It’s been a lazy but not relaxing or restorative weekend. I’m not doing very well with my only NY resolution of living more deliberately. But tomorrow is another day, another week, another chance to try again.
First New Year Weekend
Today was a quite perfect Saturday, and I’m not just saying that because I am tipsy (which I am).
Started my morning with a nice run, 7 miles – which is an accomplishment given my last 3 weeks of travel and slackertude. First, some really nice guy was running next to me in a narrow pathway and I ran on the train-tracks to give him room – and he said to me ‘you don’t need to run on the tracks, you have a right to run here too’ and I kinda love him and I’ve seem him before and hope I can see him again and say thanks instead of bee-lining it to the nearby restroom and half crying because I’m a weirdo. But a grateful and happy weirdo.
After my run, I ate, then napped, then ate again. Then I spent some time remembering my kid-geek roots and and re-reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Then I did some freelance front-end dev work, which I love. And I get paid for? C’mon, awesome!
Now I’m mostly drunk and we watched ‘Dale and Tucker versus Evil‘ with Alan Tudyk and Socks from Reaper. It was great.
And really, it was a really nice first weekend of the New Year, and I’m glad that it included almost all the parts of what I want every weekend to be like!
Beautiful Winter
Generally I am not a fan of winter, but I’ll make an exception today, since it’s gloriously spring-like out there! So I celebrated this fabulous weather Friday with a nice hike/walk to work. I was extra lucky and my husband needed to go to the post office, so he walked all they way with me. Talk about a nice start to the day! :)
Catching up
It seems like the time between Thanksgiving and January 1 always blazes by, and this year was no exception. I coulda woulda shoulda sat down to write here a few times before Christmas, but I just never made it. In early Decemeber, I managed to flip-flop my PDR and my jeans size. 8 miles to 10 miles and size 10 to size 8. I pushed myself on that last run because I wanted the symmetry of the flip within the same week – heh.
Since then, though, we’ve been travelling and celebrating and living out of suitcases and not sleeping well and definitely not being active enough. I managed 1 walk and 2 short runs while at my parents’ house, but only a measly 20 min on a recumbent bike while at the in-laws. But we had an excellent time, and I have no regrets.
Through some miracle, I managed to maintain my weight, but I’m not so optimist about my endurance ;) There are only 7 weeks til the half-marathon, so it’s time to step up my game and get back into training. I’m excited to get back to into it, I’ve missed running, and more than that, I’ve missed the mood-happyizers I get from running.
Thanksgiving
This year I am so thankful for Thanksgiving itself. Actually I am thankful for about a zillion things — life, health, family, job, friends, pets, running, the internet, etc! But since this was my first whole year working with fairly limited PTO (my last job was differently structured, and I always had lots of theoretical time, even if I couldn’t take it) I’m pretty darn grateful to have a 4 day holiday :D
Since Christmas is going to be busy with travel and family, the husband and I decided to take it easy this Thanksgiving and just do our own quiet celebration. His 2 requests for dinner were potato casserole and jello poke cake, and I wanted pumpkin pie and stuffing. And we bought a whole little turkey breast – it was perfect sized. I enjoyed the cooking, and I enjoyed that he volunteered to, and practically strong-armed me into letting him, clean up the kitchen.
Everything was delicious and I somehow managed to lose weight – woot! I think the key was that I ate heartily all day, but decided to stop eating completely at 5pm. I ended up staying up too late and was pretty hungry at 10pm, but I shockingly did not die of starvation, and the downward nudge on the scale this morning was awesome! :)
I feel like the weeks between now and Christmas are going to be crazy, so I’m very much trying to enjoy these few days left of the long weekend. I hope that you’re getting to enjoy your days as well!
Unplanned rest week
I took a slightly unexpected rest week. On Monday evening I had a toothache, and on Tuesday I went to dentist to find out I need an extraction, which is scheduled for this coming week. The whole thing really got me anxious and down – I’m too old and anxious for this crap. So I had a few days of pity party and didn’t do much of anything. I skipped my Wednesday run and didn’t do any strength training, but I did go walking most evenings.
