Momentum Monday: Drop the guilt

Hello Monday...we meet again.  Anyone else have terrible sleep like me last night?  Not fitfull but so light that I feel like I didn't sleep at all.  Oh well. 

This week is a short week for many of us with Thanksgiving on Thursday and most businesses closed on Friday (not mine, I'll be doing my Black Friday shopping then going straight to work. I know...Black Friday shopping, don't judge, you do it too.)  This week is usually packed at work full of things to do and get accomplished before everyone leaves for the holiday, making this week that much more stressful for all.

Then we get to Thanksgiving and most of us go on autopilot with our eating.  Grazing during the day on snacks sitting out while watching football, extra helpings of your favorite dish(es) during the big dinner thinking "hey, I only get this once a year, I can have more", indulging in dessert(s) even when your belly is already stuffed full of the dinner feast and promptly falling asleep due to our food induced comas.  Then the next day we get a giant old helping of...

guilt.

Why did I eat all that?  Why did I have more stuffing and gravy?  Did I really eat a quarter of the pumpkin pie...WITH whipped cream?  Ugh... 

It's the same song and dance we tend to do every year, we are excited and happy and social on this day of Giving Thanks, then we inevitably have the day of Feeling Guilty afterwards.  Vicious cycle, no?  How about we change it up a bit and do something for ourselves to keep our day of guilt as a day of Thanksgivings past.

If you know yourself, like I know myself, I will indulge on this day, not to the extent I illustrated above, but I will eat things I normally would not.  So my plan is to make my run a bit longer on Thanksgiving morning to help curb my feelings of guilt on Friday.  I will rise earlier and add another mile or two to my scheduled run for that day so I will not feel guilt about eating these items and not doing my job to exercise.  So that is why today's Momentum Monday is this:

I'm not saying that you should reward yourself with food (I believe in rewarding yourself with other things so you don't attach triumph to food products), I am saying that your reward for working out that day or adding just a bit more to your normal workout is to let yourself not feel guilty for having this short lived indulgence.  Leave the guilt on the road when you run, on the floor of the gym where you lift, on the mat where you did yoga or wherever you worked out that day.  Allow yourself to enjoy your workout and enjoy the holiday goodies, and kick the guilt to the curb.

End of Week 7 Half Marathon training

Well it is the end of week 7 of my training and it's crazy to think that Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday and then the end of November.  Where did this month go?  These weeks, which seemed like they would go on forever, seem to be flying by and I can't do anything but hang on and try to enjoy the ride. 

This week's training was hampered by the visit of shark week, so my runs were not as consistent as I would have liked them to be.  Let's take a look at the schedule:

Tuesday: 30 minute run/walk
Thursday: 30 minute run/walk
Friday: 6 mile long run

As I had mentioned in my previous week's training recap, I was signed up for a 5K on Saturday, so I switched my mileage from 6 miles to 3 miles to keep consistent with what my schedule had going on.

So Tuesdays run was scrapped completely, the sharks were invading and I could barely walk let along try to go on a run.  Boo hiss...I wonder if I'll ever get a Tuesday run in during my training.  So far I'm 1 for 6.

Then Thursday was much better and I went on a run with my work ladies at our usual spot.  It was a chilly one, but we bundled up and headed out on the trail.  NONE of us were feeling this run and we were all struggling to keep a good pace.  We were supposed to do intervals, but my acid reflux had flared up a few days before and I wanted to keep this run nice and even.  So we just decided to run and let our bodies decide the pace.  The three of us ended up taking the lead during the three miles and it was nice to have someone pushing the pace.  By the last mile we were pushing the pace much harder than I thought we were and finished that mile in 10:41!!  That is probably the fastest mile I've ever had and it felt AWESOME!  Needless to say, this run was a good one!

Saturday was my 5K, I was running the 1st annual Mustache Dache with a group of local Seattle blogger ladies.  It was costumes and mustaches galore and a fun time to boot!  I'll save the details for my recap in a couple of days, but just to give you a tidbit of information, it was a big day for me in my timing!  It was a fun run and I treated it as such, though knowing what my timing was, I wonder if I raced it what my time would actually be.  Hhhhmmm...guess only time will tell, considering I'm running the Jingle Bell Dash 5K in 3 weeks, (my raceiversary) we'll see how I do when I put my racing mojo to work!

