Goodbye 2013!

They are here! My Mizuno Wave Prophecy 2's arrived yesterday, with a note saying, "Welcome to Team Mizuno! Make Us Proud". Nothing could end this crazy year like my final run of the year in these gems. 

They felt great. They are far more structured and supportive than the Mizuno Syonaras I have been running in, which is Mizunos minimalist shoe. Today was a great little 3 miles on my treadmill, with speed work at the end. And I felt great. Prior to that, while watching You, Me & Dupree, I did the back, abs, hip strength training I've been working on. 

Ate great today too. Breakfast was my shake, same as yesterday's but minus the frozen fruit and plus a scoop of isolate protein powder. 

Lunch was in a meeting, but 4oz of salmon, 1/2c cottage cheese, and 1/2c mandarin oranges. 

I then had a 100 calorie bag of popcorn. Dinner was at Zanys, with my brother (returning today to his Army base in Georgia), my sissy, her husband, Bill and the girls. It was nice. Afterward we went to the pool. And I swam away some stress. (Seems I've been carrying around a lot of it lately, and working out both in the morning and again at night is helping with this.)

Now, we are all home hanging out. Playing some games and hanging out, awaiting a new year. Hope this year brings some positive changes, lots of quality memorable moments with my girls, a healthy newborn niece and some Personal Records in my running. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

100th Blog Post

Today is my 100^th Blog Post… How funny is that?

Today started out amazingly. After a great night’s sleep, I woke up BEFORE my 5am alarm and was actually looking forward to my morning workout. Used my new PreWorkout, excellent!!!

Had legs for strength, so did kettlebell squats, kettlebell walking lunges, kettlebell flat back dead lifts, kettlebell plie squats, kettlebell calf raises and kettlebell sitting calf raises, followed those up with some hip extention, crunches, planks, leg raises on my pull-up bar and some strict pull-ups. I have only ever been able to do kipping pull-ups, so I'm using bands on my strict pull-up currently. As I did these, Haili, my 8 year old, just jumped up, no big deal and banged a few out...

Have I mentioned how much I love working out while watching a funny movie? This morning was The Breakup, Vince Vaughn is hilarious, and Jennifer Aniston is one of my favorite actress and drop dead gorgeous. 

Ate exactly perfect today! Hurray for me!

Breakfast: 1/2 c almond milk, 4 c of coffee, and a smoothie (1/2 c Greek yogurt, a banana, 1/2 c frozen mixed fruit & 2 T ground flax)

Lunch: 1/2 c mandarin oranges, 3.4 oz salmon, 1/2 c cottage cheese (sorry, no pic)

Dinner: 1/2 c crab, 2 c lettuce, 2 T light Caesar salad dressing, yum

And another delicious 100 calorie ice cream bar. Yum. 

Today, Bill brought me flowers to work!!!! Such a sweet surprise after a long and hectic holiday week. 

And tonight he gave me this awesome plaque for my running bibs and medals! So cool! Cannot wait to get it hung up! I'm one spoiled rotten girl today!!!

Tonight the girls and I danced to Just Dance on the Kinect... And it was actually a ton of fun. :) 

Self Assessments, a Confession & Next Weeks Plan

A couple of interesting self assessments in my new book, The Triathletes Training Bible by Joe Friel, that applies to running as well.

The first, a Personal Profile looking at where my strengths lie between Force, Speed & Endurance. Endurance score, 5/5, seems like a no-brainer, endurance is my strong suit, hence my preference of marathons to 5ks. Speed score, 1/5, also not a shocker, speed needs to be my focus this year for sure. But sadly, my Force score was horrible, 0/5, may need to shift some attention that direction as well, obviously hills and wind, aren't my favorite, but overcoming resistance would be an excellent trait to have. 

The second assessment, Mental Skills Profile looking at Motivation, Confidence, Thought Habits, Focus & Visualization. Motivation, I scored in the excellent range, good deal. Confidence, Thought Habits, & Focus, I scored in the good range, which is good (that's funny). And in Visualization, I scored Average, which I'd agree with. 

Confession... My eating has sucked. I have 100 reasons (excuses) for my shitty eating the past few weeks (ahem, months) but they all suck... I'm better than my shitty eating. I know how to eat healthy, I know how to meet my bodies needs... So I'm done with my crap eating, my crap excuses, and really with the crap I'm shoving in my mouth. Today, right on track. :)

Breakfast: 2c of coffee, each with 1/4c Light Vanilla Almond Milk, 3 Eggs cooked with 1/2c mushrooms, 1 whole tomato, and 1/2c crab. Yum. 

Lunch: 5oz chicken breast, 1 whole yellow squash, 1c red grapes. Again, yum. 

Dinner: 5.8oz Salmon, 3" corn on the cob, and 1/2c fat free cottage cheese. (Sorry, got distracted with the lasagna I made for everyone else, so no pic.) After dinner I pre-weighed my salmon for the week. Hurray! 

And I had the most delicious, 100 calorie skinny cow Ice Cream bar and hid them in the back of the freezer. :) Dont tell anyone!!!

