Feels Like the First Time

Today I finally got off my lazy bum and went for a run. I have been yearning for a run (crazy, I know) for a while. But every time I thought about going on one, something would come up. Today I decided enough was enough and I went for a run. It is a beautiful day out there! I ended up running 2 miles. It felt pretty good until the last quarter mile or so. I did a route that would end in the woods by our house (I thought that sounded like a nice reward). But I forgot how hilly it is down there! Yikes! But I did it. In 23 1/2 minutes. Not bad for the first time out in ... well, probably about 36 weeks.

It's [was] the Holiday Season!

I love Christmas! Ben is such a dear and willingly turns the radio on during Christmas (something that he usually does not do) just so I can have Christmas tunes following me everywhere.

It started off that we weren't hosting anything this season. But then, Christmas magic happened and we were hosting three events. One was cancelled due to weather. So we were down to two - Christmas morning and a family gathering that took place last weekend. We love to host and it is nice not have to go anywhere. And now the house is clean. :)

Aside from enjoying time off, family time and Christmas, I also completed my 2009 Resolutions. I have made two new recipes every month. I have run 100 miles. It felt great to have goals that stretched the whole year to keep me motivated and going. Now I'm trying to determine some for this year. I had thought about keeping these ones, but does it really count as a resolution if you have already done it? Still pondering that one.

Yummy Surprise

Yesterday Ben told me he was going to make us a tasty treat. He then asked if we had 2/3 cup of Baking Soda at home. ??? That much baking soda? That doesn't sound good at all. He assured me it was good. Ok. Guess we will see about that. He went to work on that while I got a chicken in the oven and went for a run. Side note - the run felt great! I haven't gone on one for too long. I got a PB! Back to the story - I finished getting some sides ready for dinner. Then Ben said he would need my help. He took some of the dough and started rolling into a snake. Any guesses? He then made a loop and a twist and folded it down. Have you figured it out yet? Then we put them in boiling water with baking soda (ah, we are not eating that much baking soda, just using it to boil). Then we brushed the tops with beaten egg yolk. Sprinkled them with some extra coarse salt. Put them in the oven. And.... homemade giant pretzels! They were so good. We almost had a dinner of pretzels instead of chicken.

The Fox and the Hound

Last night Zoey and I were home alone. I had fallen asleep downstairs watching TV (a favorite pastime when Ben is away - no joke, I just can't explain it). All of a sudden I was jerked from my sleep by Zoey barking. She was upstairs and she came running downstairs and kept barking while looking through the sliding door. I got up to investigate. Apparently Zoey does not appreciate it when there is a fox in our yard. I could see the silhouette of it on the hill by the pond. Then I watched it cross the street. Zoey would not settle down right away.

Today I was going to go for a run. Zoey watched while I was putting on my shoes and was getting so excited, that I brought her with. How could I say no to that excited little girl? So, instead of 4 miles we went 3 (her limit). Probably a good idea - didn't realize how humid it is out there. Yuck! Zoey was a very good dog. She didn't bark or pull when we passed people on the trail. Maybe she's finally figured out her manners.

Oh, and last week was Zoey's 6th birthday. I meant to go to McDonald's and get a cheeseburger for her, but I forgot to. So instead she got a rawhide.

Oh, deer! Oh, fawn!

Yesterday we finally kicked ourselves in the butt and went to our old place to evaluate what needs to be done in order to get it rent-able. We were both pleasantly surprised at what we found - everything is still in working order, no vandalism, no animals, and not a whole lot to do. Our plan is to take part of each weekend for the next month to work on stuff. We will be doing a lot ourselves, but we hope to get someone to help with some of the projects that are time consuming. Our goal is to have it ready to go by the end of September.

After working on that, I kicked Ben's butt and convinced him to go on a bike ride with me. We took one of the Regional Trail loops for the most part. It was so pretty! The trail goes through some awesome nature areas. The trail also has a nice mix for up and down hills. It was very fun. As we passed through one area we saw a doe and her fawn. They were so close to use. It was so cool.

