Back on the Bandwagon!

Wow, time sure flies.  Especially when you aren't blogging, tracking food, or even exercising.  If anyone still happens to read my blog, you can see that I haven't posted in a week.  And guess what?  I haven't officially worked out in over a week.  Yuck!

I guess I've just been in a completely unmotivated funk for the last few several days.  I haven't completely fallen off the bandwagon, but I've definitely indulged in more treats than normal, including beer and sweets.  Now, I do have to say that March is birthday month in my family.  Yesterday was Dustin's birthday, my dad's is today, mine is next week, as well as SEVERAL other family members.  Pretty much it's like Christmas all over again in March.

That being said, it is no excuse.  I need to get back into working out!  I don't want to lose the good base I've worked for in mileage, and I'm in love with the results I've already seen in/on my body.  So it's time to get back on it!!!  I started tracking again today, and while I probably won't get a workout in tonight (family birthday dinner...surprise, surprise) I will workout tomorrow.  I'm going to get back into running and Jillian Michaels will again become my best friend.  Here is my thinking:

I've got almost two full months before I "officially" start my training plan for my half-marathon in August.  So until then, I'm going to focus on keeping my mileage base where its at or increasing it a little bit.  However, I'm also going to focus on strength and cross training, such as Jillian, until then.  I really see results when I combine running and cross training.  While I don't plan on giving it up after that (it's part of my training plan), I will devote most of my workouts to RUNNING once May 17 rolls around.

Also an update on my last week:

• I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got a new boss last week.  She's great, and I have actually been really busy since she's been here!  Success!
• I went and tried on my wedding dress last weekend.  IT WAS TOO BIG!  I'm so glad I tried it on this early because I just exchanged it for a smaller size instead of having to do TONS of alterations.  I may still have to do some alterations if I lose any more, but that's better than having it not fit me completely!  Yay!
• Because we're having the wedding at our house (Dustin's family ranch), we have A TON of work/cleanup to do before that special day.  We invited my fam and a ton (notice my trend...word of the day apparently) of our friends out for a work day.  The girls worked on cleaning up the yard, raking leaves that haven't been raked in YEARS, and burning piles.  The boys took down a barn that was falling in.  It had been standing for over 100 years, and it had a lot of history and memories left in it.  They worked all day without stopping for lunch, but by the end of the day it was all down.  We BBQed and drank by the GIANT bonfire we created.  That was my only form of exericse for the week, and I was SORE!  I love getting in hard work and seeing the results!

Hope everyone had a good week!  I've been keeping up on everyone else's blog, just not writing on my own.  Funny how that works!  Hold me accountable!

Three Things Thursday

 Here it goes:

1. I got my hair cut last night after work.  It's hot!  I totally (like, valley girl?) had a run planned after I got done at the stylist.  But she straightened and fixed my hair!  I don't do that very often, so I had to take advantage of the fact that my hair was pretty, and I skipped my workout.  And when I showered this morning I didn't wash my hair, and it is still pretty.  Anyone else ever do that?
2. I'm SO close to sending out my save-the-dates!  We're reaching the point where it's almost pointless to send them out, so I've been working my butt off getting them finished.  Minus a few printer problems I'm having, they're coming along nicely!
3. I have 6 miles planned for today's run.  I'm going to do it tonight after work, and I don't have any excuses this time.  Especially since I'll have to wash my hair tonight, because it won't look as pretty tomorrow if I don't.

Weigh-In Wednesday

160...no change

Feeling kind of blah...I'll post more tomorrow!  Have a good day!

Blah Tuesday

I'm having a little trouble coming up with something good to talk about today.  In fact, that's pretty much how my whole day is--boring and blah!  I've been working hard at the office all afternoon (so glad I was actually busy today!) and now I'm getting off work and catching an early dinner with Dustin.

After dinner he's heading over to a friend's to pick his winners for the college basketball practice....I'll be heading over to the gym to get in a "last chance workout" before my weigh-in tomorrow.  I've got a lot of good exercise planned, and I'm really looking forward to kicking my butt!  Hopefully my inner Jillian voice will come out when I'm thinking about giving up!

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I guess I never updated about the rest of my weekend.  It wasn't really that exciting, but here goes.  I got home on Saturday after my 5k and an afternoon of planting hanging baskets at Dustin's family's greenhouse.  He had told me one of his old college buddies was coming down because he had a bachelor party that weekend.  Well, his friend's bachelor party made their way to our house, where they shot squirrels and blew things up like only men can do.  After that, six random (ok, five because we knew Dustin's buddy already) people came over for dinner (thank goodness they brought it) and ended up drinking beer at our house all night long.

