Whew!

Today was tiring. I woke up in time to be on the road for my 6-miler. The run went better than expected....I always dread running alone, but in all honesty it wasn't that bad. I ran the 1st 2 miles around the neighborhood loop, the 2nd two miles on the trails in the neighborhood, then decided to get back on the flat pavement thanks to my screaming right IT band. It made itself known at the San Antonio 1/2, but it wasn't too bad. Then, it got a bit worse on last week's 5-miler. Looks like I will have to do some extra stretching to get things back to normal. I also felt that weird tug in my lower back. The one that was there before I got preggo with the munchkin. The same stinkin' pain that drove me to do PT 2x a week. I was hoping all the core and strength training I've been doing for the past 4 months would help me keep the hips all aligned, but it doesn't look that way. I'll see if I can make it to January without too much trouble.

Then, I came home and made the family some eggs and bacon - egg beaters and turkey bacon for me, of course. :-) Next, we got everyone dressed and headed out to Garden Ridge for Christmas stuff...what a PITA! People were everywhere and there was not much of the stuff we were looking for left. The hubby hates crowds, so he was a joy to shop with...plus, the baby was fussy and the kiddo wanted to run all over the place. Ugh! Next stop - Krogers. Not as bad, but still stressful with the not-as-fussy baby and the kiddo who wants to see and wants you to see everything. Damn Disney for putting characters on just about everything - cereal, fruit snacks, bubble bath, ice cream, you name it.

Next, we came home and ate some lunch before starting on the Christmas decorations. The kiddo and I managed to get the tree up and decorated, but it was kinda hard with the munchkin trying to crawl all over the place. I tried the swing and the Exersaucer, but he wanted nothing to do with either one and would scream bloody murder if I tried to make him sit in either. Due to that, I put the rest of the decorating on hold until the kids were fast asleep. What now? I'm off to fold the kid's clothes before getting the last 100 pages of Breaking Dawn, the final book of the Twilight series.

As for the Twilight movie? It sucked. I don't think I was expecting a lot, so that was good...the acting was mediocre and the special effects were cheesy. The guy who plays the male lead did not live up to my expectation at all. Don't get me wrong, the guy is a cutie, but he's not the Adonis that's described in the book. Oh well, what do you expect for a teen movie based on a "young adult" novel? My Sister-in-Law and I did get a chuckle when all the teen girls in the theatre gasped the 1st time the male lead appeared on the screen. The same thing happened when he first spoke and once more when he kissed the female lead. Yes, I am rolling my eyes now just thinking about it. LOL!

Home Sweet Home

It feels great to be back home, even if my pocketbook is much, much lighter. That's what happens when your in-laws live less than 5-minutes from the San Marcos outlet mall! ;-) I love me some Ann Taylor outlet sales...gotta love it when you can get 2 new suits, a pair of slacks, a shirt and two sweaters all for under $300!

We had a great time seeing the family in Round Rock for Thanksgiving dinner. Even two cousins came in from South Dakota! I hadn't seen them in at least 7 years, so that was an awesome treat. Later that day, we met up with the hubby's side of the family. I am proud to say that I kept my eating under control better than ever - no pre-dinner snacking, loaded up on white meat with the turkey, had a ton of green beans, only a taste of the bad stuff, and just a sliver of dessert to satisfy the sweet tooth. Not perfect by any means, but much better than any past holidays!

As for the workouts...it's been 3 days! I discovered that the hubby wanted to get on the road MUCH earlier than expected on Thanksgiving morning, so instead of doing 5 miles that morning, I opted for 4 on the treadmill the night before. I was going to do 5, but realized mid-way through that I still had a cake to make for the next day. Doh!

Tomorrow - the goal is 6 miles solo through the 'hood followed by some Christmas decorating.

