Jillian Michaels’ Body Revolution, Kick-start Day 1 and 2

I didn’t pop out of bed like I would have liked to on Monday, in anticipation of a new workout, buuuut I have been talking myself into this so much that I knew I couldn’t back down.  So that’s positive right? Tuesday, this morning, it was even a little harder but again, I have made a commitment to myself, and so far, I’m honoring that.

My take on the workouts so far…I know, day 2 and not much of a take yet, but I’m familiar with Jillian’s workout style and I’ve read about every book she’s written.  So, I like it in that it’s familiar.  The days for working out is very similar to Making the Cut.  The circuits are akin to her videos, and more specifically, her 30 Day Shred one as it’s the only one I have.  Both workouts moved right along and before I knew it, my 30 minutes was up, even the cardio workout! So the next two weeks I’ll be alternating between two high intensity workouts that include strength training, and one cardio workout for the month and then that will all change.  There won’t be a lot of boredom, I’m predicting. The cardio workout for Phase 1 is just 30 minutes long.  In the kick start week, it appears that you do it every day?  Then you only do it twice a week.

I survived Monday morning without my normal morning snack.  I inhaled my breakfast right around 8am, prior to that I had my allowed two cups of coffee (Black, and that’s the way I like it so no troubles there.) I’ll need to allow myself more time in the morning to prepare my breakie but it shouldn’t be too time consuming.  Two scrambled eggs, a plum tomato, two pieces of ham, all natural, no nitrites/nitrates etc, and a 1/4 of an avocado.  Nom!  (I was supposed to use an all natural, low sodium Canadian bacon, but I don’t think Canada sells their bacon to the grocery store I shopped at on Sunday.

For lunch, I batch cooked up a double serving of the veggie soup and poached chicken.  I followed the recipe in the kick start plan and it’s pretty much the same except I had to use canned, diced tomatoes.  Eeps, don’t kick my butt Jillian!  The soup, it tastes good, but a little on the bland side…I need to add more spices for next time.  Oh and the broth….I can’t even begin to tell you what it looks like because it causes me to focus on what it looks like and then my tummy flip flops.  I think I might have done something wrong?  Only 5 more days of eating it!  Honestly, it tastes just fine and dandy.

Monday evening was a little tricky at bed time as I was definitely hungry.  My calories for the day were right around 1200 and I had a nice exercise boost of 688 calories.  I knew I was going to wake up hungry and, I did.  A little on the sluggish side but I keep reminding myself that my body is going through a detox of all things cupcake related, so a little sluggish is going to be normal.

I’m super looking forward to my afternoon snack of hummus and veggies!

Do you adore hummus?  You should!

Oh and I even managed to bypass the cupcake run and the cookies and rolls back in our break room.  Must keep pressing on towards my goal.

Tuesday was tough, especially towards the evening.  I survived though and took a peak at the scale this morning.  Pretty exciting so far.  Now to stay off the scale until Monday morning!

I had some questions from my friend Jen, that I thought I’d answer:

did ya survive??? YES!  Go me!

is it similar to her old stuff or something new? Similar, yes, but unlike 30 Day Shred, she’s got a whole bunch of people in the video all at once.  I like that…lots more faces and bods to “people watch”

was she wearing really low on her hip capris tights ? No tights so far but sweaty pant types of capris.

why does she need to wear her tights so low? I don’t know.  In one spot you catch a glimpse of crack.  Unnecessary! I think if I had abs like her though, I’d be sporting some low, hip riding capris…with no crack though!

Walking Dead, puppies, and a random piercing

Yeesh! What a weekend!  Let’s do a funsie blog post in bullet points because:

A. To keep this short (Ha! Like that ever happens.) and

B. So much Random. Yes with a capital R.

You ready?

