1) Start a budget beginning on January 1. I want to get a feel for where all of our money is going and hopefully come up with a monthly amount I can spend (that the hubby agrees with). This will be my new Microsoft Excel project. Hopefully my workout log doesn't get jealous.
2) Try something new. I lost my Bikram Yoga virginity in 2009. I love it, and this year I want to give something else a try (maybe Crossfit?). I'll also count Shawna's Boot Camp or Masters Swimming in this category since I haven't done either in quite awhile.
3) Travel to Europe this summer with Cliff. We have NO CLUE how to begin researching and planning this adventure. Cruise? Fanny pack tour? No idea. Suggestions? We'll take 'em!
4) Stay on my running kick and become more committed. I have the 50K (my first "ultra") coming up in February. My next big goal is to break 4 hours in a marathon. I'm thinking about signing up for Houston (January 2011).
5) Get back to my "Operation Wedding Dress" weight (or close to it). I put the pounds back on very quicky after the wedding and have held steady since this summer. I'd like to lose 8-13 pounds.
6) Get a teaching job. I am taking one more class (January-May), and then I will be eligible to teach. So hopefully I can start in the Fall and see if I like it.
7) Buy better gifts. I am the gift card champ, and I felt really disappointed in my efforts this Christmas. I am going to make a list of ideas so I can write stuff down when I think of it. This year I want to give REAL presents instead of gift cards.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
First Day in California
Pre-California: Saturday was my first ever attempt at back-to-back Bikram yoga sessions (90 minutes each), and I survived. Who knew I would actually sweat MORE during the second session (I thought at some point, I would run out of sweat). The second session actually went by fast, and I was in a bit of a haze. I grabbed a yummy Taos salad from Baker Brothers for lunch and headed home to give Gus a bath to get him ready for his trip to see Santa at Petsmart. I got him in my car and he pooped as soon as we backed out of the driveway. What a mess. So he had doggie timeout and I took a big, fat nap. No Santa visit for GusGus this year :( Cliff and Jordan went fishing on Saturday and caught their limit, so Cliff was happy (and Jordan was cold). The three of us and Leslie went to dinner at Outback. We were a little disappointed in the quality of the filet, but they were running a special where it was only a couple bucks extra to add lobster. We grabbed a drink at Fox and Hound and watched the end of the first half of the Cowboys game and then drove home. My flight was pretty early on Sunday, so I had to set the alarm for 6:45.
California: My parents picked me up at the Burbank airport and we went to Green Street for brunch. I got the cornucopia salad and the zucchini bread. After lunch, we relaxed at the house and I got my second nap in. I went for a short run (a whopping 2.18 miles), which was my first run since the marathon last Sunday. In the evening we went to dinner at Cafe Bizou, which was awesome. You can bring your own wine for a small corkage fee, and the food is amazing. I had the seared ahi tuna with sauteed spinach and two homemade mushroom raviolis. My brother and I went out last night to a club in Orange County. We managed to stay out until 1 am (3 am Texas time) thanks to sugar-free Red Bull. It was fun, although it got a little too crowded towards the end of the night.
I have a cardiologist appointment (check-up) this afternoon and then my brother and I are going to the Lady Gaga concert. Woohoo!
California: My parents picked me up at the Burbank airport and we went to Green Street for brunch. I got the cornucopia salad and the zucchini bread. After lunch, we relaxed at the house and I got my second nap in. I went for a short run (a whopping 2.18 miles), which was my first run since the marathon last Sunday. In the evening we went to dinner at Cafe Bizou, which was awesome. You can bring your own wine for a small corkage fee, and the food is amazing. I had the seared ahi tuna with sauteed spinach and two homemade mushroom raviolis. My brother and I went out last night to a club in Orange County. We managed to stay out until 1 am (3 am Texas time) thanks to sugar-free Red Bull. It was fun, although it got a little too crowded towards the end of the night.
