Wednesday 28 December 2011

iPad

So...I am an iPad owner and totally loving it. It's only been 3 days and already I cannot believe how much I love this thing! I was pretty sure that I would be a paper and pencil girl forever but after having a few days to fiddle around with my iPad I am not even going to buy a day planner for next year. There is a little bit of work ahead to get everything from the paper format into the digital format and I am giving myself soe time with the different apps to find the right ones for me. so far I really like Evernote, Dropbox, and Quick Office HD. With those apps I've been successful in moving my work info over so I don't have to use my laptop too much at work which will totally make my back happy! I've watched a few movies on Netflix and also moved my books over from my Kindle (I do prefer reading on my kindle though but the two are linked now so if I read a page on my kindle then leave for work I can read on my iPad and when I get home, turn on my Kindle and be on the same page I left off on my iPad!)

Anyway on to other things as I haven't updated my blog in over a month!

On Sunday I have a trial run of a half marathon scheduled. And it's new years so why not! I am a little afraid of how my legs will feel the next day but also excited to see how I do! I had The Resolution Run 8K planned and will probably still go to race packet pick up as the entry fee was a bit steep and I want the jacket!

That's all for now :)

Saturday 26 November 2011

#RWRunStreak

Well, we've had our treadmill for a week and I've logged a bunch of miles. I would love to tell you exactly how many, but it seems our upgrade to speedier internet has wiped out my ifit history..oh joy! today was a 5K on the treadmill. It was listed under 'competition" but no one else seemed to be running it and I didn't see anyone else's progress as I went. There are runners online who have completed it, but my name is not showing up...something is funky with this new internet!

So I have committed to doing the Runners World Holiday Run Streak. Its a commitment over the holidays to run at least 1 mile each day between American Thanksgiving and New Years day. I started it on Nov 24 (American New Years) and its been great as it has changed my mindset from "will I run today?" to "WHEN will I run today". I love running, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it is easy for the excuses, or the energy drain of the day to get the better of me, so this was awesome to hear about.

I am going to have to be diligent about making the rest days only 1 mile days as the increase in mileage this past week has been making me feel drained. Its in a good way, but still I don't want to stress my body out and make this fun thing that I love feel like something I have to do.

Shaw was here today and upgraded our internet to a faster speed and also gave us cable. Its a pretty sweet deal - phone, internet, and cable for $54/month" we've had phone and internet with Shaw since we moved here and have always had Bell for TB so this is a change for sure. Theres no HD and no PVR..but we still have Bell as well so it will be interesting which one we use. I like the menu/guide on shaw, and the PVR and HD factor on Bell. With this deal with Shaw and with keeping Bell, we still save about $10 per month, so for now we are keeping both.

That is all for now, promise to come up with something more interesting in the next post!

Wednesday 23 November 2011

I ran my first 10 miles tonight & it was tuff but so worth it! It sounds pretty cool in my head to say "I ran 10 miles" :)

Tomorrow is the beginning of #RWRunStreak so that means I am dedicated to running (at least one mile) each day from Nov 24 thru to Jan 1. Gonna be fun. By the way, running is the best thing ever.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

short

I think Nick should be worried. I am in love with my treadmill! I had to force myself to take a day off today because my legs are screaming at me LOL Its just so fun to watch the maps and play with the incline (#1 reason why my legs are mad at me) and see the info posted on my ifit account after. And I thought my Garmin was cool!

I've re-vamped my training plan a bit, to fit in the 1/2 on Jan 15th, and then I put in one of the 10K training plans from ifit to work on my speed. Then its training for my first marathon in full swing in February.

That's it for now, just wanted to include that little tid bit of info =)

Sunday 20 November 2011

zzzz

well, the weekend is over and I am one happy individual! This was a great weekend. My treadmill got all set up (bit of a gong show, but its all done now!) Friday was a bit crazy as Nick and I both booked the afternoon off work since the treadmill was supposed to be delivered between 1 and 4. When it still wasn't here at 3:30 I called to find out it had not made the truck for delivery. I went to walk the dog, and Nick had to go to work to pick up a phone. On the way home, he picked up the treadmill!

