Thank You Lady in the Red Car!!

OMG the coolest thing just happened! The lady in front of me at the Starbucks drive thru just bought my drink! Total stranger doing something really cool! So I paid it forward & bought the drinks for the guy behind me! Thanks lady in the red car, you made my morning!! Guy in the white truck, happy Saturday!

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About time I post a darn update!

Okay peeps, its been a while so I figured I'd update. Life has been stupid busy but hopefully it will calm down in a few days. I wrapped up my after school program yesterday and it feels awesome to have that finished!! I'm still in school and getting ready to wrap that up at the end of April. I registered for 14 credits for the summer semester so I'm gearing up for that as well. A few weeks ago, the kiddo was here for Spring Break and we had a blast! Its always great to have him here!

For multiple reasons, I haven't been able to keep up with my workouts (with the exception of my classes) as much as I've wanted to. The week after I ran my 5K, I tweaked the hell out of my knee and was pretty gimpy for about a week. After that I've been in healing mode and "busy surviving life" mode. I've kept nutrition in line as best I can, but weight has been maintaining - not losing, so I'm just kind of "eh" about the whole thing. I'm looking forward to hitting the workouts hard again.

Why was I healing you ask?? Well, other than my gimp knee - the healing process was self inflicted!! Behold, my new fabulousness on my right upper arm! We got it done in 3 sessions (one marathon of around 9.5 hours - I exhausted the artist, one of a little shading at 2.5 hours, and the last about 6 hours of color) and I couldn't be happier with my beautiful new peacock! It symbolizes love, passion & good luck and I think he's just amazing! He beautifully matches the shoulder part of my backpiece that wraps around to the front (you can see it in the middle frame of the first pic) and I love the way it all flows together! I've been getting compliments every where I go on him and he makes me smile :-D

Hubby got fabulous new ink as well, but I won't update a pic of that one until its fully completed - its currently still a work in progress :-D

So here's what it looked like after session #1 - fully detailed lining and partial color:

And here's what it looked like after session #3 - fully colored with 4 different blues & a fabulous bright green!

I still have some more plans for him in the future, so he's not quite done yet - but hopefully within the next few weeks I'll be able to finish up all my plans. I'm gonna try to take a better pic of it now that its all healed up and looking fabulous - but free time is a little short this week. Its my mommy's birthday, a friend's bachelorette party, another friend is visiting from out of town and have a crazy exam for school - and that's JUST my plans for tomorrow! EEP! Its exhausting just to think about it! I'm seriously looking forward to the next time we're able to sit around, be lazy & watch Vikings (or something as equally fabulous on Hulu)

So - in other news, now that my after school program is over, I am now 100% in control of my workout program again! I haven't been able to do this in YEARS! for the past 2.5 years or so, I've been teaching fitness classes that I've had to plan my workout routine around and for the past few months it was just exhausting to try to keep up. I've been looking at lots of different workout options and I'm anxious to try a few of them out! It will be nice to get back to consistently working out again!

I'm down about 13 pounds this year so far (mostly from nutrition only - eating about 1800 cals a day) so I'm looking forward to kick-starting that in the next few weeks and hopefully continuing to see progress. With the healing tattoos, workouts have been minimal (except for required classes) so I'm feeling exceptionally squishy. I'm looking forward to getting back into running - I totally miss it (and I know my hubby does too!) Not being able to work out definitely makes us antsy and cranky! AND to make matters worse, I forgot to grab my running shoes before I left the house this morning and I'm all twitchy....I totally need to run today. I'm gonna hit the weights on my breaks and hope its enough to tide me over until I get home where I can run a little bit!

Alrighty, that's about it for me - not much else is going on in my world. I'll update the workouts as they come! Hope you all have a great day!

Total Miles Ran in 2013: 32.57 miles

I feel like a bad ass!

Hey peeps! I hope you're all having a great Thursday! I know I am! One day closer to the weekend too! Yippee!

