Running Wild(er)

Beginning weight (4/4/12): 173

Week 1 weigh in (4/11/12): 174

Week 2 weigh in (4/18/12): 172

Week 3 weigh in (4/25/12): 173

Week 4 weigh in (5/2/12): 174

Week 5 weigh in (5/9/12): 173.5

Week 6 weigh in (5/16/12): 169!

Week 7 weigh in (5/23/12): 170

Week 8 weigh in (8/30/12): 171 (I am not even going to stress this…started today so this is not a good rep of this week for me – I have been down all week from last week’s weigh in until this morning).

Here are my workouts for week 8:

Wednesday (5/23/12): Crossfit. Strength workout was Squat Cleans.  The workout of the day was “Elizabeth” – two exercises done in three rounds.  First round is 21 reps each, second is 15 reps, last is nine reps.  The exercises were squat cleans and ring dips.  I did the workout in 16:34.  My “extra” at the end was pullups with the blue band focusing on my “kipping” movement.  I did 5×5.  I also did 50 pushups.

Thursday: Crossfit. Strength movement was bench press – 5×5.  I got a new PR of 95 lbs.  I did two unassisted in round 4 and 5.  The workout of the day was a 15 minute, as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) WOD.  Here were the movements: 100 m Farmer carries (hold dumbbell in each hand and walk certain distance carrying the weight), 10 burpees, 10 pullups, 20 situps.  I did the farmer carries with 53 lbs. in each hand.  My goal was to get 4 rounds but no such luck – those farmer carries kill!!!  You think you will get a “rest” during them since you are just “walking” but its really NOT the case. Your forearms are screaming at you during that 100 m walk.  I completed 3 full rounds and was 75 m into the 4th round when they called time.

Friday: off (left to go out of town with family)

Saturday: 2.13 mile run. Plus about 5 hours of horseplay in the pool with a bunch of kids.

Sunday: off

Monday: RUNNING STREAK START – ran one mile (9:39).

Tuesday: Ran 1 mile before work (9:09).  Crossfit.  Since most everyone had done the brutal Memorial Day Murph on Monday, Crossfit was dead.  I was only one of 5 doing the WOD and the only girl.  We did “Annie”.  Two movements – jump rope and sit ups. It’s a ladder workout, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 – of each movement per round.  Oh, and those are the numbers for double unders – if you do singles, it’s more like this: 150 singles, 50 situps, 120 singles, 40 situps, 90 singles, 30 situps, 60 singles, 20 situps, 30 singles, 10 situps.  I actually liked this one and would have had a better time had I not had a mental blackout during the second round and forgotten how to jump rope!  I still had a good time and finished at 11:06.  Finisher was a 1k row and I did that in 4:30.

 I also did 50 pushups after the workout.

I have been eating very well and really enjoying the MAX phase of the Advocare 24 day challenge.  I am on day 18 and feel amazing and can see a big difference in my body.  I can’t wait to take my “after” pictures and share them with you along with my measurements.  I know that is going to show more improvement than the weigh ins have.  Again though, I am not stressing today’s number.  I know that when I start, I generally gain a few pounds from bloating.  Plus, it’s hard to be upset when I am seeing results in my body – seeing is believing!!!

Are you taking part? I am and it started yesterday!  I did an evening run to get my mile in yesterday.  I was supposed to get up and go to Crossfit yesterday for Memorial Day Murph - but I overslept.  I didn’t even set my alarm since I never sleep past 8:30 AM (that is REALLY sleeping in for me) on a non-work day.  Well that was my mistake because I woke up and looked at the clock at 10:15 AM and wanted to cry.  I knew I had already missed the late class for Murph and I was so bummed!

