Crack Open a Beer, This is a Long One

**Discaimer.  I have no clue why the damn pictures are sideways. 

Ahhhhh, time to sit back, relax, and write my year in review.

Ask me if I care that it's before 1pm.

 

You might be thinking "Year in review?  It's only mid-November!".  You might be thinking "How did I land on this stupid blog?"  Well, my racing year is over and I had a spare 15 minutes to catalog my shirts and medals, so just shut your face hole and chill out.

 

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?  I started marathon training January 1 on a crazily cold day.  It was good practice for my first race of the year, the Seroogy's Valentine Run 15K

 

 

A super cold race (seriously -5 at the start) run on snowy roads.  An ill-fitting shirt, a chocolate bar, some sub-standard cheese spread, and a cup of lukewarm cocoa.  Totally worth it.

 

Ah, the Dick Lytie.  I wrote a whole post on how much this race pissed me off.  Check the archives.  Just a cotton shirt in a color that looks slightly dirty.  I do dig the logo, though.  Much better than last year.



 

No clue why this thing is rotated.  Oh well.  March also held the Point Bock Run, which was super fun.  It snowed heavily the night before and the course was so damn sparkly.  I put up a PR for a 5 miler on this one, and smoked my husband.  Big winner all around.  Also free beer.

 



 

The Door County half marathon.  It's such a pretty race, even though it was kinda cruddy for me this year.  I was a tad overconfident.  The shirt is decent, but it's tech, and traditionally this race had cotton shirts.  I got some wear out of this one at least, and it won't end up in my throw away pile.

 

My failed Cellcom Green Bay marathon attempt.  Stupid heat.  Look at that kick ass medal.  Now it's a damn coaster.  Still don't know what to do with the thing.  I've decided that I'm going to volunteer at this one in 2013 instead of run.  Two bad years in a row = done running Cellcom for a while.  I've never volunteered a race before, and I might as well start at home!

 

Ragnar Chicago. The Panty Raiders.  The start of a serious Ragnar addiction.  I loved the experience of running this race with the women on our team, but the race itself did nothing for me.  It was brutally hot.  The lakeshore was pretty, but I didn't run on it so I didn't care, and the finish line was a total clusterfuck.  Still, Ragnar is a phenomenal experience.  Run one, okay?

Ragnar Great River.  The perfect Ragnar experience.  Beautiful weather, a busload of superfun teammates (all complete strangers), and a great finish time due to perfect performances by all team members.  Fuel for my Ragnar fire.  The fact that you get a sweet ass double medal for Chicago + GR was awesome too.  Look at that thing.  It's epic.

 

Oh yeah, between those Ragnars I ran a marathon.  I'd reorder the page, but that's a lot like work.  It was an inaugural-the HFM Maritime Marathon.  A wonderful event.  Run it.  You get a free brat, some good beer, and ice cream!  The shirt fits like a bag and the medal is a little flimsy, but hey, it was their first year.  I'm still happy I went for it and did this one.  I'll do it again.

I did the Packers 5K in here somewhere.  Can't find that shirt anywhere, which sucks becuase it's kind of a nice cotton shirt.  It's bright yellow, too. 

 

The Fox Citites Marathon Relay.  The Drug Dealin' Divas.  This was a great, great time.  We are all in the same department and we had a blast supporting each other.  It was my first marathon relay, but it won't be my last.  No beer at the finish, so boo on that, but the shirt is decent and the medal is really nice, too.  

 

 

The Cruisin' the Corridor (ie Whistlestop) 10K.  This pullover is actually really nice, but I wish the stitching was in a contrasting color.  The 5K and 10K aren't technically "Whistlestop" events, since they are run by a different group, but the happen simultaneously.  The 5 and 10K benefit the library.  I love to run, I love books.  Double win.  The day was gray for this one, and I had Cyprus Hill running through my head throughout:

 

"The sky up ahead's like a canvas of gray.  I don't know how much time I'll be given to stay.  From the first break of light to the end of the day, I'm just living my live 'til they come carry me away."

