the train station (I asked for that so he could know where to go and so I would have a little last encouragement before I had to head to the start.

The marathon changed some of the procedures at the Dome, which threw me off a bit. They had specific areas open, which I got in, but not before they did a bag check. Then they changed some of the times for races (at least it seemed) so that threw me off too. But I did what I could to keep things normal for me.

Anyway, I got to the corral and, trying to be optimistic, I started at approximately 5:15. They didn't have a 5:15 pace team this year so I just started between 5 and 5:30. 5:30 was the only pace team with balloons, which was weird too, but I figured if I could stay in front of them for most of the race, I'd be okay.

I missed the national anthem - some young guy singing way too low so I heard the last few measures. The wheelers took off and they gave them a 10 minute head start (which I think was different). So the elite didn't start until 8:05, and we were just standing there trying to stay loose. Another weird thing - you know how people always take off running as soon as they can and then have to stop and walk then run, then walk before they hit the official start line? Yeah...that didn't happen. Everyone.Walked. And maybe 10 feet before the line we started running. Weird!

I felt pretty good the first few miles, in fact, I only walked through the water stop between 2&3, otherwise I ran for the first 6, albeit slow. I saw MS at 4 and dropped my throw-away shirt and ear guard there and kept going. Then MS met me at 6 I think and from there on he stayed with me the entire race - riding ahead and taking pictures or getting gel shots and Gatorade ready for me. My legs were tight so I took those meeting moments to stretch.

The downfall - I was passed by 5:30 between 10 and 11. This was my breakdown point - I started crying and just tried to keep running. I tried to stay with the pace team but I couldn't even do that. MS kept encouraging me, "This is your race, honey. Run YOUR race." He was right but it took awhile for me to get there. I kept imagining Year 1 when the sweep bus came up behind me a few miles later and how I didn't want that to happen again. I may not have trained well, but I didn't want to fail either. And the sweep bus would be a total fail.

It took me 3 miles to get there. MS would ride ahead and see where 5:30 was and then time how long I was behind them. That helped. And thank God for math because I was able to do the math to figure out if I could still finish under 6 or not. That helped. So after that it was just a matter of keeping moving forward. MS was worried about the 2pm deadline, but I was on my clock so I was just looking for under 6 hours. With his help, I made both.

Splits sucked:
Mile 1: 10:57
Mile 2&3: 23:06
Mile 4: 11:35
Mile 5: 11:22
Mile 6: 12:41
Mile 7: 13:57
Mile 8: 12:29
Mile 9: 13:35
Mile 10: 12:30
Mile 11: 13:00
Mile 12: 13:16
Mile 13: 13:51
Mile 14: 13:44
Mile 15: 12:42
Mile 16: 14:55
Mile 17: 13:28
Mile 18: 14:57
Mile 19: 13:37
Mile 20: 14:28
Mile 21: 15:07
Mile 22: 14:29
Mile 23: 16:22
Mile 24: 15:08
Mile 25: 14:09
Mile 26: 13:39
Last .2: 2:36

I guess the good thing is the last 4 miles were negative splits. But there's not a whole lot of consistency here. And I did finish: 5:51.46 (official chip time)

I felt like a running virgin for this race - I wore brand new race clothes (I had washed them at least) but they actually didn't cause problems. But I forgot so many of the obvious things - eating, for one; my during race process - I guessed the whole way; my recovery plan - I didn't have one; and so many other things. Just the lack of training was awful. I have to be more diligent for the next one.

I kept thanking MS for his support and he said at one point, "This is something you're passionate about, I'm glad to be here to support you." Which made me feel about this / / big since it is something I'm passionate about but I didn't make it a priority this year.

So if I'm going to run Austin, or Fargo, or Akron, or something other than TC next year (though it would be fun to run TC next year since it's the 30th year), I need to come up with a game plan. I have a week to recovery and make my plan. Crossing fingers I can come up with a decent one that will be doable and workable and successful. I need to do better the next time. I have to!

01 October 2010

New Year Resolutions

Today is a new year in my world, so I thought it might be good for me to come up with some resolutions. I'm not usually good at keeping these (who is, really?), but I need something to help me refocus my life. Maybe a fresh start will be good.

Granted, I'm running a marathon in a couple days, so most of these will start next week, but I want to get them out there.

So...in no particular order:

- Learn to walk down the hallways of buildings without looking into every, single office to see who's in there. A friend suggested blinders. It might help.

- Stop talking about my diet and exercising at work with others. That's my problem and no one else.

- No FB or yahoo at work until 9am (we're allowed to look at them, but I usually start right when I get to work). This will be tough, but I know I can do it.

- FOCUS at work!! Must keep laser focus!!

- Set up a better filing system at work and use it. This is a work in progress. Maybe I need to just purge everything and start over. That's wishful thinking.

- Start and complete the 100Pushups challenge. My upper body strength sucks.

- Honestly workout, with weights and cardio, and lose the 20 pounds I need to drop. A lot of the gals in my building are on the Ideal Protein diet - which sounds great until you find you can't have milk ever again, only a calcium supplement. That doesn't work for me. I love me some milk - especially after running. So I need to refocus my workout routine and work all aspects, not just cardio.

- Declutter my life at home. This should be happening with the most-likely upcoming move...though it could end up like my last move where I just throw everything in a box and it sits there for 3 years. :)

- Declutter at work. I have a lot of extra stuff just lying around. Not good.

- Redecorate at work. I've had the same photos/artwork up since I got my new furniture December 2007. It's time for a change.

- Write more. I miss writing.

- Bake more. I miss baking, too.

- Run more. I miss running, too. Well...I run a lot, but I need to keep at that. I'm thinking of running more than one marathon next year. E's inticed me with the Austin Marathon in February...so I'll need to keep with my training after this one in two days if I'm going to do that. Would be fun and good for me too. :)

This is a start. I'm sure I'll think of more. But for now, this is where I am.