Happy Mother's Day!

This is hilarious! Enjoy!

Things Mom says in a day.

Road Race Results

I did it! I ran a 5K today. I wasn't sure how I would do -- my training has been slow (in more ways than one.) I've been running about a 15 min. mile. (Yes, I know that doesn't sound like running, but my jogging and walking seems to average out to a fast walk.) And I've probably only been running about 2 miles at a time. Here are my results as posted:
Place No. Name Ag S Div/Tot Div Town St Fin5k Pace
190 2572 JILL ATKINS 40 F 26/29 F4049 WESTFORD MA 38:05 12:17

That's 190th place out of 204 (26th of 29 in my division). I did a 12:17min mile. Awesome! Way better than I expected. Now my friend and I are going to go join the pool and start biking, too. The Danskin's less than 3 months away!

Pigging out

I was starvingly hungry all day, and looked at the calendar tonight. Yup, I'm in that PMS time. So now I have to come up with a strategy. I can't deal with being hungry all day, but I can't stuff my face with carbs all day.

Maybe spreading little protein-based snacks throughout the day so I'm never starving.

My excuse

So I've been blathering on to everyone that I've been getting up to go running before I walk the dog and wake the kids. Partially it's because I can't keep my mouth shut, but also I realized it's so I'll be embarrassed when I don't get my butt out the door for a run in the morning.

So, K at C's preschool volunteered to ask me how my run went each day I go to pick him up. It worked. I was awake, but not motivated to running this morning, and I thought about how I would answer K when I picked up C this afternoon. It was too much effort to think of an answer, so I got dressed and went for a run. I'm glad I did, because it was another glorious morning and I ran almost halfway before I had to stop. And I wasn't as out of breath as I had been.

I'm putting little stickers on my calendar each day I get exercise, and I'm letting myself eat more than I think I should. I figure if I can make it to month of more or less daily exercise, I'll be on my way to a habit. I might have even motivated M (or at least he's talking about it again).

Ya gotta ASK

So, I've been moaning and groaning to myself that I don't have a workout buddy. My occasionally swim buddy had a baby about 7 months ago, and hasn't had reliable child care, and when she has, she'd rather be finishing her PhD thesis (who can blame her), than scheduling swimming with me. So, it's been months (like since before turkey day) since I've been to the pool.

So, I told one of my lunch buddies, that I've been running, but I would love to go swim at the pool. Well, ask and you shall receive! She'd love to go swimming sometime. She's even excited by it. So, we're going swimming at lunch on Wed.

I'm getting into the swing of things, especially since I went running on Sunday and this morning. (Mostly, it was because I was so sore I could barely walk down the stairs by Saturday evening.)

If I could just slow down the eating (I've been starving and hence, wolfing down everything in sight, since Friday.), I might actually lose some of the 10 pounds I've gained since September.

Go ME!!!

I've been thinking about it for weeks now, but I finally did it this morning. I went for a run before I had to wake the kids up. It's a little harder with a puppy in the house, but I decided to stop using him as an excuse. I took R out for a quick piddle and had to suffer his big sad brown eyes when I put him back into his crate.

I didn't go very far, and I didn't go very fast. At this point, I'm just happy I got out of bed and into my running shoes. It felt great. It didn't hurt that the weather was beautiful. The lake was glassy and you could mostly make out Mt Rainier. I even managed to do a few crunches and stretches before taking a shower. I'm just hoping I can keep this up.

I love this weather!

Today, for the first time since I started training for this Tri (and I use the word "started" loosely,) I ran outside! How awesome is that? And I have to say that it was very encouraging.

Running on the treadmill in the basement is hard. There's not a lot of motivation -- you're in one spot just looking at how much time is left and how little "distance" you've gone. And you have to pick a speed and set it rather than just letting your body set its own speed. I haven't really been able to stay motivated on the treadmill long enough to get in much of a run and I've been worried that I won't be able to finish the 5K in a couple of weeks.

Once outside, I could set small goals: "I won't slow to a walk until I reach that driveway/tree/intersection." I won't say it wasn't painful, but once I got home and was done with the run, I felt great! I felt like I could do it again and I'm looking forward to it. I also rode my newly tuned up bike up the block and back just to feel how the tuneup turned out. That felt great, too, and I'm looking forward to some riding (although my butt isn't!)