2014, I’m Coming For YOU!

Happy New Year’s Eve…hope everyone has a great 2014…party responsibly…blah blah blah.

 

 

OK, now let’s move on. I have goals – actual, written (typed) goals. Want to know what they are? Well…I’ll tell you!

1. Complete a Tough Mudder – This is the ultimate goal for this year. Period. End of sentence. BOOM. Registration prices go up in 2 weeks, so I will be registering before then. I’m going to be on a team with 2 of my coworkers and some of their friends and family. It’s a bummer that no one I personally know outside of work is into it, but that’s OK. I think there are around 8-10 of us so far and we plan on getting together in a few weeks to all meet each other and get to know our teammates. Makes me anxious, but better than meeting them on race day! Like I mentioned before, I got the discounted classes for that obstacle gym and I may go for the first time this Saturday morning, either just me or with just one of my coworkers. We’ll see how that pans out. I’m excited. I’m so nervous I could throw up, but I’m excited.

 

Me after my very first obstacle race – Down & Dirty Mud Run

 

2. Complete a half marathon – If it means crawling across the finish line, this is going to happen. I don’t have a set one in mind as my first, but I’ve officially registered for the Surftown Half in September. I ran the 5K last year while injured and ended up walking most of it in tears. It was an awful experience, but an absolutely stunning course, so I’ve decided I need to conquer it.

 

Me right before Surftown 5K – September 2013

 

3. Complete 1 unassisted pull-up – I’m not sure this can ever happen. I have the upper arm strength of an infant, always have. I’m working on it, slowly but surely, but it’s damn tough. I decided it would be a good goal to have to keep me working towards something outside of running. Plus it can only help me in Tough Mudder training, which, let’s face it, I need plenty of!

4. Complete 10 push-ups – I can already bang out 20 on my knees. This goal, though, is for 10 in perfect form, perfectly horizontal, touching my chest to the floor like real push-up. I’ve gotten as high as 7, but not even close to actually hitting the floor (and I have ridiculous boobs, so it should be easier LOL), horizontal push-ups. This one may be a bit more attainable than the pull-up, but no less difficult for me.

5. Complete the #14in2014 that I signed up for – I joined a group committed to running 14 races in 2014. Since I did 15 in 2013, my first year of running, I don’t think this is unattainable. I just need to stick with it like I did this year and not burn out. I think I have them more evenly spread since I’ll be starting earlier in the year so I think it might be better this time around. I’ve already signed up for the half (above) and another 5K in May. I was also going to sign up for my St. Patrick’s day race until I remembered that my company always sponsors that one, so I’m waiting to register for that until they give out the password for free registration. Why spend the money if I don’t have to, right?  😉

There you have it. Courtney’s crazy goals. I like the sound of that.

 

 

 

 

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Of Cat Butts And Mall Crowds

Well hello there! Long time, no blog. Did ya miss me? OK, I missed you, but let’s not make a big deal about it.

 

 

Get comfy – we’re going on a week-long journey.

When last we left off with the tale of Courtney, it was Friday and she had just faced the music yet again. No, wait…I don’t want to talk in the third person.

On that day, the 20th, the Christmas fun really began. Julie and Dan came down that night and what was even more exciting was that they were there before I even got home from work! Yay! We were doing our Friendsmas last weekend since we didn’t think we’d see them for Christmas itself. We had such fun that weekend just hanging out, no plans whatsoever.

 

 

We couldn’t wait, so we ended up opening our gifts to each other on Friday night. I got an awesome race medal display and a Blerch shirt (which I never took a picture of – bad, bad blogger). Tara got a Vera Bradley purse and some Doctor Who earrings. One says “Timey Wimey” and the other says “Wibbly Wobbly” – so cute!

 

 

We got Julie a bunch of jewelry making supplies that she had asked for to make her awesome Jewels by Jules. For Dan, we got him a Doctor Who mug, Nightmare Before Christmas Hallmark ornament and a fun DC Comics periodic table of superheroes t-shirt. I think we all did really well for each other!

After they left on Sunday morning, Tara and I just wanted to relax so we binge watched Orange Is The New Black on Netflix in between a few household things. We really liked it and got into it so much that we finished watching it on Monday after work. Now we can’t wait for season 2!

I consciously made the choice to not work out AT ALL over the last week. I needed a reset of sorts. I know you should move 30 minutes a day or whatever, blah blah blah. NO! I just wanted to do nothing. I wanted to spend time with my family and friends, away from the computer so much and enjoy it to it’s fullest. Sure, I could have still gotten workouts in, even just short ones, but my mind was tired, my body was tired and I was feeling “over it”.  I’ve got a new plan in place (which still needs some tweaks, so it will probably start next week) and will be back in the gym tomorrow morning. I may just do cardio and yoga this week while I continue the strength tweaking and learn my new maneuvers, but at least I’ll still be doing something. I believe I will also be using my introductory class at the obstacle gym next Saturday morning. Good stuff in the works!