• My computer had smoke and sparks coming out the side.  It sounded like a large herd of cockroaches was running around inside.
• I have a new laptop!  My honey found a smokin’ good deal for me that doesn’t involve fireworks.
• I had to transfer everything over on a new external hard drive.
• I have a personal IT specialist and she only charges me triple on the weekend.
• I seriously have a personal IT specialist.  She only jokes about charging me. I think the joke is on me.
• We’ll see when the bill gets here.
• Windows 8 is very different than what I’m used to.

• I finished the first season of Walking Dead.
• The hubs and the boy are current with season 3.
• He found season 2 on Netflix (Season 1 is there too, but we didn’t know it until we heard the rumor from a friend of mine, and we had already wasted $20 bucks.)
• I predict I will be caught up and current, most definitely by the end of the week.  JK.  The end of next week.

• I am starting Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution tomorrow morning.
• I’ve done a lot of “this is the last time I’ll get to eat/drink this” eating over the last two weeks-ish.
• I batched cooked my lunches for the week.
• The soup I made has every single veggie in the produce section.  Pretty sure of it.

Now some two random pictures?  Sure!

My youngest got her cartilage pierced.  I almost passed out.

Puppies! We were gifted with puppies at work.  And they said we could keep them there.  Forever.  Just kidding.

Christmas Teaser

 

I love me some Christmas decorations!  (And I’m addicted to PicMonkey) As you view my collage, I hope you pretended that you were smelling the Scentsy pots that are causing our electricity bill to skyrocket.  We have seven throughout the house and I don’t believe in overkill!  Not when it comes to good smells. Just rest at ease and know that the scents are a coordinated effort of cinnamon, pine tree, and mulled cider/berry/plum/elf bells and something else.  It works, trust me.

There will be more collages.  I apologize in advance.

Oh and I love grumpy cat too much not to share this with you.  This made me chuckle all weekend long when I posted it on Facebook in regards to one of my coworkers protesting to my Christmas music. 

Saying Good Bye to Cookie Butter

My Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution, which should arrive on this Wednesday, includes a 7 day kickstart program….which I AM going to do!  I need the kickstart and I really super really want the satisfaction that I will get from completing it.  (Isn’t it cool how positive I am being?)  One thing I’ve learned from a lot of self help books that I’ve started and haven’t finished, is that your brain doesn’t know when you are joking about yourself.  So while self deprecating humor is all the rage these days, your brain doesn’t know that you pulled a fast one on yourself = I’m in big trouble  I’m awesome!

Anywho….(Side bar here, when people say “anywho” I’m punching them in the face in my head. Not super hard, and I’m really just joking so don’t get all offended.) The kickstart program, I was fortunate to catch a glimpse online of, is very strict and looks like there’s absolutely no sugar or grain-y type carbs.  Sweet!!  To add a few more kicks to the ribs, it’s going to be shark week.  Almost certain of that.  I’m going to be so happy and awesome and pleasant to be around!

Not sure who bob shea is, but pretty sure this is an awesome book, just from the cover.

In an effort to be a little more prepared versus diving head first into my own death, I’ve set a little challenge for myself this week.  The program requires you to count your calories, so I’m promising to myself that I WILL track all of my calories.  I’ve used Sparkpeople before and still visit the site as that’s where I’ve made oodles of imaginary friends.  This go around, I’ll be using My Fitness Pal because the app works really well on my phone and the desktop version is pretty sweet too.  They both are free, and I’ve heard great things about Fit Day too.  MFP has a lot of my Spark friends that have migrated over there as well and they like to harass me everyday when they don’t see me log in or post workouts.

BTW, I just came up with an awesome app idea for dieters!  A lock on your electronics that won’t allow you to surf the web or navigate until you have logged your calories in.  That idea could earn me about 10 cents for sure, right?

