20 Miles Or Bust

I did it! I ran 20 miles! For the first time ever. I was determined to complete it even if I had to crawl the last mile. I was a little worried because my feet started hurting earlier in the run than I anticipated, but after a while I think I got used to it (or maybe my feet just went numb, lol). The temperature was 38 degrees when I started and 68 degrees (F) when I finished! The only major problem was that I wore new shorts (stupid! stupid! stupid!) These shorts rubbed me the wrong way for nearly all 20 miles. I was sure I would be bleeding at the end but it ended up looking not nearly as bad as it felt (I guess I was hoping for a bigger battle scar!) Nice Mothers' Day gift to myself, right? ;)

At the end of the run, "Everybody Hurts" by Avril Lavigne started playing on my mp3 player. I recently bought the Goodbye Lullaby album so I hadn't listened to it a lot yet, but all I heard as I was finishing my last mile was "Everybody hurts some days, it's okay to be afraid, everybody hurts, everybody screams, everybody feels this way, and it's okay..." and it just seem to fit. Because I hurt. And I'm terrified of running the marathon.

Today I am happy to report that I am sore, but walking upright. :)

Here's my training for the rest of the week:

Week 15
Monday: TT 2K3, workout A (upper body workout)
Tuesday: 2.22 miles, 27:00
Wednesday: pace workout, 3.83 miles, 45:00
Thursday: 3.28 miles, 40:00
Friday: stride workout, 2.41 miles, 30:00
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: 20 miles, 4:19:12 (12:58/mile average)

Totals: 31.74 miles, TT 2k3 workout A

Have a great week!
(And Belated Happy Mothers' Day!)

Love, Death And The Bike Anti-Theft

Wow, time flies, doesn't it? This weekend I finished up the Bikini Ready workout I had been using. My weight didn't change all that much, but my bodyfat dropped about 1% according to my Omron.

The workouts were starting to wear on me a little bit because they were big circuits and I always felt like I was hogging equipment at the gym. So I am taking this week off from workouts - except I am running a 5K on Thursday. LOL This particular race is the same race that was my very first 5K a year ago (and I ran it in 40:59). I haven't been training per se for a 5K, but I'm pretty sure I should be able to improve on that time! :)

....BIG ANNOUNCEMENT....

The 8th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest started this week...and I think I am going to join this one! (You can read the rules HERE.) My sister-in-law might join as well, so give it up for T.! [Hurray! :)] I'm going to use this contest to really focus on my training and nutrition as I prepare for the half marathon I am running late this summer. I plan to start Monday, May 10! :) I decided not to join the M&F Hers contest. I checked out the rules online, and just decided it wasn't for me.

...OTHER SILLY RANDOMNESS...

The past couple of weeks my back has been feeling tweaky. (That's a technical term, by the way; my chiropractor used it.) I made an appointment with said chiropractor and decided to ride my bike over after work. When I went to unlock my bike, I discovered that someone had locked up their bike next to mine, and had put their lock through a part of my back tire. It's a little hard to explain, but there's a straight piece that comes down from the "basket holder" and hooks into the pin that holds on the back tire. Luckily, 2 girls walked by and helped me remove my back tire so I could remove the idiot's bike lock. I was not amused.

A couple weeks ago I was on a Saturday run and I nearly witnessed death. Some poor squirrel was in the middle of the road and a truck was speeding toward him. I started yelling at the squirrel, but I don't think he could hear me. Or understand me. Or know why the heck I was yelling at him. I think the truck actually ran over his tail. Then the squirrel staggered over to the curb. He jumped up once and missed the curb, then jumped up again and made it. He limped over to his tree with kind of a dazed look. There was squirrel tail fluff blowing across the road, but I think the little guy made it.

Finally, on my Saturday runs, without fail, the song "Your Love" by the Outfield comes on. (You know the song - "I just wanna use your love, tonight") The first line of the song is "Josie's on a vacation far away" so we already know he's cheating on her, but I always thought it was with some underage girl. There's a line where he says "You know I like my girls a little bit older" which I always interpreted as him meaning "I usually like my girls older, but you'll do". After listening to the song so many times, however, I've decided that the woman he's talking to is actually "older". So now instead of being a pervert, he's chasing a cougar. Which makes me feel only slightly better. After all, he's still cheating on poor Josie.