After I got out of work on Christmas Eve (at 1:00) and Tara had finished her baking bonanza (can you say Oreo fudge!!!), we drove up to Julie and Dan’s house to stay there for the night. We randomly made this plan while they were here last weekend. They’re sort of a “home base” for us when we go up to MA, whether it’s to see them or other family. They always have a guest room for us so it’s easiest to stay with them the majority of the time.

 

 

This is where the cat butts come in. See, whenever Tara and Julie use FaceTime with each other, it somehow started that Tara would always flip the camera and show Julie one of our cat’s butts to shock her. Then they started sending pictures back and forth via email. Well, we just so happened to find some cat butt magnets on Amazon (seriously, who thinks up these things) so we HAD to get them. We ended up getting to Julie and Dan’s that day before they got home from Dan’s uncle’s funeral (sadly) and had literally 1 minute to throw the magnets all over their house for them to find because they pulled in the driveway right as we were unlocking the front door to go in! It was hysterical watching them find them all over the house – on the front door, dishwasher, fridge, coffee maker, etc. We crack ourselves up! They ended up taking two of them and stuffing one in a pair of socks in our overnight bag and we still haven’t found the other one!

 

 

We crashed there Christmas Eve, enjoyed some apps for dinner together and then Tara and I watched while they opened their gifts to each other. We all got up on Christmas day and then went to our respective family celebrations – they went to Dan’s aunt’s house and we went to my aunt’s house (only about 15 minutes away).

Tara and I had a great time seeing my family, as we always do. It’s always just the two of us, my grandparents, my aunt, uncle, cousin and her boyfriend. This time though, her boyfriend was with his family for the day so we had a smaller crowd. We hung out and relaxed, ate a nice dinner with ham, turkey and sides and then opened presents. I got some really awesome, thoughtful gifts and so did Tara. My parents got me the Camelbak day pack that I had on my wish list for hiking, my cousin gave me awesome Jaybird Bluebuds X wireless headphones for the gym and both Tara and I each got the most awesome, soft toasty warm blankets. There were some gift cards as well which are always appreciated! We then had some dessert and just hung out and chatted for a bit. Such a nice, low-key time. The funniest thing is that Tara got more Vera Bradley items from my parents and my cousin. What the strangest part is, though, is that all 3 people got her the same pattern (Portabello Road), but not a single item was repeated and none of them talked to each other about what they were getting. It was a Christmas miracle!

After we left my aunt’s house, we headed back to Julie and Dan’s and arrived back just before they did. We hung out and talked about how our days went and what we got and then got ourselves some Chinese food for dinner to watch the farewell to Matt Smith special and the Doctor Who Christmas special (his final episode – boo hoo!). We had such a fun time and I really wish I didn’t have to work the next morning. We ended up leaving right after the special ended at 10:30 and got home just before midnight. It was so worth it though.

Nothing exciting on Thursday and Friday except work, but then yesterday we were out and about for a loooong day. We went to the Wrentham Outlets to pick up a wallet to go with Tara’s new purses and wanted to check out their end of year clearance sales. We ended up getting some pretty good scores and didn’t spend a whole lot because I had received some generous gift cards from some of the reps I work with so we used those. I also got some very exciting new workout gear, in addition to a couple of things I got the last time we went there.

Reebok was having an awesome sale yesterday that if you bought one pair of shoes, you got another pair for $19.99. I wasn’t paying attention and went in to really just get a pair of lifting shoes and was hoping to get some Crossfit Nanos. They had the Nano 2.0 on clearance for $74.95 (marked down from $110 or something like that) so I was like, yes please! When I went up the pay for them, that’s when they told me about the sale, so I decided to go grab a pair of trail running shoes too so I could use them for either trails (which might help with my impact injuries) or for my obstacle course races! I don’t know what else I ended up getting marked down, but I only ended up paying $85 for both pairs (which is $10 less than it should have been) so I was psyched. That may have been my deal of the day. I also got a nice warm jacket-type shirt from Under Armour to go with the “ninja” style shirt I got the last time (below).

 

Thumbholes and fold over mittens? Yes please!

 

After we left the outlets, we headed to Tara’s aunt’s house to do gift exchanges with them. They gave us some really fun things and then we just hung out for a bit. I also met their new chameleon, Dino.

 

That’s my “look how brave I am, but he’s getting kind of close, GET HIM OFF ME” face.

