One week down, tornados, and biggest loser

It's been one week since I've had a soft drink. That's not to say that I haven't been craving one like no other!!  Jeremy has been successful as well, but he's not craving for one like I have been.  I don't remember having this much trouble quitting soft drinks when I did it before. A friend said that today doesnt count bc it's only once every four years so I should be allowed to have one..... Jeremy says no though. :(   Also, is ginger ale a soft drink? I say no, Jeremy and Wiki said yes :( Can't a girl catch a break?

Happy Leap Year! It has definitely been a crazy one. This morning I was working the bookfair at school when the first tornado warning siren went off. Luckily there were only 4 kids in the library at that time. The warning lifted about 15 minutes later. It was time for me to leave for the day so I got in my car. While I was driving I heard the sirens going off AGAIN!  It's really scary to be in your car and hear the tornado sirens going off.  I was heading to McDonald's to get some free poppers and a 29 cent large fry (healthy I know!) wondering if they would be open or taking cover or what. McDonald's was up and going though so i placed my order and called my mom to make sure they were aware of the weather. Where they live they can't hear the sirens.  Mom said she knew, asked if I was ok, and told me to come to their house for a bit til the storm passed.

After I got home from my parents i took a quick 45 minute nap and then watched Biggest Loser.  I want to know why they all went home for that long of a time frame?  They usually go home for a week but 18 days??? That's a lot!  I feel bad for the contestants bc it seems like this season has been a lot of them not having their trainers for a week or two at a time.

I feel bad for Chism having to automatically go home, but everyone was acting like it was the end of the world that he was leaving.  On a good note though it seems Conda has calmed down considerably and hopefully the drama is over with her.  I can't not stand that girl!!

My shoes are here and a watchless run

I ended up having to order my Brooks Ghost 4 shoes because neither of the stores in town had them.




I out them on after today's long run just around the house for a bit. I didn't want to wear them for the first time on an 8 mile run. Can't wait to wear them this week though. They are so pretty! I have wanted green shoes for two years now!

I realized after leaving my house that my wrist felt light. I looked and sure enough I had forgotten my watch. I knew Lesley would have hers and thought it might be good for me to run without mine for once.

This morning lesley and I ran 8 miles. We seriously talked about only doing 6. We decided to run how we would run I we were running 8 then if we got to the turn around if we still weren't feeling it we could cut out the cemetery.


After the turn around lesley headed back in to the cemetery and so I followed not questioning. We did one and a half laps in the cemetery which I thought would put us closer to 7 but turns out it put us almost at 8. We had to run around the edge of the parking lot we meet at to get in the last tenth to make it an even 8.

Running without my watch didn't bother me too much. I thought I would be constantly looking at my wrist but I wasn't. I did ask lesley a few times distance and time.

Unless its a race I have to stop on a full number. I hate having . something unless it's .5


Do you have to stop at an even or full number?
Or do you stop when you get back to your starting point no matter what the distance is?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Indoor Tri

The past two days have been hard. I really want a diet coke or diet mountain dew.  I have drank coffee the past two days for caffeine but it's only helped a little.

While looking at a local running stores website of upcoming races I found an indoor triathlon!  I was intrigued so I clicked on the site, to discover that the event money goes to stop human trafficking.  That's definitely the most bizarre sponsor that has put on a race I have done.

Anyway, I'm really excited about doing the indoor tri.  It involves swimming for 20 minutes, biking on an exercise bike for 30 minutes, and running a 5K on the indoor track (21 laps).  Participants are in charge of keeping track of their swimming distance and their laps run.  It states that it isn't a race, just a training tri, but there will be prizes!   I'm guessing they take the distance you swim and bike and the time of your run to figure some kind of results. 

I had been biking but had stopped when I started swimming again. Guess it's time to add that back in!

What's the most bizarre race sponsor you have encountered?

Have you done an indoor tri? How was it? Any advice?

