Hurts So Good

I feel old.

Friday
I was invited for a girls night out. I forewarned them it would be an early night because I had a 1.5 hr drive to my run in the morning...already the fuddy duddy. We started at BJ's for dinner at 8:00, but I had already eaten dinner at 6:00 with my family, because I am old. While the group had dinner and foofy drinks, I had a couple beers, fries & dessert. To my credit, I drank Jerry Bursts, which is a beer & berry cider blend, kinda foofy. After dinner was supposed to be bar hoping time...great. I don't mind going to a bar, but bar hoping? Lets pick one place & kick it old school... I'm not much of a dancer anyway. Any how, I couldn't get into it and was home by 11:30, just enough time to get 5 hrs sleep before my run. Did I mention I am old?

Saturday

• Run. (Race report below)
• Belated Bday party for my rock star cousin who is kicking cancers ass. She couldn't do a bday party back in December because of radiation. She looked great! She's still in high school and usually kids who face big challenges loose their youthfulness. I was so relieve to see her in age appropriate spirits. A true credit to her strength and her family's support.
• Disney on ice. Great tickets acquired because of a friends unfortunate circumstance forced her to ditch them. *Disney On Ice characters seriously got a Beatles like reception from an arena full of children. Totally surreal?! The Duder (my son) hasn't even seen the cartoons represented in the show, but he had fun. We only stayed for the first half to keep up the bed time schedule.
• By 9:00 I had bonked. Literally, could not stay awake to save my life... or more importantly nurse my 3 month old to sleep. Took some hubby intervention. I need to start sleeping more.

Sunday

• Didn't sleep well. 
• Stopped at the office to finish a few things, I really need to skip work on the weekends.
• Stopped at Bass Pro for my hubby, they had lite up firefly crocs for my son, couldn't quite bring myself to spend $30 on them though.
• Went to my nephew's bday party, got him a sweet ass Addidas outfit, total Beastie Boys uniform and only $15 bucks from Costco.
• Highlight: Hubby made delicious Tri-Tip sandwiches. OMG sooo good.

When did weekends turn into sleep schedules, running errands and never ending bday parties? Every weekend there seems to be a party or an event that requires our attendance. I hate feeling pressured into a schedule. I like to schedule don't get me wrong, I just don't like other people or events dictating my schedule. I never seem to be able to fit in my me time with out cutting into something else like family or sleep.

Ok, enough about old. And more about being lazy. The laptop making me into a couch potato idea has come to true. I should blog more and do my social networking crap, but instead I am completely hooked on Dexter, a TV show about a serial killer. I literally wake up and watch it while pumping for my baby in the morning. Then I find myself eager to watch once the kids are in bed. It helps that I have never seen the show so my online netflix allows me to jump right in with the first episode. I am already most of the way through season 2. I need a new show since this is LOSTS last season and once again I didn't get the answers I was promised. I did however develop more questions. Dang it.

Ok, so here's the race report:

Friday Night:
You saw my pre-race meal: Beer, Fries and cookie & ice cream pazooki from BJ's.

Saturday Morning:

• Ate one of my oatmeal concoctions & I drank about 12 oz of water on the drive to Marin. 
• Picked up my cousin RA and got to the race about 1 minute before they started. I still had to put shoes on, so RA went and grabbed our numbers. 
• We started about 3 minutes behind everyone else. 
• The first mile had an elevation gain of about 1000 ft. It was a pretty steady climb, but I was so out of shape I had no lung capacity to run it. Hell of a hike though. 
• Once we hit the top there were some nice flats, wicked down hills and a few subtle climbs. The finish was an easy straight away. We definitely should of signed up for the longer distance. When we finished, I felt like I was ready to get started. During the run I was getting the worst side stitches. Mile 2-3 was the worst and the remaining mileage was dull and aching. Partly this has to do with being out of shape and partly with the lack of support my sports bra give me during the  jostling downhills.
• Finishing time was not so important this time around, but for inquiring minds is was about an 1:14 minutes. While it was a 5 mile race, I would guess realistically we spent at least 20 minutes hiking the first mile.
• We wrapped things up with a lower leg dip in the ocean. Nothing like ice cold water to speed recovery. I knelt down to give my knees a cold session and got complete drenched in a wave. Good times.
• Post race meal: Spinach and Jack Cheese omlet, rye toast and way to many bites of the shared blueberry pancakes. Will definitely hit that breakfast place next month when I go back to Marin for a 20K.