Lastly, I’ve been saying goodbye to foods in my life that will not be a part of my adventure…for now.  Because I’m not always an idiot, I know that dieting isn’t forever.  If you’re going to make a “lifestyle” change, it needs to be in a way that is sustainable.  If you didn’t know that,  remember there are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

Another great picture from me…I know I can barely stand it!  On your left, the side with the classy paper plate, you’ll see one egg, one white, with half an avocado, sprinkled with some sriracha sauce, and on the right the three ingredient, oatmeal pancake that is layered with cookie butter and sugar free syrup.  Back on the left is what will be allowed, on the right, not so much.

Wish me luck!

PS Have you tried cookie butter yet?  Do you realize just what I’ll be giving up?!

The wheels on the bus…

I gave you a break from my blog posts.  You are welcome!
I don’t know where to start.  I fell off the blogging and social media wagon.  I fell off the everything wagon.

I didn’t meet my last set of goals that I wrote about in my last blog.  The sugar thing?  I caved.  Sugar is the devil.  A delicious devil.

Once upon a time Last week, I gave up messing around. I ordered this:

And it arrives next week!
Then I did this:

Now I will start cleaning things up in the eating department so my new diet doesn’t completely blow me out of the water on December 10th when I start this program. You have been fully and completely warned.  This is your very last chance to unsubscribe or unfriend me and stop reading my blog.  If you don’t turn around quietly and walk away now, you will be subjected to many many blogs that will probably definitely contain whining and I know I’m not kidding anyone, definitely pictures of kittens.
Comment below and you will be held accountable to cheer me on.  If no one comments, then I know you’re just going to be jealous fishes of my results.
I’ve scared you now, huh?
Good!
PS Only 342 days=48 weeks until I turn 40.  Eeeeps!

Only 359 days left!

For the last two weeks I have been mulling around in my little bird brain the idea of a countdown to when I turn 40.  A little over five years ago, I reached my goal weight and a total of 100 pounds lost.  In the last five years, I’ve fluctuated up and down and managed to gain 25 lbs back.  At the top of that weight, I go up and down 5 pounds from there.  The biggest change that I can think of is that I let up on the weight training and I added back to my diet fast food and a lot more sugar.  Talk about a flip flop.  Weights are key in changing your body composition.  However, I DO NOT WANT TO GIVE UP DISTANCE RUNNING!  Nope!  Running is my jam.  Oh and then there’s that whole….Abs are made in the kitchen, dealio.

And….I’m getting off topic. (shocking!) And…I need to keep this short. (Probably not happening.)

I now have 51 weeks left and there’s not a spread sheet in sight.  This type A person needs her spread sheets.  But, in an effort to curb my perfectionist ways….let’s just keep moving forward.

Source

My goals for week 51 are:

• Run 25 miles (Also part of the Pile on the Miles challenge.)
• Strength Train x 3 (Using ChaLean Extreme…heavy weights, low/slow reps)
• Take my vitamins
• Cut out the sugar (No extra sugary treats until Thanksgiving)

I’m planning on adding on to my goals, a little at a time, each week, in an effort to make each one a solid habit over the next year.

Forty is the new Twenty says everyone me.

The actual half marathon Vegas race recap..a “sort of” recap

 

This artistic pose was meant to capture the irony in that I was dressed in clothes to go running, complete with a race bib at 5am while others stumbled around drunk or hung over trying to figure out if they should throw up or keep drinking.  I think I nailed it, don’t you?

The directions to the start of the Really Big Free Marathon were not posted very well.  We did have a scenic warm-up walk to the start though.

This artistic pose was meant to capture the irony, just kidding….S and J are being awesome goofballs.  These girls are adorable and I hope they know that we are besties from here on out.  Bestie S and Bestie J.  It’s official!

S, J, and the hunchback of Lake Mead

I need to stop hunching over.  I must thing that the person taking the picture will chop my head off?  I do it all the time.  The guy over my shoulder is tired.  The lady with the visor is staring at the hill we are going to climb right after crossing the start line, and the lady in the blue hat is happy her pony tail isn’t too tight.  Or something like that.