 

After we left there, we headed to our local mall to check out the clearance at Old Navy and Bath & Body Works. We specifically went there because we wanted to get some new PJ pants ($6 a piece!!) and wanted to stock up on our anti-bacterial things from B&BW which were $1 each. Old Navy was a madhouse. We set our timer to see how long we would be in the line that snaked around the store and it took us 25 minutes to check out – from the time we stepped into line to the time we finished checking out. It was ridiculous. They had like 6 or 7 registers, but only had 3 people ringing people up. It was insane. We had to wait in a longish line at B&BW too, but luckily we were only in that line for maybe 10 minutes.

After that, I FINALLY got to go to the movies to see Anchorman 2. I’m not sure it was as funny as the first, but I was still busting a gut at several parts of the movie. It moved kind of slow in the middle, but finished up with an epic battle scene that was hysterical! And I don’t know how they kept so many cameos in the movie a secret! Or maybe they weren’t a secret and I just don’t stay on top of things. Who knows.

And now you’re caught up. I know, I’m so fascinating to read. Sorry for the lack of pictures…like I said, bad, bad blogger. I should be back in the swing of things now and I know you’ll be holding your breath until my next post because I’m the most awesome blogger you’ve ever read. Wait…why are you laughing? Stop laughing!

 

 

Until next time, friends…

 

Delilah is watching you.

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #14

You may notice something missing at the beginning of this Face The Music Friday. As I mentioned in my last post, the scale is making me anxious and I don’t want that becoming an issue. I’ve barely gone on it this week and have decided that I may not update on that for quite some time, maybe a couple of months when I feel like I’ve gotten my control back. You guys will just have to be kept in suspense. Maybe I’ll have a big reveal, with celebrities, giveaways and cute baby animals.

 

 

Or maybe not. Please! You think I have that kind of budget?!?

Let’s move on, shall we?

 

Fitness this week:

Saturday – Walked a lot doing some shopping at the outlets and malls

Sunday – Shoveled heavy ass snow for 45 minutes. Yuck.

Monday – Chest, Triceps, Core (all sets of 4, 8 reps per set):

Bench Press – 90 lb, Fly – 85 lb, Cable uppercut – 10 lb each side, Push-ups to failure – 7, 6, 5, 5 (none with knees)

Tricep Dips – (Assisted w/ 85 lb), Rope pull-down – 35 lb, Kickbacks – 12.5 lb

Ab Crunch – 85 lb, Torso rotation w/ cable – 27.5 lb, Knee Raise – 10 x 4, Planks – 45 sec x 4

Tuesday – Walked – 45 minutes

Wednesday – Back, Biceps (all sets of 4, 8 reps per set):

Row – 35 lb, Back Extension – 110 lb, Pull-up (Assisted w/ 120 lb)

Regular Bicep curl – 17.5 lb, Hammer Curl – 17.5 lb, Reverse Curl – 17.5 lb

Thursday – Walked – 30 minutes

Friday – rest

 

Someone posted this Buzzfeed list on Facebook this morning and I thought it was hysterical. Not all of these are my personal peeves, and some of my own are missing, but I really love #25. A lot of days I’m the only girl over in the weights portion of the gym (at least at 5am when I go).

Since this is the last Friday before Christmas (holy crap on a cracker!), I’ve made my musical selection holiday appropriate. I have too many favorites to pick just one Christmas song, but if someone held a gun to my head and made me do it, this would probably be my choice.

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

 

 

 

 

Has Anyone Seen My Mojo?

It appears my mojo left me. I can’t seem to recall where I left it, but I suspect it’s hiding from me.

 

 

Every morning our alarm goes off at 4:40 am. Almost every morning I feel like rolling over and going back to sleep. When I first started going to the gym in the morning, I didn’t feel this way. I was pumped up, ready to go, ready to see what progressions I would make this week. Lately, I think I’m bored and depressed. That tends to happen with me a lot. Basically, I think I need to shake things up…and soon!

On Friday, I went and checked out a new obstacle gym near where I work (like 5 minutes down the road – convenient!). It’s not huge, but it’s got specific obstacles you’d encounter in races (wooden walls, cargo nets, monkey bars, etc). They don’t have a membership fee and only charge a “drop in” fee per class. They also have convenient times for the obstacle fit classes on certain days, at 6:30 pm, so we could change at work and pop over there in time (getting out of work at 6:00).

We’ve been creating a team between girls in my department and some of their family members (I think we’re up to 8). I’m a little bummed no one else that I’m friends with would be willing to do it, but if the other girls can bring in some strong dudes to help us get over some of the obstacles, I’m all for it. I can only do my best to control the anxiety of doing something challenging with people I don’t know.

I think after the holidays we’re going to start going there at least once a week. They offer a Groupon for discounted classes, plus they offer their own discount if you buy a bundle of them all at once. All in all, I think it would be worth it to at least work on the obstacles themselves, while I continue going to Planet Fitness to get stronger overall.