After that, they proceeded to stay at our house, which at the moment is not set up for one or two overnight guests, let alone six, so they all slept on the hardwood floor or wherever they could find some couch space.   Dustin and I got up Sunday morning and cooked them all breakfast, and after that they all headed out to shoot some more stuff ALL FREAKING DAY LONG!  I wouldn't have minded so much, but it was a gorgeous day and Dustin and I have A TON of crap to get done before the wedding.  Once they finally left around 5 that evening, they had fed Dustin enough alcohol to last me a lifetime, rendering him useless to me for the rest of the day!  Love it when my weekend plans get spoiled!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine!

ShamRun 5k: Girl Scouts, Snow, and Prizes!

I get to do my first race recap today!!  Yay!  Prepare for a long-winded approach to a not so exciting race!

I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty good.  I've been sick for almost a week, but I knew that I could ignore that fact for a few hours because nothing was stopping me from doing this race.

There was a skiff of snow on the ground at my house.  Translate that into town weather (I live about 26 miles from "town") and add a inch or two.  This made me a little nervous because I haven't ran much outside, let alone on snow/ice.  I packed myself up for a day in town and made the lovely drive in.  By the time I got there I was starting to get nervous, which made me mad, because I kept telling myself that "it's only a 5k."  Well, once I thought about it, it was my FIRST 5k and a chance to show myself that the hard work I've been doing has paid off.

Once I got to the high school track, which is where the race started (and finished), I felt better about the whole situation.  There weren't too many people, and I knew almost everyone there because of the small town atmosphere.  About 3 minutes after I arrived, several Girl Scouts started to come, and I learned that a local troop was doing the 5k walking portion.  Great, I get to hang out with the little kids all day.

So after a quick quarter mile race for some little kids, we got to the starting line.  The race director explained the course to us and then the Grand Marshall of the town's St. Patrick's Day Celebration started us off!

I started my iPod and was on my way.  Because of the snow and ice, they changed the course up and it was just going to be a out and back race.  It started with about 300 meters around the track and then onto the pavement.  Even though my feet were a little numb and I had some lovely phlegm building up, it felt good to RUN! 

Me and another lady I know only as an aquaintance started out pacing each other.  I was glad to have someone with me for the first half mile or so, but then she took off ahead of me.  I ran by myself for about the next mile and passed her when she decided to walk before the halfway point.  Not that I was in any way trying to spite her, but it felt good to know that I was able to run that whole way, as that was one of my goals for the race.

After turning back from halfway point, I began to have some doubts.  I knew I could run the whole thing, and I just kept telling myself to keep going and be proud of what I was accomplishing!  With about a half a mile to go I just kept my pace up (which for most is just a step ahead of a shuffle) and cranked up my tunes.  I got to the track, which was the last leg of the race, and pumped myself up to step up my game to pull out a great finish!  I made it about halfway around the track when I thought I was going to puke my guts out!  I was pushing myself, but I didn't think I was pushing THAT hard.  I quickly realized that it was probably from the cold meds I'd taken that morning.

The feeling passed just as quickly as it had came and I cranked it up for the last part of the lap!  It felt so good to finish!

STATS:
3.1 miles (I don't have a cool Garmin so I can't post multiple stats)
30:58 ~ 9:50 min/mile

My goal was to do it in 30 or under, but I just couldn't pull it out.  However, that is my first and only PR, so it will be something to beat next time!

I came in first in my age group!  I should let you all think I'm bad ass, but I was the only person in my age group.  Period.  I live in a small town, what can I say?

I came in first in the women's category.  Remember the other lady I was running with?  She was the only other woman to actually run the course, so I beat her.

I waited around because they were going to give out prizes.  My prize for winning my age group?  A box of store bakery cookies.  Pretty exciting, huh?  All in all, a great day!

More to come later for the rest of my weekend recap!

Exciting plans!

It's FRIDAY!!!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  I've got so much planned for tonight...want to hear it???


Dustin and I are going to park our butts on the couch and eat pizza and watch loads of TV!



We're so exciting!!  We aren't married yet, and we're still about as exciting as an old married couple can get (no offense to anyone for that comment).  A few years ago I would have been itching for something to do on the weekend, whether it be going out and drinking with my friends, BBQing and drinking with my friends, oh yeah, and drinking with my friends.