Then Ben fixed our garage door. In the morning, I tried to leave to go let out Andrea's dog (she was running in the Ragnar Relay) and the door would only open about 1/3 of the way. So, I used Ben's car (parked in the third stall and a different door). We looked at the door a few times and couldn't figure out what was wrong. After the bike ride, we really wanted to grill and in order to do that we needed the garage door open. So, Ben took another look. Turns out one of the pieces to allow you to lock the door was installed wrong. The bolts had worked themselves loose and the piece had turned to block the last wheel from going up. Ben removed the piece and it works again!

We finished up the day with root beer floats with my parents. Today will be doing new house stuff... mainly laundry. I'm hoping to get a run in too. We'll see.

Star Gazing

The other night Ben woke me up so we could watch some shooting stars. We grabbed a blanket and a pillow and headed to our front yard to watch (our new neighbor friend, Cassie, might think we are weird since she witnessed us setting up). It was a pretty nice night out. No bugs and slightly cool. We were out there for about an hour looking at the sky and talking. We probably saw about a dozen shooting stars. Not nearly the number we were expecting, but that's ok - it was still way cool.

The other night Ben and I made Mango Chicken with Coconut Rice. So yummy! And just like that, I've made two recipes already this month. :) Anybody have other uses for fish sauce?

Last weekend, Heather and I did another triathlon. I learned a few things - 1. Training makes things easier (so I will train before I do another one) 2. Red Wing has some terrible hills. But I suppose overall it was fun. Next time in addition to actually training, I think we will pick one closer to home. On the road by 5:45 am is not that much fun.

Whooah, we're half way there

Last Friday night we threw Andrea a surprise half birthday party. Her real birthday is close to Christmas and a few months back she commented to me that she doesn't like when her birthday is because people forget about it since they're so busy with the holidays. So, I thought it would be fun to throw a surprise half birthday party. The beauty was that she had no clue whatsoever. It was so much fun! We ate, played Catch Phrase (still not a fan of the scoring) and Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I was the party pooper and kicked everyone out. But it was 2 am, so I think that it was ok (especially considering I had been up since 5 am).

On Monday, I ran 4 miles. It's only note worthy because it put me over half way to my goal of running 100 miles this year. Only 48 to go!

And, I'm also half way through my recipe resolution. For June I made Spicy Halibut thanks to my wonderful husband who caught it in Alaska. The fish was fantastic! The spice combination was only ok. We used some of the leftovers to make fish quesadillas. That was pretty good. The second recipe was for the half birthday party. Andrea loves baked brie, so I decided to make it. It was super easy, and I thought pretty good. It was just a round of brie "frosted" with sour cream and then brown sugar, pecans and butter on top. Yum!

I'm Still Alive!

Yesterday I successfully completed my first sprint triathlon (1/2 mile swim, 15 mile bike and 5 mile run). I was very scared about this for a number of reasons: 1. My first time. 2. I haven't really trained for the last two weeks with Vegas and family visiting. 3. It was my first time on a bike in a very long time (trained on a stationary bike and picked up a rental the day before my event). 4. Hadn't made it up to running 5 miles in training.... So, yeah. I was nervous. Honestly my goal was to finish. I wasn't worried about the time. I had figured that I wanted to complete it in 2 hours and 32 minutes + transitions since that would be the pace that I have had while training. My end time - 2 hours and 38 minutes (including transitions)! And this does include Andrea and I not finding the bike trail and biking an extra mile on streets (re: stop lights). I am very happy with my time!

The swim was harder than I thought it would be. I think this was partly because I haven't been swimming in weeks. I will definitely be better about swimming in the future especially since next time the swim probably won't be in a pool that I can use the ends to push off from. But, when I finished the swimming portion, my time was 3 minutes faster than the last time I trained for it, so that might explain why it was killing me.

The bike was great! Aside from not being able to figure out the map, the biking went very well. I felt pretty good. Towards the end my wrists were unhappy and my butt was sore, but it went well. Next time I will make sure I know the course. Although, since this was so small of an event (41 people) there weren't any signs. I'm assuming an official Tri would have some sort of markings.