 

Pretend you don’t see the vehicle in the picture.  And then pretend you’ve seen the movie “The Hills have Eyes.”  Then pretend you know what scenes went through my head a couple of times during this run.  I guess there were coyotes out earlier that some runners were able to capture and keep as pets on film.

 

Despite the hilly course, I had an absolute blast.  It was so much fun running with friends (knowing they were on the course and seeing them at turnarounds…we all had different paces). I was also really please with myself as I had ran the Portland Marathon on October 7th and a week and a half later, I succumbed to the flu.  Between getting sick and then the half marathon, I had run a total of 11 miles.  Eight of those were done right before I got sick.  So I was off  over 2 weeks from running and still made out with a decent time even including the hills.  Makes me excited for what I can do when I’m properly trained!

My goals for this race were:

A. Finish it

B. Come in close to 2:30 hours (finished in 2:46…not bad for having not trained on hills.)

C. Have fun (which I DID!)

I might have spent the rest of the day coughing up a lung or two but hey, I was in Vegas and who cares!

I think this is the next to last blog about my Vegas trip.  You are very welcome. Exciting Stuff to come!

The one with the pink gorilla suit

Friday afternoon, after recovering from my one drink hangover, we headed to the MGM to meet up with this girl who had wheels. Jen lives in the same part of Canada that my Indian/Canadian sister-in-law lives in and so I was mesmerized the whole trip that she sounded just like my SIL.  I think I told her that at least 2954 billion times. From the MGM, we drove out to Henderson, Nevada for the packet pick up for the half/full marathon that was being executed by The Really Big Free Marathon.  It’s a unique racing event in that you secure your spot with a credit card payment of $50 and then when you cross the start line, you are refunded the money.  More on that later.  Let’s just say that there was a scuttle on Facebook and concerns were raised that the race might not even go on.  So we drove out there, not sure what to expect.

Seeing the lines for the packet pick-up all of a sudden made the race feel real. The race was a real deal and it would happen.  It would happen to kill us with hills as well. But more on that later!

There wasn’t an expo, which I didn’t really mind, but I can usually be suckered in to buying a few things from the excitement that is buzzing in the air.  The only thing buzzing in the air here was one of my running friends repeating on a loop that our buns would only benefit from all the hills.  Her comment would haunt her the next day and make her want to punch herself in the face.

Our pre-race dinner was really good. The Trattoria Reggiano inside the Venetian sounded like a place we could do some great carbo loading. I got the pesto gnocchi with chicken and ate two pieces of bread before I thought to take pictures of .the bread  It was warm and buttery and I was carb loading….so you can imagine.  I was thrilled to get to add salt to my meal too.  Sadly, it needed it.  Despite a cranky Italian host that rushed us in and out, it was an awesome evening.  Awesome = girls you’ve been friends with for four years, yet haven’t met in person + carbs!

L to R: Jennifer, sister to Dana, Juli, Steph, Hope, Amee, and Jen

PS My eyes aren’t closed.  I’m just checking out Jen’s blouse.

Watching over us while we ate….the giant pink wizard gorilla. The price tag is how much I would have to be paid to wear that thing.  Kidding, just kidding.  I would wear it for FREE!  On our way back to our room for an early lights out, I had to stop and take a picture of the Mirage’s volcano.  It “erupts” every evening from like 7 – 11pm?  And apparently I have a thing for volcanoes because each and every time I heard it go off, I’d rush to the window in our room to watch. Be glad you don’t have to see all the pictures I took of it.  I did that with a squirrel once…and my cat.  I do that with everything I guess.

Next up? I’ll be posting about the race.  I know you can’t wait!

How much would you have to be paid to race in a pink gorilla costume?  It’s a half marathon and the temps are 80 degrees.  Go!

We might have been tipsy, but at least our clothes covered all of our secret parts.

