Apparently, I've got time

I've been trying for an hour and a half to place an order through the Walmart website because there's no way I was leaving my house this morning like a regular 4:30am work morning, just to stand in line to buy some toys. I'd much rather sit and swear at my computer for slow load times and error messages on websites, but if I can get these 4 items in my shopping cart- Santa's just about finished for the year already. So here I sit.

I hope everyone else had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a good time. I am lucky to have just about the most awesome husband in the world who cooked a great turkey, with all the fixins' (except the Boston Market Stuffing) and did 90% of the work to clean the house and get ready. He's most definitely a keeper- in so many more ways than one. I ate relatively well for a Thanksgiving, knowing that I'd give in and eat more apple pie than I should, but I "budgeted" the calories by attending Master Blast on Wednesday. I did the 30 minutes of kickboxing, 30 minutes of step intervals and then 40 minutes of spin. It was a great class. Yesterday we also spent most of the morning cleaning and I scrubbed the hardwood floor in the kitchen, family room and hallway so that worked off a few more calories in itself. I think the house right now is the cleanest it has been since we moved in. The thing I like the least about having a ranch house is that when we have people over there's no real way to block off the bedroom areas. So, we have to clean them. With small children, no door's going to stay closed and they're not going to stay out- especially when there's a cat to chase there. It's one of the things we like about hosting Thanksgiving because we know that at least once a year all the furniture will get moved to vacuum, including the fridge, stove and dishwasher. Feels good to have a really clean house, even if it will be back to normal by mid-afternoon Saturday.

While cleaning the floors yesterday, though, I realized more closely the full extent of the damage we inflict upon the house regularly. Our hallway is regularly the site of Hot Wheels' car races. That's a great game we play when approximately 200 cars are raced a.k.a. hurled down the hall towards the baseboard molding at the end. That baseboard, and the ones on the side along the way down the hall, is pretty beat.

The kids all had a good time yesterday, too. There were the six cousins, ages 9, almost 6, 5, 3.5, almost 3 and almost 2. It's quite a bit of activity when we're all together and it's a good thing our basement is finished, otherwise the day would be chaos.

another Problem Loading Page from Walmart. com. I'm off to phone customer service before they're all sold out of stuff. Enjoy the weekend everyone. I'll be back in December. Oh yeah, and along with everyone else I was counting my blessings yesterday to give thanks. Life's great.

Parting thoughts

Between Blogger issues and computer issues it's been impossible to post for the past few days. Not that much has happened, but I've become accustomed to having a spot for my random ramblings and missed it. While I said the blog was just for me originally, I've been a bit geeked to see some comments of late so I don't want to stop posting and lose any potential new friends. That being said, I'll be taking some time off now. We've got weekend plans with company and stuff and I may not be able to check in. Then, Monday morning at 4am I leave for a business trip to Los Angeles. As in California, as in 3000 miles away from Hot Wheels and Superman (oh yeah, and my husband) for FIVE DAYS. Well, 4 and a half days because I'm taking the overnight flight Thursday and should be in my driveway by noon on Friday. I really don't want to go. I've only been away from the boys for one overnight, when I went to Timberman in August. I'm sure they'll probably make it through better than I will, they'll be a grandma and grandpa's for dinner one night, playing with their cousins at dinner another night, Dad's going to take them the Chuck E Cheese's, they'll probably have a pretty good time. I'll probably be anxious the whole time and not even take full advantage of the time I will have to myself. I'll be up to call them at 5am (8am here), so I think I'll get some outdoor swim workouts in the pool at the hotel- I've read it's in the 80's out there right now. I might even do some reading- or I'll SLEEP!!

Training stuff:
Swim yesterday was good. My 200yard time is consistently 3:36. I think I'm going to start some speed drills with 100s and 50s and then go back to the 200 repeats. I did one 500 yard timed swim and that was about 9 minutes. So my pace is consistent anyway.

Santa wasn't at the pool yesterday morning, but the hair tumbleweeds were. I had planned a last set of 100 kick, 100 pull, but a tumbleweed from the bottom lifted up and was in my lane. When I couldn't keep it in view I was afraid I'd run into it and then vomit in the pool, so I skipped the last sets and left.