The run went better than expected. I figured that since it was last I would be dying. But Andrea and I had a good pace and were able to keep it up despite hills at mile 3. Midway through the run I started to get blisters on my arches. I had put some body glide on after my swim, but it didn't help much. My theories are that my body absorbed it since my skin was wet, my socks absorbed it since it was so long between application and when I needed it or that it plain just wore off. Next time I think I will go back to Vaseline.

When we were nearing the last bit, we started to here bagpipes. Turns out they were for us! Every finisher had bagpipes (live) to bring them in. It was so cool! There was a lady that asked if Andrea and I were doing the "with a kick" version. When we said yes, she told us to kick it in. So Andrea and I took off sprinting for the last bit. It was awesome. It was a bit tricky stopping and not running into the people and bikes. Also at the finish line were Ben, David, Heather (who finished her shorter course before us) and Wanda (who also did the shorter course). It was so nice to have some fans at the finish line.

For me, this will not have been my first and last tri. I really did enjoy it, and hopefully will be doing it again sometime soon. Andrea and Heather and I are thinking about doing another one in August up in Glenwood. I think it would be fun to do a lake weekend with a Tri thrown in.

(Heather - Sorry that I didn't write much about you! But you did awesome! I am so proud of you!!).

Summoned

The other day in the mail I got a letter from the 4th District Court... I have been summoned for jury duty! I have to say I'm a little excited. I kind of hope that I get picked so I can have an inside look at our judicial system. My two weeks start on June 29. There is a call-in option that I will do. That way, I just call twice a day to see if they need me to show up. If so, off to the courthouse. If not, it's just work as usual.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. It started off with a nice little run (4 miles!!!) - well, really it started with bringing our house guest to the airport at 5 am, then going back to bed. But anyway. Then we went on Grant's boat. It was really windy and a little cool, but we ended up in a little bay that was sheltered. Great fun! Then it was off to David's MBA grad party. So excited for David to have more free time. After that we met up with Grant for a little downtown action.

And now I'm trying to figure out what to feed 6 people for lunch... :)

Swimming Lessons

The other night (last week) I looked out into the pond and saw 3 Canada Geese families out for a swim. This was the first time that I saw the little goslings. So cute! Since then we have seen them out several times. Boy, do they grow up fast!

Ben and I have been going swimming a few times a week. It is mildly frustrating. The schedule only has lap swim time from 6-7 pm and 9-9:45 pm. Prior to the 6 time slot is swimming lessons. After the slot is water aerobics. (Meaning no lanes open. Other times are just reduced number of lanes). The last time we were there there was a private swimming lesson taking up one lane, kids swimming in another lane, leaving only 3 lanes open for the 7-9 people wanting to swim laps. When we got out of the pool there were about 5 people standing around waiting for their turn to swim. Super annoying! I am seriously thinking about switching to the 9 pm swim time.

If the Swim Doesn't Kill Me

I just might finish the triathlon. Tonight was my first swim training session. Yikes! I need some work! Heather totally kicked my butt. She's very efficient at that whole front crawl thing. I can do it lifeguard style (head out of water) but not the "real" way. I tried it several times tonight. I think I might need to ask some swimmers some pointers on how to breathe. My legs were fine, my arms were OK, but my breathing was my issue. But, since this was my first swim in a long time, I'm not upset. I just hope that Saturday's swim is a little better. I did manage to swim 26 laps (Heather did 35 in the same time).

April Update

For Easter I made a Key Lime Pie Poke Cake from Betty Crocker. It was pretty tasty. I count this as my second recipe of the month. Ben said that I should only count main dish recipes. What do you think? Just in case he's right, in May I will do three recipes. So, to kick things off right, the other night we grilled some salmon. We made a rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper, and other seasonings. It was great! We used the leftovers for a salad.