I’m hoping to also work yoga back into my rotation. I really notice my flexibility seems to have disappeared and I’m way more sore than I was when I was doing yoga before. I don’t know how I’m going to do everything I want to, but I’ve got to sit down and figure it out at some point or I’ll lose my mind. I’m a creature of habit and I need routine – it calms me down.

 

 

I really need to be better about my eating too. I’ve been fairly normal in the healthy stuff, however the snacking has gotten out of control. There are treats almost daily at work and while I used to be able to resist with little willpower, I can’t seem to very well lately. Posting my weight on my blog each week has made me more anxious than accountable, so I may take a break from that. I’ll probably still do a Face The Music Friday, with my fitness for the week and, of course, my wonderful song choices…but I may take a break from the scale. I haven’t decided yet. Not only will I probably not post about it, but I’m thinking I may even want to just not weigh myself at all for a while. Maybe I’ll do it here and there, or maybe I’ll only do it at my monthly check-in when I do measurements.

Right now, I just want to enjoy the holidays. I want to not be worrying about this crap. The chalkboard comes out soon. Plans will be made.

I WILL follow through.

2014: A Look Ahead

I only have 2 goals (as of right now) for 2014: finish a half marathon and a Tough Mudder.

I’m trying to finalize my list of races I’d love to do in 2014. I went a little crazy in 2013 because it was my first year of running and I wanted to RUN ALL THE RACES!  I ended up doing 15 5K races, 2 of them being obstacle courses. I’m trying to be a little more controlled about what I do this year and paying more attention to dates and scheduling. Last year, I ended up having 5 races in 5 weeks and it was definitely overload, for myself and for Tara.

I’ve got my main list, but I also have months where I’m unsure of the dates of certain races because they haven’t been announced yet. I’ve got to decide in certain months what races I really “must” do and what can wait until next year. Some races I wanted to re-run, I may just need to skip doing them again, but we’ll see.

Here’s a breakdown by month:

January 1 – Frosty 5K – Seekonk, MA – I haven’t decided on this one yet because of how cold it will probably be. I’d like to do it, but I’m also not sure what our plans will be on New Year’s Eve and not sure I’ll want to get up early for a race on a holiday off. Tara’s not keen on the idea of that either, so that may be a deal breaker.

Nothing planned in February or March, although I may want to do the Tour de Patrick, which is 3 local St. Patrick’s Day races on two back to back weekends. Last year, I did the St. Patrick’s race in Providence only. It was sponsored by my work and was my first 5K ever. I wasn’t running yet at that point, so Tara and I walked it together. I thought it was a nice race and think it would be cool if I’m able to complete the “tour”.

 

St. Patrick’s 5K – March 2013

 

April 19 – BAA 5K (part of their Distance Medley) – Boston, MA – This distance medley for the BAA races is one of my must do things this year. I think it would be awesome if my first half marathon would be part of this distance medley. I grew up on the South Shore in MA, about 20 minutes south of Boston and would love to do something of this magnitude near my hometown. They haven’t announced the dates for the 10K or half yet, but those are in the summer and fall I believe.

April 27 – Newport 10 Miler – Newport, RI – This might be good practice for me to reach my half marathon goals, plus it’s in Newport and you can’t really go wrong there in terms of scenery.

May 3 – Cox Rhode Races – Providence, RI – I did the 5K last year and enjoyed it. This series also has a half marathon, so I don’t know if this should be my first half marathon goal or not. I don’t know if that’s enough time to train (with my miserable, injury-prone body) or not. If it’s not, the 5K could be a time I just try to beat from last year. I also don’t know if it would be pushing it if I did the half and then did the Tough Mudder at the end of the same month.

 

Cox Rhode Races/National Grid 5K – May 2013

 

May 31st – Tough Mudder – Mt. Snow, Vermont – I WILL do this. If it takes me 6 hours, I will FINISH a Tough Mudder. I’m working on getting people together to do it with me. So far, a couple of girls in my department were interested in doing it, but not sure if they’d actually follow through with it or not. I feel like one of them might and the other…well, I don’t have high hopes for her. I feel like it would be great to have some guys on the team to hoist me up over walls I can’t get over, but overall I’d like to be able to do everything myself. Whether or not that can happen, I’m not sure, but I’m going to do everything possible to see that it does.

 

Down & Dirty Mud Run – June 2013

Foam Fest 5K – July 2013

June – not much going on here. I’d like to do the Gaspee Days 5K in Warwick, RI again and see if I can beat my best ever 5K time. I don’t know when that race will be yet. The only other thing I noted was the Warrior Dash on 6/28 in Barre, MA. I fell in love with obstacle racing this year and would love to do more than just the Tough Mudder, but this one may be a wait and see.

