I Feel Like a Rockstar

It's been over a week since I posted!  I'd feel bad except that I haven't posted in a week because I've been so busy WORKING OUT!  I'm not even kidding.  I feel like a rockstar.  And I'm going to keep it up as long as a I can.  I just kept adding one thing at a time.  Classes, run club, more classes.  I love classes!!!  So long as it's not aerobics.  Aerobics plus coordination, EW.

At the end of August, I started with one class a week at lunch, boot camp on Fridays.  Then the new session of lunch classes at work started up and I signed up for Core & More on Wednesdays and boot camp on Fridays.  Then my running clinic started on the 24th.  Clinic is Monday evening and the group runs are Wed and Sun.  Then the Y started up with their new session of classes so the awesomeness that is Barbell Blast is back on Saturdays.  Because I was away for a week and I will be leaving for BC at Christmas a week before the session ends, I will end up with extra tickets for my lunch classes at the end of the session so I picked up a Tuesday Sculpt class yesterday.

Last night, I grabbed some courage and decided to try spin class again.  I tried it once in May of 2010 and I kept up with the class the whole time and destroyed myself for a solid week.  I could feel every single tiny muscle tear in my thighs.  When I even took one or two steps down, it felt like my knees were going to collapse.  I even took my car to work for a week and paid for downtown parking because I couldn't walk down the bus steps or stand on the bus when it was standing room only without wincing in pain.  In preparation for the class, I went to MEC and bought myself some super sexy padded liner shorts.   I really wanted to like this class!!  Good news -  I LOVED IT!!!  I kept to my own resistance, the instructor was awesome and really made sure that newbies didn't overdo it.  My goal was to work hard and still be able to do my workouts for the rest of the week.  Mission accomplished!!  Honestly, I've never sweat so much in my life.  It was dripping into my eyes, off my forehead, off the tip of my nose, off the end of my ponytail!!  It was amazing.  I was going to get my friend to take a picture of me and then I chickened out, hehe.  It's Tues & Thurs at 6 pm which fits nicely into my schedule.  There is also two classes on Saturday morning but I'm not sure if I'd be able to get a bike because Barbell Blast is right before and ends the minute spin starts.  We'll see!!!  Hehe - my instructor was more like Dwight than like the instructor below.  Baha!!!

The only downside to all this working out??  My condo looks like a bomb hit it.  Every surface needs a cleaning and I've just dropped stuff everywhere.  I almost bailed on the group run tonight because I should clean and then I decided that was ridiculous.  I live alone.  My cat Sophie loves me so long as we still sleep, there's food & water, and fresh litter.  So if I'm getting in the activity and loving it then all this crap can wait till Saturday.  And this Sunday, I'll get a little more organized with meals.  I'm having trouble with supper because I get home from work with enough time to change, eat a banana, and get out the door.  By the time I get home it's 7 - 7:30 and I don't want to take forever cooking dinner!! I'd take a picture to prove the messiness and jazz up this post but it's THAT embarrassing.

My food goal this week was to get out the door every morning with coffee (made at home), a fruit & veggie smoothie, and lunch.  So far I'm three for three!!  Last weekend, I made an awesome veggie chili and cornbread from my new cookbook Appetite for Reduction.  This has been lunch this week.  Tasty!

My workout goals this week:

Monday - run clinic DONE!!
Tuesday - Sculpt at lunch, Spin class evening.  DONE & DONE!!
Wednesday - Core & More at lunch, run club  DONE & DONE!!
Thursday - Spin class evening
Friday - boot camp at lunch, run by myself after work (I'm not committed to this, it's just an idea to get an extra run in)
Saturday - I wanted barbell blast but it's cancelled for Canadian thanksgiving so I may just use the empty studio and run through it on my own.
Sunday - morning run club.

And now I must go.  I've been having trouble falling asleep.  Lots of trouble.  So I'm shutting down, dimming lights, and drinking sleepytime tea.

Good Night!!

See Ya Mean Girls!

Hey Peeps!  Sorry for the two week absence.  I was away visiting my favorite little person for a week and then when I got back my wireless router crapped out.  I did get a new one right away and hooked it up but the internet was so slow, my patience level quickly dwindled.  Me today could not handle dial up EVER.  Just got a new 'new one' and it's working perfectly.  

