Kennedy, Mme. Butterfly

Busy busy around here, but just about ready for Christmas!  I got out after work and finished up my shopping (in fairness I only have one person to buy for) and this evening I'll be wrapping it all up…I hate wrapping presents, ugh.

This past Friday Kennedy had her first ever swim meet!  She has been swimming with the Y Torpedoes this Fall and Friday was their year-end meet.  Kennedy raced in both the 50m Butterfly and the 100m Freestyle.  Unfortunately the two events were back-to-back, so she was gassed for the 100m, which is her strongest event.  She did well though and I think she had a good time (at least she says she did!).  Here's her 50m Butterfly, she's the second swimmer from the top…

That is one tough stroke and she did a great job…she even took 9 seconds off of her previous best.  Afterwards there were medals for all the kids and then her and Jackson were off to their cousins' house for a sleepover (Kennedy's cousin was at the meet as well).

The running has been going really well this past week as I had my "peak week" mileage-wise.  A couple 8-milers, a pair of 10-miler workouts and capped off with 21 miles on Saturday for a total of 72 miles/115km.  The paces were quick all week too, I even got my Thursday Tempo run in at a sub-4 kilometre pace!

Just one more reason I can't wait for Christmas…Christmas Day will be my first rest day since Nov 22.  Yesterday's run was 30 days in a row (and 42 of the last 43 days)…I get to taper starting next week though as the WDW Marathon is right around the corner

And I guess I will close on a Christmas note as well…how adorable is this Christmas craft Jackson made at school?  Love it!

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all have a great holiday! Check back next week when I'll have my 2014 Year in Running review.

Q & A

What December 22^nd already?!?!?...and I don’t know about y’all, but we don’t even have a speck of snow here, and our weather has been unseasonable warm…and I LOVE IT!!!

I saw this fun little post on this gal’s (fromicecreamtomarathon.com) blog the other day – so I thought it would be fun to join in…

Four Names That People Call Me:
1. Michelle
2. Mom
3. Mommy
4. …that’s all they call me to my face anyways…

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Telemarketer
2. Retail
3. Babysitter
4. Bridal (Retail & Wholesale)

Four Movies I have Watched More Than Once:
1. Dirty Dancing
2. Ocean’s Eleven
3. The Borne Identity
4. Colombo

Four Books I'd Recommend:
1. Anything by Sohie Kinsella
2. Bible
3.
4.

Four Places I've Lived:

1. London, Ontario, Canada
2.
3.
4.

Four Places I have Been:
1. Columbia
2. Dominican Republic
3. Jamaica
4. Mexico

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1. With my family
2. Travelling
3. At a spin class.
4. Disney

Four Things I Don't Eat:
1. Olives
2. Avocado
3. anything pumpkin
4. Bugs

Four Of My Favorite Foods:
1. Peanut M&M’s
2. Berries
3. Pasta
4. Mike’s homemade pizza

Four TV Shows That I Watch (watched):
1. The Blacklist
2. Person of Interest
3. How to Get Away with Murder
4. …pretty much any reality tv show

Four Things I'm Looking Forward To This Year:
…I’ll say for 2015
1. Reaching my LV weight!!!! (for those of you wondering…what LV weight means?!?...when I reach my target weight, Mike is rewarding me with a new LV purse!!!!...isn’t he the best…)
2. Travelling ALONE for the first time in 4.5 years with Mike (2.5 weeks…not that anyone’s counting)
3. Travelling throughout the rest of the year with our family and friends
4. Laughing a lot, and just enjoying life

Four Things I Say A Lot:
1. I love you
2. hashtag truestory
3. So what…life’s not fair, get over it
4. How was your day?

Now it’s your turn…pick one or two to answer!

Happy a great Monday Friends!

Run in Shorts in December? Yes Please!

Mid-December and I'm still wearing shorts to run in…amazing.

The weather has been really mild lately here in Southwestern Ontario and I've been taking advantage of it…I ran outside in my shorts on Sunday and again on Monday.  This past weekend was a bit easier as there wasn't really a long run on the schedule, just a 10-miler on Saturday and again on Sunday.  I have one more long run of 16 miles on the Hansons plan this coming weekend and then it is time to ease back a bit and head towards taper time.

