Goals for 2013...Yes, the Whole Year

I was going to put resolutions, but goals is more appropriate.

1) Finish my first marathon

Yes...just yes

I plan on completing my first marathon on May 4, 2013 called the Wisconsin Marathon.  I did the half last year.  It wasn't my favorite course since we ran by the finish line a couple of times, but I want to do something close to home and inexpensive.

2) Run 1000 miles by December 31, 2013

I came just a couple of hundred miles short this year without any kind of goal until  the last month besides run consistently.  I even filled up my whole running log that I get free with my Runner's World subscription. I think it will be fun to have a numerical goal to aim for.

3) Put the SB back into SBR! (Swim, Bike, Run)
While I doubled my runnning, I pretty much stopped swimming and biking, which are two things I really enjoy.  It was a conscious decision, because I wanted to focus on running and getting faster, but I also want to stay in triathlons and complete an Ironman by the time I'm 50!

4) Find a way to make money by doing things I love!

Be Happy

Running, blogging, and crafting, of course!  Yeah, me and everyone else in the world!  I have some ideas, but I need to really develop them actively over the next month or so.  Stay tuned!

5) Save money!

Scrooge McDuck

When I put my mind to it, I can save like no one's business.  I just have a problem with impulse spending.  I left my debit card at home for a few weeks at a time so I wouldn't spend anything.  It worked out pretty well.  I just need to make sure that I am planning ahead and not making impulse purchases.  I need every spare penny for races and running shoes!

6) Get to my goal weight!

Source

It's been a long time coming and I need to make a conscious effort to get to my goal weight.  I haven't gained weight in a really long time and I have been dropping a pound here and there, but I am still pretty heavy and need to drop weight so there's less stress on my body as I run longer distances.  I'm in a place now where it's less about vanity and more about health (I mean some vanity, but not completely).

Now here's the hard part...Follow Through!!

What was your favorite moment of 2012?

What are your Goals for 2013?

Don't Be Blue About 32!

That's right.  I like to rhyme stuff.

Today is my birthday!  Turning 32 really wasn't that bad.  I feel like 31 was really hard.  I was pretty sad about leaving my 20's and 31 was harder than 30.  Thirty-two has gone well.  I've gotten to spend the whole day with friends and family!

Laura came over at about 10am to exchange Christmas and birthday presents.  She got me an awesome Contigo cup like the one I had and loved!  She also got me a pair of ProCompression calf sleeves in hot pink!  They are just what I've been wanting!  I had bought the socks before and they were way too big, so I never wore them.  I knew that if I ever got another pair I would want to just get the sleeves, so I can't wait to try them!

I went to my parents at about 1pm for cake and presents.  My mom got me a faux fur throw that is so insanely soft.  I'm surprised my cat hasn't claimed it yet.  As soon as I wrote that he jumped on it and started purring.  My dad also got me a unique present.  It's called a Pot Maker.  Imagine my confusion when I opened the box and saw this.

I was like, my dad wants me to grow pot? Lol.  But then I understood it.  You make biodegradable seed starters.  It's a really cool idea.  He found it online somewhere.

I had a low key Saturday night.  Kev and I watched For the Greater Glory: The True Story of Christiada.  It was a slow beginning, but it got better.

I also made an iPhone cozy.  I found the pattern here after searching on Pinterest.  I was going to make the owl that was shown, but I may be too old for that now.  I just followed the pattern for the body and top flap, found an old button to sew on, and POW, I got me an iPhone cozy!

 I really like crocheting small things instead of giant afghans.  I feel more accomplished since I can finish them faster.

Have you started thinking about your New Year's Resolutions?

Strike That and Reverse It

Willy Wonka

Early this morning I knew I wasn't going to finish my goal of 100 miles this month.  We got a bit of snow and it continued to snow most of the morning.  While I am usually a Winter Warrior, I decided to say f*ck it and went back to sleep.

I had a horrible night's sleep.  Last night, I tried to go to bed at 11pm, but couldn't sleep.  So, I was up until about 2am.  This has been going on for about a month now.  When I went to go crawl into bed my cat was laying smack dab in the middle of my side.  Well, I did what any cat owner would do...I slept on the couch.  I mean, come on!  He was SO cute all curled up in a ball and stealing my spot.  I couldn't find it in my heart to move that little fur ball.

And I did...well, the couch, but you get the idea

I got a solid 3 hours on the couch.  I woke up to Kevin walking/stomping in the house trying to get the snow off his shoes.  Apparently he went out shopping at Wally World at 3:30 in the morning.  He did bring some donuts and coffee creamer home though, so what did I care?

Today, I hooked up my new printer.  My old one broke and Eggy got me and Kevin a new one for Christmas.  For some reason I cannot get it to print wirelessly.  I have no idea why.  I had the same problem with the other one after a couple of months.  I think that would be under the heading #FirstWorldProblems.

