Challenge Accepted!!!!

Mike and I are running a couples 5k on Sunday.  The other day I was teasing him and said that I was going to make us cutesy matching shirts to wear since we have to be tied together.  He jokingly made the comment that he only wants a shirt if it's the 3 wolves howling at the moon with my picture in the moon.  Well, you can't make a comment like that and not expect me to accept the challenge.  :-)

I sent the day today making his shirt.  Here it is!

Front

Back

It turned out better than I thought.  He really likes it too.

Here is what my shirt looks like.

Front

Back

I can't wait to get a picture of us together in our shirts.  I had so much fun making them and I know Sunday will be fun as well.  I am really excited for Sunday!!!!!

Here we are at Friday!!!!!!

It's gonna be a cold one today!  We are supposed to get snow and cold temperatures.  I can already feel the temps dropping.  Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!

I got up this morning and took James to daycare.  He agreed that it was a little too cold to walk.  After I dropped him up I went to the gym to run.  After a 5 minute warm up I ran at a pretty good pace.  Then did a 5 minute cool down.  In total I ran 3.7 miles in 51 minutes, but if you take the 10 minute warm-up/cool down off I ran 3.3 miles in 41 minutes.  It felt really good.  I'm still not a fan of the treadmill, but I am dealing with it.  I am ready for it to be warm so I can go for my early morning runs.  I love those times.  Until then I will stick to running on the treadmill.  Tomorrow I'm up for a tempo run so we'll see how that goes.

I'm getting really excited to do the Valentine's Couples 5k on Sunday.  Even though it's going to be really cold I think it's going to be fun for us.  When we get home I'm making a Surf and Turf dinner for our Valentine's dinner.  Mike has to go to Ohio next weeks so we are celebrating on Sunday.

Saturday we have James so I have a special dinner planned for him as well.  He loves meatloaf, so I'm making meatloaf for dinner.  For dessert I got fresh strawberries and chocolate dip.  He'll love that!  We have a weekend of celebrating this weekend.

I am glad I have the next 2 weekends at home with the family.  Yes, I still have practice, but it's in the morning and I have the rest of the day so it's okay.  I'm so glad today is Friday!!!!!!

I can't believe it's Thursday!

This week is just flying by!  Usually when I have Monday off the week seems to go slowly, but this week is just gone!  I'm not complaining though.  It shows that I'm busy and not just being a slug.

I got up and went to the gym today.  It was my last day with the trainer.  I'm thinking of continuing with him, but I have to have the money.  If I can't I'll just keep going with the circut and find a program that can help.  I can feel myself getting stronger and I feel really good!  Just gotta keep going though!

I did hill intervals today.  I started out with my 5 minute walk gradually getting up to my running pace.  I then ran about a mile at an okay pace.  It wasn't my 5k pace, but that's okay.  Then came the hills.  I HATE hills, but I need to do them so I did.  I did 6x:30 at just under my 5k pace at 5.0 incline.  I pushed for :30 then lowered the incline for 2:00 at a just under my 5k pace.  I thought I would be dead by the 6th repeat, but I felt really good.  After my hills I did a little under a mile and then a 5 minute cool down.  My total mileage was 3.29 miles.  Tomorrow's run is 2-4 miles and I'm going to do at least 4 miles trying to hold just under my 5k pace.  Saturday is a temp run so that will be good.  It's not super long, but it will be faster.  And Sunday is our couples 5k.

I'm really looking forward to the 5k race on Sunday.  Mike is running with me and we have to be tied together.  I was teasing him about making matching shirts.  He said he would only wear it if it had the 3 wolves howling at the moon with my face in the moon.  Challenge accepted!  I'm working on that shirt now.  He thinks I have forgotten, but I don't forget things like that.  I'm going to make it this afternoon.  I can't wait to see his face.  I'm making my shirt all lovey dovey and sugary.  It will be fun.

Yesterday was my rest day and once I got started on all the paper and computer work I had to get done the time flew by.  I got a lot done and even a little bit ahead.  I have some work to do today, but not until later this morning.  Right now I'm off to shower before I go to my next item on the list.

Have a terrific Thursday!!!!!!

Rest Day

I am so antsy right now.  I think part of it is that the practices I normally have on Wednesday mornings weren't there.  The University swimmers are off to Sudbury for their big meet and I didn't have them for dryland. Our coaches meeting was canceled because of that meet.  I'm the only one in the office and I am bouncing off the walls.  Since it's only 9am that is not a good sign.  I do have work to get done, but I don't know if its enough to last all day.  I'm hoping that it is though.  If not, I will have my workouts written for the rest of February. 

Today is my true rest day.  I have to force myself not to go out for a run.  I am accomplishing that by leaving all my running stuff at home.  It still doesn't make it any easier.  Now that I'm on a schedule I am finding that I don't like the rest days.  At least not one like today.  Normally I am really busy on Wednesdays and don't realize that it's a rest day so it goes by quickly.  Today, not so much.

I will be working on a ton of swim stuff so off I go to finish the newsletter, workouts, test set result sheets, reward beads, and entry fine tuning.  See my list is long.  Now I have to just pace myself so I'm not all done in an hour.

Terrific Tuesday!

After yesterday I was a bit disappointed with the weather.  Yesterday was so warm and today it's back to colder and raining.  Sigh...I just want it to pick a temperature and stay that way.

