10K Time!

Well, race day is here and it was AHHHH-MAZING!!! Today, thanks to a super sweet friend, I ran in my first road race in almost 2 years and my FIRST 10K (6.2 miles) EVER. It was AWESOME!! The whole point behind doing today's race was so I could get practice in how I want to handle prep for my bigger race next weekend which is a Half Marathon. So lets begin with last night, shall we...

Our evening started out normal. Yesterday at my school it was Jump Rope for Heart so B drove me to work. When he picked me up, I convinced him we needed to stop at our new favorite coffee shop. While we sipped away, we tried to decide on what to have as my pre-race meal. In the past for my last 2 Halfs, due to over-crowded Italian restaurants and every one "carb-ing" up, I didn't get to go to any pasta places. So, I kind of started a tradition that first year, opting for steak and beer (Shiner Bock to be exact). Well, I didn't want to mess with a good thing so I was leaning towards that again, but B wanted to go to this spaghetti cook off near our house trying to talk up a "pasta party". Well, we were completely on the fence about dinner and on our way home from coffee, when we spotted a stray dog running around. She chased our car and we when stopped so we wouldn't hit her, I opened the door to see where she was and a big black lab jumped in our car!! It was a shock at first, but that pup turned out to be a big 'ole sweetie. Once I called the number on her tags the owner was so appreciative we saved her baby that she thanked us with 2 of these...

 

Turns our Fido's owner is a city council member and over our district (WOW! you never know who you will meet!). I guess that dictated our dinner for the evening. I have to say, I wasn't at all disappointed either. It was a really cool event where firefighters, police offices and other law enforcement were having a cook off trying to make the best sauce. And we were NOT complaining...

 

I swear, there is pasta under there! It was soooo good!

 

I was in bed, early and happily full! This morning I suited up,

 

(of course this picture was after the race hence the wrinkly - sweat filled shirt!)

 

I had such a great run this morning too. I was a bit too hot though, I over layered and my T-shirt was a little big, but like I said before, it was definitely a practice run and a learning experience. But it was still great! (THANKS again Courtney!)







 

Wish we would have thought to take a pre-race picture! My 'un-official' race time was 1:17 for 6.2 miles. I am still waiting for the official times to be posted... but you better believe if it is anytime close to that I will be stoked, cause that will have beaten my usual 6 mile time by about 6 minutes! YAY!!

 

After the race though is ALWAYS my favorite! LUNCH! Check it out,

 

I love me some Indian food. After lunch B and I did a little shopping and I was looking for a particular "fanny pack" for my next race that will fit water bottles and some gel. Although, we did not find the pack I wanted I did pick up this motivation for next weekends half...







I love it, but I may have to wear it backwards to remind myself if I need some "go-go power!".

Well, time to get ready for dinner, and I am starving! Hope every ones weekend is as fantastic as mine!!

Smiles!

Week In a Wink

Happy Thursday! What a great week it has been so far! I know I have not blogged in the last week, but not for lack of thinking about it. After coming back from Dallas this past weekend, I have caught a mystery cold. Usually, I can tell where I have picked up the sniffles (usually from the 21 little 6 and 7 year olds I spend 8 hours a day with!). But this cold snuck up on me. I am beginning to feel like myself again, and I am grateful!

So the best way to catch you up is do a, "Week in a Wink"... Just give you a quick glance at what I did this week.. ready, here goes!

I began my work week with with a day off thanks to a much needed holiday, so I set off the week right.. with a mani, pedi...

Now, this would have been great, but when I looked down after she took my old polish off, I saw the results of all my new running... 3 BRUISED toenails!! It is crazy, because I only felt one of them! I knew I was a hard running, but gosh!

Well, maybe these new babies will help to alleviate that some,

 

Check out my new babies! These are Mizuno's Wave Rider 16's. I am so stoked! I visited the run store, "Run On!" for the first time when we were in Dallas this weekend and was fitted for these. I hope they work! Oh and bonus, check out my socks! I swear by Balega socks. They are the most comfortable socks I have ever run in! I got 2 new (neon yellow) pairs! Love them!

I spent the rest of my Monday off with one of my best friends and her new addition, that I am completely in love with...

 

Meet Baxter! How adorable is he?? We get to puppy-sit him in a few weeks!! Our dogs should love that!!

 

We got a little rain this week too.. See...

 

A certain little Bear, didn't want to come in from the rain. I think she likes it so much, because then mommy snuggles her in a towel until she is all dry! Awe, my little mess!

 

Along with keeping up with my workouts and getting some good running I managed to cook a few tasty meals in between..

 

I am a sucker for fish and since my favorite fish is now protected (hey, I didn't eat that much), tilapia is a great replacement (note-- this is not cooked yet, but the finished version was delicious and by far my favorite meal of the week!)