This morning was kick-my-ass bootcamp and then I did the incline walking workout. Fifteen minutes at 4.0mph increasing the incline by 3% every 3 minutes. By the time I hit 12% I was basically holding on, but it was better than last week. At lunch today they've got the Thanksgiving MasterBlast class. It's 30 minutes each of kickboxing, step intervals, spin and then yoga. Not sure I'd survive 2 straight hours of workouts, but I might give it a try so I can take tomorrow off guilt-free. Since we're hosting tomorrow's dinner I'm sure I'll get some exercise from cleaning tonight and tomorrow anyway. Some day I'll run again, my heart's just not into running lately.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, I'll be back in December. And here are my handsome boys, they're growing up way too fast.

Really cool thing

We went down to the beach and playground this morning for a couple hours. The boys had a blast. I did manage to get myself to hanging upside down from the monkey bars. Mom's still got a little flexibility left, Hot Wheels seemed at least slightly impressed that mom was swinging by her legs.

There was someone down at the beach swimming this morning. Swimming, in regular swim trunks. The weather's in the 50s and the water didn't seem much warmer, that's a hardiness I just don't have in me!

We were walking on the beach and we saw a wind swirl picked up the leaves in a little tornado-like action and go across the parking lot. Hot Wheels wanted to run in the wind storm but he couldn't play in the parking lot. The wind tunnel moved across the lot and headed up the hill, Hot Wheels took off after it, but couldn't quite catch up for a while. Finally, near the top of the hill he got in the middle of it. The leaves were swirling all over and it was really cool to watch. It was moving slower and he stayed right in the middle of it for probably close to five minutes. Superman and I caught up and I held him in the wind tunnel for a little while, but the whipping wind and leaves made him nervous. A bunch of people were out walking and they came over to watch Hot Wheels running around in the middle of those leaves. Of course the camera decided to stop working right then, but it would have been hard to capture in a photo anyway. It was really cool. Another nice trip to the beach and playground.

The willpower of, well, someone without willpower

My calorie total from Thursday ended up not being so bad, 1810. (my recommended range is 1450-1800). Yesterday, however, is another story. I blew past the limit with a grand total of 2019 calories. I'm hoping the estimate's a little high because some items I didn't have exact nutritional info on so I used substitutes that I think might be a little worse. But, it's possible that it's the damage for yesterday. Of course tomorrow's the day I've got to fit into that size 6 dress, so today I've got to be better. Not likely since I've already had an apple turnover. Damn willpower, or lack thereof. I can be really good for a week or so and then I have a couple bad days. However, in the big scheme of things, like the rest of my life, a couple bad days isn't so awful. We'll see what happens at Monday's weigh in. To maintain would be fine with me for this week, I just hope to avoid a gain. Oh well, I get what I deserve in this case.

From here on out, I'm stealing the idea from Trimama's ultra cool blog and giving the kids new names. M. is now Hot Wheels, and C. is Superman. Those are 2 of the current favorite things in their lives. M. had been completely obsessed with cars since before he turned 2. C. was a little harder to pin down since he doesn't really have a singular obsession, I almost went with BusBoy, but it sounded a little like I had chosen his future career path. It's fine if he wants to be a bus boy some day, but I don't want to limit his options. Other ideas with PlaydoughBoy, Airplane or Nature Boy- since I swear, he'd live outside if he could. Speaking of which, we're off to the local park and beach for some play and run around time. I love the weekend.

Excuses while swimming with Santa, tumbleweeds and a rocket

First things first:
I've got a cold.
After one night of sleeping through the night, I've been up since 3:26am with C. (Whom I love so much and like to see any time outside of 10pm -4am)
It was my third 50 of the 5th 200 (for a specific incident I will reference later).
Now that the excuses are out of the way.

Santa swims at the pool. If this guys doesn't have at least a seasonal job as Santa then no one should. He's even got the small wired framed glasses, that I think he wore while kicking. Just seeing him made me smile through my next 400 set.

I hate hair. Not a great segue there, but it's true. The shower drain when I had longer hair- I used to have to ask Paul to clean it out. Hair makes me gag and hair balls could induce vomiting. (only human hair, pet hair isn't so bad with me) In the pool, there are these floating clumps that have a rolling tumbleweed shape and they move around the pool. Usually they're down at the bottom which is fine because I can keep my eye on them as I swim over. A couple weeks ago, though, one was in my lane and it was a good 6-8 inches long and it kept moving. Finally after about 20 minutes of swimming around it and trying not to gag over it too much, I asked the guard for a small skimmer to get it out. This morning there seemed to be more tumbleweeds than usual but they were on the bottom in the deep end so it was okay. I just kept my eye on them. However, on the first 50 of one of my 200s, I felt my right hand had a long hair around it. I tried shaking it while I was pushing back, hoping it would come undone, but it just wouldn't. When I got to the next flip turn I managed to grab it with the other hand before pushing off, and I only gagged once.

