Vacation, people!

Back from vacation!! I'll admit, vacation with two small kids isn't as relaxing as I'd hope, but the sun and sand was ahhhmazing!

It was, however, a LOT of indulging in food and alcohol!  I had my first (2) Moscow mules before we even left for the beach. 

Then we started with our "traditional" beach drink - Lime-a-ritas & Grand Marnier!

I did go for a run on Sunday morning. It was short-ish, just 3 miles, but the HUMIDITY! It was killer!!  I feel like I walked outside and started sweating! Decent time, though. 

We ate out a lot. I made decent decisions, for the most part. Especially after I ate Pizza Hut on Monday night. I won't even tell you how MUCH Pizza Hut I ate, because it was disgusting. Let's just say I ate enough that I laid in bed that night trying to figure out if it would be ok to make myself get sick just to get it OUT of my body!  After that night, I pledged to make wiser decisions. Not GREAT but I definitely didn't make that mistake again! Lots of fish and grilled chicken for the rest of the week.

Thursday I went out for a long run - 10 miles! It was a few rough first miles - I bartered with myself a lot. 

"Make it to two miles, then I'll turn around - giving me 4 miles" 

"Ok ok, go for 2.5"  

"if you can run 3, you might as well run 3.5" 

"well heck if you are feeling good enough to hit 3.5, you should definitely be able to make 4.5" 

And so on. I made it 5 miles out and turned around, coming back 5 miles. Not GREAT time, but I'm happy with it. 

I came home and weighed in that night (dumb move) at 168. The next morning, after lots of water, I was down to 164. My final September weigh in was 162.5. A GAIN again!! 

This definitely motivated me for a sprint!! 

I have a half marathon on Sunday so this week I am just trying to eat clean to get myself FEELING good when I run. It's been a ROUGH go the last few times. I can tell as soon as I start running when I haven't been fueling my body properly. I feel out of breath. Bulky. Clumsy. Slow. 

This week starts no caffeine/no alcohol. I am attempting to eat clean, at least 75% of the time.  So far so good. I turned to a run yesterday during stress (that run is in the next blog post!) instead of all.the.food. I am looking FORWARD to my run in the am, if only I can sleep through the night!

Tomorrow starts my next FitNut monthly challenge. I changed teams this time, to mix it up a little.  The physical challenge this month is burpees/planks/pushups. It should be interesting! I plan on doing a plank to fatigue tomorrow, then again at the end of the month to see how much progress I've made. 

And here's to the Fastest, Flattest half marathon this weekend!

High Mileage!!

Well, I call my weeks Sunday to Saturday and if that's how it was calculated at RunKeeper, I'd have a high mileage weeks! I usually do a long run, then take 3-4 days off. Not this week! After my 10 miler on Sunday, I FORCED myself to get out Monday. It was a short run, but I did it!

 I took Tuesday as an off day. Wednesday, I went to the gym. I lifted for 37 minutes, including 110 squats (60 with 12lb weights), 30 side lunges (each side), and many leg presses. I ran a quick mile (9:02!) on the treadmill.

Thursday my legs hurt SO BADLY.  My Thursday and Friday runs suffered QUITE badly because of it. I was MUCH slower than average, but I did make myself go. The weather in St. Louis has finally turned (hopefully for the season!) to fall!  Thursday morning was 60 degrees and couldn't have been more perfect!

Today was one of my favorite days. The Color Run! This year, my hubby wanted to come with me. Kids under 5 can run without paying so my kiddos were all ready to run too. My daughter whined to sit down the whole time, except for when I could distract her with trying to figure out what color was next. :-)  My little guy apparently doesn't like being dirty - we had the rain cover on the jogging stroller and after we came out of the color stations, he would take a bandana and wipe every exposed part of his body off. :-)  

17.59 miles this week!! Whoop whoop !! (not counting the 5K this am, which I didn't track!) 

Of course, I forgot to weigh in this am so I did it after the run, after a lunch of burgers and shakes. And after an afternoon nap. So my weigh in was approximately 162 - Ouch! Taking this week to reclaim my comfy place and weigh in at a normal time :-) 

Just a reminder to myself & maybe you too!

Someone posted this on my FitNuts challenge page today. 

It's perfect for today - no run and I wanted to (and practically did) eat all.the.things. 

Word of the week: Awesome.

AWESOME fitness week.
Not so awesome food week.

It all evens out, though, right?

That 10 mile run today was in the POURING rain. It was DELIGHTFUL. 

I may only run when it rains from now on. <3

Some awesome things this week: 

I fit into a dress I've had hanging in my closet since 2006. No kidding - 2006. Tags on and everything. I've tried it on a few times a year since then, no go. But Wednesday? Finally, it fit!

Saturday, I got to snuggle the sweetest baby boy ever. He's a teeny peanut and I ALMOST tried to convince my friends to let me "borrow" him. Babies make my heart happy! 


Saturday when I came home and got the mail, I had a package from a FitNut friend.  We were paired up in my first challenge and have kept up with each other ever since. She sent me a freaking HRM!  Today's run was scheduled to be 9 miles, but I went a whole extra mile because I was so excited to see my burn with the HRM! Thanks, Jenn!! 

Color Run next weekend. Vacation right around the corner. Halloween 10K in mid-October. I turn 32 next month.  Big things on my horizon, people. Big things!! Must.keep.focused!

Jen's Hitched! (Oh yea, & some fitness stuff...)

Our very own Jen has had a lot going on in her life :-)  

Most recently (as in, last night) she got MARRIED!!!  It was the most beautiful day and one of the most perfect weddings I've been a part of in my life! <3 

Friday morning, before the festivities, I went to what is NORMALLY the Friday cardio plus class. But the gym is having the room we have class in cleaned and polished (as they do every year) and we were "homeless." Never fear, our awesome trainer Terrie took us - bah bah buuuuuum - OUTSIDE.  It was 86 degrees, felt like 96 and 58% humidity!  Here's what my FitBit told me at the end of class: What it MEANT was "you idiot, why are you outside in this weather?!?!"  teehee. 

That night was the rehearsal dinner (delicious) and the girls and I stayed at a hotel with Jen so we could get up BRIGHT and early on Saturday for girly prep time before her big day.   I warned the girls before the evening started - it's the last day of the month tomorrow morning, which means i have a weigh in. Which means I brought my SCALE to the hotel. Yes ma'am, that's me. Walking through Ameristar casino with my duffle bag full of - scale. 

My final weigh in for August was 158.  I weighed in the first of the month at 156.5. Of course.

The wedding was gorgeous. There was so much love throughout the whole event, it was amazing. Jen has the most awesome parents who went above and beyond to make it an amazing event, a great party and definitely something to remember! 

I ate dinner, I had drinks, I ate TWO pieces of cake! 

And then I weighed in this morning. 

Lower than last month's initial weigh in. 

*face palm*

So.... this month's plan:

*Eat clean - goal - 75-80% clean

*Follow the FitNuts challenges - I spent some time today putting all the  challenges in my calendar. Boom. There is it. 

*Run 35 miles (minimum) this month.

*Be kinder to myself. 

So here we go - September as  FitNut. I have a most awesome team-within-the-team in Jenn, Stacy and Lindsey. (Team 8!)