 

That is a great song.  And it touched something in me that morning.  

The Fall 50.  Love this race, in spite of the terrible parking and overcrowdedness.  One day I'm going to do this bitch as a solo.  Then that Mr. T starter kit of a medal?  Is gold, mofo.  I've been doing this race for 3 years with the same team of awesome, funny, kind, and ridiculously tall people.  Love you, Bonnies!

 

The Tyranena beer run.  Dude.  It says "Beer Run" on the shirt.  Win.  Brooks Cadence out for their inaugural half.  Verdict:  They felt good throughout.

 

Ragnar Tennessee.  Cold and hot and narrow and steep and uneven and dark and scary and hilarious and awesome and terrible.  We got some free swag from Glimmer Gear, we ate fantastic donuts, I consumed copious amounts of pork.  Personally I came out of it unscathed, with nothing more than a slightly achy left arch.  Note to self:  Brooks Cadence are not up to a quasi-ultra Ragnar when you are a "heavy runner" (which I am, being a whopping 162lbs).  I ran 4 legs for a total of around 21 miles on this one.  I was not sore, I was not stiff, I had no pain.  The same can't be said for everyone else!

 

So that's it.  That was my year.  Know what I learned?  I deeply, truly need to clean out my closet.  I have more running clothes and shoes than regular clothes and shoes.  The Athleta catalog causes a feeling I can only describe as lust in my heart.

 

Actually, what I learned is that I really love running.  I do.  It sparks something in me.  I feel alive when I'm running.  Free.  Even shitty runs are amazing.  I walk taller on days I've been out for a run, I feel healthier, happier.  My children can tell by my clothes that I'm headed out for a run and they say "You go run, Mommy?  I wave on the porch!" and as I run down the driveway, Charlie raises his little fist in the air and shouts "Run fast, Mommy!!".  When I come home, Lily asks me "Did you have a good run, Mommy?"  I love that I can set this example for them.  That physical activity for the love of it will be part of their normal. 

 

So far for next year I've got one half, two fulls, and a Ragnar on the calendar.  That seems a little thin...I'll have to flesh it out with a bunch of 5Ks, 10Ks and half marathons.  I mean, I'm going to need some new shirts, right?

 

Anyone reading this-I have 4 spots still open on my Ragnar Niagara/Ontario team.  It's next June, and it's going to be amazeballs.  You know you want to.



Panty Raiders Reunion (and other sh*t)!

The Tyranena Beer Run.  A beautiful, rolling course through neighborhoods, down farm roads, and along the Glacial Drumlin trail.  An "unofficial" beer stop, a huge lasagna dinner, and two free pints of delicious Wisconsin beer.

Oh, and these bitches.

We are a group of awesome, aren't we?

 

 

I missed out on the slumber party aspect of the weekend, what with my bizarro work schedule and the need to find an all day sitter for my boat load of little kids.

 

 

Seriously, woman, this is all you got?

 

The medal was huge, and the post race meal was great.  It was super fun to see all my Ragnar ladies again.  We even planned another reunion in May at the Wisconsin half marathon!  I will do my best to make sure I can participate in ALL the weekend's hijinx for that one. 

 

So how did I do? 2:27:30.  I was happy with that.  I did the first 10 miles at a pretty good clip, then decided that I had no reason to leave it all out on the course (still had to go home and parent a crap load of little kids solo, after all) and finished out at a walk/run.  I was also grievously undertrained, so the fact that I felt good the whole time and finished under 2:30 was reason to celebrate.

 

So was the discounted take away beer at the finish line.

 

Overall, Tyranena is worth running.  Do it.  It fills up fast, so make sure you get on it right away!

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

In other running news, I competed in the Fox Cities Marathon Relay with a group of women from work.  We were the Drug Dealin' Divas and we had a great time.  I ran the anchor leg (because it was the longest one and "You do this all the time" even though there were several ladies on the team that routinely run half marathons!!!) in 1:02:?? and we finished as a team in 4:50:28.  I was very proud of my teammates, one of whom is a brand new runner who had never run 5 miles in a row before that day, one that had just recovered from a broken foot, and one that just went through a major medical issue.  We got custom shirts from My Race Ragz, the same company that provided the extra awesome Panty Raiders shirts displayed above.  We had so much fun that we'll probably do it again next year!