Giving it up for lent

We are not Catholic but I usually give up something for Lent.  This year Jeremy and I have been talking about what to give up.  We decided we should give up something that will help us on our healthy eating diet.

So we decided to give up 

soft drinks

 AND

buffets

The buffets wont be too bad since we don't eat at them THAT often. We did go to our favorite Chinese buffet on Monday to "get it out of our system".  The soft drinks will be a major challenge.  I have given them up before, once for 4 years, but it's a hard habit to break.

I'm hoping it will help give me that extra push in my weight loss that I need right now.  I've been stuck at the same spot for a few weeks and am ready to get it rolling again.



Do you give anything up for Lent?

If you do, what are you giving up this year?

6 miles and a late date

Saturday morning Lesley and I had planned on running 8 miles.  I was a little worried since I haven't run over 3.5 in the past month, but still planned on going and at least trying it, even if it meant it was a slow 8 miles.  The weather was nice, mid 40's-50's so tights and a long sleeve tech were all I needed.

The run started out good but quickly I realized that 8 wasn't going to happen.  I can't explain how I felt. Nothing hurt, I wasn't really winded, I was just really drained.  I blame my head cold that still hadn't gone away.  I was spitting and snot rocketing every few minutes.  Lesley wanted to call it at 6 too but i told her to go on she could do it and I didn't want to be the cause of her not getting in her mileage.  Overall my pace was a bit higher than I wanted but was still decent considering my month long hiatus in long runs. 

After running, my niece and nephew were dropped off and we were able to babysit them for a few hours before taking them up to their parents house an hour away in Lexington. Jeremy and I were going to go to Lex on a date night and buy me some new running shoes so it worked out well.  I watched Andrew inside, while Jeremy took Anika outside on our playground.  Yes, we have a playground, no we don't have kids.....  The house we bought had a nice wooden playground in the yard and we left it there for when Anika and Andrew come to play. 

After a few hours of playing with them, we drove them to Lexington. Jeremy and I went to Dick's sporting goods to get my new shoes.  I had already tried them on and knew what I was going to get.  Brooks Ghost 4 in green (surprise, surprise). 

Only to find that they were out of the size I needed! I had them call the Dicks' on the other side of town and they were out of that size too!  I'm going to try a couple places here in Danville before I order them online. 

Jeremy and I then went to our reservation at the Melting Pot and enjoyed a nice dinner together!  My head cold had taken a turn for the worse and instead of seeing a movie I just wanted to go home and lay in bed.  I took a couple NyQuil and slept for 12 hours.  Even when I woke up I was only out of bed long enough to eat before getting back in.  Unfortunately because I work on Sundays I did have to get up and come in to work.  I'm feeling better, but am still pretty snotty.  We didn't go swim today like we had planned either. :(   The thought of getting in cold water and not being able to breathe kept that from happening.  Tomorrow though I'm going to go because the coach will be there and I'm not paying him for me not to be there.

That Perfect Plan

You know the one. The plan where you have so much to do and you think you have it all worked out, then oops you completely forgot about something and it all changes...... yeah that plan.

This week I have been helping Twila at her school with a running group. It's this week only, for an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday.  I have swim practice for me on Monday and Wednesday.  My coach wasn't going to be there on Wednesday so I was could go in another day to do the workout on my own anyway.  Since I was helping Twila I couldn't go yesterday so I planned on going today.  But after I thought about it I figured I could just go on Friday after I help her and take a nap today! I really need a nap. I'm starting to get a head cold and just need some down time.

As I'm laying in bed thinking about all the stuff I need to do tomorrow, I realize that open swim is over at 3 and I get done helping Twila at 2:35.  There's no way I can get in the workout in less than 25 minutes, it's too late to go to the pool today, so that means I will have to go on Sunday during open swim, not what I had planned.  On the bright side though, Jeremy can come with me on Sunday and swim too. 

New Fav Snack

I have a new favorite snack!

