That felt better

After yesterday I was a bit unmotivated.  I still made myself go up and workout.  I didn't use the treadmill because they just hurt my knees, hips and ankle.  I decided to really push myself on the recumbent bike.  I did 9.11 miles in 35 minutes.  I new personal best. 

When I got up there I felt really sluggish, but I just decided that I was going to go and go hard.  I knew that I had gone 8.5 miles before and I really wanted to hit 9 today.  Of course it helped that the book I'm reading hit an exciting fight scene.   I find that I push faster when I come to parts like that.  LOL.

I have a meet this weekend so I'm going to try to get one run outside between now and next Tuesday.  It may or may not happen.  I'm going to take some running clothes with me and I may be able to get out between sessions for a quick run.  I'm really hoping that I can. 

April 9th is my next race.  I want to be on or drop a little bit of time since March 12th.  But I have to remember that that course was mostly downhill.  Its hard to compare the two races, but we'll see.

They all can't be good workouts

Today I just wasn't feeling it at all.  I really wanted to workout, but when I started I felt like I was moving through pudding.  It was a slow sluggish start and I just never got the rythm.  I did 20 minutes on the treadmill and it hurt the entire time.  My knee was sore and my muscles were just revolting the whole time.

After the treadmill I went to the bike.  I did 25 minutes there and it was the same thing.  I just felt like I was trying to push bricks that weighed at least 20 pounds.  It just sucked.  I still got in 8 miles total, but it wasn't a good 8 miles.

I was glad to be done and heading home.  I just wasn't feeling it today.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I did get 3 boxes of books ready to be mailed to my friend in Georgia.  I send her books when I'm done reading them.  It's a great system.  Plus I register them all on bookcrossing.com and get to follow them.  I'm such a geek that way.  I love seeing where the books have travelled.  It's kind of cool.  Not everyone will log on and record that they "caught" a "wild" book, but eventually someone might and when that happens I get all excited.  Once agin, I know I'm a geek.  LOL.

Now I'm off to rest a bit.  I am sleeping, but I'm still trying to catch up from when I wasn't.  I think I'll relax and read for a bit.  Like I said, hopefully tomorrow's workout will be better.

Planning Meals

So I'm the type that I plan the meals for the month.  I put together weekly shopping lists and do my grocery shopping every Monday morning.  The weeks we have James I usually plan for casseroles and crock pot meals.  That way when Mike and James get home they can pop it in the oven or serve it up when they are ready to eat.  The other weeks I plan meals that I cook when I get home from practice and that Mike and I will like, but James probably wouldn't.  I also make a dessert every Monday to last throughout the week.

I'm finding that in planning these meals I am using a lot more fresh fruits and veggies and a lot less processed foods.  I have been feeling better about our eating and I get to enjoy the leftovers for lunch the next day.  That's always a good thing.

This week the menu is as follows:
Monday-Pork Chop Parm w/ bococcini salad and Angel Lush w/pineapple for dessert
Tuesday-Italian Style Chicken Combo w/leftover salad
Wednesday-Mike and James go to his parent's house
Thursday-Beef Provicial Stew
Friday-Homemade pizzas

We also started having James plan and cook a meal once a week when he's with us.  This Saturday will be his day to plan and cook.  He loves doing this and it has gotten him to try new things and eat more vegetables.  He's made chicken fingers, peanut soup, 15 bean soup, pasta and sauce, and Indian food.  I never know what he's going to make until Saturday afternoon.  He helps with the shopping and the cooking.  He is always really proud of his dinners.

Sundays we go to Mike's parents' house for dinner.  It's nice to have a meal with his parents and James gets to see his grandparents when he's with us.  He likes going there and it's nice to have a day off from cooking.

I love to cook and try new things.  Mike is also a wonderful cook so he gets the Saturdays that James isn't cooking.  I love it when Mike cooks because he likes to try new things and they always turn out great!

Now I'm off to have some leftover chili for lunch.  I love the leftovers!

The Unexpected

Yesterday I had a plan of running and biking after swim practice.  I was ready to do some work since I was at the University all day.  Well, all that changed.  I had to help with a camp that was going on.  Not a problem.  I thought I could get a short workout in a some point.  Well, I didn't get the exact workout I wanted.