 





It was cooooooooold at the start!!

It was an ankle strap chip.  Getting some help with the hand off!

 

 

My loving husband and I took a trip to Ashland/Bayfield for the Whistlestop in October.  We just ran the 10K, because I needed a new PR (which I got with 1:01:33 gun time-no pad at the start) and played around in the area.  It was fun, beautiful, and very relaxing.

 

We played 18 holes in 31 degrees.  It was awesome.

 

 





We also did the Fall 50 (beautiful as always) without getting DQ'd this year.  In my opinion, that race is getting too big, but that's a post for another day.

 

Lesseee....what else?  Oh yeah, I ran another Ragnar.  I wrote a post about it, but it disappeared.  I have to get up the ambition to write it again, so stay tuned.

 

I am officially on running hiatus until February.  I never took my summer hiatus, so I'm ready for the break.  My goals for the interim are to CrossFit it up and go all Paleo crazy (my sister got a seasonal job at Neuske's...can you say DISCOUNT BACON?!?!?!?) until it's time to start marathon training.  I want to clean 125lbs and deadlift more than my bodyweight (170lbs would be 5lbs above my bodyweight, you nosey bitch) by Feb. 1.  I figure if I can get lean and mean, I can pick up some speed and finish my next marathon a hell of a lot faster than my first! 

 

I'm sure I will run.  I can't resist a cold snowy run, but I won't be specifically training for anything for a while.  In December, the hubs and I are going to to the 21 day sugar detox.  That should be interesting.  But hey, if I want to be a MILF, sacrifices must be made. 

 

I'm also thinking of organizing all my medals and race shirts from this year into a "My Year in Review" post.  Something tells me I won't get around to it, but you can't fail if you don't try :)

 

Do you take a yearly running hiatus, or do you train train train? 

 



Time Keeps on Slippin'.....

The last couple of weeks have been hectic around here.  With illness, out-of-town shenanigans, new training programs (mine and husband's), and gulp birthdays, we've had our hands full. 

Today was little Miss Lily's first day of "real" school.  She had half day 4K last year, but now she's legit.  A backpack, a lunch card, and school fees = big kid.

She was SO EXCITED.  No first day jitters at all.

 

She was completely taken with all things Kindergarten. Her main concern was going back tomorrow, namely, if she would be allowed to.  She practically fainted with glee when I told her she'd be going every week day.  I'm glad she likes school.  I always liked it.  The glasses make her look so much older!

 

You may remember that we have been potty training the boys.  Overall, it's going well.  Pat is pretty much trained, to the point that he knows how to work the system to get the rewards.  Rewards include stickers for urinating without wetting underpants and suckers for poop that lands in the toilet without hitting the pants.  Stickers have lost their appeal.  He will pee completely independently when he has a mind.  Suckers?  He fucking loves suckers.  So much so that he has figured out how to poop out just enough to get the sucker, then wait a bit, and repeat.  He can poop on demand!! 

 

 

I poop, Mom.  Me poop sucker?

 

Charlie is less consistent.  He can to the whole toilet business, but can't seem to be bothered with the whole "go right to the bathroom when it's time" thing.  He has better things to do.

 

Like jammin' on his axe.

 

The picture is a bit blurry because he can't air guitar without dancing.  Charlie is a dancing machine.  When he strums the cardboard guitar (lovingly made by his Daddy), he mimics (mimicks? mimmicks?) the sound of picking guitar strings. "Ding da ding ding da ding ding!"  He will totally do duelling banjos if you play one of the other cardboard guitars (we have 4).  It's awesome.

 

Last Friday was my birthday.  I turned gasp 35 years old.  Pretty much feels like 34 and 33 and all those other years.  I pretty much always look the same and anticipate I will continue to look pretty much the same for another 15 or 20 years.  When you're sort of non-descript looking, you age well, I guess.  Here's a picture of me getting ready to go out for my birthday. 