  

Meet my friend Denise.  Our girls were friends in elementary school and then we decided we liked each other too.  Denise is really awesome and I’m amazed that she still answers my phone calls.  “Deniseeeeeeee, could you take me to the airportttttttt??” Plus I dragged her to Pita Pit with me!  Well, not dragged, but she let me pick where we would eat.

The best pita sandwich ever!  Chicken breast with hummus and almost every veggie they have.  Plus I like to get them to grill the onion and mushrooms along with the chicken.  My 13 year old daughter is hooked on this place too.

Upon checking in to my hotel room and meeting my roommate H (whom I’ve been “online” friends with for over four years but we’ve never met face to face – turns out she isn’t an axe murderer), I was about to get ready for bed and be a fuddy dud.  What?  It was 11pm and 2 hours past my bedtime already! Do you see her in the reflection of our dirty window?  Are you amazed at my photography skills? She was going a little stir crazy with a headache and needed to get out for a bit. So I decided not to be a grandma and then this happened…..

I sent this picture to my hubs and got back a “good girl”.  I guess he was impressed that I wasn’t already in bed, asleep, with sheet lines forming on my face.

From there, we took to the streets.  Amazed at my new found energy, we took a block or two walk on the strip and gawked at the drunkards.  We might have been tipsy, but at least our clothes covered all of our secret parts.

We stayed at Treasure Island.  I kept wondering where all the Johnny Depp look alike employees were.  I found the pirate ship, and later it dawned on me that this place was more about the booty and not the booty….if ya know what I mean. Arrrr matey!

I wished we had stayed at this place, the Venetian.  A place I could relate to since I’ve been to Venice.  It was pretty and I liked seeing their versions of the most famous landmarks.  I have to go back to Vegas because I didn’t make it to the Paris or NYNY…and a bunch of other places.

All of the travel, combined with a full day of work, a semi long drive to the airport, and then the smoke and the above margarita led to this…

…a hangover that finally went away thanks to a large black coffee and sitting by the pool for an hour.  People were out swimming and sunbathing already while we sat bundled up in hoodies and sweats.  Stylin!  Note the Christmas cup with the palm trees in the background.  (I had just gotten my studded snow tires on that morning too.)

Stayed tuned for race details and the rest of my Vegas adventure!

PS Where is your favorite place to stay in Vegas??

Leaving....on a jet plane.

Blogging from my phone..really hoping the lady talking super duper loud in the waiting area isn't sitting anywhere near me on the plane!

Had to stop at my fave, Pita Pit before leaving on a jet plane. I have decided that I really need to get out more.

When was your last getaway?

Ps t
Thank you Denise for being my chauffe! I love you!

Yeah, definitely nailed it

Did you see my Halloween costume?

I kind of nailed it right?  Well…except for the cleavage as one person pointed out.  I explained that that’s what happens when you squeeze into your teenage daughters clothing.

Remember my inspiration?

Halloween…I survived it.  Actually, I was a lamo and finished my packing while my hubs handed out candy. I did trip a small Transformer that wandered in to our living room.  It really was an accident.  My hubs had just finished handing these kiddos a variety of hot sauce, fry sauce, and other assorted condiments in small packages.  We ran out of candy!  JK!  We didn’t run out of candy but S always likes messing with his mini buddies.  He wraps up full size bottles of mayo and mustard for these boys, trying to trick them into thinking that’s all they got for presents.

Oh and guess what?  Since I haven’t told any in the last hour…I’M GOING TO VEGAS!  I’m sort of interested in how the half marathon will turn out since my training flu didn’t really prep me in a good way. Mheh…13.1 miles is a short run for me. haha!  Until I die.

Happy Halloweenie

Do you dress up at work for Halloween?  I think I’m over it.  Though I voted for wearing pajamas scrubs to work.  Halloween has never been celebrated much in this family and I’m not sure exactly why.  I don’t mean to be a Halloweenie but we didn’t even carve pumpkins this year.  Shameful, huh?

Are you dressing up? 