We were attempting to lug it into the house when our neighbour was coming back from walking his dog. he helped us get it in the door which was a lifesaver as I don't think we could have done it without his help! We plunked it in the kitchen, opened up the box, and took up the pieces individually. The deck was the last piece to go up and after some navigating around the corner of the stairs, it was up!

Nick and I were both on call, so between phone calls and emails, we managed to get it mostly together. We needed to pick up a surge suppressor and did that on Saturday.

it took stopping at 4 different stores to finally find one, but its all good because we picked up Subway while we were at Home Depot!

Got home and by this time its Saturday afternoon. Finally got it all together and calibrated :-)

This morning I did my first run. It was just 2.2 miles through Times Square. I took my time and fiddled around with the different views and readouts, which resulted in me accidentally stopping the workout, so I started it again and it was great!

This afternoon we went to go see Breaking Dawn. I was super thankful that Nick ended up sitting next to another guy whose wife had talked him into going :-) They were both dedicated husbands and had seen all of the movies, it was awesome1 The movie was really good. I don't think anything could have made it better. The movie did lack the wolves talking back and fourth that made the book for me, but still it was really great. I will probably go see it again before it leaves the theatre. They had a trailer for The Hunger Games, which I am so exceed for! Yay March 23!!

All in all the weekend was great. Its now 8:45, Nick and Lilo are both already asleep and I am not far behind. Tomorrow run: 4 miles through Rome :-) Fun times!

Friday 18 November 2011

one more day...I can do this!

Just one more day until we go pick up the treadmill - man this has been a long wait, especially for myself as I am NOT patient!  That's ok though, I can do this! Plus, I will still have the whole weekend (except for when I'm at Breaking Dawn!) to fiddle around and figure everything out plus go for a few good runs on it.

so..signed up for a 1/2 last weekend.
its gonna be awesome!
I've done a Nike+ 10K which was great, but a half marathon is just a brilliant idea! Combined with my treadmill - I can run wherever I want! I am feeling pretty spoiled about this whole thing really, its pretty awesome.

So, Breaking Dawn on Sunday. So Twilight and New Moon are on the docket for tomorrow night! whoop whoop!

AND..I watched the trailer for The Hunger Games. WOW! Excited because the casting is super dead on in my opinion and it looks soooooo great!

 Go watch the trailer :-)

Have an awesome evening I have no doubt that I will be blogging more over the weekend :-)

Friday 11 November 2011

26.2 is really far!

Today has been a pretty neato day so far! It started off with waking up to find a nice clean house thanks to my awesome husband who cleaned while I was sleeping last night - sweet! Then I got an email from Stephanie Rothstein in regards to The Picky Club which was super cool! I also hammered out a marathon plan for the next 27 weeks of my life thanks to Hal Higdon. I did a bunch of research for what I think will work for me, and his stuff fits! I also give him credit because he is old, has done this tons, and lots of people follow his plans. I went with the Intermediate 2 plan which also seems like a good fit. I needed to adjust what I had already planned out so there were more goals. I needed some pace runs in there! Just going out there and getting in the mileage was boring, and not enough goals (I LOVE goals, thrive on them, they are awesome!) so I am happy with this.

Love it even though it scares me a little!

A few minor things that could be difficult are running 10 miles on Saturday the day after we get to the Dominican, and then 20 miles on the Sunday. And doing 6 miles with lots of jet lag the day after we get back..there wasn't really a way around it though due to the timing. And I have promised myself that if i can't fit it all in while on vacation, that i won't stress or freak out about it LOL, thats a challenge in itself!

Treadmill is estimated to arrive Tuesday and I am over the moon excited for it! In honour of my new (SO FREAKING AMAZING) treadmill, I have changed my runs from kilometres to miles since that's how the speed is broken down, and while I'm awesome at math, why over-complicate things? So miles it is, just need to remember to switch my Garmin over as well.

