She runs

Random Fun Day Friday Facts

2012-02-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness it's finally Friday. This week has been a wild week for sure. Work is hetic and crazy. But in all that madness, I have managed to run 26 miles since Sunday and I'm super excited about that. I ran 10 on Sunday, 4 on Monday, 6 on Wednesday, and 6 yesterday. I've also started the Fab Ab February Challenge and my abs are super painfully today but it's a good pain. I'm loving it. I did take a pre-picture and will be posting it just as soon as I can get ahold of our computer at home.

Here's my random facts of today.

1. I'm so enjoying this video at the moment. Kristen Bell is one of my all-time favorite actresses so to see her be like this makes me feel like we could be best friends. Kristen, if you read my blog, I would so love to be your best friend.

It's so hilarious to me.

2. I have 12 miles on tap for tomorrow and I'm super excited about them because it'll be my first long run ever ran with someone else. I do all of my runs solo. I'm happy doing them solo but sometimes having a friend along is fun. She's already warned me that she's a 12:00 per mile runner. I told her not worry about it. This run is about getting the miles in and not about speed.

3. Speaking of speed, I'm not exactly sure what's gotten into me lately but Wednesday's 6 miler was run in 50:57 and last night's 6 miler was ran in 48:23ish. I do know it was an 8:03 pace. I'm loving the speed and I'm just going to continue running on this speed wave for however long it let's me stay on it.

4. I started the Fab Ab February Challenge yesterday and OMG am I feeling it. I did Wednesday and Thursday's workout in one. That meant 25 situps, 9 pushups and 25 seconds of a plank hold. I'm so loving the sore feeling. It's a hurt so good feeling.

5. Bud Light has released a new beer called Bud Light Platinum. It is really, really good. But it packs quite a bit of punch at 6% so I'll have to drink it slowly. I'm really looking forward to having one after tomorrow's 12 miler.

6. With the Super Bowl being this Sunday, I'm going to try some new pinterest recipes I've gotten over the past few days. It's going to be a lot of fun to eat, even if I don't really care who wins it. Now if the Carolina Panther's had made it, I would be pulling for them all the way because yes, I'm a HUGE Cam Newton fan.

7. I've noticed quite a bit of difference in my attitude this past week and I know it's because I've actually worked out instead of just lazing around. I feel amazing and I've been a lot nicer because of it. Now I've just got to get back up to doing it before work and I'll feel a lot better off. I feel a little guilty when I exercise at night after work because it means another hour lost of spending time with my girls. My youngest really made me feel really guilty the other day when she said, "I feel like I haven't seen you much this week." Thanks kid, that really punched me straight in the gut so next week, I'm going to make it a point to push myself out of bed.

That's it, that's all I've got for today. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Love,
Angela :)

Fab Ab February Challenge

2012-02-02T11:02:00.001-05:00

I was on pinterest, my new favorite place to be, and came across the Fab Ab February.

The concept is for the whole month of February you will do a set amounts of situps, pushups, and planks every day except Sunday.

I've decided to add this to my running routine and will start today with Day 1 which is 10 sit-ups, 4 push-ups, and 10s plank and Day 2 which is 15 sit-ups, 5 push-ups, and 15s plank.

I'm game for the challenge, are you? I'll be posting a before picture tonight and then an after picture on Wednesday, Feb. 29 to see if the results.

Angela :)

Happy Hump Day

2012-02-01T15:28:00.000-05:00

Can't believe that this week is almost over. It has just flown right on by.

I took yesterday as a rest day. My legs told me thank you and I enjoyed just relaxing and playing some WOW last night instead of trying to get my workout in. Yes my husband has turned me into a WOW nerd and a second computer has been ordered for our home so we can play together along with our other friends. We are all starting over with new characters and will go through the levels together. It's going to be so much fun and I'm already wishing the computer was here.

I'll be turning the Big 31 on the 12th of this month. For some reason I'm having a harder time adjusting to the fact that I'll be 31 in 11 days than I did when I turned 30. I accepted that age bracket with open arms but I just can't seem to do the same for 31. It's crazy I know. What's crazier is I went and got my belly button pierced about 3 weeks ago. I guess I don't really want to let go of my younger side. I'm holding on like crazy.

In running news, I'm feeling great with how this week is going. I'm planning on hitting up the gym this afternoon for a 6 mile run on the treadmill and will be (finger's crossed) getting up in the morning to get my 6 miler done tomorrow. I've made a date for Saturday to run 11 miles with a friend who is training for her first half marathon even though I've got plans for 12, I'll run a mile before she gets to my house and then run the 11 with her for a total of 12.

I'm really excited about Saturday's run, even though she runs a lot slower than me, it'll be good for me to get the miles in and get to run with someone. I never run with people, so I'm hoping this run will go well.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Angela :)

Monday's 4 Mile Treadmill Run

2012-01-31T09:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I said I was going to run 4 miles. So when I got home and the hubs wasn't home yet, I said, "Okay girls, we are going to go to the gym." Just as I getting ready to walk back out the door, in walks the hubs. So I tell the girls they can stay home, get a small snack, and off to the gym I go.

I hop on the treadmill and begin to run my 4 miles. I start off at a conservative pace (8:57) and pick it up 30 seconds for every mile. I end up running the miles in 33:30. I was pretty pleased with my pace and happy with the run.

I'm having a small problem with my toes though. My third toe is digging into my middle toe causing it to bleed and bleed bad. It looked like I chopped my toes off last night after my run. I'm not sure what's going on because I keep my toenails clipped so I won't cause problems like that. Oh well, I'll get it figured out before Wednesday morning's 6 miler.

I'm happy to say that I've ran 14 miles in 2 days and my hip feels good, my legs feel tired but good and I'm happy with how everything is holding up. I'm still on the fence about whether or not I'm going to do the whole marathon, I'm going to take it down to the wire in seeing how I feel as I add on the miles in this last month. Not the greatest training plan, but then again, I always do this and I end up fine.

Love,
Angela :)

Relaxation is the Answer

2012-01-30T09:06:00.000-05:00

This was one of the most low-key, relaxing weekends I've had in a long time. I so enjoyed it and told the hubs last night that we need to have more of them. As much as I love having friends over and a house full of children running around laughing, screaming and just enjoying each other's company, I also loved the quietness of just having my two girls and the hubs at home. I was in bed at a really decent hour and was up early, feeling fantastic Sunday morning. I usually feel like crap.

Anywho, let's move back a day. Saturday morning I was suppose to go for a run but I moved the run back to the afternoon because I had to be at my sister's house earlier than I anticipated. I had a blast hanging with my mom and sister. We laughed, laughed and laughed some more. We also watched The Hangover 2, which is HILARIOUS!!!! The girls had a blast riding their bikes and playing outside. We didn't get home until a little after 4, so I decided to just move my run to Sunday.

On Sunday I spent lunch with my dad and grandparents' and we just enjoyed each other's company and laughed, laughed, and laughed some more. I laughed a lot this weekend, it felt good.

So at 2, I finally decided to go for my run. Since I've almost decided to just drop down to the half marathon in March, I went for a 10 mile run. I felt great during the run, finishing 6 miles in 49 minutes. I looped back to the house to use the restroom and to grab my gel pack that I left on the counter. Took that, use the loo, and went back out for the rest of the 4 miles. I finished the whole 10 miles in 1:24 for an average pace of 8:25. I don't know where that came from and was really excited about it.

This morning my legs are a little sore and I had some toe issues, not exactly sure what was up with them but when I pulled my sock off, my toes were bleeding. No biggie, I just watched them off and went on with my business.

Today after work I'm running 4 miles, I'm hoping to convince Bug to ride her bike while I run, tomorrow I'm taking an off day and will do Insanity, Wednesday I'm doing 6 miles, Thursday I'm running 6 miles and then Saturday I'll run 12 miles. I'm not following a training plan, just doing what I feel like doing and do plan to go over the 13 mile mark before the race on March 3.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Angela :)

Random Friday Facts

2012-01-27T15:13:00.000-05:00

I haven't done one of these in a while, so here goes:

1. Ever since I started adding Insanity to my workout routine, again, my hip hasn't been bothering me as much as it did before I added.

2. I take 5-hour energy shots all throughout the weekend. I think I'm slightly addicted to them.

3. My best friend and husband got into an argument last weekend and I'm being punished also right now. It's not fair and it hurts my feelings but I don't feel the need to say I'm sorry because I did nothing wrong. I actually tried to get my husband to not say anything to her last weekend but he's his own person and does what he wants.

4. My running has suffered tremendously because of my hip problems but also because I don't like running in cold weather. Lately it's been 75 or 80 degrees every day and I've been running more. I so love this type of weather. It's going to be cold again next week, so not looking forward to it.

5. I'm in a weird place emotionally right now and I really have no one I can talk to. I take that back I have one person I can talk to about it but that person is the reason I'm feeling this way. It's a strange place to be.

6. I'm having some boudoir pictures taken for the husband for Valentine's day. Well I hope I can get them done by then. My friend is taking them for me. Even though he's not a professional, he wants to get into taking photography for a profession, so he said he would take mine for free. Don't worry I've discussed this with the hubs and he is on board with it. I also trust my friend 100%.

7. I'm planning on running somewhere around the 2-hour mark tomorrow.

8. Yesterday I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. I started the run at an 8:57 pace and by the time I got to the 4th mile I was running at an 7:30 pace. I actually felt pretty good throughout the run even though it was tough to run at that pace, I felt I could do it.

9. Taking into consideration I want to run somewhere around 2 hours tomorrow, I have to make sure I'm done early enough in the morning so I can take my girls to my sister's house tomorrow. We are spending the day with her, her children, and my mom. Should be a funny, laughing the whole time, lots of fun. I love hanging with my mom and my sister.

10. We are having pizza for dinner for the first time on a Friday night in about a month.

11. We don't have a Yogurtland but we did get a yogurt place called Swirl that is the same as Yogurtland. I find myself thinking of ways to get to Swirl. I could live in that place. My favorite at the moment is the strawberry cheesecake with chocolate syrup, either cheesecake balls or cookie dough balls and other toppings. I have to limit my Swirl going to at least once a month or I become addicted, see No. 2 for my addictive behavior.

That's it, I'm done.

Have a wonderful weekend, I'll be back Monday with how my run went down this weekend.

Angela :)

I'm still here

2012-01-26T11:49:00.000-05:00

Just not blogging as much because I really have nothing to say. A couple of weeks back I hit 14 miles in my training and then my right hip basically told me to shut and sit the F down. So I did. I'm not taking any chances on it and will attempt to run a good solid long run of around 2 to 3 hours this weekend, if my hip doesn't bother me.

I haven't stopped working out though. I've been teaching spin classes here and there and have been hitting Insanity like my life depends on it.

If this weekend's run doesn't go as planned then I'm just going to do the half marathon. I know without a doubt I'm half marathon ready.

I'm already planning a fall marathon, if this one doesn't happen, because I think I train better during the summer months than winter months. So I'll let you guys know if I make it to the starting line of the marathon or if I drop down and do the half marathon. No worries though, 2012 will be the year I run a full marathon.

Angela :)

14 miles done

2012-01-09T09:10:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning I was suppose to get up and run 14 miles but I just didn't do it and that meant I had to put my run off until Monkey went down for a nap. No problems.

At 2:30, I laced up my sneakers, strapped on all my running gear and set out for a friend's house which was suppose to be 6 miles from my house (one way), and I was just going to run through his neighborhood to get in the extra mile. Or so I thought. When I hit 6 miles and was still a good bit away, I knew he was wrong about the distance. It was exactly 7 miles to his house, so I didn't have to worry about adding on the extra mile. I ran the first 7 miles in 1:04. I made it to 9 miles before I had to stop and take my first walk break and from that point on, it was all a mental game. I was mentally gone by 11 miles. Checked out, wanted to be done. I even thought about calling the hubs when I got to 13 miles (it was right beside our YMCA) but then I would have beat myself up the rest of the weekend because I only had a mile to go.

I ended up running those 14 miles in 2:21. I was so excited. I was proud of myself and I told everyone who would listen to me that I ran 14 miles. I stretched, popped some medicine and took the rest of the evening relaxing.

Yesterday Monkey learned how to ride her tricycle, so I went outside with the girls and walked/ran through the neighborhood with them to stretch out my legs and to work out my sore muscles. I didn't feel as bad as I thought I was going to feel and it's giving me a new look on running.

Next weekend I'm running 18 miles. I'm not as nervous about these miles as I probably should be. I'm more pumped about them than anything else.

Love,
Angela :)

Life

2011-12-13T11:46:00.000-05:00

Gets in the way when you least expect it.

Last week, I felt that tickle in my throat, the tickle that tells me a sore throat is coming, along with a stuffed up nose, and a head that feels like its about to explode. So I set off to the store in search of Emergen C and a pray that it works quick enough to let me not get a cold.

Friday night, I'm lounging in my recliner at home, with the start of a cold coming on and coming on strong. Saturday morning arrives and I can't breath, can hardly speak, and I know without a doubt that trying to get out and run in my condition would not help me get better at that time. Yes, I usually will just run through a cold, but I couldn't breath at all. I was either so congested that breathing out of my mouth or my nose was running so terribly bad that I had a tissue stuck up it just to keep it from leaking every where. I was a disgusting, snotty mess. It wasn't pretty.

So Sunday rolls around and I'm thinking that if I can get my nose under control, I'll attempt a small run. Nope, I'm sneezing, snotting, and just plain miserable all day.

Now I've ran 7 miles in the past two days, my nose is a little better but it's so sore from all the blowing and such and my head is still killing me but at least my throat isn't sore. Colds are no fun.

On top of me having a cold, Bug and Monkey went to spend the night with my mom Saturday night. For no other reason, than they wanted to. I get a text from my mom at 8 telling me that Monkey is throwing up and having stomach issues. Since she lives an hour away, I tell her to keep her there but bring her to me first thing in the morning. At 9 I get another call telling me, she's still throwing up and that she's crying that she wants to come home. I meet her half way. It's now 9:30. I get the girls back home, get them settled (both of them are wide awake) and they both eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and drink some pineapple juice. By 10:30, they are both in bed asleep and Monkey hasn't thrown up since 9. Sunday she's up sometime around 8 (I was still sleeping) but at 11, I find her in her room asleep on the floor. I get her in bed, wrap the blankets around her and just let her sleep. She wakes up around 2:30. She's feeling a lot better and wants a snack, now Mommy.

So this weekend, life and sickness got in the way of my running. Any and all goals I had for the marathon have now been shelved and my only goal is making it through it alive. I'm determined, come hell or high water, that I'm running my 18 miles on Saturday. There will be no excuses, there will be no putting it off, there will only be me, my ipod, and 18 miles. I'm looking forward to it.

Have a wonderful day.

Angela :)

Getting back into the Grove

2011-12-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

So I haven't been exactly doing marathon training like I had wanted to. I've missed a couple of runs that I should have gotten in. I can't exactly say what happened, except I didn't make time and that's not a good enough excuse. So I rededicated myself to my training last week but after three days of running, my hip started to get a tingly/pulling sensation that comes before it starts to hurt and I knew right then and there that four days of running in a row is not the way to go for me. So I've revamped my training schedule to make it easier for me to obtain my goals but to also get in the more important runs.

Since I can handle three days of running in a row, I've decided to run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I've also decided to do Insanity Abs every single day. It's only approximately 17 minutes long and its an awesome abs workout. Since I've decided not to run on Mondays, I did Insanity abs and Cardio Power and Resistance yesterday. I was sweating like crazy and I loved the way my body felt after I finished.

This morning I got my self out of bed for 5 miles. I managed to get the miles done in 43 minutes. Again, I loved the way my body felt. Tonight when I get home from work, I'll do Insanity abs while dinner cooks.

Tomorrow I have 6 miles on tap. I'm going to try to get up early enough to do the ab workout after my run because tomorrow night I have to teach a 45 minute spin class at the Y.

Thursday I have 5 miles on tap and my friend is coming over after work to do the Fit Test with me and when we are finished with that, I'll do Insanity abs.

Friday will be just Insanity abs.

Saturday will be 12 miles of running and then Insanity abs and Sunday will be just Insanity abs.

I think this will help me to stay injury free and it offers other muscles to get used that would normally be ignored with just running. I'm also hoping to get my flat belly back, it's started to pouch out some and I'm not happy with it. I was really digging the abs that I had coming along and I want them back.

I hope I can do this. I need YOU to keep me motivated.

Angela :)

Jingle Bell Jog 10k Race Report

2011-12-05T09:04:00.000-05:00

So Saturday morning I ran the Jingle Bell Jog 10k race. I love this race. This was my first race back after Monkey was born. I do it every year and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.

This year I decided to be a little festive and wore knee high snowmen socks. I loved them. They never fell down and they didn't distract me. I'm thinking knee high socks are going to be the way to go throughout this winter marathon training.

The 10k started at 8 a.m. I had all intentions of getting up at 6:15 and getting to the race at 7:15 for a mile warmup but for some reason I was awake at 5:30 so I paid a couple of bills and then went and laid back down for a few more minutes of beauty sleep and before I knew it, it was 6:40 and I was scrambling around the house trying to get ready.

I had peanut butter toast and my normal Diet Pepsi and made my way down to the race site. I met my mom there at 7:30 and we wandered around, used the porta-potties and then went back to the truck to get rid of our sweaters and such.

The race started right on time at 8 a.m. Since I started up front, I didn't have to weave around people, so I was able to quickly get into a good run and just went with it. At the halfway point (3.1 miles) I cruised in at 24:XX and just kept on going. At the 4 mile marker, I knew I was doing really good because when I looked down at my watch (which I made myself not do) I hit it at 30:XX. The last time I looked at my watch was when I hit the finish line to stop it and it said 49:53. I almost started crying right there because I really had no expectations for this race but to finish it. I didn't think I was in speed shape but I guess my body is really liking the faster paces, at this moment. Last year I finished this race in 51:XX.

I'm super excited for the new 10k PR and I'm looking forward to next year to see what I can do.

Angela :)

Friday Five and Jingle Bell Jog 10k Race Goals

2011-12-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the Jingle Bell Jog and I've done this race every year since Monkey was 9 months old, she's three (almost 4). This is my all-time favorite race, made even better because my mom also runs it. She's moved up from the 5k to the 10k and race that distance for the first time last year and did amazing. I cheered her in like a mad woman. I love that lady!!!!!

So I don't really have any goals since I haven't been racing for speed lately. I know without a doubt I can probably do the same time I did last year but I'm semi-hoping to come in around the 50 minute mark. But I do have a wonderful outfit planned for this race this year. All I have to do is go get the socks I want and I'll be ready. I'm going to have my mom take pictures, so I'll make sure to post them when I get them off of my phone.

On to the Friday Fives:

1. Last night I colored my hair. I usually stick with brown but this time I went with dark brown and it looks almost black. I love it. The hubs, I don't think he likes it as much as I do but he did tell me it looks good.

2. Bug has her end of the year soccer party tomorrow. The coach we love so much has a lot of brothers and they also do sports (basketball, football, soccer, etc.) so we will be having the Lady Warriors (girl's soccer) and the football teams out at one party. It's going to be huge and they are planning an Hawaiian themed party. I'm looking forward to it.

3. Along with the Jingle Bell Jog first thing in the morning and the soccer party at noon, the SEC Championship game is tomorrow at 4. I'm hoping to get home in time to watch the beginning of the second quarter. It's the LSU Tigers (SEC West) vs. UGA (SEC East). I'm pulling for the West because Auburn plays on the west. Go Tigers!!!!!

4. I'm blown away that it's the last month of 2011. Where has this year gone????? I'm also blown away that my marathon is in 4 months and I'm no where near ready. Ughhh, I'm starting to get sick thinking about it.

5. Have you ever felt like you get blamed for things, even though you really had nothing to do with it??? I'm feeling that way this week. Not a fun feeling.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Angela :)

Back to it

2011-11-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I had to get back into the swing of things. That meant work for me, school for the kids and the norm for hubs. He didn't get but Thursday and Friday off last week. This also meant getting back into running. I had, not intentionally, taken the week off from running last week. I ran once, on Wednesday for three miles. It was the worse three miles of my life. I had done Insanity Monday and Tuesday to make up for not getting a run in and so my whole body was hating me Wednesday morning. Tough.

So yesterday after work I took myself down to the gym and squeezed in three miles on the treadmill. I made myself start at an 8:34 pace then upped the pace to 8:00 for a mile, then dropped the pace back down to 8:34 for a quarter of the second mile and upped the pace over the next three quarters of the last mile until I was back at 8:00. Overall it was a really good run and one that I'm glad I pushed myself on.

This morning I got up and headed back to the gym (I hate running in cold weather) for a four mile run on the treadmill. My favorite treadmill was taken so I had to opt for one that scrolled through all that was going on on the machine instead of just leaving the time and miles up for me to see. I really dislike that treadmill. But since I had no choice, I jumped on and ran 4 miles in 35:23. I really wanted to take the run easy and just let my legs do the work. It felt great.

I'm not exactly following my training schedule perfectly this week because I took last week off, I'm making sure not to jump back in feet first and I've got a 10k race this weekend. One that I do every year and LOVE.

I'll have my goals up for this race on Thursday.

Angela :)

Vacation Week

2011-11-22T11:06:00.000-05:00

I'm on vacation this week and right now I'm sitting in my recliner with the Price is Right on blogging from my sister's laptop because I'm to lazy to get up and walk maybe five feet to my own computer. This is laziness at its finest. My girls are actually doing some cleaning up on their own, and I'm contemplating sending them outside to play so I can be lazy some more. I don't get this often, so I'm enjoying it right now. I've also watched The Social Network three times, which I've slightly become obessed with. What I haven't done is run. I was going to go yesterday but the hubs didn't get home until after 6 and I didn't get up early enough to go before he left for work this morning. I did do Cardio Circuit on Insanity and today I'm in a LOT of pain. My arms hurts, my sides ache, my calf muscles are sore, and I'm kicking myself for jumping right back into it. I knew yesterday that I was going to be in pain today after I did the workout but I was hoping it wasn't going to be this bad. I could so go for a full body massage right now. If only I had someone to watch the girls while I went and got said massage.

I'm planning to go for a run this afternoon when the hubs gets home from work and if he doesn't come home until late again, then I'm going to suck it up and use my "spinning instructor" status at the Y to get them to watch the girls for free so I can snag 35 minutes on the treadmill for a four mile run. Let's hope he comes home soon. I'm also going to eventually get up and do another round of Insanity. I have to do something to make sure I don't gain to much weight during the holiday season.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-11-18T13:58:00.000-05:00

Whoo-hoo, it's Friday. I'm so excited because at 5 p.m. today I will be on a week long vacation. That means sleeping in on a Monday morning and taking a mid-afternoon nap, if I feel like it. That also means I get to spend all day with my girls. We have big plans of going to see Happy Feet 2 and just enjoying each others company at home. Riding bikes, taking walks, watching t.v. and eating all kinds of junk food. It's going to be a blast.

On to Friday Fives:

1. I have 12 miles on tap tomorrow bringing my weekly mileage to 27 miles. I'm super excited about this. I'm usually tapping out at 15 miles, so I'm excited to see how my body holds up after 27.

2. Tomorrow we have lunch plans with my mom and sister for an early Thanksgiving day feast. We do it every year the weekend before Thanksgiving because my little family always goes out of town. Well this year, due to having low funds, we decided to stay in town but still have Thanksgiving early with my mom. I'm super stoked about cooking my very own Thanksgiving day meal.

