Needing a kick in the running shorts.

My running coworkers.

 Last week, I ran in a 5K with some coworkers. I was originally planning to run the 10K, but after battling a nasty cold for two weeks and dealing with some minor injuries, I decided it was best not to push myself. I was also breaking in some new shoes (which are still creating some discomfort, bah), and I was hoping to set a new PR ... and failed. Since I haven't really been racing since I got pregnant with Elle, I guess I should be happy with my time (31:55), but I was really hoping to come in under 30 minutes.

I had a decent pace for the first mile, killed my second mile and then promptly slowed waaaayyyyy down for my final mile. Awesomesauce.

 One of my coworkers has caught the running bug, though, so we're already discussing other 5Ks to run before it gets ridiculously hot in Florida. And I'm going to run a 10K - but I'm shooting for one in mid-April so I have plenty of time to properly break in the new shoes and train.

As for my weight loss challenge with Tim, I gained some ground when he was out of commission from his surgery and when I was sick and had absolutely no appetite. I lost three pounds that week, and Tim was unable to work out until his staples were removed. But then we had an extremely rough patch of sleep with Elle, and I missed a few trips to the gym.

Now we're all back to "normal," but with that has come struggles - pizza at work, birthday celebrations, girls' night, inclement weather preventing stroller runs with Elle, etc. The good news is that I'm definitely much more conscious of my portion sizes and decisions, and I can feel the small difference in the way my clothes fit. The bad news is that I definitely need to refocus. It's always good to see some progress, but it is always hard for me to not get complacent and to keep challenging myself. I find myself tracking my calories up until dinner time, and that has to stop. I eat well at work because I can eat only what I've packed. When I get home, though, I'm at the mercy of my willpower, as every trip to the kitchen holds temptation.

Bottom line: Sometimes it's hard to stay motivated, even when you start to see results.

Having the 10K to train for definitely keeps me active, but my eating is something that I always need to be mindful of - and it always seems like when I'm losing weight I crave sweets the most.

Linking up with Ashley for 

 

Random randomness 5.20.11

What the ...: I ran a 5K two weeks ago. It was a gorgeous morning to run, and the course started and ended at a beachy, water-front park on Anna Maria Island, which is uber cute. Despite the fact that I had only gotten four hours of sleep the night before, I was eager to run and push my time (largely because I needed to get home fast, shower and head off to a bridal shower I was cohosting, but I digress). There were probably 250 runners, and as the pack started to break up a bit, I realized something about a woman running in front of me: She was barefoot. I've never seen it, and I maybe could have understood if it happened on a beach course, but this was road. Asphalt. Florida pavement.

Bizarre.

The view before the race.

She ended up finishing the race, and I really can't imagine that was a comfortable (or healthy) way to run, but maybe she had a purpose or was trying to make a statement. There was another runner who was wearing a veil. I asked her why she was wearing the veil, thinking maybe she was getting married that day, which would be really cool. But apparently she was engaged and planning an August wedding. Her maid of honor was running with her and suggested they run a race the morning of the wedding, too ... Still kinda puzzled why the veil was a key part of this May race, but an interesting people-watching moment regardless.

I'm old AND lame: For my birthday last month, I got some money. And while I'd love to blow it on all sorts of fun stuff or stash all of it in our savings account, I thought carefully about how to designate each dollar. One of my chosen purchases? Electric toothbrushes for Tim and I. They've been on my Amazon wish list for months, and I finally decided that they'd be worth the investment (I mean, if you've got good teeth and gums, surely you're saving on dental care in the long run, right?). Lest you all think that I'm a hopeless cause, please know that I did order a new pair of sandals (they were desperately needed, as sandals are year-round attire in Florida) and buy some makeup. The rest, though, *did* go in to savings.

Because I'm old, I'm loving this: This primer rocks. I saw an ad in a magazine for it a few months ago, had a few coupons and bought it on sale, figuring I didn't have much to lose if I didn't like it. I big pink puffy heart it. It makes my face incredibly smooth, and it feels so soft and silky going on. Sometimes I'll just put my moisturizer, primer and a dust of powder on, and I'm ready to go, sans foundation. It lasts a long time, too - I'm just now starting my second little jar.

Texts you don't expect to receive from your husband while at work: "What are you feeding this child?! Another huge poop just happened."