Finally, the human rocket story. When I got to the pool it was more crowded than usual so I had to share a lane. I ended up in the lane with a woman from work who took the year off from winning the work sponsored sprint triathlon this year. Notice I didn't say she took the year off from competing, she took it off from winning. I think she's won every time she's entered. She's fast and looking at her you can tell she's fast. She just looks hot, and fast. Anyway, I tried to make sure I didn't start any laps right before her, knowing she'd blow by me in a second. Then, in 1 of the 200s she did end up behind me and I stayed ahead! I was so excited but then I thought maybe she's doing the swim-as-slow-as-possible drill for some reason. Finally, on my last 200, during the third 50- always the roughest for me, while I was full swimming, she passed me while pulling. I was hoping she at least had the hand paddles, but no, she was just pulling. She did have a pull buoy which made me feel a little better, but I might as well have been treading water for how quickly she just swam away. It was a little sad. I finished my 200 and when she had a break I joked about how sad it was that my full swimming is so much slower than her pulling and she actually apologized for passing me! She's fast, she's hot and she's even so nice that I can't dislike her for being fast and hot. I've spoken with her before and she's always been so nice, which is why I was thinking I could joke with her about it and not offend her. She's rehabbing a knee injury, but I hope to some day be able to be beaten by her in the work triathlon. Meaning I hope she'll be well enough to compete again and unless she loses a limb during the race, she'd beat me.

Other than that, the swim this morning wasn't so bad. I did five sets of 200 medium pace, 100 kick, 100 pull. That's 2000 yards again, in 45 minutes or so. My time on the 200 is consistently 3:36. Actually the 200 where I was attacked by the hair, that one was 3:35, but the rest were all 3:36. Not too bad, I guess.

We took the boys out to eat last night. I know I went over my calorie range for the day (haven't actually calculated yet, but I know it) but the sweet potato fries at the restaurant were awesome. It's a vegetarian/vegan restaurant that uses all natural ingredients. We both had sweet potato enchiladas, which were good. M. had a grilled cheese and C. had cheese pizza. Both were good, but the boys didn't eat much. They did really like the chocolate chip cookies we took home, though. They were pretty well behaved and sat quietly most of the time. Right before the food came they got antsy and we walked around the dining room looking at the pictures on the wall- we went early so we were the only ones in the dining room we were in- just in case. Overall, the meal was good but a little expensive and when the boys are there we have to eat so fast that we didn't quite enjoy it as much as when we went alone for our anniversary.

Walking can be work!

After kick-my-butt bootcamp this morning I decided to go with a walking workout rather than trying to run. Bootcamp was tough, I wish that class was 30 minutes instead of only 20. We were divided into teams for a couple exercises. We all carried our hand weights to one end of the room and then they had to carried one at a time by all the team members twice across the room. Then we had to side shuffle behind our step benches and touch our inside hand to the outside of the bench. The lateral shuffles always make me nervous because in the past I have forgotten to pick up my feet and fallen over, quite ungracefully. Anyway, I always leave there pretty exhausted, but it's fun.

For the walking workout I decided to start out at 4.4 mph and incline by 3% every 3 minutes. I made it up to 9% and then I was holding on to the rails, so I didn't do 12 or 15% as I have in the past. This cold is still a bit in my chest and breathing was getting tough, next week I'll try to get through the whole cycle. I also turned the speed down to 4mph at 9% and left it there for the decreasing incline heights. I walked another mile at 0% incline, 4.4 mph- so in about 30 minutes I managed to burn a grand total of only 200 calories. For the amount of effort it felt like I was putting in, it didn't burn nearly as many as calories as I would have thought, or liked.

So, if anyone's got some kid suggestions, here are the 2 scenarios. We've got M. at three and a half years old he's generally a happy kid. The thing that's driving us nuts lately is the constant asking for something. "I want milk", "I want a snack", "I want to watch kid TV", it's nearly a constant barrage. By the time I got home today, Paul was completely at the end of his patience. I took the boys out with me, we had to buy their nice outfits for a party this weekend, some shoes for C. and then we went to Chuck E Cheeses to play for about an hour. We're not 2 steps inside the door after we get home and M. is asking "Can I watch some kid TV?". I tell him no, he starts crying. How do we curb the constant asking for things?