3. My Asics have 419 some odd miles on them and they still feel great on my feet.

4. I'm a little sad because I had schedule lunch dates with a friend of mine yesterday and today and it was cancelled on both days. They had something come up that was total out of their control. I can't say that I didn't want to cry a little bit because I have lunch by myself almost every single day.

5. I need to send in my money for my all time favorite race that is on December 3. I'm actually going to dress up for this race. This was my first race I ran when I decided to get back into shape using running and I've ran it every single year since then. It's a big race and tons of fun. Better get that registration money turned in so I can run it this year also.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Angela :)

Marathon Training Continues

2011-11-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

After last week's terrible performance of only 7 miles ran all week, I decided to make sure I got in every single mile this week. No excuses, no I'll do it later, no nothing. Get up, get the miles in and follow the training plan.

Monday didn't start off to well and I found myself crawling out of bed at 6:50 with no time to get in a 5 mile run before work. No problem, I'll go on my lunch break. Houston, we have a problem. The beginning of this week was spent spending all day long at the office with no real lunch break and eating at my desk. That meant that Monday, my lunch time run was going to have to be cancelled or ran on the treadmill after work. I walked in the back door at home around 6 and quickly told the hubs that I was going for a run. I would run Tuesday's workout then and run Monday's work out on Tuesday. I laced up and out the door I went.

I came to the realization that I enjoy running at 6 a.m. versus 6 p.m. because at least at 6 a.m. the sun will be rising sun and at night, well it's just going to get darker. I ran fast and hard to get the miles done and afterwards all the stress from the day just sweated away. It was great.

Tuesday I made myself get up and get outside to run those 5 miles that were suppose to be ran Monday. It was chilly but I really enjoyed the run and was able to run it in 43 minutes (I believe).

Wednesday morning I was up before the alarm went off because I went to bed Tuesday night at 9 and even though my legs were feeling a little sore from Monday's hard run and Tuesday's 5 miler, I still ran 4 miles in 33 minutes. I was really pleased with my performance and am coming quickly to the realization that I enjoy the 8:30 range. I'm also finding that as my runs go on, I'm getting faster in the later miles.

This morning I didn't exactly want to get up but with already having 12 miles under my shoes for the first three days of the week, I knew I would spend all day beating myself up if I didn't get out and run those 3 miles the training schedule called for. So I dragged myself up and out of bed and just ran. I knew it wasn't going to be my faster 3 miler but I went into the run thinking that if I could manage a decent pace I would be happy. Wouldn't you know it my slowest mile was the first one at 8:41 and my fastest mile was the 3rd being at 8:14. I was really pleased with myself.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's rest day. I usually top out at 15 miles during the week, not already running 15 with 12 more miles to go on Saturday. I'm a little nervous about this miles on Saturday. I haven't ran double digits in a long time and I'm trying to come up with a fun route to run that will keep me from becoming bored.

Angela :)

Week 3 of Training

2011-11-07T09:15:00.000-05:00

This past week of training didn't go exactly as planned but I did manage to get in 20 miles.

Monday - October 31
I was suppose to run 4 miles but when I woke up that morning, I couldn't breath and I felt as though my head was going to explode, so I decided to hold off and see how I felt as the day went on. At lunch I just decided to use the day as a rest day. I also knew that I would be doing a whole lot of walking that evening as it was Halloween.

Tuesday - November 1
I got up bright and early and ran 5 miles. I had all intention of going for another 4 at lunch but it just didn't happen.

Wednesday - November 2
I was suppose to run 3 miles but I didn't get up in time, so I had decided to go after work but the hubs ended up working late, which meant I didn't get my run in, so I did Insanity Abs.

Thursday - November 3
I ran 4 miles on my lunch break and then since I didn't have anyone show up for spin class, I did another 3 miles on the treadmill for a total of 7 miles for the day.

Friday - November 4
I take this day as a rest day no matter what happened during the week.

Saturday - November 5
Since I was dropping my girls off with their granddaddy for a couple of hours that afternoon, I decided to move my long run back to the afternoon. I dropped them off, then went to a friend's house and parked my car, gave him my car keys, told him where I was going and took off for my 8 mile run. I anticipated it would take me 1:10 but I surprised myself and finished in 1:08. I was super stocked because there was a lot of rolling hills on the route I chose.

Sunday - November 6
Rest day.

I was really pleased with my running this past week but I also know I need to pick up big time on my training. I will hit the double digits this weekend, so I need to make sure that I have all the little runs done during the week so I'll have confidence going into the long run.

Training schedule for this week:
Monday - 4 miles
Tuesday - 3 miles
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - 3 miles
Saturday - 10 miles (or a 15k race, haven't decided)
Total miles 24

Have a great day all.

Sick

2011-11-02T09:11:00.000-04:00

I have a cold that has been around for almost a week. My nose is stuffed up, my head is killing me and I feel as though I've smoked a pack already and I'm not a smoker. This sucks. Yesterday morning I climbed out of bed at 5:40 and went for a run. I ran 5 miles (I've forgotten the time but it's on my daily mile widget) and I shot snot rockets the whole time. It was gross but there was nothing I could do. It was either that or not breath. Since you have to breath to run, I figured I'd shot the snot rockets. That's all I've ran this week. I had my alarm set for 5:40 again this morning but I was wide awake at 4 with a pounding headache, a nose that was acting like a leaky faucet and a stomach I was unsure about. It was awful. After one of my many trips to the bathroom, one of the bottom planks under our bed fell out when I sat down, so at 4:30, we were fixing the bed. I immediately changed the clock right then and there. I knew it was going to be way to hard to get out of bed in less than an hour to go running.

I do plan on going for my run after work. Tomorrow I've got 3 miles on tap along with spin class and then Saturday I have 8 miles. I'm not concerned about the miles, I'm more concerned with the way my head and chest is going to hold up. I'm hoping this cold makes it way out of my system and soon.

Question, how many of the married couples that read this blog have a shared checking account or do they each have their own? The hubs and I are having financial problems. Along with all the other people in the world, these economic times have hit us very hard. We are barely scrapping by and it's always like our account is in the negative. Since I'm the one who writes the checks, I'm the one who gets blamed when the account goes into the negative. He never thinks its his fault, so I'm the one who has to fix the problem. I sometimes can't fix the problem. So I'm thinking of getting my own checking account and letting him have his own checking account and then dividing up the bills accordingly. That way he would have his own money to spend on what he needs/wants and I can do the same without worrying about our account going over. I have a couple of friends who are married and do this and they love it. It's been on my mind for over a year now. What's your thoughts?????

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Wednesday.

Angela :)

River Run 5k Race Report

2011-10-24T09:12:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning I ran the River Run 5k. I had high hopes of getting a new PR at this race. I'm going to make you wait until the end for the time but I will say I had a 13 second PR.

Here's how it all went down. Saturday morning dawned bright and early at 6:30. I slept terribly all night so I was pretty amazed that I jumped right on up at 6:30 without hesitating. I picked up the packets the day before so I really didn't have to get down to the race until 7:30 but because I wanted to get in a really good warmup I got there at 7:10. It was freezing with a temperature hoovering somewhere around 38/39 degrees. I wore my bright pink running shorts, black t-shirt with my white arm warmers, my pink and gray Sacuony's. I wanted to look cute for this PR.

As my mom and I were walking down to the start of the race, we realized they had numbers on the concrete. 15-20/20-25 etc. We figured out that those were predicted finishing times. If you thought you would finish somewhere around 20 minutes you moved up front, closer to 30 minutes you got in the back. It helped with the weaving around slower runners in the beginning of the race. I positioned myself closer to the front of the 20-25 minute "corral". There was a loud horn sound and we were off.

I found a friend that can run closer to the time I wanted to finish, so I clung to his side for most of the race. I didn't really look at my watch much but I do know the first mile and half we were running around 7:20 pace. Right before we took the trail through the woods, I pulled away from my friend and just let my legs do the work. He caught me right before the second mile and tried his hardest to get me to go faster because the lead female was in my sights and he wanted me to get her. By that time I was hitting the 8:00 pace and just couldn't muster the energy to go faster.

I ended up finishing with a time of 23:19, good enough for second place female overall and first place in my age group.

I'm not going to lie, I was a little heartbroken at first because I really wanted to go sub 23 but after catching my breath and realizing that most of the people out there would be over the moon excited for a 23:19, I put a smile on my face and jogged back out on the course to run my mom in.

Angela :)

Marathon Training Day 1 and 2

2011-10-18T11:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday kicked off my 20-week training schedule for the Snicker's Marathon. I started my training with a 3 mile run. It went well, uneventful but I did get to run along the race path that I'll be running this Saturday. I love that trail, so it'll be fun to race along it Saturday morning. I managed to run those 3 miles in 24:59.

Saturday I urged the hubs to please help get me out of bed in the mornings to get my runs in and done for the day. So this morning, I feel someone pushing on me to wake up. I peek open my eyes, knowing there is no way it's 5:40 a.m, and sure enough the clock reads 2:46. The hubs was confused and thought it was almost 6 when it was really only 3. I told him to go back to sleep, that I appreciated his help, but I wasn't running at 3 in the morning. So when the alarm did go off, I hit snooze and then contemplated going back to sleep for all of 2 minutes when I felt the hubs start pushing on me again. I finally get out of bed and hit the street for my 4 mile run right at 6. I love running in the morning before everyone else is up and the day hasn't officially started yet. It was just cool enough this morning to warrant my arm warmers, I feel so bad ass when I wear them. I ran those 4 miles in 33:XX.

I have a small goal for the Marathon but will not talk about it until after I have ran longer than 13 miles, then I'll see if this small goal is doable or not.

This evening I'll do Pure Cardio from Insanity and then I'll be through working out for today. I really did enjoy Insanity but with trying to fit in all the miles and that, it got to be really tough and I decided to keep it up for at least 3 days a week. Since Bug had a soccer game last night, I moved yesterday's Insanity workout to today but my main goal is to do Insanity on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I'm feeling pretty good to have already ran 7 miles this week, I'm excited about Marathon training starting. I've already lost 3 pounds from where I was doing Insanity and running, so I'm hoping to see how much weight I really loose with all the running I"m about to embark upon. This is so exciting.

Another exciting thing, my mom will be running her first half marathon while I"m running the Marathon. I"m super stoked for her. I've created a training plan that I know she'll be able to manage and I'm hoping to be able to run some of her long runs with her while I train for the Marathon.

Well I'll be back tomorrow. Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Angela :)

Weekend Review and Marathon Training

2011-10-17T09:26:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry I've been MIA lately from the blog. This month has been crazy in that I had to attend a couple's bridal shower on Oct. 1, then the hubs went to a blachelor part on Oct.8, this past weekend we attended not one but two weddings, one for our friend's on Saturday and the hub's dad's on Sunday, next weekend my ex-stepdad is getting remarried and then the following weekend Bug's soccer team is going to a haunted house. So as you can see, I've been going, going, going.

I didn't get to run this past weekend. I felt bad about it but considering all that we had going on Saturday, I just didn't have the time to get a run in. But I did managed to get in 10 miles last week and in those 10 miles, I somehow managed to kick butt. On Monday I ran 3 miles in 23:27, my 5k PR is 23:32. Wednesday I was joking with the hubs that I was going to run 4 miles in 30 minutes, I did it in 32:32. Two minutes off. Thursday, I ran 3 miles in about 24 minutes. I'm hoping to dominate a 5k this weekend, that I decided to run after the 3 miles on Monday.

This week kicks off my marathon training for the March 3 Snicker's Marathon. I should have gotten up and went for a run this morning but I decided to move it back to after work. But upon realization at 6:50 this morning, when I had no time for a run, I had to be at Bug's soccer game, I switched gears and decided to run my 3 miles on my lunch break. Here's how the rest of my week is going to be shaping up to look like:

Monday - 3 miles
Tuesday - 4 miles/Insanity
Wednesday - 4 miles/Insanity Abs
Thursday - 3 miles/Spin class
Friday - Insanity
Saturday - 6 miles (5k race, goals for race will come on Thursday).

I told the hubs that I really, really, really needed his help in kicking my butt out of bed in the mornings to help me train for this race, I might be able to get through a 15k or even a half with little training, but there was no way I was going to go into this Marathon with no training and I have exactly 20 weeks to train for this race. It's becoming real, very real and fast.

I had some tragic news this weekend in that I lost my crackberry. I have no clue where it is, the hubs and I searched everywhere and it is determined that it fell out of my lap when I had to stop on the side of the road coming back from the first wedding of the weekend and is now in a ditch somewhere between my house and Blakely. It's really all good because I was able to get a new phone. An LG Enlighten. It's not a droid but it's got android capabilities. I was told that I didn't need to go back to the crackberry's and instead go with this phone because it is a good starter phone for when I do go to Droid's eventually. I'm excited for it to get here. I'm having to use the hub's Envy 3 until my new phone comes in tomorrow. I don't like his phone. I miss my smartphone. I miss getting on FB without having to go sit in front of the computer, I miss reading my emails from where ever I'm at, I miss being able to text my friends. UGHH, I'm never drinking wine again.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend. I'm off to read what everyone was up to and I'll be back later with how my first training run of this marathon training went.

Angela :)

Wow and I thought Month 1 was hard

2011-10-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday started month 2 of Insanity. I had the Fit Test and Max Interval Circuit on deck. Well I had posted on FB that I was starting month 2 of Insanity and a friend of mine is just starting out and since we both had to do the fit test, I agreed to come to her house and do that one with her and then go home and do the other one. I also had 3 miles on tap, so I had to figure out how to get it all done.

I didn't get up early enough to get anything in, so I packed my running clothes for a lunch time run. I squeaked out the 3 miles in 25:53. With the cooler temps, the run felt great. So after work, I went home, got changed, and headed over to my friend's house for the Fit Test. That test will always be hard, no matter how many times I do it. After that, I went back home, made sandwiches for the hubs and the girls and then proceeded to kill myself for 59 minutes. It was hard, it was tough, and I thought about quitting 30 minutes into it. I mean it had full body drills, which consisted of running in place in the plank position, moving push-ups and then wide running in place (knees come to your elbows). I was almost sick after all of that.

But I finished through the whole exercise and I was really proud of myself for doing it but this morning, I'm a sore mess. Muscles that didn't hurt when I did the first month, are screaming at me in protest. Especially my hips, my hips are on fire. But it's a good kind of hurt. The kind that let's me know I pushed my body yesterday and it is all worth it.

This morning I should have gotten up and went for my 4 mile run but I was just in to much pain and plus it was 40 something degrees outside, plus I had managed to leave my purse at my office which had my Garmin in it. Decision was made right then and there to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep, which lead me to get up late. I'm not going to be able to make up the 4 miles today, so I'm just going to let it go and after Bug's scrimmage game this afternoon, I'll get in Week 6, Day 2 of Insanity. Somebody shoot me.

The rest of my week looks like this:

Wednesday - 4 miles/Week 6, Day 3 of Insanity
Thursday - 3 miles/Week 6, Day 4 of Insanity
Friday - Week 6, Day 5 of Insanity
Saturday - 6 miles/Week 6, Day 6 of Insanity
Sunday - Rest my tired body.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-09-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

I've been a bad, bad blogger as of late. This week has just gone down hill in the exercise department. I somehow talked myself out of two runs and one day of Insanity. I'm really disappointed in myself and plan on making sure I stick to schedule next week. I wish I could blame it on the weather, but in all honesty, it seems like summer around these parts, well that is until tomorrow when the high is suppose to be somewhere around 78 and the lows around 48. Fall weather, South Georgia welcomes you.

On to the Friday Fives:

1. Bug doesn't have a soccer game tomorrow, so I'm going to take advantage of a later start to my run and hopefully get all of my grocery shopping done before AU takes the field at 2:30.

2. I also plan on adding Cardio Abs to tomorrow's Insanity, even though its not on the schedule. I just really need to work my abs and that exercise program does a great job at it.

3. We have a party for a great friend to go to tomorrow night. I'm in charge of the booty music and I have managed to come up with a great list of some really fun dance songs. Now all I have to do is get them on a CD. Hopefully the hubs will let me this afternoon before he takes over the computer.

4. I have six miles on tap for tomorrow. I'm hoping that they go as well as last Saturday's six mile run went. With the cooler temps, I'm seeing this as a possibility.

5. This week in the exercise department I managed to run 7 miles, taught two spin classes and a couple of Insanity exercises. I'm hoping to do a lot better next week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Angela :)

One long weekend

2011-09-26T11:12:00.000-04:00

Friday was a vacation day for me which was spent cleaning the house. I didn't get accomplished everything I wanted to but the main things did get accomplished: I managed to get the sheets on all beds washed, washed all the clothes in the house (that were dirty at least), washed all the dishes and even got them put up, swept and mopped the floors and cleaned both bathrooms. I also managed to get in my Insanity workout. I didn't get in my makeup run from Thursday, but it turned out alright.

Saturday we had a soccer game at 11:15 and then we had to go home, get changed and head to our friend's house in Alabama for the Auburn game. So I wanted to make sure I had time to get my 6 mile run in before anything else got started. I was up and out of the house by 7:30. My main goal for the run was to try out a new road (wanted to make sure there were no dogs on it and plus my friend lives on that road, so I'll be using his house for pit stops on long runs) and to just have a great run. The run was amazing. I felt great the entire time and managed to run those 6 miles in 52:XX. I was very surprised at myself. The road had no dogs and I think it'll be a great road to run down once my mileage starts going up.

Auburn won their game and did so in a better fashion than they had all year. I was one happy Auburn fan and we had a blast at our friend's house. I did end up drinking way to much but that happens every weekend, oh well.

Sunday I got up and got outside to get the grass cut before it became to hot. Isn't it suppose to be fall, well South Georgia didn't get the memo, it's was like 90 something yesterday. Anywho, I got the grass cut and our yard finally looks normal and not like a mini jungle.

This week's training schedule looks like this:

Monday - 3 mile run/Insanity Week 5 - Recovery Week (same workout all week)
Tuesday - 4 mile run/Insanity
Wednesday - 4 mile run/Spin Class/Insanity
Thursday - 3 mile run/Spin Class/Insanity
Friday - Insanity
Saturday - 6 mile run/Insanity
Sunday - Rest

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get in my 3 mile run today. I had everything laid out for Insanity this morning but because I'm lazy and it's starting already, I never got out of bed, which now makes me have to decide and I think I've decided on Insanity, since this is a workout I haven't done yet and plus this only means I'll run 17 miles this week and not 20.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday.

Angela :)

I'm still here

2011-09-22T09:19:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't been on for a while. Just not a whole lot going on. Week 2 of pre-training for the marathon is going great so far. I've managed to hit all my miles, even though I had to make up yesterday's miles today which means I'll make up today's miles tomorrow. No worries though I'll be hitting 20 miles by the end of the week. I'm really amazed at what taking that time off did for me. I've found my renew love for running and I"m enjoying it much more than I did before the break.

I'm also on week 4 of Insanity. I can't believe that I'm almost through the first month. I'm really excited to start on week 5, it's core cardio and balance. I really need the balance work, so this is really making me excited about what's to come. I'm also really loving how my stomach is looking. I'm honestly turning into one of those people who walk by a mirror or window and am constantly checking my own body out. At home when I do Insanity I usually just work out in a sports bra and shorts. Well we have a mirror in our dining room that looks into the living room, so I can look at myself in the mirror. I love how you can see the outlines of my obliques. It's really sexy, if I do say so myself. The hubs usually just laughs at me when he sees me starring at the mirror.

Tuesday afternoon I had the best run I've had in a long time. What possessed me to run an 8:33 pace for 4 miles is beyond me but when I stopped my watch and saw that I had ran 4 miles in 34 minutes, I was stoked.

I think though my running shoes might be put in retirement soon. My left calf muscle is starting to get sore while running. I'm a little apprehensive about Saturday's 6 miler but I will know more about what type of pain it is after that run. I haven't gone over 4 miles since returning back to running, so this will tell me what I'm looking at. Let's just hope its the shoes and not a real problem. It doesn't hurt any other time, so I'm thinking shoes.

I'm off to get some work done. Everyone have a wonderful Thursday.

Angela :)

It's Friday

2011-09-16T09:04:00.000-04:00

Today I got up early to get Day 17 of Insanity done. I would have slept in but I have a lot going on after work so I figured, if I wanted to get my workout done, 6 a.m. was the best time for me. Today's schedule called for Cardio Power and Resistance. I'm not going to lie, it's tough, it pushes you physically and mentally but at the end, when I look in the mirror, I'm totally loving what I see. I'm starting to get a six-pack and I haven't seen my stomach look like this is years, years I tell ya.

This morning when I logged onto Facebook, I noticed that a friend of mine had posted some pictures from back in the day. I was tagged in a couple of them and I was truly horrified at what I saw. I can honestly say I look 20x better now, in my 30's, than I did back in my early 20's. Asking the friend to take the pictures down will be like me talking to a cat, it's just not going to happen, so I'm going to use those pictures as motivation to keep on moving and working extra hard to get my body where I want it.

Wednesday I ran 3 miles. It was tough and I felt like puking but I got the run done. I ran those 3 miles in 26:26. Yesterday I had 2 miles on tap and after my spin class, I jumped on the treadmill to get the miles done. I managed to squeak out the 2 miles in 16:58. That's a an 8:28 pace. It was fast, I was feeling it but I loved it. By the time I hit stop on the mill I was running at a 7:06 pace. I think I'm going to use Thursday's as my speed days. Yesterday while I was doing Cardio Recovery, the hubs told me that he was going to put a time limit on my working out. I gave him a look that said "Eat Sh*t!" His argument was that I had been working out for over an hour already. He knew that when I restarted this program, that I was going to put everything I had into it and even when I started back running, I wasn't going to stop Insanity. I was going to make everything work and really Thursdays are my only really busy days.

Tomorrow I have 4 miles on tap and Day 18 of Insanity. I plan on getting up at 7:00 a.m. to get the run in and then going straight into Insanity, no breaks in between. I have to be finish by 9:45 because Bug has a soccer game at 10:30.

Do you or your SO (significant other) think you workout to much?

Angela :)

Happy Hump Day

2011-09-14T11:25:00.000-04:00

Boy this week is cruising right on by. It's hard to believe that it's Wednesday already. Feels more like a Tuesday but I'm glad it's not. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, SEC football on t.v. Even though I'm not a big fan of either school that is playing, it's still the SEC and I just love watching football. It should be a good game though, LSU vs. Mississippi State. I hope MSU pulls out the win, but it's doubtful.

Moving on, yesterday I got up early and ran another 2 miles. I could feel my calf/shin area starting to get a little ache in it and am hoping that maybe it will go away once I get back into the swing of running. I managed to run those 2 miles in 17:23, I believe that was the time. Today I somehow overslept even though the alarm did go off, I'm thinking when it went off the first time, I though it was earlier than it was and thought I had more time, so I just reset the darn thing and brought everything to work to get in the 3 miles that is on the schedule. This afternoon after work I'll do Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs on Insanity.

Speaking of Insanity, I've managed to lose 3 pounds at the moment. I went from 140 to 137. I'm still not happy with the 137, but I'm coming to terms that this might be the weight I'm going to be at for a while. I'm also not complaining that 137 is heavy (I don't want any hate comments) I just want to get down to 130. I've been there once before I did my first half marathon but since that time, I've managed to gain 10lbs back and I'm not exactly sure if it's all muscle or fat. Well I do know some of it's fat because I was eating terribly there for a while. I figured I could eat anything I wanted because I worked out like a fiend and that is just not the case. Lesson learned and I'm still working on my diet but for the most part I try to eat everything in moderation. I did that in Weight Watchers and lost 20lbs., so that's my base for dieting. Portion control is the key.