Birthday bonanza: Happy birthday to my beloved sister Marti and dear friend Meghan! (You can read more about them in a birthday post from two years ago here.) Our friend Kelly is also celebrating her birthday today at work with Tim (with these yummy cookies - one of her favorites, muah hahahaha).

Pear-fectly unacceptable: I have developed quite a love/hate relationship with pears. I'm not a huge fan of the fruit myself, but Elle L-O-V-E-S them. My problem is that they stain cute baby clothes like nobody's business. I've had great success getting all other stains out of Elle's clothes since birth ... except the pears seem to have outsmarted me. (Cantaloupes are problematic as well.) Elle always seems to be wearing cute, white onesies when she eats pear, and the stains are a light brown. Not. Cool. The stains are hard for me to see *before* washing, so by the time the clothes are washed they've been pretty set, but I'm going to try to be a bit more proactive on the pesky buggers.

Best trainer ever: I was playing Zumba for Wii yesterday morning while Tim and Elle were in the other room. Tim brought Elle in and told me I was getting a standing ovation for my performance. I turned around and saw Elle Belle clapping enthusiastically. Quite the encouragement to continue my workout :)

Ch-ch-changes: Just a heads up, abundance of faithful readers: We're going to be changing our blog name, address and design in the next few weeks. I'll give more of a heads up before it's about to happen, because things will likely be kinda wonky for a few days as we make the switch, but typing in the old address should automatically redirect you to the same page, old links should work the same, etc. I *think* the only thing that changes is you might have to update the site if you read through Google Reader, but again, more info as the time approaches. I'm excited :)

Squeaky Sophie: As I mentioned in a previous post, Sophie was missing, so we ordered a replacement Sophie. (Amazon's price on Sophie is the lowest I've found, and free two-day shipping because of Amazon Mom? Thankyouverymuch.) Replacement Sophie's squeaker is in hyper drive. The old Sophie squeaked, but you had to definitely squeeze her to produce noise. If you look at Replacement Sophie the wrong way, she squeaks loudly. If you breathe in her vacinity, SQQQUUEEEEEEAAAAAKKKKKK. Elle finds this amusing. (And judging from the consistent, enthusiastic squeaks I heard from Elle and Tim playing while I was trying to sleep yesterday morning, Tim finds this amusing as well.)

Thoughts and prayers: A little baby girl is in the hospital and facing an uphill battle. The baby is the daughter of two people I work with, and while I don't know them personally, their story has hit me hard. The baby was born when the mom was 23 weeks and 6 days pregnant - viability is 24 weeks. She's teeny tiny and fighting hard but has already had several procedures and surgeries and is being closely monitored for various complications. Her parents are essentially living at the hospital, immersed in the beeps and hums of the monitors and machines keeping their daughter alive. Her mother has only been able to hold her twice - in the more than five weeks since she was born. Twice. If you have any extra thoughts and prayers to spare, please consider sending them to this family.

October

It's been a pretty calm month for us, which is partly why there hasn't been much blogging. But this past week I took a few photos and thought I'd share them with our few loyal followers :)

Earlier this month, I completed the Race for the Cure 5K. I didn't finish in my best time, but I finished, and I was happy about that :) I was really proud of the fact that I ran the race on about three hours of sleep, too (more on that in a minute). I raised more than $600, which I am extremely happy about, especially considering the current economic climate. Buuuttttt about five days later, I had serious pain in my hip and leg and then some numbness and back pain. The theory that seems most likely is that I had bursitis in my hip or a groin pull, and then possibly overcompensated for that pain and ended up pinching a nerve in my back. Let me tell you, it's been awful and frustrating to try to recover. I'm finally starting to feel better and have been doing some light workouts at the gym.

But back to the three hours of sleep - Tim and I both worked the night before the race, and then I took him to the airport early in the morning so that he could fly to Ohio for his cousin's wedding :)


Above are the newlyweds :)

Tim has been reporting for his paper two-three days a week. It's been fun for him to report again and break away from the copy desk, but it also does a number on his sleep schedule, as the reporting shifts are day shifts and the desk shifts are night shifts. Here, I caught him and Mario napping during a baseball game:


This past weekend, I headed up to St. Pete early before work and met up with my friend Traci to check out some of the events going on downtown. This is the bridge I drive over every day to get to work, which connects St. Petersburg with the greater Bradenton area:


We went to the St. Petersburg Times' Festival of Reading first. We checked out the food and booths before going to hear our friend's boyfriend speak about his book. Then we visited for a bit in the courtyard of the St. Pete campus of USF, which is were I took this photo:


On the other side of that water is the Salvador Dali Museum. You can't see it in this photo, but it's a squat building across the water :)

After our day of walking, lunching, festivaling and marketing, we figured we might as well stop at the Cupcake Spot, a cute little store that opened a few months ago in downtown St. Pete. They recently announced that they've started carrying a seasonal pumpkin cupcake, so I knew I had to get over there to try it. Luckily, when we got there, we were second in line and there were two pumpkin cupcakes left. I think the little girl ahead of us saw me giving her the evil eye and selected only one pumpkin cupcake in the half-dozen she was choosing for her mom :) I got the last one, and it was AMAZING.


Traci, who un-Americanly hates pumpkin, got a lemon cupcake with raspberry buttercream. This place is a must-visit :)

On Sunday, I was a bit under the weather with a cold, so we stayed home and watched the Steelers before work. On Monday, though, we went to my favorite aquarium, the Mote Marine Laboratory. We are members there and hadn't been to the aquarium in months, so we wanted to take advantage of some free time to visit with the animals. The place is all decked out for Halloween, too :)


The stingrays weren't being very social :(

And now we're gearing up for another trip to Ohio :) Another cousin of Tim's is getting married, so we'll be venturing up north for the nuptials. I can't believe it's already the end of October!

It's that time of year again!

Last year, I blogged about my first 5K. It was just not a run for running's sake, it was for a good cause, one that is especially near and dear to me.

I'm participating in my seventh Race for the Cure on Oct. 3. I've done the Race at least once every year since 2004, and I've done it in Kalamazoo, Pittsburgh and St. Petersburg. This year, I'm running the 5K again - but this time, I'm in the competitive timed race. EEK! (The photo at left is from last year's race - my friend Julia was a great motivator to keep up my pace!)

I've set a fundraising goal of $700. Last year, I raised almost $600.

The only reason I'm willing to get up super early and drive 40 minutes to the early morning race after working the night shift is because this is such an important cause. It's the only reason I'll willingly run more than three miles in the Florida humidity. And for every time I consider hitting the snooze alarm, I remember the donations and support I have, and each year, I roll out of bed full of purpose (albeit in desperate need of caffeine).

If you'd like to donate to the cause (every little bit helps!), please visit my donation site.

The money I raise will provide breast health education, screening and treatment, as well as fund breast cancer research.

Another great cause!

Many of you have supported me for years in a cause that is near and dear to my heart: breast cancer. My grandmother is a survivor, other family members have had breast cancer scares, friends have had scares, friends of friends are survivors. I've moved a lot in the last few years, but the one thing that has remained the same is that I always participate in the Race for the Cure. Since 2004, I think I've done the race seven times - usually walking, recently running. It's one of the most moving events I have ever seen - the swarms of people walking in memory of loved ones or in honor of a survivor bring tears to my eyes every time.

This year, my sister is participating in her first Race for the Cure. Please consider donating to a cause that affects everyone - with support like yours, breast cancer might someday have a cure. And again, Marti will do the hard part - getting up early, braving race day traffic, fighting back tears and wiping off the sweat of a 5K run. For $10 or $20, you can snuggle deep in to bed on the morning of May 16 and know that you've done your part to help wipe out breast cancer.

To donate, go here.

Race update!

In what may be the most shocking news I have had to report, I actually placed in my age group at last week's 5K. The top three finishers placed, and apparently, I was number 3. (Proof is here.) AND they report I finished 15 seconds faster than I thought I did. And Tim came in 5th in his age group - faster than 15 other Masters! :-)

5K goody bag

I had mentioned in this post that Tim and I had gotten some cool stuff in the 5K goody bags. Above is my favorite thing - little notepads of this snarky parking etiquette warning :-) (Click the image for a larger view.)

We also got toys: X-ray goggles, whoopee cushions and a hand buzzer. We're talking serious second grade pranks here. We can get free smoothies at Smoothie King, 10% dinner at a restaurant on the river (we're planning to use that ASAP!), 10% off spa services at a local spa, discounts at Dick's Sports Goods and other fun stuff. And we cannot forget the St. Stephen's Episcopal School lip balm and pens. Oh, and the cool t-shirts, too. Score!