I have a cardiologist appointment (check-up) this afternoon and then my brother and I are going to the Lady Gaga concert. Woohoo!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Thursday Thirteen
1. I feel like I have fully recovered from the marathon already. Maybe I’m just fooling myself, but I’ll take it. I was pretty sore on Monday (especially in my quads… I think that my posture gets bad when I get tired and I tend to hunch over and use my quads more than my hammies), but I had an AWESOME massage on Tuesday, and I’m good as new.
2. Grades were posted today and I got an “A” in my Financial Statement Analysis class. Woohoo!
3. I’m signed up for some accounting statistical design class for next semester. Although I still have parted with my $1,340, so there is still plenty of time to back out. However, I should be eligible to teach since I have 15 hours (and one more class would make 18 hours). So I should suck it up, I guess.
4. After two days off from working out, I hit the gym yesterday at lunch and rode 30 minutes on the stationary bike (I have a really good book!) and then lifted (arms) and did abs for 20 minutes. I did Bikram yoga this morning and boot camp at lunch. Hear me ROAAAARRR!
5. Boot camp is always a challenge for me. I don’t really have much leg strength, and I’m horrible at jumping because I’m such a slow-twitch person. Today was a good workout, and the only marathon effect I noticed was that the arches of my feet really hurt. Maybe I should try doing bootcamp without my custom orthodics?
6. The good news is, I’m not gaining weight. The bad news is, I’m not losing weight either. I’m up about 13 pounds from my lowest pre-wedding weight, but I’ve been staying there since this summer (and, believe it or not, I’m still about 5 pounds under my Ironman weight). I haven’t been nearly as strict with my eating or drinking, but I’ve been good about not falling off the wagon completely. It’s nice to enjoy my life and not log everything on FitDay and summarize my data in a spreadsheet. Wow, and I admit that to people?
7. I’m going fishing on Saturday with Cliff and Jordan (Cliff’s son/my bonus son). I have to buy a fishing license on Friday. Seriously.
8. This is going to remind me of my first Willingham camping adventure, where it was so cold that we woke up with ice on our tent. Good thing I can bust out the circa 1997 green Speedo jacket (oooh, and maybe even the circa 1997 bright blue nylon warm-up pants?).
9. I’m having some Crossfit curiosity. I want to give it a try, except that whole fear about my heart valve exploding kinid of lingers in the back of my mind (I had open heart surgery in 1989, and I’m not supposed to lift weights because of my leaky aorta & mitral valves… only I didn’t know that until a few years ago, after I had been lifting for about 13 years already).
10. I should be done with wedding present thank you notes (about a dozen to go) and Christmas cards (about 40 to go) by Saturday. Thank goodness. The next project (now that it’s taken me 6 months to write thank you notes) is to catch up on my photo album. I haven’t updated in since my birthday last year (July 4, 2008), so I’m about a year and a half behind, which includes wedding photos. I want to make a separate wedding album (or two) for the showers and receptions, and I also want to make an album for GusGus (I’m a proud parent!).
11. I leave for California on Sunday morning! I am so excited to see my family, have some fun, and see Lady Gaga! It’s definitely going to be a busy week. Hopefully I can get some workouts done. I would like to run and do Bikram yoga. I plan on letting my 24 Hour Fitness membership expire.
12. Cliff and I have started two new series, “The Mentalist” and “Extras.” We really like “The Mentalist” so far. I’m a big fan of Criminal Minds, and Cliff is not as big of a fan. “The Mentalist” reminds me of “Criminal Minds” since they are both centered on behavioral analysis. “Extras” is mildly entertaining. Ricky Gervais plays a character similar to the one he plays in the BBC’s The Office. It’s funny and un-PC, but sometimes it’s hard to decipher the English accents. I think Texas has ruined me.
