Traveling During Hurricane Season

Greetings from Barbados!!!!

We are currently riding out Tropical Storm Chantal. It always stinks to have a whole day of vacation washed out, but at least we have movies, Kindles and iPads to get us through.

We started out the trip with a relatively easy travel day, it's been a lot worse in years past, so a slight wait on the runway couldn't dampen out spirits.

 

We spent yesterday at the beach frolicking in the waves and watching crazy kids jump off cliffs.

Last night we got a note on the door to be prepared to hunker down (my words, not theirs) since Tropical Storm Chantal would be visiting at about 4am and would bring with her pretty crappy weather for the next day. I guess that's what you get when you travel to the Caribbean during hurricane season. Barbados is a pretty lucky island, they only get hit by a Hurricane every 50 years or so, this is our first time in 10 years of coming here that an official named storm has hit during our trip.

Our view today: still pretty, but a little angrier

So now I guess we thank our lucky stars we had the foresight to load up our suitcase with tons of frozen drink packets. Nothing a strawberry daiquiri or piña colada can't fix.

Any good tips for surviving a washed out day of vacation???

 

Posted with Blogsy

I've moved! To another blog...

For those of you who read on Google Reader, you probably didn't notice, but my blog has gotten jacked up. I tried to fix it, had my super smart friend take a look at it, no luck. Apparently it became corrupt and was not fixable on my end.

So, please join me over at Not So Newly Wed. Please update your Google Readers with http://lifeafternewlywed.blogspot.com/

See you over there with some news!!!!!

Broad Street Run - Ten Miler

Hubs and I ran the Broad Street 10 Miler on Sunday with 34,000 of our closest friends.

We had started training at the end of February and were pretty good about it for a month. Then we got distracted and training for a run became last priority. When we got back from vacation, April 1, we went for a 6 mile run and both felt pretty confident. After that life got in the way and training fell by the wayside. Since that one 6 mile run I ran only one other time for 6 miles and it was HARD.

Since we were completely under prepared, I wasn't so crazy about getting a good time and just didn't want to finish last. 

Hubs and I woke up at 5:15, got ready and headed towards downtown where we'd be parking. Once we got parked, we had to hop on the subway to get to the start line. Here I am still cheerful waiting for the train.

The energy and excitement of the crowd was infectious. We were so excited to get this show on the road. Once we got to our stop everyone flooded up the stairs and we were exactly at my corral, this is where we parted ways so he could run with the faster folks.

There was about a 20 minute wait until the race kicked off. I just chilled waiting for everything to start moving and ready to get started. Once the crowd started moving forward, I got Runkeeper queued up to keep me on track with my intervals and to keep me on top of my pace.

I ran the first two miles pretty quickly and was sticking with my run 4 minutes, walk 1 intervals with no issues. After the first water stop, my run pace slowed a little bit, but I still stuck with the intervals. We were running through neighborhoods at this point with folks standing on their porches and cheering for everyone. Around the 3 mile mark, these three girls were doing Zumba on the side.

We ran through Temple University where students were out cheering for all the runners. It was so nice to see people sticking around and still cheering for us slow pokes in the back.

At this point I could see City Hall in the distance. It looked so small and was only the halfway point!!! I was still feeling pretty good at 4 miles, just trucking along. I knew my mom was around the 6 mile mark to cheer us on, so I just kept thinking, make it to City Hall, then make sure you're still looking good at 6 miles.

Just around 5 miles, City Hall finally seemed reachable. I was going to make it at least half way and still feeling good! At about 5 1/2 miles is when I started losing my intervals. This was also approaching my max run previous to this race. I was at least running when I got to my mom. It was great to see someone cheering for ME and not just waving to everyone else's friends and family.

After 6 miles there were a lot more bands along the route and more spectators cheering. Since I wasn't so concerned with getting the best time, I enjoyed every second of the race. I had a giant smile plastered on the whole time. I was high fiving little kids, singing with the bands as I ran by, and waving to all of the spectators. There were some great posters along the way, here were a couple of my favorites: 

I had set up updates to be emailed to me for both mine and hubs' splits. At about 7 miles I switched to 3 minutes run, 2 minutes walk. I took the walk breaks to check in on hubs. I saw that he crossed the 3, 5, and 7 mile marks all at about a 10 min/mile pace. I couldn't have been more proud of him. Since I knew he was cruising along, I just had to get myself across the finish line. I had friends waiting at the 9 mile mark, so I was just ticking away the miles and minutes until I had to look good running for them. Once I saw them yelling and screaming I knew I was almost done. A few minutes later I saw the 1/2 mile to go sign.