P90X

Tuesday, November 25 - P90X, Plyometrics, 58 minutes
Yesterday felt like a P90X day. I looked at the schedule - plyo! This workout is pretty intense and for the 1st time, I wore my heart rate monitor for this one. My heart rate got up to 160 at one point...now I just need to figure out my resting heart rate, so I can know where my targets are. My goal is to learn how the whole target heart rate thing works and start tracking it - something I've never attempted before. Hell, I bought the Garmin 305 because I also wanted to use the heart rate monitor...it's about time I get to it!

***********************************

Looks like that bonus back in September was just a partial bonus. I recieved the rest of my bonus on Friday and it looks like I will be getting a road bike after all! Woohoo!! If anyone has suggestions on brands, what to look for, etc. let me know!

***********************************

Don't laugh, but my Sister-in-Law and I are going to see the movie Twilight this afternoon, since my office is closing early. She's gotten me into reading those damn books! I just started reading the 4th and final book last night. Hey, it's no Anne Rice, but it's an entertaining read that's fo sho!

***********************************

I wanted to do the Run Through the Woods 5-miler tomorrow morning with the Wfit peeps, but that would meaning leaving to head to Austin later in the morning than we planned. Oh well! But, I need to burn the extra calories, so I'll get in the run tomorrow morning in the 'hood before we head out of town. Happy Turkey Day!

Playing Catch Up...again

Tagged by Viv...


Pick the 4th folder and then pick the 4th picture and describe it. Now you're it!




















This is a pic of the Munchkin with my Father-in-Law taken the weekend of the San Antonio 1/2. I love that the way they are looking at each other!


Okay, so it's been awhile. Here are my most recent workouts:


Monday, November 24 - Outdoor run, 31 minutes, 11:01 pace
Woohooo, a glorious outdoor run during the week - a rare occurence for me. It felt fan-freaking-tastic to be outside running. I took the day off work to re-decorate the kiddo's room for her birthday surprise, but managed to squeeze in a quick run. I started out too fast - 10:23 pace - but managed to slow it down to an average of 11:01.


Sunday, November 23 - P90x - Chest and Back, 55 minutes
Getting back to my weekly routine. I am beginning to see a little definition in my arms, which helps me see that this is really starting to pay off. I imagine as I loose more weight, the results will be even better!


It was also the day of the Kiddo's 4th birthday party, so I think I got a pretty good workout chasing kids around! Here she is getting ready for some cake.




















Saturday, November 22 - 5-miles with Woodlands Fit, very slow!

The night before, most of my fellow Wfit peeps went to a Soiree hosted by another Wfit peep. The Champagne punch was flowing, which might be why none of us (who showed up) felt much like running on Saturday morning. We had the choice between 8 miles and 5 miles....at the beginning of the night, 8 miles sounded doable. However, as the evening progressed (and the punch began to disappear), 5 miles sounded much better! Luckily, we had Starbucks to look forward to after the run, so we got it done.


Saturday afternoon, I took the kiddo to a "Fancy Nancy" birthday party. Here she is dressed all fancy...




















Saturday evening, the hubby and I celebrated our anniversary with a night out. We had dinner and then headed to Cru for lots of wine.

Friday, November 21 - Rest

Thursday, November 20 - P90X, Kenpo X - 1 hour
Good cardio workout! I actually used my heart rate monitor, which hasn't been used in over a year.

Wednesday, November 19 - 30 minutes, easy peasy treadmill run

Tuesday, November 18 - Rest
I was soooo stinkin' sleepy. Must have been the lack of sleep on Sunday catching up with me!

Monday, November 17 - Rest
Just resting the legs after the 1/2....they definitely needed it!

San Antonio Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Sorry this race report is so late! I have had a busy week traveling for work, then this weekend was the Kiddo's birthday party, plus DH & I celebrated our 11th anniversary. Never a dull minute, I tell ya!



Friday, November 14

I managed to sneak out of work a bit early, but somehow we didn’t manage to get on the road until after 4 pm. We headed to the in-laws where we spent the night. I went to bed early, because I was up until 1am the night before working on my revised budget for work.