We had a dryland component to this camp.  The woman that ran it did a bootcamp style workout with the kids.  At first they weren't super excited about it but once I said I would do it with them they got more excited.  They seemed to have a good time working hard and moving.  It was a wonderful hour and a half.  The kids did a pretty good job.  I know it had me sweating and working hard.  I may have to look into something like this in the area.  It was fun and it was hard and I loved it!

It's amazing how sometimes the unexpected works out in the end.

Hello Friday!

I am so glad it's Friday!  Although the week went by quickly, it seemed like Friday would never get here.

Last night we went and saw an illusionist.  James absolutely loved it!  He was fascinated by the magic and how people disappeared and reappeared.  When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said, "The floating lady at the very end!"  It was a lot of fun, but a bit of late night for a Thursday.

I had another night of not sleeping.  It's not fair to keep Mike up so I headed down to the couch to read.  I did fall asleep reading, but woke up when I heard the cat knock something over.  Then I read again to fall back asleep and woke up again when Anya needed to go out.  Third time I read and never fell back to sleep.  I got to practice a few minutes before 5:00am since I was up and moving.  I was hoping that getting back on my exercise schedule would help the sleep, but it hasn't so far.

I did get on the recumbent bike for 35 minutes today.  For 30 of those minutes I was peddaling as hard as I could.  The last 5 minutes was a cool down.  Tomorrow I will see if I can do a split run/bike workout like I did Wednesday.  I have 16 days until my next 5K.

I got to start reading a new "workout book" today.  I keep a book in my bag and read it while I'm on the bike.  It makes the time go faster and I find that I go really fast when there are exciting parts.  I just finished Tainted by Julie Kenner.  I love her books and I really like this one.  It's the first book in a triology.  I had to remind myself of that when I wasn't too keen on the ending.  Now I'm reading the second book in the Black Sun's Daughter series by M. L. N. Hanover.  It's called Darker Angels.  I loved the first book Unclean Spirits so I'm hoping this one is just as good.  I like reading these Urban Fantasy books while I workout.  They are full ofi fights with demons and like I said earlier, it makes me peddal faster.

Now I have to buckle down and get some work done.  I really just want to take a nap, but that's not in the cards today or tomorrow for that matter.  Oh well...sleep is overrated anyway.  Right?????

It's Snowing...Ugh

Yep..woke up this morning for morning practice and there was a good 3-4 inches on the ground.  Not something I wanted to see at this point in March.  Driving to the University was a pain in the butt as the plows would clear a road and the snow would blow right back over it.

I have been at the University all day now and it's still snowing.  Grrrrrrrrr....

There was an upside to all this snow.  When I went to workout all the treadmills were open and there was no one in the cardio room at all.  I got 20 minutes on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the bike before I had to come down for a coaches meeting.  It was great!

Now I have to head out to grab a salad for lunch and get a few errands done before my afternoon practice.  I don't want to go out in the snow again.  I'm so done with it all.

It doesn't look its going to warm up in the next week so it will probably stick around too.  Sigh...

Busy morning and finally back on schedule

I had to get up and go to practice this morning after only sleeping about 3 1/2 hours.  I have not been able to sleep at all lately.  I am working on it though.

Practice went well.  Kids did pretty good this morning.  I then went and rode the recumbent bike for 35 minutes and went 8 miles.  I would have gone 10 minutes longer but Mike had emailed me that one of the animals had gotten sick.  I then started to think about who it could have been and what did they get into.  I remembered that I had had a piece of chocolate the other night.  I tried to remember if I left the bag where they could get it or not.  I couldn't remember so guilt and fear brought me home.

They hadn't gotten into the chocolate so all was good.  I felt better seeing that.

James had asked to bring in a treat since he's Star of the Day tomorrow.  Star of the Day is kind of like Show and Tell when we were growing up.  He gets to bring in something special to him and share it with the class.  He also let us know that he can bring in a treat to share.  He looked through his cookbooks and picked out a recipe for As You Wish Muffins.  They are a healthy breakfast muffin made with whole wheat flour, very very very little sugar and some of my homemade jam.  I am making 36 muffins today.  I will put them in little bags that I picked up and add a pencil and a stencil that I found in the dollar section.