I wanted to badly to run for the last half mile, but my body just wouldn't do it. I knew that when I saw the Navy Yard gates it would be another 1/4 mile. I was so close, and it just seemed so far away. Finally I got through the gates, ran under the photographers (smiling of course) and saw the finish line.  

From there it was just give it all I've got and don't let anyone pass me. I knew hubs was waiting for me to get across the line.

Once I collected my medal, water, and snacks, hubs and I just basked in the glory of being DONE. This was my first race getting a medal and I would by lying to you if I said I didn't wear it to work on Monday. :) I was proud of that sucker.

We found our friends who were tailgating, had some food and a beer then headed back to our car to make the 2 1/2 hour drive home. 

Thankfully we had brought wipes and clean clothes so we wouldn't have to sit in our post race stink for the drive. 

It was so fun to compare stories with hubs and share our different experiences.

This was seriously such a great run and I had such a blast doing it. I would do it again in a heartbeat, maybe just put a little more effort into training before it next time.

I have a 10k in Annapolis in a couple weeks, I'm going to be hitting the trails before that so I can attempt at getting a decent(ish) time. 

Catching up

I bet you would think I meant catching up on what's been going on since I disappeared, nope, but I do have tons to share (don't you love a teaser?). This is about catching up with old friends.

This weekend I went out with my best friend from middle school. We were inseparable for a couple years and remained close through high school. We kept in touch for the first couple years of college, but the distance caught up. It had been close to ten years since we had talked. When I saw Titanic was being released, I reached out to her to go see it for old times sake. This weekend was my 5th time seeing it in the theater and her 18th!!!!

We went to lunch first and almost chatted our way right through our show time. We caught up on families, mutual friends, jobs, how we met our husbands, our weddings and her first baby. It had been almost a decade, but we picked right back up. I don't have tons of friends from my childhood that I still keep up with, but it was so refreshing to have the history we shared. We both went away for school, but ended back close to where we started. I am looking forward to more marathon chat sessions and introducing our husbands.

Have you ever reconnected with someone from your past? What was your friendship like after so many years?

The List: Crossed of #20

I added No Drinking for 30 Consecutive Days under my Be Healthy section of my 101 in 1001 list. I put it on there with good intentions, but didn't think I would actually accomplish this one.

2012 started with me saying I was going to get to my goal weight this year for once and all. Part of my effort to getting there was setting small (hopefully attainable) monthly goals so I wouldn't get discouraged and give up. I decided I wouldn't drink each month until I met each of those goals in an effort to get there sooner. Drinking is just murder to any diet or healthy choices I aim for. When I'm out drinking, I'm likely to be in a bar or at someone's house. There is likely to be abundant food and it is unlikely that it is healthy. So I end up drinking and then also snacking on things I wouldn't normally choose. Weekday drinking is usually at happy hour, happy hour is right after work. Since I'm not a morning person, right after work, I have not been to the gym yet. This means weekday drinking results in no workout. Another double whammy. Extra food, no burn.

So in January I started with no drinking thinking I would partake once I hit my monthly poundage goal. Once I hit that goal I was so close to the end of the month (and making my 30 days to cross it off), that I just decided to keep going. This resulted in coming in a SOLID two pounds past my goal and starting off February ahead. #WINNING

As posted before, February is presenting itself with several events where I will be consuming alcohol, but I do plan to tone down. When I used to try and keep up with the boys beer for beer, I think I'll make the cut off after a couple, I don't need to be drinking that much and my lower tolerance shouldn't allow for very much anyways. I'm sticking to the same weight goal for February as before even though I'm starting out ahead, so that means two fewer pounds to worry about, hopefully I can still achieve a loss and be able to have a couple cocktails. If not, back to sobriety until we learn how to lose and drink at the same time. It's a delicate balance.

Do you cut out alcohol when you're trying to lose weight? Is that the first to go or do you try to lose while you're still drinking?

1 Down, 11 to go

The first month of the year has passed us by. I stuck to my plan the whole month and started of the year on a great note.

I ended January with a 4 mile run on a gorgeous afternoon. Seriously, 65 degrees in January? Last year we had a foot of snow on the ground at this time in the year. I made it the first two miles without a walk break and minimal walking on the way back, so much progress from where I was a year or even just 6 months ago.