Saturday, November 15 – The Expo
5:00 am.

That’s what time the Munchkin woke up.

He must have noticed that he was in the pack and play rather than his crib, not to mention that he wasn’t in his room. He did not want to go back to sleep and as a result, he also woke up his sister who also refused to go back to sleep. Sigh.

Around noon I headed to San Antonio to meet the Woodlands Fit peeps. I was the 1st to arrive at our hotel, which was an old house that was converted into a condo-ish type of hotel. It was in an older neighborhood with lots of restored, historic homes – very cute with a Spanish-tiled roof and hard-wood floors! Once everyone arrived, we decided to take care of our stomachs first and headed to the tea room around the corner. Yum-my! Of course, the 1st thing on the menu to catch my eye was the "fishbowl" mimosas…if only!

After lunch, we took the 1-mile trek to the Alamodome. The expo was extremely crowded and the lines were long, but it was well organized and the lines moved quickly. Compared to other marathons of this size, I wasn’t all that impressed with the vendors there. However, I did buy some sunglasses which proved to be a very, very good idea. After the expo, we headed back to our hotel to look through our swag. Again, compared to other marathons, not that impressive – gloves (which did come in handy), an utter butter sample, a cold medicine sample, a $10 PF Changs gift card and what appeared to be information about every upcoming race that had a booth at the expo. We decided to head back to the same tea room for some dinner, then headed back to the hotel where we all talked until about 10 pm.



Here we are at the Expo!











Sunday, November 16 – Race Day
Brrrr, it was in the 30’s when we woke up! We decided to head to the shuttle lines no later than 5:30 am, since we had a 1-mile trek to get there. It’s a good thing, because a bus was just leaving and the line was not too long. However, 10 minutes later, the line was all the way down the block! Unlike NYC, where a half-dozen buses are waiting at any given minute to shuttle people to the start, we had to wait for awhile before more buses came. I forgot my Garmin in the hotel, so I had no idea what time we finally headed to the start. We chatted with some fellow runners and even sang "Happy Birthday" to a guy we met who was from Florida. We saw tons of traffic on the interstate, so it was pretty obvious that there were going to be some people who were not going to make it to the start in time.
<- On the warm and toasty bus!














Once we arrived, several of us needed a porta-potty stop. By the time we were done it was time to head to our corrals. We were all in corral 17…there were a total of 30 corrals. Honestly, the entire weekend, I was stressing out about whether I could run the race, get back to the hotel, get back to the family in time to get back to Houston in time to meet up with my friend for dinner before the Madonna concert. We were in our corral about 15 minutes before the race was scheduled to start and people were still arriving and sprinting to their corrals. The race actually began about 15 minutes late, probably to allow those stuck on the shuttle buses in traffic. Once the gun went off, it took exactly 30 minutes for our corral to cross the finish line….I felt sorry for those people in corral 30!



Here we are before the race....do we look cold? And another pic of 30,000 of our closest friends....

















We were off! It seemed to take me forever to loosen up...I think my entire body was tense from
all the shivering I had done while standing around in the cold. Early on, 2 of our 9 folks went on ahead of us. Then, another two. I was in the group of the remaining 4 and somewhere around mile 3 or 4 (I think), we had to head to the porta-potty. Fortunately, there was only one person in line at the 2 porta-potties. We probably lost 5 minutes there, but the relief was soooo worth it. I usually don’t have to make a stop on our long runs, but I think a combination of the cold and waiting for so long to start did me in. The bands were at every mile and sometimes more frequent, which was a nice distraction. Early on, we passed the Alamo and took a quick picture.

















