MINE!!

You see this dirty red car??? Well it's MINE!!! ALL of it!!! It's paid off in FULL over a YEAR early!!!! Just goes to show that hard work pays off!!

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Getting Back At It

Hey peeps! How are you all? Things are going well with me! The hubby and I had a fabulous anniversary vacation last week in Las Vegas and we had an amazing time! I'm not sure if I'll post a full vacation blog with pics since that will take a while, but here's a sum up with a few pics from my phone:

We flew out on Wednesday the 24th and flew back Monday the 29th of October. We ate WAY too much food and enjoyed many a beverage - it was amazing! We went to see Terry Fator who was incredible (if you don't know who he is, go to YouTube & check him out!) We also went to Zumanity by Cirque du Soleil which was fabulous!

I shopped & bought a new necklace at Tiffany's (YES Tiffanys!!! EEP!) I absolutely LOVE my new pretty necklace!!

We went for an anniversary dinner at Gordon Ramsey Steak (in the Paris) and had a meal that cost more than our truck payment - and it was worth every penny! I don't have any pics on my phone from this dinner, so I'm sorry about that. But it was a 5 course dinner complete with Ahi Tuna salad, french onion soup & a perfectly rare beef wellington for dinner PLUS wine pairing for each course!! Oh the hubby and I were happy peeps!

I got to see THE Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds and she was BEAUTIFUL! Yeah okay - I have a thing for really sexy cars! I tried to convince my hubby that we *REALLY* should spend the $375,000 so we could own her! hehe!

We ran a 5K Zombie Run on Sunday morning - where you either survive or you don't based on zombie's ripping flags off you! I got body-checked by a zombie who zigged the same way I zigged...I should have zagged...anyways, he took my last flag! Needless to say, Tom survived but I did not. OH and the Jabbawockeez from America's Best Dance Crew were the masters of ceremonies for the race, so they were all there AND they all ran the race with us! It was super fun!! But we had a BLAST! AND I got this killer new t-shirt (it even has my "kill count" on the back of it!)

Okay, so that's all the pics I've got from our trip on my phone - the rest are on the digital camera and may or may not get uploaded on Facebook. I really hate timeline and its a pain to organize pics, so I've been putting it off.

When we got back, we had a few relaxing "off diet days" to just get back into the groove of every day life which was really nice. Since we were so active in Vegas (and I really didn't eat that terribly) I only had a few pounds of water weight that fell off within a few days - woot! Starting on Sunday, we began a new eating plan that I'm really enjoying. I'm not hungry, not cranky and am already noticing more energy too! I've also totally stuck to the no soda/minimal caffeine thing (even in Vegas!) so I'm really proud of myself!!

I'm also totally proud of the hubby! He completely quit smoking over a month ago and went through the whole trip without a smoke! Woot! I'm so proud of him!! He is going to start training for a Mudder race next year and I'm going to train for a half marathon with him - so we'll be able to keep each other motivated and healthy! I know its only the first week, but its going well for both of us so far!

In other news, I'm still reading a TON of books - I just finished book #200 for the year! Yippee! I've always been a book nerd, but since we got rid of our TV in April, I've had more time to devote to reading and I love it! According to my Goodreads profile, I've read 200 books and over 72,080 pages this year so far! YAY!!! Its amazing how I can ALWAYS find something fun to read! I just read a series about professional sports players, which I never would have picked up normally - but I gave it a shot and really enjoyed it!

I'm still working the day job and teaching 7 zumba classes a week (2 adult classes and 5 for the after school kids) which is going well. I decided to cut myself some slack though and I will be leaving my adult classes within a few weeks. I need some more time to recover and 7 classes a week while training for a half was really pushing it for me. I'm thinking that backing down to 5 classes, plus the half training and regular lifting schedule will be good for me and hopefully I won't get burned out!

Financially, things are going great (even after our crazy Vegas shopping sprees! haha!) I came up with a budget that will have my car completely paid off my the end of the year (as in 2 months from now! WOOHOO!) Then once that's paid off, we're going to get our credit cards gone by the beginning of summer next year and start living our lives debt free! We'll still have the house & the truck payment - but other than that, life will be good! I am SO excited. We are getting ever closer to where we want to be!

Okay, so I think that's enough rambling for now - I'm sure I could type for another hour or so about the things I've been meaning to catch up on, but I don't have the time. Since its Voting Tuesday and I don't have my after school kids today - I ran an 11 min mile on my first break today and it felt damn good! I'm thinking I'll try to get at least one more mile in before I leave work. I'm gonna hang out with a buddy of mine this afternoon so I'm super antsy for the workday to be over! hehe!

Miles Ran Towards A Better Me in 2012: 62.06 Miles

Total Amount of Joy I've Found From My Running Shoes: Priceless!!!!