The distances freak me out a bit. The longest run I have been on is about 12 miles (this is so weird talking in miles!) and while 10 miles is fairly comfortable, its a heck of a long way from 10 to 26.2. So, I went on Google Maps and mapped it out on a route I am familiar with, it didn't make me feel any more confident - whoops that backfired!
umm...that is quite a long distance Google Maps!
Went and checked out registration for the marathon an there are 44 people registered. The route is changing (doesn't really mean much as i've never ran it before!) and the new route won't be posted until January, so I will have to wait a while before obsessing over that!

Overall, I am excited, nerves are allowed to creep in now and again :-)
(this is definitely a "gotta do it one day soon" thing)

Friday 4 November 2011

treadmill..busy

I just bought a treadmill! I am so excited for it to arrive on our doorstep - although slightly concerned about how we will actually get it into the house and up the stairs since it weighs 300lbs! MINOR DETAILS!
this is coming to live with us!


This weekend is busy; Run Without Borders & The Edmonton Down Syndrome Society Buddy walk, plus I NEED to finish that book for work!

Apologies for not posting for the second half of October, it was busy time! I will post more after the weekend when I have more time.

Sunday 16 October 2011

The Longest Run Ever!

Today was my longest run ever this morning 15K. And although I feel awesome for accomplishing it, it felt awful! As I said in my earlier post I got gluten from somewhere on the weekend, and I was dealing with Celiac issues all week, which meant I was pretty drained for today's run and my insistence on completing it, outweighed my more logical brain that was screaming not to do it.
Ugh
Anyway, its done and now I am left with a very annoyed feeling since, once again,my lack of patience has gotten the better of me. Now I feel crappy and I am supposed to feel awesome and just tired!

So this week, my plan is to listen to the Logical Me, and take things slowly. Tomorrow is a rest day. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are 5, 6, and 7K, Friday is a rest day, Saturday is the Halloween Howl and Sunday is 12K. I will dutifully follow my recipe for success, and if I feel like I do now, I will stop and give myself a break.

Ugh, that's all for now.

Monday 10 October 2011

anti aging, sheep and turkeys

(Run: 10K + wii yoga + EA Sports Active + 3K dog walk)

21.
That's the number of people who are registered for the marathon I am running in May...I check every so often...wonder when more people sign up? Guess it is still 7 months away....

Finished off my Sephora order. Cannot wait to get it. Got some Amazing Cosmetics, and a new skin care regimen from Ole Henriksen..its anti aging..let's face it, I am 33 and although I am fine with getting older, I still wanna look my best!

Measured Lilo for her home made sheep costume I have decided to make for her, Nick, and I for the Halloween Howl. Last year there were all these cool dogs and their rocking' costumes and we didn't know we could bring dogs, so the plan for this year is to have fun with it and dress up. We are doing the 3K because that's about what Lilo can do, and all dressed up, thats asking a lot of her! I will post pictures as the costumes come together, so far, its all in my head, so I need to do some shopping and start getting creative.

Thanksgiving yesterday was awesome! There was lots of food for me to eat, Nick's Mom even made a GF Apple cake!!

Lilo had a blast and got SO dirty! I saw her walk into the mud, lay down, and smile LOL Here's a before + after:

Look Mom! I'm all clean, and being good.
what???? I'm just plain'.....

I also visited the turkeys...the living ones, not the one on the table....aww poor turkey!

turkeys, chickens, and peacocks oh my!

We ate a lot of food, played some games and everyone had a great time. The sunset was also beautiful!

so pretty!

  Unfortunately I did get some gluten from somewhere :-( but I guess it happens occasionally.

That's it for now!

Sunday 9 October 2011

Routine

Run: 5K + EA Sports Active

I am a huge creature of habit, as I am sure most people are. Its Sunday today, but not a normal Sunday since we are going to meet Nick's parents for Thanksgiving dinner, so my routine feels weird.