I don't know if it was the weather or just the adrenaline from the race and crowds, but I felt great. It was really hard to remember that this was a training run and to not speed up. Plus, I knew if I sped up too much, I would lose steam at the end. I kept reminding myself to just take it easy. A majority of the route was in downtown and we faced the sun quite a bit - that's where those sunglasses were a Godsend! The mile markers seemed to pass quickly, which was a great feeling. Eventually somewhere around mile 8 or 9, our group of four became two groups of two. Katie and I stuck together for the remained of the race. We passed the mile 10 and 11 markers and knew we were in the home stretch! Finally, we passed the mile 12 marker and began to see the Alamodome. We hear the crowds tell us that the finish is just around the corner...about that time we can see the mile 13 marker - placed very cruelly at the top of a steep ramp near the Alamodome. Yes, someone very evil planned the final stretch of the route! Bastards! :-) Katie and I said we were going to run the rest in, but I was a wuss and stopped running about 1/2 way up the hill and walked. But, once we were up the hill, the finish was in sight and there was no stopping again. We were done!

All in all, I'd say this was my best 1/2 in that I felt great the entire way. It was also my slowest 1/2, but not bad to a training run. I hope I feel 1/2 as great in Houston in January...with a flatter course, I am sure I can better my time quite a bit.

















We made our way through all the crowds to get out medals. We were even interviewed by a TV crew! We grabbed some bagels, bananas, etc and made our way to our friends, where we had a bit of celebratory champagne.

After that, I pretty much speed-walked the mile back to the hotel. I was off to San Marcos to meet the family and then off to see Madonna....more on that later!

Gee your cell phone is crap

Tomorrow is my 11th wedding anniversary! The hubby sent some flowers to my office...what a sweetie!
I took the pic with my cell phone. Yeah, it's crap!

Amazing Weekend

I had an awesome weekend - 1/2 marathon, Madonna - it was fan-freaking-tastic.

I'll update more later with pictures!

Almost there...

Wednesday, 11/12 - P90X, Legs & Shoulders - 58 minutes
OMG my butt and legs hurt today. I must have stepped it up a bit on this workout, because I am not usually this sore! But, it was a great workout!

Thursday, 11/13 - Treadmill run, 20 minutes, 11:30 pace
Easy peasy run on the ol' dreadmill. The hill and shin are aching a bit, but nothing to worry about.

*************************************

It's almost time to head to the hill country....I have mine and the kiddo's stuff packed up and ready to go! I'll be at a Wellness Symposium most of the day, but will be sneaking out early so we can hit the road before the traffic gets bad. I decided on my new long-sleeve under armour top with my capris...but, I'm bringing the running skirt too just in case. LOL!

*************************************

In other news, I went to see nutritionist extraordinaire, Catherine, today! She did a metabolic rate test and gave me some great tips. Apparently, my metabolic rate is slightly higher than average, which means if I do what I'm supposed to be doing, I should lose the weight!

And, I found out that I am not eating enough calories! I've lost over 5 lbs in the past 4 weeks and that was eating only 1400 calories a day. Based on the amount of exercise I do, I should be able to eat 1800-1900 calories a day and still lose weight weekly! But, I have to eat the right foods, which is my big challenge (ummm, remember the Halloween candy?). If I keep eating the 1400 calories, I will keep losing weight but I could eventually slow my metabolism.

And, she recommended this cookbook - Cooking Light 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook - which I have already ordered from Amazon.com. We also talked about getting the kiddo to eat our food instead of chicken nuggets and macaroni everyday.

I think I can hit my goal weight with a little help from the expert!

Workout Update

Monday, November 10 - Treadmill run, 21 minutes

No Monday cycling this week thanks to Mother Nature and the torrential downpours. I couldn't decide what type of workout I wanted to do instead and finally decided on a run - especially since I hardly ever get in all 3 weekday runs between the cycling and P90X. Unfortunately, my run was cut short when the baby woke up. Must have been the teething, because he usually sleeps all night with no wake-ups at all!



