A Case of the Runs

Whew, it has been a long time since I've posted, and July is already nearing its close. In a nutshell, I've been playing a lot of Pokémon Go this month (my computer just auto-corrected the "e" in there, wow!) since it came out in early July.  Since I downloaded this game, I've been more casual on my morning runs and taking the appropriate walk-breaks to catch the creatures I've known for... wow... close to two decades.  Running is excellent with this game, because before you know it, you've gone the 2k, 5k, or 10k needed to hatch eggs and hopefully encountered a lot of new Pokémon or PokeStops along the way.  Let's just say I hardly use the treadmill anymore, and I have a gnarly PokeTan now. I should add that my playing has slowed way, way down over the past couple of weeks because I got what I wanted:   Right around the corner from my house!  It was meant-to-be!! Anyway, I'm still on a strength-training kick.  I usually go to th...

We are halfway through 2016 and already deep into Summer, so I thought I'd give an update on the items from my " resolution " post so that I can spend the second half of the year catching up! It has been a busy six months, so much so that I am struggling to remember most of it.  At the beginning of 2016, I was still nursing, which is hard for me to believe since that felt so long ago.  Tuesday (no longer a baby) has no recollection of nursing of course, since he won't even let me hold him that way for even a second, nor does he acknowledge that part of my body anymore.  He also learned how to walk and is now a total expert.  The year, so far, has brought a lot of learning at work and cooking toddler meals at home.  It has brought on more sleep, thank goodness, since at the beginning of the year, it was still pretty choppy... and then it took me significant time to adjust once Tuesday started sleeping like a champ.  It has also involved shocking changes ...

Since my last post , I've had quite a month. So far, I've built up to 9 miles in my half-marathon training.  The race is coming up in a few weeks, and while the ramp-up hasn't been as bad as I had feared, I'm still struggling with finding the time and will to check off these kinds of distances.  My crazy mind has also started setting goals, even though my only real goal should be finishing the race.  I am just going to put it out there, though, that it would be really nice to come in under 2:10.  Yes, I've done better, but I haven't been focusing on speed at all, and based on my training paces, I think this is probably where I am going to land.  Now, let's just hope it isn't 90 degrees on race day, which in late June, is not out of the question! In addition, this month was kind of rough, health-wise.  I had two separate bouts of illness that required a few different kinds of antibiotics to remedy, and I am not one to take medicine very often. ...

Two posts in one week?  This must means that I am publishing these on an automatic schedule, since I'm finding it verrrry difficult to keep up lately.  Still, this post is going to be a fun one for me to write because it has to do with running!! I've mentioned this here before, but sometime after the new year, I saw that Mark Zuckerberg started a "year of running" in which he'd try to run at least 365 miles this year.  It took me more than halfway through the month to get on board with this, so I was running a lot of catch up and as of last week, I'm at 179 miles for the year, which I believe leaves me in good shape because it's still early May. Most of my miles were on the treadmill, but I'm doing more outside now, carving out paths around my hilly neighborhood.  The weather has mostly been amenable to running outdoors (for now!), though sometimes it calls for this little number from CozyPhones that "The Ukrainian" is modeling nicely si...

Happy Monday, everyone!  It's already May, and Mother's Day weekend came and went.  It felt really early this year, but then again, everything feels like it sneaks up on me these days.  I spent the weekend with my in-laws and niece and the extended version of my nuclear family, and by that, I mean all my sisters and their families.  It's always a good time having a bunch of kids under 5 (and mostly under 3) running around my parents' house!  And of course, I spent lots of time cuddling my little one, who was getting over a bug and let me snuggle him and cut his nails without a fight!  I called the easy nail clipping my Mother's Day gift. Anyway, it's back to reality.  I've been reviewing the  Insanity Max 30 program, and I'm getting really close to the end of the first month, doing the workouts consecutively but not on this schedule since I didn't want to give up running.  More on that later this week. ;) I did Sweat Intervals all fou...

My birthday is this week, and the first thing I have to say about that is... ...wow, that came up quick(ly).  Pretty sure that's going to be my reaction every year from here on out.  I'm not sure if it's my aging brain or the whirlwind of parenting that is making time pass disproportionately quickly compared to my younger days. Speaking of younger days, here's the little one, who is 17 months today!  Lately, he's been refusing to let me feed him, so there are a LOT of messy times.  This picture below is slightly dated, and he is actually much, much cleaner about it now.  Other than that, he's started saying some words and thinks that the world is his oyster. Oh, so back to 31, the number of flavors they used to have at Baskin Robbins .  I am definitely feeling like I am getting "up there" in age!  I am also somewhat embarrassed to admit that I've hit up this establishment a couple of times this past year... alone! Looking b...

In my previous post , I mentioned that I was trucking along the Insanity Max 30 program, so now I'm back to review the second DVD in the set. Tabata Power focuses on a "20 seconds on, 10 seconds off" pattern.  While that might sound like a lot of rest to some, those 10 seconds become much, much needed as things move along. The workout starts with a five-minute warm-up, and then a series of lower-body exercises that follow the 20/10 pattern.  There are a lot of lunging/small jumping moves in this part of the workout, so those 10 seconds are great for a shake-out of the legs. The second part of the workout focuses on the upper body, and I know I've probably mentioned this before on this blog, but upper body is definitely a weakness of mine, even though I've been doing a lot of kid-carrying this past year.  Shaun T leads you through a series of different push-ups, some of which are pretty much impossible for me to do at the moment, but I give it my best shot....