So onto the next month, just taking it one at a time. February brings challenges that I was able to avoid in January. We have a wedding this weekend, birthday parties, and a weekend away to visit friends. There will be unavoidable meals out and cocktails galore. However, we are also stepping up our workouts. Hubs and I added 30 minutes a week in with our trainer. I was literally curled up in a ball 45 minutes into our first hour long workout with him. I am actually looking forward to our 30 minutes with him on Thursdays, it'll be a break from what he did to us on Monday. 

Towards the end of February I will be beginning my training schedule for the Broad Street 10 miler. I'm using the same schedule I used for my 15k and have just added a week to the end so that my longest run will be 9 miles instead of capping it at 8. I will have another post this month with my goals for this race. 

My first weigh in of the month has me about 2 pounds ahead of schedule. I'll take it. I'm going to need all the help I can get to make this month's goals.

If January was my kick off month, February will be my first really challenging month. The first of many challenges, learning to stick to goals and plans even when life gets in the way.

How do you handle the challenges and hurdles life throws at you to derail your diet or healthy choices you've been so good about?

Resolution Plateau?

So just over three weeks in, is everyone else tired of trying to keep up with resolutions yet?

I'm holding strong, still counting points, still abstaining from alcohol, still working out.

And guess what? It's working. WHAAAAAAAAT?!?!

I know. Who'd have thunk it? I took a couple days off from the gym last week due to the inability to breathe. Thanks to Hubs, I was out of commission for about 4 days with a cold. BUT I showed up yesterday ready to get back on track. And jump on the track I did. Our trainer has been building us up with our running and surprisingly (not so surprising, this guy is GOOD) it's working. Yes, I ran 15k 6 weeks ago, but I didn't run for more than 2 minutes straight and I plodded along at about 14 minute miles. Yesterday, 16 quick laps around the mini track and I had hit one mile in 10:01. Even in high school my quickest mile was about 12:30. I don't know how long I could maintain that, but it felt good to knock it out at least once.

So on top of running a 10 minute mile, the scale keeps creeping lower and lower. Also great news. So although I'm tired of being good, seeing results is definitely motivating. In the past I would have thought that I deserved a week off from the gym or a weekend off from dieting, I would then hit a downward spiral and undo all of the hard work I had put in. Not this time, I think I'll stick with for a while longer and keep going on this positive trend.

How are your resolutions going? Holding strong? Do the positive results motivate you to keep chugging along?

25 Days of Christmas

One of the projects I did over the holidays was 25 Days of Christmas for hubs. I got the idea from my December issue of Martha Stewart Living and her advent calendar of gifts. On Black Friday when I had the day off but hubs had to work, I hopped out of bed to get this project completed from start to finish.

I headed out to Target to do the shopping. I was worried that I would have to deal with the Black Friday shoppers, but since Target opened at midnight, they were all long gone by 8 am. I picked up a cartful of small gifts that he would open each day. I got him gift cards for breakfasts and lunches when he's at work. I picked up some snacks and treats to open throughout the month and a couple odds and ends gifts that he'd love. To fill in the gaps of days I also included "coupons" for things like date nights at his favorite restaurants and chores like a week of his favorite meals and a weekend without any dog walking responsibilities. 

I headed home to start wrapping the gifts. I pulled out my brown craft paper, ribbons, and my Cricut to make the numbers for each day. Most importantly this was my inaugural day of marathon Christmas carols. I couldn't have imagined it turning out any better. I was literally squealing and clapping as it all came together. 

Hubs had no idea that I was even planning this surprise and I couldn't wait for the first day of December for him to start unwrapping the gifts. I think I was just as excited as he was each day for him to wake up and see what was in store for him. I kept a list of each day's gifts so I'd know what was coming up.

I think he was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed each day of prizes. I look forward to making this a tradition in our house and getting to enjoy the gift giving and Christmas spirit all month long.

Did you start any new traditions this year?? 

Happy Holidays!!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I have a couple of projects I can't wait to share with you, but I just wanted to check in to see how your first week of 2012 is going. 

I'm trying to figure out how to blog on our new iPad (yay!). I downloaded The Blogsy app, but I have no idea how to use it. We'll start with trial and error.

So I set a couple goals for this year, probably the same goals I set every year. Lose weight, save money, buy a house. 

The weight loss is always the hardest. Last year I ended up with a grand total loss of 4 pounds. I felt like I had dieted the entire year and only had four measly pounds to show for it. 