Now the situation with C. He's currently asleep on the couch, has been for almost an hour. Unfortunately, this will mess with bedtime, but he absolutely refuses to nap during the day. He will stand in his crib and scream himself hoarse for up to an hour- Paul's generally given up by then. Some days he doesn't nap at all, but if there's a car ride, he'll generally fall asleep. Should they all go for a ride every afternoon to get his nap in? He can't be old enough to give it up permanently- he's not even 2 yet! Anyway, as much as I'd likely regret it- anyone got any ideas on these?

Overall it was a decent day. It's preformance review time of year at work, which is always a pain. Trying to put down on paper how you pretty much walk on water every day for just doing whatever it is that's your job. It's ridiculous. But, it pays the bills, I've got the gym and every now and then it's an interesting job. Still wish I could be at home with the boys, but until that winning lottery ticket falls in my hands, it's up at 4:30am and off to work.

The scale WAS wrong (yeay)

This morning it read 156.5. How I do I know that today was right and yesterday was wrong? I don't, but today is the one I choose to believe. Now I'm thinking last Monday's reading might have been too high, too, because last week was a good week, but I'm not sure it was -2.5 pounds good.

A little highlight for the day already this morning at the gym. Two different people asked me whether I'd lost weight recently. I didn't think the 2.5 pounds counted much so I just said I was working on it and thanked them for the compliment, that felt nice.

Yesterday afternoon we went Thanksgiving dinner shopping. We're hosting for much of Paul's family so there will be 7 adults and 6 kids at our house for dinner. Many of the things we bought to serve: soda, appetizers and snacks, are things that we don't really eat anymore because of the poor quality and the bad fats in them. It doesn't seem right to serve them to family if they're not good enough for us to eat. But trying to force people to eat "healthy" food isn't necessarily fun because then if they don't like it we're the weird relatives that serve weird food. Maybe next year I'll put more effort into finding tasty stuff that's still healthier than mozzarella sticks and chicken taquitoes. I wish I didn't hate to cook so much.

Week # 3 stats: Nov. 13-19

Weigh-in: 158 - I'm not just in denial, I'm quite sure the scale reading was wrong. When I got to the gym and weighed myself fully clothed on that scale I was still less than at home- sans clothes. For that reason, I'll check again tomorrow morning, our bathroom scale is often fickle. If I can't get consistent readings here I might switch to a Friday morning at the gym scale reading, accounting for the fact that I'll be wearing clothes there- much to the relief of my fellow gym-goers.

Anyway- here are the daily stats:
Calories: 1409- and I have achieved that which I never thought possible. I actually feel full and happy on less than 1500 calories. My meals today consisted of a bowl of Kashi and milk for breakfast, a Lean Cuisine panini sandwich for lunch, a snack of string cheese and then a yummy dinner of chicken breast and provolone on Carb Style wheat bread and a great salad with greens, strawberries, apples and pears with some balsamic spray. I had a few pretzel rods with the boys, too. I thinkI should add another protein in the morning, like some cottage cheese, so I'm not so hungry mid-afternoon, but the salad with dinner really filled me up and it was delicious.
Water: 70 ounces
Sleep: we're now on day 7 of not sleeping through the night, I'm doing better with it. I've been up since 3:30am every weekday morning, except last Tuesday when it was 2:30am. Anyway, last night was somewhere between 5-6 hours of broken sleep. I'm also dealing with a cold now, I've got a sore throat and my head's a bit "foggy", I hope it passes soon.
Mood: Surprisingly, really good. I had a good day at work and was really pretty productive.
Pedometer: 8388 as of now, it's retired for the night.

Workout: Elliptical trainer, random program level 9- not too challenging for 10 minutes before class. Then 45 minutes of circuit training. A good mix of relatively high intensity cardio with some light weights thrown in.

Tuesday:
Calories: 1485, still felt pretty satisfied on that for the day. I did have gingersnaps after dinner, but I saved enough calories for them. I love ginger snaps. I've got some Snyders Buffalo Pretzel Nuggets, too, I'm saving those for a special occasion. They're awesome.
Water: 70 ounces
Sleep: Who knows, one kid ended up in our bed and I ended up in the other bed with the other kid. Whatever.
Mood: Very good. Especially considering I've still got this sore throat and a naggy headache, too.

Workout:
Elliptical trainer- 20 minutes, 160 calories. Not too strenuous, but this cold is still sapping my aerobic energy a bit. Then Gutts & Butts class- always quite a strenuous workout, especially for the glutes and quads- lots of squats and lunges. Tomorrow's kick-my-ass bootcamp class, bright and early at 5:35am.

Wednesday:
Calories: 1385
Water: 80 ounces
Sleep: Finally made it through the night (only one quick wake up)! 7 hours.
Mood: Good, a little groggy at first though from getting a full night sleep.