I thought about skipping my run today, but I made myself get up and go. The weather was warmish, but overcast, but the run started out great because my husband ran the first 20 min with me, and then, instead of turning around at the short run turnback, I decided to just keep going around the loop, and was gifted with this lovely view – the picture doesn’t even do it justice.
The rest of the run was simply lovely. I let myself go pretty slow (not that I ever go any other way) but I really tried to find some zen and enjoy the views and the act of running.
I just have to keep that feeling with me through this week. It’s going to suck to have to have my tooth pulled, especially right before Thanksgiving, but I’m hoping it’ll be nice to have the extra time to nap and rest and eat soft delicious things like potato casserole and jello poke cake. Hopefully I’ll be feeling better and ready to run again by next Saturday – and get in some good training miles before Christmas!
Austin LiveStrong Half-Marathon
Last night, I finally bit the bullet and registered. Eep! Woo!
I’m much more nervous about the number of people and the big expo and all of those types of issues than I am about the actual run. But that said, I do have a fair amount of training ahead. But I feel excited, if a little nervous, and looking forward to having something to focus both through the holidays and once the holidays are past and it’s just dreary winter.
Slow and Shy
Yep, that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.
I’ve been thinking more about wanting to join some sort of running group, but the above adjectives are hindering me.
I think if I was less shy, I would worry less about being the slowest, or if could keep up with any average runner, I wouldn’t be so afraid to show up, but I feel like I need a giant disclaimer on my shirt.
Wrapping Up and Looking Forward
I keep thinking I’m going to post and keep getting distracted, oops! So let’s see what I can brain dump before the next shiny thing comes along.
Here’s my Oct wrapup and Nov look-ahead just a few days late.
I broke 100 miles last month! Since I don’t swim or cycle, 100 miles is pretty impressive for me. The red is walking, the orange is hiking.
Now that it’s getting cooler, I’m not sure how realistic it is that I’ll be able to repeat it, but it’s a fun goal and with my half-marathon training coming into play, we will see!
I survived Halloween with minimal candy. So I ate pizza twice in one week, the candy thing is still a pretty substantial win. Thanks to my husband for taking one for the team and eating all but 2 of the kit-kats, and saving me out 2 white ones and saying they were ghost kit-kats so they had no calories. hee!
Looking forward to November, I’m not too stressed out about holiday eating yet. We’re staying home and having a just us 2 Thanksgiving, and that should make it easier to stay on track. Also, 4 days off with no real plans, yes please! I’ll probably lose 3 lbs just from lack of stress :) I’m getting pretty close to my intermediate goal, and might take a break from actively trying to lose weight for a bit, but it’d be nice to lose another few months this month so that I’ll feel better about letting go a little in Dec when we are visiting both of our families. With two 12-hour car rides, 2 animals in tow, and more lack of routine than my brain wants to comprehend, I know it’s going to be a challenge!
A lovely Saturday
What a beautiful fall Saturday it has been.
I made it out for my 7 mile run this morning – I got to sleep in a little since it was forecast to be a cool day, so I didn’t have to beat the heat. I was actually a little worried about wearing my long sleeve shirt, but it worked out fine since I stayed in the shade most of the run.
Afterwards, I had my husband pick me up so I could avoid the evil hills that lead back to our place (they’re much funner to go down than up). He needed to go to the Post Office, which is conveniently located next to a smoothie place, so I got a yummy post-run treat.
After lazing around, debating a nap, I made some Glazed Doughnut Muffins. I think I had too high expectations (I wanted them to taste like a cake doughnut, maybe?), I liked them, but didn’t love them.
After baking, the nap actually happened – too bad the neighbors don’t know the fine art of shutting the door without 8000 lbs of force or speaking at non-rave decibels. They were probably dropped on their heads as babies – yea, I’m sure it’s something like that.
Now we are celebrating Halloween weekend with horror movies and popcorn in the dark!