Tomorrow is a big day for me, 2 miles, spin class and Insanity. I know without a doubt I'll do it all, I'm even contemplating waking up at 5:30, getting the miles in and then doing Insanity all before work. It's cardio recovery, so it's not going to be that hard and plus it will probably feel amazing after running. I'll let you all know my thoughts, if I do it.

Well I'm about to get ready for that 3 mile run. Nervous because I haven't ran that much in a while, but it should be alright, the Ipod's charged and I have my Nuun Tropical flavor water ready for afterwards (love that flavor). Have a wonderful day all.

Angela :)

And the Running Begins

2011-09-12T13:41:00.000-04:00

My two week time off from running has come to a close. This morning I got up at 6 and got all my gear ready for a 2-mile run. I knew that these 2 miles was not going to be easy but I also knew how excited I was to get back out on the road and to run 2 miles. My legs and feet wanted to go much faster than I would let them. At some points I would see an 8:2X pace and make myself slow down. I ended up running the 2 miles in 17:33 for an 8:55 pace.

At times those 2 miles were hard but at other times it felt easy. I guess since I didn't take a complete break from exercising, my body knew how to handle it. I'm glad because the rest of my week looks like this:

Monday - 2 miles/Insanity Day 13
Tuesday - 2 miles/Insanity Day 14
Wednesday - 3 miles/Insanity Day 15
Thursday - 2 miles/Spin class/Insanity Day 16
Friday - Insanity Day 17
Saturday - 4 miles/Insanity Day 18
Sunday - Rest

I'm going to try again to incorporate running 4 days in a row. I know back when I tried it before starting the 15.5k training, I had already been running, so I figured with taking the time off and adding in the miles very slowly, it should be no problem. I'll have my thoughts on it next Monday.

My weekend was very uneventful. Both the Georgia and AU games were amazing and down to the wire and I'm happy to say that my Tigers pulled out the big W but I just don't know how much longer they can keep on pulling them out.

Angela :)

Friday equals Funday

2011-09-09T10:31:00.000-04:00

So much excitement in the air around me today. It such a happy day that I can't contain my contagious smile and infectious laugh.

1. I no longer have a car payment. My dad gave me the rest of the money to pay off my car completely today. I'm so looking forward to getting my title in the mail.

2. Right now we only have one more credit card to pay off and we will be debt free. I'm so freaking excited. Let's hope we can get this card paid off fast.

3. Tomorrow is my mom's family reunion. I'm making blueberry pizza and banana pudding. It's going to be a lot of fun with lots of yummy good food.

4. Tonight I'm heading over to my mom's house after work to see a cousin of mine that I haven't seen in years. I can't tell you the last time I've seen her and I'm super pumped to see her again. I'll also be making most of my desserts at my mom's house since I'll be over there for most of the evening.

5. I start running again on Monday. I'll be starting off slow with 2 miles throughout most of the week and on Saturday my "long run" will only be 4 miles. I don't want to go out thinking I can do anything because I know I've been out of the running field for quite some time now. Let's hope this cold and my bum knee clear up before then.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and exciting day like mine is going so far.

Angela :)

Thursday Ramblings

2011-09-08T10:19:00.000-04:00

Man I can't believe it's Thursday already. This morning when I was dropping Monkey off at daycare and signing her in, I saw where everyone signed in on Monday, even though we all had the day off. It's crazy what starting the week off on a Tuesday does to you.

This cold I have is in for the long haul, I believe. I've started taking my Emergen-C again and have even started taking a different cold medicine. I'm hoping it will be gone by next Monday, when I add running back into my schedule. I'm super excited to feel the pavement beneath my feet again. Don't worry, I'm starting off slow, but I know, without a doubt, I'm going to go way to fast.

Yesterday I received this. I ordered the flavor combo pack and I have the fruit punch in the bottle. I was going to use it during last night's workout but something came up (I'll get to it in a bit) and it made working out difficult, so I put it in the fridge and used it this morning.

I'm not to keen on sports drinks. They leave my mouth feeling really dry and nasty tasting. But this didn't. It didn't taste like a sports drink and after leaving it in the fridge all night, it was really tasty and tasted amazing after sweating like crazy for 41 minutes. I know I'll definitely be using it during marathon training.

So I mentioned previously that I had something come up that made me push my workout from yesterday to this morning. The other secretary that I work with decided to refinance her car through Wells Fargo. She was pumped when they told her they would send someone to her house to notarize the paperwork. Well she gets a call a little while later saying they didn't have anyone in the area to notarize and that she would have to drive 22 miles away to have the papers notarized. She then came to talk to me and I said, "Well I'll notarize the papers for you." After talking to the Wells Fargo people, I'm now a notary for them. I get paid $40 for any and all notary's I perform and if I have to travel, then I'll get paid more. So for driving down the road, spending 30 minutes helping them go through all the paperwork, signing and notarizing their signatures, faxing the paperwork back to them, I'll get a check in the mail for $40. Heck ya. I'm super excited about this and hope that I'll get more than this one chance. It was a lot of fun.

Other good news, my car will be paid off tomorrow. My dad is going to pay what is left and then I'll just repay him in return. I"m super pumped and excited about this. It seems like its been forever since I've had this car payment and I'm thrilled to be rid of it. Now we can concentrate on getting the hub's Dell card paid off and then we are debt free. I'm doing the happy dance.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday.

Angela :)

Pity party for one

2011-09-07T10:18:00.000-04:00

I have a sore throat, my head is pounding and I really dislike when the weather changes from summer to fall or winter to spring. It just creates sickness, especially in my household. This time around though, fall just all of a sudden appeared with no warning. We went to bed one night and it was 90 and when we woke up it was hovering somewhere around 60. Crazy.

I also did something to my knee last night. Every time I try to go down onto my knees or put any pressure on it, it starts to protest. I was going to sit down on the couch and when I did I put my left knee under me and all of a sudden I started to feel a pain going through my knee and then it gets caught up in the blanket that is on the couch and I can't get my leg out from under me fast enough. Afterwards I go to do Insanity and it's causing me all kinds of pain. Crazy, I tell ya.

I just want to crawl back under my blankets and go back to sleep. I would/could sleep this whole day away and not feel bad about it at all. The hubs is on vacation and I would so love to be home with him. I'm jealous but because I took my vacation back in May, I'm not going to use the rest of my vacation days until November when we travel to his mom's house for Thanksgiving. Come on November.

I know this post sucks, but I'm feeling blah and this is all I got. I'm fixing to head over to U-Save-It to get some Emergen C to hopefully get this sore throat kicked in the butt and to pickup some more cold medicine.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Angela :)

Long Weekend Review

2011-09-06T10:31:00.000-04:00

This long 3-day weekend flew right on by, just like they always do. It was great and I had a blast hanging with my family and friends, watching college football, eating great food and drinking. I had way too much fun, that's for sure.

Since I never made it to the store to make sure our fridge and freezer was stock piled full of food for the hub who is on vacation this week, I went yesterday. Here is how my freezer looks right now:

Yes it is full of frozen pizzas and other frozen goodies to get the hubs through lunch time until I get home. I ended up buying 8 frozen party pizza (I had two coupons that were buy 4 get a dollar off) with the pizzas only costing $1.25 a piece I ended up getting 8 of them for $8 (that's $1 a pizza). I also got four boxes of the new party pizza stuffers. They were $3.78 and I had a $1 off coupon. So I ended up getting four boxes for $11.12. I ended up going to Walmart yesterday and actually did better there than I do using Winn-Dixie or Publix. I think I'm going to start using Walmart from now on. I also made sure to write down the prices of each item, calculated how much before coupons and how much after coupons and without adding in the taxes, I was spot on. How exciting.

Saturday I found a new trail that was put in sometime without my knowing. Since I'm still on my break from running, I pulled my bike out of the garage and took it for a spin down the trail. From my house to the trail, riding the trail and then heading home, the ride ended up being 3.30 miles. For a short run, this new trail will work out perfectly.

As you can tell, it's already being put to good use. I'm so glad.

Monday, after the shopping trip, I ended up being very lazy. The hubs and I did do Day 7 of Insanity and then I ended up having to take something for this sore throat I have going on. I'm guessing I need to get back on the Emergen C. I hate sore throats.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday. It's chilly in my neck of the woods, I hope your having a cold front moving through where you are also.

Angela :)

Friday, Friday

2011-09-02T15:12:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to take the negative energy that is surrounding certain people at my office and just raining smiles, laughter, brightness and as much positive energy down on them as I can. It's hard work but I'm determined not to be reduced to tears today. I've cried twice in a week's span at random, very mean, comments that have been thrown in my direction and for the life of me, I have no clue where they are coming from. I'm trying, trying like crazy, to kill them with happiness.

Moving on. Yesterday after my spin class, I went to my friend's house to pickup Cardio Recovery. When we burned the disks, our copy only burned about 20 minutes of it and then turned off completely. The disk we burned it from, I know who actually follows the copy right rules and all, had a scratch on that particular part of the disk. I said all that to say, my friend went and had the whole disk burned as separate individual disk and all I needed was Cardio Recovery. I told her I would be by her mom's house to pickup the disk, reburn it and then bring it to her in the morning.

Well once I got to her mom's house, no one was home. I called my friend to see what was up and she would never answer her phone. So I pulled out of the driveway and parked on the side of the yard to give her about 10 minutes when her mom and dad pull-up. I explained why I was sitting outside their house and what was going on. Come to find out, my friend's oldest had football practice and she forget to tell me but luckily her parents like me enough to let me come in and get the disk. I rush home hoping that my friend hadn't left football practice and I could quickly reburn the CD and get it back to her before she left. We were lucky and she left the town with her CD.

So by the time I got home, got the hubs and I dinner thrown together, the girls had sandwiches and chips, it was creeping up on 8, so I decided I would get up in the morning and get the workout done.

Let me tell you, if it says Cardio Recovery, it's still not easy. I was sweating buckets and had to come out of some of the stretches to let everything quit shaking and then get back into it. It seemed like it was the longest 33 minutes of my life. Tonight the hubs and I are doing Pure Cardio, so we will be back on track with the workouts. I want to follow the plan like it's my lifeline. I'll do my best.

As you can see I'm not doing a Random Friday Facts or Friday Five, I'm going on how I feel today, so this might get winded.

Last night I watched college football just because it was on. Mississippi State represented the SEC well and Kentucky acted like kittens instead of CATS!!!! They had a terrible showing and only ended up winning 14 to 3. How pathetic. Let's hope Auburn does AMAZINGLY WELL tomorrow. I'm nervous but excited for them at the same time. WAR EAGLE!!!!

Considering I have no long run tomorrow, Saturday morning is going to feel weird. I also get up around 7 to go for a run, so I guess I'll get up around 7 for some Cardio Circuit and start cleaning the house for company. We will be having some friends over to watch football games and will be snacking on hotdogs, chips and dip, saucy beans, etc. Fun day of food and football. I love it.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend. I know I will.

Angela :)

Thankful Thursday

2011-09-01T11:32:00.000-04:00

I'm determined not to have a bad day today even though I'm being treated like crap at the moment. So far this morning I've been questioned why an e-mail came to me when it had someone else's name on it, like I purposefully asked the client "Please e-mail me?" I had no clue why the client did it and I told him yesterday that I received the e-mail and was sending it to him. I've also been growled at, hung-up on, and generally ignored. I've been at work since 8:30 a.m. and it is now 11:25 a.m. Enough is enough.

On to what I'm thankful for today.

1. This cutie. This is Cody and he's a full bred huskie. Yes he is red and white and you don't see a lot of them with this color. They are mostly black and white and he has the most beautiful blue eyes. He's our dog and he is very good with the girls. He's never bitten any body. What's funny about Cody is (and all huskies actually) they love to talk. He mainly growls when he's talking to you but it scares my sister. She thinks he's a wolf. I love my Codybear.

2. These two girls. They are my reason for living. They make me smile on a daily basis and I feel lost when I go for too long without them. It was nice having a summer to myself but I missed them terribly the 4 weeks they were away.

3. Insanity. Yes, I'm thankful for Insanity. I'm able to do push-ups and not the girlie kind of push-ups because of this program. Yesterday I did moving pushups on all three rounds for thirty seconds a piece. I was smiling from ear-to-ear. I can feel myself getting stronger (just wish the weight would go away) and I'm glad I have it now that I'm in a break from running.

What are you thankful for today.

Angela :)

Three more days

2011-08-31T09:06:00.000-04:00

And then I get a three day weekend. I love me some three day weekends. I think we should get a Friday/Monday off every single month, but since that doesn't happen, I get excited when they finally do. I'm so looking forward to Friday at 5, I don't have to be at work again until Tuesday at 8:30, YEAH!!!!

Yesterday Bug had her before season starts soccer practice. Our coach, the one that we will follow until he says, "Stop following me" has had the girls out practicing since the beginning of August and soccer doesn't officially start until next Tuesday. Bug loves playing soccer, so I'm happy that he did this, she is good but is still in the awkward stage.

With soccer practice at 6 and the hubs having something to do with WOW at 8, we didn't get a chance to workout together. He dropped the girls off with me and went home to work out and then I brought the girls home, got dinner thrown together, and then I worked out. I didn't get to eat dinner until 8:30, it sucked but I loved getting my sweat on.

I don't need to run mile after mile to get in a good sweat session, just do 41 minutes of cardio circuit on Insanity and you'll also be sweating buckets. Ignore my flabby bottom part of my belly, that's the part I'm working on.

I'm still feeling pretty good about my decision to take these two weeks off from running but I know that I'll soon get the itch to get a run in. I'm hoping not to kill family members when this day comes. Running is my stress reliever so I'm amazed I've made it to Wednesday without going overboard.

Have a wonderful Wednesday. I know I will, it's pay day.

Angela :)

Just Breath

2011-08-30T11:55:00.000-04:00

No I'm not stressed or anxious about anything, well I'm a little anxious but it's nothing to bad. I'm writing about this because just this past weekend I came across some news about something that has been going on with me for a while now.

You know when you take a deep breath. Well I almost always walk around feeling like I need to take a deep breath but I can't so I start to panic and stress out and it usually takes that much longer for me to catch that breath. When I finally do, I always get it with a yawn so I know I look like I get no sleep because I'm always yawning, it's especially bad when I have to meet with clients and I'm yawning during the meeting. It makes me look like I'm bored but I'm really not, I'm just trying not to stress over not catching that breath.

Anywho, I found out that my dad and Me-maw (his mom) both have the same problem. My dad has never been to a doctor but my grandmother has gone to have it looked at. I didn't get a chance to talk to her about it and I'm hoping to get a chance to this weekend. I've done some research online about it and it seems like it's Chronic Hyperventilation Syndrome. I guess I really need to see a doctor about it but at the moment, we just don't have the money and I've lived this long with it, so why not go a little longer. What's crazy is that it doesn't bother me much when I run. I have a really good breathing pattern down while running.

Yesterday the hubs and I started over with Insanity. I actually did more this week than last week, when I thought I was going to finish the program out by myself. The hubs did really good also and even managed to beat me or tie with me on some of the exercises. He also felt a lot better while doing the exercises and even though he took some small breaks, he kept right on pushing through. I was so proud of him.

I'm on day 2 of my no running break and at the moment I feel pretty good. I have a feeling I'll feel great this week but next I'll probably start itching to get out the door. I have my schedule already printed up and ready for use come September 12. I'll start the first week out slowly, adding more and more miles until October 17 when I officially start marathon training. I have a 20-week plan with a 26 mile training run through in. It will be great to have that training run, so I'll know exactly what to expect during the race. I need to stock up on salt tablets, gels, and some other essential items (mace anyone).

Angela :)

Weekend Review

2011-08-29T10:26:00.000-04:00

Why do the weekends fly by? This weekend was no different than any others but I feel as though I didn't get a whole lot of down time. I seemed to have been on the go from the minute my feet hit the floor until I laid down to go to sleep. It was a jammed packed weekend that's for sure.

Like I mentioned in the previous blog, I ran a race that really left me feeling disappointed. I'll avenge this race next year, that's for sure.

Then after the race, I rushed home to get some breakfast, jump into the shower and make it to my dad's church by 11. I was 10 minutes late, or so I thought, only to find out the service didn't start until 11:30. But the look on my dad's face was one that warmed my heart and even though I was so tired, really made me glad I decided to come to his church (he's a Seventh Day Adventist.) Since Bug had stayed the night with a friend, I just left her where she was, so it was just Monkey and I at church with my dad. We even stayed for their homecoming lunch (they had a vegetarian style Italian, it was alright).

On the way home, my friend called to tell me that the girls' flower girls dresses were in and that she wanted to bring them over so they could try them on. Now I had plans to get in the pool and just relax and it was already 2:30 at this time. So they came over, the girls' tried their dresses on and then Monkey went down for a nap while Bug and I hung out in the pool for a couple of hours. We were really only out there for an hour and half. The rest of the evening was spent watching some t.v. and the hubs and I did some talking. It was one of this really nice evenings.

Sunday, the day I get to sleep in until 8, Monkey was in my room at 7:30. Why???? So she climbed up in bed with me until 8 and then we got Bug ready for church. Now I have been going to church lately but since I didn't do my grocery shopping Saturday like I usually do and we had plans for the afternoon, I decided to skip church and go grocery shopping. I ended up saving $58 and got $.10 off my next gas purchase at the Shell. Love me some Winn-dixie fuel perks. Once home I quickly through lunch together and then the girls and I went outside and hung out in the pool. I lounged on a float while the girls played. After an hour Monkey went in to take a nap and Bug went to relax and I just hung out by myself in the pool. Finally the hubs came and got me. We had to be at my sister's house by 4 and it was already 2 and she lives 45 minutes from me.

We had a birthday celebration for my niece and nephew who turned 2 and 4 respectfully. It was a lot of fun but by 6:30 we were all tired and ready to go. Back home I ended up falling asleep on the couch, so of course by the time I actually went back to the bedroom to go to sleep I couldn't so the hubs and I ended up watching about an hour of the 2010 Iron Bowl (where Auburn came back from a 24-0 defeat to beat Alabama 28-27).

Now I'm hoping the week flies by because 1. College football starts Saturday and 2. I get a three-day weekend. Yeah.

Angela :)

Long Run for the Children Race Report

2011-08-29T09:37:00.000-04:00

I haven't updated my daily mile account with this race because I haven't taken the time to upload the info from my watch. In all honesty, I'm disappointed with my time and the fact that I cut the race short by 3.1 miles. I only did the 10.5k race. I was tired, it was hot and my Ipod died at mile 4. I knew without a doubt there was going to be no way I was going to make the last 3.1 miles with no music because the course doesn't offer much in the way of people cheering you on. I also knew I would have no one else with me after the finish line of the 10.5k, so I just quit.

Let's start at the beginning shall we. Friday night I had pizza for dinner. This doesn't bother my stomach at all and it's actually become a sort of ritual before any race nowadays. I also take a bath and shave my legs before bed, so that's what I did. I was in bed by 10:30 for a 6 a.m. wakeup call.

6 a.m. rolls around and I finally drag myself out of bed at 6:10, grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cup of coffee. I did my business and was out the door by 7 for a 7:30 race start. Since I live in walking distance of the race, driving was really faster and I made perfect timing arriving at the race pickup at 7:05. Got my mom and my packet and went to the car to wait for her to show up.

At 7:15 I took the 5-hour energy shot and took a little jog to get everything settled. The race started at 7:30 and we were off. I started in the back but before long I was closing in on the pack leaders and started counting off the girls. Right after the 2nd mile, I was on the heels of the lead female but she sensed my presence and started running faster. For some reason I tried to keep up but by the time we hit mile 3, she started to become a small dot in the distance, so I just settled back down into my own groove thing and just ran. Once I hit mile 6, the third place female was right beside and I told her that I was just going to stay with her. She actually helped push me up the last hill and we ran in almost together. I think I just let her go on in before me because I couldn't push myself any harder. Once I stopped running, I downed a bottle of water (or 3) and we walked over to where the awards were going to be handed out.

My mom ran the 5k and had her first race day surprise. She ran all 3.1 miles without stopping. She was so proud of herself and I was really proud of her. I knew exactly how she felt. I remember the first time I ran 9 miles without stopping, then 10, then 11, then 12. Those moments never really leave you and I'm super excited to feel it again after I run 15 miles. Coming up sooner rather than later.

Anywho, she won 3rd in her age group and I got first in mine.

Side note, while I was waiting on the awards for the 10.5k race, I decided to stop by the Walgreens tent and have my blood pressure checked. They were doing it for free and it's been a while since I've had mine check. When I sat down I told the nurse that my heart rate was at 97. She said that was fine and when she checked my blood pressure it was 98/68 and my heart rate was then at 77. She was a little concerned but said it was probably due to the fact that I was so "small" (her words not mine, I don't see myself as small). I feel fine it just has me a little worried.

There you have it. I'm now on a two week/no running plan. The hubs and I are going to start all over with Insanity today and that's all I'm going to be doing for the next two weeks. Working on getting things in shape and working on my nutrition.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Random Friday Facts

2011-08-26T13:15:00.000-04:00

In lieu of doing a Friday Five, I've decided to follow Katie's lead and do a Random Friday Facts. Here goes nothing:

1. I hate tomatoes but I love tomato sauce and soups. Something about the textures of whole tomatoes really throws me a for a loop.

2. I think this is the best pre-race meals every. I always eat terrible before most races. Tonight we are having pizza. It's all good.

3. Gas in my area costs $3.48 a gallon. Yesterday I put $6 worth of gas in my car just so I could get to the Y teach a spin class and make it to work this morning. It wasn't a whole lot of gas.

4. I'm pumped up that college football starts next Saturday. I love me some football. It's going to a fun day of watching the SEC teams dominate. Well all except LSU, I'm not a big LSU fan.

5. After reading Run Eat Repeat's blog this week, I have found that peanut butter on a waffle is like heaven in my mouth. I've had it for four days now and don't plan on stopping. It will be my breakfast in the morning before the 15.5k.

6. Bug is spending the night with a friend tonight, so Monkey and I will be cleaning the hamster's cage out. Exciting times in Georgia tonight for sure.

7. The only person in my family that knows I have a blog is my mom and she use to read it but I don't think she does anymore. At least she doesn't tell me about it. I kinda like people not knowing I have one.

8. I also have a twitter account, have had it for years but rarely use it. I've gotten some twitter followers of people's blogs I read, so I'm trying to do better about using twitter. I still only use it once or twice a month.

9. I could sit in a bathtub full of Zaxby's ranch sauce, if given the chance. This stuff is amazing.

10. I have never been to a Whole Foods store. We don't have one where I live. We also don't have an Olive Garden, TGIF's, Quizno's or Scholtzsky's Deli. If I want to eat at any of these restaurants, I would have to drive any where from 3 to 5 hours to eat at one. I've also never eaten at a food truck, we don't have those where I live either. I think I should start one up (something to think about).

I'll leave you with these ten. Have a wonderful Friday.

Angela :)

Thursday Randomness

2011-08-25T14:24:00.000-04:00

Can't believe it's Thursday already. Nothing on my workout schedule has gone according to plan. Monday I skipped my run and did Insanity, Tuesday I skipped abs to get in my 3 mile run from Monday, Wednesday I only did 3 miles and today I had to skip abs again because I have no gas in my car and limited funds in my checking account. All is well though.

So last night I got home with all intentions of throwing on my running clothes and hitting the pavement for an easy 3 mile run. Well when I walked in the back door, dishes were waiting on me to wash, dinner needed to be cooked and time got away from me. So after dinner, I laced up my shoes and went for my 3 mile run. It was hard. I never run at 7:30 at night and not after dinner. I ended up getting some bad stomach cramps, but I slowed down my breathing, concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and actually took some of the time running doing butt kicks and high knees. You wouldn't believe how much faster you go when you are doing these things. I ended up running the 3 miles in 26:25 (10 seconds faster than Tuesday's lunch time run). I felt so much better afterwards. I also had all intentions of doing Insanity but because we still don't have Cardio Recovery (the friend and I are having a moment), I decided to do yesterday's exercise tonight. It will be Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.