I do feel better about this year, I feel like I'm going into it this time with a brand new set of tools. The diet part is always the easiest in theory, hardest to maintain. I'm starting out with tried and true Weight Watchers. I've had success in the past with counting points, as long as I count my points. I've even gone as far as pledging no drinks until I meet my monthly mini goals. No wasted points or calories for me.

My new secret weapon this year is.....the gym. Hahahaha big secret. But for reals, I started running last year and loved training for a race. I've already signed up for a 10k with my mom in June and have a half marathon in mind for next December (who else wants to go to Vegas???). Hubs and I have the personal trainer that tortures us twice a week and gives us homework for the other days. I would have seen more progress with him already if we hadn't started in the fall before I decided to eat my way through football season and the holidays.

So let's recap the weight loss plan of action: stick to diet, workout, motivate with races. 

Onto saving money, this year is looking a lot better comp wise at work, so that extra cash should be easy to sock away into out downpayment fund and our 5th Anniversary Europe Fund. Plus the diet means less eating out = money saved. Fingers crossed for a good tax return as well....

Then buy a house. Dumb iPad has an amazing RedFin app. We are constantly browsing houses and marking ones we like. This is gonna be realz if we can get goal number two in line. 

Did you make resolutions this year? Are they the same ones you make every year, but this will actually be your year??? Can I make it past the one week mark on any of mine??? Only one more day to find out the answer to that one......

I'll be back once I figure out how to upload pics on this thing. 

Happy New Year!

Hot Chocolate 15k

So I know you've been dying to hear how my race was, right?

Last Saturday I headed out to the National Harbor to run 9.3 miles with 19,999 other people. I was SUPER anxious about the crowds, getting there, getting chocolate, pretty much everything but the actual run.

The run itself was HARD. We started going down hill and I hit the first mile marker at 12 mins. Whoa, way too fast for me (I'm usually at about 13:30 - 13:45 miles). It was 5 miles out and back on a highway. It was boring and awful with all of the exhaust from the trucks and cars just one lane over. It was defeating to see the PACKS of people over a mile ahead of me when I was only two miles in. When I turned around however, it was encouraging to see all of the people I was ahead of. I kept my eye on a few people and just made it my goal to keep up with them.

The first five miles ended going uphill the way we came then back down hill for the next 3/4 miles. We ran past the finish line and went along the 5k course that had already happened that morning. Unfortunately, the downhill wouldn't last, at about 6.5 miles (right after I passed hubs cheering me along) we hit another hill, straight up.

Until this point I had stuck to my run 2 minutes walk 1 intervals. This hill was defeating. My attempt at running up it was counter productive. I just walked to the top, totally off of my intervals for the rest of the race. The final two miles were just run as far as I could, walk until I caught my breath. The final 1/4 mile was again, UPHILL. This was the steepest of the three hills too. Once I turned the corner and saw the finish line, I sprinted by hubs and friends cheering me on to finish.

What surprised me here was that I burst into tears. I was NOT expecting that at all. I wasn't dead (thank you training) and I had actually passed a LOT of people in the last mile (again, thank you training). I felt defeated though, that was the hardest run I had ever done. I had purposefully trained on what was one of the hillier parts of the trail I like, but I didn't feel prepared AT ALL for the giant hills in the race. I felt better once two ladies finished behind me saying that this was so much harder than the 10 Miler courses for the big races in DC.

When I signed up for the race, I had set a goal to finish under the slowest allowed pace time, 15 minute miles. As I had completed my longer training runs, I was coming in at closer to 13:45 - 14:00 minute miles. So before the race I had hoped to finish under a 14 minute mile pace. My official time was 2:11:50 which was a 14:09 pace. I was disappointed that just two minutes faster would have gotten me under the 14 minute goal.

This was my first big race and first race over 5k. My personal run was hard but good, the event as a whole? An absolute disaster.

The 15k was supposed to corral up at 7:45 and be off at 8 or shortly after. Our parking pass said to arrive at the National Harbor by 6:30. We were about 1/4 mile from the exit at 6:10 and then hit dead stopped traffic. At 7:35 we still weren't parked, had barely made it off the exit, so my friend and I jumped out of the car to walk to the start line. We had to walk about a mile to get to the start line and saw that the 5k was no where near starting. They were supposed to be off at 7:30.