I printed out my marathon schedule and wrote out the dates and everything.  I will start Monday at week 13 of Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme marathon plan.

I went to Kev's parents house for lunch.  We celebrated my birthday there with homemade mac and cheese (I could taste the real butter) and cake.  It was all delicious!

Kevin and I are going to spend the rest of the night just hanging out and watching a movie.

One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I was excited to run 15 miles last weekend (I really was), but I was attacked with the stomach flu for two days.  I still have a really sensitive stomach.  I have been eating really bland things like rice, veggies, oatmeal, bread, crackers.  I also don't have much of an appetite...I know, right?  Bonus!

Source

Seriously, I'm sure my appetite will come back as I start running more.  I did a 3 mile yesterday and felt pretty good.  It had been a while since I ran, so I spent a while picking out the perfect running outfit.  Too bad you can't see my leg warmers in the picture, cuz I was wearing them.  I couldn't find my wool socks and there's always that slight gap between my socks and where my zipper will stay closed around my ankles and the leg warmers keep my ankles nice and toasty.  And yes, I also ran with my hair down like a superstar.  

I actually PR'd my 5k time with a 33:50 (11:04, 11:11, 10:37).  My best was a 34:20 or something like that.  I love that I'm getting faster!

My intentions were to do 8 today, but due to procrastination it was pretty late when I got back from running errands so I went for a short walk instead.

Last month I made a goal of 100 miles for the month.  This includes walking as well as running.  I am only 20 miles from that goal and I have three days to do it.  Noooo problem...I hope.

I've really been a crocheting machine lately.  I made my dad and brothers camouflage hats for Christmas.  They love them.  I am working on Kevin's now per his request.

I found the pattern here after searching on Pinterest.  You start at the top, which I liked.  It makes it easier to make it the length and width you want.  So many of the patterns start with the bottom, which I find weird.

I am finally reading again, too.  I go in spurts.  I guess I really didn't have time with the holidays and working constantly.  I found an author I read before, Laura Levine.  She writes these funny mysteries where the main character is named Jaine Austen, her mom is obsessed with the home shopping channel, and she has a demanding cat.  What's not to like?  The problem is that our library only has a couple of her books, so I have to wait for them to get in others that I requested.

I need to start thinking about some 2013 goals.

What are your goals for the upcoming year? 

Get In Where You Fit In

I didn't bring a lunch to work in hopes that they had something to feed us.  Luckily, I was right.  There was cereal and about a million different types of apple juice.  I tried the cereal Krave.  I had been wondering about it.  It looks good and it's called Krave.  I figured it would be really yummy. It tasted like Captain Crunch stuffed with chocolate.  Not impressed.  I'm glad that I didn't waste money buying it and trying it.  I also drank about a million cups of apple juice.

After work I stopped at my mom's to grab some library books that were due today.  Wouldn't you know it; she had some Christmas cookies.  I only had three four.  And maybe a million Hershey's almond kisses.  And a Jolly Rancher candy cane.

After that, I came home, changed, and went running.  It was a little chillier than I had anticipated.  I always dress too light on the bottom half.  My legs were immediately cold.  I thought I had on running tights that were fleece lined, but I grabbed the wrong pair.  This was true for many reasons.  The pair I grabbed also kept falling down.

If there is one piece of advice I can give new runners it's this: buy pants/shorts/skirts with a drawstring.  If you are running to lose weight, you can wear the stuff forever if you can cinch it at the waist as the pounds disappear.  I've worn the same couple of pairs of capris for three years for this reason.

I obviously did not do this when I bought the pair I threw on today.  I was shoving my undershirt into my pants as I'm running and simultaneously yanking the pants up as far as they would go.  It was a real pain in the ass and I'm sure I had the biggest camel toe imaginable.  They finally started to stay up after about the first mile.  I somehow found a happy medium with them.

The run was cold, but I enjoyed it.  It was dark by the time I got out, but I made sure I took main streets that were well lit.  I also wore my light just in case I got lost in blackness.

 I saw one other girl running.  She was going the other way on the same sidewalk and didn't say hi.  Uh, hello! Can I get at least a nod, a smile, a glance in my direction that there is another runner in the vicinity?  That would be my ultimate pet peeve.  Please acknowledge your fellow runners.  It's the polite thing to do (end rant).

Happy Running!

The run went well and I had a pretty good time for myself.

When I got home and logged everything, I jumped in the shower and pondered what I should eat.  I didn't have much time until I had to leave.  I had some rice and tortillas, so I opened a can of black beans, mixed some with rice, added cumin and chili powder, and threw it on a tortilla with Taco Bell mild sauce. <-- Pretty much a staple that I put on everything on a tortilla...everything.

Does anyone else cook their tortillas on the burner?

Yum. Arroz y frijoles.  