I've been run-streaking lately too, currently sitting on 24 straight days of 10K or more and 36 of 37 days as well…pretty much since we got back from Disney the beginning of Novemeber.  The legs have handled it well and seem to bounce back for every run…very few runs have started out on tired legs, which I'm finding amazing.  My pace hasn't suffered at all either, so maybe I really am getting stronger.  This plan has been working wonders for me, but it sure is a big time commitment.

I took yesterday off work as I had one last vacation day I had to use up…Michelle was off as well so we tried to get as much of our Christmas shopping done as possible.  We crossed almost everything off our list so overall I think it was a success.  Nice to feel like things are coming together for Christmas!

How's your Christmas shopping going?

MIMM

Happy Monday friends! …so let's just jump right into my MIMM today

Wednesday night we (Mike and I) had the pleasure of taking Kennedy to go see her best friend perform in a Christmas play. Her friend moved about an hour away a year and a half ago, but the girls have been able to still see each other a number of times a year, and spend countless hours facetiming with each other (what would we do these days without technology). So when we were invited to come watch her perform – we immediately accepted. We wend into it thinking it was going to be a little Christmas play that would be…you know…ok…but the more important thing was going to be that we were going to support her friend…and the two girls could see each other before the holidays…well…as soon as the curtains opened…we couldn’t have been more wrong. This was a full fledged PROFESSIONAL show…it was amazing!!!! The costumes, the sets, the acting, the singing…it truly blew my socks off! It was a great night, and a wonderful reminder of what this holiday season is truly all about!...and it’s always fun to be able to get to spend some one-on-one time with the kids.

Friday night – K was off to her first of 3 bday parties over the weekend, and Mike was out with the boys…so J and I headed out to dinner together! Nachos and French fries for my crazy little boy! We had a great time together, and then after we headed home…it was time for a very serious game of Uno. J loves games, he loves to win…and he is surprising very good at card games!

Hahahahaha…this has had me laughing so hard…so now whenever Mike “toot’s” I tell him that his bum is snoring again…lol

Date night!!! Last night was my cheat meal for the week – so Mike and I headed out for dinner. Love that we get to do this; and over the course of the last year…we have tried really hard to make this a weekly occurrence. It does my soul happy to have this time alone with him. I read a great article this morning about marriage and being happy. I couldn’t agree more with all their tips…check it out here

What?!?!? This morning I woke up, and realized that I now have 1K followers on IG.  Crazy...

Have a fab Monday friends!

Thanks Katie for hosting today.

What was something marvelous for you this week?

FINALLY

It’s time to celebrate!!!! As ya’ll know I have been working really hard at changing my lifestyle to become a better, healthier version of myself…it hasn’t always been easy over the last 3 months, but I am soooo excited to have FINALLY hit and surpassed my first weight loss goal!!! This could not have come at a better time, ‘cause for the last 2 weeks, I have been totally stuck

I had been stuck over the course of last week and this week at pretty much the same # on that stupid scale…which seemed very counter-productive…since I have had 3 different people in life make comments to me over the last week about my weight, and how they can see a change in me…all the while I was like “thanks”…”I just wish it would reflect in the scale”. Well today my scale stars finally aligned, and I skipped right over the # I’ve been after for the last 2 weeks…whoo hooo!!!!

My AP and I had a chat yesterday, and are working on some changes to get me over this “stall”. So next week I am going to work on dialing back on the cardio, and starting to place more of a focus on weights, and work at really starting to change my body. I look forward to this new challenge, and fingers crossed, what it is going to do for me!

It is sooooo true. There is no secret fix, other then really hard work and dedication. It really is all in completely changing your mindset and lifestyle…and after being dedicated to this process for the last 3 months now, it really has become my routine/habit and second nature.

I’m off to pat myself on the back and celebrate all of my hard work…and so I’ll leave you with this reminder

And a little motivation

Happy Thursday friends…now go eat a cupcake for me (since I won’t be partaking in that kind of celebration quite yet)

Corral Relief

Disney corrals have been announced!  I had been sweating the corral announcements a little bit as I technically didn't register for the race until a couple days after the deadline to submit your proof of time for corral placements.  The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in the last corral and have to fight through hoards of people the entire race.  Luckily the Running Gods were on my side and runDisney accepted my proof and time and put me in Corral A..phew!

It will be so much better starting up front…I'll really be able to go for the time that I'm chasing.  Can't wait!

So far so good this week on the running front…Monday was an "easy" 10K run that I somehow ended up doing at a 6:30/mile pace.  Oops.  I threw in some decent hills at the end for good measure too as I love ending a good run with some tough climbs…even grabbed the Strava Crown on the Thames Park Hill.