 

I know.  I look like a total asshole.

 

By way of comparison, here's a picure of me after my 2x(6x400) treadmill speed set tonight

 

Still pretty assholey.

 

 

Hot damn my life is exciting.  I got a 45lb Olympic bar for my birthday from my dear husband.  He always knows just what I want. 

 

Whew.  Now that the internets are all up to date, I can snarf down some sugar detox carrot cake pudding (spoiler alert-it's carrots milled with spices) while I watch Jon Stewart and head off to bed.  CrossFit in the morning after Lily is off to school!

 

Oh, and have I mentioned the husband and I are going to run Ragnar Tennessee?  Because we totally are.  I'm addicted to that shit.

 







 





Suck it, Sugar.

Well, after a super-fun Ragnar, I came home to what I thought were allergies and all the fun that goes with it.  Sneezing, congestion, fatigue.  Guess what?  It was a miserable head cold instead.  I was down for almost 4 days, with barely enough energy to work much less work out.

My CrossFit coach was so worried when I didn't show up for a week that he emailed me to make sure I was okay-isn't that nice?  I cuss at him and wish he was dead 3 hours a week, and he misses me.  Clearly he has abandonment issues.

I crawled out of my illness and back to the gym on Monday.  I left feeling totally spent, but really happy to be back at it.  Tuesday I went out for my very first FIRST training run (see what I did there-stupid runner humor).  It was a speed session I'm supposed to use to determine my various training paces.  I did a 1600m warm up @ 11:03, then 3x1600m with a 1 min walking cool down between them.  I was sort of flabbergasted by the splits:
                                                                      8:29
                                                                      8:42
                                                                      8:35
I almost barfed after the last one, so I walked 800m to cool down instead of running another 11.  Still, these times kind of freak me out.  I can't believe that I ran sub-9s.  Especially 3 of them.  I know, I know, FIRST training has a goal of getting each split no more than a second or two off the others, and these were a much wider margin, but they were all in the same neighborhood, even if they don't exactly share a stoop.

What does this mean for me?  Well, my targeted split for speedwork is supposed to be the average of the three miles + 15 seconds.  So that's....let's see....carry the two....the square root of Pi....8:35...+15...
                                                                      
                                                                        8:50

Fuckballs. 

The tempo run I was supposed to try the whole "warm up, then faster, then slower, then faster, then cool down" thing out on?  Cancelled due to the twins conveniently getting croup.  You know what croup is?  A tiny little stupid mundane virus that causes a small child's vocal chords to swell up so much that they emit a loud barking cough.  Their case was mild (no scary breathing, no ER visit), but croup gets worse at night.  Much worse.  They barked their little heads off all night long for three long nights.  Let's just say I was too tired to to much of anything pretty much all last week.  No CrossFit, no tempo run.  Fail.

I went out on Sunday for my planned 10K loop from home.  I was supposed to run 10:15ish miles based on the instructions in my training plan.  Nice and slow and easy.  So what did I do?  I felt good, so I just ran how I felt.  I should have heeded my brain when I looked down at the 5K mark and saw 27:01, but no.  I listened to my stupid legs.  Around mile 4.5 my guts started in "Ummm...hey, lady?  I'm having a problem down here."  My legs said "It's a side stitch!  Run through it!", so I did until just past the 5 mile mark when my stomach started screaming "OH MAH GAH I'M GONNA BARF".  Those 5 miles were done in 46:40.  The total time for my 10K?  1:05 and change.  Ouch.  I almost tossed my cookies in the front yard of a house I run by every week.  On a Sunday morning.  They would totally have known it was me.  Shit.

Oddly, that time still beats my PR for a 10K (I've only ever run one-5 years ago).  Weird.