At about 8:30 the 5k finally started. The 15kers jumped right into the corrals to get going ASAP. 15 mins later, the leaders of the 5k were finishing. At about 45 mins almost the entire 5k had finished and we still hadn't started our race. At this point, it was 9:15 and I had been expecting to be over half way done already. I had eaten breakfast four hours earlier and hadn't brought water with me. I was starving, thirsty, and numb from the cold. We had no information about when we would start and were just standing there hoping it'd be soon. Without any warning, the crowd started moving forward to the start line. The first mile and a half, I couldn't feel my feet because they were so frozen.

At the 5 1/2 mile when we were crossing back by the start and then finish line, the course was crowded with people who had finished the 5k and were now walking back to their cars. I couldn't tell at several points if I was even on the course because I couldn't see any other runners, just people with their families walking to their cars.

The water stations were poorly manned, often having to wait for water to get poured or do it yourself. (Let's blame this for my 2 minute hold up that cost me my goal pace). Once I finished running uphill to complete the race, the post race party was even further up the hill. At this point, I could choose, walk uphill some more to get rationed hot chocolate and fondue, or walk downhill a mile and half to get back to our car. I chose downhill. Prior to the race, I was really looking forward to celebrating my finish with other runners over delicious Ghiradelli hot chocolate, by the time I was finished, I just wanted to go home.

My experience and frustration with the poorly run race was not unique. I checked the Facebook page of the race and there were hundreds of unhappy folks. RAM Racing did not issue a statement until Sunday and it was just full of excuses.

They claimed traffic was bad because of an accident, WTOP and the Washingtonian have both said there was no accident reported. They said the National Harbor had promised parking would be no problem for 5,000 cars, but they never checked passes (Which had cost an additional $10 and required carpooling), so everyone parked there. They said the 15k was so delayed because the 5k went the wrong direction on the course, which is why we had to wait for them to finish. Shouldn't the lead bike have known which way to take the runners?

The whole thing was so poorly run and from what I can tell, it was mostly from them registering at least twice as many racers as the event should have held. Runners who were at a bit of a quicker pace said the course was too narrow and they were elbow to elbow the entire time and bumping and tripping into each other. The jackets provided were too small for everyone, leading to everyone sizing up and them running out of jackets.

I left the race with an awful distaste for RAM racing and am doubtful I would do another race with them. From what I can tell, most of their events have major mishaps.

All in all, I signed up for a 15k, I trained my butt off to prepare, and finished the race pretty much as expected. If it weren't for the poorly run event, I'd be so much more positive about the whole experience. I am looking forward to my next big race. I'm looking for a 10 miler or maybe perhaps even a 1/2 marathon in late April or May...any ideas? I need something to train for and something to work towards. I wanted to do the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, but we come home from vacation the night before, so I don't want to stress myself out doing a race the next day.

I am looking forward to working on speeding up a bit and knowing what I'm getting into with the big races now.

How was your first race experience? Positive or an absolute disaster?

I just walked 500 miles, and I will walk 500 more...

So I just got this gem in my inbox this afternoon. 500 Miles since I've had my fitbit. heck yeah. I've had this little guy for 115 days, so I'm averaging about 4 1/3 miles per day. Let's step that up a bit.

I am pledging to get to 1,000 miles by February 22, 2012. This is 100 days from now and puts me at a 5 mile a day average. Very doable seeing as how I still have 19 more days before my race, which means at least 5 more days with runs over 5 miles. Then I just have to keep it up...

I also hit the 1,000,000 step mark yesterday. AMAZING.

Also, down 6 lbs since my post on 11/1.

otherwise known as #kickingassandtakingnames

We Are....

I don't even know where to start with this, but I feel like I can't stay silent. I'm sad, heartbroken, and distraught over this entire Penn State scandal. I feel betrayed by a man I've never met, but have always respected. My world has been rocked by this.

If you had asked me Saturday morning if Joe Paterno should retire, I would have said "I hope he dies pacing that field, during a game, doing what he loves and all he has ever done"

Today, I think he should step down. This is the end of his career and what his legacy will now be known for, regardless of whether he is morally innocent or guilty.

I desperately want to hear his side of the story. I want to know what he's known for the past 9 1/2 years. I want to know that his conscience is clean. But I just don't think it is. I won't say that he met his legal obligations and could then sleep well at night. If he knew something illegal/immoral happened, he should have done the follow ups and he should have been asking if this had gone to the police. If he didn't know the full extent of the 2002 incident, his era at Penn State is still over and will be tarnished forever.