Tuesday, November 11 - Treadmill run, 35 minutes

All my runs this week will be at an "easy" pace, because the left shin pain I've been noticing after my runs has decided to make itself known during my runs all of a sudden - even with my new shoes. Ugh! I iced for 20 minutes after my run using the kiddo's Cinderella ice pack, lol! Also, my right heel has been sore for weeks now. I don't know what's up with that, but luckily it doesn't bother me too much during my run. I iced it too just in case...but for the heel I used the Nemo ice pack. :-)

Let the obsessing begin!

As before any race, especially an out of town race, I am obsessing over all the details - checking the weather forecast 2x a day - too cold, too hot or just right?, deciding and then re-deciding what to wear - the capris or the skirt?, fixating on what to eat - more protein or carbs?, etc.

The weather forecast (per wunderground.com) appears to be perfect:

Saturday Night and Sunday
Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 30s. Highs in the upper 60s.

I don't know why I am obsessing so much. I'm treating this race merely as a training run, but at the same time I want to be comfortably dressed, well fed and have a good time...so that requires some amount of obsessing, right?

Thank You Vets!

Especially my favorite Vet of all - my Dad! Love ya Papa!

Insert Evil Laugh Here...

Okay, so the kiddo's Halloween candy was getting the best of me. The kiddo wasn't even asking for it, but I sure was consuming it! So in an effort to get back on track with my eating plan, I decided to gather up all that candy and bring it up to the office. Let the rest of the office eat it...hehehehe!

I'm down over a pound this week, so I am definitely back on track!

First, let me say congrats to everyone who ran the HMSA 25k this morning! I volunteered for that race last year when I was preggo and loved watching all the runners come in! I worked the relay area awhile and then removed chips from peoples shoes. I figured it was the least I could do after having so many people cut the chip off of my sweaty self. :-) Again, congrats to everyone who ran it and finished...you're almost done with the warm-up series and ready to for your big day! And, if you've never run the HMSA 25k, they have awesome finisher's shirts!!!

********************************

The Saturday Woodland's Fit run was 8 miles. Thank God for good company because I was really not feeling it in the last mile. I don't know why, but I was so worried about the 10-miler last week and had no problems whatsoever. Then, I bonk at mile 7 this week. I think it's all mental, because after running 10, I think that 8 is no big deal and get myself thinking that it will be even easier than it really is. This run brought back memories of last year...I did about the same distance the day before I found out I was preggo. It's great to be back! Oh, and it was great to see Karen and Jon this morning too!

********************************

Next weekend is the San Antonio Rock & Roll 1/2! We worked out all the logistics for the weekend - where to meet, what to wear, what to bring, what not to bring, etc. I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend with the girls! (Well, I will have part of the weekend with the girls - I'll take what I can get!) I found out the official race drink will be Cytomax, which I have never tried. After my experience with Accelerade, I think I'll play it safe and bring my fuel belt.

********************************

As for the rest of the weekend, we had lots of family time together. Today we went to Discovery Green for the 1st time. While it's no Central Park (as if anything could be), it was pretty cool. The hubby, munchkin and I hung out on a big blanket while the kiddo played like crazy on the playground equipment. She also had a blast rolling down the "big hill". I have lots of pics, so I'll post a few later this week. I am about to spend the rest of the evening addressing birthday party invites for the kiddo. Disney Princess seems to be what it's all about this year...:-) Ugh, and don't even get me started on A&M's ass whooping this weekend....

Workout Stats

Saturday, Woodlands Fit LR - 8 miles, 1:28:50, 11:06 pace?

Sunday, P90X - Shoulders & Arms, 58 minutes -and- Ab Ripper X, 15 minutes

Woohoo

The weekend is almost here, baby! Yes, I'm practically dancing in my office with the realization of this. And, the weather is gonna rock. We're taking the kiddos to Discovery Green at some point this weekend....it's the only drawback to kickin' it in the 'burbs - we hardly ever get to the big city on the weekends. Hell, after driving there all week, I don't really want to drive there again on Sat or Sun. Sorry.