Kev and I went over to our friend Steve's to play Apples to Apples.  It's a fun game if you've never played it.  The 12 year old that was there won the game.  Both times.  What a humbling experience.

Now I am watching the first season of Metalocolypse.  Kevin cannot stop laughing.

And Now, For Something Completely Different

Source

I have had a headache for two days!  It is finally going away.  It always turns into an earache.  I use to get earaches all the time as a little kid, but they gave me some penicillin and I hadn't had trouble since a couple of years ago when they started again.  I've been popping Ibuprofen like it's candy and it is finally paying off.

The past couple of days I have been doing some crocheting.  One was going to be a Christmas present, but I changed my mind after it didn't come out too good (for you, Laura).  I am going to give it to her anyway just for her to have. It's a cover for a Nook.  I don't even know if it will fit since I don't have my own to measure with.

The front

The back

The L on the back started out as a small embroidery that I found on YouTube.  It looked too small and weird, so I decided to crochet a letter and add it on.  Well, you can see how ginormous that turned out.  Oh, well.  You have to take it anyway, Laura! lol  I am still going to add a couple of flowers on by the bumble bee and some leaves and flowers by the letter.  Maybe it will help.

I also made an infinity scarf.  I've been wearing it around all day since I finished it.  I think I will add a couple of more rows to make it wider.  I got it twisted up along the way when I made it.  When I make another one I am going to just go back and forth and connect it at the end so it isn't twisted.  I have to wrap it 3 times around to fit on me.  I would make it a bit shorter too.  I found the pattern here after searching on Pinterest. 

Speaking of Laura, we got to hang out for a bit today.  We were going to try this place downtown called The Soup that I have been wanting to try forever.  Well, I waited too long, because once we got there it was closed for business!  So, we walked down the street to Jimmy John's.  Always a crowd pleaser.

We also tried a place called Cherry Berry.  It has tons of different frozen yogurts and toppings.  I had chocolicious and chocolate mint with crushed graham cracker on top.  That is definitely a place I can see myself going a LOT!  Good thing you are charged by the weight or I may have super filled my cup up.  This way I can restrain myself a bit. 

When I got home I was hungry...again.  I made some rice with vegetable broth. I ate about two cups.  I know this, because I used the measuring cup to scoop it out.  

Two cups of rice.  Yum!

I also made some butterscotch oatmeal cookies.  I found a chocolate oatmeal cookie recipe in my Betty Crocker Cookie Cookbook.  They came out really weird.  They are really thin and once they cool a little they are very crunchy.  At least they still taste pretty good.

I think the problem was that the recipe I used was for chocolate oatmeal cookies, so you just add some cocoa powder to the recipe.  I thought I was using a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe.  Oh well.  At least that will keep me from eating them all. 

I am only up to season two of my I Love Lucy marathon.  I couldn't believe how many show were in the first season.  There were six discs!  Kevin asked me if I was sick of watching it yet.  I said, "Kevin, I Love Lucy!" Duh!!

Easy Street

Last night I could barely keep my eyes open and ended up in bed by 9:10. I was probably asleep by 9:12.  I didn't wake up until my alarm went off at 5am.  I was going to go back to sleep for another half hour, but Kev was sleeping loudly, so I just got up to start getting ready for my run.

I made my coffee and breakfast, I watched Three's Company for a little bit, I read some blogs.  We weren't going running until 7, so I had quite a while to wake up slowly.  I wore my "No Such Thing As A Rain Day" shirt.  It makes me feel badass.

So Excited to go run!

The forecast for today was rain starting at 7:15 with wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour.  I also hadn't realized how dark it was that early.  I don't know the last time I went running that early in the morning.

I was standing under a street light, but you can see all the street lights were still on.

Becky and I walked for about five minutes.  As soon as we ran about a block it started sprinkling.  We weren't in any rush and did our long run plan of run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute.

The run was pretty uneventful.  It was "only" 10 miles.  The worst thing about it was the rain.  It got heavier towards the end.  The wind got pretty bad too once we got to the lake, which I expected.

It was funny to see our splits.  The first half are all around 12:30 and the second half we really speed up.  The last mile we ran the whole time and ended up with under an 11 minute mile.

As soon as I got in the house, I peeled my drenched clothes off and hopped in the shower.  I do not want to get sick.  This is the longest I've gone with out a cold or flu in a very long time and I don't want to push it!

My plan for the day was to start on my Christmas cookies and then Kev and I were going to go look at wedding rings.  After my shower, I was really tired.  I did make a list for ingredients I need for the cookies.  I asked Kev if he really wants to drive up to Milwaukee in the rain.  Thankfully, he said no.  We will go in a couple of weeks when I have off again.

I fell asleep watching the Gremlins.  I took about an hour nap.  Now I am going to watch my complete I Love Lucy series.  My day is JAM Packed!

What are your plans this weekend?