It is just awful that he is the main target being persecuted in this whole thing. I'm hearing more about Coach Paterno than I have about Jerry Sandusky, and he is the one that raped those boys!

There are now about 20 boys/men that have come forward as victims in the awful and horrific mess. 20 boys whose lives will never be the same because they were exposed to a predator who set up a foundation to supposedly help them. This man preyed on these helpless boys, giving them gifts and opportunities that they would never have gotten without him, but they paid the price of abuse and molestation for it. It is absolutely disgusting that this man put them in these situations. He should be the one persecuted for these crimes. He should be the one under the microscope in all of this.

Where was McQueary in the days/weeks/months/years after he saw what he saw in the locker room? Did he tell JoePa all the details? Why isn't he being called on for moral obligations?

People are calling for the cancellation of the rest of the Penn State season. This would punish players that had no idea and were in elementary school when this happened. This would hurt their chances of having a professional career. Boys that had never met Sandusky, boys that had no idea this man was lurking in their shadows. This would punish the other coaches that knew nothing of the situation, and I believe there were some.

Now is not the time for the Penn State community to turn their backs on their Alma Mater. Now is the time for us to come together and show that Penn State is so much bigger and so much better than this.

As posted on Facebook:

“We are…….sad. We are…….grieving with the families and the victims. We are……broken hearted. We are……trying to make sense of things. We are……confused. We are…..over 94,000 students strong. We are…..ranked among the top 15 public universities. We are…..the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. We are…..over... 8,500 top ranked faculty. We are…..hard working student athletes in many sporting events with NO connection to former events. We are….more than university officials and athletic department members. We are….more than this scandal. We are Penn State, and we have always been more than just a football team.”

 I will be wearing my Penn State Football shirt proudly for the rest of this season and as long as I can still scream out "WE ARE"

Bad News Bears

Just weighed myself.

IT WAS AWFUL.

I've gained. A lot. In a week. WHAT THE HECK

I'm only four pounds down from January 1st. I want to cry.

There are 60 days before 2012. And a goal without a deadline is nothing but a dream, right?

So here it goes.

I'm going to lose 27 pounds in 60 days. This gets me to a nice round number and a respectable 31 lbs in one year.

My race is about half way. So that's 14 lbs down by December 3rd.

And if this was twitter, I'd end with #letsdothis

training to finish, probably won't win

So I've been following my happy little schedule. Mostly. I get at least the run workouts in and maybe a couple others throughout the week. Training is going well, I'm very happy with my endurance progress. I never set out to be a speedy racer, but just wanted to set out to finish. In this first month of training I've gone from a 15 min pace (which is the minimum to not get kicked off the course on race day) to a comfortable 13:35 pace. This weekend is a 6 mile run, if I maintain my 2:1 run/walk splits, I'll be happy. If I finish at a 13:35 - 13:45 pace, I'll call it a roaring success.

Hubs and I joined the Y so I'd have access to a pool for the cross train days. When we signed up we got a complementary session with a trainer. The poor guy that had to put up with each of us for our free half hour kicked both of our respective butts. We both hurt so good after that first workout with him, we signed up for 12 joint sessions with him. WHAT?!?! So now we're paying someone to hurt us. That just doesn't seem right.

We do one 30 min session of strength training and one 30 min session of cardio. Tonight was our first cardio session. The Arc Trainers he wanted were taken, so to the treadmills we went. He set the incline at an uncomfortable height then set the speed at 6 mph. In case you aren't good at math, 6 mph is a hecka lot faster than my 13:35 pace. It's actually a dead sprint. So off we went, one minute sprint, one minute rest. I eventually whined my way down to 5.7 mph, still a dead sprint in case you were keeping track. It was awful and I hated him. Unfortunately he didn't get the memo that I don't plan on WINNING this race but just looking to finish, bonus points for not being last.

I'll be so happy this weekend when I can go at my slow and steady wins the race pace even though it'll be for 3 times as long as our workout today.

What do you do to prepare for a race?

What the WHAT?!?

Seriously folks, I've messed up big time. I signed up to run this 15K! That's 9.3 MILES for those non metric folks out there.

The most I've EVER gone (not run, just gone) is 5 miles. How am I going to practically double that?

I blame my sister. I was talking a big game and saying how I was going to run a half marathon next year, blah blah blah. And she sent me a link to this race and said "Why don't you sign up for this 15k?"