Have a great week!!



Please see my Disclaimer/Disclosure Statement.

TT Contest Voting And Other Random Stuff

TT Contest Voting is up and ready - if you haven't voted yet, check it out here ==> Turbulence Training Contest Voting

Lots of great transformations!

In other news, if you can call it news (haha), I have a funny story. One of my new favorite workout songs is Lady Gaga's "Telephone". I have no idea why. It's about dancing in a club, and I have never been dancing in a club in my life. Wait, there was that one time - it was '80's night! (And I use the term "dancing" loosely. LOL) Anyway, I bought the CD and was listening to it in the car. I guess there's one too many "telephones" at the end of the song because all the sudden from the backseat my daughter asks, "Is this song over yet?" :)

One of my other current favorite songs is 10 Years' "Through the Iris". Why this band isn't huge I will never know. They are fantastic! In addition to the lyrics, I love the rhyming scheme - the way the song flows. One of my favorite lines is, "Please understand me, that now where you're standing, is closer than I'd hoped."

And in book reading news, I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Good book! I recommend it if you are already familiar with the story. The language can be a little tough to read at times and you can get lost if you don't already know what's going on. There were a couple parts that were a little gory, but overall there wasn't nearly as much "zombie mayhem" as I expected.

Then I was shopping last weekend and saw Christopher Pike's Thirst 2: Phantom, Evil Thirst, Creatures of Forever. The first 2 parts were excellent. I liked them better than Thirst 1. But the last part got a little too supernatural at times. And I was devastated by the ending - I did NOT like it at all! I noticed there was a Thirst 3 coming out next fall so I am curious to see what it will be about. :)


Have a great day!


Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase the product, I will receive a small portion. I don't get paid for reviews, and I only review items that I actually own.

An "Udderly" Random Post

See the end of this post for the "udders". :)

So this is totally random. I was riding into work earlier this week and Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" started player on my mp3 player. When it got to the part when she whistles, for some reason I was reminded of some VH1 special that I had watched (either I Love the 80s, or Best Songs of the 80s, or something like that) and it had said that the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" was the only song with a whistling solo. I'm sure VH1 said that as a joke, but every time I hear "She Bop" I always think, "So there, VH1! The Bangles don't have a monopoly on whistling solos!" (I warned you that this was totally random.)

On that musical note, I saw this cool video the other day on YouTube and wanted to share it with any of you who are Michael Jackson fans. I think this guy was on Oprah recently.




And now the udders...My kids and I set out to build a snow horse yesterday, and well, it ended up looking like a snow cow. LOL


Also, my daughter kept sticking her hand in the snow about every foot. I asked her what she was making, and she said, "Mitten prints." :)


For Christmas she got a little toy baking set with an apron as a gift. One day she couldn't remember what the apron was called so she started calling it her "baking suit". I thought that was pretty cute, and the name stuck. We still call it her baking suit. :)

Have a great day!

A Random Thursday

Heheh....so Recipe day was supposed to move to Tuesday this week. But that was before I had to call the vet to come out and visit my sick kitty. He's having some thyroid problems and potentially some liver trouble. My kitty that is, not the vet. :) The vet has to come back in about a week so we'll find out more then. The vet coming to the house prompted a giant house cleaning party on Tuesday night. :)

Also, I just bought a new book, The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, and I had to share my shopping success this week! I went to a local drugstore and by combining all the deals and coupons I had, I saved $32.95! My total before tax was $54.39 and after deals and coupons my subtotal was $21.44. I thought I was pretty good with coupons, but I did learn a few tricks from this book.