In the midst of all this illness, I found myself straying from the Paleo straight and narrow.  I put sugared creamer in my coffee, mixed too much honey into my tea, ate a few too many Paleo brownies, and even ingested an enchilada and a cookie.  The effect was frightening.  That sugar?  It was like fucking heroin.  I felt completely out of control around it.  If I didn't believe all the Paleo hoopla about modern foods being feats of engineering designed to fuck you in the head to the point where you couldn't stop eating them?  I believe it now.  It was scary.  The sugar cravings came back hardcore...I became consumed with them.  It got hard to pass by the donuts, I wanted froyo and pie with a can't-stop-thinking-about-it fervor.  I was marginally successful in denying them, but I caved more than I'd like to admit.  So what did I do?  Found the 21 Day Sugar Detox by Balanced Bites.  I'm on day 4, and feeling pretty well.  I find myself only truly craving fruit (which, aside from green apples, is a no-no during the detox), which I'm taking as a positive sign.  The crap food desire has subsided.  Reset button pushed.

Suck it, sugar.

They say this thing is good for weight loss, but I'm not really too concerned with that.  I don't particularly need to drop weight.  I wouldn't cry if I got below 160, but I'm fine with hanging out at 162-ish.  I'm hoping the ramped up protein consumption will help me do some fat-to-muscle conversion, though.

I do crave bacon.  Good thing bacon isn't off limits.

A bunch of other stuff happened over the last week (I turned 35!  Lily's first day of Kindergarten! Pat learns to poop on demand!  Charlie masters air guitar!), but I'm out of time.  Lucky you, you'll get to read about it later.

Do any of you fight sugar cravings?  Have you thought about detoxing (or have you done it)?

Ragnar Great River-the Recap

I've been away awhile.  So many things going on, so little sleep, so little downtime to use for blogging.

In brief, I've been trying to Crossfit 3 times a week and run 3 times a week.  Mostly I've been successful, but not always! 

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to join a team for Ragnar Great River from Winona, MN to Minneapolis, MN.  That's kind of misleading since most of the race is run in Wisconsin, but it's a part of the state I've never seen, and it was exciting to explore it on foot.

This was another team of near-total strangers for me. 

They look pretty harmless.

I got pulled onto this team pretty much the way I got pulled onto the last one.  I sort of knew someone on the interwebs and Ragnar came up, and I said "Sure!".  Sounds kind of iffy, I know, but it's worked out so far.  This team was The Streaking Freaks of Team NPCO which runs to support Chiropractic treatment for those that don't have access.  Two of our team members were chiropractors.  The team arrived every which way.  One van from Chicago, one van from Green Bay, an airplane, some cars, a bus...you name it.  I was in charge of renting the van from GB.  It was a beast.



It was huge. I feel as though it should have had a name.

I was the primary driver of the van, and mostly it was fine, except when it was terrifying.  More on that later.

My teammates were an interesting mix.  Two chiropractors, a nurse practitioner, two computer executives, a nurse instructor, a mechanic, and various other professions-including a professional runner.  Really. 



He is a serious running badass.  2016 Olympic hopeful, laying down 6 minute miles barefoot.

Richard Peters.  Remember him.

Personally, I prefered this race to Chicago.  It's hard to compare the teams, since the make-up was so different.  Girl fun is just different than mixed group fun.  I had a great time at Chicago, but I was underwhelmed by the course.  Great River was different.  It was a continual "wow".  A new vista around every bend.



Started right on the Mississippi.  1st leg crossed the bridge to WI.

A turnout on leg one.

Exchange 1

The weather was ideal.  Less than 50 at the start, but never dropped below 45 overnight.  Never got above 72 during the day, and a light cool breeze the whole time.  I couldn't have asked for anything more.

The major exchanges and sleeping areas during Chicago left much to be desired as well.  Disorganized parking, no light, nothing to see.





Sleeping area at Exchange 12.  They're making smores, too.

Out on the breakwater. Exchange 12.