Workout:
Kick-my-butt bootcamp. High intensity aerobic and anaerobic intervals with some weight work. Approx. 200 calories, 20 minutes.
Walking program: 4.4 mph with incline, decrease to 4 mph at 9%. Then a mile at 4 mph- 200 calories total, approx 30 minutes.

I just love to swim

Really, it's my favorite part of a triathlon which is good because I start in my comfort zone but bad because it's over first. Being the shortest part of the event and the only area where I might some day excel, it will really help me very little compared with how poorly I will always run- I hope to become a fair biker.

Anyway, yesterday morning's swim workout was a new thing for me- drills. I tried one arm swimming (a bit harder to breathe) and I did a thumb drill to get my elbow pointing straight out of the water. I didn't try the fist drill, just because I thought alternating 100s of the other 2 drills was enough drill work. I did a few 200's of easy swim, some 100's kicking and pulling and then some timed 100's. I was pretty happy to be able to repeat consecutive 100's at under 1:45. I know my form could improve still and speed will come with that, overall it was a good workout.

I've also got an event to train for! It's not really much to train for but it's something on the calendar. A friend at the gym is signed up for her first tri in July so I asked if she'd like to do a team event in June. It's a sprint-like distance (1/2 mile swim, 14.4 mile bike, 5 mile run), and I'll be the swim leg. I hope to be pregnant at some point in 2007 (I may have mentioned that already) so I'm not going to plan on a full event on my own. I'm going to keep up with training until I can't and if I'm not pregnant in July I'll do another solo sprint. I'm hoping I can talk Paul into biking and we'll find a runner for another race or 2, we'll have to see.

I ate too many calories yesterday, I was doing well until we went to a friend's house to play. While the kids were running around I was tempted and failed by eating a few too many dark chocolate almond clusters. But they were so-o-o-o good that it was almost worth blowing my calorie limit for the day.

Yesterday afternoon I went to get a haircut at the mall and there was a wait. While I was waiting I walked around the mall a bit and for some reason stopped in Ann Taylor loft. A store I've only shopped in once, it's a bit expensive and most of it's classier than my usual style. I headed back to the clearance racks and a gorgeous dress caught my eye. It's a burgundy-brown color and I loved it. It was with the size 10's so I grabbed it and headed for the dressing room. I tried it on and it's slightly snug but not obscene. I checked the tag for the price (originally $79.99, marked down to $29.99 and 30% off that), when I saw the price I also noticed the size- it was in the wrong section- it's a size SIX!! Gotta love vanity sizing, there's no way I'm that close to a 6. But, I'll take it. When I went to pay I noticed the cord belt had a frayed section, so they gave me a 10% discount. Final price? $18.89!!! What a deal. Now I need an occasion.

I'm a hit at nursery school

I went to M's class this morning and brought some dry ice and food coloring. I was a little nervous that the kids would get bored, it was a blast! We had fog with the dry ice and water, add a little dish soap and voila- bubbles that everyone loved. Then they had droppers with colored water to put into tubes, another bit of great fun, I guess. Even the parents coming to pick kids up hung around a bit for the fog and bubbles. It was a great time, but I was sweating- that's busy work keeping 15 3-year olds happy and occupied!

After that we went to get tires for my car. A really aggravating experience because Walmart didn't have the tired and then we get to BJs and realize that my stupid tires have some security lug nuts, that I don't have a key for. So we wasted over and our and half of our time for nothing. I've got to go back to the dealership for another lug nut key. Why on earth does my plain old low end Honda Civic have a key for the lug nuts?!?!?!

Now the boys and I are sitting watching Pixar's Cars, we bought it on Tuesday when it came out on DVD. The afternoon turned out very nice, if only I had more vacation time I could do this more often.

The only real downside to the day was that we were so hungry when we went to get tires at Walmart that I told the boys we could eat at the McDonalds inside. I figured I'd have a salad. Well, that store doesn't have the salads or the grilled chicken sandwiches. I had to go with a McDonalds Snack Wrap- fried chicken strip on tortilla, and I ate some of the boys fries. I was just so hungry. I felt like total crap after that I think that cured me once and for all of all fast food, other than the salads at McDonalds which I do like. The Asian salad's my favorite. Within half an hour my head and stomach were both really hurting and I was salivating for some fruit. We got home, I had an apple and eventually felt better. At least the snack wrap and fries were small enough that I should be able to stay well within my calorie range, a fried chicken sandwich would have made me feel worse and the calories would have been 3 times that of the snack wrap.

