Hello 200s!

I wish it was eventful. That as soon as I hit 200 miles on my Nike+ that bells and whistles started chiming or confetti was falling all around me but no, it didn't happen. We have an issue with a cat peeing where she shouldn't be peeing. She has decided the corner, where the TM stands, is the perfect spot to do her business. Thankfully, my husband was gracious enough to clean it up and do his best to keep her from peeing there again.

In any case, it is too cold and rainy for me to run outside. so I am stuck on the dreadmill. I don't like the dreadmill. When I was a teenager, I played varsity soccer. I loved soccer. I loved chasing the ball, passing it to other players and I think my favorite year was the one that I played goalie. Well, it was until I let every ball get pass me during a game, even the one that seems to crawl across the line...even I thought I was an idiot that day. Anyway, I digress. Well during the off season they required the soccer players to run track. Yeah, I wasn't going to do that. I saw no point to running around a track. Why run around a track to end up where you started? It just seemed inefficient. And I am all about efficiency aka I am lazy.

So you can imagine my struggle with standing in the same place for over 30 minutes, exerting all this effort and not moving one inch. Are you feeling me now? Fortunately, when I do it on my treadmill in the morning, I get to watch Holmes on Homes on HGTV. No volume required for this show. He walks around, knocking down wall, painting, rewiring and wahla new room. HMMMM yeah that is probably the only benefit.

I have started posting to the Weight Watchers HeavyWeight Runners thread in the Fitness Getting Started Forum. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started posting to it again. It had died out some time in November and when it died so did my desire to run. But with new life in the thread, came new life in my running. I reallythink I need community. What is that saying from the 80's or 90's, "It takes a village?" Yeah that is me. It takes a village to keep this runner running.

It is so wonderful to see new people discovering their running legs. and all their trepidation about running so many minutes or in public. I have so been there. If you read my early posts, I ran on the treadmill because I was scared of the outside world Now I love the outside and struggle with the treadmill. I don't get nervous around other runners, I feel a since of community with them. Once you get into a rhythm of running on certain days and certain times, you will begin to recognize the faces of those who run at the same time. Now I am not saying you become like close family...more like distant cousins who smile and maybe say hi.

1.6 miles...if I only knew

I have to admit that today's run was a surprise. I woke up late and never chose the time to run. But at 3:55pm my friend, Mari, came by my house and wanted to know why I was ignoring her. I really wasn't. In fact, I called her and left messages on her phone.

In any case, she was dressed to run in her Vibram 5 fingers. They looked so cool. I want some. She said it was sorta difficult to run on the trail with them. She found it easier to run the grass next to the trail. But at the end of the run she said the bottom of her feet were a bit sore but her back was not. This is a good thing. She had an accident a few years ago that left her with back pain when she tried to do any walking or running. But she read Born to Run and she was convinced barefoot running was the way to go. So do I but I am chicken. Anyway, she did it and she liked it.

I did my normal course for the trails and ended up with a 2.11 mile run. It felt so good. It was weather like today that confirms to me that I love Seabrook for the mild winters. It was 65 degrees and low humidity. The sun was shining and a small breeze was blowing. Isn't' that perfect? I think so, too. But if I knew I was only 1.6 miles away from crossing the 200 mile threshold, I would have ran some more. Well, I run again on Friday so get ready to celebrate!

I almost talked myself out of it

I woke up this morning at 5:40 am. If you follow my blog, you know that I am not a morning person. But for the past week and a half I get up at 3:40 am and go to bed about 9:30pm. It seems to be working for me. So today waking up at 5:40 felt like a treat.

About 7am I started to debate about running on the treadmill. It was foggy outside so I knew I couldn't go outside to do it. So I decided to just hang out in my bedroom until about 7:40. And then I dropped my daughter off at school.

And here is where I fool myself. I got home and instead of going to work, I threw on my running shoes, strapped on all my monitoring devices and hit the treadmill running before my brain knew what was going on. It felt so much better than what it did two days ago. I felt more at ease. I think the fact that Holmes on Homes was on the big screen helped alot. But I am not going to lie to you...I kept my eye on the mileage and stopped as close to 2 miles as possible. I didn't want to be under but I wasn't worried about being over.