 

Whew, how was that, "Week in a Wink"? This weekend I am doing my first race in almost 2 years and my first 10K ever! I am stoked! Wish me luck!

 

Smiles!





Happy Hearts Day

Happy Valentines Day All! What a great day today was! Every year B and I have been together I have bought him a "Boy Bag".  Ten years ago when B and I had our first Valentines together I felt the day was mostly about me and I wanted him to have fun too, so I got him a boy themed bag with goodies a boy would love. I think in that first bag I got him there were boxers, cookies, and dip (when he used to dip a lot --YUCK!) and I think I also got him a small bottle of Crown Royal. Well, 10 years later the tradition lives on!

 

B was very excited about all his goodies this year (disclaimer -- he ASKED for the socks! haha)



 

He did pretty well in the gift department himself, getting me a GORGEOUS necklace, which I will have to post the picture of later because it is upstairs at the moment. And he brought me home this,

 

 

Love it and LOVE HIM!!!

 

Our dinner tonight was spent cooking our meal together at home! You cant beat the food, or the lack of crowds!

 





B cooked most of it. I made the slightly burned rolls and the microwave broccoli and rice! I need to get him to cook more often, seriously he has a gift! :)

Work today was fun but chaotic! The atmosphere almost rivaled the day of the Christmas party. The kids were so excited and so hyped up! But I have to say even though they were overly excited my kids were still sweeties and still followed the classroom rules!

 



This was one of the Valentines I got from one of my kiddos! How adorable is this?? It is a robot!! I LOVED it! He made 22 of these (or at least his mom did!) so cute!!

I did NOT get my workout today due to this sweet Valentine...

Oakley-Bear has a VERY annoying habit of sleeping in our bed and completely stretching out to where we are curled in a ball and she has all the room. Well, because of this cutie, I slept funny and this morning woke up with an awful crick in my neck. I could barely move or look to my left side. I haven't had a crick in so long and forgot how horrible they felt! This will be my first workout day in 7 weeks where I have missed a workout. I am kinda bummed, but feel great in the fact that I am now down 11 pounds and when I squatted to pick something up in my room today, my pants about fell off! So at least my body is loving the workouts!! I hope to be up early and on the treadmill!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Valentines Day!!!

Smiles!!

 

Busy Missy!

WOW! Cant believe it has been almost a week since I have posted! This has been a busy busy week! We have parent conferences all week long and I have them scheduled at all different times. I am just about done and excited for the weekend!

I have been good about my workouts this week. I actually got on the treadmill on autopilot this evening and knocked out 2 miles. I am really focusing on getting my miles up and my time down. I know that the half marathon at the start of March is just a practice for me and my PR run will be the for-real run in April. But, I still want to do good on the run coming up! So here's to workouts!!

I will start my posts back tomorrow and I cant wait!! Have a great night!

smiles!

Book Club Bandwagon

Hi there and happy Thursday! Yesterday, during lunch, my coworkers and I were having a very animated conversation about how much technology has changed and how much kids know these days. I told the table I have a blog of my own now and to check it out, "I am 5 followers strong -- I mean I am one of them but whatever"! That brought a roar of laughter to the table. One of my coworkers asked me what my blog is about. I thought for a minute and told her, it is kind of like "Seinfeld"... Its about nothing and then again everything. My goal with my blog is to have a creative, outlet and a daily (or as often as possibly) diary of my journey to a healthy life and healthy choices. And, even though my blog is extremely new and green around the edges, logging in each day and seeing a few more page views motivates me to keep working out and writing about it. It challenges me to find the happiness and humor in life and write about it. And, it encourages me to stop and see the beauty in the sometimes gray day and post a picture. It is an outlet to my outlook. And I enjoy sharing it with others, even if it is only 5 people a day, I look forward to this expression every day!

Whew, now lemme tell you about my next goal. I want to add a book club to my blog. (Make it even more about nothing and everything!!) I am in the process of deciding what book I want to read first and blog about. I have always loved to read and had issues when B wanted to get me a Kindle. I am the type of person who LOVES to go into a book store and stop and SMELL it!! I LOVE the smell of a book store and that "new book smell"! I was afraid I would miss handling a book. I love putting a book mark in my book and seeing how far I have gone. And there is nothing like closing your book when you get to the end! It is the best. However, I caved and got my Kindle and TOTALLY underestimated how awesome it is! Now I can go and buy any book whenever I want (and I sometimes get a bit carried away! oops!). But the Kindle is seriously where it is at! I love it. So, I want to decide this weekend what my first book will be. I hope to read it and give reviews along the way and hopefully find a friend or two who want to join in and make this a fun adventure! Any suggestions for a book to read for the first book club are welcome!