July – I would LOVE to do the Finish At The 50 at Gillette Stadium on July 3rd, but unfortunately it starts prior to me being able to get there since it’s a night race and I work until 6pm, about 45 minutes away from the stadium. It will be difficult to get the time off, but I might see if I can anyway and if I do, then I’ll register.

August 9 – Spartan Race – Amesbury, MA – I’d love to do this and I feel like it’s got plenty of time in between Tough Mudder so I wouldn’t be all banged up too close together (LOL)!

August 17 – Falmouth Road Race – Falmouth, MA – I think this would be an awesome run with the history behind it and all the people that run it every year.

Two other possibilities in August could be the Bobby Doyle Races or the Pawsox race. I really want to do the race at Fenway, but it requires fundraising goals that I don’t believe I’d ever meet (based on past experience). The Pawsox race would still be running onto the diamond, just on a smaller scale.

September was my crazy month in 2013, but could also happen again in 2014. I would LOVE to do a repeat of 3 races I’ve already done (NK5K, Surftown 5K (or maybe half this year) and CVS 5K), but also want to add in the Zooma Cape Cod 10K or half. No dates on any of those yet so it’ll be played by ear.

October 5 – Ocean Road 10K – Narragansett, RI

Some other October things I’m considering are re-running the Halloween Monster Dash in Providence, the Wicked Half Marathon in Salem, MA (which may be in September) and/or the Run Wild Zoo Run at either the Stone Zoo or Franklin Park Zoo in MA.

 

Halloween Monster Dash – October 2013

 

The only November races I’m considering right now are doing the Turkey Trot again and/or the Pell Bridge Run. And December, I’m only considering the Jingle 5K again. I enjoyed doing the trifecta of Run Rhody holiday races and would probably do all 3 again…but we’ll see.

 

Downtown Jingle 5K – December 2013

 

I feel like I have the mentality that I can conquer my goals. Now, I just need my body to follow through.

Face The Music Friday #13 (They Say It’s Your Birthday)

OK, so as a side note, I have another amazing coincidence occurring, much like my 50th post happening on the 50th Doctor Who anniversary. It’s my birthday today (Dec 13th) and this is my 13th “Face The Music Friday”! Fun!

I’m gonna keep the boring stuff to a minimum this week because it’s same old, same old.

My weight this week is:

189.2

Beginning:  240

Last week:  190.2

This week: -1 lb

Total loss:  50.8 lb

 

Fitness this week:

Saturday – Unscheduled rest day – too much fun going on with friends staying with us

Sunday – Downtown Jingle 5K

Monday – Chest, Triceps, Core (all sets of 4, 8 reps per set):

Bench Press – 22.5 lb each side, Fly – 80 lb, Cable uppercut – 10 lb each side, Push-ups to failure – 6, 6, 5 (none with knees)

Tricep Dips – (Assisted w/ 85 lb), Rope pull-down – 32.5 lb, Kickbacks – 12.5 lb

Ab Crunch – 80 lb, Torso rotation w/ cable – 25 lb, Knee Raise – 10 x 4, Plank – 45 sec x 4

Tuesday – Walked – 45 minutes

Wednesday – Back, Biceps (all sets of 4, 8 reps per set):

Row – 35 lb, Back Extension – 100 lb, Pull-up (Assisted w/ 120 lb)

Regular Bicep curl – 17.5 lb, Hammer Curl – 17.5 lb, Reverse Curl – 17.5 lb)

Thursday – rest

Friday – Walked – 30 minutes

 

After having a great weekend with our friends, I really didn’t want to go to work this week. Last week was a short week for me at work, as I took Thursday and Friday off. Those 3 days I did work though…let’s just say they were ROUGH. For everyone in our department. I don’t know if it was something in the water, but it was a very, very miserable week. I was concerned going back on Monday would be more of the same, but it’s been a surprisingly calm week, for the most part.

Monday and Tuesday seemed to go by pretty quickly. On Wednesday, we had our sales department Secret Santa dinner at the hotel next door to our office. I got the most awesome gift I could have possibly gotten: a Doctor Who mug!

 

We had a nice dinner together and some of our district managers, who were in town for training, came down to say hi. We had some apps (mini Beef Wellington, sesame chicken strips, spanikopita, bacon wrapped scallops and then a cheese/fruit/cracker platter), a pasta bar (3 different kinds of pasta with whatever toppings you wanted to mix in for the chef to cook right in the meeting room) and then a whole table of desserts (chocolate mousse pie, pumpkin pie and assorted little pastries). They also served us coffee, tea, hot apple cider, egg nog and hot chocolate. Not only that, but the new VP was there (it’s his first year with us) and he opened a tab for us at the bar! I only had 1 drink since I would have to drive home afterward, but I thought that was really nice of him to do.