My trip to visit my sister was great.  I so love that baby more & more every day!  She's crawling like crazy and walks along with this little musical cart.  She has such a crazy little personality and she's so fun.  Here's a few sweet pictures.

My sister, my niece, and moi.

So to recap, in my previous post I told you about the mean girls in my clinic and how much I sucked and hated it.  Yesterday was the first day of the other running clinic so I had to decide what to do.  I called the store and talked to the manager about switching and she said no problem.  Next dilemma, now I had run club that night but my car was still in the autobody shop being repaired from getting hit in the parking lot.  ARGH!  I decided not to skip the first night and I left work early so I could bus home, change, and bus to the store.  So worth it.

This clinic group was AWESOME!!!  I can not even explain fully how much different this experience was.  With the bus I could either be 20 minutes early or 10 minutes late.  I opted for early.  I was the second one there.  I chatted with the manager and introduced myself to the other girl who was early.  Over the next few minutes, more & more people trickled in, everyone friendly.  In total, there's 16 in the group and every single one was great.  One woman even offered to lock my backpack in her car so I didn't have to leave it in the store when we went out for the run and another woman said she was headed close by my place so I got a ride home and didn't have to sit around for the bus.  And the run itself was great.  It felt good.  The group was actually pretty close together.  The couple of faster ones were less than a block ahead of me and the slowest were less than a block behind.  I think it's going to be an awesome group and I'm really looking forward to the group runs on Wednesday's and Sunday's as well.  Woohoo!!  Seriously so glad I switched.  I'm so sad I didn't take a giant smiley face picture of myself after!  I'll use this one because I'm just as happy in this moment.

The only pisser was that my Garmin crapped out right when we finished.  I was about 30 seconds from hitting stop on it and then poof, it said "battery 0%".  It's happened to me quite a bit and I read all these horrible things in the garmin 405 forums which basically describe all the problems I'm having.  I went in on the Bia gps watch but they don't come till Spring 2013 at the earliest.  So I bit the bullet and bought a 305 refurb with a one year warranty off ebay.  So excited to get it.  I know so many people who love the 305 and I wish I'd gone with that one in the first place 3 years ago!!

My tv update:
I don't think I've watched a Parenthood episode without crying and crying and crying.
I'm undecided on Revolution and The New Normal.  So far I like both of them but I need to give it a few episodes.
I can't wait for Big Bang Theory to start!
I love Survivor so much and I really hope Lisa (Blair!!) doesn't get voted out too soon.
Can't wait for Amazing Race this weekend.

Okay, now I gotta get my ass in gear and pack my bag for tomorrow.  I have Core & More class at lunch and then run club in the evening.  Also, my favorite class at the gym has started up again but I don't think I'll have time to get from run club to the class so I might have to pass on Wednesdays and just go to the Saturday class.

Okay, now I"m really going.  Shower, pack a bag, pour a glass of wine :)  Go to Bed!!

UPDATE! Just came back from Wednesday night club run and it was awesome again.  :)

Sucking Wind

Okay -- good thing I still have things to be excited about!!  I just finished sucking wind.  Sucking wind hard.  Let me just preface this by saying that I love Running Room clinics.  I've done the Learn to Run, the 10km, and the Half-Marathon clinics.  All were awesome.  I've even done the 10 km one three times just because it's cheap to repeat a clinic and it's awesome to have a group to run with and eat with and drink with.  Will run for wine? Yes.  Beer too.  Bacon? I used to.  I probably will again.  Anyhow, I digress.  I put on my Nike Lunarglides, my awesome Walmart capri tights, and my Running Room shirt, and my dusty Garmin.  I show up on time, it's a big group (20 or so) which is usually a great thing because there will be varying paces etc.  Usually.

They were starting this week with 4 sets of running 5 minutes, walking 1 minute.  Keep in mind, my last running week was running 90 seconds, walking 90 seconds, followed by running 3 minutes and walking a minute.  Twice.  And I did it on a treadmill.  Now I was hopeful that I could do this because I usually run a bit faster and longer with people because I'm desperate not to be humiliated.  I happened to be at the front when we started because that's how we crossed the street, I start off okay for the first minute and then slowly over the next two minutes, everyone was passing me.  I seriously felt like I'd stopped and everyone just ran by me except that I was still running.  I settle in near the back with two girls who are struggling a bit.  Try to make a bit of conversation.  I'm outgoing, friendly and I'd say 99% of the time, people reciprocate.  I'm always good for a joke.  Well, if I wasn't sweating so much already in the first set, I would have frozen on the spot from the chill emanating off these girls.  Okay, that's fine, don't talk to me.  But seriously, how do you not like me in less than 30 seconds?  Then at 4 minutes, I can't take it anymore and I start walking and figure I'll take a 2 minute walk break and start running again with the next set.  About 10 seconds later, one of the cold girls stops.  Then just as I've caught up with her because I walk fast, she turns to look at me (↓↓like this↓↓)and then she runs again for about 20 feet.  For real??  Holy sh*t, I haven't been snubbed like this since 8th grade.