Sunday the aching, throbbing muscle soreness was amazing. I actually didn't want to run because it felt so good. Every muscle in my feet got a work out from the technical portions of the course. The muscles between my ankle and calves all the way around were tender. I know being a weekend warrior isn't a good thing, especially if I want to improve my racing abilities, but it sure does feel awesome to recover. The pain seriously hurts so good:)

Tomorrow, I am ready for a double....kind of. I will be running in an event that offers a 1 mile run at 8:30 and an 8K at 9:00. For $5.00 extra you can sign up for both. I am gonna try and go for it during the 1 mile to see how I do, then join a friend for an easy 8K. Then I am up for more pain... in a good way, get your minds out of the gutter folks. I am getting a deep tissue massage tomorrow afternoon as a treat.

Still feeling old, but I love my little painful, sore and throbbing moments of feeling young because I run. I actually have the "Hurts so Good" song stuck in my head. Come on baby make it hurt so good, some times love don't feel like should so baby, hurt so good." I have no idea if these are the actual lyrics, but they are the ones I sing and thats what's important.

The Favorites and Not so Favorites this Week

So Yay! I am playing on my new lap top. As you can see my blog background has changed and I have a cute blinking thing on the side bar too!

I am super excited and bummed all at the same time. I registered for a great trail run this Saturday in the Marin Headlands, but bummed because I tweaked my back at work yesterday/today and couldn't run today. I am not a big fan of files, filing cabinets, new ergonomic chairs being delivered or the 57 boxes that were unloaded today as part of our workstation replacement. Seriously, moving boxes etc.. is not my favorite workout. Good news is that my run is only a 5 mile run, I am going to have great company and it will probably rain. Trail runs in the rain=mud. Yippy, I can hardly contain my excitement. While it is only 5 miles, mud makes it feel super hard core.

New favorite things this week:

• My B Complex vitamins which have done wonders and I am only 3 days in. I feel energetic, focused and not having the bingey junk food cravings.
• Sobon Estate ReZerve 2005 Carignane....OMG soooooo good.
• Oatmeal. So I was reading a blog (sorry I don't remember which one) and the author talked about yummy oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Then this month's Runner's World had an article about dressing up oatmeal as a good recovery meal. On the way to the snow Saturday we stopped at Jamba Juice and they had a new pecan & dried cherries oatmeal. I just couldn't get away from oatmeal. So I have been on a steel cut oats kick since then. Don't get the wrong "healthful" idea, I add so much stuff it is far from healthy. My favorite: Cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, butter, pecans, dried blue berries, cherries and a medley of raisins. My son's favorite: peanut butter, bananas & pecans. Hubby: brown sugar & raisins
• Cracking the sleep routine code with my 3 month old. Yes she sleeps through the night, but we wanted to go from a 11:00/12:00 bed time to a 8:00/9:00 bed time. SUCCESS!
• Finally, yes, this lap top has made the favorites list.

Not my favorite this week:

• Getting a short 4-day week at work, only to feel 8 hours behind.
• Moving office crap and tweaking my back.
• The mean man in the middle lane that would speed up and slow down when I tried to pass or drop behind him to get to the slow lane and catch my exit. NOT COOL!
• Earl Grey Tea. I don't drink much caffeine. Coffee makes me shake like I'm strung out, but I enjoy a nice black tea every now & then. Earl Grey is officially not one of them. My fingers were shaking while typed at work yesterday and I had a lingering bitter taste on my teeth that no amount of brushing could get rid of. Sadly, I could get suckered into trying it again, I guess that is how addicts are created.
• That the final season of LOST is supposed to answer all my questions and yesterday's episode just left me with more.

Thanks for reading, I am hoping to have a "Registration Station" post soon with a list of my race registrations for the coming year. If they don't get on my calendar soon, I may find myself slacking even more with training or worse....risk the events filling before I can sign up.

Nighty Nite!

Way over budget

Ok, certainly the highlight of the weekend is my new MacBook. This is my first Mac so I am pretty excited to explore it's features. To validate this purchase I had to get online and share with my faithful followers (all four of you now, woo hoo!).

So what to say?

Wednesday Book Club/Girls night out at the Elephant Bar was super fun ...I swear we actually read. Two newbies came and both are fairly active. It was nice to hear about their interests in fitness and bond over mommy moments. I particularly like how we had a head lamp story in common. We talked about how the head lamp used to be for camping and early morning/late night runs. Now, we use our head lamps in bed to get some reading in without waking the husband or kids. Ha Ha, motherhood. Gear is good and so versatile!

Friday I took a few hours off from work because of some pre-planned child care issues. Lucky me, because not only did I get to hang out with by baby girl, I got to have sushi lunch with the hubby and go to the $.83 REI sale. Everything that ends in .83 is 50% off. I got new cycling capris, a couple sports bras, a really cute pair of TRI shorts and a fluorescent sleeveless vest. What is completely lame is I have not even taken my bike out for a spin yet this year and I am out buying gear.