Tomorrow is an 8-miler with Woodlands Fit...by the way Coach, what was up with the "Oh my God!" when I said I was running the 10-miler last weekend? LOL! Then, the gang is going for coffee to chat it up about San Antonie next weekend. Damn, it's NEXT WEEKEND! Where oh where does the time go?

Thursday workout - 30 minute treadmill run
Workout went okay...shin splints are killing me! But, I'm picking up my new shoes today at Luke's, so hopefully that will help!

***********************************

I'm proud to report that I began my Christmas shopping this morning. I bought DH & I a new point and shoot camera...I will still get that SLR, but I need more time to do some research first. And, I bought my parents a new camera as well. They need one. They have what I think might be a 1st generation Kodak digital camera and it's horrible! I also picked up some stocking stuffers for the kiddo today.

***********************************

Okay, so the Madonna concert is next weekend. I have made pretty good progress in losing more of the baby weight thanks to Viv's weight loss challenge. I am down almost 5 more lbs...which is great, since I hadn't lost any weight since returning to work. I refused to buy new jeans, because I know I can get back into my old ones. But, I had to give in and get my "interim" jeans. I decided to make it a super cheap purchase and went to Target for a $27.00 pair of Mossimo jeans. When I get back to my goal weight I will reward myself with some awesome jeans, woohoo! When I loose another 5 lbs I will treat myself to a mani/pedi...something I used to do all the time, but that was before kids. Progress, progress....

About last night...

What a night - I was hot, sweaty and gasping for breath...



















Wednesday, 11/5 - P90X, Plyometrics, 1 hour
Get your mind out of the gutter people. I was doing the P90X Plyometric workout. It's the 1st time since Ike that I've done it and man, I could tell! For the past 6 weeks, I've been skipping the cardio P90X workouts and only doing the strength training and core workouts. I justified that by thinking that my training runs were enough cardio for the week. I didn't realize until last night how much I was cheating myself out of an awesome workout. I think I will start incorporating at least one P90X cardio workout into my weekly exercise schedule. Seriously ya'll, I was dying before the warm-up was even over. I know running is a cardio workout, but this is a totally different kind of cardio. The hour-long routine is comprised of lunges and squats but with jumps in between, plus a just a lot of jumping and hopping. I just need to remember to wear my heart rate monitor from now on. Anyway, it's crazy tough and I LOVE it. I forgot that in the past 6 weeks, so there will be lots more plyo to come!

***************************************

Tonight I'm heading to Luke's for a little party just for the store's 4th anniversary. There are supposed to be some nice discounts on everything and there will be tasty treats and cocktails. Woohoo! It's time for new shoes, so I am definitely taking advantage of that discount. I might even get a new running skirt too!

***************************************

So post election, the 1st thing that popped into my head was the song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine)" by REM. And you know what? I do feel fine. I don't mean it literally, like, it's really the end of the world. I mean it in a good way - optimistic for the best. Some people are so stinkin' dramatic about our new President-Elect and think the sky is literally falling and have that fear-mongering mentality. Puh - lease people, get ahold of yourselves! I didn't vote for him, but hey, I was cool with whatever happened.

Peace-out!

More Shiznit

Monday - 12 mile bike ride, 14 mph
Getting better, but hating the time change. It got dark before we got back to "base" which made for some sketchy riding! (which is probably why the pace looks better...riding faster to get out of the dark faster, lol.)

Tuesday - 30 minute treadmill run
Same old, same old.

Tomorrow - P90X!

That is all.


Glad election day is over...may the best man win.

VOTE!

I've already voted, how about you????



(besides, you can get free coffee at Starbucks and free ice cream at Ben & Jerry's if you do!)

Weekly Update

This blog is turning into a 1x a week update of my workouts! I'll try to do better, but it just seems like by the time I get the kids into bed, get my workout done and get us all ready for the next day, it's time for the 10 pm news and bed! So, here are my updates...