I googled "15k training programs" and the first one I saw was 10 weeks. I had 9 1/2 until the race, so kinda fit perfectly. Darn it, looks like I gotta sign up. This is the plan I'll be following: super amazing plan to get me across the finish line.

So I signed up and started running. It starts slow, just two miles at a time. I was already doing 3-4 a couple times a week. So 2? No problem. Now I'm at the end of week 2 of training and have to run three miles tomorrow morning. At race pace, we'll see how this goes. When I think about the race distance, I'm terrified, so I'm sticking to the schedule like it's my job.

We'll see how this goes. I didn't intend for this to become a running (I'm not a runner) or weight loss blog, but that's what's going on in my life right now, so you may be seeing a log about that coming up.

Sorry I've been MIA for so long, hopefully this is my big return!

Come on Irene....

If you're looking for an example of proper hurricane preparedness, you'll have to look elsewhere.

After watching the new for the past couple days, we made no plans for the weekend and planned to camp out. I think our area is under thunderstorm or tropical storm watch. We are out of the direct path of the hurricane. Apparently this hurricane is the size of Europe, so I am still a bit cautious as to what the weekend will bring. 

We hit the grocery store after work tonight just like every other person in town. It was amazing to see the items that are COMPLETELY wiped out. Bananas? Gone. Bottled water? Gone. Milk? Got the last jug. It really was crazy to see the lines and the panic about the impending storm. People had check lists a mile long. I just wanted to make sure we won't get bored or hungry.

We are west of I95, everyone east of us is in trouble, but I think we should be OK. We bought diet coke, some booze, eggs, and milk, along with some other essentials to make some fun new recipes. I started panicking that we were the only cart in the store without bottled water, so we threw one of the last on the emergency pallet at the front of the store.

We are completely fine food wise if we are stranded in the house for about 10-12 days (but how would that happen?). If we lose electricity? We're screwed. I have ice ready to go and a cooler to put some stuff in, but basically all the food we have requires electricity to cook. Pasta, frozen meats, microwave popcorn, all useless without electricity. At least we'll have cold beer and wine.

Once we got home, I started looking around to see if we'd be ok without power. Candles are ready to go. Flashlight out and ready. Back up batteries were purchased. Let's hope we don't need to use any of these.

As long as the lights stay on, we'll be good to go. We have movies from the list queued up on the DVR and ready to be watched with some delicious popcorn. Wii games we haven't played in a while and new recipes for days to try out. If the lights go out, I'll be reading my fully charged Kindle until it dies or cleaning out the stacks of magazines sitting in our house. I finally bought a binder to organize all of the tear sheets that have been collecting from each month's subscriptions.

If you're on the East Coast, are you ready? Do you have better prep plans than we scrapped together? If you're not in the path of the hurricane, do you have better weekend plans?

Quick and Dirty

Oh, hello there. Do you feel neglected? I'm just stopping in for a quick blog equivalent of a drive by. Here's what's been going on lately....

Look how my tomatoes are growing!!!! It's very exciting to water them every day and see them changing colors and growing bit by bit.

I've also made some progress on my paper goals....remember those? Here's where we started:

Here's where we are now (also compare between real camera and crappy iphone pics):

And here's how many have been torn off:

YAY! PROGRESS!!!!

Also, since January 1st I've lost one of these.....

No, he hasn't gone missing, but I've lost the equivalent of one wiener dog on the scale!!! I wasn't brave enough to weigh myself holding the heavier one, maybe I'll lose her by next week. I look at Wilbur and think, he's a little dog, but not that little. Where was I storing this dog sized mass? Gross. And to think I could stand to lose much bigger dogs than him.

I started the year on Weight Watchers. The program works, when you stick to it. I was good for about 6 weeks, lost about 10 lbs, then was bored. So I stopped counting points. I didn't gain it all back, just a couple of the pounds. I had been gaining and losing the same 5 lbs after that for a while when I was half assing the WW program. I decided something needed to change and I wanted to kick start the losses again.

I started the Paleo diet last week after seeing a couple other girls loving it, here and here. The gist of it is, if a caveman couldn't have picked it or killed it, can't eat it. This means fruits, veggies, nuts, and proteins. This also means no carbs (ouch), no dairy (ouch), and no sugar (boo). I was intimidated, but hit Trader Joes last week ready to do this. I was encouraged that every day the scale showed a loss, it makes it so much easier to stick to it when I can see quick results. I stuck to it Mon-Fri except for a few blips of wine. I'm only human. Saturday, was more of "diet? what diet?". But I woke up this morning, had my almond milk and fruit smoothie and was back on track. Hopefully yesterday didn't do too much damage, but even so, the break was enough to get me motivated again.