I had a very nice family weekend. We took my son to the snow and he had a blast. For Valentine's Day I got flowers from both my boys (hubby & son) and a Star Wars music card to boot! Lucky me, my 2 year old let me read it (hear it) a bazillion times. My hubby made the most amazing dinner too, I was a complete glutton. Goodness, I am supposed to be losing weight and I am gaining. I went to the trainer last Monday and hadn't moved a single step since then until today at my trainer appt. Not a good start. I have a work meeting in a couple weeks I would like to slim down for. So before I allowed myself some play time on this new toy of mine, I made myself go for a run. It was 10:00 at night so I even got use out of that fluorescent jacket I bought Friday. The jacket is a Pearl Izumi and yes they probably would classify me as a jogger, but 50% off is 50% off. Ooh and I listened to my iPOD with my new iPhone workout arm band. Yes ladies and gentleman, I am now completely broke and have a nice little credit card payment to make....but totally worth it!

Ok, last thing. I learned something today that I hope I will use again. I had a choice to change up one of my practices. While I am effective at this practice there is room for efficiency. I looked at how both effectiveness and efficiency would be improved and ignored possible side effects. The reason I ignored the side effects was because something about them made the core of me feel funky. Sure enough I spent the week feeling anxious and couldn't figure out why. So today I listened to my intuition and decided that while more efficient and more effective sounded nice, the potential side effects or, "consequences" as the business world calls them, are just as important. The moment I decided that "if it ain't broke don't fix it," the anxiety completely went away. I have a job at work and a job at home as a wife & mother and sometimes I push toward efficient/effective when sometimes I should really weigh the side effects.

Good night bloggy bloggers and followers.

Going Public

So, this blog so far has been a way to get out some thoughts, the way people keep a diary. In keeping with that idea, I did not share this site with anyone, but my husband. Then someone randomly found my site and started following (Thank you). So for two months I have kept this blog a private/safe-haven for my thoughts. I think I am finally comfortable enough to start sharing. So tonight when I am done with this post, on Facebook this link shall go.

So what's new?

1. Um, not taking Weight Watcher's seriously. After my pulled muscle and a weekend of family outings & food, I just let myself fall off the wagon. Seriously thinking about getting back on track tomorrow....I know, I know why not start now? Because the Oreos in front of me while blogging won't let me.
2. I started reading my Run Less, Run Faster book, but have not finished yet. Good news is I am reading leisurely again after several months break. I Finished The Help and really enjoyed it. I'm currently reading The Wednesday Letters. I can't wait for my book club to get going again, first meeting back after 5 of us had Sept/Oct/Nov babies is this coming Thursday.
3. My baby has embraced the 8 hour night and taken it to the next level. This past weekend I got 2 nights of 13+ hours of sleeping straight through the night. Thank goodness!
4. I got the sports bras I ordered, Yay! Right? Wrong. They are not gonna work for me. Can I please get a follower who works for a major bra company who will come and custom make a sports bra that works? Hello? Anyone?
5. This blog is strictly supposed to be about me, me, me, exercise, some home life and never work. But just this once, UGH! Did I say that right? UGH! I love my job. Love, Love, Love it. But some days, I tell you what. I really pride myself on my leadership abilities and when someone doesn't recognize my complete awesomeness, well let's just say it's like I am talking to a Martian. Complete awesomeness may be overstating it a bit, but it's my blog. I have pretty low self-esteem in most areas of my life, but leadership? Damn it, I think I am pretty good at that. Thanks, I needed to vent.
6. I have not yet started the swim workouts. I don't really have a timeline as to when, but I should probably try and make it a priority now that I am getting sleep on a regular basis.
7. I have been going to the gym and taking Spin class on Sundays and MMA on Thursdays. Yup, you read that right, MMA, as in mixed martial arts. No I have no talents in punching or kicking anyone, but the class is organized in a high school basketball pre-season conditioning format. It's jam packed with jump roping, crab crawls, squat jumpy things and someone yelling at you the entire time to do things Better, Faster and Stronger. It's quite nostalgic if I do say so myself.
8. I went back to my trainer and have committed to a 1x a week work out. All I can say about that is, Ouch.
9. My hubby took 3 days to go Lake Tahoe for his annual boys Superbowl weekend. I need to plan a girls weekend somewhere awesome.
10. The Shamrock'n Half marathon sold out. I procrastinated on signing up. Can anyone say "Missed Opportunity?" Oh, well:) Now I just get to find a new run, one even more interesting than one that ends with green beer at the finish line. I am however registered for The Avenue of the Giants Half, pretty excited about this one.

I am glad to be blogging, it's been awhile. I hate sitting at this desk though. My job all week is to sit in an office chair in front of a computer. I am on a mission to get a lap top so that I can blog from the comfort of my couch or bed. I am certain I would blog more if I were more comfortable. I will probably be counter acting my effort to stop being a couch potato, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.