This event was cool for a lot of reasons, but maybe the coolest was that everyone had a stellar performance.  Everyone.  AnnMarie (self-dubbed "team turtle") bested herself on each leg.  Dan D, who said he hadn't run in a couple of months and would probably run 10s, laid down 8:15-8:30 miles consistently.  His lovely girlfriend, Andrea, was burning up the pavement with 7s the whole time.  Brett, who was signed up for a half Ironman the day after Ragnar consistently posted fast times.  Even I did great, with sub-10s on more than one occaision.  I had a hill leg (leg 3) that slowed my pace to 11s, but even that was faster than I expected to go on that terrain.  Van 2 just flew down the course.  They were amazing. 

Logistically, this race was near perfect (getting there for many of the team members was less than perfect, but that's another whole post).  We found everything, we never lost anyone, no one was left hanging at exchanges, and no one got sick or injured.  Win.  I was full of equipment fail, however.

This dirty whore headlamp hid from me the whole trip.  I found it after we were done.

I ended up wearing Brett's headlamp because mine disappeared.  My Garmin?  That miserable piece of crap died moments before my 1st leg started and never recovered.  I had to wear Brett's Garmin the whole time.  I borrowed Dan's safety vest, because my blinky light was being stupid and I couldn't attatch it properly to my own.

Thank heaven for the kindness of strangers :)

Here's how I looked after each leg (like an idiot, mostly).



Leg 1.  Uphill at the end, but I made it in projected time.

JAZZ HANDS!!

To quote Falon "Fuck that leg in the face"

I liked the idea of taking shots after each leg.  It's a fun photo collage of the team's progress (and your own) through the course.  I'd do that again.

The 15 passenger van was much easier to pack.  We took out the back row and had tons of space for stuff.  Most of my team slept in the van on the benches and front seats during the night.  I opted for a sleeping bag on a football field.  I was plenty comfortable.

After we finished out third stint, we waited at the finish for Marc (team Captain) to roll in.  We got to run to the finish as a group, and had our picture taken.

Several of us got double medals. They clanked a lot.  I thought they sounded awesome.

The finish area was nicer for Great River than Chicago as well.  No burning lava hot sand, plenty of pizza and beer, and nice soft grass to rest on...along with tables and chairs and umbrellas.  There was also an actual medical professional at the medical tent.  It is on the UM campus, but class isn't in session yet, so there were no crowds.

Now.  The van incident.

After the race, some of us decided to go to the Mall of America.  (Marc needed socks, so MoA was the natural choice...).  This entailed dropping Brett off at the airport on the way.  Ok, easy peasy, right?  Wrong.  That involved removing my van from the parking structure.  The narrow aisled, low ceilinged parking structure.  I was so anxiety ridden that I was ducking to make the van smaller so we wouldn't hit the roof.  (It made sense in my head).  The outgoing trip was fine.  Airport? Fine.  Drive to Mall? Fine.  Then we had to park that monster again.  Another harrowing parking experience and we were in the mall.  Mark got his socks and we hit the Rainforest Cafe for some chow.

Paul and Rik.  They're not together.

These two harrassed the seating host so much I thought we were going to get kicked out.  I laughed so hard I thought I was going to die. 

After dinner, we left that crazy hell-hole.  Unfortunately, that meant I had to drive the monster van back to the hotel.  We got turned around and I ended up driving through downtown Minneapolis in that thing.  I was white knuckle terrified, especially after I almost killed bicycle Santa (his fault-he totally cut me off, the SOB).  By the time I was back in the parking garage I was a mess.  But now the assholes in the backseat were all making fun of me, Marc was talking in his Yoda voice, and I just wanted a motherfucking Xanax.  I was laughing so hard I was crying, and barely made it into a parking spot.  I really felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack!  The promise of beer was the only thing that got me through.

Marc made good.  That flight is mine.  Note Rik's drink.  Appletini on the rocks "in a butch glass".

A few drinks and more laughs with these guys almost made up for the years of my life I shaved off making that drive. 

Oh, I almost forgot!  The hardware.

It was really sad saying good-bye to everyone, but I had a great time.  I hope I get to run with team NPCO again in the future, because this was a riot.  Or who knows...maybe I'll join another team of total strangers. 

Ragnar.  Do it.  You won't regret it.