Yesterday I had my 6 month skin screening appointment and figured I’d be in and out before work. She checks me over every 6 months because a few years back I had a “pre-cancerous” mole removed from my back so it’s more precaution than anything else. Well, she checked me all over and then took a bit longer with my upper right arm. Then she grabbed the light up magnifier thingy to look at it more closely. I never noticed it before, but there was a tiny black mole on my arm, kind of off to the side so I’d never really notice it in everyday life. She said once she looked at it under the light magnifier that she could tell it was two different colors and misshapen, so she decided she’d do the biopsy and send it off to be checked. Easy peasy, 2 stitches and no pain. That’s my kind of procedure! Of course today it feels like someone punched me in the arm when I was putting a new bandaid on, but if I don’t touch it, I’ll be fine. LOL

After the appointment, I headed to work and found some nice gifts on my desk from some of my coworkers. A couple of them were going to be out today (plus I’m leaving early for a half day), so they decided to give them to me early. I love how thoughtful they were with their choices.

 

The wrist things were given to me to try out while running and I can’t wait to see how they work. They also know how much I love Yankee Candles so they gave me a cute “White Christmas” scented candle, plus some car jar air fresheners. Then, of course, my favorite coconut almonds…YUM! I eat them all the time as a snack at work. They know me far too well.

When I got up this morning, I had my favorite blog waiting for me – my loving wife’s blog, Bitsy and Bug! She wrote a special post just for me! Awww!

Let’s get this party started, shall we? Today’s musical selection is going back old school. You can’t beat a classic Beatles song!

Birthday – The Beatles

 

 

 

 

 

Downtown Jingle 5K Recap

On Sunday, I ran the Downtown Jingle 5K in Providence. It was the last in the series of holiday themed runs (Monster Dash, Turkey Trot, Jingle 5K) and my last race of the year. Because of the cold weather I’m not great at running in and my hip and knee still being sore, I had no aspirations to break any records. I just wanted to have my fun and finish the race, like I have been lately.

The race start was at 11am, which is good and bad. It’s great because you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to start prepping and bad because it’s smack in the middle of the day. A lot of the races I’ve run that are put on by Run Rhody start at that time.

The weather was pretty decent for the time of year. It was overcast and cold (I think around 33 at race time) but thankfully there was barely any wind. The Turkey Trot was the same temp and sunny, but that wind was brutal the last time so I was glad there wasn’t any!

As per usual for PVD races, we parked in the Providence Place Mall parking garage (a nightmare built by man) around 10am. We walked over to the Convention Center, where the start and finish line were, and walked around a bit. There was a small set-up of vendors (maybe 5) near the registration tables so I checked them out and then we just hung around and people watched for a bit. I like these races that we get to hang out inside until race time because I can then easily stay warm until go time, plus you can use real toilets!

Around 10:40 or so, we headed downstairs and I began warming up. I think I headed outside around 10:55 and got in line with the massive horde of Santas, elves and people running in their PJs. There was one woman that even had some sort of Christmas music playing thing attached to her PJs that I kept hearing whenever we’d pass each other throughout the race. My costume was kind of a hot mess of whatever I could find that I liked. I wore a Grinch tshirt over my warmer stuff, reindeer antlers that had noses that lit up and my own Rudolph blinky nose (that would later prove to be a part of my undoing!) plus the little string of jingle bells they gave us with our bibs.

 

Do you like my Grinch face?

My attempt at going cross-eyed. Apparently, my eyes don’t cross.

 

They sang the National Anthem and then started back up with playing Christmas music. I believe we took off across the start line to Bruce Springsteen singing Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, but now I can’t remember! I started out with my nose on because I knew Tara would be taking pictures, but it quickly proved to be a hinderance in my breathing ability, so it only lasted until we got around the first corner and then I wore it around my neck until the end.

 

 

I was having a lot of trouble breathing at the start because of the cold, but once I pushed through the first 1/2 mile or so I settled into a groove and warmed up enough that it felt a little more comfortable. Unfortunately, that’s when all hell broke loose. Or rather, my bra did!

I have this sports bra, which I absolutely ADORE, however the last one I bought hasn’t faired as well as the one before it. I realized about a month or so ago on the treadmill that the velcro on one side doesn’t stick very well as it came undone while I was running at the gym. It hadn’t happened recently though so I figured I was fine and I was waiting until after the holidays to get a new one for myself. So, here I am running along, haven’t even reached mile 1 yet, and BOOM! My bra strap unhitches itself. Holy hell! Now what am I gonna do surround by 1100 other runners?!?