The hubs told me last night that he wants to start over with the Insanity program next week, so I have decided to finish out this week and then start over with him again. No biggie considering I'm not going to be running and this way I will actually keep on working out.

Since I have a race on Saturday and I usually make the Thursday's before any race my goals post, I'll post my mini goals.

Considering I haven't ran anything over 7 miles in I don't know how long, I'm basically hoping to just finish the race. I'll be doing something new on race morning, bad I know, but I only have one packet of hammer gel left, so I'm planning on taking a 5-hour energy shot about 30 minutes before the race starts and then take the gel when I hit the 10.5k mark, if I need it. I'm also planning on taking my handheld with me.

So there you have it, my only goal for this race is to finish. I've never ran a 15.5k race, so this will be an automatic PR, yeah. I'm also getting my training schedule tweaked for when I start training for the marathon. I'm looking at a 20-week training schedule and when I start back running on September 12, I'm going to be adding the miles in slowly. The whole reason I'm taking time away from running is to get my muscles healed. My hip never really healed because I always had a race to get ready for. Now I'm making myself take time to let it heal and hopefully I'll be able to not overuse it again. Fingers crossed.

Well I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thursday.

Angela:)

Lunch time 3 miler

2011-08-24T11:24:00.000-04:00

Since I didn't get up and go running this morning and I worked my abs out pretty good in the Day 12 of Insanity - Fit Test, I decided to forgo abs class today and get my 3 miles in on my lunch break.

For some reason or another, we have been having some pretty decent weather around these parts and yes, it was hot, but there was a nice breeze blowing through. I meant to bring a tank top but somehow ended up walking out with a red tech shirt that I got a race last year. No biggie, the shirt is suppose to wick sweat away, or so it says. I was a hot, sweaty mess after the three miles.

Since I haven't done this in a while, here's the numbers:

Mile 1 - 8:41
Mile 2 - 8:51
Mile 3 - 9:02
Total miles: 3
Total time: 26:35
Average pace: 8:51
Calories burned: 328

I really did enjoy my lunch time run. I know that when I start Marathon training, I'll have a lot of them because I'll be doing most, if not, all during the winter months for a spring race, so running at lunch will be completely different than running right now at lunch.

After work and picking up the girls, I got home, got changed and started on Day 13 of Insanity, Cardio Circuit. This one is quickly becoming my favorite because it completely pushes you. If you think you have nothing left in you, you somehow find a way to complete all 41 minutes of this exercise and it leaves you feeling completely unreal. I managed to do almost all of the pushups yesterday. I was super stoked but my shoulders and chest are not, wonder why. I also did two rounds of ski jumps (using the plank position, jump from your right, back, left, repeat) and the in and out intervals. I was so happy. Afterwards I cooked eggs and bacon for the girls and I had an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich on sourdough bread. It was pretty fantastic.

We then went outside to swim in our free new to use above ground pool. It was a lot of fun. I'm so looking forward to this weekend, especially after almost running for 10 miles, sitting on a float while the girls play is going to be awesome.

Today I have 3 miles and pure cardio/cardio abs. It's going to be awesome.

Angela :)

Powerful Actions

2011-08-23T09:54:00.000-04:00

This morning in the car on the way to school, Bug was listening to a praise CD that her Nana gave her while the girls were there visiting for the summer. It has songs on there that I sang during my youth days in the youth group at church, so I was singing away also. But at one point I looked over and Bug had her eyes closed and she was giving it everything she had during the song and my eyes got that prickly feeling when tears are getting close. It was a moment I'll never forget and one that I want to rekindle every morning on the way to school. I honestly didn't get peeved once on the way to work, even when the truck in front of me decided to slam on brakes because a broke down car on the side of the road did look semi-like a cop car parked checking for speeders.

It's morning like these, the ones that were semi-hectic at home because I couldn't remember where the Ipod was and because I didn't get up for my morning run, means I'm ditching abs class to get the three miles in, all worth it. Watching her close her eyes, lift her voice and sing to Jesus made me tingle all over and realize that it took a 9-year old to bring me back to Jesus.

Thank you Bug, I'm coming back to the Heart of Worship and it took opening your heart to Jesus to make me realize I needed to do it also. Without you, I probably wouldn't have gone back. I'm still a long ways from where I need to be, but I know I'm on the right road to get me there. I'll have days where I'll slip and fall but I know that He will pick me back up and get me going in the right direction again.

Sappy I know, brings tears to your eyes, I'm sorry but I felt I needed to get this out this morning. Thanks for listening.

Angela :)

Schedule for the week

2011-08-22T15:57:00.000-04:00

Two posts in one day, you guys should feel loved.

Today I had lunch in the park:

and even though it was already blazing hot outside, I still loved every minute of it. I forgot my lunch at home while I was rushing to get the girls out and to their respected schools, so I stopped at Subway and picked up these chips to try.

They were really good. I loved them. I'm definitely going to be getting these more often when I go to Subway.

While I was eating lunch, my mom called and asked where I was because she was on her way to see me. I don't get to see my mom as much as I use to because she moved about 45-minutes away from me and even though that time seems like a short drive, I have to plan my days accordingly when I go to see her because we are out there all day. I love my mom's house though, so I try to make it over as much as I can.

I didn't get up and exercise this morning because of all the yard work/putting up a swimming pool work we did. I was tired and decided to move the run to the afternoon even before i went to bed last night.

My schedule for this week looks like this:

Monday - 3 miles/Day 13 of Insanity - Fit Test
Tuesday - Abs Class/Day 14 of Insanity
Wednesday - 3 miles/Day 15 of Insanity
Thursday - 3 miles/abs class/spin class/Day 16 of Insanity
Friday - Day 17 of Insanity
Saturday - 15.5k race/Day 18 of Insanity

In all truthfulness I'm really ready for this race to come and go. Ever since I made the decision to take two weeks away from running, all I can think about is that time. I'm not going to stop exercising, I'm just going to do something else. Ever since that Jingle Bell Jog back in 2008, I've ran countless 5ks, two 10ks, three half marathons, a 12k and this weekend's 15.5k race. I'm feeling the burning out on running. I know that it's just a phase I'm going through but with the marathon coming up in March (which is 6-months away on September 3, scary) I want to go into the 20-week training plan with a fresh mind, well rested body, and the desire to run. I want to give my body some rest, which is so rightfully deserves and I'm hoping that when I do start back into running on September 12, I'll have a renewed love for running. I also told my mom I would run a 5k with her on September 24. It's a trail run around a plantation.

So I'll get the miles done for this week and then take that well deserved break. I'm breaking out my bike for a lot of early morning rides and my bathing suit in the evenings for a lot of family time in our new (used but new to us) pool.

I'll be back tomorrow with any news of weight loss or changes since we started Insanity three weeks ago.

Angela :)

What a weekend

2011-08-22T11:01:00.000-04:00

I was a runner's fail this weekend. I didn't get in a single mile and I have a race this weekend that is going to be close to 9.3 miles. I'm not nervous about it because I have the base to prove I can run 9.3 miles, I just haven't done it in a long time. Oh well, I'm not to concerned yet. I might be after I hit the 10K mark Saturday morning.

So what did I do besides running, well I did Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs for Day 12 of Insanity. Then the hubs and I teamed up and attacked our yard. He did the weedeating and I mowed the grass and then he attacked the back yard while I took Bug to sign up for fall soccer.

But the wonderful news in all of this is a FB message I received while doing Insanity. Bug has a friend that has given her clothes in the past, so when I received a message telling me they had some more clothes and shoes to give her, I was pretty happy. Being on a tight budget, it really helps when people give us things, and these items are really nice items, like with the tags still on them, have only been worn once items. So as I was reading through the message, it said, "and we have an above ground pool that we don't want, so if you want it, we would love to give it to you." WHAT!!!! I told the hubs about it and he said sure, so I sent a message back saying we would be over there soon. The people had gotten the pool to use but rarely used it, so it was stored in their storage shed and they were going to put it in the dumpster. I usually have to set a kiddie pool in the driveway and use a water hose to cool myself off, so I jumped at the chance of getting a nice size pool for us to use.

Once home, we unloaded the pool and talked about how we were going to get it set up. Our yard is not flat at all. It slopes down both in the back and front, so setting up a pool took some time to decide. I also didn't have time to help the hubs get the pool up Saturday afternoon because I still had to do some grocery shopping and I had to attend my cousin's little baby's birthday party. After that I had to book it back home before 7 because the hubs wanted people to come over for his birthday party. We played cards and enjoyed the company.

Sunday the girls and I went to church and then after we got home, the hubs and I fell asleep watching Harry Potter 6. I know I woke up a couple of times to tell the girls to lay down, but I don't think it ever happened. Finally around 2:30 we all went outside to start getting the pool set up. The girls played in that thing, while the water started to fill it, for almost 2 1/2 hours. They had so much fun and makes me very excited for when the pool is finally finished.

I baked the hubs a chocolate cake with coca cola icing for his birthday and we had tacos for dinner, which Monkey slept through. I tried to get her up to eat but she just rolled back over on the couch and was gone. She did manage to wake up in time for some cake and then promptly went to bed. She was a tired baby.

Over all we had a wonderful weekend.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-08-19T09:22:00.001-04:00

It's my favorite day of the week, Friday. I'm having one of those amazing days where you have done nothing but laugh for most of the morning. I've got a smile on my face that could possibly light up the room I'm in, if the lights were to go off. I really needed a morning/day like this for a while now. I'm hoping that things are going to start looking up from here on out.

1. This morning I received a message from my boss telling me he got us breakfast. I didn't get the picture and I wasn't sure if he was joking or something, so I texted back saying "I didn't get the pic but thanks." I was really hoping he got me a bagel from Chick-fil-a. I was lucky in the fact that is exactly what he got me. When I got to work, the other secretary had gotten us breakfast also. So I have a bacon-egg-cheese biscuit and a chicken-egg-cheese bagel. I'm munching on the bagel right now. I'll save the biscuit for tomorrow, either before my run or after, most likely after.

2. This week two prayers have been answered and what's really crazy is they were answered back-to-back. Now I don't go promoting Christianity on here because I know that people are different religions and believe in different things and that is not what this blog is about but because I really needed these two prayers answered, I'm going to share them with you. Tuesday night I prayed for a great 6 miler on Wednesday. It was the best 6-miler I've had in a while. I was running effortlessly, I felt amazing and if given the time, I would have gone further than the 6 miles. Now yesterday I thought I screwed up my checking account but I kept telling myself it was going to be alright and I kept trying to make the hubs have faith that it would be alright. So before I fell asleep, I again went to the Lord and asked for our checking account to be alright, that nothing bounce. At 5:30 this morning the hubs was up getting something to drink and checked our account and wouldn't you know it, we were not in the negative. Prayers were answered this week. I was really happy and have shared the news with many different people this morning already. I think the Lord is really trying to get me to pay attention to him and forget other factors. It worked, that's for sure.

3. The tooth fairy came to the house last night. She didn't show up until 6:40 this morning and as I was getting the tooth out from under Bug's pillow and sliding the money under (it was a dollar in quarters), she rolled over and looked at me. With my hand still under the pillow, I leaned down and whispered, "How did you sleep?" She said fine and then I started kissing her on the cheek, while I pulled my hand out. After my shower, Bug asked me, "What were you doing in my room this morning?" I said, "I was really excited for you to see if the tooth fairy had come or not, so I was in there looking for myself." Way to think on my feet. She bought it but I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to keep this up. This is the second time I've almost gotten caught.

4. We have two kids birthday parties tomorrow and my hubs wants friends to come over tomorrow night for his birthday celebration. Only problem is the second birthday celebration is at 5 p.m. We usually play cards, so I'm hoping to be home by 7 to play cards with the hubs. It's going to be a cutting things close tomorrow, but I think we are going to be able to do it.

5. I have 11 miles on tap. I'm hoping that since the 6 miles went wonderful Wednesday and I was able to run a 7:47 pace at the end of 3 mile run after doing a 30-minute spin class, that this run will be just as awesome. Fingers crossed.

I've come across a great giveaway of a Road ID, just hop on over to this hilarious blog to check it out. She's so funny, her children are adorable, and I really, really want to win a Road ID for Bug so she can wear it while she plays soccer and when she starts running 5K's again.

I think this is the longest Friday five I've done in a while. I hope my happiness has come through today and that if your down and need something to make you smile, or something to make you say to yourself "Wow, she's doing awesome!" that this is the post that will do just that.

Have a wonderful Friday, I know I will.

Angela :)

Thursday Craziness

2011-08-18T09:18:00.000-04:00

Where did this week go? It's Thursday already and I feel like it's only Tuesday.

This morning when I woke up at 5:50 with a screaming bladder, that I tried to ignore, I was just tired. I rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep. It really didn't work out to well, remember the screaming bladder, but I knew my body need the rest. I'm pushing it harder than I have in a long time. Every day I do two different workouts: Run or Insanity. Tuesday's I only have abs and Insanity but today, today I have four different workouts to do.

Abs class for lunch, spin class for dinner, 3 miles on the treadmill for something to drink and Insanity with the hubs for dessert. No wonder I'm so tired.

Tomorrow is the only day I have Insanity to do.

Now don't get me wrong, I knew when I decided to do the Insanity 60-Day Program, that it was going to be hard and I was going to be tired, but I also knew the results were going to be amazing and guess what, they are. I cheated this morning and weighed myself and I haven't lost any weight but (and this is a big BUT) you can definitely see the results of the workouts in my body. I'm starting to develop the 6-pack abs that most people want, my arms are starting to become defined and my calf muscles are pretty HOT if I do say so myself.

Yesterday we did Cardio Circuit. It's HARD but so worth it. I managed to do four sets of Level 1 drills before completely passing out on the floor. I was so proud, not only did I manage to do four sets, I managed to do four sets on each round (3 rounds total). I'm also not doing the "girlie" push-ups either. I'm doing the "manly" push-ups, push-ups I never thought I could do. I'm stoked.

I have a race next weekend, that I'm really not sure what my timed goals are. I haven't been running for speed at all, and I haven't been able to complete a long run (10 miles) in forever. I give up after 6 or 7 miles every Saturday. I have 11 miles on tap for this Saturday and even though the race is only a 15.5k (somewhere around 9.6 miles, give or take) I'm really contemplating scraping the 11 miles and only running 9.6 miles just to have that under my belt.

I'm off to get some work done.

Have a great day all.

Angela :)

Feeling the results

2011-08-17T11:03:00.000-04:00

This morning I drug myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:50, quickly got dressed and headed out the door for a six mile run. I use to be scared of any miles over 3. Now I'm a little concerned about any miles over 13. I really love 6 mile runs because your out there for almost an hour and yet you still feel like you accomplished something most people cannot do, let alone before they go to work for the day.

I decided that since it was still really dark outside at 6 a.m., I would run through my neighborhood for as much of the run as I could before venturing out further. I made it 2 miles before I even left the neighborhood. When I did hit the two mile mark, I though only 4 more miles to go, I'll venture out for 2 miles and then turnaround and come back home. It didn't even hit me when I thought of that, that the 2 mile marker I was basting that time off of was when the run would end and I would still be about half a mile away from home. It hit me at 4.5 miles into the run, the exact same time my Ipod died. Fail on two accounts of this run but for all that, I still had one of the best runs I've had in a really long time. I managed to squeak out the 6 miles in 53:34 for an average pace of 8:53 (I believe, I don't have my watch and Garmin connect is still acting up for me.) Last week I ran 6 miles in almost 56 minutes I believe. I also felt really great during the run. I could feel my stomach muscles contracting and I felt stronger on the run. I actually was really surprised when I would look down at my watch and see 8:30 pace at times. I made myself reel it in some, so I wouldn't crash and burn any during the run. I didn't and I'm super proud of myself.

Tonight the hubs and I have Day 9 of Insanity. It's the crazy cardio circuit that I have actually come to love. It works everything and afterwards I feel as though I can do anything.

So far this week I'm feeling amazing. I'm loving the early morning workouts.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday.

Angela :)

I'm feeling a litte Insane

2011-08-16T14:46:00.000-04:00

The hubs and I are now on week 2 of Insanity. I'm feeling so much better than last week. I'm able to walk without having to hobble around. It takes about a mile into any run before my calf muscles loosen up but that's better than them being tight and sore the whole run.

Moving on, yesterday the hubs and I did Cardio Power and Resistance. It's tough and you sweat like crazy but like I told the hubs Saturday, I know that sweat is pretty gross sometimes, but at the same time, I find it kinda sexy, just knowing we are doing something good for our bodies.

This morning we were up at 6:15 to do Pure Cardio. The hubs was getting into the warm-up when all of a sudden he stops and starts laughing. I'm looking at him like he's strange, but keep on doing what I'm doing. He turns and looks at me and says, "Monkey just walked out of her room, saw me, turned around walked back into her room and shut the door." We just kept on working out and come to find out, she had also turned her light on and was laying in her bed waiting on one of us to come in there and see her. She's a mess,that's for sure.

For once this summer, I'm actually looking forward to my 6 miles tomorrow. When your feeling good, everything comes out good. I'm planning on getting up at 5:40 and getting started by 5:50. Fingers crossed for a great run.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday. I know I am.

Angela :)

What a weekend

2011-08-15T09:47:00.000-04:00

Finally a weekend where we all stayed around the house and no one was rushing off to pickup the girls or drop them off somewhere. It was a fantastic, relaxing, wonderful weekend, one that I didn't want to end.

Saturday morning I was up pretty early (if you count 7:00, early) to get started on my run. I had 10 miles on tap but I also had Day 6 of Insanity to do with the hubs. I'm keeping a close eye on how I'm feeling with the Insanity program and still running, so I'm making sure not to overdo it. That's the hubs main concern at the moment, me overdoing it. So even though I had 10 miles on schedule, I was going to do whatever I could and if I didn't make it, oh well. I managed to squeak out 6 miles in an 1:02. I was a little upset about it but then I realized that I'm just burned out. After I run the 15.5k race next week, I'm taking some time away from running. I'm getting a little burned out on it and with marathon training starting in mid-October, I want to go into it with a fresh mind and love for running. So I'm taking about 2 weeks away from running. I'm going to still do Insanity for the first week and then on the second week, I'm going to bike ride. I know my mind, body and soul needs the rest. I'm just plain tired. My muscles will also love me for this.

During the run, I was about 4 miles in when I came across a bridge and noticed 2 dogs running towards me barking. I stopped, turned around and walked a little ways back across the bridge. Luckily the road I was running on is a busy highway, so there was lots of cars to keep the dogs from charging at me. But one decided he didn't care about the dogs and started coming into the street. I made up mind right then and there to purchase some mace. I know it's terrible to spray a dog in the face and I don't plan on using it just to spray a dog but when your running, by yourself, and a dog comes charging out of the yard at you, I'm not going to be helpless anymore. I have pepper spray but after taking to some cops about it, they said the pepper spray will not work and I would have to use mace to keep myself safe from the dogs.

On the way back into town, I ran by two gentlemen and warned them about the dogs so they could either change their run up and go a different way or decide to chance it and run by the dogs. Both of the gentlemen told me they were changing their runs up. Good call!!!!

Saturday afternoon after snoozing in the recliner, the hubs and I finally decide to do Insanity. It was the one we did Tuesday (the one that caused me so much pain on Wednesday and Thursday). I did a lot better at it and was in no pain on Saturday. Yeah, my muscles are finally starting to get use to it. I was able to get right out of bed Sunday with no having to stand until my muscles felt like they could hold me up.

Sunday we went to church, then had one of the laziest days ever. It was perfect and if I could do it all over again, I would.

This morning I forced myself out of bed at 6 (it really helps if your bladder is full) and made it out the door by 6:15ish for my 3 mile easy run. I was so proud of myself. Let's hope I can keep it up all week.

Here's how my schedule looks right now:

Monday - 3 miles (26:54)/Insanity Day 7
Tuesday - Insanity Day 8/abs
Wednesday - 6 miles/Insanity Day 9
Thursday - Insanity Day 10/abs/spin/3 miles
Friday - Insanity Day 11
Saturday - 11 miles/Insanity Day 12

Busy, busy but I'm looking forward to it.

Angela

Friday Five

2011-08-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

It's Friday already, this week flew by. After only seeing my girls for one day last weekend and then leaving them with my mom for four days, I was more than happy to see them yesterday afternoon. I even got out of teaching spin just so I could go home and see them, plus my calf muscles were in a lot of pain and I just couldn't see how I was going to be able to muster up the courage to teach the class. Luckily the main instructor was there and she let me off the hook. On the bright side, my legs are finally starting to feel much better. After hobbling around for days, I'm actually walking semi-normal. My only problem is first thing in the morning, I have to get my bearings about me before I attempt to take that first step. It's a humbling thing, that's for sure.

On to the Friday five:

1. It broke my hear this morning when I had to drop Monkey off at daycare. She didn't want to go and I could see the tears welling up in her beautiful blue eyes when I bent down to give her a hug. I held it together, but it was DIFFICULT. I hate that I had to do that to her but I did promise her I would pick her up first this afternoon and I'm going to hold true to my word.

2. I have 10 miles on tap for tomorrow. Like I mentioned above, my calf muscles are starting to feel semi-normal again, so I'm not dreading these miles tomorrow.

3. I so didn't get my run in yesterday. I just didn't see how I was going to be able to do it. I was in pain and thinking of running 2 miles, let alone 100 yards, just wasn't in the cards for me. I have NO GUILT WHATSOEVER for not running those miles.

4. Tonight the hubs and I have to do Pure Cardio on Insanity. The only problem is when we burned it to a disk, it didn't burn this one, so I'm hoping that our PS3 is still connected to our computer so we can just remote access it through there. I'm also a little peeved that even though we got to do about 20 minutes of Insanity last night (and it was a good one because it involved a lot of stretching) the disk we copied it from had a scratch on that area, so our computer just quit recording it after that. My friend is suppose to be getting his brother to make another copy for us.

5. I stood up for myself this morning and it felt great. Today is the first day of school for the area I live in. I told my boss yesterday that I was going to be late for work, I had no clue what time I would get in but I would be coming. So this morning at 8:30 (when I was suppose to be at work) I was sitting in traffic trying to get out of my little city, I called my office to let them know that I was still sitting in traffic but I was on the way. When I walked in 30 minutes later, I hear "Just come in whenever you want to." I stopped dead in my tracks, walked back to the office the comment came from and said, "I told the big man yesterday I was going to be late and I even called this morning to say I was sitting in traffic but I was on my way. It wasn't my fault that the City I live in decided to close off roads and then have police direct the traffic." Boy did the person's face fall so fast after I stood my ground and he started backtracking and fast. He stammered, he was joking and that he didn't mean it. I then walked off to my desk. He came around later and tried to make small talk, I obliged because I'm not an ass. Ugh, that just really got me going this morning.

There you have it. My day so far. Crazy swirled in with happiness.

Angela :)

Thursday Madness

2011-08-11T11:35:00.000-04:00

Last night, the hubs and I attacked Day 3 of Insanity. I was SORE and it took all I had in me to get ready to workout but once it was done and I had soaked my sore legs in a semi-cold (no ice) bath, then through my compression socks on, I felt really good about doing the workout. This morning the hubs and I were suppose to get up at 6:30 to do Day 4, but I just couldn't. My calf muscles are bruised feeling and it hurts to walk. I'm wearing my compression socks today at work to help my calf muscles feel better. I don't know if its in my head or if its because I took some headache medicine but I'm getting a little pep in my step. I know the pain will subside eventually but can it happen faster than it is happening. I told the hubs this morning that the last time my calf muscles hurt like this was after my first half-marathon. I've ran two since and never experienced that pain again until know. It hurts.