Momsperiment redux. Also fritters.

So my experiment has concluded.  It ended up lasting 6 weeks, courtesy of a boxwide Paleo challenge, but that's not a bad thing.  In fact, I'm going to consider this no longer an experiment-I changed my lifestyle, and I think I like it.

Before I get to the nitty gritty of after pics and measurements, look at these babies:

Zucchini Frittahs!

These were made with garden fresh zucchini provided by my friend Holly.  They taste like pan fried summer.  I wish you had a scratch and sniff computer screen, because they are crispy brown awesome.  Wanna make some? 

Shred 2 zucchini and squish all the water out.

Beat 3 eggs

Sift 1tbs coconut flour into the eggs (or white flour, I guess, you heathen)

Stir together, add zucchini and some salt and pepa (or pepper, I guess, if you don't have any 80s rappers lying around the house)

Melt some fat in a pan (bacon or coconut or whatever) and fry fry fry.

You can see I've fallen hook line and sinker for this Paleo stuff.  I'm trying not to be like a born again Christian, because those people are annoying.

Okay.  Down to brass tacks.

Before

After

Before

After

Holy shit, right?  I got a tan! In the shape of a running tank! Also, I absolutely promise that I am not doing that weird suck in and tuck under thing that they do in the diet commercials.  I did contract my abs, but I'm doing that in the before picture too :)

Numbers, numbers.

Weight: 162.4 (168.8)-this is on my home scale from the start 6 weeks ago.  On the box scale, fully dressed and after eating breakfast and drinking about a gallon of water I was down 3lbs :)
Under bust: 32in (33)
Waist (high): 30.5 (33)
Waist (low): 33.5 (34.25)-this is the measurement we used at the box for the challenge, so that's why I'm including it here.
Hips: 41 (42)
Upper arms: 11.75 (I forgot to write down and am too lazy to look)
Thighs: L-23.5 (24) R-24.5 (25).  Still uneven, but smaller at least.
Calves: L-15.25 R-15.5 (16 for both)  Now these are uneven.  Can you say asymmetry?

So I lost weight and I lost inches.  Happiness abounds.  Some more exciting news?  My mile split dropped from 9:00 to 8:19!  I was shooting for 8, but it was 97 freaking degrees and the uphill around the 0.75 mile mark just mentally fucked me.  Still, a 41 second improvement? In 30 days? With no speedwork?  Winning.

My situps went from 30 in 1 minute (full situps, not crunches) to 32-I wasn't expecting improvement here, I've been doing killer core workouts for 2 years. 

Pushups were the biggest surprise.  I was able to do 11 unmodified full release pushups in 1 min on day 1.  I did 23 (!!) on the last day.  Fuck. Yes.

So now I'm off the strict "Challenge" phase of this eating plan.  I had part of a muffin this morning with my second breakfast (I'm like a fucking Hobbit with the eating), and it was good.  Not oh-my-god-feed-me-carbs good, but good.  I ate what I wanted and stopped when I was done.  It was my little reward for being such a good girl, and for running 2 killer hills in 82 degree weather this morning at 0530. 

82 degrees at 0530 is never okay.  Never.

In other news, these party balloons refuse to die.  They are 10 days old with no signs of drooping.  They were a dollar each.  Go go Dollar Tree party supplies.

The rest of the week will be focused on getting my workouts in at the crack of dawn and all recorded before the weekend.  My husband is going on his annual guys-only camping trip from Friday to Monday.  I hope we all survive the weekend.  If the weather gets better we'll be fine.  I might even plan an outing to the zoo or farmer's market.  If it's still 99 with a heat index of 1000?  It's going to be a loooooooong 4 days. 

Warning: Photobomb

It's been a little while.  I've been busy...doing all the usual stuff.  Working, kid-wrangling, running (a bit), CrossFitting (a bit), and planning a 5th birthday party for my daughter.



Giant bounce house.  There's a motherfucking slide in there.