My workout this morning was a good one! Unfortunately, we had a funeral to go to today so B and I had to take the day off. I got in a speedy 2 mile run on the treadmill. The run felt great! I am beginning to keep my speed up and for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, for me, running on the treadmill is a little hard, I cant seem to stay focused for long. It is much easier for me to run outside. That is my plan tomorrow! I hope the weather is nice!!

Have a fantastic Friday!!

Smiles!

Technical Difficulties

Happy Happy Wednesday! Wow! This week is flying! Tonight we had our Valentines work party and it was great fun! I love, love, love my new school and my new coworkers! Everyone is so welcoming and friendly. I really feel I will make life-long friends because we have so much fun when everyone is around. And the best part about tonight was, check out the view...

 

So cool, we were able to hang out and have some laughs while overlooking this! Awesome! (plus gets me excited for baseball!!)

 

When I got home I got another surprise! We planted a baby orange tree last summer and have been watching 2 oranges slowly develop! Well, look what I found on the ground under my tree today...

 

My best friend Laura has the most amazing green thumb and can make anything grow... I have what my husband calls a "wilted thumb" because I can manage to kill about anything! So I am super proud of this! We cut it open and smelled it. Smelled like an orange and super juicy! We didn't eat it because I read somewhere it is not good to eat fruits from the first grow (plus, a couple months, ago I ate a kumquat off my kumquat tree's first batch and got a little sick! lesson learned!!).

 

When I got home from the party I got on the treadmill for a 2.5 mile run. It felt pretty good, and I wanted to run more, but I had some technical difficulties. A couple of months ago, B bought me some wireless headphones so I can run and not have to turn the TV up. Well, I am not sure what happened, but around the first half mile, the TV scrambled and all of sudden was on Telemundo... I waited it out for about 3 minutes and then the TV went back to normal. Then again, right after my first mile it happened again. Finally after the third time I got frustrated and took off the headphones, but without anything to listen too, I couldn't stay motivated and decided I was done for the evening. So I will take my run, but, think my handy husband needs to take a look at the satellite.. something was a bit off! haha!

 

Well, I am about to pack it up for the night and this is my view right now...

 

"Mommy, come play with me..." Guess someone needs some attention! Poor puppy! haha!! Have a great night!!

 

Smiles!





A Reward

Hey! And Happy first Monday in February! Hope the month is off to a good start! Today for me had its ups and downs. I missed my morning run this morning due to the crud settling in my lungs from sleep and it took a good hour and a half for me to sound somewhat normal and not like I smoked a pack of cigarettes before bed! Today was our "100th Day At School" and it should have been a fun day for my students (and I am sure they had a great time!) but it was rough for me. I just was feeling BLAH!

When I got home from work, B and I decided we needed to escape for a while. We have discovered THE BEST coffee shop near our house and they have this drink called a "cinnamon blonde latte" and as B put it, "its like Christmas in a cup!" It is so yummy

Eat your heart out big coffee chains! We now have a new love!!

Then we headed to the Outlet Mall to walk around. It has been a while since we have walked around the mall, and Mondays are apparently the day to do it! I even found the Nike Outlet store and remembered I forgot to treat myself for loosing 8 pounds last month! So "viola!" Reward purchase made...

 

(disclaimer -- i am still new at this blog thing and messed with this silly picture for about 20 minutes to turn in the right way and I couldn't get it!! GRRRRRR!! So sorry!!) I bought 2 pairs of the Nike Tempo Running Shorts and hope they live up to their hype! We shall see!

 

On the way out tonight we stopped off at Bass Pro Shops where I made a friend,

 

"Hey how ya doing?!?!" hahaah! He just stared at me so I thought he needed a paparazzi moment!!

 

When we got home tonight I changed into my new shorts and logged 2 miles on the treadmill. It felt pretty good. Still not 100%, but a great start back! So hopefully I will be back full throttle tomorrow! Oh and I loved the new shorts by the way! Super comfy! Splurge justified (ahhhh, my favorite kind!)

 

Smiles!



For the dogs

Well, I am going to take advantage of the Super Bowl blackout to write my blog real quick. Since my Texans and Cowboys are out of it, I am going for the Ravens. Ray Rice was my fantasy running back (the league where I came in 3rd place! YAY!) and I love Ray Lewis! I would love to see him go out on top. Sooo GO RAVENS!!

I woke up this morning quite possibly feeling even worse than the last two days! I was so bummed! My next half marathon is one month from today and I can not afford to slack on my running. I sulked while I ate my breakfast when B came up with the best idea. Since I knew I shouldn't over-stress my sick body with a run, he suggested taking the dogs for walks. I loved the idea! I immediately (slowly) ran upstairs and got ready while B got the pups ready. Since the dogs are so different in age and ability I split my walk into two. Oakley got the first leg with a steady 6-mile walk.

