Get It Done

I recently signed up for my first 10K! The most I have ran at all is under 5 miles so I am not sure how I will do but I am hoping to run the entire race.

The race is a week from Saturday and I haven't been doing enough running. Most days I get in about 3 miles, if I am feeling up to getting out and hitting the pavement. I did do 4 straight miles last week though and felt pretty good about it.

I ran 3 on Monday... or maybe it was only two... I don't remember and don't feel like checking at the moment since my phone (where my app is) is on the charger. Oh wait, I can check Facebook, since I posted it there. Yep! 3.05 miles! It was a good run, and I even posted a "poem" while I was running... cause I am silly like that. You can check that out on my other blog, http://youre-a-poet.blogspot.com/ if you are so inclined.

Anyway, my legs have been really sore since then. I'm not quite sure why, though. I stretched plenty so maybe I haven't been drinking enough water. The weird part was that it was my inner thighs that were sore. That part of my legs has never gotten sore from running before and my thighs are my most disliked feature... so it was a good thing and a bad thing that they were sore.

It was bad because I did not feel like running yesterday, so instead I did 50 squats, 50 crunches, and 2 twenty second elbow planks. My hubby was a sweetheart and rubbed my thighs before we went to bed... no strings attached. He actually said he thought I might have been "lying" about where my legs were sore because I wanted to get lucky but he was too tired. I laughed because I thought he offered to rub my legs because he wanted to get lucky but I was too tired LOL Needless to say, no one got lucky last night.

On the upside, my legs were feeling better this morning. My son, that I homeschool, had a question in regards to how fast someone would run a mile in his math workbook and while the answer is dependent on the person, the correct answer was 15 minutes. He didn't believe me that 15 minutes for a mile was even an option because a mile seems so long to him. So after he finished his work I decided we would go out and see how fast he could run one mile. We left the house, ran for quarter of a mile, came back, and then did it again so we could hit 1 mile. He was shocked to see his time was 10 minutes and 34 seconds. He was pretty tired, even though he runs faster and harder than that on the soccer field, but I was proud that he didn't give up on the run. I then went back out and did another 1.2 miles after we got back home and while I would have liked to have made it a longer run, it was really hot this morning. I do much better with my pace and distance if I can start right after the sun comes up or as the sun is going down. Running any other time here in Hawaii is just a killer, especially for someone that doesn't like the heat. The other upside to my legs hurting is that it means my thighs are getting a much needed workout. Maybe I can eventually start to like my thighs... but I doubt it.

As for my diet... it's going very well, if I do say so myself. I started this new lifestyle back on January 19th weighing in at 144lbs. While that's not terrible, it is really close to the high end for my height (not quite 5'5" but we go with 5'5" because we round up around here). Just over two months later I am down over 10lbs. This morning I weighed in at 133.8lbs. Yes, it's taking some time, but the weight is coming off and I am eating healthier thanks to counting my calories and avoiding fast food as much as possible.

I am only 4lbs away from my goal weight! You know, the weight the DMV thinks I weigh? Yep! Only 4 more pounds to go and I will be under 130! Then will come a new challenge... maintaining that weight! If I can stay between 125 and 129, I will be one happy girl! I haven't seen anything under 130 since I was working 5 years ago at the portrait studio. Being on my feet all day for long hours all day Saturday and Sunday kept me from eating out or eating junk on the weekends. During the week it was easy to eat healthier meals because I was cooking almost every night for my family. It really is important to cook wholesome homecooked meals but man, as a busy mom of 5 kids, all of which play soccer so I am shuttling kids almost every night to one practice or another, it gets hard to cook well balanced meals for the family.

I know there are going to be people out there that say, "Oh, I cook every night! My kids eat a full meal three times a day and it's cooked by me! You think you are busy? We have dance, and gymnastics, and piano, and soccer, and swimming, and that's just for one of my six kids yet I can do it, so can you." Ehhh, what I say is... Good for you! I wish I was that well organized... sadly, I am not. I'm just not the supermom that I claim to be and you know what, that's ok. My kids are healthy, I am healthy, I get some me time during my running, we are busy, we eat Poptarts and Ramen on the go sometimes, and we are happy. It is working for us right now. One day I may not be running around like a chicken with her head cut off and one day soon {read: when soccer season ends} I will get back to cooking more often. For now, though, this is how we get it done.

So yay me! I am working on me, and my kids are enjoying their cereal dinners before rushing out to soccer. I bet they won't look back on their childhood and complain that I force fed them granola bars and frozen gogurt as we were running out the door, and I also bet they won't complain that mom only cooked full meals on occasion. Chances are they will only look back and think, "My mom was a rockstar!" HA! Okay, but I can dream, can't I?