And what are you wearing?

This just in….we are all dressing up as nerds at work.  The sad thing is is that I had everything on hand to look like one.  Especially this one…

The  Amy Farrah Fowler character from one of my favorite shows ever, Big Bang Theory.

Please tell me that you love this TV show or else I don’t think we can be friends.  Or I’ll just have to pretend you were my friend in the first place and we just had our first real fight. PS I didn’t like the show at first, until I fell in love with Sheldon Cooper.

I might get murdered

Not sure if y’all know but I’m headed to VEGAS on Thursday!  I’m going to be meeting a group of girlfriends that are my “pretend friends.”  Meaning, I met them online and my family calls them my pretend friends.  We’ve been friends for over four years now and are an interesting mix of women of all ages…and by that I mean, I’m the oldest.  And by that I mean, I’m the most immature.  I’m so excited to meet these girls in person and I’m sure they will be kicking themselves that they didn’t meet me sooner!

So yeah, I haven’t flown in about 5 years and I haven’t had a girls weekend in, oh…eons?  Big deal for me!  I’m not scared, but let’s just say that since getting married four years ago and combining our households, children, and Kitchen Aid utensils, I haven’t gotten out much. 

Three things that scare me about this trip:

• Running.  That’s that thing I haven’t done in 15 days. 
• Wondering if my roomy Hope is a snorer.  Just Kidding!
• That my itty bitty suitcase is going to be too chunky and I’ll get charged extra.
• Wondering if my roomy Hope will smother me with a pillow when I cough through the night.

That’s four things, if you were counting, btw.  And who am I kidding, my coworkers will murder me soon if I don’t quit coughing.

How are you dealing with the Halloween candy?  I’ve limited myself to two pieces each hour today.

What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

Mine would have to be the Reese’s Pumpkins.

Everything just smells like dirt

I got some new foody magazines that I very excited to dig into and find some new recipes.  Especially now that my taste buds have returned to normal and don’t make everything taste like dirt.  Everything just smells like dirt now.  If you missed it on my facebook, I googled “why does my food taste like dirt” and I’m now semi convinced that I have toxic black mold exposure.

I made myself feel better by watching a few hundred episodes of Hoarders.  Man, that show is sad.  Not quite as sad as Toddlers and Tiaras.

Whoa do I get off track or what?!  Oh yeah, so I wanted to know what your favorite magazines or websites are for finding new food ideas.  Pinterest of course is HUGE for me.  I mean….I find a lot of pretty pictures, but hmm…come to think of it, I haven’t tried that many recipes.  Mostly because it’s all stuff that’s not good for ya.

These are the two new magazines I got.  I like Rachel Ray’s magazine but I’ve never subscribed to it.  You?

Drugs are mostly fun at first

I’m going on day 5 1/2 of being sick.  All symptoms point to the flu.

As I sit and wallow in my flu symptoms, surrounded by mounds of tissue, boxes of drugs, and drinking glasses, (looking a lot like Signs up in hur) I try and tell myself that I won’t be sick for forever.  This soon will pass and I will crazily think, GEE! Having a couple of days off from work and lying in bed might actually be fun! 

To help me keep my chin up,  I have signed up for a running challenge.  And, I think you all should join me so we can be running/walking buddies!

Go here to Run, Eat, Repeat to sign up!  Or you can click on the green thingy that says “Pile on the Miles” right there on the right hand side. Basically, It’s a running/walking challenge for the month of November that is designed to keep you moving and piling on the miles versus the pounds of turkey and pumpkin pie. Ooh AND and ANNNDDDD there are prizes!!!  Please and thank you!

 

Speaking of prizes, do you know anyone that has every won the lottery?  Like personally, and they’ve won over a million dollars?

I do not.  I’ve pretended I’ve won the lottery before and spent the money in my mind.  That was fun for a moment or two.

Do you get the flu shot every year?