Tough morning

Spin class was tough this morning, I think it's partially due to being down the pint of blood after donating yesterday. The yoga after class, though, felt particularly good.

Last night was night #6 with a middle-of-the-night wake up. If the boys don't sleep tonight I may drown in the pool tomorrow morning due to exhaustion. But now that I've got a swim partner, I'll be there.

I get to leave work and make fog for a class of 3-year olds. I'm really looking forward to it!

Just an ordinary day

Here's a rundown on the highs and lows of this Wed.

Annoyances: First one actually happened on Monday. I got a great set of dinosaur books for the boys, but they're a little old. I brought them to work to lend to a friend for her boys. I left them in the parking garage right next to her car, and someone STOLE them. This is especially annoying because anyone that parks in the garage can darn well buy their own $35 set of dinosaur books and moreso because we all assume our work environment is so safe- apparently not.

I was annoyed that I couldn't get into the rhythn of a run this morning. I just couldn't recover after boot camp.

The microwave was constantly in use at lunch so I ended up eating almost 30 minutes late by the time I could warm up my Lean Cuisine.

It's self-review time once again at work, ugghh.

It's 8pm and neither of the boys show any signs of slowing down to go to bed.

Highlights of the day:
After my iron being too low since February, I was finally eligible to donate blood for Red Cross today.

I really do like Lean Cuisines and I especially enjoyed today's chicken enchilada lunch.

Playing with dry ice after work with the boys was a lot of fun.

Taking the boys to dinner at my parents was a good time.

The week's more than half way over, always a good thing.

Sleep, sleep, sleep

That's really all I want. I love my boys. They're great boys, they really are- between the hours of 6am and 8pm they are 99.9% wonderful and 0.1% normal toddler/pre-schooler challenging. However, between the hours of 8pm and 6am- or more precisely 2:30-4:30am, they are a pain. I don't know how a less than 2-year old can be awake from 6:30am- 7:30pm with only a 30 minute nap (often no nap at all), still yell for mom for about 20 minutes when he's put in his crib at 7:30p and then he's up again at 3:30am, ready to go. M. ended up coming in our room at 2:30am and he was coughing and restless so I couldn't get back to sleep. Then C. gets up at 3:30am yelling and being loud. I got up and brought him into M's bed and he talked to me, rolled around, played with my face, hid under the covers and was generally being social, despite me completely ignoring him, until he finally fell asleep 3 minutes before my alarm went off at 4:32am. M. has always been a awful sleeper, too. I've heard all the people that say it's our fault, any maybe it is, and so I'm dealing, I just don't have to be happy about it. The goal is to get the most people in the house the most sleep. Right now I seem to be the one that gets consistently less than I'd like. Some day C. will be too old to want to lay down in a bed with Mommy and give me hugs. Then I'll be a middle aged insomiac woman with nothing to do in the middle of the night and I'll miss our time together. I try to keep that in mind at 2:30am but it's not always by first thought.

On a happier note, it's practically a holiday at our house, Cars comes out on DVD today! We've got the popcorn all ready and after dinner it's movie night. We're all looking forward to it. Paul took M. to see it in the theater last spring but they didn't catch the last 30 minutes. It got a little too long for M. to sit. At least at home we can always catch what we missed when we watch it again and again and again.

I didn't have the energy to run this morning so it was 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer before Gutts & Butts class, a.k.a. a million squats and lunges. A lot of glute work this morning, I should be looking like a model for "Buns of Steel", and I know the buns of steel are there, well insulated, but there. That's the best I can do for now.

Week #2 stats: Nov. 6-12

Not sure which of these stats will be a regular, we'll give it a try and see.
Monday weigh-in & measurements:
159 pounds (yep, almost back to 160, yikes)
waist- 31.5"
hips- 38"
thigh- 23"
bicep- 12.75"

Daily stats:
calories: 1389
water: 70 ounces
sleep: 6.5 hours (not a good night)
general mood: tired and it's Monday
pedometer total: 10042 (plus some time at home after I changed clothes)

Workout:
treadmill 15 minutes @ 9:31-8:57 mile pace. Total- 1.65 miles, 220 calories
HR @ 15 min- 168, 16 min- 142, 17 min- 123 (hand held HR monitor on treadmill)
40 minute interval workout, high intensity step intervals. HR @ 40 min- 174 (10 second count) approx 450 calories

Overall workout was very challenging, felt dizzy in a couple intervals, more sluggish than usual- due to lack of sleep?