Sunday, 11/2 - P90X - Chest and Back, 52 minutes
First, lemme say CONGRATS to everyone who ran NYC! I recorded the coverage, but have only had the chance to watch a little of the beginning. It's by far my favorite marathon and one I have vowed to do again before I hit the big 4-0....even if it means doing all those long runs in the Houston summer heat. Getting back to my workouts - I started using the hubby's bands on this workout, because they provide much more resistance than the ones I've been using. Wow, what a difference! I could barely do all the push ups by the time I made it to the 2nd round of exercises, because my arms felt like jello!

Saturday, 11/1 - WFit Long Run - 10 miles (actually 10.8),
I was extremely nervous about this run. I wanted to opt for the 7 miler, but I knew I needed to do this. This would be the longest distance since getting back into running after the baby and even though I've run this distance dozens of times before, I was scared. Scared because getting back into running again has been tough. Tougher than after having the kiddo. Much tougher than expected. I needed to do this just to get the confidence back. I needed to know I could do this again.

Things worked out better than I expected. First off, the weather was great. I did panic for a moment when I got all the way to The Woodlands and realized that I had forgotten to eat breakfast. Doh! But it didn't matter, because I felt fine. Well, I felt better than fine - I felt great! Of course that might be partially due to the fact that we were moving rather slow. But, I remember looking at my watch and seeing that we were at the 1/2 way point and feeling great. Before I knew it, we were heading back to Luke's and I still felt great. We finished and I didn't feel like I had run 10 miles! Oh and for the 1st time, I took the advice of a certain nutritionist and had chocolate milk afterwards - she was right, it made a world of difference. And it was also great to see fellow blogger, Viv!

Saturday night, the hubby and I went to a costume party. I was Audrey Hepburn (okay, a non-waifish version) and he was Neo from The Matrix movies. We had fun...the costumes were hilarious - Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, and the my personal favorite - the Mormon. (I know, I know - not very PC, but it was great!)

Friday, 10/31 - Rest day
Seriously, even if it wasn't my usual rest day, there's no way I would have gotten a workout in. With a 3 year old who is sooooo excited about Halloween she can hardly stand it? Nope. My sister-in-law brought over the younger nephew and the kids went trick or treating. They managed to get a TON of candy...which I have been eating since. Ugh! It was fun and the kiddo had an awesome time - and stayed up much too late. :-) I'll post pics when I can.

Thursday, 10/30 - Treadmill run, 40 minutes
I totally felt like slacking off here. After the kiddos were in bed, I laced up the running shoes, but then I sat and watched 40 minutes of ER. Seriously. I almost talked myself out of running at all, but then realized - HELLO - I could not train by only running 1x per week. So, I decided to only do 20 minutes rather than the scheduled 40. But, once I got going my conscience got the better of me and I finished the entire 40 minutes. It was incredibly slow during most of that run, but I sped up in the middle and towards the end and got it done. Woohoo!

Wednesday, 10/29 - P90X - Shoulders & Arms, 1 hour & Ab Ripper X, 15 minutes
Nothing eventful here either, except I have been increasing my weights by a few pounds on most of the exercises.

Tuesday, 10/28 - Treadmill run, 30 minutes
Nothing eventful here. I did manage to maintain an 11 minute pace and only took one walk break at the 1/2 way point, which for me lately is pretty damn good.

I voted!!! I'm such a dork, I get all giddy as I walk into the polls. I won't go into who I voted for, I'll just say I went with the candidate who seemed less shady to me and who aligned well with me on a majority of the issues. I'm still not completely happy with either candidate, but the more I learn about one, the better the other one looks to me.

Monday, 10/27 - Bike ride, 50 minutes, 13.5 mph
Awesome weather for a ride. I was pleased that we did better with our pace too, getting up to 15 mph at times.

NYC Marathon

Today is NYC Marathon day! In just a short time, the runners will be beginning their 26.2 mile trek by heading over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. There will be live coverage here and later, NBC will have a hour long re-cap at 3 pm. Don't miss it!