Taking the month or so hiatus really shows in my running. My pace is a bit slower and I slowed down to a fast walk twice. But I know from experience that it will get better. So I am not going to beat myself up over it.

When my hubby got home from work we decided to ride our bikes to the post office and back. By that time, the fog had burned off and the day was beautiful. The trails are still wet from the rain so it was tough plowing through the mud. We decided to take the roads on the way back because...well lets face it...I was tired. By the end of the ride we had covered 3.79 miles. Which brings my total mileage of movement for the day to 5.89 miles. Wuu huu!

She's back and I'm back!

So it has taken me two weeks of getting up at 4am, on and off, to finally work out a schedule where I can make time for a run. My business is so fast paced right now that I barely have time to breathe. But I did it and it felt good.

Well by good, I mean, I didn't die. It was harder than I expected and I just have to face the fact that I lost some of my fitness level by taking a hiatus. But I did it and I had my Nikeplus this time. The last couple of times I ran, I only did a mile and a half and I didn't have my Nikeplus.

For someone, who started running with a Nike+, it is very hard to run without it. I feel alone without my coach telling me my current pace and time. And I love syncing my Ipod and seeing my little runner dance for me. But I am glad she is back, to cheer me on to victory.

My daughter started cross country again. They have ran 2 miles everyday the past few weeks, including the frozen days we had earlier this year. She is my motivation also. So today, my and my husband go for a bike ride when he gets off of work at 8:30 this morning. I can't wait.

Some of my Christmas Gifts

Well the holiday season is over and I am sort of back to a normal routine. To say the least, I finally have some breathing room to make videos and show some of the projects I have made or in the process of making.

Many of you may have or are following Christmas with the Cricut, now called Calendar Girls Holidays with the Cricut. This blog is fabulous. Well over the holidays, I believe it was Mandy that did a project with shadow boxes. I simply loved it! I loved it so much that I made them for my brother and sisters. It is a picture taken at my dad's 80th birthday party. It was the first time in 10 years that one of my sisters has been back to Texas. So it was the first time in 10 years that we all got together. What better way to remember it than to give everyone a beautiful frame with a picture of the occasion? And think out of the box, you can do this for Valentine's day also for a loved one.

Has it been a month?

Wow this past month just flew by. I am glad the holidays are over and time to get back to the real world. So I went running today on the treadmill. It was just too cold outside. I think it was 51 degrees outside. Now, now, I know that may not be cold to you northerners and God bless you for thinking that is warm. But I am in the South and have always lived in the South so it is frigid cold for me. So I ran on the treadmill and I must say, I impressed myself. I found my rhythmn pretty quickly. It felt good. I was sweating but my my heartrate was pretty low.

And then in inevitable but expected happened. My Nike plus froze....again. I have to say I love my Nike plus and it was pretty inexpensive. But you get what you paid for. I don't know if it is my Ipod (that is 3 years old) or my Nike plus but it freezes sometimes or goes silent. Sometimes I can hear the music but the screen is frozen and can't hear my coach. Or I can hear my coach but can't hear my music. so it went silent about 15 minutes into my run. Oh well.

So how many of you do New Years resolutions? I do, every year. Don't last long and then I feel like a failure. So this year I am doing just one. I am going to be a better steward of my time. I plan to start out by going to bed earlier so that I wake up earlier and work out in the morning. Start my work day earlier, so that I finish earlier and have time to cook dinner, a healthy dinner and then some relax time and back to bed earlier. Yes, I will scrapbook but only on certain days. Yes I will blog but only on certain days. TV and internet are time wasters for me. I can spend hours on blogs, forums and watching youtube videos. So I think being a good steward of my time is the key to changing things in my life. What are some of your resolutions?

The Dreadmill was calling and I answered

Yes, I broke down and got on the dreadmill. I hate the dreadmill. It takes a while to get to a comfortable speed, I can't increase and decrease my pace as needed without pushing a button and well I don't like having only one thing to look at...the dusty tree decor. Sure I have the TV on but QVC only had jewelry and HSN had facial products (blah). Did I like it? No, but I did it, so I like me.

On a cute side note: My dog Reba saw me put on my gadgets (Ipod and HRM) and she started jumping up and down. She thinks me putting on my gear equates to her going for a walk. Poor baby, she looked so hurt when I turned on the loud dreadmill and she was left lying on her doggie bed.