Enough whining, I'm doing this to help my body out. I know, without a doubt, that adding this into my routine will make me a better runner and it will help my body look better. I'm also doing it because the hubs is doing it with me and I don't want to say "Uncle" because he will then say it to and quit. I'm not going to quit, so the hubs won't quit.

Today I have abs class/spin class/2 miles and Insanity to do. I know by the time I start the 2 mile run, I'll be warmed up and when the hubs and I do Insanity tonight (it's Cardio Recovery, whatever that means) I'll hopefully be stretched out enough that it won't hurt when we start. It's getting started that hurts, after all my muscles have warmed up, I have no problems with the exercises, well except for trying to do some of them. Moving push-ups anyone????

Anywho, tomorrow is the first day of school for Bug. She's super duper excited and I'm a little bummed because my mom is taking her to open house tonight instead of me because of my work schedule. Sometimes it really sucks that the other secretary gets off early because that leaves me with no time to get off. They have to have someone here to answer the phones and such. It really breaks my hurt.

I'm also feeling very guilty for letting the girls go to their grandmother's house so much this summer. I was telling the hubs the other day that I know this is good for them to spend time with their Nana who lives in another state, but I'm feeling like a very bad parent, dumping my girls on someone else. That guilt ends tonight when I see them for the first time since Sunday. Sometimes it's hard being a working parent because I also have to think about work schedules and requesting time-off before I can think about what to do with them. It also sucks that when they have time off from school and such, I have to work and can't spend that time with them. I enjoy coming to work but I also enjoy time with my girls. It's a double-edged sword and I'm really getting cut-up about this.

Anywho, didn't meant to bring anyone down, I'm just down. It will all be better tonight when Monkey and Bug are doing Insanity with the hubs and I. It's going to be loads of fun. I'm excited.

Angela :)

Hello Calves and Quads

2011-08-10T08:48:00.001-04:00

I think I forget you even existed until Tuesday morning when I literally stumbled out of bed because you guys were so stiff, sore and tight. Thanks Shawn T. of Insanity for waking those muscles up (insert eye roll here).

I'm in a lot of pain right now but I know that it is only temporary until my legs get use to the exercise. I also know that it means that I'm waking those muscles up again. The hubs and I did Day Two of the Insanity program yesterday and let me tell you, it is HARD!!!!! When I decided to start this program, my BFF that I got the DVDs from kept telling me that "It's going to be easy for you, since you work out all the time." That kept hitting a nerve for me. Yes, I run a lot but that doesn't mean that when I add something new to my routine, I won't feel the new thing at all. It's using different muscles people, so I actually do have a few bad days after starting a new thing. This Insanity business is really bringing me back to reality and showing me that I actually need to add new stuff to my routine. My hip, is no longer an issue because Shawn T. actually stretches out the hip flexors and shows you how to do different stretches that incorporate the hip muscles. I'm actually in love with the stretching part and only tolerate everything else.

Yesterday we had did 41 minutes of the workout. I was feeling pretty good and really getting into it when he dropped the Level 1 drills on us. You go down into plank position, do four push-ups, run in place for a count of 8 in the plank position, get back up and put your hands in the air, then do it all over again. By the time I got to the second round, I was laying face down on the floor thinking of just going to sleep. It was hard. Then he had us doing a move that's going to kill me. You are in the plank position, pull your knees up to your underarm on one side, back into plank position, pull your knees into the opposite underarm, repeat. After that you go into In and Outs. It's a plank move where you pull your knees up to your chest then stretch them back out again. Should be simple considering I take an abs class on Tuesday and Thursday but we don't do anything like that.

I'm tempted to jump on the scale to see where my weight is but I'm trying, really really hard not to so when I do get on it August 22, I'll like my results. Here's to hoping I'll lose something.

The hubs is doing pretty good. He can't do it all and he struggles but I'm more proud of him for even attempting it. As we are working out, I try to give him encouragement and when he stops to take a break/grab water, I tell him how proud I am of him for doing it and that it doesn't matter not one bit that he has to stop, that he is giving it all he has and soon it will become very easy for him. He's very out of shape and I think struggling a little with having to stop, but he's proud of himself for doing it also.

This morning I had 6-miles on my schedule. I cringed thinking about getting up and going for a run but when the alarm went off at 6, I got up, got dressed and was out the door by 6:10 a.m. It was dark, it was cool and I remembered, yet again, how much I enjoy running in the mornings. I didn't go fast, I didn't run for speed, I just ran to get the miles in and to loosen everything up. My calves were protesting for about 2 miles and my quads were really tight but once they loosened up, I found myself running in the low 9 minute range and I wasn't upset nor did it surprise me. I managed to run 6 miles in 55:59. I wasn't upset at all with the time. I was happy and very proud of myself for getting up and running when everything on me just plain hurt.

Tomorrow's my biggest day of the week, 2 miles/abs class/spin class/Insanity. Can I survive? I guess Friday morning will tell.

Angela :)

Day One - Fit Test

2011-08-09T15:21:00.000-04:00

So last night the hubs and I started Insanity. I know I promised pictures but the ones that was taken was in a bikini, if I get the nerves up, I might post it.

Anywho moving on. I did record my weight and am starting this challenge out at 140lbs. I'll reweigh myself on August 22, when we do the fit test again.

On to the fit test. Boy oh boy, it was hard. I was sweating buckets and had to actually stop during some of the moves to catch my breath. The hubs was having just as much trouble as I was. It was hard and is no joke. I'm a little nervous about tonight's exercise. It's suppose to be all about cardio. Just what I need. But the only thing sore on me today is my quads from doing the squat jump things and my calf muscles. It's crazy that I can go run for miles upon miles but have me doing squat and squat jumps and I'm crying like a little baby the next day.

Before the Insanity began, I did get in a 3 mile run. I managed to run those three miles somewhere around the 26ish mark, I believe. Garmin.com has not let me input my data from my watch. Something is fishy with the website and I'm not liking it.

Moving on, today I went to abs class. I swear she had a piece of paper that was signed for my death. It was hard, I started to sweat and by the time it was over I was a shaking, sweat mess. It wasn't pretty and tonight's Insanity is probably not going to be pretty. I"m a little concerned about my 6-miler in the morning. I'm hoping I'll be able to make it out the door to run/shuffle whatever.

That's enough of my whining. It should get easier and I'm super excited to see improvement. I want to see it like RIGHT NOW but I know I have to wait.

Angela :)

And the Insanity Begins

2011-08-08T10:51:00.000-04:00

Today marks the day that the hubs and I will begin the Insanity program. I'm super excited but a little peeved with myself. I should have gotten up this morning and went for my 3 mile run but I just couldn't get out of bed and now I have to get the run in this evening before we begin the program. I'm going to be tired but it's my own fault, so I'll deal with it.

I'm really looking forward to it and can't wait to give it a go. I'll be recording the hubs and I's weight before we start the program and pictures will be taken for us to look back on to see progress. I'll also be reweighing us every 10 days and pictures will be taken that same day also.

So this is how my schedule for this week will look:

Monday - 3 miles/Begin Insanity
Tuesday - Abs class/Insanity
Wednesday - 6 mile run/Insanity
Thursday - 2 mile run/abs class/spin class/Insanity
Friday - Insanity
Saturday - 10 mile run/Insanity
Sunday - REST

My crazy day is definitely going to be Thursday where I'll probably be pooped after everything is said and done. I'm super excited to start this and I'm also super excited to share my progress with all of you.

Angela :)

Walter Phelps Phun Run 5k Trail Race Report

2011-08-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's taken me a little longer than normal to get this race report up. After the race was over, I didn't have much time to get everything together because I had to jump into the car and drive 3-hours one way to get my girls and then come home, so that meant 6-hours in a car. It was a long day but I wouldn't have changed a single thing about any of it.

Race morning.

I had already knew it was going to be bad, as in HOT, Saturday morning. The temperature for the race called for 78 degrees with a real feel temp of 84 degrees with 94% humidity. So I made sure to get up early enough to get some caffeine in me but to also get some water down. Just when I went to turn my garmin on, the watch beeped at me "low battery". Crap, this thing never dies, so it decides to die on the morning I need it. Since I had 30 minutes to kill, I put it on the charger, said a quick prayer and just left it alone.

At 7:35 I pulled the Garmin off the charger and headed down to the race. Since I didn't want to push my luck on the battery power on the Garmin, I winged my mile warmup down to the race. I'm thinking it took me somewhere around 9 minutes to run down. Once I found my mom, pinned on my number, we waited for all the other people I knew to find us.

As I was standing around waiting for the race to start, I bumped into these two pretty ladies. I'm the one in the pink shorts and white top. These two friends of mine have taken up running but the girl in the blue has taken up tris and will do her first one next weekend.

Finally 8:30 gets here. They line everyone up, say a prayer, remind everyone that this is a trail race and off we go. The start of the race is through some grass and then we enter into the woods. I was feeling pretty good for the first 1 or so. We hit the first mile and my watch is showing .90, so I knew right then that this course was going to show short on my watch. After coming out of the woods, we have to go around this small water reserve. Here's where my time suffered something fierce. It rained on Friday and they had just cut the trail on the reserve on Thursday so you can only guess what this part of the race looked like. I think I gained 5lbs on each shoe because of the mud and this was no simple mud, this was white clay mud. It stuck to your shoes after coming through it. Terrible. After that little detour, we headed back into the woods to finish the race.

My friend's husband was taking pictures of us, so he got this one of me coming out of the woods and heading for the finish line. At this point I was so tired and spent I had nothing left in me.

As you can see in this picture. He passed me no problem. I had never been more happier to see a finish line in all my racing life. This race was just tough overall.

Here we are after the race, sweating buckets. I think I told them before the picture was taken, "I'm sorry if I smell!"

I ended up coming in 2nd female overall and 20th overall with a time of 25:43. Since I had to leave right after the race, I didn't get to stay around for awards, but I did get a plant (the race directors handed out plants, the race was held in memory of someone who owned garden store) and my mom got a flower as well.

I'm not sure if I'll do this race again next year. I'll just have to see how the trail does as time goes on.

I have another race in three weeks, it's the 15.5k that I better get to work on.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-08-05T09:35:00.000-04:00

Woo-hoo this week flew right on by. That's what I'm talking about. Tomorrow I have a long day ahead of me. I have a 5k race in the morning then I'm heading out to meet my MIL (mother-in-law) half way between our house and her house (3 hours one way) to get the girls and my nephew. I'm semi-looking forward to the drive to get them. I'll get to listen to whatever radio station I want to and get to sing at the top of my lungs with no one telling me to be quite.

Here's my Friday Five, in no particular order:

1. The hubs told me yesterday that he is going to do the Insanity DVDs with me. He's seeing his friends drop weight and now he feels the need to drop some also. I love him no matter what he looks like but if wants to exercise, I'm definitely not going to discourage it.

2. I'm hoping that since I'm going to start doing Insanity in the evenings, that it will motivate me to get up in the mornings and get my running on. I'm tired of doing all my running in this nasty heat, so I'm praying that this will get me moving in the mornings.

3. I'm so excited for the race tomorrow. Not because it's a mile from my house, not because it's another race, but because my office will be out there. I'm super excited to have them on my turf and show them what really makes me happy. Races and running. Couldn't ask for anything better. Now let's just hope that at 8:30 a.m., it's not unbearable to run in.

4. The hubs and I decided to start putting our clothes in a separate basket to see if that will help with getting the clothes folded. Since I have a hard time getting clothes folded, we are hoping that having separate baskets will help everyone get their clothes folded and maybe put up, maybe.

5. The girls are going to my mom's next week for four days and in that time frame they are going to the beach. I'm super jealous. I'm hoping to go to the beach at the end of the month/beginning of September. School starts on August 12, so this will be a good end of summer thing for Bug. I can't believe she will be a 4th grader this year. She's getting so big way too fast.

There you have it. I told you it was in no particular order and very random. Have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back with a race report, probably Monday, along with my before picture of Insanity.

Angela :)

It's Thursday

2011-08-04T14:19:00.000-04:00

This week is flying by. I'm super excited that one it's Thursday and two we have paid our last bill for our t.v. we purchased this month last year. One bill down and three to go and we will not have a credit card/loan bill to pay. My car will be paid at the end of the year, hopefully we will get the hubs Dell card paid off quickly, and then my dad's loan is the only thing left. I'm super excited. This is something that's needed to happen for a long time now.

Yesterday I had 4 miles on tap and because of poor sleeping Tuesday night (falling asleep at 2:30 and then not sleeping good, for the alarm to go off at 6:30, just wasn't going to happen) I moved my run back to the afternoon. When the weather people say there is a heat advisory in effect, you really need to listen. I knew that speed of any form was out of the question, so my only goal was to go for as long as I could but listening to my body and stopping when I thought I had done enough. I kept the run in the low 8's/high 9's for the first 2.5 miles but after that it just got hard and I stopped at 3 miles. I knew better than to push it and also with a race on Saturday, it just wouldn't have been wise to kill myself. This afternoon after spin class, I'll get in 4 miles on the treadmill and then on Saturday I'll get in a total of 5 miles, one mile to the race (warmup), 3.1 miles of speed work (knew I would get it in someway), and then a one mile run home (cool down). So I will still get all of my miles in for the week, just doing them on my own terms.

My goals for the trail run on Saturday is like this:

1. Try to break 23:30, if possible. With it being a trail run and with my speed lacking as of late, I just don't think a PR is in me at the moment.

2. Hopefully run a 23:32, that's my PR at the moment and I'm hoping that I'll get there.

3. Finish before 24:00. I know without a doubt I can run a 24:30 5k, so I'm hoping I'll be able to hang on and beat 24:00. We shall see.

I don't have any big plans to really PR this race and since my whole office will be out there plus a lot of friends that I know, I'm just super excited to run this race. This will be the first time my boss will actually get to see me on race day mornings. He's never seen me run but we talk about it all the time.

Tomorrow's Friday, my favorite day of the week, so I'll be back tomorrow with some random Friday facts.

Angela :)

Insanity

2011-08-03T09:03:00.000-04:00

So my BFF has been raving about the Insanity workouts. She has the disk and has been doing it off/on for a couple of months now. Yesterday she came over and I made me a copy of her disks, so that means next week I'll begin my 60-day challenge of the Insanity workouts. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now. I'm also going to really dedicate myself to it so I can then review it properly on here for those wanting to know the results. I'm also going to make the hubs take pictures of me throughout the workout to see if we can see the results. I'll post my first picture (goodness I'm nervous just thinking about it) on Monday for the before the Insanity begins, then I'll post every 10 days or so until the 60 days are up. Fingers crossed we get some good results.

Monday's run started off well, but as the run went on, it felt like the heat went up and I just got hot and slower. I managed to get out 3 miles before having to call it quits. Yesterday I did abs class, where the instructor proceeded to kill me to a slow death and today I have 4 miles on tap. I did have my alarm set for 6:30 but because I was still starring at the clock at 2:30 this morning, the alarm quickly was changed to 7:10 and I have no clue what time I actually fell asleep but it was terrible sleep and when the alarm did go off, I felt like I had rubbed sandpaper on my eyes throughout the night. I hate nights like that. So this evening, I'm going to run a slow/easy 4 miler. I have a 5k race (which goals will be posted on Thursday) on Saturday. That's another reason why I'm waiting until Monday to start the Insanity program, I do have some goals for this race.

Well I better get to work, we have a lot of looming work on our plates with some quickly approaching deadlines. If I'm not around much this week, that is the reason why.

Angela :)

Man this year is flying

2011-08-01T13:25:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Friday morning as I was getting the girls shipped off to their different daycares, yes we use two different places because Bug hates daycare, so I send her to summer camp, Monkey mentioned her belly hurt. Well she tells me this every single morning and I tell her that she needs to eat breakfast as soon as we get to daycare and she will be fine. Usually she is fine and its just hunger that is making her belly hurt. But on Friday morning, it was not what was causing her belly to hurt. The minute I opened the door to let her go into the daycare, she is puking every where. I get everything cleaned up as well as I could and we get back into the car to take Bug to her last day at summer camp.

So Friday I took a personal day to stay home with Monkey. I thought it was just a one time thing when we were on our way to my office to pickup my paycheck, when I looked at Monkey in her car seat and she looks like she doesn't feel good, so I ask her and she answers by puking all over herself. Great, we are half way to the office, so I get her cleaned up as well as I can, we get my check and then hightail it back home.

What's crazy is after the second puking, she quit all together and even went outside to play with Bug after Bug got home from summer camp.

Saturday morning I didn't have time to get in my 10 miles because we were taking the girls to meet the hub's mom half way. We left the house at 7:45 a.m. and didn't get back home until sometime after 3. The hubs and I had friends over Saturday night and me being lazy, stayed in bed almost all of Sunday. So I didn't get in any exercise. I feel like a fat failure.

This afternoon after work I'm heading out to get in 4 miles. This week is a cut-back week on the running considering I have a 5k on Saturday. The rest of my week looks like this:

Monday - 4 miles
Tuesday - Ab class
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - 4 miles/abs class/spin class
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 4 miles (warmup mile and 5k race)

It should be a fun week.

Angela :)

Thankful Thursday

2011-07-28T09:06:00.000-04:00

I don't usually do a Thankful Thursday post but because I'm still working on a different post that I was tagged in recently (it should hopefully be up tomorrow) I decided to do this today.

1. I'm thankful for my babies. Bug and Monkey are more world. They drive me crazy most of the time but the other time, we are laughing, playing, talking, and hanging out together. Last night Bug helped me fold clothes. We had a great time watching Wipeout and folding clothes together. Tonight we will do it all over again.

2. Even though I'm grateful they are in my life, I'm super excited to have a kid-free week again. I know, I know I went on and on about not having them go away for so long ever again, but having a hardheaded three year old will sometimes make you want to pull your hair out. We are in the "I want to do it myself" stage and it's not fun. Any of you with children who are older than 3, understand completely what I"m talking about, those of you without children 3 and older, or with one on the way, your time is coming.

3. Running. I have been running hip pain free all week. Usually by now, my hip is inflammed and killing me. But because I have been mostly icing after my runs, I'm feeling fantastic. It's exciting. Makes me think I will be able to follow through on my marathon dream afterall.

4. Speaking of marathons, I have found yet again another training plan but this one is 20-weeks long and incorporates a long run of 26 miles into it. I'm thinking of following through with this plan but taking out some runs and adding in some runs. I really like the 20-week thing but I also love the 26 mile long run. It will give me the insight of what it will be like on race day.

5. Friends. I've got a friend packed weekend planned this weekend. Since the hubs and I have to take the girls halfway to meet his mom, we have decided to go to a friend's house in Alabama to see her new baby and then we are going to hang with some friends at our house Saturday night. It's going to be a super long day but really fun.

6. The hubs. Without him I would be lost. I love him more than he will ever know, even though I try to tell him every day. He still gives me butterflies even after 6 years of marriage. That is love, in my world.

What are you thankful for?

Angela :)

Speed Demon

2011-07-27T11:29:00.002-04:00

Yesterday after work I had plans of running 3 miles. All day the sky darkened and thunder threatened my run to the treadmill at the gym. As I got the black-eyed peas on the stove and ready to simmer while I ran, the hubs joked that I wasn't going to make it. I kept giving him the evil eye as I hurridly got all my gear together and headed outside. The girls were playing with friends in the front yard, so I told them I'd be right back and took off, like a bat out of hell.

I haven't ran that fast, just for a training run, in who knows how long.

Mile 1 - 8:08
Mile 2 - 8:11
Mile 3 - 8:33
Total miles: 3
Average pace: 8:17
Time: 24:55
Calories burned: 305

Before I left to go on this run, I told the hubs that I would only need 25 minutes to get it done. When I walked inside, I smiled and told him I was 5 seconds faster than what I told him I would be. I couldn't stop smiling. Funny how the little things make you happy.

I think that was just what I needed. I didn't think I had speed in my anymore. I haven't ran fast, outside of races, just to run fast. Also I noticed I wasn't breathing that hard. Sure I was breathing fast, but it felt comfortable. I think I need to up my ante and quit playing mind games with myself.

So today I have 4 miles on tap. I didn't get the run in before work this morning because the day is suppose to be overcast and there are suppose to be thunderstorms this evening after work, so I will be getting the run done on my lunch break. I'm honestly looking forward to it because I really love to run down on River Walk. It's mostly shaded and I love just getting out by the river and just running.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday. I know I am.

Angela :)

The Weekend

2011-07-25T11:14:00.000-04:00

Overall I had a pretty good weekend.

Friday night the hubs decided and then informed me about an hour before he left that he was going to a friend's house. I wasn't upset that he went, I just wanted to go to. He said it was for guy's night but then I found out that the guy had his kids there. What kind of guy night is that???? Anywho, I stayed up way to late waiting on him to get home and therefore making me push my Saturday morning run back to a later start than I wanted plan.

Saturday morning's run went terribly wrong after mile 4. It was only 75 degrees out at 7 a.m. but it was also 97% humidity. I don't know which is worse, running in that type of humidity or waiting until later in the day and running in higher temperatures. They are both terrible but it's a coin toss for sure. So anywho, I was suppose to run 10 miles but after running out of water at mile 6, I did my body a favor and just stopped at 7 miles. I was semi-defeated but in my mind and heart, I knew I had done the right thing by stopping. It just wouldn't have been smart to continue running in that type of humidity with no water.

Here's the splits:

Mile 1 - 9:06
Mile 2 - 9:06
Mile 3 - 9:19
Mile 4 - 9:45 - The beginning of the end, it only gets worse after this.
Mile 5 - 10:08 - The walking began in this mile.
Mile 6 - 11:47 - Ran out of water.
Mile 7 - 11:45
Total miles: 7
Total time: 1:11
Average pace: 10:08
Calories burned: 701

But all was not lost in the working out department. The hubs and I decided to take the girls to his sister's house to swim in their pool. I did a couple of laps while they played and even dared the hubs to race me in the pool, under water, from one side to the other without coming up for air. I was doing so good and even knew I had him beat when all of a sudden, he grabbed my leg, I let go of the breath of air I was holding and went to the top to see him just coming up at the wall. We laughed and I called him a cheater but overall we had a lot of fun.

Sunday I took the girls to church, then we came home to have whatever was in the fridge for lunch and then the girls and I spend a couple of hours outside playing. I laid in the sun while the girls played in the kiddie pool.

Overall a great weekend.

My training this week looks like this:

Monday - 45 minute spin class (I have to teach this class)
Tuesday - 3 mile run/abs class
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - 3 miles/abs class/30 minute spin class
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 10 mile run (let's hope it goes perfectly)

Have a great Monday all.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-07-22T13:03:00.000-04:00

Thank goodness it's finally Friday. I'm super excited because this week has just been emotionally TOUGH and that makes for one cranky Angela. I've been semi-pleasant to be around but for the most part, I've just kept to myself and stayed out of everyone's way because I knew that if someone said the wrong thing to me, I would either end up sobbing or wanting to bite their head off. Let's just say, Friday couldn't come quick enough.

On to the Friday five:

1. This is me today. I feel very pretty today, which in turns makes me very happy. I love those days where your outfit clicks, your makeup clicks, and your hair looks semi-normal (mine is almost at the point of needing a haircut but I have to wait until August 5 (I go every two months like clockwork) to get it cut again). I just wish the people around me would act like they were happy or pretty also.