 

Anyone who knows our dogs knows they are all shelter dogs and had a horrible start at life. They definitely live the cushy life now, but all three of them still have strong people phobias. Oakley may have it the worst. She is an angel to us and makes us laugh constantly with her goofy behavior and endless energy. And she loves to snuggle with us when she can. However, she is very weary of strangers. Because of the gorgeous weather, people were out all over the place today. So this was a great time to work on her training and teach her a new word, "behave". Oakley learned the word fast learned what happens when she barked at a passer by. By the end of our 6-miler she was a pro and pretty tolerant of others in the neighborhood. I mean I don't think she made any new friends, but she still made me proud!!

 

Then I came home and switch dogs. B leashed up "The Queen".

 

Juno is our 13 year old chow lab mix and is a pro at walks. Her only issue is she LOVES to stop about every 5 feet and smell... nothing.... I mean it, there is nothing in the grass but she must stop, smell and pee! She is not a good running dog due to that fact! But she is great on a leash and doesn't mind passers-by. We got in a cool 2-mile walk! At the end of our walk we were greeted by her other sister and our other baby, our Great Dane Dutch, who got a short walk with B and it made her day! And mine!

 

All together I logged 8 miles today. I do wish they were running, but I am totally happy I just got it in. (bonus-- all the dogs are knocked out now!!). I pray this crud goes away asap! I am feeling somewhat better, but not going to jinx it since I thought I was feeling better this time yesterday!

 

January was a GREAT month I lost a total of 8 pounds and am stoked! My clothes are fitting better and I have so much more energy! I am super excited for this new month and hopefully to shed some more lbs! Plus, one month from today at this time, I will be blogging about my first half marathon in two years! YAY!! Its going to be exciting!! Thank you to all that take the time to read my blog. Every time I log in and see that the visits go up I get more and more motivated to keep going with my routine and my writing! So thank you, thank you, thank you!!

 

Now back to this game!! Have a great night!!

 

Smiles



Pure Goodness

LOOVE my free day Saturdays!! When B and I first did our "Body For Life" program two years ago to get ready for our wedding, we designated one day a week as a free day / cheat day! A designated day every week where you take a break from exercise and eat anything and everything you want. To anyone out there starting or struggling with a new workout/eating program, giving yourself one day a week is so great in so many ways! It gives you a day to work for and look forward too, plus, it is actually really good for your metabolism to eat not so good for you foods, so it will work to metabolize it. Even if you are afraid you will pig out and eat to much, it is funny, you wont, your body will get full faster and you will be more selective about what you put in your body on that day because you don't want to waste your cheat-ness on unworthy foods!! So, if you are struggling with your program try adding a cheat day and see how that goes. (now I am no dietitian or personal trainer, I am just going with what I have done and what works for me....as my mom would say, "different strokes for different folks".... just sayin')

Now onto MY free day/cheat day! Well, I missed my blog yesterday. I was feeling pretty awful when I got home from work yesterday afternoon. I attempted the treadmill thinking I could "run it off" but had to get off after a mile cause I just felt awful! I slept most of yesterday evening and was pretty much a bump on a log (awe! another mom-ism!). This morning I felt better, but still not great. Even though today is my free day and I am not supposed to exercise I still got in a 2 mile run on the treadmill. (I felt like I needed to make up some mileage from this week due to being sick the last half of the the week). Once I got off the treadmill the real free day began!!

I had a fantastic day of relaxation and food! I started the day off right.... mani pedi time with my friend Jenn.

 

It felt amazing and was so much fun catching up with Jenn. Plus, my nose didn't run once the whole time I was there! BONUS!

 

Next, B and I ran errands and got a lot done! We had a fantastic lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Sandy Magees, in Richmond! YUMMM!! Then we went and visited my friend Laura and her amazing art at a neighborhood farmers market at CRU Trade Days. It was awesome and I was SO proud of her and what she is making! I even scored this one of a kind amazing "Laura" original,

 

 

I absolutely love it and cant wait to hang it up! She is so talented!!

 

On the way to our last few errands I got a sweet tooth and since it was my free day I indulged in one of my favorite treats!!

 





Oreo Shake complete with bendy straw!! And soooo worth the wait for a cheat day!!

Dinner tonight took B and I to a new place called Bombay Pizza, which is a pizza place with an Indian theme! It is incredibly delicious and highly recommended! While waiting for our food, B stumbled upon this gem in his newspaper..

 

There are no words.... pure awesome!!!

 

It is time to hit the hay and get ready to go at it again tomorrow. My goal is to run outside between 6 and 8 miles! Wish me luck! Have a great night!

 

Smiles!