When I'm done with that I have to get dinner ready so all Mike has to do is pop it in the oven when he gets home.  We have found that doing that or using the crockpot works best.  James is usually hungry so all he has to do is wait about half an hour for dinner.  Mike doesn't have to cook and they can eat and it will still be warm when I get home from practice.  Tonight I'm making Rustic Chicken and Mushroom Stew.

I feel like I'm finally back on my schedule.  I have the meals planned out for the rest of the month.  The grocery lists for each week done and ready to be added too.  I am on schedule to work out tomorrow and Friday and possibly even Saturday.  I'm getting the house cleaned slowly.  Very very slowly, but it is getting done.  I have my workouts written for the week and am working on the newsletter tomorrow.  I feel like I'm back in the groove.  Finally.  Now I just have to maintain that groove and get my sleep back on schedule and life will be good.

What the freak...More Snow?!?!?!?!

I just looked at the forecast like I do every evening, and they are calling for up to 10 cm of snow on Wednesday and 10+ cm on Monday.  GRRRRRRRRR.......

I have not complained about the snow all WINTER.  It's now SPRING...I can complain so here goes.

I'M DONE WITH SNOW!!!!!!!  I'M READY FOR WARM WEATHER AND FLOWERS AND GREEN GRASS!!!!!!!!!!  I WANT TO RUN OUTSIDE WITHOUT HAVING TO BUNDLE UP!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay...I feel better now.  I better not see any snow in April.  I will go on strike if I do.  LOL

The weather

Just when I was hoping that it would get nice again...it's supposed to be in the negatives again this week.  I just wanna be outside running in the spring air.  This morning it's raining and I have a millionn errands to run.   Tomorrow I'll get a workout in, but it will probably be on the bike. 

When I was at my parents it was so nice because the weather was beautiful.  I came back here and it was nice on the day I came back and then on Friday when I had something else to do.  Saturday was cold again.  Yesterday was cold.  I just want warmer weather.

Yes, I'm whining and I'm okay with that.  I had to get the whining out of my system this morning so I can get on with the rest of my day.  I'm good now and off I go.

It's Maple Syrup Time

Today we went to a Maple Syrup Festival at the Mountsberg Conservation Area.  We had a blast.  They had about 700 trees that they tap.  That's not a lot, but its enough to learn about it.

We got to watch them boil down the sap to make the syrup.

We then got to try some of the syrup by eating some really great pancakes.

We then got to go to the Raptor Center that's there.  They have raptors that cannot be released back into the wild.  James loved learning about the birds.

It was a wonderful day.  A bit cold, but not freezing.  I would like to go again when it's a bit warmer.

My new tattoo

Yesterday I got a new tattoo.  It incorporates my old tattoo and covers up a date on it.  Mike's cousin Benoit did it for me.  I absolutely love it!!!!!!!!!!!!

For me it offered complete closure on a my old life.  The date that was covered up never really bothered me, but it was kind of crappy looking and it was part of my old life.  I have a new life and wanted to be rid of the old.   I spent two and half hours getting it done.  It was time well spent in my opinion.

Mike really liked it as well.  It has meaning to me and the colors are beautiful.  The manatees were the orginal tattoo.  I wanted two carnations and a narcisis flower representing our birth months.  Ben gave it a Japanese feel and brought it to life.  I couldn't have asked for a better piece of art.

Here is a picture.  The green around the edge is not bruising, but ink that needs to be washed off when I take my shower.

I'm already planning out my next tattoo.  I will be having Ben do that one as well.  He is an amazing artist.  I'm so happy with this and am excited for my next one!

Another day Another run

It felt good to get out today.  I ran 3.77km this morning.  It was a nice route too.  A few small hills both directions, but paved and quiet.  I love that the weather here at mom and dad's is so nice.  I hope that ours starts getting warmer.  I want to start running through the arboretum again.  It's also nice and peaceful there.

I found another race that I would like to do, but I have to ask Mike about it.  It's in Chicago and looks like a lot of fun.  It would mean every weekend in July I would be running a race and then running one the first weekend of August.  I'm not sure about that one either.  We'll have to see.  Plus we will be in Ohio the weekend before the Chicago run.  It's a lot to think about, but we'll see.