Don't get me wrong.  We still do this, probably more often than we should.  What I think is funny is that now we couldn't imagine doing that every single weekend!  How tiring!  I savour the weekend, I crave the weekend!  It's my time to clean the house, catch up with family, and just be generally lazy.  And now, it's my time for weekend long runs!!!

I just set my training schedule for my half.  I'm going with a 12-week program that technically won't start until the middle of May.  I'm going to use my two months before that to work up my mileage and see if I could switch to a harder better plan by then.  This all depends on how well I do from now until then.

And tomorrow is....the ShamRun 5k!  Yay!  I'm going to go home and put my outfit together!  After the race I'm going to shower at my parents and then go plant flowers at my soon-to-be-in-law's greenhouse.  Bet you never knew I worked at a greenhouse!  Of course you didn't, because I've never talked about it.  I worked there last year for a few months before my temporary job started up.  Even though it can get mundane, I love planting all the flowers and hanging baskets to sell!  I learned so much from that experience.

Plus, that is where I'm getting most of my wedding flowers from!  I picked out all sorts of annuals in colors for my wedding so that we can plant them around our house and in planters.  So much fun!

To everyone racing this weekend:

GOOD LUCK!

Three Things Thursday

I'm going to copy everyone else in the blogosphere and do a "Three Things Thursday".  Sorry to anyone who might get offended, but let's face it, everyone does it!  So I'm going to do it too!

1. Dustin is still sick.  I thought I was going to outsmart the cold, but I'm pretty sure that my lingering slight sore throat is soon going to become a full-fledged raging sore throat monster soon.  I'm not saying that because I want it to happen...it's just going to happen!  I hope I'm wrong because....
2. My first real 5k is on Saturday!!!!  I'm pretty excited, and sore throat be damned, I'm going to run that race.  I'm a little nervous about what to wear, because I am quite the fair-weather runner, and it's probably going to be colder than sin that morning.  I'm hoping that my current running gear is sufficient enough, because otherwise I'm going to have to come up with some makeshift cold weather gear that might make me look like a dork.  I'm used to that, though, so I don't know what I'm worried about!
3. I've won two giveaways in the bloggy world in the last 2 weeks!  Now I'm going for 3 for 3!!  Check out the right side of my blog for current giveaways that are happening.  I'll try to keep it updated.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Weigh-In Wednesday

160!

Down a pound!  I'm pretty excited to see pounds coming off!  It shows me what a little hard work and determination will do!

I've contemplated taking weigh-in Wednesday off of my blog list.  The reason for this is that I am determined not to focus solely on my weight.  I mean, yes, I still have a few pounds to lose, but right now I would like to focus on my running.  But then I thought about how my weekly weigh-in really keeps me accountable, not only to myself, but to all of my readers (who probably don't care what I weigh, but too bad).  Also, this is a complete healthy living transition for me, so taking off one aspect of that (weighing in) would take away from my story.

With that long-winded story, my final decision was to keep my weekly weigh-ins, as well as talk about running, food (something I could talk about for hours), etc.  I am not solely a runner, and though I'm striving to become a marathoner, I still have other lifestyle issues that come into play, so they need to be addressed.

I got in my 5 miles last night!  Longest run I've had in a few weeks.  (I've planned several long runs in the last few weeks that magically didn't happen...)

I'm going to get in a few miles tonight and then stop on the running front until Saturday.  I will be getting in some Jillian Shred tomorrow and possibly Friday.  I haven't had a date with her in several days and I think she's starting to miss me!

And finally, not to be sappy or anything, I just wanted to thank those of you who actually read my blog.  I started it not really knowing what to expect.  Really I didn't expect anything at all...I didn't think anyone would actually read my story, but I'm getting more and more readers every week!  It amazes me (and makes me think that I should try to write about something more interesting)!  Thanks for all of your support!

Suck It Up

I'm feeling pretty good today.  I thought was paranoid that I was going to get sick because Dustin has a full-fledged cold going on right now!  While I'm still not sure that it is behind me, I'm feeling good today and plan to get a good long run in today.  At this point in time, I'll take 5 miles as a long run.  I need to do something because I haven't worked out in a few days!  Yuck!  I have been eating pretty good, though, getting my veggies in.

In other exciting news, my friend Ashley has decided to run the half with me!!!  I cannot even tell you how excited I am that I'm not alone (not that you guys don't help me) in this process.  She is a much better runner than me and will probably eat my dust, but I'm fine with that.  Right now I don't think I'm going to set any specific time goals because I think I need to focus on FINISHING!