2. Yesterday I taught a 30-minute spin class. I had a lot of fun and four ladies showed up. Since I'm officially taking over the class from here on out, I've decided to try and make the 30 minutes really fun and want to keep the ladies coming. I also went and ran on the new trail that was cut specifically for a 5k race on August 6. My scheduled called for 2 miles, so that's what I ran. The trail is really neat but there is a couple of places that need to be smoothed out and made easier to run on, especially for a 5k race.

3. One of my best friend's had a baby Tuesday. I'm super excited to see the baby. We are hoping to go this weekend but I think for saving some money and letting them get adjusted to life at home, we are going to try to go next weekend. It will be easier, I believe.

4. I have 10 miles on tap for tomorrow. My plan is to run to the first 5k trail in my town and then wind my way around the small city to the new 5k trail. Hopefully between running the two trails, I'll be able to manage 10 miles without much out and backs. It seems lately, that I've gotten stuck in running however many miles needed one way and then just turning around and heading home getting in the necessary miles. I'm hoping that tomorrow's run around my small city will help make the run a little more enjoyable.

5. Speaking of those 10 miles, even though I plan on starting the run sometime around 6:30ish and it's only suppose to be 75 degrees outside, with the 97% humidity, I'm going to be running through soup. I just hope I don't let the humidity bring me down. I'm excited about these 10 miles. I have ran double digits in a long time. Now is the time.

There you have it. Five boring things that you definitely could have lived without but I felt you should know. Have a wonderful weekend.

Angela :)

The long awaited Thursday

2011-07-21T16:43:00.000-04:00

This day could not come any faster. This has been one slow week and a week that I needed over like Monday. This has been a terrible week for me. Not in my running or anything like that, it's just been emotional with trying to get past this financial slump that the hubs and I find ourselves in around this time every year. It seems to be worse now than ever, but I know for a fact that we will get out of it, just not sure when.

Anywho, on to more happy things. Last night as I was sitting on the couch thinking about the day and waiting for the timer to go off on the stove, I realized that my hip had been bothering more than usual. So I decided to pop some Ibuprofen, put some icy hot on my hip and sat on an ice pack while I ate. 20 minutes later and the pain is completely gone and hasn't bothered me yet. I really need to do that every day no matter what. It helps and it made me feel really good. So this evening after I'm through with my spin class and have gotten in my 2 miles on the treadmill, I'll go home, cook breakfast for dinner and sit on the ice pack while I eat. I should have been doing this from day one but oh, well.

I just realized this afternoon that I have been a week off. I don't have a 5k race next weekend, it's the following weekend. Somehow I thought that the month ended earlier than it did. I guess because I'm really excited about this 5k race. My whole office is going to be out there plus quite a few friends who are going to be running it also. My boss told me the other day that he has never seen me run a race. So I'm super excited to see him out there August 6. He'll walk and I'll yell loudly for him when he crosses the finish line. It's going to be a fun Saturday morning.

My mom just purchased a Garmin 310. She called me yesterday asking questions and all I could do was smile because I remember when I first got mine. I love it. Right now I have ran 333.6 miles in 49:05 and have burned 33,765 calories. Wow, that's a whole lot for me.

Well I'm off. Tomorrow is my favorite day of the week. So looking forward to Friday.

Angela :)

Fun on a new trail

2011-07-20T09:42:00.000-04:00

So I and the office I work for is signed up for a 5k trail run on August 6. They finally cut the trail Monday and I finally got to run on it this morning during my 5-mile run. Yes I know it was suppose to be a tempo run, but honestly I'm not looking to break any speed records during the 15.5k and it really doesn't count in the awards ceremony (only the 10.5k and 5k count) so I'm just going to do the miles instead of trying to add speed. I might, just might work on speed again after I'm through with the marathon next year.

Back to the trail run. So I get down to the Y at 3 miles (my run is only 5 miles) and decided to run what I can on the trail before I need to start heading back home. The trail is really neat and loops around the back woods behind the Y. The only downside is the trail is freshly cut, so the dirt/sand combo makes for a really tough run. At times I felt like I was sinking and my time really slowed down while I was back there. It's also neat because they cut trails off from the main trail, so you can do a different direction. The trail is suppose to be about 4 miles long, so on Saturday I'm planning to run the whole thing as part of my 10 miler. I'm really looking forward to it.

I did manage to over shot my run out of the trail and ended up running over 5 miles but because I needed the extra cool-down, I decided to stop my watch right at 5 miles and walk back to the house. I wasn't that fair and it really did my hip some good to just walk. I managed to run the 5 miles in 46 minutes. Not my best time but because I've decided to go for miles and not speed, I really wasn't that upset.

Tomorrow I have 2 miles on tap with a 30-minute spin class thrown in the evening. I'm super duper excited about having a spin class again and have decided to try new things with them. The people that come on Thursday evenings seem to be up for anything, so I'm hoping that I can find some good new stuff to teach them.

Well I got to get to work. I hope everyone has a happy Wednesday and thankfully, we have now hit the other side of the roller coaster. Weeee, I love roller coasters!!!!

Angela :)

Is the week almost over

2011-07-19T16:21:00.000-04:00

No is the answer to that question. For some reason, Tuesday's are the long hill up a roller coaster, you know your eventually going to get to the top, it just feels as though the coaster has broken down and your sitting on the side of that hill waiting for something to happen. This Tuesday feels that way to me. I'm ready for the weekend to get here but at the same time, I don't want to rush the week. Weird, I know.

Good news though, this afternoon at abs class, the lady I usually sub for on Thursday's asked me if I wanted the class until I could no longer teach it. I, of course, said yes. So now I'll be an official spin instructor again at the Y. I'm super excited because not only does it offer me the chance to change up my routine, but it also pays $9/hour, even though I'm only there for 30 minutes. I'll make an extra $36 a month with this class and we could definitely use the money. I might have to stop the class come September, but it really depends on what Bug's soccer schedule looks like.

Yesterday morning I didn't want to get out of bed, like normal on a Monday morning, so I pushed my 2 mile run back to the afternoon. Luckily for me, the girls are in VBS this week, so I dropped them off at church, went home to change and instead of getting in 2 miles I decided to go for 3. I felt pretty good for the run but at the end, my garmin kept showing a 9:45 pace but I just didn't feel like I was going that slow.

Mile 1 - 8:36
Mile 2 - 8:38
Mile 3 - 8:52
Total miles - 3
Total time - 26:14
Average pace - 8:42
Calories burned - 302

The rest of my week looks a little like this:

Monday - 3 miles in 26:14
Tuesday - abs class
Wednesday - 5 miles (3 at 7:52ish pace)
Thursday - 2 miles/abs class/spin class
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 10 miles

I just hope that I have no problems getting the rest of the runs in and done. My hip started bothering me last night after the 3 mile run and I believe (really I know) it was because I didn't stretch properly after the run. I instead downloaded some new tunes to my Ipod and then jumped into a semi-hot shower. Not so good for the hip muscle.

It felt really good stretching it in abs class today so hopefully tomorrow morning's 5 miler will go smoothly.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, we are almost on the other side of that hill.

Angela :)

Weekend Review

2011-07-18T11:13:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen Harry Potter Part 2, I recommend watching it. The hubs and I ordered tickets for the movie on Tuesday from Fandango. I'm one of those type of people who like to be at the movies, sitting in her sit before the previews come on. I'm also one of those girls who enjoy the previews. So when we decided to see Harry Potter on opening night, we knew we needed to be there early. We got there an hour before the movie started, got our tickets, and then walked over to Mellow Mushroom and hung out with our friends for a while before heading back to the theater. We still were about 30 minutes early but after chatting up with the movie staffers, he agreed to let us in early. It was hilarious because we were in the wrong area but because I chatted it up with him and he agreed to let us in, the others who were waiting on the other side, saw us going in and shouted, "Hey, their letting people in." We ended up getting the good seats because we were the first people in. I love sitting in front of the rails so we can prop our feet up, those are the good seats that usually get taken first. Anywho, glad we got there when we did, the place filled up and filled up fast.

Saturday morning dawned with raining that didn't stop until late into the evening. So with thoughts of getting in my long run (8 miles) I decided to push the run to the hamster wheel at the gym and go when Monkey goes down for a nap. So I went to the grocery store and spent way to much money, as usual. Even with coupons and getting the BIGI's I still went over my budget. Live and learn. I'll be better prepared this week, I hope.

Finally 2 rolls around and I put Monkey down for a nap and head up to the gym. I hop on the hamster wheel, take a t-shirt I found in the truck to cover up the numbers and just get to running. At 6.25 miles I just couldn't hang on any longer. I get off the treadmill but with thoughts of just getting the run in, I hopped back on the treadmill and got in three laps (.75) to finish the run with 7 miles in 1:02. I was pretty happy with the run, even though I didn't exactly hit my 8 miles but when you start burping and all you can taste is acid, you have to stop and just be happy with what you got and I was.

Saturday night was spent drinking some Bud Lights (yes, I've officially turned into a beer girl) with the hubs and a friend of ours.

Sunday rolls around with the sun high in the sky but with also looming black clouds which indicate rain is on the way. The girls and I go to church and then come home where I proceed to eat lunch as quickly as possible and get outside to get the grass cut. The rain that was threatening all morning, never happened. After the grass was cut, a nap was had in the recliner while the Women's World Cup was going on. I managed to sleep for 50 minutes of the game and woke up in time to see Japan come back in regulation, then watch as the USA took the lead in overtime, only to have Japan tie it up again and then saw Japan take control in penalty kicks. It was a sad/happy time. Japan really needed that win after all that it has gone through but on the other side of the coin, I was really pulling for the USA because Bug is a huge (and thanks to her wanting to play two times a year, we are now) fans of the sport.

My new favorite item that I have picked up this week at the grocery store, thanks to being on sale and having a coupon. I like yogurt but I like the ones that don't have much of the fruit bits and pieces in it. I like it creamy and smooth, these are perfect and taste amazing. I'll definitely be getting some more of these next week.

Angela

Friday Five

2011-07-15T11:12:00.001-04:00

Yeah, it's finally Friday. This week has been tough and I've been sore. But I have managed to hit all my runs this week, even if they were on different days. On top of all the running (9 miles so far), I've also taught 3 spin classes (one 30 minute and two 45 minute classes). I was suppose to teach one this morning but I was told when I got to the gym that no one usually comes to the Friday class. Thanks for telling me this Tuesday morning when I was there, it sure would have saved me the trouble of getting up early but at least I was able to get in my 2 mile run which wouldn't have happened, had I not gone to the gym, so for no one showing up, I was grateful.

On to the good parts of this post:

1. A little secret that my friend shared with me about cleaning piercings. Back in February I got this done to my ear.

Well I ran out of the Claire's solution that I had been using. My ear started to bother me (I was told when I went and had the first earring removed that these type of piercings stay infected because of hair, hair products, sweat, etc.) My friend told me that she was using her boyfriend's contact solution on her belly piercing, so I thought why the heck not on my ear piercing. Two days later and I'm sleeping better on that ear and it doesn't hurt when I touch it. Yeah.

2. Tomorrow I have 8 miles on my schedule. It's been a while since I've last ran 8 miles and I'm really looking forward to it. I have already mapped out my route in my head and hopefully it will be a nice run.

3. The hubs and I, along with a couple of friends are going to see Harry Potter Part 2 tonight. I got my tickets Tuesday afternoon and the girls have a sitter for while we are gone. Bug was suppose to go see the movie with us, but because she kept putting off seeing Part 1, that she is now having to wait until she can see that movie before seeing Part 2.

4. Speaking of Harry Potter, I've finally read all the books and even though the Goblet of Fire is my favorite movie, the book is just way too long and drawn out. It's not my favorite book and when I go to reread them again, oh yes I'll reread them again, I'm not looking forward to that book.

5. My registration form for the Snicker's Marathon for March 3, 2012, has been printed out and filled in. I'm waiting until the end of August to send it in. It will only cost me $65 to run the marathon. I already have an 18-week training schedule printed out and ready to go. It's not really a hard plan only because I'm not looking to break any time goals for my first marathon. My only goal is to make it to the finish line. I've already decided on where friends and family members are going to be on the course and have already asked my mom to help me from mile 20 on to the finish. She's going to jump in with me at mile 20 and run/walk/crawl/drag my butt the rest of the way. She's my personal cheerleader and having her help me at the end is going to be what I need, I think. I'll see more after I get some longer runs of 14 miles and more under my belt.

There you have it. I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and weekend.

Angela :)

Rest

2011-07-14T09:15:00.000-04:00

I just couldn't get up this morning to run a measly two miles. I am completely whipped. My thighs are in a lot of pain and everything just feels tired, so I made an executive decision to get the two miles in tomorrow after the spin class. I just need a day to rest. I haven't been this sore in a long time and even though I'm loving it (I'm crazy I know), I also realize that I need to give my body time to recoup.

Spin class was amazing yesterday. I went into with thoughts of wanting to go home but once we got started and my nerves went away (even though I've been teaching these classes for a couple of years now, I still get nervous at the beginning, I have stage fright) the class was just awesome. We got in some good sweating and at the end, I got tons of thank you's and this class was harder than Monday's class. Loved it. I incorporated some push-ups at the end and everyone really thought that was neat and it helped pump up my arms some.

On a really good note, I have been trying to get away from 140lbs. for a while now. Yesterday morning before my 5-mile run I weighed right at 140 after the run I weighed 139. I was really pleased with that but yesterday after the spin class I decided to see where I was at and I weighed in at 138. The hubs told me not to get to excited about it and see where I was this morning. So I got up, did my morning duty in the bathroom and before I jumped in the shower, I weighed myself again, I was still sitting at 138. I was so excited. My stomach actually looks better today than it has all week.

Well that's all I have for today. Since I'm not going to run this evening, I've decided to cut the grass. Because of all the rain we have been having, it looks like a jungle in my front yard and we once again look like the red-headed step children of the neighborhood. Taking care of that tonight so we have a pretty yard once again.

Have a wonderful Thursday.

Angela :)

A Day in the Life

2011-07-14T08:49:00.000-04:00

As I was reading my google reader this morning, I stumbled across SUAR's post about her day in the life and she requested that you do it to. So I'm putting my boring day-to-day life out there for everyone to see. Here's goes nothing.

5:40 a.m. the alarm goes off and I hit it to turn it off and roll over.

5:50 a.m. the alarm goes off for the second time, I again hit, again roll over trying to bargain with myself that those 5 miles could be ran on my lunch break, after work, any other time than right now.

6:00 a.m. finally drag myself out of bed and get dressed because it's suppose to be 99 degrees today with a heat index of 111. No way am I running in those type of temperatures. I wouldn't survive it.

6:55 a.m. finish up with 5 mile run and sit in the driveway catching my breath and wondering why I put myself through such pain.

7:15 a.m. Enjoy a big (or two) cups of this. Coffee is wonderful.

8:25 a.m. Arrive at work to begin my day.

5:30 p.m. Get off work and head to the gym to teach a 45-minute spin class.

6:00 - 6:45 p.m. Teach spin class and wonder if it's possible to cancel Friday's class right then because I was just really sore.

7:00 - 10:30 p.m. Eat dinner, get clothes started in the washing machine and find a way to get clothes out of dryer but into an already full basket without folding a single piece (I did manage to do just that), watch some of the Espy's and crawl into bed and pass out.

And there you have it, a day in the life of She Runs!!!! Not as exciting as most people think.

How does your day look???

Angela :)

Pulling double duty

2011-07-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

This morning my alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 5:20. I actually considered turning it off and just skipping the spin class. But I promised the lady I was filling in for that I would teach them, so I got up and was out the door by 5:35. The class started at 5:45. Luckily I had 4 people show up. I was pretty pumped because not many people will show up at 5:45 IN THE MORNING for a spin class. I, thought, I had a pretty good class. I got my sweat on and everyone seemed pretty happy and tired when the 30 minutes was up.

After the class, I changed into my running shorts and hopped on the treadmill for the 2 miles I was suppose to run yesterday. I squeaked out the 2 miles in 17:38 (I believe). I actually felt really strong during these two miles and was even able to pull off an 8 minute/mile pace at the end. Loved it.

On my lunch break I'll do the 30-minute abs class and then take the rest of the day off to rest.

Yesterday I had to teach a 45-minute spin class. It started at 6. When I got there, there wasn't a whole lot of people but by the time 6 rolled around, I had 8 people. My only problem with yesterday's class was my CD wasn't long enough. I hadn't thought the whole class out and we had 10 minutes to kill, so instead of just trying to make stuff up, I asked for request from them. It gave them a chance to redo something they really liked and everyone left happy and sweaty. I was pretty pumped up myself.

I have two more classes to teach this week and on top of that 15 more miles to run. I'm a little scared looking at my training schedule but pretty excited and thinking that if I feel alright after Saturday's 8 mile run, I might just keep the two early morning spin classes in my rotation. It might an early morning wake-up call but I do better on my runs in the morning than I do in the afternoon, so I really need to start doing it more.

As for the rest of my week, my schedule and training looks a little like this:

Monday - Taught 45 minute spin class.
Tuesday - Taught 30 minute spin class/ran 2 miles in 17:38/abs class
Wednesday - 5 mile run (3 at 7:52 pace)/teach 45 minute spin class
Thursday - 2 mile run/abs class
Friday - Teach 30 minute spin class
Saturday - 8 miles at a 9:23 pace

Wow, oh wow, what a busy week. I actually love it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday.

Angela :)

Weekend Review

2011-07-11T14:06:00.000-04:00

Wow three posts in one day. You guys should feel very special.

Like I mentioned previously I ran a 5k race on Saturday. After the race, I got home and was greeted by these two beautiful people

a future rock star and

a future robber, LOL!!! She found this ski hat and decided to wear it on her face. It was so funny to see her walking down the hallway with this on her face. I had to laugh.

We got ready to head to a friend's son's 10th birthday party. Considering it was outdoors and a pool party, it seemed the rain went away just in the nick of time. We got out to the party and immediately jumped in the pool. It was a lot of fun until about 30 minutes later when big black thunder clouds came rolling in and everyone was scrambling to get out of the pool. We were trying to get the truck loaded back up to head home before the rain hit but the hubs and I were moving way to slow and ended up getting soaked while trying to get the girls loaded in and our other stuff in the back. We laughed. Once we got home, everyone laid down for some naps while it rained. It was one of the best Saturday's I have had in a long time. Just relaxing.

Sunday morning rolls around and the sun is beaming. I decided that the girls will play in the kiddie pool while I lay in the driveway (because I'm a redneck) to get some sun. We head to church, come home, eat lunch and then the sun slips away and the storm clouds come out and it ends up raining pretty much the rest of the afternoon. So what does one do when their plans are foiled yet once again, why watch Harry Potter 6. The hubs, Bug, and I watch Harry Potter 6 while Monkey napped. Again, we had a wonderful afternoon just relaxing at home.

I absolutely loved the weekend. It was one of those weekends where the hubs looked at me and said, "I had a really great weekend." He very rarely tells me that so it made me smile and I wish I could go back in time (like on that movie Groundhog Day) and just keep it on repeat.

Let's hope next weekend is the same.

Angela :)

My Favorite Kind of Lunch Breaks

2011-07-11T13:54:00.000-04:00

Considering I'm a working mom and get no quite time when I get home from work. I usually like to take my lunch to the park, if I have nothing else going on.

This is the the path that is called "River Walk" and the same one I use to run on when I have a run on my lunch break. This is also what is behind my favorite swing at the park. On the other side of that bridge is where the Snicker's Marathon ends. This place brings back some good memories and it is really peaceful.

This is the view that is right in front of my favorite swing. The park is right across from our Civic Center and down from Albany State University, so there is a lot of traffic but considering that, it is still a great place to just get away for an hour and just relax.

Obviously I'm relaxing or cheesing, whichever you want to think.

I love coming down to the park on my lunch break. The area I go has no swings or things like that, so I don't have to worry about children screaming and such. The area of our park that has that is known as "Turtle Park" and it's across the street.

Angela :)

Roo Bear Run 5k

2011-07-11T09:21:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning I had a race to run. I was pumped up to run. I race day mornings no matter what the distance is. This morning I got up at 6 because I was meeting my mom 20 minutes from the house and the race site was 45 minutes from my house. I decided to try something new for breakfast and had a Thomas Thin Bagel with peanut butter. It was really good and I'm glad they were buy one/get one at Winn-Dixie this past week.

When I left my house, there was no sign of rain. It was looking like it was going to be a pretty morning. Once I hit Highway 300 on the way to meet my mom, it started to sprinkle. I don't mind the rain, I just really don't want to run in it.

I meet my mom and we head on over to the middle school that the race is being held at. On the way over, the rain starts to come down and not only is it raining, it is now thundering and lightening to. Great, I really don't want to run in this mess.

We get to the school and everyone is piled under the awnings just waiting to see what the race director was going to do. By the time 8 rolls around, the thunder is slowly quieting down and there is no more lightening, so we proceed to the starting line. I kid you not, by the time the race director yelled go, it had stopped raining and it stayed that way until mom and I were headed back to my car.

So the race director yells go and I take off. Like usual I start of way too fast but it feels different this time.

I hit Mile 1 in 7:18. At this time I'm the number 1 female. I've never had the lead like this before and the excitement takes over that I could actually win this. I had no clue how far back the other girls were and I never even dared to take a gander to see how far back they were. I just kept on trucking trying to pull the guy (that I would play leap frog with on the last mile) to me.

Mile 2 7:55. Right before this mile we hit the turn around and that's when I see just how close the second and third place girls are from me. They are actually on my tail the entire time. Crap. This is where I also give up first and second place. I was a little disappointed in myself for letting go of first but I was completely ill with myself for letting go of second place.

Mile 3 8:25, this mile was TOUGH. The guy that I mentioned earlier kept stopping to walk, so I would pass him and then he would come screaming by me, only to stop and walk again. That cycle would last until I said, "The last mile is always the toughest." I guess he didn't want a girl talking to him, so he hightailed it out of there. This is also the same mile that I gave up third place. By then I just didn't care. I was tired and wanted the race to be over with.

.13 7:49. Total time: 24:41, total miles: 3.13, average pace: 7:53, calories burned 321.

After I crossed the finish line, I stumbled to the water coolers and grabbed two bottles of water, managed to shuffle over to the tables to fill out my card and drop it in my age category and then I walked back out on to the course to help my mom get to the finish line. I found her right before the 3rd mile marker and we walked/ran it to the finish line. I was so proud of her for getting out and running the race, she had a cold and hasn't really been running. She did awesome.

We stuck around for the awards ceremony where my mom placed 2nd in her age group (she's a rockstar) and I placed 3rd in my age group. The two girls who got me in the end, yeah they were in my age group. If I had known, I might would have knocked down (I kid, maybe).

I have another race on August 6 and then the 15.5k on August 26.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-07-08T11:05:00.000-04:00

It's finally Friday. I'm super duper excited because I love short work weeks. I wish I could have every Monday off.

This morning I had to go to the eye doctor for my yearly eye exam. I usually go in the afternoons but because our other secretary gets off at 3, I decided to go in the morning and get the exam over with. Good news, nothing has changed. My eyes are the same as they were last year, the year before that and the year before that. My eye sight has only changed once since I had to get glasses when I was 16/17. I've only had two pairs of glasses. My first pair looked like Harry Potter's glasses. They were big and round but I'm not nearly as blind as he is. My second pair have butterflies on the sides. I love them.

Here's my random Friday five facts:

1. I honestly don't know how I manage to get to work on time some mornings. It's a mad scramble in my house from about 7:30 to 8, to get everyone dressed and out the door. I did manage to get to work 5 minutes early this morning. No clue how it got done but it did and I hope to recreate this morning's magic again next week.