I slowed down to a quick walk and grabbed the strap and managed to put myself back together on the move. This ate up valuable time, but I didn’t have a goal in mind so I figured it didn’t matter. Little did I know how much it would.

I got into a groove and just enjoyed all the costumes and jingling around me. I thought the jingles would annoy me, but I found it oddly soothing. There was a hilarious sign just past the 2 mile sign that said “Smile if you’re not wearing underwear”. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful until just before mile 3.

I figured there would be pictures taken at the finish line, so I thought I would put my nose back on for the pics at the end. This is where further unraveling of my race would happen. Think back to what I had on my head – antlers, ear buds and a nose that went over my ears – all tucked into my headband. I tried to pull my nose back up over my ears, but got tangled in my ear buds. Then my antlers starting falling so I had to grab those and I believe it was during this time that I dropped one of my gloves. I had to stop and pick that up, then finally wriggled my nose up just in time to see Tara, Julie and Dan on the sidewalk.

 

 

I crossed the finish line and stopped my Garmin. I grabbed a water bottle and then walked down the chute trying to figure out where the end was so I could meet up with everybody. Once we all met up, I looked down at my watch and saw: 34:29. Son of a…!!!! I knew in the back of my head that my 5K PR was 34:26 since I had just recently looked over all my races. I was SO disappointed. If any single one of those wardrobe malfunctions hadn’t happened, I have no doubt I would have had a PR to end the year. My official chip time then came in an email later: 34:28. Even more devastating. That means a tiny 3 seconds is what prevented me from reaching my PR. THREE. SECONDS. I told everybody this and then continued to mutter all the way back to the parking garage about 3 seconds. So not cool.

Overall, I thought this was a fun race. It wasn’t hugely scenic, and running over a certain cobblestone street is no fun, but it’s still better than that course in Pawtucket that I ran the week before. Run Rhody definitely puts on some great races and I would consider doing this again next year.

Moving on, I now have next year to look forward to. I’m debating doing the Frosty 5K on New Year’s Day as my first race of the year, but haven’t registered for anything yet. I’ll soon be making my fun list of races I wish to run. My ultimate goals for the coming year: finish a half marathon and finish a Tough Mudder. I could care less about times. I just want to prove to myself that I’m capable of completing them.

Bring on 2014!

The Celebrations Begin!

Today is our friend Dan’s birthday and then Friday is my birthday so this weekend was our birthday weekend together since we wouldn’t be seeing them again until probably Christmas time. Tara and Julie plotted for quite a while to give us an awesome scavenger hunt, with our presents hidden along the way. When Julie and Dan arrived Friday night, we were given a letter and told we needed to leave the house.

 

 

Dan decided we would drive instead of just sitting in the car, so we headed out for 10 minutes. When we returned, we beeped the horn and waited for the light to flash 3 times (as instructed LOL). We headed in to the house and began our search. Each clue was well done (as always) and gave us pause on most of them to try to figure out where we needed to go. Some we knew instantly and others were a little bit tougher.

 

 

Once we had collected all of our presents and puzzle pieces, it was time for me to assemble the pieces.

 

 

I immediately knew what our last clue meant – the cabinet containing my race medals! We found the gifts underneath the cabinet and then headed into the living room to open our stuff. We made a theme for Dan this year (between the gift from Tara and I and then Julie’s gifts) of “movie night”. We gave him 4 blu rays, some new jammie pants, a tshirt and some candy to eat while we watched the movies with him (Wolverine, Man of Steel, Iron Man 3 and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns).

 

 

I got some really thoughtful gifts from my favorite people. Julie and Dan gave me framed professional race photos (that they’d apparently purchased throughout the year from the official race photographers!!). Tara made me a photo book of our year and all my conquests in my first year of running. SUCH awesome presents!!

 

Just ignore my mismatched crazy pajamas!

 

After we opened our presents, we had dinner and then decided to play Cards Against Humanity. It is SUCH a fun game and so inappropriate. We all have pretty similar sick senses of humor so we had a great time playing it…so much so that we stayed up until after midnight playing it and we actually went through ALL of the cards we had printed from their website. The whole game. The first time! LOL

After some sleep, we planned on heading to T’s Cafe for breakfast. I’d been dreaming of their Ooey Gooey French Toast since the first time we had gone there a month or so ago so of course I had that again. I even convinced Julie and Dan they should try them too so they got them as part of a breakfast meal combo thing. I also decided to try their hot cocoa this time and I thought it was really good. Nothing special, but creamy and delicious. Tara had a peppermint shot added to hers.

 

Tara’s blueberry pancakes – the size of your face!

