Weekend Recap

Friday

Total Steps: 12,045

Planks: 40 seconds x 4 sets
Squats: 25 reps x 3 sets
Tricep Dips: 25 reps x 3 sets
Lunges: 25 reps (each leg) x 3 sets
Calf Raises: 60 seconds x 3 sets

Saturday

Total Steps: 11,054

Running/Walking Intervals: 4.5 miles
Pace: 12:00


Sunday

REST

Went shopping with my son for his girlfriend's birthday present, played Yahtzee with Hubs, and watched football. Also, I discovered Jordy Nelson is my favorite Packer. And look, he even likes milk!!! What a swell guy.



Monday

It was a struggle just to get up for work...my husband and I discovered a new drink the night before (Raspberry Vodka and Red Monster, which tastes like koolaid by the way), and let's just say we won't be drinking it again anytime soon! So, it was another resting day :)

Have a great week!!

~Fluffy Girl~

Running Groups--Yay or Nay?

So, I'm thinking about checking out a running group. I'm a little leary of it, considering I don't normally like running with people because that would most likely require me to talk. Let's put it like this:

ME + RUNNING + TALKING =  

Also I might feel like I need to match their pace--whether that is faster or slower than mine (most likely faster, and I don't want to injure myself before my official training even begins!).

However, I have been reading a lot of running blogs and fitness magazines lately and everyone else seems to think running groups are great. I guess it can't hurt to try, and who knows, maybe it will be amazing and I will be kicking myself for not joining one earlier. Another huge plus is that I might actually make some friends!!

How do you feel about running groups? Love 'em or hate 'em?


~Fluffy Girl~

Deja Vu

 

Yup, this t-shirt pretty much says it all :)

Wednesday

Total Steps: 11,973

Planks: 35 seconds x 4
Squats: 25 reps x 4 sets
Tricep Dips: 25 reps x 4 sets
Jumping Jacks: 100 reps x 4 sets
Pushups: 25 reps x 4 sets

Sometimes I feel like I am trapped in the movie Groundhog Day. I have the same interactions with the same people day in and day out! One example....

There's another company who rents the third floor of the office building I work in, and all their employees are, shall we say, interesting individuals. Every single morning, the woman who does their bookkeeping comes in the front door (where my desk is) to get on the elevator and says "Happy (insert day of week here)! I love my life and everyone in it!" At first I thought wow, how refreshingly positive this woman is. But now, I loathe this 3 second interaction every morning. The other day, just to throw her off, I beat her to the punch. Before she even stepped over the threshold I yelled, "Happy Thursday!!!!" with this big, fake smile.You should have seen the look on her face--it was like I had just kicked her puppy in the mouth. She still said her mantra, but with a lot less enthusiasm. I felt a little guilty after that, but still hoped I had made a point. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Any suggestions on how to nicely tell her that her morning exclamation drives me absolutely bonkers?

Another "deja vu" conversation I have daily is with the mail man. Don't get me wrong, he's a super nice guy and always has some type of compliment for me...but there are two things he says every single day that for some reason bother me: 1) "Don't work too hard" and then he laughs, and then 2) "I'll see you tomorrow if I don't 'go postal' ". It's like nails on a chalkboard. Eeeeeeeek!

Do you have these same types of interactions that get old after awhile?

What other types of exercising do you do besides running?

~Fluffy Girl~

Men in Jammies..and Foot Cramps

Monday

Total Steps for the Day: 12,910

Planks: 35 seconds x 3 sets
Squats: 25 reps x 3 sets

Tuesday

Total Steps for the Day: 9,440

Running/Walking Intervals: 3.25 miles
Pace: 11:10

So today while I was out for my run around 4:30 p.m.,  I saw a dozen or so men outside in their jammies. Some of them were taking out the trash, another one washing his car (in the rain), and yet another putting up his tacky Halloween decorations. Was it National Men in Pajamas Day or something? Was there a convention in the area? There is never a dull day on my running route, let me tell ya. You never know what you are going to see at military base housing!

Thank goodness I had those PJ'd guys distracting me, because I had the worst foot cramps I have ever experienced while running. Actually, I don't ever recall having foot cramps before. Shin splints, yes. Foot cramps, not so much. I hope that was a one-time thing!

What are some of the interesting things you have seen while out for a run/walk?

What kinds of cramps plague you most often?

~Fluffy Girl~

How OCD are You?