On the weight loss progress... India kind of threw me for a loop. I didn't exercise at all while I was there (one day I swam 3 laps, but I don't think that really counts). But I am down 3 pounds from where I started. I think this next little bit will be a challenge. Since I'm training for the tri I am a lot more active. But I don't want to sacrifice muscle so I am trying to eat enough to keep my body in good shape. We'll see what happens.

5k Fun

Last Saturday was the annual Run of the Mills (ROTM). It's a 5k race for families and friends of GMI. Team Tortoise was once again a part of the fun. This year we were going to dress up as the four elements, but none of us were really feeling it. So we came up with a better plan - Ninjas vs. Pirates! Katie and I were the dashing pirates and Dawn and Andrea were the stealthy ninjas.

We had joked about having little battles during the race. Turns out we did exactly that. Andrea was having some wardrobe malfunctions (shoe kept untying). So while she was fixing her issue, the rest of us had little fights (because of course we were running with weapons!). Mile 2 Dawn and Katie had to start walking. Both have bum knees. Andrea and I decided to keep running since really the 5k was our workout for the day for our triathlon training. As we neared the finish we kicked it into high gear and sprinted. It was so fun because all of our friends were cheering/heckling us. We went back to run through the finish with the rest of the team. When Dawn and Katie started to sprint, we stopped and just cheered.

Our official results? Andrea and I tied. Katie and Dawn tied. So the question remains: In battle, who will triumph - Ninjas or Pirates?

April Recap

I know, I know. I'm such a slacker. It's close enough to the middle of the month that I figured I would just do a quick recap of what's been going along re: goals.

Cooking: We ended March with Grilled Taco-Barbecue Chicken from Betty Crocker. Of course, I made some changes. We wanted to try out the rotisserie attachment on our grill, so we did a whole chicken instead of just breasts. It was pretty darn tasty. Although, Ben said he could do without the cumin in his BBQ sauce.
My first recipe for April was White Chili from Recipezaar.com. I only had one can of chilies on hand, other than that, I followed the recipe! But next time I would use two cans as it wasn't quite zippy enough for us.

Weight-Loss: I have remained steady. I suppose that means I should get my butt in gear. We think Zoey is down a pound or so. Today we went to the doggie park for the first time this year. She had a blast running around and playing with other pups.

I guess that's about it. Hope you have/had a great Good Friday.

You Know it's Been a Long Time When...

You know it's been a long time since you have been running when:
1. You can't remember how to put the harness on your dog.
2. You can't remember what your 2 mile route is, so you end up on the 1.5 mile route, which is ok because,
3. You and your dog are ready to stop after 1.5 miles.

Yesterday Zoey and I took advantage of the beautiful morning and went for our first run of the season. It was so nice to be outside! This weather is perfect - not too cold or warm to run, and comfortable to be outside without a jacket. I love it! Too bad the forecast claims it won't last. But it's Minnesota, so what do I expect?

After the run, I went on the exercise bike. Yes, I'm insane. But for a reason - my friend Andrea and I are going to be doing a mini triathlon this June. The tri is .5 mile swim, 15 mile bike ride and 5 mile run. It's called "Swim-Bike-Run Like a Girl With a Kick." Andrea did it last year and had fun. This year they are offering the "with a kick" version - longer distances - and somehow she "convinced" me to do the longer one. I figure this is a great one to get my feet wet with. It's low competition, and you swim in a pool instead of a lake (so if you get tired you can take a break), and it's fairly low cost compared to others. I'm looking forward to it.

Miles run this year: 7.9 miles. Miles to goal: 92.1.

Week 5 Results

During Week 5 I rode our exercise bike for a total of 150 minutes and 29 miles. And it's a good thing that I started exercising again: May 2 is the annual Run of the Mills 5k run and then somehow Andrea managed to talk me into doing a mini triathlon on June 13. Time to really get this butt in gear! Since the start of my diet/life change I have lost 3 pounds.

Last night I played volleyball. My mom slightly freaked out when she found out that I was playing (concern for my back). During the middle of the third game I thought to myself, "Huh, how would I get home if I threw my back out again?" Thankfully everything was fine. We lost, but I am still in one piece.

