Stupid Tree:(

On Tuesday morning we had an approximately 60 foot tree cut down in our front yard.  It was very old and lost branches every windy day.  With all the wind we've been having lately our neighbour was afraid it was going to drop a branch on their car or the new addition on their house.  They offered to help pay for it to come down so we jumped at that.  It's considerably cheaper to clean up the mess yourself but who knew it would be such a big job.  This is what the yard looked like right after they finished.

This was from the neighbours driveway

We have had to spend most of our non-working time getting it cleared up since then.  This means I sacrificed my running to either help with the clean up or entertain the kids while Adrian worked on the mess.  Thursday night a friend came with his chainsaw and a trailer and took a bunch away.  This morning I took off to run and the friend came back with his trailer again and loaded up some more.  My mom watched the girls until I got back.  I learned today that missing two training runs combined with the cold snap we are having is detrimental to my training.  The cold aggravated my breathing and even my inhaler didn't help much.  My legs felt like lead and I was just so tired.  I'm sure part of that has to do with the fact that I was also up late last night seeing The Hunger Games.  However I look at it, today's run was my worst run in a very long time.  I was frustrated as I made my way back to the store but reminded myself that it's better to have a bad run today than on race day and that the worst runs are often followed by the best.  I was supposed to run 100 minutes today and I think I probably got about 40 minutes in.  Tomorrow's another day though and I can try for that 100 minutes then.  If it's still tough then I will cut my losses and move on.

A slightly different perspective but this was Day 4 of operation clean up:)

The tree is almost totally gone from our yard and the last load will be taken away tomorrow.  Monday is the start of a new week and the weather is supposed to get back to more comfortable temperatures.  It's also a short work week and those are always great:)

I think I can, I think I can!!

It's been a wild and crazy week!!  On Wednesday my brother told us he is getting married:)  They live in Florida and are coming up here in July.  They plan to get married on Canada Day (July 1st).  The planning started fast and furious.  There is so much to get done in so little time.  Luckily we know some people who can help us out and we now have many of the things planned.  The main thing I have left is to find the little girls some flower girl dresses that are not to expensive but super pretty.

I was back to training for the half marathon as well.  Saturday I was slated to run 90 minutes and was able to do 10k again in that time.  This week I have to run 100 minutes which will be the furthest I have ever gone:)

You'll remember that last week I had gained a bit of weight but was hoping to get it back down this week.  I worked hard over the past week and ate better.  I was rewarded this morning with a drop back down to where I was two weeks ago.  Well almost anyway.  Three months into 2012 and I am down 12lbs, I now exercise six days a week and I have mostly cut junk food out of my regular diet.  I drink pop only on very rare occasions and ask for water everywhere I go.  I have more energy, more desire than ever to keep moving on this Journey to Health!!!

Accepting It and Moving On

Last week was rest week and vacation week.  A bad combination in my world.  While we were still active doing some hiking and I did my runs for the week.  I didn't run as much and I certainly didn't use an enormous amount of energy hiking (five year olds stop a lot in the forest).  I also ate poorly for most of the week.  I knew what was going to happen when I was doing it but I was still disappointed to see a gain.  Luckily it's a small gain and I am confident it can be back down in no time.  I'm regaining control of myself this week and am back on track.  I got my protein powder yesterday (thanks Céline) and have lots of healthy food in the house.  I'm back to work and back to long running.  I ran 8k tonight is 70 minutes which for other people might not be super great but it's good for me!  Next week we'll see a drop from this number:)

Hiking, Geocaching and St. Paddy's Day:)

This week is March Break in our area which means no school for the kids and as little work as possible for the adults.  I had most of the week off and Adrian had three days off.  Wednesday he went and got the big kids and Erin and I took the little girls to The Butterfly Conservatory.  Anna was scared of the butterflies at first but after a couple of minutes she was on a mission to catch one:)

Thursday we had a lazy morning then spent the afternoon out doing some Geocaching.  If you haven't heard of it give it a quick google search.  It uses GPS technology to find hidden treasures.  We were introduced to this by a fellow runner and thought why not give it a try.  There are caches hidden all over the place so we downloaded the app for Adrian's blackberry and found that there were some very close to home.  We took off and found the first one fairly quickly.  The second we never found but think it could have been moved or something.  Yesterday we went out to Woodend to try to find another but no luck:(  We did get some good hiking in though.