I started out fine with a nice 5K which was great, the weather is chilly but not raining (!!!) so that was awesome. Then I went downstairs to pick out the cherry tomatoes. (yum) There are a bunch that still are changing colour, so maybe another week or two before I gobble them all up!

Then I started a new workout on EA Sports Active II. This one is the most challenging workout on there & it definitely wakes me up! After this one (its a 9 week program) I will probably go back to Wii Fit Plus which is fun. I love the yoga on there! These workouts are how I start my days in the fall and winter. The sun doesn't rise until 7AM or later now, and I do not like running in the dark, so this is what I do for exercise in the mornings when I work, and then after work, I go for a run. The sun is setting around 7PM not though which means its treadmill season soon, yuck.

I wouldn't really detest the treadmill so much except I know I will NEED to run on it so much this winter because of marathon training. Last winter I was good until about December and then that was about it until the weather improved. I would go outside when the weather was decent on weekends and never really thought much of it, but this winter is a whole different story!

Saturday 8 October 2011

Today was awesome

What a nice relaxing day! I got to do 'girly' things. Read some magazines, did up a Sephora order, Their website is having maintenance done so I can't finish off my order, so tomorrow I will most likely add more to it before completing it LOL.

Made some awesome pasta sauce - we ate most of it and didn't bother with making the pasta!

Nick and I played some Mario Kart on the wii which was great. We bought it yesterday complete with 2 steering wheels LOL, I love that game!

Molly went back to her home this afternoon, so Lilo is a little sad.

I've been thinking of pumpkin carving, this was last years:
and it turned out so awesome that I don't know what to do for this year! 


Tomorrow we are heading to Nick's Parents for Thanksgiving dinner. I am apparently bringing the only gluten free thing there...so I had better bring something good!

Thursday 6 October 2011

Rat Race

Run 6.5KM

OMG, its Fall! The weather is rainy and cold, the clouds are blocking out the sunlight, and it is dark when I wake up - oh yeah, so not a fan of fall/winter.

This week has been insane; just coming off of inventory at work, huge computer issues company wide, busy ops meeting, and *deep breath* i am off tomorrow....aaahhhhhh

Checked the weather and it is supposed to be rainy and a high of 9 degrees. So..my plan is to uncover the treadmill as its been used for holding boxes and clothes down the basement all summer. I really don't like the treadmill, its noisy and squeaks, and is down the basement which is not my favourite place to be, but it will just have to do if I am too wimpy to go outside to the great outdoors.

I have EA Sports Active II which is fun for cardio and a little strength to get me up in the mornings. They do have a 10K run on there, wonder what that is like, running in one spot for 10K? hmm, I will try it tomorrow and report back.

I am stupidly excited to have a day off (and actually its a 3 days weekend) So that tells me I soooo need a break.

Gonna go walk the dogs, in the rain. We just have Molly with us for another full day then she's back to her home. Lilo will miss her like crazy, they play together so well :-)

Wednesday 5 October 2011

The first of many

I have been contemplating starting a blog for some time now. Now that I have, I am hyper aware of all of the things I want to talk about! Dog Training, Running, Movies, Books, My life etc. Its quite exciting.

My main reason for starting this blog is to keep track of my progress towards running my first marathon. I am signed up for the Scotial Bank Calgary Marathon in May 2012 and with winter looming just around the corner, the need to keep motivated is greater than ever.

There are certainly many things to keep me honest. Each morning, Training Peaks emails me my run for the next day which I have diligently planned out from September 2011 until May 2012. I have my Garmin Forerunner that keeps track of the actual runs, which is so addictive, and of course my family who are supportive although they question on a regular basis why anyone would voluntarily sign up to run 26.2miles/42.2km's.

Why did I sign up? Its something deep down I have wanted to do for a while. Sort of a bucket list type thing at the beginning, but has grown into so much more. I want to continue to be healthy and good to my body as I age so I can enjoy life, experience more, and feel great. The marathon is symbolic of all of that, and just a personal goal I have set for myself.

So, there ya have it. My first blog post. :-)