So today was supposed to be the first run of Week 7 - 25 mins straight. Once I got to work today, my boss gave us a little bit of extra time to ourselves so I had a full hour for a workout today (including my usual lunch)!! Oh it was exciting!!!

I toyed back and forth with the idea of trying to run a full 5K today or if I just wanted to stick with the 25 min workout as planned. Well, eventually my ambitiousness got the best of me and I hit the treadmill with the plan to run a full 5K!

Honestly, the first 20 mins were relatively easy because I put one of my favorite songs on repeat and just listened to it 4 times in a row. What is this song you ask??? Well its this one:

I absolutely adore that song and the beat is just amazing for running! At about the 20 min mark I switched to my running playlist on my iPod and jammed out to H.I.M, Korean pop and then the Backstreet Boys for my cooldown (yes, I know, I'm kind of a nerd like that)

BUT - I did it! I ran the whole 5K with no rest! I am SO proud of myself! I kind of feel like a bad ass! This is the first 5K distance of the year and I know it definitely won't be the last! Now that I'm back to being able to run the distance, now I'm just going to keep improving. I ran today's 5K at a 5.0 pace (12 min/mile) except for the last quarter mile that I kicked it up to 5.5 MPH (11 min/mile pace) and got it done in about 37 minutes.

Here's a pic to prove it :-)  I know the pic says 37:25, but it took me about 20 seconds to hop off the belt and get the camera on my phone on, so I'm concluding that I ran the whole thing in 37 flat, which will be my baseline from now on. I couldn't be happier with the way this run felt, I was comfortable but still felt like I needed to push it around the 30 min mark (I was getting tired! haha!)

Here's my workout stats for today (inluding warm up and cool down for time & distance)

Total Workout Time: 54 minutes

Total Steps: 7417 Steps

Total Calories Burnt: 680 Cals

Total Distance: 3.78 miles

That's about it for me! I have 1 after school class today after work and then its TV date night with the hubby! We've been watching Biggest Loser Season 7 on Hulu because he's never seen that season before and some of my favorite contestants are from that season. Its so funny - I've seen the whole season before (I know what happens & who wins) but I *still* get all caught up in the drama! Hubby totally laughs at me that I'm getting so into a show that I already know the ending too :-P

Have a great night everyone!

Total Miles Ran in 2013: 29.90 miles

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Ugh Monday already?!?

Hello everyone! Happy Monday! I am tired as hell today after a busy crazy weekend - but we are getting closer to our vacation which is awesome! On Saturday morning I weighed in and so far have lost 12 pounds this year so far! Woot! I'm taking things slowly this time around but little by little I'm seeing progress which is awesome!

On Saturday morning, I ran before class as usual. I hadn't slept very well the night before, so it was a hard workout - but I did it! The workout was Warm Up, Run for 10 mins at 5.0, Walk for 3 minutes at 3.5, Run for 10 mins at 5.0, Cool Down

And here's a pic of the treadmill once I finished Saturday's run:

*I'll enter the cals, steps, total time, etc later once I get home - all that info is stored on my other computer*

So I am totally sleep deprived at the moment and just wanted to be lazy today - but I wasn't! I made my lazy ass get on the treadmill at lunch today and knocked out Week 6 Day 3 of the C25K plan. It was awesome & I feel so much better now that the run is over :-)

Today's workout was: Warm Up, Run for 22 mins at 5.0 without stopping, Cool Down

Total Calories Burned: 431 Calories

Total Distance: 1.91 miles

Total Steps: 4088 Steps

Total Workout Time: 30 mins

Oh and since I was a space cadet and forgot to upload a pic of my curry last week, here it is! My Red Pineapple Curry with Chicken, Zucchini & Mushrooms - it was SO good!! Tonight we are having a Green Curry for dinner and I'm already getting hungry just thinking about it! haha! Have a good night everyone!

Total Miles Ran in 2013: 26.12 miles

Run!!