I’ve had the shot twice.  One time I got the flu, the other time, I did not.  Odds.  I gots them!

Pardon me, but is that your lung on the floor?

Gesundheit – is all about the sneeze and not the cough, but I have been sneezing too, so in short, just deal.

The German word Gesundheit passed into local English usage in areas with substantial German-speaking populations.^[1] The expression is first widely attested in American English as of 1910, about the time when large numbers of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States. Stolen from Wikipedia’s Responses to Sneezing

I am loathe to admit that I have a cold.  I’m no doctor but I always self diagnose with help from old wives tales the world wide web of wonders.  I think it has settled in my chest, which for runners means I have quite a bit of time to map out murders craft projects.  Because of this new medical emergency, your attention must be diverted from my toenail woes.  You are welcome.  Time to focus people!

According to Runner’s World, and pretty much everything else I’ve ever read about running with a cold:

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning;

Red sky at night, sailors delight.^[1}

 

Wait a minute….well, the one from Runner’s World doesn’t rhyme.  Pretty much, if it’s above the neck, you’re not a wreck (meaning, get out there and run you dope…unless you’ve got a fever.) If it’s in your chest, you need to rest.  And since I just made it rhyme, why the heck has no one thought of that before?  Unless I don’t know any better and I’m a moron.  Which could totally be the case.

So here’s what I’m trying to do in between coughing vital organs right out of my body:

• Pounding Zicam by the truck load.  Strawberry chewables are fave.  The dissolving ones and the spray are Nasty with a capital N.
• Drinking lots of water and EmergenC.  Do NOT get the “lite” version!
• …And trying every other trick that I can find on the internet.  All was fun and games until I had avocado smeared on my face and then realized I had accidentally clicked on “How to sooth a dry face.”

Not me

What do you say in your fam when someone sneezes?

Usually, I say bless you while mimicking the sound of their sneeze.  Try it.  Fun times.

Have any cold remedies that you swear by?

I’ve tried swallowing a clove of garlic, but I only ever swallowed the one clove and that was it.  Probably needed more?

Shanks for the memories

Good golly, time seems to fly.  Let’s do some bullet points!

• Last night, I was on my way to get some gasoline for my ride, stopped at a light, and glanced in my left side mirror and saw three policeman helping a man up that had fallen into the street.  Then I realized, they weren’t helping him up and that they had actually tackled him into the street.  Then my light turned green and the end.

• I made White Chicken Chili again.  I could eat this every week.  The peeps in my family, not.  Boo on them.
• The baby quilt I’m making is frustrating all good crafty quilting thoughts out of me.  I’ve only ever used my machine to piece a quilt.  This time, I tried using it to quilt.  Very frustrating.  I’m ripping out and starting almost over.  Thus, no quilt for our weekend trip to go meet the new BABY!!
• Running, I would say that I’m currently obsessed with all things running.  I’m very happy to have another race on the schedule so I think I’ve avoided the post marathon blues to a degree.  The only downside is that I want to run run runnnn!!! and my body is saying, let’s chill for a few.  Chill as in, I feel the first few panicky tickles of a cold in my throat.  And sleep.  I want more sleep and need to be a little bit more cutthroat with those in my life to make sure I get it.  As in, let me sleep or I will shank you in your throat.

Hallelujah, the end!

More #3 Marathon Deets

Race day morning, I woke up at 4am and did everything right.  Everything that relates to fueling and well all that other fun stuff you do before a big race.  The one thing I didn’t do so well was waking my hubs up on time.  What?!  I gave him roughly 20 minutes to get himself together. haha!  Whoops!  I thought he was a big boy and he had set his own alarm.  Then I just lost track of time.  Doesn’t matter.  We still made it there with plenty of time to find a free parking spot, walk six blocks to our corral, stand in a long line for the porta potty, and even then, he still had time to walk all the way back to the care for our sunglasses and chapstick.  We had already started the race and he’s like, “Hey, I grabbed your cherry lip balm too, btw.”  Greatest husband of the year contender right there!

Uh so…I take really crappy awesome pictures right?  Here’s the start line…

and here’s a pirate or two…

  And here’s what we got at the finish.  The end.

Isn’t the shirt cool?  I kind of feel like a distant relative of an Olympian when I wear it! I mean, Kara Goucher and I both have brown hair, right?

Haha!  JK!  I know you wanted to hear a mile by mile break down of the marathon, right?  Hmm, well let me summarize…

• We started out great.  It was a little chilly and my fingers finally started warming up around mile 3.  My nose didn’t stop running until around mile 18.  At the start, it was in the low 50s maybe?  Perfect weather.
• The first half of the marathon, we felt great…stopped to pee twice.  My hubs added on a few seconds to our time because he went around a spot and wouldn’t go through a grassy area that looked muddy.  He didn’t want to get his shoes wet.  Our splits were good, not too fast and feeling great.
• Mile 13 my calves started to cramp a little and it was a long stretch to the next aid station for water.  Mile 15 I stopped to stretch while the hubs pit stopped.  I didn’t have to go….very unlike me.  Up the bridge, but not like last year where I ran the whole thing.  I made it though yet didn’t feel the elation on the other side.  It was warm, my nose was still running like crazy…was I seriously getting a cold on marathon day?!  Magically, it stopped running around mile 19…right about the time my quads started to crazy cramp up and I thought my legs could fall off.
• Then I stopped sweating.  I didn’t realize it at the time but I was suffering from moderate dehydration.  I’m never dehydrated, and yet I chose to run without liquid, like I had done the previous two years. BUT I failed to calculate the 20 degree spike in the temperature.  Normally, I take in a couple of ounces of water each mile, race day….it was down to every 1.5 to two miles and it was too late for me.  I was dumping water on myself now at each station to cool myself down.  The down hills were nice because even though it hurt, it didn’t hurt as much.  In the last 6 miles we passed 141 people (Race stats….no, I wasn’t counting) and only 11 people passed us.
• The last 6 miles were the worst and my confidence in my training wasn’t there.  I knew I hadn’t trained like I wanted to.  I also had the guilt of running with my husband in his first marathon and I was worried he would be disappointed in me and it would affect his race negatively.  At one time, I started to tear up and he barked at me that there was no crying yet.  Later we laughed because a lack of tears is a sign of dehydration…I claimed that’s why I was able to keep it together.  He just wanted to run a marathon with his wife and he didn’t care about the time except that it would be really cool to beat my time from last year. Awwwwww….

A couple of other weird things:

I completely forgot all my running mantras.  I realized it on the course yet it still did me no good. 

I might have broken my iPod too with all the water splashing.  I’m too scared to test it out.  It’s not the battery.  Maybe I just confused it? 

The state of one of my toenails is also in a precarious situation.  It may or may not make it.  I will be sure to keep you informed.

Afterwards, on our trip home, I drank and drank and drank…which thrilled the hubs with all the potty stops.  My appetite didn’t return until about 7 hours later which made my annual Yogurtland tradition kind of a disappointment and also our first trip to 5 Guys a little sad.

I warned you that I wouldn’t stop talking about the marathon for a whole year, so I bet you can’t wait for my next blog!

For you runnerds:

Split	Time
1	11:35.6
2	11:27.0
3	11:37.7
4	10:14.5
5	11:37.0
6	10:48.3
7	11:01.3
8	10:58.8
9	11:26.9
10	11:13.4
11	12:09.3
12	11:35.7
13	11:06.9
14	11:41.5
15	11:59.5
16	15:40.1
17	12:21.2
18	11:55.3
19	14:10.6
20	13:14.4
21	13:15.6
22	12:58.8
23	11:29.2
24	13:34.5
25	12:37.3
26	13:18.6
27	04:50.2
Summary	19:58.9