Saturday morning date

Tim and I got up early and ran in the St. Stephen's Episcopal School Falcon Fitness 5K on Saturday morning. We both had to work later in the day, but we're crazy and went anyway. It was an unusually chilly Florida morning - it was 34 degrees when we woke up and only about 45 when the race began. Most of the course was sunny, and there wasn't much wind, but I'm used to running in much more humid and warm air, so it was a bit of a shock. The course was gorgeous - lots of beautiful homes (I found one I am convinced we need to buy) and a long stretch along the Manatee River.

It was Tim's first race - he finished in 23:40 and has decided to become a professional runner. I improved my October 5K time (of 33:34) but had hoped to break 30 minutes - I finished in 30:19. This race had lots of age divisions, and Tim was overly excited that at 40, he was in the Masters division. I was merely in the 25-29 division, and considering every in my age group as well as most people not in my age group passed me, I wasn't too confident in placing in my age group. (We're talking 70-year-old men, 8-year-old girls, pretty much 200 of the 300 or so runners finishing ahead of me. But whatever. I never claimed to be a runner, and I'm just glad I finished.)

We also got good post-race food - parfaits, fruit, bagels, etc. - and a cool T-shirt and loaded goody bag for registering. I might have to share the contents of the goody bag at a later date.

Here we are after finishing the race:

Lovely.

You all know that Tim and I work nights and therefore sleep late, right? So when we need to get up early, it's hard to a) go to sleep early and b) function.

But we did go to bed early and get up early on Friday night/Saturday morning for the 5K. It was cold by Florida standards (46 degrees) as we got up at 6:30, left the condo at 7:15 and walked to the MCC campus. As we walked, half-asleep, we talked about how weird it was that there was no traffic. Hardly any cars on campus. Hmm. We got to the gymnasium, where the registration was/race was supposed to start, and it was locked. Deserted. There were no signs, no other confused would-be runners. Nothing.

We've done some investigating since then (you know, after we walked back to the condo, went back to sleep for several hours and cursed the race organizers for waking us up for no reason). Apparently the race was canceled at some point. Letters were sent out to registered runners saying that MCC regreted canceling the 5K, but because of scheduling issues, the race was off for now.

But we never got the letter. We don't know if our registration was received. Thankfully, the registration check has not been cashed, but we'd really like to know how the race was mysteriously removed from existence. We are hoping to get more answers, but for now, we're just puzzled. And Tim now has reason to refuse any other 5Ks I offer up (including one we're discussing for next month). Oh well.

Wooo, a real post!

We have really not done much since the holidays. We haven't had much time off together, but we do this weekend (two whole days!) and plan to watch the Steelers on Sunday and go to the aquarium in Sarasota on Monday. I'm excited.

The biggest news lately has been combining our cell phone plans, shopping at Target and making tacos. While this is all fine and good, it's not exactly blog-worthy (although I guess I just blogged about it). We also got a new home theater system, and Tim has been teaching Mario, the older, smarter cat, how to open the front door. (I'll have to post photos and video of that "wonderful" feat later.)

In late December, my St. Pete gym membership ended, and we were going to the park a lot to run for our exercise. The Bradenton YMCA had no joining fees in January, so we waited until Jan. 2, and then we joined. It's not the nicest facility I've ever been in, but I'm excited to be able to take classes again (Zumba and step - sadly, no Spinning), and it's nice to have the option of elliptical and treadmill to mix in with our park runs. Tim's hoping to play basketball. The Y is right next to the park, so he can run at the park while I work out at the Y, and hopefully he'll take advantage of the Y when the weather is rainy or just too stinking hot.

But in equally big fitness news, Tim and I are running a 5K on Saturday. It's at Manatee Community College, which is less than a five-minute walk from the condo. Granted it's at 8 a.m., but Tim really had no excuse NOT to do this one with me. And it benefits the MCC athletic department, and MCC's team name is the Lancers. Tim played for the Lincolnview Lancers in high school. While I usually enjoy doing these kinds of things when they benefit something like stray animals or breast cancer research, at least I'm not running to support puppy mills. I'm hoping to improve on my previous running time, but I won't have a running buddy (like my friend Julia during October's race) to help pace/push me. And I'm guessing Tim will be done, home, showered and *hopefully* be making breakfast by the time I finish. He's a teeny bit faster than me.

And now, a cute photo to close: