Hello December!

I'm not really sure how it happened, but November is behind us. It seems like it happened really fast but I know that December will only go faster. This fall has been a whirlwind of activity, both personally and professionally. I'm quite ready to get the hell off of this ride and slow down for a little bit (though I don't think that's going to happen).

So lets talk about last week.

Yuck! Yeowza's. Disgusting. I'm not quite as disappointed with my miles as I am with my Minutes of activity. Particularly since last week was damn near double

Oh well. We knew that this week would be lower, didn't we? I managed to get in a short run on Wednesday before we got in the car. I desperately needed it but my body hurt. Everything was creaky and sore and just didn't feel right. Maybe I've been pushing it too much without a plan? I think I need to get some variation back in the mix to keep my body happy.

Thursday was the annual Gold's Gym Turkey Trot! I think this is my fourth or fifth year running it - I love it! More and more of the family has gotten in to it and this year we ALL had funny hats!

The Teenagers are just *so* excited

It was too freakin hot to run in them - 55 degrees at the start! - but my sister in law made sure we got our pictures! 

Hands off ladies - he's all mine

The race itself was ok. We had Chinese food late when we got in on Wednesday and it was fighting me. I decided to run slow and then about 2 seconds after the horn sounded decided I just wanted to get it over with. I negative split the race in a big way, which is exactly what I was going for. The pace overall was....slow. I was almost 5 minutes slower than the previous year, which was super disappointing. I guess I need to keep in mind that last year at this time I'd just run the Urban Bourbon 13.1, so I was definitely better trained. Oh well, there's always next year!

Then it was to the couch for football watching and complete and utter relaxation. I'm happy to report I wore stretchy pants the entire weekend and ate pretty much whatever we wanted. I made Hubz stop at Kroger for some Good Belly before we got home and I hit that pretty hard. It seemed to really help the discomfort from the Chinese food AND help me get hungry for dinner. 

I'd taken extra workout clothes so I could run Friday but...my knee was not happy. In fact it was less happy on Saturday after a day off than it was on Friday. So Friday & Saturday were big fat 'ZERO's'. 

Today I decided that I could avoid the office - and the trial I'm set for on Tuesday - so long as I cleaned up and went for a swim. With extra time on my hands I headed to the suburban YMCA that has the super nice pool. It felt really good to get back in the water but I was quickly reminded that it has been 5 months since I swam. Seriously? Good lord. I did 1500 meters of a 2000 meter set and 

called it a day. 

Now I'm just working on the Cleaning Part and...

Last week was the first week I'd flat out ignored my meal plan. With Thanksgiving I decided, eh, F*&@k it. I was right to do it. This week, back on track. 

This week I'd really like to aim for 200 minutes of activity. I plan to break that up with 30 minutes x 5 week days and 60 minutes for Saturday. It's ambitious given the fact that I'm going to start this trial Tuesday BUT I think I can make it.

I got to the grocery after my swim today and tried to just keep it to the list. It was hard!

Tonight we're having sausage and potatoes - Hubz request! - so I'll pre Tuesday's Mexican Chicken soup & my overnight oats for the week.

Primed for a good week. In the midst of all of the work chaos one positive thought has really helped me through:

Happy Running!!

Are you prepared to have a successful week? What'd you do?

Not Quite Average

As I mentioned in yesterday's Sunday Set up, this past week was a doozy. Not for any particular reason, really, but a doozy nonetheless. Maybe it was the particular week of the month. Maybe it was the end of all of the Halloween Candy. At any rate, it was a tough week. Lets look at it in depth:

Monday  - Had planned to get some trainer time in but the weather was too beautiful not to run. Got in over 3 at a really slow comfortable pace. Just wanted to recover and relax and did just that.

Tuesday - I think this is the night I ended up working late, despite the election. I got home around 7 and it was all I could do to get dinner together and into my belly

Wednesday  - Another day of beautiful and unseasonably warm weather for a run with Rania. We ran downtown and headed down by the river. It was a really nice 3 miles that was unusually slow. I felt like I was going a lot faster but clearly Garmin says otherwise. Still, it felt strong and easy which can't be that bad

Thursday - Early volleyball night and we were one man down. It was actually nice playing with fewer people. I felt like I got a little more of a workout. This league is still bit depressing, though. We won 2/3 and had some decent fun

Friday - I honestly can't remember what we did Friday night but I know that I did not workout at all. I had hoped we'd play Tennis but something came up.

Saturday - I'd intended to get up and get some trainer time in before the 12:30 football game. Somehow, I managed to sleep in until almost 9:30. I knew if I got on the trainer by 10:00 I could get in an hour. When faced with the choice between getting off the couch and getting on the trainer I chose the couch. I think I needed it. We watched TV, drank coffee, and hung out. I contemplated getting a ride in after the game but...I napped instead. Can't always be inspirational.

Sunday - Today was much better. I got up and went walking with Emily. She just moved into a great new place (close to our old spot). It's really close to a lot of good walking/running paths and we meandered through a really pretty  - and hilly! - cemetery for an hour. The weather was a perfect 55 degrees and super sunny. We walked and chatted and had a great time. I was definitely sore afterwards though. After my grocery shopping I took Ellie out for a little spin around the park and listened to the Broncos game on the radio. The walk was much better than the first half.

Definitely room for improvement for next week - but not terrible in retrospect. Hoping to get some trainer time this week and another easy run or two!

Happy Running!

Preparing for Better

So this week saw more rest days and chocolate candy. That being said, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the scale took an epic turn in the wrong direction. Yikes. The only conclusion I can reach is that I'm eating crap. Fair point based on my FitnessPal loggings from last week. So how to combat this? Lets get back to the Sunday Set Up!

The meal plan part was pretty easy as I've been meal planning regularly since January. So that's one new years resolution that has really worked! Here's what's on the meal/workout agenda for this week:

I hit up Trader Joe's this afternoon and stuck to my list. No impulse buy purchases. Try that at Trader Joe's in the aisle with all of the chocolate covered what-have-yous. Not easy.

Tonight while I was fixing our dinner I prepped everything for the week. Not too much prepping to do since some of our meals will come out of the freezer. Got pretty much everything chopped, bagged, and ready to go.

Fixins for Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Soup in the crock

Non-Dinner prep

So now it's time to get on with the "Good week" part! I'm feeling a little melancholy this week - which could be attributed to the calendar....a certain week in the month...do you get it yet? - and maybe the weight gain is too. The Holiday Sweat Challenge starts today - 8 weeks of healthy eating and friendly motivation to keep the holiday bloat at bay. Now that I'm all set up, I can't be anything but successful!

Happy Running!