13. We had an awesome date night last Friday. We had a few drinks at Dublin Square (the bar near our old apartment) and played Photo Hunt (which kind of reminds me of Bejeweled… I get stressed out and my eyes start to hurt). Then we hit up Saltgrass, and I tried to be good by ordering the smaller filet with veggies. But I ate a bunch of bread, we shared a bottle of wine, and then we ordered popcorn at the movie theater. The buttered popcorn came back to haunt both of us. But the movie, Blind Side, was excellent. I think I cried during at least half of the movie, but that could have been the rum ‘n diets and wine talking.
2. Grades were posted today and I got an “A” in my Financial Statement Analysis class. Woohoo!
3. I’m signed up for some accounting statistical design class for next semester. Although I still have parted with my $1,340, so there is still plenty of time to back out. However, I should be eligible to teach since I have 15 hours (and one more class would make 18 hours). So I should suck it up, I guess.
4. After two days off from working out, I hit the gym yesterday at lunch and rode 30 minutes on the stationary bike (I have a really good book!) and then lifted (arms) and did abs for 20 minutes. I did Bikram yoga this morning and boot camp at lunch. Hear me ROAAAARRR!
5. Boot camp is always a challenge for me. I don’t really have much leg strength, and I’m horrible at jumping because I’m such a slow-twitch person. Today was a good workout, and the only marathon effect I noticed was that the arches of my feet really hurt. Maybe I should try doing bootcamp without my custom orthodics?
6. The good news is, I’m not gaining weight. The bad news is, I’m not losing weight either. I’m up about 13 pounds from my lowest pre-wedding weight, but I’ve been staying there since this summer (and, believe it or not, I’m still about 5 pounds under my Ironman weight). I haven’t been nearly as strict with my eating or drinking, but I’ve been good about not falling off the wagon completely. It’s nice to enjoy my life and not log everything on FitDay and summarize my data in a spreadsheet. Wow, and I admit that to people?
7. I’m going fishing on Saturday with Cliff and Jordan (Cliff’s son/my bonus son). I have to buy a fishing license on Friday. Seriously.
8. This is going to remind me of my first Willingham camping adventure, where it was so cold that we woke up with ice on our tent. Good thing I can bust out the circa 1997 green Speedo jacket (oooh, and maybe even the circa 1997 bright blue nylon warm-up pants?).
9. I’m having some Crossfit curiosity. I want to give it a try, except that whole fear about my heart valve exploding kinid of lingers in the back of my mind (I had open heart surgery in 1989, and I’m not supposed to lift weights because of my leaky aorta & mitral valves… only I didn’t know that until a few years ago, after I had been lifting for about 13 years already).
10. I should be done with wedding present thank you notes (about a dozen to go) and Christmas cards (about 40 to go) by Saturday. Thank goodness. The next project (now that it’s taken me 6 months to write thank you notes) is to catch up on my photo album. I haven’t updated in since my birthday last year (July 4, 2008), so I’m about a year and a half behind, which includes wedding photos. I want to make a separate wedding album (or two) for the showers and receptions, and I also want to make an album for GusGus (I’m a proud parent!).
11. I leave for California on Sunday morning! I am so excited to see my family, have some fun, and see Lady Gaga! It’s definitely going to be a busy week. Hopefully I can get some workouts done. I would like to run and do Bikram yoga. I plan on letting my 24 Hour Fitness membership expire.
12. Cliff and I have started two new series, “The Mentalist” and “Extras.” We really like “The Mentalist” so far. I’m a big fan of Criminal Minds, and Cliff is not as big of a fan. “The Mentalist” reminds me of “Criminal Minds” since they are both centered on behavioral analysis. “Extras” is mildly entertaining. Ricky Gervais plays a character similar to the one he plays in the BBC’s The Office. It’s funny and un-PC, but sometimes it’s hard to decipher the English accents. I think Texas has ruined me.