I am really enjoying the training now that I can get outside more.  I probably won't be riding the bike as much if I'm out running.  I'll have to see though.  I also enjoy the recumbent bike as it's easy on my knees and I can read while I ride.  That makes the time go by a lot faster.

I head back home tomorrow but I may get another run in before I leave.  It only took me 20 minutes so it might be worth it to get a quick one in before I get in the car for 6 hours.  I think Friday back home it's supposed to be nice so I'll get a quick run in before I go get my new tattoo.

I love that it is getting warmer!!!!!!!!!

It's Raining

I'm little upset too.  I really wanted to get another run in this morning.  It's cold.  It's wet.  I admit, I'm a fair weather runner when it comes to training.  I'm afraid that if I run outside in weather like this I might hurt my ankle.  I have to make a leap at some point and just go for it, but I really don't want another surgery so I will be cautious.

Maybe it will clear up tonight.  I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day for a run.

Legs are feeling much better

After a long day in the car yesterday I was very stiff.  Today I got out for a short 2.17K run.  They are still stiff and sore, but I'm feeling much better.  It is warmer here so it wasn't so bad either.

Getting started was a bit of a gong show, but once I got loosened up I felt pretty good.  Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a bit of a longer run in.  It's supposed to be even warmer so that will be nice.  I really love running outside.

I'm excited for these next few days.

Slainte St. Patrick's Day 5K

This was a good race for me.  My time was 34:14.01.  I felt pretty good for most of the race.  Before the race started it was snowing which made me a bit nervous.  I don't want to slip on some ice and hurt my ankle.  I stopped and "warmed" up by race time.  This race is fun because the last 2K are downhill and you get free beer at the end of it.  It sucked a bit for me because I was sick the first part of the week and halfway down the hill my legs started cramping up big time from still being dehydrated.  I was  NOT going to stop though. 

I had changed my running playlist and as I got to the bottom of the hill I still had 3 blocks to go.  My calves and my thighs were giant knots, but Don't Stop Believing came on.  I didn't dare walk during that song because there is something just not right about that.  LOL.  I finished and felt really good.  Some kid saw that I was in some pain and came over and offered me the rest of his water bottle.  It was really nice of him and just what I needed.

We went in the pub for a bit and enjoyed some music and a pint.  I am still cramping a bit, but I am drinking water and will get out this week for a few runs. 

Next race is April 9th!


After crossing the finish line.

Enjoying my post race beer.

I hate being sick

I am just getting over being sick.  I finally got a workout in today and it felt pretty good.  I went 35 minutes on the recumbent bike, but I pushed myself on the first half.  I wasn't sure how hard to go since I haven't done a darn thing in 10 days.  I was such a slug.

Tomorrow I run a 5k.  It should be interesting.  I know it will not be a pretty sight, but at least the last 2k are downhill.  Thank goodness for small favors.  Oh and there is free beer at the end.  LOL.

Next week I'm at my parents house and since it's supposed to be in the 50s I can get jnsome good runs outside.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I miss running outside.  I love it.  I know tomorrow will be outside, but I have a feeling that I'm just going to be trying to get through the race and will not be enjoying the run.  We'll see how it goes.  It is supposed to be in the low 40s, but right now it's snowing.  Its going to be a crazy spring.

RIP GQ

Today I had to put my precious cat, GQ, to sleep.  He was diagnosed with diabetes in June of 2009.  He was on inulsin twice a day.  In December of 2010 he was diagnosed with some thyroid issues so he had to take a pill once a day.  Today his liver gave out.  He was almost 13 years old.  He was the one that let me know it was time.

GQ was rescued as a kitten from a rescue group.  He was in a carrier with other kittens and getting stepped on.  He just laid there and looked so sad.  I picked him up and he started cuddling and purring.  I brought him home and he just strutted around like he was all that.  Hence his name, GQ.

As he got older he became more and more uncatlike.  He would come when called.  He was incredibly social.  He loved to be the center of attention.  He was there for me through a lot of good times and bad.  He made the move to Canada with me and loved it up here.

I was glad that he had 13 loving years and my little snuggle kitty and I got to have one last snuggle last night and this morning.  He was a great kitty and will be missed.

He will have company at the Rainbow Bridge.  Waiting to greet him are Othello, Stinker, Princess, and Scully.  They will welcome him and keep him company until we all can be together again.