2. I taught a 30 minute spin class last night. The group that comes on Thursday nights are fun. We had a blast and I was wiped after the class but I did manage to get on the treadmill and knock out my 2 mile run. I did the run in 17:46. Not to shabby for a run right after a spin class.

3. Speaking of spin classes, I have to teach four next week. They are going to be on Monday and Wednesday nights for 45 minutes and then Tuesday and Friday morning for 30 minutes. I'm still planning on hitting all of my runs next week while tackling these spin classes. I should be in awesome shape come next Sunday.

4. As you all know, I have a 5k race tomorrow. Usually I'm already nervous about the race but as of right now, I feel nothing towards it. I'm more concerned with how to get in 8 miles of running tomorrow. The race is 45 minutes from my house, so I'm thinking of trying my hardest to get to the race site and getting in a 2 mile warmup, run the race (3.1 miles) and then a 2 mile cool down and just have to settle with a total of 7.1 mile run tomorrow.

5. Tomorrow afternoon we have a pool party. I'm semi-nervous because Monkey likes the water but the first 30 minutes is maddening because she acts like she's never been in the pool before. We have to coax, beg, plead, and then give her tons of reassurances that she is fine and nothing will happen to her. Right before we get ready to call it a day, she will then decide she's a big girl and get out there by herself. Bug on the other hand is a fish. That girl loves the water and will jump in no questions asked. I'm somewhat looking forward to it.

There you have it. I'll be back sometime tomorrow (I hope) with a race report of how the Roo Bear 5K Race all went down.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Before I depart, I just want to give a shout-out to my new reader. Thanks for coming my way.

Angela :)

I love short weeks

2011-07-07T13:42:00.000-04:00

I'm so happy this is a short work week. I have a race this Saturday that I really have no goals for. Since I kinda stopped, then started a new training plan, I haven't really given this race that much thought. I did manage to run 4 miles the other day and two were in the low 8 minutes. I know that I can run a 23:32 (I believe that is my PR) but since I haven't really gotten myself ready for a speedy 5K, I just don't think I will PR in this race. I'll just do my best and use that as my goal for this race.

Tuesday and today we had a substitute in abs class and boy am I SORE!!!! I was thinking, on Tuesday, that she wasn't going to be that great of a teacher, but now I'm wishing she was going to be there next week. We did a lot of different ab moves and I'm definitely feeling it. I love it.

I have to teach a spin class tonight for 30 minutes. Then I have to teach next Monday at 6 for 45 minutes, Tuesday morning at 5:45 for either 30 or 45 minutes (not sure), Wednesday at 6 for 45 minutes and then Friday morning at 5:45 for either 30 or 45 minutes. On top of that, I'll still get my runs in for the week also. I'll let you all know how well this goes.

I'm thankful today for short weeks and tomorrow being Friday. I'm ready for the weekend, just wish it was a three day weekend again.

Angela :)

Oh my word

2011-07-05T17:07:00.001-04:00

I haven't followed the Casey Anthony trial closely. I listened to it enough to grasp what was going on. The main kicker for me in the whole thing was she didn't report her daughter was missing for 31 DAYS!!!!

Last night, while watching the fireworks, we had a bunch of little kids running around. At one point, Monkey was sitting in front of me, but I didn't notice her and started to panic because the last place I saw her was on the blanket right next to mine. I blurted out, "Where's Monkey?" and the hubs looked at me and then pointed right beside me.

Me telling that story was, I would have reported my baby missing after the first 10 minutes had passed and I couldn't find her. To let a day go by without wondering/panic/acting the fool had gone by and she wasn't worried about her baby, then she doesn't deserve to be a mother. For her to be out parting, getting tatoos while her baby was missing was just crazy. What's even crazier is the jury didn't waste much time in coming back to the courtroom and anouncing that she was not guilty and only charging her with a false information to the police. COME ON PEOPLE. WAKE UP!!!!

It's the jury like in Florida that's going to have people everywhere using that case for their own problems. Crazy people everywhere are going to say, "Well Casey Anthony got away with murder, so can I."

No one will ever truly know what happened to that 2-year old. Casey Anthony will be a hated woman by everyone. It doesn't matter that she got off , she's not going to have an easy life, like she think she is. Everyone, except those 12 people that said she was not guilty, thinks she did it.

I'm not going to say any more about it on this blog because this is not what this blog is about but this really got me angry today. I hope that Casey Anthony gets whats coming to her.

Angela :)

Long Weekend

2011-07-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

Boy did I have a great weekend. I'm going to recap by day, so grab something to eat, drink, take a restroom break, because this is going to be long.

Friday

My babies came home Friday afternoon. They arrived at my office at 4:30 and I cried like a baby. I gave them tons of hugs and just sat starring at them. I think they got a little uncomfortable at times but because I hadn't seen them for almost two weeks I didn't care. They were home and I was so excited.

We decided to have Bug's favorite food, pizza from Mellow Mushroom, for dinner. It was amazing. I love their pizza. Then the hubs went to see Transformer's 3 and I got the girls in bed by 10:30. Like I said, I was happy to have them home, so I let them stay up way too late.

Saturday

I was suppose to go for an 8 mile run. It never happened. I ended up sleeping late and instead of going for a run, decided to just let it go, enjoy my weekend and start my new training schedule on Monday. I had a little mild panic attack but after a few deep breaths and the realization that its not the end of the world, I was fine.

We went to the hub's aunt's house in Warner Robins for lunch. They had fried chicken, sweet potatoes, mac-n-cheese, cheesy potatoes (I love those things), green beans, lima beans, watermelon, cake, etc. It was a free for all. I ate a little bit of everything. We then went swimming in their gorgeous pool (wish I had taken a picture) and Bug went down the slide. Monkey went half way down the slide and finally after some coaxing, she decided to quit being the baby and be the big girl and swim around. We left at 4 and Monkey was asleep not long after we got on I-75 heading home.

The night was spent watching Shrek Forever After and Despicable Me with the girls. We all had a blast and after another night of letting them stay up way too late, the girls finally went to bed around 10:30, the hubs and I at 11:00. It was a great day.

Sunday

The girls and I went to church on Sunday and afterwards we went home changed out of our Sunday best, got the hubs and went and ate at Logan's. I had a three B1G1 meals for Logan's that were only able to be used on July 3 or July 4 and decided to use them. So we set it up so that the girls could use one coupon and the hubs and I could use one. Our total for the meal ended up being $17.84. I also saw a couple in their eating and since I had one extra coupon, took it to them to use. I decided to share the wealth.

After lunch, we went back home and Monkey went down for a nap. My BFF had called the day before and asked if we (meaning Bug and I) wanted to go skating with her. After thinking about it, we decided to go. I'm so glad we did. Bug and I had a blast. I love to skate. I skated a lot during my childhood, so it brings back a lot of good memories for me. We plan on making this something we do at least twice a month. We also plan on going in on Sunday evening because it's Customer Appreciation on that night at our skating rink and they only charge $3 per person.

Monday

Happy 4th of July. I did start my new training schedule. I ran 2 miles in 17:XX. Let me say, taking 4 days off was great but even these two miles were tough. The girls and I went outside for a little while but the sun kept popping behind clouds and it looked as though it was going to rain so we headed back inside after an hour and everyone took naps. Around 4 we went back outside and the girls ate juice pops while sitting in their kiddie pool and I read my book. At 5:30 my BFF came over and we grilled some chicken and then went and saw the fire works.

Here's Monkey watching the fireworks. She loved them. I was so happy that she loved them because when we did them at the house, she flipped out.

Here are some of the fireworks. It's the best I could do on my crackberry. We had a blast but stayed out way too late. Both girls were tired after the long day.

Considering this is a small book, I'll go now. I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July like we did.

Angela :)

New Schedule

2011-07-01T14:36:00.000-04:00

I've found a new training schedule that I think my bod will respond better to than 4-days in a row running.

I have once again enlisted the help of Runner's World Smart Coach and put together a 4 day/week running schedule that should help me stay injury free. I will only run on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. On Tuesday I plan to incorporate my bike into the mix. I also think I'm going to add bike work on Thursday after my easy runs or the other way around. We shall see.

I'm starting this schedule on Monday, so tomorrow I'll run an easy 7 miles.

My new training schedule looks a little like this:

Monday - 2 miles at 9:25 (then I'll do some weight work, this will obviously be done at the gym)
Tuesday - 6 miles on the bike
Wednesday - 4 miles - 2x1600 in 7:28 w/800 jogs
Thursday - 2 miles at 9:25 (weight work at the gym)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 8 miles (I have a 5k race this day so I'll do a 2 mile warm-up, the race, then about a 2 mile cool down for a total of 7.1 miles)

I hope that this new training schedule will help my hip out. I really hate that I'm giving up on the new schedule already but my first and only priority is keeping me healthy and I think this will do it.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-07-01T11:38:00.000-04:00

The countdown is on for the last final hours of not having my kids. They should be here around 3:30 (at the earliest) or 4. It is currently 11:20 where I am so the day is going by pretty quickly but will probably slow way down after lunch time. So without further ado, here are my Friday Fives.

1. They are coming home. Their grandfather should be having lunch with them any time now and then bringing them back to Georgia. I have so missed them and will, probably, never let them go away this long ever again.

2. I have 7 miles on my schedule for tomorrow but after this week of suffering from my hip, I have decided to revamp my training schedule. My hip never really full blown hurt but it did bother a lot throughout the week and I'm just not comfortable with 4 days of running, even after I had a great week last week. I'll post my new schedule once I get it worked out.

3. Since I have started couponing, I'm picking up things I normally wouldn't get or try. I had a coupon for these things and the store I shop at had a buy-one/get-one deal, so I ended up paying like $2.99 for two. But anywho, these things taste so good. I still have another box to go and they are again on sale this week and I still have a coupon so they made the list.

4. I can't believe that it's already July. This year has really flown by. Only two more months and college football begins. I'm super excited even though my beloved Tigers will probably not do anything like they did last year, I'm still a super fan so I'll proudly cheer my Tigers on no matter what.

5. Don't let the no running thing has deterred me from not getting my sweat on. I did get in a six mile bike ride Tuesday night and last night the hubs and I tackled the yard. I cut the grass while he trimmed everything up. Then while I was working on the back yard, he stepped in to help finish the yard and I sat down on the back porch and played with my doggie Cody. We had a great time just sitting there watching Daddy work.

There you have it. My off the wall Friday Five but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Have a wonderful but safe Fourth of July.

Angela :)

Doing the happy dance

2011-06-30T09:10:00.000-04:00

Only one more day and my girls will be home in my arms and in my eye sight. I won't have to talk to them through Skype and I'll get to hold them and love on them until they beg and squeal with protests to be let go. I told my boss this morning that if he can't me crying between today and tomorrow, not to worry it's because my girls will be home in 24 hours. Fighting tears right now.

Let's talk about yesterday's poor attempt at a tempo run. I said this last week and I'll reaffirm it this week, never do a tempo run in the afternoon when it's like 105 degrees outside. It doesn't work. I decided to hit up the local college because they have some great trails and I could get in some decent running in a different location. I got in a warm-up mile, set my watch to a quick run of 3.5 miles in 30 minutes. I failed completely on the quick run. I managed to get in 2.11 miles before I had to call it quits. I didn't even beg the hubs to use the computer when I got home to upload my information because I was that bummed about the whole thing. I knew better but I was hoping a new location would make the run more enjoyable. Lesson learned, again, tempo/speed workouts need to be done first thing it the morning.

I might/might not get in my 3 miles this afternoon. This hasn't been my best week for running but to be honest, I just haven't feel like running. I've been more focused on getting to Friday, that when I should have been working out or running I just kept pushing it off. Next week I'll reconfirm myself to running but this week, it's a lost cause and I'm not really bummed about it. I will be cutting our grass, though. Our neighbor finally cut his grass and now we stand alone in looking like the red-headed stepchild. So I'll get my sweat on pushing the lawn mower around the yard.

Last night the hubs and I joined a friend of ours for trivia at Beef O' Bradys. It was a lot of fun but the service could be something to be desired. We ordered food at 8:30ish and it finally arrived about 30 minutes later. I almost fell and busted my butt, but the bar caught my arm and so instead I have a bruise on my arm and a bruise ego, and I thought the waitress ran off with my credit card. She didn't but if she did, she would have been very upset, there isn't a lot on that card.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday. See everyone tomorrow.

Angela :)

Happy Hump Day

2011-06-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

So I was suppose to get in a 5 mile run yesterday but when I woke up, my hip was feeling funny, so I decided to push the run back to the afternoon. Well it started raining yesterday afternoon and I decided to use yesterday as a rest day. That is until about 7:20 when I decided to go for a bike ride instead of a run. I did 6 miles in 31 minutes for a pace of 11.9 mph. It was tough. My legs were killing me but I was so happy to get out and try something different. I do have to say though, running is still my favorite.

So instead of trying to find a way to make up for the 5 miles I missed, I'm just not going to do it. This afternoon I'm going to out to our local college and will get in a 30-minute tempo run. I know I said last week that I wouldn't do any more tempo runs in the afternoon, I just couldn't drag my big butt out of bed this morning, so I pushed another tempo run to the afternoon. I might be cussing myself out later but we will see.

Also this evening, I'm joining some friends for trivia night. I'm really looking forward to it because I've never gone. I don't get the chance because I have two little ones at home and I don't really like to go out on week nights. I was told I'll be home by 10:30, so I should have no problems come tomorrow morning on getting to work on time. I'm holding my friend to that 10:30 be home plan.

Other than that, my babies will be home in three days. I'm super duper excited and so can't wait to get my paws on them. I'm going to hold them and hold them until they beg me to let go.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday.

Angela :)

How did that happen

2011-06-28T10:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday after work I went home, changed into my running gear, checked to make sure the roast was doing good in the crock pot and then headed out the door for my 3 mile run.

In all honesty, I was really trying for an easy pace. I ended up with 3 miles in 25:28 (dummy me forgot to upload the information from my watch, it will be done tonight.) So anywho, I have no idea where the speed came from. I actually felt great running the miles in that time. I just love when a run through you for a complete surprise and you do better than you anticipated.

This afternoon I have 5 miles on tap. Since I was running late getting from the house to work, I decided I would just go home, get dinner thrown together for the hubs and then head out for my 5 mile run. Again, having no kids, and with the new expansion pack about to drop today on WOW (World of Warcraft) I have no qualms about going for a run this evening. My hip bothered me a little last night and that is the main reason I pushed this run to the evening. I'm not taking any chances and if it bothers me again or causes more pain, then I'll revamp my training program. I'm not getting sidelined and listening to my body is the best way to prevent me from getting sidelined.

I can't believe that I have another 5k in a week. My mom is running this 5k with me and she hasn't really prepared herself for it, but I keep telling her about it. She'll do great no matter what happens, I have faith.

Well I'm going to leave this post short and sweet. Gotta get some work done, considering that's what they pay me for, not blogging. Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Angela :)

Hurry up Friday

2011-06-27T11:52:00.000-04:00

My girls will be home on Friday and OMG I miss them. I almost started to cry last night after I got off of Skype with them. I miss their little faces, their loud squeals of laughter, Monkey's begging of food, Bug's t.v., and just everything that goes with having kids. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful weekend with the hubs, but I could tell something was missing the whole weekend. I want them home and I want them home like yesterday.

But considering I had no kids this weekend, I got up around 7 and went for a 6 mile run Saturday morning. Truthfully I was really not looking forward to this run. I thought it was going to be terrible from the beginning. I was still sore from the four days in a row of running, so I just didn't think I would be really into this run.

Overall though, the run was great. I managed to hit 6 miles in 54 minutes. I was happy with myself as long as I stayed around the 9 minute/mile. I didn't want to push any faster than that and I knew I would be angry with myself if I went any slower than that.

Saturday afternoon, I went with the hubs to get his hair cut and we managed to get some steak subs for $10 (I'm really digging coupons). We then went to the SIL's house and spent some time with them in their pool and then headed over to the hub's friends apartment complex to hang out in their pool. So all-in-all we spent a majority of the day in pools. Such fun and I really enjoyed being able to relax in the pool with no kids.

Sunday was spent lounging around on the couch, in the bed, and in the recliner. I did get up around 5:30 and rode my bike to the library to return some books and check out some new ones. I'm in a reading slump at the moment, so if you can have any good suggestions on some good books, shoot them my way. I need something.

Today after work I'm planning on running 3 miles and doing some weights at the gym. I'm hoping to talk to the hubs into coming with me again, or at least telling him to come down to the gym after about 20 minutes or so to help me with the weights.

The rest of my week looks like this:

Monday - 3 miles/??weights??
Tuesday - 5 miles/abs
Wednesday - 30 minute tempo run
Thursday - 3 miles/??weights??/abs
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 7 miles

It's basically last week's schedule. My official training for the 15.5k starts this week. I used last week to see how my body would handle four days of running. It did well, so I'm going to continue with the four days a week. I was tired, my hip was a little achy, nothing I couldn't handle, but I felt really great. I'm hoping this will help get some of the weight off. We shall see.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Angela :)

Randomness Friday

2011-06-24T13:38:00.000-04:00

Instead of a Friday Five, I'm having a random Friday. Here goes nothing.

1. I wasthisclose to being in an accident on my lunch break. Luckily for me, I got held up at a red light and instead of being the one to get hit, I was able to hit my brakes and make sure everyone was alright before getting out of there.

2. I have 8 miles on tap for tomorrow and at this moment, my legs are so sore I'm wondering how I'll get it done. I have ran 14 miles in the past 4 days. That's a huge accomplishment for myself considering I was usually leveling my week out at 14 miles.

3. With having ran 14 miles in 4 days I was really concerned about my hip. I so thought I was going to have rearrange my new training plan but at this moment, I'm having no pain. Excited much, I am.

4. I ran 4 miles yesterday in 34:24. That's a whole 2 minutes faster than normal. I guess change of running places really helped me out.

5. I haven't really lost any weight, but I have noticed that my clothes are fitting better than last week. I'm really excited about that. I was starting to get a little concerned.

6. My baby girls will be home in a week. I'm missing them.

7. But with that said, I'm looking forward to a quit weekend at home. I'm going swimming tomorrow. Let's hope Mr. Sunshine decides to come out and play.

8. I'm super glad it's Friday. It has been a stressful week and I'm glad its over.

Enjoy your weekend.

Angela :)

It's Thursday

2011-06-23T10:22:00.000-04:00

My girls are at my MIL (mother-in-law)'s house until next Friday. When we told Bug last night over Skype that she would be there until then, she kinda got upset. I thought she was going to start crying and then both girls started shaking their hands no and saying they would miss us to much.

But with them being gone, it's given me time to experiment with different foods, to make what I want to eat for dinner, and time to go running after work without feeling guilt of any kind. Monday the hubs and I went to the gym together, Tuesday I got up early for a 4 mile run, yesterday after work I did a 30-minute tempo run that I thought was going to kill me and today after work, I'm going to run 4 miles starting from my building and just going wherever my legs lead me.

Saturday I'm going to my SIL (sister-in-law)'s house to lay out in the pool with no kids screaming for me to hold them, not begging the hubs to please watch the girls so I can lay out and not having to work in naps and the such. I'm looking forward to just relaxing this weekend with no kids to take care of. I'm super excited.

So like I mentioned in the second paragraph, I had a 30-minute tempo on schedule for yesterday. Since I ended up working almost 30 minutes overtime yesterday, the run got started later than I had anticipated. I started way too fast, clocking in 7:30's at some points on my watch. Knowing I was going to eventually fade in the heat, I tried to get myself to reel in the speed and work on form. When I got to 15 minutes I stopped my watch and just took a semi-break. Stretched, caught my breath, and told myself that I could do anything for 15 minutes. Found some pump-you-up music on the Ipod and just tried to hang on for 15 more minutes. It didn't work. After like two minutes I had stop and walk for a few seconds to catch my breath. It was a straight shot to hell after that. It was HOT, I was miserable, tired, and wanted to be done so bad. I pushed myself through the run and will, from now on, do these first thing in the mornings.

Today I have 4 miles on tap. Considering I don't have to rush home for anything, I'm going to take my time and focus again on form. Stretching my stride. I find I have a short stride and when I stretch it, I find I can run faster for a little bit longer. I'm going to focus this run purely on making sure I keep my stride long the entire time.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thursday. The weekend is almost upon us.

Angela :)

Quirks

2011-06-21T08:47:00.000-04:00

I was cruising my google feeder when I stumbled across this blog (runningwithbabes). She listed her food quirks and then asked what were yours. Considering I'm one of the worst picky eaters out there, I thought I would list mine also. Here goes nothing:

1. I absolutely hate onions. I don't even want to try onions fried. When a recipe calls for onions, and it's something I'm going to eat also, I add onion powder or onion salt for that onion flavor without adding onions.

2. I love peas/beans of almost any variety. When I was younger, my dad would just give the pots of whatever beans/peas that was cooked after everyone else was finished. I would polish off that pot after I was finished with my own meal first.

3. I do the same thing with corn. Corn on the cob, canned corn, frozen corn, creamed corn, etc. I'm a corn fanatic. I could eat it at every meal, and sometimes we do.

4. I drank coffee as a toddler out of my mom's cup. She would find me sitting on the counter sipping coffee out of her cup. Then I grew up and hated the stuff, that is until I turned 30. Now I drink two cups a day.

5. Chocolate is my weakness. If there is any chocolate in the house, I'm going to eat it. I mostly wait until Monkey and Bug have gone to bed so I don't have to share.

6. Same thing applies to ice cream. I sometimes don't even tell the family I bought ice cream, just so I don't have to share it.

7. I've learned to appreciate zucchini. I actually loved the stuff grilled with seasoned salt and butter. It's great and what's even better, Bug likes it to.

8. When I order salads at a restaurant, it has to only have lettuce, whatever meat (usually chicken and usually fried), cheese and croutons with lots and lots of RANCH dressing. What's even funnier is, my sister orders her salads the same way, so I usually just have her order for me.

9. Speaking of lettuce, I love a huge big bowl of lettuce but keep the stuff off my sandwiches, hamburgers, and tacos. Gross gag me now. No idea why.

10. I've recently come to like jalapeno peppers. Thanks to the hubs.

11. Sweet potatoes soffule use to gross me out but when I was pregnant with Monkey I tried some at Thanksgiving, now I come up with any excuse to make it myself.

I have more but I feel that is enough for now. Your turn, what's your food quirks?

Angela :)

It's been a great weekend

2011-06-20T10:00:00.000-04:00

I know I was suppose to go running on Saturday but when your friend talks you into going out Friday night and the highs on Saturday are going to be around 100 degrees, it just never happened.

So like I mentioned, my friend talked me into going out Friday night. Luckily for me, I managed to have an awesome time spending NO MONEY!!!! That's right, I went out for free. It was a great (I was so hung over) feeling knowing that my checking account never got hit and yet I drank way too much. I didn't get to bed until 2:30 and woke up around 7:30 because the hubs had to go to work and needed coffee. After lounging around until about 10, feeling sorry for myself and hating my life, I took some advil, drank two huge cups of water and jumped in the shower. I felt semi-normal and we went to my cousin's daughter's 2nd birthday party. After spending an hour there, Monkey and I went to the grocery store, where I managed to ring up $136 in groceries and managed to walk out only spending $83. Super duper excited about that.