I'm a little nervous about my 5k on Saturday.  I was contemplating bowing out, but don't worry, I won't let myself do that!  I just know that I haven't trained as hard as I should have, so not doing it would be the easiest way to show that I didn't train.  I would be supremely PISSED OFF at myself if I did that, though.  It's only 3.1 miles, I can suck it up and push through it.  I might not go super fast, but I never expected myself to in the first place.  I think this will be a good test for me.

Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!  Biggest Loser is on tonight!

The Weekend

I had a great weekend!  I went out on Friday night for dinner/drinks/dancing with friends for a birthday.  I probably had a little too much fun, but that's ok.  Dustin and I woke up on Saturday feeling less than perfect (well, me at least), but we had a good day at home getting some stuff done.  I probably should have done more, but my alcohol-induced headache wasn't so fun.

I was thankful that I got my drinking out of the way on Friday night (wow, I sound like an alcoholic!) because even though I wasn't on top of my game on Saturday, I still had all day Sunday to get stuff done.  I cleaned the house and my parents came to visit, and then we went for a hike!  I love living next to a giant mountain!  Except for the fact that I can't hike on my own because I'm completely afraid of cougars and bobcats attacking me.  Minor details though.

After we got back in, I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner.  When you live 30 miles out of town, you really have to plan or at least stock up on food for dinners.  Well, I definitely had nothing planned, so I grabbed some chicken out of the freezer to defrost.  Still unsure what to make, our saving grace, aka Dustin's parents, called an invited us over (as in across the driveway) for dinner!  I love it when that happens, because it usually lands on a day that I have no clue what to make!

Dinner was great, and some family friends ended up showing up, so we talked and had a good time together.  Then Dustin and I got in the hot tub for awhile, then gathered up our dog and headed home for the night.  All was great until this morning, when....

Dustin woke up with a horrible sore throat!  So, needless to say, I'm either having sympathy pains or I'm so paranoid of getting sick that I feel like I'm getting sick, or I REALLY AM GETTING SICK, because my throat almost kinda hurts!  No!  I've got my 5k on Saturday, so I'm really hoping that it's all in my head and that I'll be fine.  Until then, I'm going to stay away from Dustin (no kissing allowed), get my workouts in, eat good, and get mentally ready for this race.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Mental Toughness

I'm having a little trouble keeping my thoughts in the right place today.  I need to get a workout in, but I can already tell it's going to be a struggle to get to the gym.  Mentally, anyway.  I'm up to the challenge, though, and one thing I'm going to need for my half-marathon is mental toughness.  So with that:

"Caitlin, get your ASS to the gym tonight!"

Yep, just what I needed!

Weigh-In Wednesday

Today's result:  161!!!!  It was so close to 160 (I still have a scale that isn't digital...) that I almost decided to put it down, but I'm going with 161 just to be safe.  That's a 3 pound loss from last week, and 1 pound lighter than I've gone on this whole journey!

I think Jillian is paying off!  Even though I've missed skipped a couple days of it, it is really making me stronger.  I've also gotten in a few runs lately and my eating habits have been pretty good.  So maybe they were right when they said (I don't know who "they" is by the way) that eating good and working out is the way to go for this whole weight loss thing.  Huh.

It's now time to get off celebration cruise and buckle down for another week.  I made Rolo cookies last night for some unknown reason and I'm trying to not eat them all.  Hopefully Dustin will have eaten every last one of them by the time I get home.  Either that or I will need to sleep while running on the treadmill tonight.  One way or the other....

I got up and Shredded this morning.  I think I'm ready to move up to Level 2 because even though I still sweat and get my heartrate going for level 1, it's much easier than last week.  Time to shock my body again!  Going to get a few miles in tonight too!  I got in 2.5 miles during lunch yesterday.  I'm going to meet my mileage goal this month for once!

My stomach is making some weird noises right about now.  I have headphones on with music playing and I can still hear it.  It's not upset but it seems like there is some serious digestion going on!

*Please excuse my exclamation point usage in this post!  I get a little outta control sometimes!

March Goals

Here they are, let's see how many of them I can meet!  I was searching my previous posts so I could compare my February goals to what I actually accomplished, but lo and behold, I never actually wrote any down...funny how that seems to happen sometimes!  Not this month, though!