This Weeks Workout Plan:

Monday: 

5:30-6:30am: Leg & Abs Strength Train

7:15-8am: Run

5pm: Spin/Bike

Tuesday:

5:30-6:30am: Back & Biceps Strength Train

7:15-8am: Run

5pm: Swim

Wednesday:

5:30-6:30am: Spin/Bike

Thursday:

5:30-6:30am: Leg & Abs Strength Train

7:15-8am: Run

5pm: Swim

Friday:

5:30-6:30am: Long Run

7:15-8am: Chest & Shoulders Strength Train

*every day: dead lifts, hip extension, leg drops, hanging leg raises 

Pre-Meditation... Guilty.

The end of the year is approaching… And I have big racing plans for 2014 with 6 races I have already committed to, and with two big sponsors watching my race times. My goal is to set my fastest race times this year, and to finally, finally run a Sub-4 Hour Marathon. Reading up on triathlon training, since getting my new book “The Triathlete’s Training Bible” by Joe Friel, and think that I will focus on building my platform for swimming and biking for a 2015 Triathlon… I feel like this year I need to focus on my races, my speed goals and fulfilling my sponsorship obligations. I also am focusing on my nutrition, not for a weight loss, but for race performance and general health.

Yesterday was a really rough day for me. My youngest daughter, Grace, is having some health issues, and I received results from her latest doctor tests that were not ideal. To make matters more difficult, she is at her father’s house until Sunday, so not only can I do nothing about it (the doctor is out til Monday) but I can’t even hold her and snuggle her and kiss her little face. Sooo… Although I had a nice run and strength workout, I needed to shift my focus off my baby girl, so I went to the pool. Swimming was actually surprisingly very therapeutic. I felt good and strong and all my stress was just sucked right out of my body. Exercise is so good for my stress levels.

So this morning, had another nice run on my treadmill (geez, I have become a fair weather runner) after some back and hip strengthening. And my back feels pretty dang good right now. Bill’s sons are at the house and he is pretty busy with them, so I should have some good opportunity to run outside this weekend with my favorite little running partner Kimbo. It also sounds like Bill’s sons are wanting to go to the pool again tonight. J WOO HOO!

Recap of the Holiday

Christmas Eve is the main day that I had with my girlies this year, again I loath having to share them during the holidays... We had brunch with my family, so that they could see the girls and open gifts with them. My girlies love to help cook. Another reason that they are the best girls in the world.  

They got dressed up for the holiday, which is asking a lot of Haili, who prefers the tom-boy look most days. 

My sister, her husband, his kids, my mom, my brother Ryan, my big papa, my dad and his girlfriend joined us for brunch. It was quite nice. 

My sister bought the girls marshmallow guns, which was hilarious and chaos all at once, you can't find a cooler Auntie than my sister. 

Bill left part way through the day to go get his boys, the rest of us watched a movie and hung out. My family is pretty awesome. After everyone left and the boys arrived we opened gifts. The girls leave at noon on Christmas, so I wanted them to be able to play with their toys for awhile before going to their dads. 

Haili loved her sewing machine, can you tell?

And Graci adored the Lalaloopsy dolls, all three million of them. 

These girls just make me so happy. After gifts and unwinding, the girls helped make cookies for Santa and we set out cookies, milk and carrots (for the reindeer). Nice little Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning we did stockings, which was fun. The kids laid around until heading to their dads.

We had a nice quiet Cjristmas dinner with Bill, his boys, my sister, her husband, my mom and my brother Ryan. Watched some football exchanged gifts. It was a nice little holiday. 

I made quite a little haul too, lots of cool gifts and running/workout stuff. 

Friday & Saturday Recap

Yesterday was shoulder strength training and my long run. Thankfully, I had Hangover to watch for my long run, as it was on the treadmill. 

Afterward was a nice cool down walk with my favorite workout partner, Kimbo. 

My youngest daughter, Grace, had a doctors appointment, she's having some bladder issues, and more testing next week... Worries about my little baby girl...

Haili had her class party yesterday, she made gingerbread houses!

And to top off last night, Graci helped me make dinner, she LOVES to cook. 

Ms Kimbo woke up early this morning, exactly 5am... While I understand weekends are for resting, Kimbo does not... She expected workout time... The snow had come down all night. At the girls first opportunity they were out in the snow. 

Then Gingerbread man time!!!

Followed by a Coug game with friends. :)

And now, snuggle time with Ms Kimbo and watching my new fav show Homeland. 

Kimbo Slice!

This morning was a leg & ab strength workout followed by running on my treadmill. Kimbo could not be funnier when I am working out. Starting with her barking and prancing around me while doing lunges, climbing on my stomach to lick my face when doing crunches, biting my kettlebell and growling after crunches and finally climbing onto my treadmill when I finish running. She is quite hilarious. 

I swear, she thinks she is a human. 

And today she got her very first Christmas gift, from a friend of my moms, and she totally loves it. 

Hump Day!!!

Another super productive day, both working out and at work! Thinking that I'll try to get back outside for my morning run. It's been roughly 30 degrees at 7am, and the sun would be just starting to rise by the time we got started. It's an idea anyways. 

Tonight we took the girls to the Aquatic Center to burn off some of their energy. Oddly, Haili has every bit as much energy as she did before we left. 

My daughter, Graci, made a me a pinch pot today. It's ironic because I made my mom one in high school that she still has on her desk, I've teased her about keeping it fir years. Today, placing my own on my desk, I totally get it.