I had previously bought a box of these but didn't actually eat any of them. Jeremy ate them all! Which should have been a clue to me that they are tasty!!  This one is the S'mores nut blend! Anything s'mores and I'm in!!  There is another flavor too which I had also bought before but hadn't eaten any but Jeremy said this one was better.  I'll take his word for it.  It is 5 WW points. That's the only downfall to it!

Turkish Getups take 2

I have been super lazy the past week.  I only ran once, one mile, last week.  I did swim twice though so hopefully that makes up for a little bit of my non-running.  It's not that I didnt want to, just didnt have time or had other things to do, like dentist appts and staff meetings.

Today Jeremy said he was bored and that we either needed to do something or eat something! So I took this as an invitation to finally persuade him to do Shred with Weights with me! He had gotten me the Jillian Micheal's kettle bell set for Christmas and it has been in the closet, unopened since then. 

He used the 15lb weight, while I used the 5.  I hadn't done Shred with Weights since last summer, so I wanted to start with the smallest kettle bell.  We were both sweating by the time we finished!  I was proud of myself bc last summer when I did Shred I couldn't do the Turkish Getup's at all.  They hurt my knees, I couldn't get the rhythm down, it was a mess.  This time though, I was able to do them with no problems.  

Next time I'm going to try the 10lb kettle bell and see how that goes.  My quads are already sore from it so it might be a few days before I try it again. 

biggest loser edition

This year's theme is no excuses. However, they sure are tearing through them this season. 

Last week's theme was "I can't lose weight without a gym". The team that lost the challenge didn't have the gym for a week and then proceeded to lose the weigh in.  This week the theme was "I can't lose weight alone". The team that lost the challenge didn't have a trainer for a week and then they proceeded to lose the weigh in as well.  They did make the statement after weigh in and the team without a trainer had lost, that on BL it is important to have a trainer.  Well, duh!!  But the thing is they still had a trainer in Kim who Dolvette told to lead the group.

I can not stand Conda, she drives me nuts!  She keeps saying "we dont need drama, we dont need attitude" and she is the one stirring stuff up every week.  I'm sure Adrian wasn't blameless but Conda definitely didnt' make it easy on him.  I'm sure the confrontation next week with his sister will be interesting.  I really hope her teams sees that she is causing problems and will kick her off. 

There's really no one I am rooting for this season.  I like Cassandra and Buddy. They are probably my two current favorites, but other than those two nobody really stands out to me.

what's your take on this season?
any favorites? 

I cook, I clean, I smell like pool chlorine!

I've told you before Jeremy and I love changing song lyrics to fit our lives.  Here's the original version of the song in case you haven't heard it.

Cooking and cleaning may or may not be true today, but the third one definitely is!  Even after a bath and shower, I still smell like chlorine!!  I had my second practice today.  I did more yardage today and did a lot of drills again. The coach said though that he sped me through the drills, ya know since I got skills and all (he didn't say that part) so I would be on track with everyone else that started a couple weeks ago.

He said he polled everyone and asked if they wanted to do more stroke drills for other strokes or if they wanted workouts for more triathlon training.  The results were about half and half.  Not sure what he'll do with that.  I told him I was more interested in training also, not necessarily for a tri, even though I do want to do one, but I just want to get in some yardage and get back in shape and lose weight.  There are swim meets for masters swimmers around KY, so maybe in the future I'll compete in some swim meets, but not just yet.

I've got skills...

Today I joined a master's swim team.  I have been on one before several years ago, but the coach left and no one picked it back up.  There's a new coach in town and he has decided to give it a go again.  The team, which consists of maybe 5-8 of us, swims Monday and Wednesday mornings at 5:30AM.  Due to my work schedule, I just physically can't do that, so I have worked out that I will go to the pool during open swim from 12:30-1:30pm when the coach will be there.  Getting special treatment already!