Today is St Patrick's Day and we plan to have some friends over this evening for some fun.  We went out this morning and bought a bunch of decorations and green stuff.  I hope everyone else is having a great day and celebrating that little bit of Irish in all of us.

Rest Week!

This is the first official training plan I have followed and it includes rest weeks.  I remember hearing people talk about them and thinking that I really would love a rest week.  I used to give myself a break sometimes but it was nothing official.  This week I only run 40 minutes twice and my Saturday long run is 60 minutes.  The shorter 40 minute ones seem kind of silly and will actually be quite tough because it takes me close to that to really get into a groove.  The 60 minute one still seems like a kind of long run to me since it was about  my average before I started the training.  The interesting part is that I will be running more distance in that run than I was running most weekends over the last couple of months.  I'm excited for this week and looking forward to feeling refreshed at the end of it all.  The next four weeks will see me running the longest times I have ever run and will get me somewhere around 13 or 14k on my longest run.  Then I will get one more rest week and then another 3 weeks of really long runs before I start to taper back down before my race day.  When I break it down like that it doesn't seem very far away does it?  I'm going to forget about all of that now and just focus on my rest week which just so happens to be a mostly vacation week too.  I only work 1.5 days this week.

In other news, I tried protein shakes this week for the first time and have decided that they are very much worth the money.  I liked the protein powder that Céline gave me so much that I have now ordered own tub of it and will be making them a regular part of my breakfast routine.  I added it to my regular smoothie and it made it like a delicious rich chocolate milkshake.  So yummy and so healthy!!!

Now for my favorite part of the week lately.  I am getting nervous about this because things are going so well with my weight loss.  I know that if I keep doing what I'm doing things will keep going in the right direction but it just seems so easy this time around.  I am usually dying for junk food by this point but right now I don't even care.  I have such determination this time that just the thought of junk makes me uncomfortable.  I am very satisfied with what I am already eating and have really no desire to eat things that aren't going to help my body.  Enough of the rambling, here's the picture:)

Smoked it:)

Today I headed out for my longest run since August.  I was to run 90 minutes and I figured I would make it between 9k and 10k.  I didn't expect perfection but I thought I could probably get pretty close to 10k.  I have been getting faster but my last 10k time was 1:38:39.  I prepared last night to make sure I had everything ready and wouldn't have any real reasons to skip out today.  I checked the weather forecast and had two options for layers depending on the wind.  When I got up this morning the sun was out and the wind was gone:)  I knew right then that today would be a good one.  I got myself ready, had a snack and headed out.  When I got to Runners' Edge I was greeted with my new shoes.  I've been dying for new shoes for a bit now but I have big feet (10.5) so they had to order them.  I think it's only been about a week and a half but that felt like forever.  They came in yesterday though and Christina got them out for me as soon as I got there this morning.  They felt so nice!!!  It's amazing what new shoes do for your run.  We headed outside to warm up and then off we went.  I felt really good right from the beginning and when I hit the 9k turn around I was happy to see that I still had a good 10 minutes before I had to turn.  I kept going and looked at my watch again at the 10k sign.  Still 4 minutes to go!!  I continued on down the road and turned around right at 45 minutes.  My trip back was a bit harder but nothing terrible.  That is until I choked on my water:(  I always pull my water bottles open with my teeth but for some reason today water came shooting out and right down my throat.  I choked and sputtered and walked for a minute, then was on my way again.  There is a hill and an overpass that slowed me down a bit but I kept on going.  Getting close to being back to the store I looked at my watch and saw that I was almost at 90 minutes and also almost at 10k.  I should have been able to make it about 10.5k but the water incident slowed me down a bit and every time I wanted a drink after that I walked for few seconds.  However, I ran 10.10k in exactly 1:30:00.  That's almost 9 minutes less than last time!!!!  I'm very happy with that and feel that much more confident that I can finish the Half Marathon in June and will live to tell the story. 