Tuesday was another strength workout day, but it was too nice out to run on the treadmill so I took to the paths to get my workout in.  Hansons' called for 2 x 3 miles with a 1 mile recovery and I was shooting for 20 minutes for each 3 mile interval.  I ended up getting them done in 19:09 and 19:07 respectively, well beyond what I was hoping to do.

So what';s on your Christmas list?  I saw these sweet Nike compression socks at Niketown Chicago a few months ago and thought they were cool.  I also see them every single time I open my Nike Running app…they are definitely growing on me!  If anyone is looking for gift ideas

Have a great day folks!

Do you ever feel like you are going to float away?

It's no secret that I am NOT a water (drinking) lover. I just don't like regular 'ol plain water...this isn't something new...I have never actually cared for it. But a few weeks ago, I started cutting out artificial sweeteners (aka aspartame)...so that means no more Crystal Light (aka the only way I was drinking water). It certainly has not been easy for me, and sometimes I need to just close my eyes and chug away.

In addition to starting to drink water I am also challenging myself to drink a min of 100oz a day...so I literally have a water bottle in my hand all the time these days...lol

In reading up on how important water is I came across some interesting info...like the difference between bottled water and tap water

Studies show...

Times we need to make sure we are keeping ourselves hydrated

If we don't get enough, how it can effect us

So I guess I'll keep plugging away and tracking my water intake...if in the end it's going to help me be a healthier version of myself!

#truestory

Do you "like" water?

What's your favourite drink?
...shocker I know...dt.coke

A Great Long Run & Some Sprintervals

Hey folks, hope y'all had a great weekend!  On Saturday I was able to get out and run my furthest distance since I ran the Disney Marathon way back in January and it went better than I could have ever hoped.  I ended up putting in a little over 30K (19 miles) in just over 2 hours.  It was a pretty decent day for running and I was well dressed for it, but by the time I got home my fingers were frozen.  I think I have pretty poor circulation and my fingers get cold fairly easily, and although I wore gloves they were not happy.  I had actually decided to take water with me for once as my last few long runs have been sans water (terrible, I know).  Usually the park route in the city has water fountains, but they have all been shut off or just removed outright for the winter months.  Those last few runs were getting a bit dicey near the end as I would fizzle out and just be thinking about getting a drink, so carry my own bottle it was.  I think it was the cold water that really iced my digits, but other than sore hands I felt great when I was done.  Actual distance was 30.7km (19.2 miles) at a 4:08/km pace (6:37/mile).  It was also my fastest 30K time at 2:03:52, over 20 minutes faster than I ran the Around the Bay 30K race back in March (though I was hurt for that one).

After my run I has a nice quiet afternoon with the kids and we got packed up to go to the cottage.  We also took some time out to go grab coffee and hot chocolates at Starbucks…

Michelle was sad she missed out as she was stuck at work.

Once Michelle got home we loaded the truck and set off for the cottage.  We spent the night at my parent's place and played games and I got to have a couple of Guinness's.  The next day it was off for some more running up at the cottage.  I hadn't done any Yasso 800's this training block so I thought maybe I would give that a go.  The roads and the cottage are pretty straight and flat, so not a bad option if you don't have access to a track.

I did a short warmup and then jumped into my 800's.  I didn't quite remember the workout so I didn't end up doing it quite right…it is supposed to be 10 intervals of 800m with your recovery period being as long as the interval itself (ie, run 800m in 3:10, jog for 3:10), but I only did half the recovery time.  Needless to say, this probably made things a bit more difficult for me.  Also, as dumb as this sounds, I kinda forgot I was even doing intervals a couple of times and would just settle into my regular pace.  I would then remember "Right!  I'm supposed to be running intervals!" and get  the speed back up…oops.  Anyways, when it was all said and done my average 800 time was 2:59, not too bad at all.

Nice to see some improvement from when I ran these last year, and just imagine if I actually let myself recover between intervals and focused on running them

Do you put much stock in race-predicting workouts?

Swimming for Suds

Last night I hit the pool at the Y for a great one-hour swim…there was no plan, just plenty of lengths while Michelle did her Aqua Fit in the other pool, and then a stop at the bar on the way home for one of these

I haven't been swimming much at all lately so it was really nice to get out there.  I used my new waterproof headphones and the music sure helped to pass the time…they worked great!  By the end of my swim I had developed a really sore neck though, not sure what that's all about.