And, in my last post, I mentioned that I like to air drum while running at the gym. :) Out of curiosity, I went to YouTube to see if my favorite song to listen to was there, and it was! It's the song d_letion by Abigail's Ghost. The whole album is awesome, but d_letion is my favorite song, particularly while running. The movie goes for about 8 minutes, but the song is only 5 minutes. There's a few minutes of blank space after the song ends. The movie is just a picture of the album cover while the song plays. Enjoy! And don't forget to drum along. ;)

A Beautiful Morning

This morning's run was fantastic. Not time-wise necessarily, but just in the sense of feeling good and enjoying the run. It's officially autumn here and the leaves are changing colors and falling off the trees. And there is a crispness in the air that's refreshing. While I was running this morning, I listened to this song by Marillion (one of my favorite bands) and it just seemed so appropriate. It's from the album, Afraid of Sunlight. The sun was just starting to rise and it was a beautiful morning (even if it was a bit cloudy). Just as I got home, it started to mist, but it was so fine, that even though I could see it in the air, I couldn't feel it on my skin.

Tuesday Tattoo Watch

Ok, I'm a little late. Tuesday night we went to the ball park and it went into extra innings. Then last night, I went downstairs and found our hot water heater leaking. Just wonderful. But here is the new picture. I think I see a little difference.

In other news, for those of you who like to start on Mondays, you now have until September 15 to enter the Turbulence Training contest!

Also, some of you know that music is one of my passions. I love discovering new music. I just got this CD a couple weeks ago and it has been glued to my CD player. It's called Division, by 10 Years. Hubby thinks it sounds a bit like Cold, but I also think it sounds a bit along the lines of A Perfect Circle. Maybe a mix of the two. In any case, I love every song on the album!

New Tunes, Pull Ups and Daily Diet (Served in Bonus Watermelon Bowl)

I tried to be cool the other night and make a watermelon bowl to impress my son. He's 4 years old. I thought surely I could impress him. Here's a picture of of the bowl:

I showed it to my son, all excited because I thought it turned out pretty good. He says to me, "That's great, Mom".

Isn't he a little young for sarcasm?

Anyway...I've had a lot of people ask me about my diet during my transformation. I decided I would just post a typical day of what I eat. This is a workout day (all times are approximate):

5:20am (pre-workout): 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

6:30am (post-workout): 1 scoop GNC Wheybolic Extreme 60 in about 4oz water

8:45am: oatmeal made with 1 packet plain instant oatmeal, 2 oz blueberries, 4oz skim milk, 1T walnuts, 1/2t ground flax, 1 packet Splenda; additional 4oz skim milk to drink

11:45am: homemade cream of cauliflower and turkey sausage soup; salad made with 2 cups spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, a couple croutons, 2T homemade sugar-free French dressing

This is usually when I take my pills: 1 GNC women's ultra mega active multivitamin, 1 ProCaps Omega 3 Fish Oil, 1 ProCaps Healthy Hair, Skin and Nails

2:00pm: plain nonfat yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, 1 packet Splenda, 1/2t ground flax, 1T walnuts (or I'll just have 1 oz cheese with an apple/plum/peach)

5:15pm: My version of Texas Thin Crust Pizza from Gourmet Nutrition with turkey sausage and salsa instead of ground sirloin and bbq sauce (Often I just have a protein like chicken or beef, a vegetable like broccoli or cauliflower, and a fruit like pears, applesauce, or strawberries.)

8:00pm: GNC Lean Muscle Meal in about 12oz water (running out of this soon and then will finish off my Muscle Milk)

In other news...I attempted pull ups this morning! Last time I tried, which was several months ago, I just hung there like an idiot. Today I was able to do 2 and a half! (They weren't pretty.) I was very surprised, but very happy.

I added a few new tunes to the player in the side bar. My new favorite is "Forever Can Be" by Ashes Divide. It's Billy Howerdel's (A Perfect Circle) solo project. If you like A Perfect Circle, you'll probably like Ashes Divide.

Inspirational Garbage

During my TT workout this morning, for my last set of reverse lunges, I was debating on using 25 or 30lb dumbbells, when all the sudden I heard Shirley Manson in my headphones singing, "Don't believe in fear, Don't believe in pain, Don't believe in anyone, that you can't tame".

I went with the 30lbs.


For those of who can't quite put your finger on what song that is, it's "Stupid Girl" by Garbage. I love that CD! I definitely work harder when I'm listening to good music. I guess that would be Today's Tip. Get yourself listening to some good music while working out! What's everyone else listening to these days?