1. Run (walk) 60+ miles.  I'm really going to have to kick it in gear for this one, but if I just follow my training plans, I should be able to get it done!
2. Finish the 30 Day Shred.  So, I'm not going to get it done in 30 days exactly.  I'm fine with that, because I want to first and foremost get my mileage in.  I'm seven days in already, so that means I've got 23 days in March to get it done!
3. Rock my 5k!  Ok, so by rocking it I really mean just running the whole thing without walking.  And possibly getting a sub 30 minute time.  That, my friends, is rocking it in my book, at least at this point in my life!
4. Lose 5 pounds.  This will get me below the 160 mark!  I'm not really worried about this one too much, but I've got to get it written down because I think I can hit this goal pretty easily this month. (See weigh-in tomorrow).
5. Paint the dining room!  Obviously not a health-like goal.  Well, yes it is--for my SANITY!
6. Get my taxes done!  Also a sanity goal.  Plus I'll be getting a refund!!!  Can we say wedding money?

Ok, I could put more, but those are six things I want/need to get done in March.  The first two are going to be the hardest for me, so wish me luck!

Weekend Mashup

Hello!!!  It's been a few days since I've posted, so bear with me on this one.  I have a lot to say.

To start, I'll recap the weekend.  On Friday when I got off work, I headed straight to the gym (read: 20 yards from my office) and put in 2 miles on the treadmill.  It wasn't quite the long run I was hoping for, but my legs were shot and I still had to go home and Shred.  So once it was out of the way, I made a break for home....once I got there I crawled into bed and turned on my electric blanket because I was freezing!  Dustin was away this weekend, so I came home to a cold house and didn't feel like walking my lazy ass out to get wood for the stove.

After about half an hour of reading in bed (I'm reading My Sister's Keeper) I finally talked myself into doing the Shred.  This was quite the NSV for me, because on any other day I probably would have talked myself into staying in bed and not finishing my workout.  By the time I got done with Jillian, I was toast.  I ate a small meal and then did what anyone would do on a Friday night....headed back to bed!  It was pretty nice--I watched Gilmore Girls (which I don't get to watch when Dustin is home) and fell asleep!

Saturday I woke up early to get ready to go to Bend with my parents.  Why is it that I can wake up at 5:30 easily on Saturdays and Sundays, but when the weekdays roll around, I can't hardly get my ass up by 6?  Anyway, I had a great day with my parents, although my eating left something to be desired.  I guess you could say that eating ice cream for dinner was not the most nutritionally enticing dinner I could have imagined.  I did not, however, overeat--I just didn't make healthy choices.

Sunday I woke up to my dog whining to go outside.  Time: 6:30.  I just can't do it.  Sleeping in is a thing of the past for me!  I attempted to crawl out of bed, but it was FREEZING in the bedroom.  Even though I didn't build a fire, we still have a monitor in our room, so I knew it could only mean one thing...we were out of monitor fuel.  Damn it, now it's cold everywhere in the house.  Except for the bathroom, because we have a mini heater in there.

I got up and found some blankets and chilled out in front of the tv with some hot coffee and breakfast.  I had the makings of a pretty lazy day, but I took one look at our house and decided it needed to be cleaned...badly!  So I got up and worked on it for a few hours (barely made a dent in it) and then decided to head outside.  It was warmer outside than it was in our house!!!  I quickly went in and changed into my workout clothes and headed down the road for a run.

Our driveway has a fork in it and you can either go the long way or the short way to get out (each has their pros and cons).  I took the short way and still ended up running 4 miles.  It felt so good to get out in the sunshine.  My dog went with me and she spent the whole time searching for squirrels (FYI, she caught her first squirrel that morning and was super proud of it!)  After I got back in I Shredded and had a snack.  Dustin came home not long after and we vegged on the couch for awhile before hitting up the hot tub.   After, we ate dinner with his fam and went and watched the hockey game that we DVR'd.

All-in-all....a great weekend.  If you didn't notice, I didn't mention anything about Shredding on Saturday.  It didn't happen.  I should have got up a little earlier to get it done before leaving for Bend, but I didn't.  I don't regret it though, because my legs were pretty sore and I really think I needed the break.  I got right back to it on Sunday and I plan on doing it all this week.

February recap:

Miles ran: 34.5
~I definitely didn't meet my goal of 66 miles.  I could have and should have got more runs in, but I'm still satisfied with my efforts and feel like I'm getting in pretty good shape.  I can see results, so that is a great feeling!

Ending weight: 164
~I had some ups and downs, but since my weigh-ins are on Wednesdays, I'm not going to weigh myself until then (ok, that's a big fat lie, because I got on this morning; however, I'm not going to tell you guys until my real weigh-in day).

February: SUCCESS
I'll post my March goals in another post.  This one was just getting too long!