Good/bad day

So this morning was enough to make me wanna pull all my hair out in individual strands. It sucked. But then came lunchtime when I got D registered for afterschool care (ie, no more of the day care where he always gets injured!), then we got some good news, and I found out I won a drawing on dam, and I was able to bless someone else with the majority of it, and well, the day just got AWESOME. I'm going to get in bed early tonite in preparation of walking 9.3 miles tomorrow morning. Yup, you read it right. We're walking the rock! White Rock, that is, and going to walk all the way around it. I'm guessing it will take about 3 hours.

I tried to hydrate today to prepare but it didn't go over so well, but I will be certain to take my propel tomorrow plus water just in case.

Ok on to food. Breakfast today was a Fiber One bar. Then I had some cheese crackers midmorning. Lunch was a late one of a Lean Cuisine pizza, so no yogurt for me today. Dinner, was Taco Bell, mainly because Stacy drug me there at lunchtime and I resisted then, but kept thinking about it...lol. I was good enough and just got a chicken quesadilla. They gave us free cinnamon twists, but I had only two of those, to end my day at 1220 calories.

Output: NONE! It was a freebie day and I'm enjoying every little bit of it before tomorrow.

Longgggg day

It began with not going to bed til super late last night, then awakened by a nasty storm this morning and the day just went from there. I got off work early to take D to the ENT where we found he's going to have to get tubes put in, due to still having no pressure in his ears, meaning there is fluid in there. I expected it, but it just makes me so mad to think that despite having NEVER had any ear problems previous to all this mess, that due to the carelessness of one individual, that he's gotta go through all this. Urgh. We will get that scheduled tomorrow.

After that we met our friends Amanda and her two beautiful kiddos for dinner. We had a great time but then decided to go to Target to finish school shopping, so we did not get in a walk tonite. It's ok because my legs were feeling odd after last night, so I kept it a half day.

Food today was a bit higher than usual, which is ok, I've been doing really good lately staying low, and don't mind a day here and there where it goes up. I can't say the dessert I had with dinner was a great thing, but it was good...lol Breakfast was a Fiber One bar. Then I had a tbsp of peanut butter mid morning. Lunch was a Weight Watchers Ziti meal. My afternoon snack was a fat free yogurt. Dinner was at Chilis. I had a little chips and queso, and then I got the quesadilla explosion salad, but minus the corn, tortilla strips, etc. So basically, a grilled chicken salad with a side of a kids quesadilla...lol and ranch on the side. Our dessert (we got the 2 people can eat for $20, so it came with the appetizer, meal and dessert) was a Sweet Shot, and mine was warm cinnamon roll...YUM! It totally hit the spot, and yeah, it was some emotional eating after the doc appt. I kept the rest of it in check though once I got home, ending my day at 1744 calories.

Output: about 30-35 minutes of cardio dance this evening. We are allowed 3 half days, 3 full days and 1 off day, so tomorrow will be my off day, and then sat and sun will both be at least one hour days to finish off the week.

Speedwork

It was suggested to me, to help work on my walking pace, to start doing speedwork in the shorter walks each week. Basically, try to walk faster than usual for 5 minutes, then slow your pace way down until your heart and lungs feel like they are feeling better, then try it again, for as much of the 4 miles as possible. With less than 2 months now til the half marathon, I def need to be working on this, along with the really long distance bumps once a week, so I'm going to start on that tonite. Heck, I figure if I already dropped almost 5 minutes in two months, there's a good chance of dropping another couple of minutes at least. So that was my plan for tonite.

I realized very quickly that I had made several key errors though. #1: We went earlier than usual, at 6, rather than at 730. My hope was that we could go before dinner and get it over with. #2: We were doing this speedwork, in my neighborhood, where there are inclines. #3: I miscalculated how hot and sunny it was. When we got home, I thought it was cloudy and cooler than it was, so I wore a tanktop (though I did use sunscreen). So I did 5 easy minutes, then 5 as fast as I could, 5 easy, etc. Needless to say, by the end of the first mile I was whooped. I stopped the speedwork at 1.5 miles and walked normal. I decided to finish up and go home, which would be 2 miles total. At the 2 miles, I was passing my alley, but decided to suck it up and walk one more mile normal to make 3. I'm quite proud of myself for that!! (Oh and tomorrow, we're going to try it again at Bob Woodruff where its flatter!! lol

I'm also starting to look for new walking shoes. I want to get them within the next 2 weeks so I can have them broken in by the half. I've already gotten a suggestion for these Easy Spirit ones, and I have contemplated going by Luke's Locker or Run On one day at lunch to get fitted. But if you have any good suggestions, please let me know! I need to get on this soon. My current ones, at 7.5 miles last weekend, my feet were HURTING, in a way that they had not for any previous walk. They need to be fairly affordable and in wide widths.

Ok on to food for today...breakfast got switched up a bit. I had a Fiber One oats and apple streudel bar (YUM!). Lunch was a Lean Cuisine 3 meat deep dish pizza, and then for an afternoon snack I had most of a banana and a fat free yogurt. Dinner was a slice of cheese right after my walk while cooking, and then a Birds Eye 3 cheese chicken skillet meal...yummo! For a lateish snack, I had half a baggie of Pirate Booty to end my day at 1204 calories.