OY - so its been a crazy hectic week - hopefully things will calm down soon! My body is super tired and I've been sleeping like sh*t...so needless to say I'm ready for a relaxing weekend! I'm gearing up for the last 5 weeks of my After School kids, our vacation coming up soon (my new dress will be delivered next week for it! Woot!) registering for summer classes & wrapping up this semester while still working my day job. Life is definitely crazy! EEP!

Today was a running day and I had a blast! However, my workouts are getting longer and they are harder to fit into my lunch break *sad face* I don't think I'll be able to maintain my runs at work for much longer so I'll have to start fitting them in before or after work. I'll make it happen :-)

Today was: Warm Up, 5 min Run at 5.0, 3 min Walk at 3.5, 8 min Run at 5.0, 3 min walk at 3.5, 5 min run (started at 5.0 and last 1:45 at 6.0!), Cool Down

Today I felt good - I felt stronger and that I could push harder today (thus the 6.0 interval) - it was amazing! I just finished about 30 mins ago and I'm already ready to hit the treadmill again! Woot! I've got a class after work today so I've got another workout in my future already! Good times indeed!

Total Time: 36 minutes

Total Calories Burned: 415 Cals

Total Distance: 2 miles

Total Steps: 4257

Total Miles Ran in 2013: 21.81 miles

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Woot!

Hey everyone! Happy Monday!! Sorry about the brief blog earlier, but I wanted to get that updated before my run today.

So now I have time for an *actual* update! Our weekend was totally awesome! We went out to dinner at a Brazillian grill (meat on sticks!) on Friday night as a date and kept nutrition in line all weekend! Go us! I'm feeling really good and my weight is the lowest that its been in months! Progress is always a good thing!

Saturday we went out and ran some errands - we swung by our comic book shop & got our most recent issues from our box & went to Big 5 and splurged on new yoga mats. We got super squishy ones that are totally awesome. Downside is that they are harder to balance on, but that will train our muscles to work harder :-)

Sunday morning we got up and did about 40 mins of yoga (on our new mats! woot!) and then we made some turkey sausage & peppers for an early lunch, which was damn good. After that we went shopping and I got a new pair of jeans and a fabulous new dress! It was definitely good times! I'll try to get a pic of the new dress sometime this week!

Today's run was totally fabulous! It was my first longer interval so I was a little nervous but excited as well. I really love running and today was perfect! I put on some great music and totally rocked out! I was comfortable the whole time and didn't feel strained at all, which was awesome. Just goes to show how proper training can get you ready for anything!

Warm Up, Run for 20 mins (straight no stopping!) at 5.0, Cool Down

Total Time: 27 minutes

Total Distance: 1.80 miles

Total Calories Burned: 370

Total Steps Taken: 3727

Today after work, I've got some errands to run and then its home to make dinner! Tonight I'm going to make a Red Pineapple Curry (YUM!) I'll be sure to take pictures! *fingers crossed it turns out as yummy as my green curry did!*

In other news before I go, hubby and I are planning to get new tattoos soon! Woot!! Its been so long since either of us have gotten new ink (over a year and a half for me!) that hopefully we'll be able to get something done! A friend of ours just started his own tattoo business, so we might go and check out his set-up soon! We might have to wait until after our vacation, but either way its gonna be awesome!

Total Miles Ran in 2013: 19.81 miles

Saturday's Workout - a little delayed

Hey everyone! This is gonna be a brief update because I'll type a longer one after my run later. This is the information from my run on Saturday morning before class - was a busy ass weekend and I didn't find the time to do this sooner!

Workout was W5D2 - Warm Up, Run for 8 minutes at 5.0, Walk for 5 minutes at 3.5, Run for 8 minutes at 5.0 MPH, Cool Down

It was a fabulous run and I definitely enjoyed it!

Total Workout Time: 34 minutes

Total Calories Burned: no idea - digital display information is at home

Total Distance: 2.2 miles

Total Miles Ran in 2013: 18.01 miles