A Well Needed Update

Okay, so I realized its been about 2 months since I've been in here....its about time I post a darn update. Life has been crazy busy. I'm still working full time at the day job, teaching 7 Zumba classes a week, being a wife (which sometimes is a full time job itself) and trying to maintain sanity.....oh, did I also mention that the hubby and I are training for a half marathon now too??? Yeah....so life is busy.

So here's a rundown of what's been going on since the last time I posted. First quarter of the after school program just ended - classes are going well. Not having my Adult Zumba class on Wednesdays is really helping me out this year. That was brutal last year and I didn't want to do it again.

This past weekend was the Duke City Marathon event and I signed up for the 20K walk (about 12.5 miles) with a friend of mine. The past few weeks I've been training to get up to distance for that one. 4 weeks ago, we went out for 8 miles of a run/walk. 2 weeks ago we went out for a full 13.1 miles (first time EVER I've gone that distance!) I was SO proud of myself!!! Its nice to know that I'm already capable of going the 13.1 distance and that over the next year I just need to work on speed! Woot!

YAY! So after that awesomeness, I still had the 20K walk to prepare for, which was yesterday. I had a blast, but I've decided that I won't EVER do a walk that long again. I'm a runner....I was bored as HELL only being able to walk the whole time. I actually started dancing to my IPOD while I was walking just to liven things up a bit - but then I got yelled at by the race coordinators because "dancing wasn't allowed".....next time....I sign up for a run! But anyways, it was a fun time. Here's the official results from the Duke City Site....I'm definitely pleased!

THIRD in my age group, average pace 16:25 min mile (which for a walk would be about 3.3-3.5 MPH on a treadmill consistently for over 3 hours), 3:23:51 total chip time from start to finish (which coincided with my Garmin Forerunner, so I'm pleased)

So....today I'm sore as hell. Have some BEAUTIFUL blisters on my feet and my hips are sore, so I'm waddling like an old lady. But overall, I'm in a great mood! Wahoo! The only tricky part about today....I've got a Zumba class tonight at 530....hopefully I'm able to get loose by then! I picked up a Gellie roller through Active.com so I think I might end up attacking my legs like a rolling pin before class today to see if that helps!

I think that's about it for now. I'm taking a few days off work this week so I'm looking forward to some well needed downtime with the hubby! Hope you're all having a great day!

So since it was run/walk and official race training, I'm adding my mileage from the past few weeks into my yearly review, even if it wasn't 100% running

Miles Ran Towards A Better Me in 2012: 57.94 Miles

Total Amount of Joy I've Found From My Running Shoes: Priceless!!!!

UGH - Monday again already???

So it was a good weekend - though too short as always. Saturday, I got out for an awesome interval run! It was nice to be running outdoors again!! That workout looked like this:

Warm Up - 5 min walk
Run for 20 minutes
Walk for 5 minutes
Run for 10 minutes
Walk for 5 minutes
Run for 5 minutes
Cool Down walk back to the house

Total Workout Time: 1 hour
Total Distance Ran: 3.83 miles

Today, I'm back at work. Nutrition is back on track after going a little wonky yesterday. I knocked out the Chest & Back Kettlebell workout today at lunch, but it didn't feel like much of a challenge, so I think I need to increase my weights with it. Tonight is Zumba, which should be super fun. Otherwise, just trying to relax and chill as much as possible - after school program starts in 2 weeks! EEP!

Miles Ran Towards A Better Me in 2012: 23.94 Miles
Total Amount of Joy I've Found From My Running Shoes: Priceless!!!!

YAY Friday!!

Okay - only have time for a quick update. Got the KT tape, put it on my Achilles & noticed a difference within an hour of putting it on - so I'm sold! Granted, its bright blue so I look like I'm walking around with Painter's tape attached to my foot - but as long as it works, I don't care.

Got in a kettlebell "arms" workout at lunch today and feel good! Its been a while since I've done that workout, so I'm happy I got it done today. Completed it with a 10lb kettlebell (that damn thing gets heavy by the end of it!) and now I'm ready for a nap! haha!

Only 1.5 hours until my weekend! I can't wait!! Totally antsy to get out today :-)

Happy Thursday!!

Okie Dokie!! So I've been good this week! Got a workout in every day so far - so I'm happy about that! Yesterday, I had Zumba and today was a running day! Even though I was feeling super lazy, I still got my butt on the treadmill and feel great afterwards. My work is serving Fuddruckers as a site picnic today - so at least I've offset the yummy burger I'm about to chow down on! haha!

Eating has been good the past few days. Between cutting my sodium and being in the middle of TOM, I'm dropping water weight which makes me feel better. I'm thinking next week will be an official weigh in with measurements just to see where I'm at.

Not really much else to update. I'm reading my new Hunter book - which is amazing! It also means that my brain doesn't have much energy for blogging as I want to read ALL the time! haha!