Sunday

Total Steps for the Day: 8,545

Running/Walking Intervals: 4 miles
Pace: 11:30

I have been noticing lately just how OCD I am. I think I'm getting worse! For instance, everything on my desk and in my office at work has to be in it's exact spot. The first thing I do every morning is walk around the office and make sure everything is where it should be. The cleaning crew has a habit of not putting things back exactly where they got them from, and it drives me absolutely freakin' crazy. Even the way they place the garbage cans all sideways and uneven on the floor drives me bonkers. Also I usually leave work before my boss, so he is always down here messing things up. I never leave work without putting away all the files and other papers I worked on that day, but 80% of the time there are files laying around when I get to work the next day. If you can take it out of the filing cabinet, you can put it back in. That actually brings me to another thing that drives me nuts--people don't know the alphabet or how to count!!! I can't begin to tell you how many times I have found folders that were put back in the cabinet out of order. Seriously people, learn your ABC's and 123's. There are no grade school children working here, and even THEY could probably do a better job at putting things away than my co-workers.

Another thing I have been noticing lately is how much it bothers me to end a run/walk if it's not an exact number of miles. And I actually REFUSE to stop if it isn't at least on a quarter mile mark (.25, .5, or .75). Is that weird or what? I actually ran an extra quarter mile the other day just because my tracker said I had gone 5.58 miles, so I continued running until it said 5.75. I guess it's okay since it pushed me to do more, but still...this weird OCD-ness is getting a little out of control!

I have always been a creature of habit--which I'm pretty sure I get from my mom. I have a routine every morning and I do the exact same things in the exact same order, and if something interrupts my routine I get pretty irritated. I do certain chores on certain days of the week. When I pay my bills, I pay them in the same order every month. I check my bank account online daily, if not more than once a day, to make sure everything balances out to the penny. If it doesn't, I won't rest easy until I figure out what went wrong.

Am I just highly organized and like round numbers, or am I losing it?

Catching Up and Running Fashion Blunders

Thursday

Total Steps for the Day: 10,473

Planks: 30 seconds x 5 sets

Leg Lifts: 25 reps per leg x 3 sets

Friday

Total Steps for the Day: 11, 214

Planks: 30 seconds x 5 sets
Squats: 25 reps x 6 sets

Saturday

Total Steps for the Day: 10,057

Running/Walking Intervals: 4 miles
Pace: 11:36

When I ran my half-marathons, I wore a fanny pack to carry all my essentials. I know, I know...this is a major fashion blunder, but there was no other way to carry everything I thought I might need. For me, the "essentials" consisted of kleenex (no farmer blows for this girl), lip balm, bandaids, a granola bar, and a camera. Well I guess the camera wasn't exactly an essential, but you just never know what you might see and want to capture forever. Plus, I love photography and there have been many times in my life when I have wished I had a camera. When I went to the expo the day before the marathon to pick up my race goodies, there were several vendors there selling what they were calling "running belts", but they were so small that I wasn't even sure what they were supposed to hold. So I went with my big, 80's-style fanny pack and embraced the fashion faux pas I committing. It turned out that I never needed anything I was carrying in that dreadful thing, so now I'm wondering if I should wear it for my upcoming full marathon. Anyone have any suggestions?

Do you wear a running belt when you run long distance?

If so, what are the "running essentials" that you carry?

~Fluffy Girl~

22,222

That's a lot of steps I made yesterday! And no, I did not do that number on purpose; it just happened that way. The first 12,000 or so were done while pacing my office at work, and the remainder came from my run/walk intervals around the neighborhood.

Total Steps for the Day: 22,222

Run/walk intervals: 5.75 miles
Pace: 12:00

Squats: 25 reps x 4 sets
Planks: 30 seconds x 4 sets
Push ups: 25 reps x 2 sets
Tricep Dips: 25 reps x 2 sets

Okay, enough of those boring numbers. Yesterday my running thoughts were pretty scattered, ranging from "damn, I'm hungry...what can I eat?" to thinking about how true it is when parents say to their children, "Just wait until YOU have kids..." and I have already found myself saying that to my own son.

I have one of the best kids ever, but of course we all have our days when we went to slap the shit out of them (for the record, I don't believe in hitting children...but I have been tempted!). Raising a teenager is so stressful--and expensive. I think I spend more money on him now than I did when he was a baby in daycare! Car payment, gas, auto insurance, cell phone, athletics, school stuff, clothes, entertainment, the list goes on and on. And when you add them having a girlfriend/boyfriend to the mix, things get even more interesting. I will leave it at that, but I'm sure eventually I will have some entertaining stories to share on that subject!

But for right now, I've got some steps to pound out.

Happy Thursday!

~Fluffy Girl~