I forgot to post last week about a new recipe I tried: Barley and Vegetable Saute from Betty Crocker. It was pretty darn healthy and not bad. Ben's comments were: "I've never seen so many Lima beans in one place before." and "This looks like peasant food." But he ate it several times (it made a lot) since it was low in calories, high in protein and pretty filling.

A Million Things

Ok, not quite. But since it has been a long time since I have posted, this might turn out to be a long one. :)
1. Today was day 1 of being drug free. Getting out of the car and bending too far forward or backward still causes some pain, but everything else is great! So glad to be back to normal. As I am able to move more I will start to add back stretches and exercises to strengthen those muscles to hopefully prevent any more outages.
2. Holding steady/down slightly on my weight. Overall I am down almost 2 pounds from when I started. My cardio has just been on the exercise bike since I haven't been able to jump in too deep with a sore back yet. Hope to get back to my videos this week.
3. The other day when I was at the kitchen sink I looked out the window and saw a very impressive sized pheasant. Moments later he flew away with his hen. How cool!
4. Zoey went to the vet yesterday. She has gained 12 pounds since last year. Yikes! It's a combo of not running 2-3 miles each morning (at our old house she got free rain of the woods for our morning walk. Now she is on the leash for a brisk 1 mile walk), and she seems to love her food. We used to just fill her bowl whenever and she would just eat what she was hungry for. Now she'll eat whatever we put out for her. So, we are back to measuring her food. When the weather improves we will start taking her to the dog park again so she can run. In a few months we will take her back for a weigh in.
5. I found out yesterday that I am for sure going to India in April for work. I am so excited to have the chance to be going back there. The hard part will be to work while there. I have such wonderful friendships with so many over there that I truly wish I could just hang out with them. But alas, as long as the General is footing the bill, I will have to be productive.
6. I'm supposed to be working on my book and sales page and stuff. But I'm feeling a little lazy, so I'm wasting time by updating my blog. Not that this is a waste of time, it's just that I'm "supposed" to be doing something else.
Ok, so I only made it to 6 things, not a million. Oh, well. I doubt you would have made it past #100. :)

Week 3 Results

Due to my back occupying most of my time, I haven't done much. I haven't even weighed myself recently, so I have no clue how I'm doing on that. I'm hoping to get back on track for Week 4.

As a side note, this is my 100th post.

Week 2 Results

I know I'm a few days behind on reporting this, but better late than never, right? Week 2 I started to add more cardio to my life. I have been starting off slowly as my back still isn't 100% (maybe slipping on ice every couple of days has something to do with it). Anyway, twice I biked for 20 minutes followed by a 20 minute ab workout. This is in addition to weekly volleyball and M-F walks. I have also kept up with my small changes that I made in week 1.

For my weight tracking, I have been using an average for the week. It probably makes more sense to do a moving average, but for now, this is how I am tracking my progress.

Results: I am down about a pound. :)

Week 1 Results

It has been over a week since I have decided to be proactive about my health. And it's a good thing too. I got my lab results back and my cholesterol is high. I'm not too surprised since last year it was high too, but I am surprised because it doesn't make sense to me: no family history, I'm at a healthy weight, I don't smoke, I am somewhat active. But my HDL (the good stuff) is at a great level, so for now my doctor isn't worried about it and we will continue to monitor it.

This past week my back has been not happy, so I haven't hit the cardio like I planned. It is feeling a lot better, so today I will start with the exercise. Since I was somewhat immobile, this week I started making small changes to my life. For example, it is pretty much guaranteed that by 10 am I am hungry. Usually I grab a few small candies from the candy dish at work. This week I brought a container of dried apricots to munch on instead. I know that I'm not "saving" calories by doing this, but apricots provide better nutrition than refined sugar (shocking!). At night I have been known to have a bowl of ice cream. This week I have been having pudding instead. This is saving some calories and it is also a better source of calcium. And the final change is that I have gotten into the habit of having pop with dinner. This week I have been purposefully choosing water some of the time instead.

Results: No weight loss yet. No inches lost yet. But that is what I expected.