Anyhow, we do three more sets.  I run, walk, wheeze through them.  The leader turns around to see how her little runners are doing and sees me way at the back walking and runs over to join me.  I am wheezing by this point.  I know part of it is my low iron issue but part of it is that I'm just working hard.  She keeps encouraging me and I say that I think I'll drop it for the Learn to Run that starts at running one minute and starts on the 24th.  She tells me that even if I can't do the 5's now that I should just do what I can do and I will catch up.  I'm going to think about it this week.  I'm going to do my runs while I'm visiting my sister and see how it goes and let them know next week.  Also, I made a little mistake while I was there tonight.  Usually, at the halfway time point, she yells turn around and you're supposed to turn around where you are.  I kept running to hit the point where the fast people got to and then turned around which immediately put me further back and at the very back of the pack but there was actually three women still a block behind me who turned around when they were supposed to.  So basically, if I do go back to this one, I will avoid the mean girls and I will turn around when I'm supposed to because I do take a little comfort in the fact that there were three people behind me.  When we got back to the store, I went inside grabbed my keys and went immediately to my car where I tried not to cry and sent a few text messages.  While I was still sitting there, the two mean girls and two other girls in the clinic all came over to a big shiny new Jeep, so I guess they have enough friends.  They were all in head to toe Lulu.  I'm scratching that lululemon outfit off the mental reward list.  I don't want that attitude rubbing off on me.  I like that I talk to strangers.  

And here's the Garmin proof of my sad run.  Crazily enough, my pace tonight was slower than the  pace I had for my first & only half-marathon to date I noticed.  Only 5 seconds, but still!! Haha - there was one run in my Garmin history that has a 6:30 pace but there is a note on it that I didn't stop it so it recorded when I DROVE home.  Pfft. What the hell am I thinking.  

 

Writing this has already made me feel better.  I'll get a few runs in while visiting my sister and then I'll show up for run club night next Wednesday.  I will miss the week two clinic because I won't be home yet.  However, they will be doing 7 minutes (oh sh*t) so it's probably a good thing.  That means, I really have two weeks to come to a decision and by then, the other clinic will be starting if I decide to go that route.  

Now I must get busy.  I still have to shower, do a load of laundry, make this disaster area look tidy so my cat sitter doesn't think I'm insane person.  Oh and pack.  Sheesh.  And Amazon delivered two cookbooks I'd ordered and I should not look at them till I've gotten some stuff done.  I also should not look at the season premiere of Parenthood that appeared in my PVR tonight.  It might be an all nighter.  Maybe I'll sleep on the plane.  

So Excited!!!

Okay, before the exciting stuff, here's the semi-exciting stuff.  I had a sleepy lazy weekend. Ho-hum.  A little depressed.  You see, there is this facebook friend who is moving to BC. Apparently she's wanted to for quite some time.  As do I, see the Trip of my Lifetime.  Now she's going, it's happening. It's imminent.  Then on Friday night, I had a very vivid dream about having some job there and being able to move.  So vivid that in my dream, my Dad and I had a conversation about moving companies and cost.  I know that some of it was because we did talk about moving companies over a year ago when my Dad was moving himself and my grandparents from Ontario to BC.  Ugh, when I woke up, I was just so sad.  So anyway, I missed my run.  It's the first one I'd skipped and then I just felt bad about for being lame. Tomorrow night is the start of that 5/10 km clinic and I'm really worried about not being able to keep up.  To ease my worry, I stopped by the store after work today to talk to the manager and she assures me that I will be just fine and that there are a couple of women who signed up that have never run at all.  She said that if I really feel after the first one that I can't keep up that she'd be happy to move me to the beginner starting later in the month.  That was a boost and now I'm excited for tomorrow night.  I'll keep you posted.