I've also been doing the Couch 2 5K running app on my phone. I've tried this 3-4 times before, but give up around week 4 or 5. I'm currently in week 7 where the intervals are over and it's just straight runs with no walk breaks. I'm not so into it anymore. I like my walk breaks, they make me feel like I can run harder/longer during those intervals. I may just keep repeating the week 5 intervals of five and eight minute run intervals. I felt strong doing those runs and felt like I could really push it the entire workout and leave it all on the run.

With vacation coming up next month, I have to stick to both diet and exercise to make sure I'm bathing suit ready.

In the meantime, I have been hopping into my suit for Friday Surreptitious Happy Hours at the Pool. What is better than sneaking out of work an hour early (shh don't tell) and coming home to relax with a book, some friends and wine by the pool? Coincidence that my water bottle holds exactly one bottle of wine? I think not.

Alrighty then, with that, I'm out. I just needed a break from the top to bottom cleaning of the condo that I've been doing today. Back to work for me. I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend and is looking forward to a great week!!!!

Best Thing I've Ever Made

Holy moly. Last week I made Broiled Herb Marinated Shrimp from March's Cooking Light. These shrimp were AMAZING. I would have been impressed if I had gotten these in a restaurant. Best part is that the herbs I used were from my little patio garden project I'm trying out this year!!! I just went out side, snipped the needed herbs and was ready to go!!!!

Here is the amazing recipe:

Broiled Herb-Marinated Shrimp Skewers
Ingrdients:
3/4 cup fresh cilantro
3/4 cup fresh parsley
1/2 cup basil
3 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic cloves
24 jumbo shrimp peeled and deveined

1. Combine first 10 ingredients in a food processor, process until smooth. Place in a bowl, add shrimp, toss to coat, and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 mins, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat broiler to high

3. Remove shrimp from marinade, thread 6 shrimp on wooden skewers. Place skewers on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil 5 inches from heat for 2 minutes on each side.

We just had the shrimp by themselves with a vegetable. I think next time I would serve them over pasta with a light lemon garlic sauce.

AMAZING.

black thumb?

This year I decided that I wanted to try and grow some vegetables and herbs on our balcony. I love the idea of just picking fresh vegetables and taking them straight to the kitchen for dinner.

We bought two large pots to start our container garden. We got two different varieties of tomatoes and three types of herbs, cilantro, basil, and parsley. We spent just under $100 to get everything, the bulk of which was the pots. I don't expect to break even this year in savings, but I think next year when all we need is plants and soil we might actually be saving some cash.

The tomatoes said they would take 60-70 days, I'm getting impatient!!! We bought the plants already started, I didn't trust myself to start from seeds. Perhaps we can try seedlings if we have good veggies and herbs this year.

 Cilantro

 Parsley

 Sweet Basil (which smells AMAZING)

I've already used the herbs in several dishes. I love just going out to the balcony, snipping off what I need and using it that night!!! The cilantro seems to be the most resilient, growing back quickly after I use some. The parsley and basil seem to be taking a bit longer to grow back, I hope I can keep everything going to have a fresh supply all summer long.

One of the two tomato plants seems to be thriving while the other doesn't seem like it's doing so well. The taller one has starting sprouting small yellow flowers, which I've learned through some research, will be where the tomatoes will eventually be. This morning I saw a little pea sized bulb from one of the flowers, I think it's the beginning of my first tomato!!! I can't wait to see how everything grows.

 Thriving Tomato Plant (with Basil)

 Not So Thriving (with cilantro and parsley)

 The yellow flowers and first little bud of a tomato!!!!!!

I wish I had taken pictures when we first got started, I can't even remember how small the taller plant was when we brought it home, but I know it's grown leaps and bounds! I'll keep you updated with the progress as we hopefully get a plentiful bounty all summer long!!!

Have you ever tried container gardening? Besides tomatoes and herbs, anything else seem to grow especially well in container gardens?

Happy Birthday Hubs!!!!

Happy Birthday to my most favoritist person in the world. 

You are my best friend and my partner in crime. 

I can't imagine life without you in it every single day.

I missed the heck outta you this weekend, but I think the pups missed you more.

Never, EVER stop rocking out exactly like this.

I love you.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!