So that is it for me.  This week was less than stellar, but I got out and did the work, ran my butt off and had a great time with friends, old and new!  Now the focus on this week is HUGE because Turkey Day is on Thursday, I think I may run a couple miles more on Thursday, just so I can have a big helping of stuffing! :)

End of Week 6 Half Marathon training

Thought I would do a bit of a catch up on my training from the past two weeks, since last week I was on hiatus.  A lot and not a lot had happened during the previous weeks training, so let's break it down, shall we?

Week 6 training schedule looked like this:

Tuesday:  30 minute run/walk
Thursday: 30 minute run/walk
Saturday: 3 miles

Last week was RI-DICU-LOUS at work and I just didn't have a lot of time to do anything else but work.  Tuesday was a fail, I didn't get out to run, I was at work until almost 7pm (I start at 6:15am) and I just couldn't do it.

Wednesday I signed up for a class at Flywheel Seattle - SLU, they were holding a charity ride to help raise money for the American Red Cross efforts with Storm Sandy.  It was the first time I had taken a class from Tommy and man, did he kick my butt!!!  I was so woosie from such a hard workout when I left, that when I got into my car I scarfed down the free bag of Popchips and banana I had picked up at Flywheel and guzzled all of my water.  Needless to say I had to chill in my car for a couple of minutes before I could drive home!  Well played Tommy, well played.

Thursday my friend Danielle was up for a run and with a meet up time of 5:30 it forced me to stop working to go run.  We headed over to Myrtle Edwards and did a 5K loop.  It. Was. COLD!  Brrr...my toes were frozen for most of the run (I need to get some warmer socks!!), but it was a good run.  We had fun just talking and working on this distance.  We will be running the Jingle Bell Dash on December 9th and want to have a good finish time for this 5K, so during our short runs during the week we are concentrating on speed!  We finished in 38 minutes, not great, but not bad, something to work on.

Saturday was my long run day, on the schedule was 3 miles.  I decided to switch my days because I was signed up for a 5K on the 17th (which is the next Saturday) so I switched the mileage and decided to take on 6 miles.  I was running with Danielle around Lake Union which is conveniently 6 miles.  She was only running 5 miles that day, so we decided that we would start together and that when we got to 5 miles, she would stop and walk the rest of the way and I would continue on for the last mile.
The first couple of miles was the challenge, it was so tough, for both of us.  Our bodies were just not having it, but we pushed on and ran and ran and ran.  I never really got into a rhythm at all during the run.  I did try a new fuel Honey Stinger Chews, they were okay, I'm going to write a review about them later.

We got to the point where we split and I took on the last mile on my own, it was hard but not as hard as I thought it would be.  My pace stayed the same instead of slowing down and I made it to the end point much quicker than I thought I would, but I also was in trouble.  I needed to find a bathroom...and FAST!  This was the first time I had encountered that extremely urgent need to find a bathroom and all the businesses around there were closed, there was no where to go and I had no idea how long it would take Danielle to catch up to me.  Her house is just a block away and I needed to get there...NOW!  She caught up and we walked to her place and I asked to use her bathroom and proceeded to punish it.  Gross I know, I lit a candle in her bathroom for her, it was bad, but I'm glad that I had a place to go because I never would have made it home if I'd driven right afterward.

Me after my 6 miles.  Good, but spent!  Those were probably the best 6 miles I'd run ever, despite my body rebelling against the run.  The other times I'd attempted 6 miles were during 10K races and I always ended up walking a lot more and feeling bad about my time.  This time we stuck to our 9:1 run/walk ratio and it worked really well (that damn one minute walk is so short!!), we got through the mileage quicker than I thought we would and I felt great afterward, well except for the whole bathroom thing.

This next week would be much easier, same schedule but 3 miles for my long run day, a 5K race, woohoo!!   That's it for now!