Saturday night, we had a "Burger Bar" get together. Everyone brought something to go on top of hamburgers and the hubs grilled the burgers. We had lettuce, tomatoes, onions, hamburger pickles, cheese, bacon, etc. My BFF brought the best dip ever, I swear I could eat the bowl she brought the dip in it is that good. Monkey and I tore that dip up, but we did reserve ourselves, just a little, for others to at least try it. There was nothing left at the end of the night because everyone just loved. We then played Texas Hold'em where I made a dumb move and ended up going out much earlier than expected but that's what happens when your TIRED from the dumb mistakes you made Friday night.

Yesterday I took the girls to church, where Bug kept asking me, "How much longer" and "Is it almost over" and where Monkey didn't want to leave. She probably could have stayed and played all day if I let her. I then made breakfast for breakfast/lunch for the hubs. We had eggs, bacon, and grits. It was so good. I left nothing behind. Naps was had by all and then we went to my sister's house for a fried food (give you a heart attack) meal. They had fried bacon, fried dove, fried onions, grilled dove, etc. It was all pretty good but that fried bacon would be the death of me. I had to restrain myself from tearing up the box they put it in. It was that good. MMMMMM fried bacon.

My girls will be gone all week and probably, if the hubs gets his way, all next week. They are at his mom's house where his nephew will be until the end of July and the girls will be staying until I say go get them. If I have it my way, they will be home Sunday. I can't let them get away from me too long but this week is something I need and I'm really looking forward to some alone time with the hubs and some after work exercising without feeling guilty.

Speaking of exercise, the hubs is going to go to the gym with me tonight (fingers crossed). I have 3 miles on tap for running and afterwards I'll do about 15/30 minutes of weights. I'm hoping he'll show me some moves and what to do. I need to get these T-Rex arms in better shape.

My training schedule for this week looks something like this:

Monday: 3 miles/weights
Tuesday - 4 miles/abs class
Wednesday - 30 minute tempo run
Thursday - 2 miles/weights/abs class
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 8 miles
Sunday - Rest

I hope I can handle it better this week than last and since I haven't ran since Thursday, my hip should give me no problems.

This is major long, so I'll let you guys go. Have a wonderful Monday.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-06-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

It's finally Friday. Here are my five random things for today.

1. I want a pool. We have a kiddie pool for the kids to play in but I want a pool where I can float around and not worry about knocking into anyone. Hopefully one day it will happen.

2. I have 6 miles on tap for tomorrow. Even though I didn't get in my track workout this week, I'm still doing really good about getting in my runs. I've been kicking myself for not going to the track but I'm also proud of myself because my hip has been acting funny since I've upped the running and I'm not going to let it take me out in the first week of my new training schedule. No way, no how.

3. The hubs has to work again tomorrow and the girls and I are going to my cousin's baby's 2nd birthday party. Should be lots of fun. I always enjoy a kids birthday party.

4. My favorite people are coming to my house tomorrow night. Ever since my bestie moved back home, two weeks ago, we have spent every single weekend together. I'm loving every single minute of it and don't ever want it to end.

5. The hubs and I still haven't gotten that one night with no kids. We suppose to have it this weekend but then my friend didn't have a sitter for her kids and lack of funds will be a halt to any night out so inviting our friends over to the house for a BYOB (build your own burger) night sounded like the next best thing. I'm so excited and really looking forward to a great evening with friends, who I wish were my family members because we are that close.

There you have it. Five random, totally boring, things going on in my life.

Enjoy.

Angela :)

Laziness at its best

2011-06-15T09:27:00.000-04:00

I was sooooo sleepy this morning that when the alarm went off, I knew there was no way I was going to make it to the track. I guess my body was telling me something I really didn't want to hear but I heeded its advice and went back to sleep. Well the best I could considering that the hubs seems to snore more during the early morning hours than any other time. I should have gone to the track. Oh well, I'll have to suffer in the heat this evening to get this run done but it will be done this afternoon.

Payday is great but it also sucks when you realize that after everything gets paid, you wind up in the same spot you were before you got your paycheck. That sucks. I was hoping to put more into my checking account but alas, I'll end up exactly where I'm at right now. At least the hubs gets paid on Friday and since he's been working more Saturday's here recently, that will help out tremendously.

In other news, my friend showed me her stockpile from couponing and I'm totally jealous. I haven't gotten nearly as much as she does but when I went to get some hamburger meat from my freezer this morning, I realized that I might not have the canned goods, the boxes of cereal or the juice like she does, but my freezer is full of stuff. I didn't get it free but when they have buy one/get one on pork, hamburger meat, chicken, etc, I stock up on that stuff. So I guess I'm doing pretty well in the couponing world.

With that said, it's Wednesday and the new circulars have come out and I'm pretty excited to try again this weekend on getting some good deals. I really have started looking forward to Wednesday's just because of the circulars. My friend also told me that if I ever needed any coupons, to come on down to her house,she has more than she will ever use and I can go through her pile and get some. SCORE!!! I got some hair coloring coupons yesterday for my personal use. I go through hair coloring kits like crazy, so stockpiling on those and since CVS has really good deals on hair coloring kits, I'll definitely be there this weekend stocking up.

All right peeps, I'm out because I have to get to work. The boss wants a list of what I'm working on and since I can't put "writing new blogs" on my list or "couponing" I'll get to my real work. Have a wonderful Wednesday. I'll be back this evening, hopefully, if I can beat the hubs to the computer, with how my speed workout went.

Angela :)

Vanity

2011-06-14T16:31:00.000-04:00

I'm not the kind of girl that usually throws on make-up for a quick trip to the store, nor will I brush my hair and make sure my outfit looks good. I don't really care much about my appearance unless I'm going to work or going out to party it up.

But at the past 5k race I did, the friend that rode with me meet her husband's cousin-in-law there. After the race we were standing around talking and the cousin-in-law mentioned that she worked at a vein clinic. I asked if she could just look at my calf for me and tell me what the black/bruise things were. She told me I had the beginning of varicose veins. My self-esteem took a huge hit. In my mind, only older people got those, not young 30 year old moms. Ever since she told me what it was, all I can think of are ways to hide my calf.

The hard part about this, I love my legs. My calf muscles are strong and you can definitely see them. I might have fat thighs that like to rub together on runs, but my legs are my main focus point of my body for me. They get me through miles after miles in not only tough runs but easy runs. I was also told I would have to stop exercising for about three months, if I had the surgery to remove the problem veins. I'm thinking of waiting five to ten years before deciding on what to do. I've read up on it and compression socks help, so I'm going to start wearing those things like pants.

Anywho, do you have to be dressed up to go to the mailbox or are you like me, and will wear whatever you have on sans makeup and your hair done?

Angela :)

Day 2 - 4 Miles Down

2011-06-14T09:03:00.000-04:00

So I'm on day 2 of my new training schedule of running 4 days. I felt really great during my run this morning. It's amazing what race weekends will do for you after the race. The weeks leading up to the race, I felt so off. My running was not that stellar and I just didn't really have it in me to work hard at it. This week though, I feel like a new person. Could be I'm actually training for something and trying something different. Using a new training schedule and actually adding in new things. I'm enjoying running again. I hope this feeling last.

I did get my 4 miles in this morning. Here's how it went down:

Mile 1 - 8:57
Mile 2 - 8:48
Mile 3 - 8:36
Mile 4 - 8:43
Total miles: 4
Total time: 35:08
Calories Burned: 404
Average pace: 8:46

I have abs on my lunch break. I'm really looking forward to it because I'm actually working on abs at home while watching t.v. I just use some of the moves I enjoy in the class and then do them at home. What's even funnier is if the girls see me, they join in. It's funny to see them try to hold planks. I love them though for giving me some laughs.

I hope tomorrow's 800's feel as good as today's run did.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, I'm sure going to try.

Angela :)

Monday's Weekend Review

2011-06-13T10:55:00.000-04:00

I had a great weekend. I got to race, got to spend the evening with friends, and got to spend a quite Sunday at home (which included two hours spent sitting in the sun working on my tan). This weekend was just what I needed. I so wish today wasn't Monday but Sunday all over again so I could spend some more time at home with the family.

I also am on week 3 of using coupons and managed to save $65 at the store this week which brings my total savings up to $136. I'm finding I'm saving more and more as the weeks go on and I'm learning how to use the coupons along with the deals already out there. I'm having tons of fun with this and can't wait until I'm really saving a ton of money. I'm already looking forward to Wednesday when the circular comes out. Let the savings begin.

I started a new training schedule this week. This training plans calls for 4 days of back-to-back running. I'm using this week to see how it will effect my hip. If after Saturday's long run my hip is acting up, then I'll decide what needs to be cut and what needs to be done.

So anyways on the schedule for this morning I had 3 miles. I decided to ride my bike to the gym (without my Garmin, just wanted to ride), run 3 miles on the treadmill and then work on my arms. The ride over to the gym was a cool one, the run went smooth with three miles done in 26:28 and I didn't have much time left to work on my arms but I did squeeze in two machines for a total 2 reps at 10 a piece.

This is how the rest of the week looks:
Tuesday - 4 miles/abs class
Wednesday - 4x800 at 5k pace (according to Macmillan, I should have a 3:26 - 3:36 800)
Thursday - Ride bike to gym/2 mile run/leg work on the weights/abs class
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 6 miles
Sunday - Rest

I'm really hoping that after Saturday's 6 miler, I'll (1) have gotten some of this weight off and (2) that my hip will be holding up enough to handle this new schedule.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday.

Angela :)

Loop the Lake 5k Race Report

2011-06-11T17:13:00.000-04:00

A race was ran this morning. A race I had been gearing up for and practicing speedwork for to see if I could finally go sub 23. Well if you read Friday's post, I had decided to nix the idea of going sub 23 because I just didn't think it could happen.

Let's back this experience up to yesterday. After I dropped Bug off at her extended-day summer camp and gotten to work, I get a call from the leader telling me Bug had gotten sick but that she thought she was going to be okay, just wanted to let me know. Then about 30 minutes after her phone call my mom calls to tell me that my sister was being rushed to the hospital because they thought she had broken her nose but that she was having trouble turning her head after taking a NASTY fall at our local park.

Come to find out my sister only broke her nose and had some whiplash and Monkey had to be picked up because she started throwing up again. Then last night after some friends came over the hubs started throwing up so I didn't get to bed until 11:15ish and was really nervous I wasn't going to get much sleep.

The alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I slowly got out of bed. I sleep great considering but felt it was just too cruel to get up that early on a Saturday. All in the name of the sport I love. My friend got to the house around 6:30 a.m. and we set off to Lake Blackshear.

I managed to get in a warmup mile and then lined up at the start. My main goal was to try not to go out like a bat out of hell.

Mile 1 - 7:23- Went out like a bat out of hell.
Mile 2 - 8:09 - Who put these hills out here. They were brutal.
Mile 3 - 8:13 - After the last hill my legs were toast.
.01 - 6:01 - The course was short.
Total time: 23:49
Average pace: 7:55
Total miles: 3.01
Calories burned: 308

This race shows up short on my watch last year and this year. Oh, well, what am I going to do. I did manage to come in second for my age group, the girl who came in first was a minute faster. I have another 5k race next month and with the 15.5k training fixing to start, I plan on doing my speedwork based on my 5k PR of 23:32. Nervous already and it's only June.

Angela

Friday Five plus goals

2011-06-10T10:05:00.000-04:00

Thank goodness it's finally Friday. This has been one hard week. Bug was at church camp until yesterday. This was her first year going so I was a little nervous but very excited for her to go. She came back all smiles asking if she could go again next year. Monkey is happy to have her sister back home. I have finally finished all of the Harry Potter books and to be honest, I really enjoyed them. It really opened eyes to the movies and now I understand a lot more. I really can't wait until July 15 for the Deathly Hallows Part 2 to come out.

1. I've been doing really good about getting my runs in this week. I've ran Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and will race on Saturday.

2. I haven't ridden my bike as much as I have wanted to but I also need to get the gears changed because it's stuck in one gear.

3. I have been doing alright with my couponing. I've managed to save $73 in the first two weeks since I've been doing it. Last week my grocery bill was $135 before couponing and my store's savings card and I walked out paying $98. Not the greatest but I'll take it. I'm also starting to get a little (very small) stock pile going. Since shampoo/conditioner is on sale again this week and I have a coupon I'm going to get some more. I also have a couple of coupons for body wash and some of that's on sale as well, so I'll be adding that to my list. Also the store I shop at has a really nice razor on sale for $7.99, I have a coupon for $4 off, so the razor will only cost me $4. I'll definitely take it.

4. I haven't really been in a blogging mood lately. Haven't had much to talk about so just not blogging.

5. It's Friday and I just got a call from Bug's extended day that she is throwing up. I'm going to leave the office at lunch and just take the rest of the day at home with her getting her better.

I have some small goals for tomorrow's race. My only goal which I don't think I'll be able to do is go sub 23 minutes. Even though I've been putting in the speedwork, I just don't think I'll be able to hang onto a 7:30/8ish pace. So now my only goal is to come in at my PR at the moment 23:30. If I can do that then I'll try to go sub 23 minutes at the 5k race in July.

There you have it.

Have a wonderful Friday, Angela :)

Weekend Review

2011-06-06T10:51:00.000-04:00

The weekend is over already. Where did it go? We had a pretty good, low key weekend.

Saturday morning Bug woke up feeling like crap. I thought I'd give her an hour, eat some breakfast and if she was still feeling like death at 10:30, then taking the girls to my sister's house was out of the question. At 10, I found Bug in my bathroom throwing up. Plans were cancelled and we stayed home. I was a little bummed because it was my anniversary and the hubs and I were going to go out with some friends. Considering we really didn't have the money to go out, it was really a blessing in disguise. We are hoping to make plans for something at the end of the month with a bunch of friends. I can't wait.

So, since my plans were cancelled and Monkey was down for a nap, I went and got my hair recut. I go once every two months to keep the stack look going. I heart this hair cut.

I have it since Monkey was an infant and really don't want to change. I also got it cut a lot shorter than I normally do. Love it. For the race this weekend, I'm putting cute clips in it to hold the hair out of my face.

Moving on, since our plans were to have no kids and that was cancelled and we ended up with both of our kids for Saturday night, we decided to invite a few people over and call it a night. My BFF who was living in South Carolina but had moved back home this weekend, came over. I was so excited to spend some time with her. I heart her and it was so much fun.

Sunday brought a small hangover and lots of lying around. I did actually put the kiddie pool up for the kids but since I wasn't feeling like laying out like I thought I had wanted to, a nap was in order and then we had to get over to the church for a meeting about Bug's summer church camp. After that I came home and lounged around some more.

I didn't get in running in. Since Bug was sick Saturday, the hubs had to work, and I was just too lazy, I didn't get to run but don't worry exercising did take place. I went on a five mile bike ride. The hubs needed some smokes Saturday afternoon. Since I was planning on going bike riding anyways, I decided to just ride down to the store and get them. It was a lot of fun and I see I'm going to enjoy adding this to my exercise program, which I need to jump back into feet first and quickly.

In other exciting news, I'm on the last Harry Potter book. I have really enjoyed reading this series and the hubs is excited because he can't wait to discuss things when I am finally finished. I think I enjoy the books more than the movies. We are also about to start the 6th movie with Bug. We are watching one every week so she can see the Death Hallows Part 2 when it comes out next month. This has been a fun family event that I really enjoy doing every Sunday.

This afternoon I plan on running 5 miles after work. I know I said I wasn't going to do anymore after work runs but Bug had to be somewhere by 7:30 and I really just didn't have it in me to get up that early to get the run done. I'm also contemplating running on the treadmill at the gym and incorporating some weights into my workout. We shall see.

Angela :)

Friday Five

2011-06-03T09:02:00.000-04:00

Thank goodness it's Friday. I haven't felt great all week and I think that's what is contributing to my sucky runs this week. It could also be the heat at 6 in the morning but we shall digress. Here's my random top five for the day:

1. Monkey isn't feeling good and even though she isn't running a fever, she is having to go the bathroom a lot more than normal. I did send her to daycare this morning only because I had some stuff that had to get done this morning at work. Her teachers were told to call me if she didn't get to feeling better or went to the bathroom more than normal, which for her is twice a day.

2. The hubs fixed my bike yesterday and I rode 1.5 miles through the neighborhood with the girls. Bug is almost to the point where she can ride with no training wheel (only took 9 years) and Monkey is great on her big wheel. We had a blast laughing and riding around. I'm looking forward to more evenings of bike rides and mornings of bike rides when I don't have any running on the schedule. I would have gone this morning but like the top paragraph says, I don't feel good.

3. I finally figured out how to get the times of my 400's on my watch. It only took me a year to figure out how to get it to record them. I can't wait to use that feature next week at the track.

4. Tomorrow the hubs and I celebrate 6 years of marriage. I'm super excited because my sister is watching my girls so the hubs and I can do absolutely nothing for our anniversary. Sounds like a great plan to me.

5. My super short, super cute black booty shorts are way too tight this year. I was a little bummed about it yesterday evening when the hubs mentioned that just because I weigh more this year than last, I've been doing a whole lot more than I did last year. I guess I can see it that way, but in my mind, I'm just fat and can't seem to shake these pesky pounds that have creeped up.

I'm so boring but thanks for listening. Oh by the way, I do plan on getting in 8 to 10 miles tomorrow and tonight I'm planning on trying to ride my bike for at least 5 miles. It's rusty and the hubs had to work out a lot of kinks yesterday, so my bike riding will not be stellar and no I'm not planning on entering the world if tris. It's just not for me but I do love the people who do them. I have mad respect for them and love hearing race reports of tri, I just don't think I would love them.

Have a wonderful Friday.

Angela :)

Wonferful Thursday

2011-06-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

This morning I managed to print $68 worth of coupons. They have all been clipped, sorted and will be divided up this evening with everything else. Winn-dixie here I come. I'm super excited about shopping this Saturday because I actually have a ton of coupons for items that are on sale. I also scored two $1 coupons for the dog food we use which is on sale this week also. SCORE!!!! Super excited.

I'm also happy that I got up and did my run this morning. I really hesitated in bed for about a minute before my bladder screamed at me and since I was up, I might as well go get that run in. I had 6x400's on my schedule. I told myself I wasn't going to wimp our and let myself quit no matter how terrible I was running those 400's. Those last 3 400's were awful but I plowed through and got them done. I managed to run 4.25 miles this morning to round my week out at 13 miles so far. I'm hoping to get in at least 8 to 10 miles Saturday morning and it's going to require me to get up at 6 to do it because the hubs found out today he has to work, so I have to be back before he's gone. I'm a little upset about finding out that the hubs has to work. We can use the money but it's our anniversary and my sister has agreed to watch our girls so we can have a night just for us. She was planning on taking her kids swimming, so I was going to take ours over early so they could swim also and then I was going to head to my friend's apartment complex to hang out by their pool for the day. I'm hoping we can still do it.

I have to say, I'm proud of myself this week. I managed to run 3 days in a row and even though it's not been the greatest week in running, I've gotten it done. I think I'll pat myself on the back just because.

I found out yesterday that a friend of mine is going to be running the 5k that I'm doing on June 11. I'm hoping to either ride with her or follow her so that way I'll have someone there to talk to the whole time. I'm already getting nervous and it's still a week away. This is what happens when I go to long without a race, I twitch about a week to two weeks before the race is even here. It's going to be a crazy week next week for sure.

Well I better get ready for abs class. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday.

Angela :)

It's June

2011-06-01T09:53:00.000-04:00

Man this year is flying right on by. I can't believe we are half way through the year, where has it gone?

Bug is through with soccer until September. I, therefore, am ready to get my racing on. In a mere 10 days I'll be racing my first race since March. March people. That is way to long to go without a race. I've been working on speed work but it hasn't gone according to plan but that's what always happens, so I'm not to concerned. The race will be ran around Lake Blackshear in Cordele, Georgia. I'm hoping to talk the hubs into coming so we can all jump into the lake afterwards, but who knows. He might opt for sleep over watching me run. He always does, the worm. But I love him anyways because he will be staying home with the girls while I get up at the butt crack of dawn to go run a race.

I see all these recaps of the previous month and I do enjoy them, I just can't bring myself to write them. I have goals, I have memorable runs, I'm happy with the miles I've ran, happy with the times I've put up, just not going to remember it all to recap about it.

I also have some minor goals for June but I'm not going to post them. I usually don't live up to my goals, and usually just go with the flow, and since I don't really train for 5ks anymore and since my goal race isn't until August when I attempt my first race of 15.5 (10.5k and 5k together), my goals are not really that important. I am hoping to go sub 23 at the race on June 11, but I'll have a post of that as the race gets closer. My other goal race is the marathon in March 2012. I honestly have already got my goals for this race and will be posting them when the time comes but for know now they are not time based at all.

So on to other important matters, my sucky 5 mile run this morning. I have no idea why it sucked but it just did and I was really bummed about it. I'm not exactly sure where my running legs have gotten off to this week but I do hope they find me soon. Let's just say that I had a bad mile in with these five and had to stop and just relax for a couple of minutes before going on. I also tried out a new route that didn't exactly carry out into 5 miles and had to make up some mileage on the fly but all-in-all miles is miles and the run is done and all I can do now is move on to tomorrow's speed work at the track.

I have already gotten my grocery list started for this weekend. I'm super excited about it and hope to walk away with at least a $50 savings in groceries. I'll move the number up after I have gotten the hang of this coupon shopping.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Angela :)

Saving money week 1

2011-05-31T13:41:00.000-04:00

So this past weekend I took my new obsession to the streets. After looking over circulars for 3 days, I decided to go to Winn-Dixie. I figured I would get more for my money there. So I wrote out my list, organized what coupons I would be using and set off.

After an hour's worth of shopping I had a buggy full of groceries and everything on my list had been marked through. I was a little hesitate and nervous going up to the cash register. I knew I needed to save some bucks because we didn't have a whole lot in the bank and this would let me know if I wanted to continue with this or not. So the cashier begins to ring up my cart. Before I gave her my number for my card the total was $106 and some change. I gave her my number and the most coolest experience I have ever had happened, that number went from $106 to $80 and then after swiping only one coupon I managed to walk out of Winn-Dixie spending $79 and some change. I walked out of that store so very pumped up and excited. Now I know $26 isn't a whole lot but for a newbie, it was what made my whole weekend. I'm doubly pumped for this weekend's shopping trip and I'm really looking forward to getting the circulars tomorrow so I can plan my shopping trip again.

Sunday was spent lounging around doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I knew I wanted to get a run in but trying to plan one around all my doing nothing was hard. So it never happened. I did mow the grass and my arms and chest are paying the price for it. We have a push mower, so my arms really get a good workout whenever I do mow the grass. Monday rolls around and again, I knew I needed to get out and get a run in but instead the hubs and I pulled furniture away from the walls and we swept and mopped our whole living room, dining room, and hallway while the girls picked up all their toys out of the living room, picked up their bedrooms, and Bug cleaned her bathroom without being asked. After all that was done the girls and I went to my dad's for a fish fry. The best thing I had eaten. It was so good and I ate my weight in fried foods, I believe.

After that I went back home to change into my bathing suit and the whole family went to my FIL's apartment complex and went swimming where Monkey learned how to use arm rings and doggie paddle around the pool by herself. I did dunk her once, where she immediately said afterward, "Do not do that again." I have never laughed so hard. Then the hubs put her on his back and swam around the pool with her. I wish I had remembered my camera it was so cute.

So this morning I dragged my fatty butt out of bed and ran a hard 4 miles. I struggled and complained under my breath but I did get the miles in. I tried to keep the pace above 9 minute/miles and did a good job of succeeding but I was a complete sweaty mess when it was all done and was smiling on the inside because I did it.

My lunch break consisted of ab class where I was again reminded of the 3 days of non-exercising. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but I'll be happy so there is that.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Angela :)