Tuesday:
calories: 1447
water: 80 ounces (many trips to the bathroom)
sleep: 5 hours (not a good night, again!)
general mood: tired
pedometer total: 9406 (plus weight lifting "credit")

Workout:
elliptical trainer- 20 minutes on random setting, 186 calories burned
Butts & Gutts- core and lower body strength training class, 40 minutes
stretching- 10 minutes

Wednesday:
calories: 1499
water: 76 ounces
sleep: 3 straight then 4 broken (getting better)
general mood: good
pedometer total: 12998

Workout:
Bootcamp- 20 minute HIGH INTENSITY aerobic/anaerobic interval class. Short but killer.
Jog then walk on the treadmill- 25 minutes. The running just wasn't happening, an incline walk at 4.5mph and then cool down at 0% incline. My heart rate was still above 140 most of the time.

Thursday:
calories: 1531
water: 70 ounces
sleep: 6.5 hours
general mood: good
pedometer total: 9374

Workout:
Spin class: a little tough this morning and I think after giving blood yesterday I just didn't have as much energy so I didn't push it as much. Then 20 minute yoga stretch, felt good.

Friday:
calories: 1811
water: 60 ounces
sleep: 7 hours, but broken after 4 hours
general mood: good
Pedometer total: 8942

Workout:
15 minutes on the track walking and light jogging- 1.25 miles.
Swim workout: 200 yards strong, 100 y kick, 100 y pull, repeated
100m 1 arm drill, 100m thmb drag drill, repeat
2x100 all out
200 cool down
Swim workout felt good

Time to get real

There are a few things I've been just sort of pussy-footing around and not getting to business. That's coming to an end.

My weight is becoming an issue again that must be addressed. Years ago I got down to 140 pounds and I said to myself "If I ever see 150 again, it will be time for drastic measures". By the time I checked the scale it was a couple pounds over 150 and I just didn't have the will power to do anything, so I let it creep. It was a fast creep, over 50 pounds in 5 years. Yes, I was pregnant at one point during that time but I was fat with or without the pregnancy. This time I got down below 155 and I said "If I ever see 155+ again, it will be time for drastic measures". Well, since I was below 155 for about 3 consecutive days, as it rose again I reasoned that I was training for my triathlon and therefore not a great time to make big diet changes that could make me weaker. (The real flaw in that reasoning is that I could have given myself FREE SPEED by dropping a few more pounds before the race.) Also, I listened to all the well-meaning but misinformed people that said things like "well, muscle weighs more than fat so you're just building muscle". I dislike that phrase because a pound is a pound whether it's muscle or fat, people are trying to say that muscle is more dense than fat so it takes up less space, but I was not getting smaller anywhere, so that wasn't the explanation either. People told me, you need to keep your strength up for training, you look great, blah, blah, blah. Because it's what I wanted to hear, it's what I heard, even though I really knew it wasn't true. So here I am, approaching 160 pounds I think- I've been avoiding the scale like the plague and now it's time to get real. I've got a legitimate 12-15 pounds that have to go, and if I get to 145 and still see room for improvement, I'd like to get back to 140. That's issue number 1. To that end I'm going to start posting daily calories in and exercising done. I'll post a weekly weight/stats thing. As if anyone cares, but I'll be more honest with myself if I have to be honest with anyone interested in reading.

Issue number 2 is my running. I've got to keep doing it otherwise it will never improve. I seem to have a good week (2 weeks ago) followed by a poor week (last week). It just means more time on the treadmill, track or just out running. Unfortunately, the treadmill is what works best with my schedule so I'll take what I can get. It just has to be done.

Issue number 3 is my organization. I've always been very organized at work. I'm good at working with deadlines and I can multitask very well. My work personality doesn't seem to come home. Maybe it's the lack of deadlines and to-do lists, but I can't get things done as well at home as I do at work. It's time for me to start giving myself to-do lists, picking a chore and giving myself a deadline. Yesterday I finally got around to cleaning the kitchen floor grout and I realized it's time to re-grout and seal. That's got to be done before we host Thanksgiving, so there's a deadline. The fridge needs to be completely cleaned and the deep freezer needs to be defrosted. Then there are the more mundane- cleaning the bathrooms, changing the sheets, vacuuming the rooms, folding and putting away laundry. Maybe daily/weekly to do lists would help. I'll give that a try.

I have to admit something that I did not admit at first. I don't write this blog just for me. If it were just for me, it would be a journal in my desk drawer, or a Word file in //MyDocuments. I don't think anyone that has a blog could truly be keeping it just for them, why make it public then? At first it was just for me, because no else knew it existed. Now I've had some comments and visits and it's much more fun to think that someone else might be interested in hearing what I have to say. I'm looking for any feedback to some of the daily life stuff that I deal with that I'm sure is common to others. We can all use some help sometimes.