"The Jam" Thursday - What is blowing up my iPod

It's Thursday and technically my Friday as tomorrow is my day off and beginning of my three day weekend (I know, you can start hating me now, done? Okay, let's proceed.).  On Saturday I'll be running with some local Seattle bloggers at the Mustache Dache in Magnuson Park and I'm so excited to get out and run the course with these fantastic ladies.  Hopefully I can keep up, they are all MUCH faster than I am!  It will be fun to recap that later.

Today is one of my fun days on here where I feature "The Jam" of the week.  These are songs that get my booty bumping and my legs pumping.  Today's song is a common summer staple on the Top 40 radio channels and was released about 5 years ago.  I can't help but turn the volume up the moment I hear the first beats of the song playing.  I'm instantly smiling and bopping my head around, getting into the music.  It's fun and sassy, two things I like to say I am (you be the judge) and I always have fun with this song.

So today I present:

Whine Up - Kat DeLuna

This is a fun song that always blows up my iPod, especially when I'm running.  I get some good energy and have fun with my run while listening.  I hope you enjoy this song and it helps propel you with good energy through your weekend.  Whether you are racing, resting or have a long run planned with your besties, get out there and enjoy your time.  Whether it is with your family, friends or some quality by yourself, enjoy this time to focus and regroup, the holidays are coming and we all need as much sanity as we can muster!

Have a great Thursday!

Time: Friend or Foe?

Time can be a fickle thing.  We may think we have plenty of it, only to watch it slip right through our fingers and we hadn't accomplished anything yet.  Other times we feel like we don't have enough and then come to find out, we had more than could ever have been wished for.

Work got insane for me almost a month ago and hasn't really let down since.  I work until past my time to leave almost every night and come back in the morning feeling like I hadn't gotten anything done the day before.  The piles of work still keeps growing and I feel like I'm drowning in work.  It invades my dreams and I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about something that hasn't been done.

The extra time spent at work has effected my home life as well; like you didn't already know that.  I'm at home for a couple short hours before I have to be in bed to start the whole cycle again.  The stressful time at work should help me sleep, but I find my sleep more fitfull then before.  I also don't get quality time with my hubby (our opposite schedules don't help the situation either), and it has taken a toll on both of us emotionally and physically.  The absence of your partner takes a toll on your body for sure.

The stress of work also kept me from my love of blogging and being "plugged in" to social media.  I was hardly ever on Twitter or Facebook and I didn't even get one post up all week.  I felt like I had let myself down.  I appreciate everyone who comes here and reads my posts, as this is catharsis for me and having the ability to share with others makes me happy.  That happiness dimmed a bit this past week and I'm desperately trying to claw my way back in.

The extra time at work has taken a toll on my workouts as well.  Staying late doesn't give me much time to get my runs in and it bugs me to no end, considering running is what I do to help get through stress and shake it off.  The fact that I'm adding more stress and neglecting the very thing that helps to mitigate it to my body has really effected me and I hate it.

Now we are getting into the holiday season where time doesn't feel like sand running through your fingers, but rather like water.  It goes SO fast and we are constantly trying to shove more things into our schedules during this time, no wonder we all get so frazzled.  We drink too much coffee because we aren't getting enough sleep, we overeat because we give in to all the temptations and treats around us, we indulge in lots of high calorie beverages (alcohol especially) during the numerous social gatherings we squeeze into our already hectic schedule.  It's a wonder we make it through this time of year in one piece!

With all this coming up and all that we will inevitably face through the end of the year, how much time will you spend that you wish you would have spent on something more beneficial, rather than the holiday rat race? 

For me, I will work on my time management to turn off my computer earlier and get that extra snuggle time with my hubby.  I will work on setting time limitations at work so that I can leave on time each day and continue with my training schedule for my half marathon.  I will be more cognizant of what I put into my body so that I enjoy the holiday in moderation and not be angry with myself for adding extra "jolly" weight.

Time may not be on our sides, but we can certainly do all we can to maximize what time we do have available.