Okay - here's my workout, so I can get back to my Nook & my Hunters

Warm Up - 7 min walk (I had some extra time today, so I spent extra time warming up to help my ankle out)
Run for 3 minutes at 5 MPH and 2 minutes at 5.5 MPH
Walk for 3 minutes at 3.5 MPH
Run for 3 minutes at 5 MPH and 2 minutes at 5.5 MPH
Walk for 3 minutes at 3.5 MPH
Run for 2.5 minutes at 5.0 MPH, 1.5 minutes at 5.5 and 60 seconds at 6.0
Cool Down walk for 5 minutes

Total Distance: 2.39 miles
Total Workout Time: 35 minutes

Ankle was still feeling a little wonky today. I'm gonna look into getting the KT athletic tape and see if that will help me out more than keeping it wrapped during workouts. I'll be sure to take pics once I get it successfully taped up

Okay - off to more meetings (busy work day for me) - then home to finish my Hunters! Hope you have a great day!

Miles Ran Towards A Better Me in 2012: 20.11 Miles
Total Amount of Joy I've Found From My Running Shoes: Priceless!!!!

Back on track (again)

Hey peeps! How are you all? I'm doing well! After a crazy few weeks spent celebrating my birthday - with numerous dinners out and a surprise party my amazing hubby threw for me, food is finally back on track. This week is TOM, so I'm bloated & squishy anyways, so I'm going to take measurements & weight either the end of this week or Friday of next week, just to allow things to settle down and get myself a true starting point.

I'm cooking more at home again which has been really awesome. Tonight for dinner, I'm making a homemade veggie lasagna with zucchini & mushrooms (and only 300 cals a serving!!!) I'm gonna make 2 pans of it - one to serve for dinner tonight (we have friends coming over too) and the other I'll split up for lunches at work for the rest of the week! Planning ahead has its perks!

Anyways, this week also began my serious Hilly-Get-Your-Ass-Back-In-Shape plan. The Dirty Dash is less than a month away. Last month, I tweaked my ankle in Zumba & my Achilles tendon on my left ankle hasn't been the same since - thus it slowed down my training. Well this week, I started my no excuses plan. I'm ready to feel strong again, but I'm not going to push myself to cause further injury. I'm not going to use my ankle as an excuse not to go running anymore...however, I am using it as a *reason* to slow down and take things slowly. I can't afford to wreck my body, and I definitely don't want to either :-)

Yesterday, on my lunch break at work - a coworker & I rocked out the "Legs" workout with the kettlebells. It was SO hot in the gym, but it was definitely a nice workout (and I'm feeling some nice DOMS in my legs, glutes & shoulders today from it) After work, I had Zumba class, which was really nice as well. I had lots of built up energy and I definitely let it out in class.

Today was a running day. I tried to push the speeds in the 3rd interval - and was comfortably running at 6 MPH, but by the 4th interval my tummy was wonky (still have traces of a stomach bug from a few days ago) and my ankle wasn't feeling so hot, so I had to keep the last interval at 5 MPH. Either way, the workout was done and I'm happy about that! I'm thinking I need to start wrapping my ankle for running & Zumba classes, just for some added stability. There are a few tendons you really don't want to f*ck up, and at the top of the list is the Achilles tendon....if I don't take care of this now, my legs won't be the same if I hurt this more. So for now, easy fun runs and lots of kettlebells! Woot!

Warm Up
Run for 3 minutes at 5.0 MPH
Walk for 90 Seconds at 3.5 MPH
Run for 5 minutes at 5.0 MPH
Walk for 2.5 minutes at 3.5 MPH
Run for 3 minutes starting at 5.0 MPH and gradually getting to 6.0 MPH
Walk for 90 Seconds
Run for 5 minutes at 5.0 MPH
Cool Down

Total Distance Ran: 1.82 Miles
Total Workout Time: 24 minutes

All in all, things are going well. I need to slowly get everything back on track and things will be good. I'm still reading like crazy, which is helping me stay sane. I've been in a steampunk mood, so most of my books have been revolving around that - and I'm loving it! I just finished one about steampunk pirates on airships! How fun is that?!?!

As far as races go, I have the Dirty Dash coming up soon - which will be fun. With my ankle, I'll run what I can and walk what I can't run - either way, I'll finish and it will be super fun - I'm not running it for time, just the experience. I have a friend doing a 20K walk in October and I might do that with her. That will require less training than trying to do a running race and it would be nice to do that with her. The entry for it is $49 - which isn't too bad. I'll have to talk to the hubby and see if he wants to do the run.

Anyways, enough rambling for me! Hope you all have a great day!!

Miles Ran Towards A Better Me in 2012: 17.72 Miles
Total Amount of Joy I've Found From My Running Shoes: Priceless!!!!