Running Update: This is proof

The screen shot from my 8 mile run.  I was completely shocked that I ran 8 miles in just a little over an hour.  Oh to do that again.  The first and last time I ran those 8 miles was in November of last year when the weather was still agreeable.  I keep looking at this screen shot thinking about the half-marathon that I want to run.  Is it possible that on my first ever half that I could make it a run to remember?  Tossing around serious thoughts of a two hour half.  TOTALLY possible and a little daunting, because that's really fast.  hah.  That's like 8 minute miles.  Right now, I run 8:30s and to cut my mile down by another 30 seconds would take some work.  Goals, goals, goals...

I am running on the treadmill at a 2.5% grade in order to keep challenging my legs but it's NOTHING like running on the hills out here.  The burn is like no other.  I can round the first corner from our place and feel like I want to stop.  Craziness.  I go into a zone though AND without my iPod something that is near impossible at the gym.  Me and the iPod are inseparable.

Going to yoga/pilates this afternoon.  Dragging the babies along.  It's my cross-training day so I take it easy.  Looking to do a 2 mile run and an hour of yoga.  Yesterday, I ran 5.7 a good start to my 20 mile week, ya think?

Silent cheerleaders what's on the agenda?

Running Update: And the beat goes on

Total mileage:

19.8

Shhoooot!!  If I had known...just two little tenths of a mile short....arrrggg.

  But, this week marked another milestone(no pun intended) for me.  I ran 6.5 miles on the dreamill.  My longest run on the 'mill, to date, has been 6.2.  OOooh, yeah.  

I also was able to cross-train TWICE this week.  It was a little rough and I think I decided that Zumba...well, I don't know.  I love LAtin beats but I think I threw my back out trying to keep up with the instructor.  That was a first.  

She's a tall lanky brown skinned chica like myself, not the tall part, just the brown part, and I figured that since I have the Latin blood of a Cuban running through my veins I should have no problem moving more than one body part at once.  What a joke.  I resolved myself to jumping around in the far corner of the class by myself while the other ladies in their 50's flapped their arms around desperately.  I'm useless.  Yoga and pilates definitely agree with me and my back.  I feel like a million bucks after an hour of that and I always have to wake myself up at the end of class.  Don't know how I end up falling asleep, but I do.  Every time.

Oh, did you know, that the safest way to stretch your back is to squeeze your glutes and do a baby back bend.  Just slightly arch your back, raising your arms and squeezing those glutes to the maximus!  Just a little tip.  

I'm planning on running everyday next week, including Sunday.

Silent cheerleaders, do you have any goals for this next week?

And the winner is...

DONNA! 

Congratulations and please contact Unique Cakes so you can get your tutu!

Thank you all for entering and I will be posting about another giveaway in the near future.  Of course, it will be more handmade goodness :) 

Sewing: Sacrificial Socks

Have you ever had a favorite pair of socks?

Please, you would be lying if you said you didn't. 
It's not like these socks had magic powers or anything but putting them on did make me happier.

I'm a sucker for color.  It wasn't always this way, though.  I discovered that if you're going to wear color you need to be confident in the ones you pick!

(a recent photo of my dad and I at the Met.  That's a gorgeous Rodin piece behind us)

I'm not saying I'm the most confident person, but I am confidently colorful.  For sure.  

So that's why when I put on my favorite pair of stripey socks one day and within three steps they promptly slid down my leg, I got really sad.

And then I hid my socks from myself so I wouldn't have to think about throwing them away.

A couple days ago I was browsing the net looking at some of my favorite sites (their buttons are on the right hand side of my blog).  I saw this tutorial and I knew what I had to do.

No, I did not pull them out and walk around the house in them one last time, I simply started tracing and cutting.  You know, just to get it over with...like a band-aid.

I have to say that stuffing the body was fun.  Stuffing the arms, and tail, not so much.  And I thought that I would dread the hand sewing part, but oddly enough I felt organic as I sewed those little tubes onto the tadpole looking thing I had just stuffed.

Of course, in any sewing adventure, or ANY adventure, for that matter, there is bound to be a silly mistake.  *sigh*  So, I sewed BOTH my socks into monkeys instead only ONE like I was supposed to.  The other sock is meant to be used for the arms, ears, nose and tail.  Please don't make the same mistake I did.  You might not be so lucky to have an extra pair of old socks laying  around to save your bacon.

Blue arms, tail, nose and ears.

(poor lighting, I didn't want to use my flash...maybe I should have)

But it turned out so cute that I couldn't beat myself up too horribly.

I did have plans for this cute little monkey.  He was supposed to be a gift for someone, but Cylas was smitten and I just couldn't bear to take it away from him.

So, there is another sock monkey in my crafty future...

And I'm really excited about this one.

 

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Also!  Don't forget about the giveaway!  It ends tomorrow!!  Please enter and help a fellow stay at home mom with her business endeavour.  THanks everyone

Sewing: If I could I would

But I can't!

