I've got a pocket full of sunshine...

What a beautiful day it is!!! I am in such an amazing mood.

Especially nice considering that yesterday I was grouchy, tired, and blah. Last night was my planned 5 mile treadmill tempo run. I'm usually not a treadmill hater, but for some reason last night I got on it and felt nothing but disgust toward the stupid thing. At first, all of the treadmills were full, one became free so I get on and start setting it up... only to realize that the pace/distance LED's wern't working. How am I to run and not know how fast/far I'm going. Can't have that. So I go hop on an Arc Trainer for a few till another one is free. I get on it and start jogging, only to realize I've gotta take a potty break, grrrrr.... so take care of that, get back on. EVERYTHING hurts, is crunchy, tight, not good. I do the following workout:
Mi 1 - 6.0, Mi 2 - 6.3, Mi 3 - 6.5, Mi 4 - 6.3, Mi 5 - 5.5. The last mile was supposed to be at 6.0 but I had absoultely no juice left in my tank to make that happen. I ran the last two miles hating myself for being such a sorry runner, thinking that I should feel better or be running faster than I did. I can do that to myself easily... punk myself out and be mad at me about it. How silly!

So the run was complete, no matter how icky it was for me... I did it right?

I went to bed last night, and after a week of not sleeping well, I fell fast asleep and slept all night, slept GOOD. I woke up feeling all chipper, no tightness from last night's run, in a wonderful mood. Today is jeans / sneakers day at work. Oh yeah... lovin' it. I'm at work at 6:30AM every morning, by the time the sun came out and I realized that it was NOT going to be another cloudy dreary day I was ready to dance in my office. Or do yoga or something.

We are having a "pre superbowl party" at work today. They are ordering wings and sides and having cake. I have officially decided that I WILL NOT be eating any of that junk. I've eaten good since The first week of December and I'm gonna keep it up. I got on the scale this morning only to realize I've lost another pound. Sweeeeeet. I even got on the scale backwards to be sure, and it said the same thing. My boyfriend Chuck, weighed hiself later in the mornin' and said that the scale gods were on our side, he had lost some too.

Tonight I plan on going to the gym after work and doing about 30 min on the Arc Trainer, and maybe some Abs. I am keeping my fingers crossed to hold on to this happyness... I love being in a good mood.

Much needed Rest

After my week of extra miles last week, Monday I only taught my spin class (30 min) and did some abs. Yesterday the plan was to do 30 min of cardio, probably on the Arc Trainer at the gym. On the way home from work I was SO tired and felt very rundown. I took the "listen to your body" advise and decided to cancel the workout. Went home and did NOTHING, even got to bed by 9PM and got an entire 8 hours of sleep which is very unusual for me on a week night. Do I feel guilty about skipping a cardio workout? Heck no, not this time. I am sure my body needed the rest and recovery. Tonight the plan is a 5 mile tempo run on the treadmill. Now I'm jazzed up and looking forward to running after work.

Last Week

It's already Tuesday, but I want to go back & recap last week. Last week ended up being a 24 mile week, kinda by accident. It should've only been a 19, maybe 20 mile week.... but my boyfriend Chuck & I got a little overly ambitious. We know, we know... over training, injuries... we know... but Steve G. let me borrow his Garmin and I was so excited to have the new toy I just couldn't help myself! I mean, how cool is it to have a neat little gadget that can give you so much useful information. Besides, organizing info / spreadsheets & such, get me goin'... so you can imagine how much I like the Garmin. OK, I'm really workin' hard to justify my extra miles last week here!

Anyway, I did get a 5 mile tempo run on the treadmill, 2 trail runs (4.5 mi & 3 mi), one easy 4 mile run, and a long run (7.5 mi) on Sunday that had a few substantial hills. I am proud of my effort last week, but plan on taking it easy this week. Soaked my feet in ice water a few times over the weekend just in case.

Last night I taught spin class at my gym, just 30 minutes. Tonight I'm gonna ride the stationary bike for 30 min. and work some weights (upper body).

Here I Go!

Well, how do I start? So, I've been playing around on the local running club's (Macon Tracks) forum lately, really enjoying reading the posts and getting great motivation from everyone. I've been reading blogs by the members that have them posted and enjoy them, so I figured why not share too? Here goes....

I'll give a brief overview of my running history, then stay up to date from now on:
I started running in June of 2002, I was 24 years old, my daughter was 2 at the time, I had gained 10 lbs. since my daughter was born and was going through a bit of depression.

My Dad (a US Marine) has been a runner since joining in 1974 and completed 2 Marine Corps Marathons. My Mom has been a runner for about as long, usually running to control weight or for the mental therapy aspect! I took a Running course at MSC in 1999 and enjoyed it for the few months I was doing it for a grade (got a C... What!?!).

Given my state of mind, and body back in 2002 I decided to start running! I knew I'd shed a few pounds and it would give me time out of the house all to myself. I wasn't a stay at home mom, I worked at JCPenney then so I got up early and ran before work. By the new year I had lost about 15 lbs... I was very happy at the progress and was feeling so much better about myself. It was October of 2003 before I got the courage to run a 5K, from then on, I slowly but surely got hooked on running and road races.

I was off and on with running for the first few years of it. I had a foot injury due to wearing junky shoes, I'd get lazy, or didn't want to run in the cold, whatever the case was... I was inconsistant. Since the first of 2007 I've been a lot better about consistancy, and my goal is to keep it up!