I've also been getting my runs in this week, including a treadmill workout session on Tuesday.  I had 3 x 2 miles on my plan and decided to utilize the 'mill again.  It is funny the looks I get from all the gym regulars that are used to me running outside no matter what the weather is like…it is just easier to get the workouts in on the treadmill sometimes though.  It is also good running indoors now and then to remind myself what it is like to run in warmer conditions (as I'm sure Florida will be).  I was a sweaty mess by the end of my workout!  I was feeling fast though…

Today is my tempo day, and the distance is ramping up now on these tempo runs…9 miles today.  I'll be out in the cold running this one.  My legs are starting to tire out, so there's a rest day coming soon (working on 10 days in a row right now).

Have a great day folks!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

They are finally back!!!!

A little spin class and treadmill run on my day off yesterday

#truestory...things are sometimes only as hard as we make them

I'm out of grapes

Can't wait to hit up the pool for some aqua fit tonight

Happy Hump day!!!

Piling Up the Miles

Boy my legs are getting tired…

I am in a stretch of training now where the miles are coming fast and furious.  Mid-week runs are up in the 9 mile range (which is a lot for me during the week) and the intensity of the runs isn't letting up either.  Couple that with some crazy weather which saw me wear shorts and short sleeves on Monday, then bundled up like Nanook with my snow shoes on Thursday and then wearing shorts again for my long run Sunday.  I am proud to say I still managed to get out and run every day.

My long run Sunday saw me get in 16 miles and they were TOUGH.  It was what this plan is all about, running on tired legs.  I was about 10K into my run and I could feel the fatigue my legs had built up through the week.  As much as it sucked, I was actually glad to be running like that…it really does feel like that last 10 miles of the marathon.  It wasn't fun, but I powered through and finished while holding to my marathon pace…despite being stupid and adding a massive hill at the end of my route (for Londoners, it was the Commissioners Road hill in Byron going up to the Oxford extension…ouch.)  I climbed 622 feet overall and man did I feel it…glad the only hills at Disney are the highway on-ramps!

The weekend wasn't all running though…Friday night was me and the kids as Michelle was out at hockey with her mom.  They celebrated the end of Movember at school that day and Jackson was happy to show off his mustache.

He should have thrown on his Tigers hat and he could be a mini Tom Selleck!  We ended up going out for dinner and then headed back home as Kennedy was off for a sleepover at her friend's house.

Saturday after I got back from my run it was time to start getting the house into Christmas mode, so the kids and I dug out the decorations and set up the tree.  Needless to say it made Michelle's weekend.

I also got my hands on Jackson's letter to Santa (put together with the help of his sister)…so if you need ideas for him, here it is

I was able to surprise him after school yesterday with a personalized video from Santa himself…you can make your own here.  It was lots of fun and he has been watching it over and over.

Is your house decorated for Christmas yet?

When does your Christmas Tree go up?

MIMM

Happy Monday friends! So has everyone recovered from their turkey coma's and hunting for deals?!? After saying you couldn't pay me enough to head out shopping this weekend - I did make a trip to target last night to take my mom for a few things, and luckily we were late to the party, and there were no more crazy shoppers out!…so let's just jump right into my MIMM today

Saturday night Mike's sister's kids (the ones we went and visited last weekend in Kingston), were in town at my in laws, so after I finished work on Saturday, we headed over for dinner and some family time. After we got all cleaned up from our meal...Nana had a surprise for all the kids - they all got their own gingerbread house to decorate! I think a few of them ate more candies then they put on their houses, but they all had a great time! Our little man is already asking if he can eat his!

After the little kids were done their activity for the night, us big kids settled in with a cup of tea and some games!

These days I feel like a bag lady wherever I go...lol. Every day I prep all my food, pack it in a zillion containers and tote it around with me....but that is a-ok with me! Now I know that the food that I am putting in my body is what it needs - and as a side bonus...it's really helping with the scale too!

Look what I get to start using today!!!! Luv, luv, luv the Erin Crondren life planner! Everyday I track my weight, workouts and everything I eat!

After all the coldness and snow we had a few weeks ago, the last week or so has been pretty mild, so I've been able to get outside for a few runs this week! Now that I'm back in the groove and have started 1/2 marathon training again, I am also happy to report that 'knock on wood' my knee has been feeling great!

Thanks Katie for hosting today.

What was something marvelous for you this week?