The next exciting thing . . . I will be seeing this face in 48 hours.  Well, just the one on the right.

Whatchyou talkin' 'bout Willis?!

And the awesome amazing thing that happened just this morning??  I get to go home to BC for Christmas where 98% of my family lives.  I GET TO GO HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!! And not just for a super fast whirlwind Christmas celebration, but 20 days!!!  December 11 to 31. I can hardly believe I got it.  I had requested the vacation time and since I really needed to be getting on the ticket to catch a good deal, I talked to my supervisor this morning to see if it was approved.  Since I needed to know sooner and because I was wanting to go to visit family, she approved it.  I messaged my Dad right away.  I had asked if he could help me with a ticket this year.  I've never asked before but I'm the one who keeps going west so I figured, why not ask.  He said he'd pay for it all. Whoop!  I likely wouldn't be going this year without help because I'm flat broke so that was a relief.  Anyhow, we also got a wicked deal.  Seat sale on right now and it was $149 & $199 for my flights.  Plus all the crazy taxes but the fact that the total was $472 was incredible.  TWENTY DAYS!  I'm not going to want to come home, I already know that.  One super hilarious thing though -- since my Dad was booking my ticket, I messaged him my address and such but it never occurred to me that I should message him MY NAME.  Yeah, Louise is my sister's middle name.  And no we do not have the same middle name.  Oh Daddio.  I had a good laugh and then sent the screen shot to all three of my sisters.  Oh, and I was laughing so hard that my Dad doesn't know my middle name that I just noticed that he used "omg".  WTF!!

And for some more hilarity (at least to me), I was playing Scrabble on my lunch break while getting a pedicure and this email pops up.  I'm playing Scrabble while getting a pedicure so no, I'm not interested in making anything bigger or being the sex magnet of my neighborhood.  But thanks for asking.  I secretly think I got this email because the last word my friend Tracie played was "tit".  Yeah, she took it  there.  

Now i'm off to lose some brain cells and feel exponentially better about myself by watching the season finale of Bachelor Pad.  :)

Boot Camp!

I'm supposed to run today, well, it's a suggested day today.   This will now be tomorrow morning because lunch time boot camp KICKED MY ASS.  It was a new instructor and although a lot of the circuits were similar to the old instructor, just throwing some variation in there or doing them in a different order can really get ya!  I also liked the new instructor.  She was friendly and wanted lots of feedback about what we like and didn't like, I hope she gets to stay.  The old one is now teaching a Sculpt class on a different day.  While he's cute, she has a fantastic body that she clearly works for and makes me want to wear Lululemon.  Gosh, I hate people who make me want to spend too much money for overpriced workout wear.  The only thing that I have ever purchased from there is a headband.  I've only been to the store once.  But I would be a liar if I said I wouldn't reward myself with a few things once I hit a happy weight.

LESS THAN A WEEK LEFT!!! So I'd like to plug this again . . . From Fat to Finish Line.  I am honestly shocked that this project did not reach it's funding in the first week.  With the number of weight loss bloggers or people trying to lose weight that just read these blogs, I'm shocked.  Also, the fact that there is 2000+ people liking a facebook page for a documentary that doesn't exist yet makes me wonder what they think they are "liking"??  Anyway, that's my vent about it and onto the plug --- Go check out the trailer -- at least do that.  43 seconds of awesome.  I think the potential looks like it could be amazing.  I love watching running documentaries, I actually just bought the Hood to Coast documentary and it was great.  It's so inspiring to see people from a variety of fitness levels working so hard and achieving what they've set out to do.  Also, this documentary would feature Katie at Runs for Cookies and Ada from the Biggest Loser doing the Ragnar Relay.  That's hardcore.

So that's it for now I think . . . have a great weekend everyone!!!

Who Knew.

Yep, that's about right.