I had a wonderful little sewing update planned today, but I can't post it!!  Unfortunately, I have run out of photo space on my blog and I have to purchase more, but it's going to take 24 hours until it's added!!!  So, I have one little teaser photo for you all and I promise to have everything in tip top shape for tomorrow's update.

Such beautiful colors...what to do, what to do.

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Also!  Don't forget about the giveaway!  It ends tomorrow!!  Please enter and help a fellow stay at home mom with her business endeavour.  THanks everyone

Running Update: Midnight snacks

I have a problem.  I love to eat.  Of course, I'm pretty particular about what I eat, but there are some things I just can't live without.  

Last night, I started my running week off with a bang.  5.2 miles and I felt great.  I'm hoping to keep up the trend and reach 20+ miles this week.  It will be a long time coming.  

Either way, when ever I finish my runs I'm borderline famished.  Like, everything looks like I need to eat it.  Well, almost everything.  McDoodies and any sort of fast food makes me gag.  But I'm pillaging through my fridge searching for leftovers or eating a full dinner after my workout.

My workout days usually go like this: eat, feed babies, clean, take care of the children, play, sleep(maybe), clean, eat a late lunch, start dinner around 4pm, cook dinner around 5pm, wake the kids up, feed them dinner, wait for D to get home(around6pm), go workout, come home to a husband that ate the dinner I made, eat dinner by myself, shower and collapse.

Yeah, so my workouts are in the evening time, hence my insane hunger.  So, last night after my workout I stopped by the store to pick up a few things for a sewing project (that I will reveal probably tomorrow. excited!) and stumbled upon the best little snacky-doo, ever!  Now, I have always been a Clif Bar fan, my first introduction to it was two days after Cy was born.  Friends of mine came to the hospital with a care package full of bananas, fruit snacks and a peanut butter Clif Bar.  Ahhh, hooked, instantly.  So, it's safe to say, that yes, I'm a Clif Bar fan -- five years and counting.

So when I saw this new bar they came out with, I snatched it up.  

I have no clue how they managed to take a "granola" type bar and make it perfectly crunchy and perfectly soft enough all at the same time.  Protein heaven.

What I snack on, my kids also snack on, I had better make sure it's healthy!

Clif bars for Cy and fresh strawberries and yogurt covered raisins for Roma.

Bottom line -- I NEED protein.  I love pistachios after working out, too.  Last night, I made a "stir fry" of sorts.  I found a fabulous recipe for teriyaki sauce, marinated the chicken for about an hour and tossed my carrots and asparagus around in steaming oil until they were relatively soft.  Served up over puffy white rice.  Delish and the perfect meal to consume after a vigorous workout.

A 40 min run and Yoga/pilates tonight!  

Silent cheerleaders.  What are you doing to stay fit today?

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Also!  Don't forget about the giveaway!  Only a couple days left!  Please enter and help a fellow stay at home mom with her business endeavour.  THanks everyone

Running Update: Not you again

 

(wearing ankle socks not knee socks! the weather was so beautiful.)

Yesterday was somewhere close to a storybook version of "perfect running weather".  Unfortunately, I was unable to take advantage of it.  Boo.  My running buddy did, though.  I saw her from my front room window, trot by, and I cried inside a little.  Why couldn't that be me?  Then Cylas asked me for something to drink and it snapped me back to reality.  My kids.  D was at school not set to be home until around 7pm.  No running for me at that time of night out here!  Me, the great outdoors and the potential to be a brown bear's tasty brown girl meal.  Nuh uh.  I'll pass.  So, I decided that I would rock it out at the gym after D got back.  

HAH.  It didn't take me too long to realize that I would rather enjoy a fresh, homemade pizza covered in deliciousness like fresh slices of mozzarella, pieces of Canadian bacon, crisp green bellpeppers, and thinly sliced mushrooms.  Their pizzas out here are awful so I found a solution, Boboli crusts and my creative cooking imagination.  WAY better than the bitter, alkaline tasting pizza we get from out here.

So, no gym yesterday, but I did hit the dreadmill today(my new fuzzy, warm, term for the 'mill).  5.2 miles today.  Most I've run in a while.  Around 2.5 miles I smiled and just knew that today was a 5 miler type of day.  3.5 I started feeling my oats and getting a little crazy with my headbanging.  I headbang when I run.  Not a lot...just a little...just enough to feel crazy good and motivated.

I polished off the 5 miles smiling and my legs felt warm and good.  

Total mileage:

14.6

I know, it's a far cry from the 20 I have been shooting for but I'll get back to it.  I did do some yoga/pilates cross training this week.  An hour of that will make you long for a steaming bath.

I am STILL in the running, silent cheerleaders, this coming week is full of plenty of miles...not sure about the sunny days, but I will be pounding it out one way or the other.  

Three cheers!?