Finally, I have to congratulate all the competitors out there, bloggers and non, that took that starting line yesterday in Florida. Whether they reached the finish line or not, they trained, they had all the heart and soul necessary and they're iron. Congrats for an admirer and some day Iron-hopeful.

Ending on a high note

This week has not been great. My workouts have been completely uninspired (or undone, as in Wednesday) and I've eaten like crap. Good grief, I ate a Hostess Cupcake last night!! I'm thinking the awful diet choices I made led to the headache that hit me yesterday afternoon. I took half a sick day, went home and napped with C. for a couple hours. I was still able to get to sleep last night so that means I really needed that nap.

Anyway, enter, the pool. This morning I was in the water at 5:05am and I completed my longest continuous swim ever! I did 80 lengths= 2000 yards= 1828.8 meters= 1.14 miles in 39 minutes and something. That's approximately 34 minute mile pace. It's the first swim workout I've done on my own where I got really tired out. After 60 lengths I dropped out many of the flip turns, especially if it was going to mess the rhythm of my breathing. I'm a bilateral 3-stroke breather. It felt pretty comfortable, though. I could have pushed harder I supposed but that wasn't the point. If I had pushed harder I might not have made it as far.

An acquaintance from work arrived as I hit the last wall at 80 lengths, I ended up doing a few laps of kicking and then a last full stroke set. We have a very similar pace so we're planning to swim together on Fridays. That pace was a little faster than my 1+ mile pace, but it still felt like I could sustain it for a while. It will be nice to have someone to train with. She's preparing for an iron distance event next September and she's already got biking and running training partners so she was also looking for someone to swim with. A nice fit. I'm feeling back on track now. Even though it is Friday- which is blueberry pancake day, I think I can get back on track with the diet, too. Halloween candy's got nothing on my willpower, I hope.

Wish list

I forgot, now that Halloween has passed it's time to start thinking about... Christmas, right? Oh wait, there's another little holiday in between with lots of food and stuff. Anyway, for the past few years I've been saying "I don't need anything for Christmas or my birthday" (birthday is Dec. 28th. But now I've got this new interest with never ending opportunities for stuff. Here are some things I was thinking I'd put on my list, knowing I'll get one or two most likely.

-HR monitor. What kind? Are the ones with bells and whistles worth it, will I grow into graphing features and such? Or do I start with a cheaper model and plan to upgrade in a few years?

-Swim stuff- fins and paddles, what's more useful? Are the hard plastic paddles better than the swim gloves? What's the difference?

- New bike shoes. Mine are a bit on the small side, any recommendations? I wear a women's size 11, I think that's a 43 European size, not small feet.

A new bike is a few years down the road if I stick with the sport. I'll need new swim suits but no one else can really buy those for me. Any other ideas on things you couldn't live without. Well, could live without, but not as happily.

And more pictures

I always like a nice end-of-the-beach-season picture. We're so lucky to have nice beaches only a 5 minute drive away. Some day it will be a good family bike riding trip, but they're all a pretty major road so it will be a few years.

Finally, the boys just hanging around having fun together. As brothers often do when they're not busy antagonizing or hitting each other.

Gratuitous kid promotion

Here's the post where I have too many pictures of my boys. (Not that I think such a thing exists, but you might) I did not feel like working out this morning, so I "slept in". That's in quotes because 5 minutes after I turned off the alarm, M. woke up with a cough and then about 20 minutes later C. was up, too. I stayed home until just after 6am so Paul could get a little more sleep because he wasn't feeling well either.

I'm not sure how the pictures appear in the post, so the description might not be close to the picture it's describing but if you care I'm sure you can figure it out- the date's on most of them.
Here they are last night just before trick-or-treating. It's hard to imagine that C. isn't even 2 years old yet. He keeps up like he's 3. Poor guy couldn't reach the door as quickly as M. so people would open the door and say "Look, it's Spiderman!" and C. would be running for the door yelling "Thomas Engine, Thomas Engine!". He just wanted everyone to see him, too. They were good for about 14 houses and then they were done and we walked back. Next year I want costumes for the dogs, too, who were also very good. Most perfect weather ever for a Halloween.

And you've got to love the day after Halloween sale, so here's a picture of them wearing 2 of the costumes I picked up today for only $5. I bought five of them, so they can dress up whenever they want.