I spend the day literally doing nothing but putting around the house and watching tv.  The hubs and I finally decided to get out of the house for a bit and went to an early dinner and movie.  We saw What to expect when you are expecting.  It was good – funny, sweet, happy ending – and I laughed and cried through the entire thing.  I had some friends see it last week and afterwards they told me they were glad I didn’t go see it with them – now I understand why.  I’m glad I saw it and it’s really cute, but it was good to see it with my husband.  He’s probably the only person who could handle seeing that movie with me.  There were just so many emotions to feel.  I won’t ruin the movie by going into specifics but for someone like me (TTC 8+ years), it was an emotional roller coaster!

This morning I got my butt out of bed before work and did a mile run.  I plan to eventually start adding to the mileage but for now just want to get consistent with actually getting out of bed and running that one mile.  I may run more later in the day and/or will definitely be at Crossfit all week, but I want to get that mile in before work every day if I can!

The weekend was fabulous – tons of family time with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  Also was able to spend some quality time with the hub’s aunts, uncles and cousins.  You may have seen some fun pictures if you follow me on twitter.  I think these sum up my weekend nicely.

Here’s to a short work week!!!!

(photo credit)

My training plan for the ING NYC Marathon starts July 1, 2012.  I need something to get my booty in gear NOW so that I am where I need to be to start that 18 weeks.  My weekly running will more than likely need to be BEFORE work (as I have mentioned before) that is going to require getting out of bed early.  I believe if I transition into that slowly, it will help me adjust easier.  So I am going to take part in the Runner’s World Running Streak 2012.  The plan is to run at least one mile per day, every day, starting Memorial Day, May 28 and ending Independence Day, July 4 – 38 consecutive days of running!

Getting up with enough time to run 1 MILE in the morning before work SHOULD be nothing.  I can run a mile in less than 10 minutes – especially if it’s just one.  If I can’t get my booty out of bed 10 minutes earlier then I have serious issues!  I’ll keep you posted with the streak in my weekly weigh in updates.

(photo credit)

I’m a Big Sister with the local Big Brother Big Sister program.  I have been matched with my “little” since July of last year.  My little is a really great kid.  She is a very bright kid and is constantly wanting to be on the go.  I really try to keep the things we do together exciting and different.  The whole point of my being her “big” is to spend time with her and give her the opportunity to do things that she may not get to experience at home.  She just likes being with me, so it’s pretty easy to find things to do.  Her favorite thing is bowling.  I really think she would go bowling every time I get her if we could.  Her second favorite would be playing hide and seek, and she is good.  I seriously “lost” her one time IN MY OWN HOUSE!

I wanted to do something we had never done so we picked up our “idea” list and started working our way through it.  She took two different entries and made up her own idea – a photo scavenger hunt. We sat down and she made a list of 10 things she wanted on the scavenger hunt.  The plan was for her to use my phone and take a picture of each of the things on the list.  If we got all of them before I had to take her home, we would have a “watermelon” party back at my house.

I loved her creativity and it was a lot of fun.  Here are my little sister’s photos from our scavenger hunt (some are blurry but I wanted her to do the picture taking unless she was in the picture):

1.   Pearl (my dog)

2.   Motorcycle (mine’s the blue one; the hubs is 131A)

3.   Watermelon (seeing this on my counter sparked the “watermelon party” – girl LOVES watermelon)

4.    New houses

5.   Dog Park (she wanted a “series” for this one…had to show the “trail”)

Posing…

More how she acts…lol.

We made it!!

6.   Skate Park

7.   Poles for climbing and monkey bars (this girl LOVES to climb and really is a monkey)

8.   Pet at Petland

She wanted a picture of this one.  But wanted to play with a “big” one.

She decided on this sweet little girl.  They say she gets played with a lot but never taken home.  It was sad and we were glad she was chosen to get to play with us. She was VERY playful and excited to have some attention.

She would only calm down when you held her.

9.   Produce stand (we were going to pick some things up too but they were closed)

10.   The tree in my backyard (she loves this tree because she was able to follow the lives of some baby birds last year…from eggs to leaving the nest)

Have to get one with Pearl!

WE DID IT….bring on the watermelon!!!

Our “watermelon” party.

We had a blast and she devoured that melon!

I love her creativity and how excited she was doing such a simple activity!