Output: a 2.97 mile walk that took us 56 minutes. I was warned that it'd be slower at first with the speedwork, and I'm ok with that. Then I did about 5 minutes of slow stretching to finish my hour.

Stressing sucks

Things have been so tight financially lately, that I've really been stressing over it, and frankly, it all sucks. So I haven't been sleeping well, and I know I've been low on cals, but not much other choice. I got a smidge of breathing room today with it all, so we had a really good dinner, but the rest of the day was super light.

Breakfast was a Nutrigrain bar. Lunch was chicken noodle soup and baked chips. No afternoon snack. After a grocery store visit, while cooking dinner, I had a baggie of Pirate Booty. Dinner was shake n bake chicken nuggets, over spaghetti, with sugar snap peas and strawberries. I had a little mango ice cream to end my day at 1222 calories.

Output: with the MUCH needed grocery store trip, we ended up not having time to walk. I think it worked out though, I still did about 35 minutes of cardio dance this evening. I'll have two 4 mile days together tomorrow and Thursday, then a day off on Friday before our long walk this weekend.

One long monday

It really did drag today. Doesn't help that I did not get much sleep last night. I'm thankful that I woke up not sore. I was starting to get worried that I had pulled a muscle in my groin/upper leg with all the walking, since I was pretty sore in between my hip and thigh on Saturday evening, and then again after the 5K on Sunday. But yay, I woke up this morning with no problems and have not felt it all day, so I'm guessing it was just soreness. I made sure to rest my legs today.

Food was light today. Breakfast was a Nutrigrain bar. Lunch was a pbj and a bag of kosher dill chips. Dinner was mini hamburgers with some miracle whip on whole grain bread, corn, and frozen strawberries. I had an evening dessert of mango ice cream to end my day at 1205 calories.

Output: today was a half day for me so I did all arm work in three 10 minute segments through the day...bicep curls and shoulder presses with 2 lb weights, and then tricep dips. I added in 50 crunches late in the evening.

Heels and Hills 5K

D and I got up at the ungodly hour of 430am to be out the door by 5:15am to join our friends at a Heels and Hills event. It was a Dollar Per K 5K/10K/15K. Dina and I walked the 5K, Jenn walked the 10K, and Holly ran the 15K. I'm proud of us, we all (as Jenn puts it) "showed up". I know for me, I would have had a great excuse to not do it, as I just walked 8 miles yesterday, but I knew it needed to be done. It was something I wanted and needed to do for myself.

And I'm glad I did because I got to compare times! I did the Red Nose Run 5K two months ago at the start of our training, and my chip time was 58:25. They posted the results for today's 5K already, and my chip time was 53:41!!! That's an almost 5 minute different in just two months!! I couldn't believe it...yeah, I DEF needed to be there this morning to know that.

Food today has been decent, though high cal, which is fine. I needed it with two walks this weekend, gotta feed my body! Before the race, I had a pbj. Afterward we went to Steak and Shake where I got a kids breakfast (scrambled egg, bacon and toast). It was super cheap and just the right amount! Lunch was at my grandma's. We had bbq (no bun for me!), cottage cheese, a few chips, salad with light ranch, and half of a corn on the cob (no butter). After that, my aunt treated us to a movie (G Force...cute for D...corny as all get out for mommy) and D and I split a small popcorn. I had a serving of butter noodles (no butter added) that I made with dinner, but other than that I didn't eat much. I had a big lunch. I'm going to have a bit of mango ice cream this evening which will end my day at 1645 calories.

Output: an almost 54 minute 3.1 mile walk this morning, plus a few minutes of stretching, and then I did a few more minutes of light stretching at my grandma's as I got stiff after lunch.

8 and 100 rocks!

This morning, D and I got up to be out the house at 6:30am to bust out...8 miles...yup, you heard it right. We hoofed it (well, I hoofed it, D rode it) up to the Santa Fe trail and then across plano to Bob Woodruff and back. It was freaking hot outside, and I started feeling it around mile 5, then 6, but was still going strong...until mile 7.5. My feet were KILLING me by then and it was all I could do to get home, but hey...I did it. And in...decent...time. Decent enough anyway.

The awesome news...is that this 8 miles threw me over the 100 miles of walking in training!!! See the ticker on the right...it put me at 103 miles actually, that I have walked in two months. Holy cow!

Ok so that's the good news...no real bad news. I did come home after the walk and pretty much promptly pass out in the bed for a good nap...lol I had just enough time to cool down, have a quick bite of cheese, and get D a snack before I did. Before the walk though, I had half a pbj. Then a bottle of Propel during the walk. Right after was the small piece of cheese. When I got up, I made lunch for us. A cup of mac n cheese and the leftover porkchops from earlier in the week. Dinner was a smoked turkey sandwich with miracle whip before I headed to my cousin's baby shower. I had a tiny piece of cake there, plus one sugar cookie and a small cup of punch to end my day at 1827 calories.

Output: one long freaking walk...lol It took me 2:40 exactly. I'll admit I was kind of hoping for 2:30 but knew that my last 7 mile was 2:15, so 2:30 wasn't very feasible...lol I'm happy with it though, and paid for it the rest of the day with soreness.