I got up this morning, but couldn't seem to get out of the house when I wanted to.  I got to the gym and only had 45 minutes to get a run in.  When I'm on the treadmill I do a 5 minute brisk walk to warm up so I lose that time.  And I do a 5 minute cool down walk.  Another 5 minutes lost.  So I really only go to run for 33 minutes.  I did 5k in the 43 minutes I was on the treadmill.  I wasn't super happy as I was supposed to do 4 miles.  I felt good running though.  It was a long slow run day so I wasn't super concerned about the pace, but I really wanted to get the mileage in.  I will be able to get a longer run in on Friday so I will take the time to really make sure I up the mileage then.

I also worked out with my trainer.  We did upper body work and I feel pretty good.  Yesterday we really hit the legs and I was afraid that I'd feel sluggish, but I didn't.  They felt really good today.

I'm finding that I'm really enjoying the time I workout.  I am becoming addicted to the endorphins.  I guess that's a good addiction.  I love the feeling of pushing myself and then pushing some more.  I also like that I am able to go in the morning when there isn't a lot of people there.  It's nice to be able to get on the machines and not have a time limit.  I can just go and focus on what I need to focus on.

I've been trying to really practice what I preach to the kids as well.  I have always loved being inspired and having goals.  I have started keeping a folder of inpirational pictures, quotes, and stories.  I'm reading autobiographies of various athletes (mostly swimmers right now) and that is helping me to stay motivated.  The other thing is my goal of a sub-30 5k by July.  I know I can do this.  I'm really focused and I'm training and I am on track.  I just have to stick with it and not let anything get in my way.

In that vein of inspiration, I'm going to start posting one of my inpirational quotes/pictures every Tuesday.  It's going to be my focus for the week.  Here is this weeks.

This is what I'm repeating for the week.  Every time I start to feel like I can't do something or feel like giving up I'm going to repeat this over and over.  I will doubt my limits this week in whatever I do.

Have a great Tuesday!!!!!!

I'm Movin' Today!

I feel great right now!!!!!  My swimmers had an awesome weekend with two more Provincial qualifying times for 2 of them.  Huge time drops for almost all of them.  Great swims overall!  I was so happy!

I kept up with my training for week one.  I got up both Saturday and Sunday to workout.  Saturday I did 3 miles on the treadmill and Sunday I did 7.5 miles on the recumbent bike.  It really did help me get through the weekend. 

Today I walk with James to daycare.  He was so happy that it was warm enough and we had a great time.  That was a 3 mile round trip.  Going there the pace is a bit slower, but that's fine with me.  The company is what makes it the most fun.

I went to the gym and today was another cross training day.  I had to make some adjustments to the trianing program to account for swim meets and possible practice coverage.  Sometimes Sunday have to become rest days and sometimes they are cross training days without weights.  So this week I have 2 cross training days in a row, but that's okay.  I did 10.5 miles on the recumbent bike.  I like to read when I'm doing that because it makes the time go faster.  I am currently reading Michael Phelps' autobiography.  I'm trying to help my swimmers see that even world class athletes have issues like their goggles filling up with water during the 200 fly, but they still go on to set world records.  In doing so I have several biographies of swimmers that I am going to read.  Plus how can you slack off when you are reading about Phelps' training program.  It's not happening! 

After the bike I had about 25 minutes to kill before meeting my trainer.  I got on the dreaded eliptical machine.  I think I hate the eliptical more than the treadmill.  I did about 20 minutes at an easy pace.  I'm trying to force myself to like to give me more cross training options.  It ended up being 1.5 miles.

Then my trainer killed my legs and core.  I know I have a weak core...very weak.  We did some TRX things.  I love the TRX!  We use it with my swimmers, but it is a torture device.  It was a good hurt though.  I do like using it.  I will conquer some of those exercises and make my core stronger!

So in all today I did just shy of 15 miles of cardio and an hour of leg and core work.  I feel pretty darn good! 

I have the day off and after my shower I have a few errands to run.  Tomorrow I my long run.  It's 4 miles and then we are doing upper body and some more core work.  Because of when I can get to the gym, I have to do it on a treadmill.  Ugh...I'm just going to put on my game face and get it done!  I can't wait for spring to get here so I can go for my early morning runs and then hit the gym after walking James to daycare.  I love running at 5am.  It's quiet and the temperature is wonderful.  There are no cars, no people...Just me and the quiet.  That will come soon enough!

Have a wonderful rest of your Monday!!!!!!!

It's Friday!

Yesterday I did get to the gym, but it was a gong show.  I had what I thought was the flu, but I've decided that it was probably a reaction to the vaccine I got on Wednesday.  I felt horrible.  I was achy all over like I had the flu.  I ran for 25 minutes and only got a mile and a half.  I then decided that running was a losing battle so I got on the recumbent bike and did a couple of more miles.  I did work out with the trainer and while I enjoyed it, I felt horrible afterwards.

I went home and crawled into bed.  I stayed there until it was time for practice.  I went to practice and was miserable the whole time.  I felt bad that the kids had to put up with me feeling like that.  When I got home I had some soup and went to bed.  Mike was really good last night.  He took care of me and made sure I had the soup and Fresca that I needed.

This morning I let myself sleep in and then got up to get ready for the swim meet.  I feel so much better!  I almost went for a run tonight, but I hadn't eaten dinner so I thought I had better to that first.  I have my alarm set and I'm ready to go for tomorrow morning.  I'm so ready to get a good run in in the morning.  I feel really sluggish today since I didn't do anything.  I'm so ready to go!

Today was the first day of Regionals and my swimmer swam well.  They looked good and had some great time improvements.  I was happy and they seemed happy.  I hope tomorrow goes just as well.  I know it's going to be a long day, but it should be a good one.

I'm off to bed now so I can get up at 5am for a run.  I'm so excited about it!!!!!!!!  I love that I"m on a schedule now and I plan on sticking to it!