A couple of months ago I went to the doctor with an all over exhaustion and occasional pain.  I could be sitting completely still and feel all of my muscles hurt.  I was tired.  Sometimes dizzy, sometimes short of breath.  I figured it was my Synthroid dosage for hypothyroidism.  Went back for blood work etc.  Turns out my thyroid dosage is fine, it was my hemoglobin that was really low.  He then told me to start taking iron supplements.  It's about six weeks later and I haven't noticed an improvement in my energy or anything. They both need to be taken on an empty stomach so I've been taking them both first thing in the morning and also taking iron at night.  I turned to Google.  Turns out they shouldn't be taken together! The iron makes the Synthroid ineffective.  Really awesome.  As of today, it's Synthroid the minute I wake up and the iron a little before lunch and at night.  Geez, it's hard to time these things.  Hopefully, I will start to notice an improvement soon.

source

I started to wonder if I could make smoothies ahead of time and freeze them so I wasn't adding something to do in the morning.  I googled (i love google) make ahead smoothies and found quite a few sites.  Pretty much it's make your own smoothie and freeze them.  But what was new was the freezer jam containers I didn't know existed!  They are the perfect size.  I attempted two different smoothies and I added chia seeds to them and the texture for me was terrible.  I choked it down yesterday but couldn't do it today.  From now on I'll save the chia seeds for oatmeal and for smoothies I make for immediate consumption.  I'll try the freezer smoothies again but without the chia.  Love the cups though.  I got the Bernardin plastic freezer cups in the 473 mL size.

After my crappy run on Saturday morning I was feeling pretty discouraged.  On Sunday evening, I wasn't feeling very well so who knows, maybe I was coming down with something.  I just rested.  Today though?  Back at it.  It was the first class of the new session of lunch workouts at work.  Today's class was Core & More.  I figured it would be a whole bunch of different crunches, planks, etc.  Turns out it was MORE.  Bicycle crunches, toe raises, lunges, squats, push-ups, planks, some yoga, lots of stretching.  It was a WORKOUT.  Way more challenging than I thought.   Can't wait for my six-pack!!

After work, I headed to the Y to get my run on.  I had to do it.  I've slept terribly the last two nights but if I let any more days pass, it's possible I wouldn't start again.  This run was better.  I managed the first 90 second segment, the first three-minute segment, the second 90 second segment, and then the second 3 minute segment, I bailed at 2:30.  ARGH!!  I walked a couple more minutes and then added a bonus 2 minute run and then another 1 minute run at a sprint.  I just need to string those minutes together!!

So ticked I hit the STOP at 29:59!

Tomorrow (thursday), I'm either going for a bike ride or hitting the elliptical.  I haven't done either in ages.  Need to do some cross-training and increase the cardio.  Friday will be the lunch time boot camp and a run 9 after work.  

Hopefully, I've sufficiently exhausted myself today and will sleep like a log tonight!

End of a Streak

It's Saturday afternoon as I write this.  Just got home from run 7.  It sucked.  My legs felt like bricks.  It was the first time to run 3 minutes and I couldn't do it.  Well, maybe not 'couldn't' but 'didn't'.  My mind won.  I kept thinking "i have to stop, I can't do this, I have to stop".  Then I started talking in my head with each step.  Left foot was "don't", right foot was "stop".  Don't stop don't stop don't stop.  That worked for about 30 seconds and at 2:45, I stopped.  I bailed on the last 15 seconds of the first three minute segment.  15 SECONDS!  On the second one, I bailed at 2 minutes.  I ran both of the 90 second segments.  I can't help but think that if I'd made it on the first segment, I would have felt motivated enough to do the second.  From the stats on the treadmill, it looks like a typical run, but it should have been further distance-wise if I'd done all the running.  I have to do the same thing on Monday morning.  If it doesn't work out better on Monday morning, I'm deleting today's run and starting week 3 over. If it goes well, I'll let today's run stand.  Leaving the Y, I felt defeated but just had to remember that saying about lapping everyone on the couch.  And it's a million times more than I was doing a month ago.  I had to kick away the "maybe I can't do this after all" thoughts.

Also, a few weeks ago, I bought some workout capris and a t-shirt by Athletic Works at Walmart.  I was excited to see some generous sizing for cheap.  I have lots of technical running clothes but they are all smaller.  Sigh.  I only had one outfit that fit me currently and needed another for how often I've been working out.  It's a good problem to have really.  I absolutely love the capris and will buy more.  I hate the t-shirt.  The first time I wore it, I felt like it was making me hotter not cooler.  It was humid that day so I figured that was it.  Today though, I wore it again, same thing.  I felt like I was running in a ziploc bag.  I will not buy this shirt again and will go to another store and spend a little more money to get something better.  This is the label, don't buy it.  Again, the capris by the same company are great.  

And now it's Sunday evening.  I just had too many cookies.  Oh self-destruction.  Good thing Monday is a new day.  Grrrr.