The rest of the team started two weeks ago, but due to my vacation today was my first day.  I was a little nervous about it, but more excited than anything.  I have learned to like running ok, but swimming is still my passion.  The coach started me off where the others had started two weeks ago.  After I did the warm up, he said "I see you have skills".  The majority of the practice was 50 drills.  During this time I got to thinking that the coach, who is a recent college graduate, wasn't even born yet when i first started swimming. Which happens to be when i was 5 and at the pool i was currently in. Made me feel old and nostalgic at the same time. 

 

Centre College pool - where I started swimming 27 years ago

 I felt good during practice but am now a little tired and super hungry.  Dinner can't get here soon enough!

The HIKE

On Thursday while Jordan and Anna were on their anniversary day date and my in laws watched the kids, Jeremy and I went on a hike.  Jeremy had done some research and found that the first 2 miles of the famous hike to the Na Pali coast started at a beach near our resort and ended at another beach, then if we wanted we could go another 2 miles to a waterfall. We packed a few waters and a cereal bar for each of us, thinking we could get there and back in about 2-3 hours. 

We figured the trail would be semi flat since it was going from one beach to another beach.... boy were we WRONG!!!  The path went up and down and up and down two mountains to get to the beach.  It took us 2 hours to do 2 miles to the beach!  There were many, many times I wanted to turn back. We talked about turning back several times, but I knew Jeremy really wanted to go on so I stuck it out.  (now that's love!) 

The hike was beautiful but it was very steep, rocky, slippery, and wet. 

Ke'e Beach - where we started from

the rocky path up

the beach you can see, is the one we started at

of course it rained on us :(

everything was so green!

delirious

red dirt - hard to clean

mountain stream

getting close to the beach we are going to

yikes!

the stream where we cleaned off our muddy shoes

finally we made it!

now we just have to hike back :(

4 hours later - finally done with the hike

 Both of us had only brought our good running shoes with us on vacation, definitely not expecting to getting them very dirty on the trip.  Jeremy did promise me I could go on and get a new pair though when we got back to KY. I am a couple months away from needing some so I definitely wont complain with getting them a little early! :)  

before we started

mid-hike before cleaning them off in the stream

at the end of the hike

Aloha!

The past week has been spent in beautiful Kauai, Hawaii.  Sorry for not blogging while we were gone but the fear of burglars kept me from it.  This is the first of a couple posts about our vacation that I'll do. It's too much to fit in just one and i have to share about running and hiking adventures.

Jeremy and I, along with his parents, Jordan his brother, Anna our sister in law, and our 3 year old niece and 9 month old nephew flew out last Tuesday. The kids did great on the 9 hour flight there.

Anika

keeping Andrew entertained on the plane

We all had a great time! Jeremy and Jordan ran 5 days while Anna and I ran with them 3 of the days.  Anna is on week 6 of couch to 5K and is doing great!  It was nice so many runners on vacation to get a workout in.  There was an awesome park and running path by our resort that even had some equipment set up for pull ups, crunches, etc.

my first attempt at a pull up.  i think jeremy is lifting more than i am

Jeremy was much more successful than I was

Wednesday we went to the beach and got to snorkle a bit. 

Thursday Jeremy and I went on a hike just the two of us. There will be a separate post with details from this hike because it was quite an experience.  I will say that this was the most sore vacation I have ever been on....

Friday morning Jeremy and I went on a whale watching tour up the Na Pali coast.  We saw whales, sea turtles and spinner dolphins.  That night we went to a luau.

On Saturday Jeremy, Jordan, Anna and I went ziplining. It was a first for all of us! It was so much fun! 

the last one for the day was named "King Kong"

Sunday was a lazy day. We ran in the morning, took a nap, went to a lighthouse, then drove to the beach to watch the sunset. 

Monday we drove up Waimea Canyon also known as the Grand Canyon of the pacific. Then went to Spouting Horn, which was like Old Faithful but with ocean water.

Tuesday it was time to come home and we were sad to be leaving the island. 

we barely made the 50 lb limit!