 

After breakfast, we headed home where we dropped off Tara and Dan and then Julie and I went up to Rhode Runner to pick up my bib for the Downtown Jingle 5K this morning. I was also going to have them look at my shoes/feet/gait again because my latest pair of Mizunos seem to bother my Achilles and I can’t figure out why. When we got there, there was a packed house looking at shoes so we just picked up my bib and headed home.

We enjoyed just hanging out and watching some of Dan’s new blu rays. It was a nice low key weekend and we had lots of fun. Next weekend, Tara and I will be doing something ourselves for just my birthday on Friday, so maybe we’ll have one of our adventure dates.

My race this morning was really good and incredibly agonizing when I saw my time. I’ll have a recap soon so you’ll have to wait and see why it was so crazy!

 

Face The Music Friday #12

My weight this week is:

190.2

Beginning:  240

Last week:  188.1

This week: +2.1 lb

Total loss:  49.8 lb

 

I feel like my body is rebelling against me in some way. For the last 2 months I’ve consistently gained slowly to the point that since the beginning of October (2 months) I’ve gained 8 lb overall. I don’t understand it. I haven’t done anything differently in that time, other than change my diet (for the better, eating different and more veggies) and increasing my caloric intake from 1200 daily to 1600 daily (which was recommended because of all the working out I’m doing).

I’ve been doing more strength training, but not NEARLY enough to cause that kind of weight gain. I still have cheat meals, but I’ve always had those throughout this entire weight loss journey. It’s the only way I can maintain the healthier lifestyle I adopted. If I NEVER had any junk food there’s no way I’d stick with it. And I haven’t eaten enough that I could possibly be gaining as much as I am each week.

I’m very frustrated, very sad and really angry. This doesn’t bode well for someone like me.

 

 

 

I was much better with my workouts this week after the Thanksgiving holiday and went every day Mon-Thurs like regular again. Today is my scheduled rest day and then I’ll be ready to start another week tomorrow.

Fitness this week:

Saturday – Unscheduled rest day – extended holiday

Sunday – Unscheduled rest day – extended holiday

Monday – Elliptical – 45 minutes

Tuesday – Chest, Triceps, Core (all sets of 4, 8 reps per set):

Bench Press – 20 lb each side, Fly – 80 lb, Cable uppercut – 10 lb each side, Push-ups to failure – 5 (no knees), 20, 15 (last two on knees)

Tricep Dips – (Assisted w/ 90 lb), Rope pull-down – 30 lb, Kickbacks – 12.5 lb

Ab Crunch – 75 lb, Torso rotation w/ cable – 22.5 lb, Knee Raise – 10 x 4, Plank – 45 sec x 4

Wednesday – Elliptical – 45 minutes

Thursday – Back, Biceps (all sets of 4, 8 reps per set):

Row – 35 lb, Back Extension – 95 lb, Pull-up (Assisted w/ 120 lb)

Regular Bicep curl – 17.5 lb, Hammer Curl – 17.5 lb, Reverse Curl – 17.5 lb)

Friday – rest

 

I’m gonna pep the music back up and pick another one off my running list. This one always gives me a little extra quickness when I hear it come on. Excuse the fact that I couldn’t find a decent video I liked.

Too Shy To Scream – AFI

 

The One With The Sisterhood

OK, you know I’ve got it bad when I use the Friends episode naming format for a blog title. I really might like that show too much.

 

 

Aaaanyway…I’ve been nominated for my first bloggy type award thingamabobber by Slacker Runner. Thanks, lady! I guess there are some rules involved, so I’ll throw those up here as well.

 

1. Post the logo on your blog

2. Thanks the person who nominated you

3. Answer the questions

4. Choose 10 or so other ladies who blog as your nominees

5. Post the links to the nominees’ blogs and notify them on their blog – this might take me a bit

 

Favorite color – Blue. I don’t care what flavor.

Favorite animal – Cats. I’ve always grown up with them and they’re pretty much self sufficient.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink – I don’t drink much else than water, but I would have to say Dr. Pepper!

Facebook or Twitter – Facebook. I just don’t understand “the Twitter”. Guess that means I’m officially old?

Favorite pattern – Argyle

Favorite number – 13. It’s my birthday and I like it because lots of people don’t like it.  🙂

Favorite Flower – Daisy

What is your passion –  Music. I can’t play any instruments, but I can make a playlist like a boss.

Now, on to the tough part. Nominating others. I’d love to not hurt anyone’s feelings but I read a LOT of blogs and there’s no way I’m listing them all. These happen to be the ones I can think of off the top of my head that are some must reads every day, in no particular order. Every blogger I read is awesome though, because if you weren’t, I wouldn’t read your blog!  😉

Now I Run

Happy Fit Mama

Peace Love & Oats

Olive To Run

Picky Runner

Deb Runs

Jinxy Jen

running4cupcakes

110 Pounds and Counting

The Athletarian