The party ended up being huge.  Tons of kids, lots of parents, and just enough food.  Only one barfer in the bounce house, and truthfully it's because he took a head to the nose.  Minor mess, his mom was there and cleaned the whole thing up.  Win.  My kids all loved the bounce house.

Pat wore through the heels of these socks.  "I jumpaJUMP, Mommy!"

Charlie was all about the slide. 

Lily got a crapload of presents, and we got our backyard barbecue, just like we wanted.  A great day.

The Friday before the party, I spent half the day cleaning, then treated myself to a little much needed foot maintenance.

Per Charlie "Shiny, Mommy!  My toes shiny, too, Mommy?"

I was a little loathe to part with my calluses, but my feet look far less leathery now, and I'll have plenty of time to build up new ones as I train for (drumroll):

Grandma's Marathon 2013!!!!

Yep.  I'm going to do another marathon.  Something I really never thought I'd do.  What's more, I convinced my husband to do it, too.  The Gary Bjorkland was my very first half back in 2009, and I'm excited to revisit the course and see some great friends at the same time.  I'm also planning to try a new training tactic:

I'm pretty sure this is going to require speedwork...



On a different training note, I'm still hitting the CrossFit box.  I wish I was getting there more often, but it's so difficult to time.  Of note, this week will end the box-wide Paleo challenge and the fit test will take place early next week.  I'll report my Momsperiment results when that's done.  As a preview, I'm down about 5lbs and my waist is 2 inches smaller!  I'm curious to see how my mile will pan out.  This tuesday, I did push presses at 75# and bruised my collarbone in the process.  When I hoisted that bar into the air, I felt like a fucking superhero.  It was like magic, and I felt amazing.  I didn't even notice the bruising until someone asked what was wrong with my collarbone.  Tomorrow is something called burpee box jumps (I'm pretty sure I know what that means, and I'm sure it sucks).  I want to keep CrossFitting, but it's been really hard to find a good time to go with my husband's schedule and the whole mommy guilt thing.

Now.  The most surprising thing:  I really dig Paleo.  For real.  I don't feel deprived, I don't have to count calories or mind portions, I'm learning what "satiety" actually means for the first time in my life.  My blood sugar has stabilized, I don't have swings or drops, I have energy all the time.  I sleep great, and feel great every morning.  I never have that desperate hungry feeling, and my cravings have disappeared.

See these?  Didn't even want one.  Amazing.

Donuts used to be my diet kryptonite.  I would avoid avoid avoid, then obsess obsess obsess, then cave cave cave, then hate hate hate myself.  These sat a few feet from me all day and I had absolutely no desire to eat them.  Not one tiny bit.  Today it was cake and pretzles with dip, stuff I would eat until I was sick.  No desire.  None. 

It doesn't seem real.  How is it possible? I don't want soda, bread holds no charms, and while I initially missed cheese?  Yeah.  Not so much anymore.  I do put half and half in my coffee in the morning, but that's pretty much it.  I really feel that this way of eating is sustainable over the long haul, and I don't want to go back to the way I was.  Self hatred is exhausting.  This new way of being?  It's exhilarating.  I feel unstoppable.

Coconut Klondike Bites www.paleOMG.com

I won't pretend I don't have treats.  I have an occaisional drink. These coconut thingys?  They are delicious, but one every couple of days is enough.  I make paleo waffles, pancakes, and muffins, I eat sweet potatoes...but I feel no need to overeat, and a handful of dates or a baggie of grapes is enough to kill a sweet craving.  I'm starting to really understand what eating all the bullshit chemical garbage I used to think of as "food" was doing to me.  I don't obsess about food anymore.  It's like being released from prison.

So there you have it.  In the next 4 weeks I'll be concentrating on hills and strength as I prepare for Ragnar Great River.  After that, it's on to the anchor leg of the Fox Cities Marathon Relay with the Drug Dealin' Divas of Team LiveFit ABMC (subheading: Prescription for Awesome).  My leg is 10K, and I'm in the hunt to shatter my previous PR.

Life is fucking awesome. 

One more photo, to finish out.

 

This is about to end badly.