13. We had an awesome date night last Friday. We had a few drinks at Dublin Square (the bar near our old apartment) and played Photo Hunt (which kind of reminds me of Bejeweled… I get stressed out and my eyes start to hurt). Then we hit up Saltgrass, and I tried to be good by ordering the smaller filet with veggies. But I ate a bunch of bread, we shared a bottle of wine, and then we ordered popcorn at the movie theater. The buttered popcorn came back to haunt both of us. But the movie, Blind Side, was excellent. I think I cried during at least half of the movie, but that could have been the rum ‘n diets and wine talking.
Monday, December 14, 2009
The White Rock Marathon
Expo – Wowzers. I bought 3 pairs of running shorts for $48 total. They were originally $40 and marked down to $14.50 or $18.50 each. Also, they had 5-pound bags of Science Diet dog food. So even GusGus was a winner! The logistics were good, and it didn’t take much time to park or get our bags and t-shirts.
Night Before – I met my friend Cami for an early dinner at Ravenna’s (an Italian restaurant I found on Urban Spoon). I ordered a penne dish with broccoli, sausage, garlic, and olive oil. It was pretty good (a little bland though – could have used a bit of a kick) and not too heavy. We shared a bottle of wine (and my rationale is that I was consistent with how I prepared for my long runs!). Maureen and I stayed at The Fairmont Hotel, which was really nice. We got our race outfits ready and went to bed at about 9:30. I slept pretty well except for my cough, and I downed some cough syrup at 4:00 am and slept until 5:30 am.
Morning Of – I felt a little groggy in the morning (probably from the Nyquil hangover). Once I got moving and had a small cup of coffee, I felt better. We left the hotel at 6:15, got to the parking lot by 6:30, and sat in the car until 7. Fortunately we made our way to the race site early because the port-o-potty line took about 30 minutes. I came prepared with my TP (thanks to my runny nose). We walked over to the start line and had about 10 minutes until the gun went off. We were on our feet for an hour before the race, and I need to be careful of that before future long races.
Corrals – This is the first time I’ve been seeded in a corral. Since Maureen’s goal was 5 hours, we both entered 5 hours as our estimated finish time (or best time, can’t remember). We were seeded in Corral E, the very last corral. We noticed quite a few people who did not look like “runners” who were in Corral A. They need to do a better job with how they seed the half marathon people. Maureen and I happened to fall into a spot in Corral D (sneaky, sneaky) but it still took 11 minutes after the gun went off to cross the start line. We passed quite a few people, including overweight ladies who were walking the entire half marathon (and that is a great accomplishment, but they need to seed these people BEHIND the runners). Lesson learned: enter a faster best time (or estimated finish time).
The Race – There was a lot of congestion with 20,000 runners. Everyone (half marathoners, relay participants, and full marathoners) ran together for 7 miles until the half marathoners split off. Maureen and I averaged 11-minute pace for those first 7 miles. Then we sped up to 10:20 pace once things thinned down at mile 7, and that felt comfortable. We split 2:21 at the half, and we both admitted to hurting. We figured we could finish in 4:45 though. At around mile 15, Maureen hit the wall. She was pretty happy when I had to go to the bathroom and she got a walk break. I was feeling really good at this point, and I sped ahead to the nearest port-a-potty. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for her) there was no line, so it only took me a few minutes (I’ll leave the details out – you’re welcome). The next few miles were tough. Maureen was doubting herself and our pace slowed down significantly. This was what hurt me the most, because it was really hard for me to try to adjust my stride to slow down that much. We slowed down to 13-something for a mile, and our slowest mile was 15:35. That was the low point. Then we agreed to run to the Dolly Parton hills and then we would walk/run up the hills. I was trying to discourage Maureen from walking, especially because she might be the slowest walker ever (she is only 4’11”, so I should try to be more sympathetic because I know my legs are twice as long). At mile 20, we ran (an easy jog that hurt like hell after running that slow in the middle portion). Maureen didn’t want to walk at all (so she didn’t even grab water at the aid stations) because she knew she wouldn’t be able to run again. So we ran continuously (fortunately I can drink while running), and it was about an 11:20 pace. That was a very difficult six miles for me, but we made it. We were very close to Maureen’s goal of breaking 5 hours. Our Garmins and my watch both said 5:02 or 5:03, but our official time was 5:05:12 (not exactly sure where those extra 2-3 minutes came from, but no big deal).
