Gearing Up

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I seem to have survived the bug that wreaked havoc on my system last week. Four days later and I'm still a little off, but I'm feeling well enough to enjoy the weekend. Last week was about my being sick, and then the kids. I stayed home with them on Thursday, with big ideas about how much I might get done being home all day - none of it happened. It's ok, lounge-around-the-house days are fun too.

Now that I'm healing up, it's time to start thinking about the training plan for the San Francisco Rock n Roll half marathon coming up in April. I made a training plan last month but I haven't been following it. I'm blaming the holidays. And with that excuse over.... So I plan to run 5 or 6 miles this weekend, depending on how I feel. It's a dreary, gray misty day out today, and my tummy is still feeling funny, so I'm placing my hopes on tomorrow. Sunday is a great day to run. And I lined up a plan for when I'm with the kids so I have no excuse to not run on those weekends either.

For Christmas I was gifted a new training gadget, the Garmin Forerunner 920xt. Holy cow, this thing is fancy. It's made for triathlon training and can be used for swimming (open water and pool), biking (indoor and out), and running (treadmill and outdoor). It can even track your running form and other things. I think it talks to the heart rate monitor or something? I don't understand it but I'm looking forward to what it tells me.

The idea is to use this for the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz, the olympic distance triathlon I'm doing in August. But I was fiddling with it today, hoping to use it for the first time on my run tomorrow. Speaking of the triathlon...

San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz

It's hard to think about what I've signed up for without starting to freak out. Then I remind myself, "come race day, you will have trained, you'll be prepared, you're not prepared now and that's why it seems so scary, it will seem much less scary once you've prepared." Though, I'm sure, still quite a bit scary. Just look at those ladies jumping into the bay. That's going to be me?!

At the moment, exercise remains a mostly weekend thing, and even then, not consistently. I'm hoping this half-marathon will inspire me to get moving more during the week. My back is still a problem, I started physical therapy but got derailed by the holidays. Once again, that excuse is gone so I need to get in to see them. PT exercises would be a great way to jump-start my gym habit.

As far as eating goes, things are gently moving in the right direction. Sometimes I track but still not anywhere near 100%. Still, even occasional tracking keeps my overall awareness up. So much of this is just about remember, "no, I'm not doing that anymore, remember, Michelle?" Yes, I remember.

Ok, it's after 11pm and I've got a run planned for tomorrow so I'm signing off. I'll close with a really weird lunch I had at a healthy cafe (hippie healthy, but still healthy). Won't be getting this again, not sure what I was thinking getting it once. I mean it wasn't that bad, mostly it was just weird, dried cranberries and feta are two things that don't "go" with a spicy sauce, IMHO.

quinoa, spinach, feta, dried cranberries...and hot sauce. yes, hot sauce.

Healing Fairy Dust Needed

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I started the day like this... 

I posted on my Facebook page about how sometimes I dress "cute" (by my standards) to motivate myself. Something about wearing something fashion-y like skinny jeans and boots makes a positive impact on how I feel, which makes a difference in how I eat.

But that wasn't enough to ward off an impending stomach flu. I ended the day like this...

I've been in bed since 6:30pm, wishing for the illness fairy to be nice to my GI tract. I know, none if it is pretty. Isn't it sad that I thought about how I'll probably lose a few pounds through this? Yes, it is. I'm not perfect, I have those diet mentality thoughts sometimes too, and, 1) this is no way to lose weight, I'm sick for crying out loud and,  2) it's not real weight loss. My innards will get replenished, as they should, as soon as I'm healed up. 

Ok, I hope I can sleep now, so that fairy can sprinkle her healing dust on me. 

A Snowy Walk to the Lake

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Hello to all the new readers. I hope you're enjoying my blog, and catching up on my story so far. I plan to write a more detailed post soon about the current state of my weight, fitness, exercise, eating, etc. There is work to be done, but overall I think I'm in a good place. Just not exactly where I want to be.

Today was another fun day in the mountains. We had a leisurely morning hanging around the house but eventually made our way out for a walk. We walked some trails formed by snowmobiles and eventually made our way to the lake. I'd brought my camera along because I wanted to snap some pictures of the kids and the beautiful surrounds.

Lake Tahoe

Myra

Marek (minus a few teeth)

A girl and her stick

Rock throwing fun.

Me and my babes.

So today is the last day of the kids' winter school break, tomorrow is back to the routine. It's been an activity filled month and I'm actually looking forward to a bit of quiet in January. And ideally less tempting food and drink in front of me. It takes a lot of mental energy to resist the sudden urge to indulge (giving in is stressful too in its own way), it will be nice to relax a bit.

We plan to drive home late tonight to squeeze everything we can out of this day and to make the drive back easier on the kids (hoping they'll fall asleep soon into the drive), and us. I know this isn't their last Tahoe adventure this winter, something tells me we'll be up here again. And I plan to have my ski pants fit a bit better when we return.