Finally:)

Today has been a crazy and annoying day!!  Sunday we went shopping in the States for our bi-weekly stock up on milk, bread, yogurt and whatever else lands in the cart.  I have an enhanced drivers license instead of a passport for crossing the boarder.  It's a great thing and one less thing to worry about losing when we travel.  Or so I thought!!  Coming back over I stuck  my purse in the back of the car and just pulled it out to have when we came back over the boarder.  After we got across I stuck it in my pocket figuring on putting it in my purse when we got home.  Well Christina got sick in the car so I was distracted and it never made it back into my purse.  Yesterday I remembered but when I went to my pocket...gone:(  Now I figure little hands decided to go digging and thought it looked like a fun thing to play with but she won't admit it and I can't find it anywhere.  Today I gave up and decided to just go get a replacement.  Well apparently because it's a legal travel document and a high security item you have to have a police report in order to replace it.  Off I go to the police station to file a report and get told "nope, you either do that online or call and someone will call you back in several weeks"  WEEKS are you kidding????  So back to work I went where I quickly filled out the report then at lunch ran back down to the license office.  No problem getting a new one now, oh that is if the printer will co-operate.  Finally it did and I got everything fixed.

With all that running around my water intake was pathetic and it really showed in my run.  My legs felt like lead and were so sore.  I ended up running about 40 minutes of my scheduled 60 and walked the rest because I had to get home some how.

Now things have turned around some though!  I checked in with the Do Life Challenge and discovered that I am one of this weeks winners:)  Yay Me!!!  I get to pick one piece of merchandise from the Do Life Shop.  I will be choosing a lovely purple shirt.  The scale was nice this morning too!  I have finally broken the 10lb mark and couldn't be happier.  I've put a lot of sweat into this and it's days like this that I remember why I'm doing it.

100th Post

When I started this blog it was on a whim.  I wasn't totally sure what I would write about or how long it would last.  Over the past 100 posts I feel like it has really taken shape.  I'm using it to keep myself accountable, I think I've inspired a couple of people and I've learned a lot about myself.  Looking back at where I've come from and where I want to be I think I am well on my way.  It took me some time to get to this place but I think I have now come to a place that will get me where I want to be.  I read somewhere not long ago that in order to be successful at losing weight you have to act now like you picture yourself when you are at your goal weight.  I took that and ran with it, literally and figuratively:)  I sat back and looked at what needed to change and how.  I then decided what changes needed to be made right away and what could happen slowly. 

One certain thing was that I needed to make some key changes to my nutrition.  After some soul searching I came to realize that food addiction is real and that there are some foods that I really can't eat or have to be so very careful about eating.  The main ones are the typical junk foods.  Chips are my hardest battle and I have to be so very careful about eating them.  Just last night Anna brought up a bag that my mom had and I had a handful, then another and another, then made her take them back down and asked her not to bring them up anymore.  I knew that if they were up here I would very easily eat the whole bag without thinking about it.  Once I start I have a very hard time stopping, then I think about them and end up with another bag and another and another.  I know this now and I won't let it happen again!  Pop was another issue but I have a pretty good handle on that now.  Mostly because I know that if I don't drink enough water I will have harder runs and I don't want that.  I now drink water most of the day aside from my morning coffee.  I rarely drink pop anymore and when I do it is something I can have one glass or can of then move on. Chocolate and candy are less of an issue but they are still things I need to watch or I could eat too much.  I really like warm melty chocolate though so I have to watch that.  I've never been really big on going to the store just for chocolate or candy though.

I also had to look at exercise more closely.  Yes I have been running for 18 months now but I wasn't always really consistent with it.  I was very dedicated for the first 6 months then started missing a run here and there.  I still loved running but it was easy to come up with excuses to miss.  I realized that and knew that I needed to be more serious about exercise.  I signed up for a half marathon and joined the YMCA.  For the past month and a half I have been running 3 days a week and going to the YMCA 3 days a week.  Part of the training for the half marathon is to run 5 days a week.  Two are just short recovery runs so I decided those could be done at the Y.  On Wednesday nights I join a Run Circuit class and on Sunday I do one of three things.  I either run on the treadmill (yuck), use the elliptical or join a step class.  On the training plans Benny makes up he suggests either the elliptical or the bike if you want a change from the recovery runs.  I have yet to ask about the step class but I also haven't done it since I officially started my training.  I am really enjoying my new exercise routine and am beginning to really see results.  In the past 8 weeks I have lost just over 10lbs, completely overhauled my diet and feel great about all of it:)

Who knows what the next 100 posts will bring but if things continue on the path they are on now I think we are all in for some exciting times:)  Thanks for reading and stay tuned!!!