Aftermath – We had to sit down afterwards (I know that was a bad idea, but the two of us were beat up pretty badly). Finally we got up to find the TNT booth and go to our car. Maureen could barely walk, so it took quite awhile. We ate a yummy PB&J at the TNT booth and then had to ask two different Dallas PD trainees for directions to our car. I dropped Maureen off and went home to my boys. One of them really enjoyed all of the salt on my legs. I got in my swimsuit and got waist-deep in our freezing cold pool (easy ice bath). I only lasted about 10 minutes, because I was afraid I might lose a toe. I took a nice, hot shower and then relaxed on the couch and watched the Cowboys game. I had cottage cheese and a frozen meal to hold me over until dinner (Domino’s pizza and Chardonnay… dinner of champions!) and Cliff gave me an awesome foot massage. I actually feel pretty normal now. I remember after the Las Vegas marathon (where I ran my best time of 4:16), I had to brace myself to go to the bathroom by placing my hands on the floor in order to squat down. It was baaaaad. I can move relatively easily today, except my quads get pretty sore when I get up after I have been sitting for a long time.
The Future – I am excited for the 50K on February 27. It will be my first “ultra,” and I am doing a good job (knock wood) of staying injury-free. I think I can hold a steady 10:20 pace and run the whole 31 miles (with a little walking through the aid stations… I think that walking cuts down on the amount of air I gulp while drinking water). I have a massage tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to that. I think I should be able to run again in a few days. Hopefully I will find the time to do yoga a couple times this week to help stretch out my crazy tight legs.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Catching up before Sunday's Marathon
Upcoming Marathon - The White Rock Marathon is this Sunday at 8 am in Dallas. Originally I was pretty excited and nonchalant about it since I'm pacing my friend, Maureen, and her original goal was to break 5 hours. I thought this would be a great training run for the 50K coming up in a couple months. Now she's talking 4:30 (aiming for 10:30 pace for the first hour and then picking it up to 10:15 pace for the remainder of the race), and I'm realizing I'm going to need to put forth a considerable amount of effort given that my best time is 4:16. Both of us have been sick (I've been battling a nagging cough and chest congestion for over two weeks and Maureen has a cold), so we are trying our best to get healthy. I'm a little concerned that my longest run was only 16 miles, but I have also done a better job with injury prevention this time around. I've realized that Paquette Feet were not made for marathons or ultras, so my footsies need some routine TLC. The custom orthodics have helped, and I've also seeing Dr. Brian and Dr. Dukes for some ART and crackage. I love that thing they do where they pull my foot away from my ankle. That pop is heavenly, and I get such a sense of accomplishment from it. I saw Cynthia for a massage on Monday, and she mostly worked on my back (my "dorsal fin") and legs. I have another massage scheduled for Tuesday to help speed along the marathon recovery.
A Little Nostalgia - White Rock was my very first marathon six years ago. I was out in 2:07 (9:36 pace), back in 2:24 (11:04 pace), resulting in a total time of 4:30:37 (10:02 pace).
School - My final exam was last night and it was much harder than expected. The mid-term was a breeze and only took me about 30 minutes. The final took about an hour and 20 minutes, and I probably should have spent more time on it but my brain was fried. I had the highest midterm grade (92 + 4 point curve), so I'm assuming that if I thought the exam was hard, then other people probably had a tough time as well. He gave us a list of ratios to memorize for computations, and I think most of us assumed that we didn't need to memorize the other ratios (which he ended up asking about in the theoretical questions rather than the computational questions). I have one more class to take in order to have my 18 hours of graduate accounting to be eligible to teach a college class. Right now I'm signed up for an accounting statistical design class for the spring semester. It's on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-5:20. The good news is I will get home earlier, but the bad news is I have an extra drive home from Arlington each week. I haven't paid the money ($1340 + books for ONE class... EEEEEK... remember when public schools were cheap?) yet, so there is still time to back out and be a slacker.
Dumpster Diving - I turned in my exam and then the professor asked us if any of us knew this one girl in our class, who happened to be one of my group members for our project. He claimed that she left with her exam, so he asked me to call her. I tracked down her number on my email (hooray iPhone), gave her a ring, and freaked her out. She said she threw away her notes in the trash can outside the building. Since she was on her way home, yours truly volunteered to go through the trash can... and it was one of those with the small opening at the top. Fortunately her stack of papers was at the top and not too many people witnesses this incident. I went through the papers, and her exam was not there. The teacher threatened to give her a 0 if she didn't turn in the exam, so I called her back and told her she needed to come back to campus. She might have put her exam with the written computation part of the final, and sure enough, it was there. So if I'm between an A and a B in this class, the professor better remember my act of kindness.
California!!! - I'm going home to California December 20-27. It's going to be a busy week... going out with my brother on Sunday night, cardiologist appointment on Monday, Lady Gaga concert on Monday night, drinks with friends on Tuesday, Christmas Eve with the extended family on Thursday, Christmas with the immediate family on Friday, and the Rose Bowl Reunion (and I guess maybe my 10-Year High School Reunion if the Rose Bowl Reunion doesn't pan out) on Saturday night. I found a Bikram studio in Pasadena, so hopefully I can sweat out some of the holiday goodies.
A Little Nostalgia - White Rock was my very first marathon six years ago. I was out in 2:07 (9:36 pace), back in 2:24 (11:04 pace), resulting in a total time of 4:30:37 (10:02 pace).
School - My final exam was last night and it was much harder than expected. The mid-term was a breeze and only took me about 30 minutes. The final took about an hour and 20 minutes, and I probably should have spent more time on it but my brain was fried. I had the highest midterm grade (92 + 4 point curve), so I'm assuming that if I thought the exam was hard, then other people probably had a tough time as well. He gave us a list of ratios to memorize for computations, and I think most of us assumed that we didn't need to memorize the other ratios (which he ended up asking about in the theoretical questions rather than the computational questions). I have one more class to take in order to have my 18 hours of graduate accounting to be eligible to teach a college class. Right now I'm signed up for an accounting statistical design class for the spring semester. It's on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-5:20. The good news is I will get home earlier, but the bad news is I have an extra drive home from Arlington each week. I haven't paid the money ($1340 + books for ONE class... EEEEEK... remember when public schools were cheap?) yet, so there is still time to back out and be a slacker.
Dumpster Diving - I turned in my exam and then the professor asked us if any of us knew this one girl in our class, who happened to be one of my group members for our project. He claimed that she left with her exam, so he asked me to call her. I tracked down her number on my email (hooray iPhone), gave her a ring, and freaked her out. She said she threw away her notes in the trash can outside the building. Since she was on her way home, yours truly volunteered to go through the trash can... and it was one of those with the small opening at the top. Fortunately her stack of papers was at the top and not too many people witnesses this incident. I went through the papers, and her exam was not there. The teacher threatened to give her a 0 if she didn't turn in the exam, so I called her back and told her she needed to come back to campus. She might have put her exam with the written computation part of the final, and sure enough, it was there. So if I'm between an A and a B in this class, the professor better remember my act of kindness.
California!!! - I'm going home to California December 20-27. It's going to be a busy week... going out with my brother on Sunday night, cardiologist appointment on Monday, Lady Gaga concert on Monday night, drinks with friends on Tuesday, Christmas Eve with the extended family on Thursday, Christmas with the immediate family on Friday, and the Rose Bowl Reunion (and I guess maybe my 10-Year High School Reunion if the Rose Bowl Reunion doesn't pan out) on Saturday night. I found a Bikram studio in Pasadena, so hopefully I can sweat out some of the holiday goodies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)