Week in Review (October 20 - October 26)

Tuesday (20,252 steps) - Yay for no HIIT again! Arms with some very short cardio intervals was a great way to start the day. With A feeling better we went to the gym, where I ran a super speedy (for me) and not so awful 3ish miles (in my new INKnBURN zombie shirt, which I love). With A finally hungry and craving food we went to Chili's for dinner, using the $20 gift certificates we had. 77 cents for dinners isn't bad. I was able to squeeze in this week's episode of the Walking Dead while A was on the phone with her dad and getting her homework done. Can I just say... WOW.
Wednesday (17,260 steps) - Core and cardio intervals. One would think that a 21 minute video that consists of a warm up, abs and a cool down would be easy. FALSE. I have NO abs and my muscles are very atrophied, so this was a hard one! A had to be at school early this morning to prepare for her awards ceremony. She got a "mathematician" award (because she is more than a year ahead of where she should be), was recognized for her participation in Arvada Harvest Festival (so she was one of the students who led the "Firebird Five" chant), AND she spoke with her Environmental Club about ways to save energy at the school. Whew.

Easy 3 mile jog in the basement while A finished up her homework and dinner was cooking.
Thursday (22,717 steps) - A blissfully short HIIT video followed by a quick butt and thigh video in the morning. 4 mile treadmill run after work that wasn't great, but wasn't terrible.
Friday (17,238 steps) - An upper body video that I really liked. Have no recollection of the rest of the day.
Saturday (25,688 steps) - Delicious breakfast at home with A (she makes a mean omelette). We went to one of her friend's soccer games before heading home for a small lunch before the Monster Dash.

A had invited her friend to spend the night, so we went home, showered, had a small dinner and then picked her friend up. Went to the store to buy something for them to bake. We attempted to watch Zombieland, but A was freaked out so we ended up watching Pitch Perfect instead. They went to bed pretty early.
Sunday (50,738 steps) - Up EARLY. Like just after 4 am so I could do my long run on the treadmill. I ran this RIDICULOUSLY slow. Therefore, it took a hundred hours to run my 18 miles. Especially once the girls woke up and needed to be entertained. I helped them make breakfast and while I finished up my run they watched Harry Potter and played monopoly.

Her mom picked her up, A and I had lunch, and then we met up with friends for the "Boo at the Zoo." Holy cow. It was so crowded. The kids were way more interested in candy than animals. It was a LONG day.

Went home, had a bowl of the turkey chili I had simmering in the crockpot. As I planned on having that for "snacks" during the week, I had "real" dinner at Tokyo Joes. A and I had a "Tiny House" marathon before bed. I love that show and think I want one someday, lol.
Monday (16,942 steps) - Unfortunately, this seems to be a HIIT/cardio week for videos. I really liked the video this morning though - it was actually much more strength training and just a few HIIT moves in between sets. I added this one as a favorite. Picked A up at Girl Scouts and then we headed to the mall to get her some new jeans. All her jeans from last year are now like 3 inches too short! Unfortunately we will have to go BACK to the mall, because the store I bought them at did not have a dressing room and after she tried them on at home they were too tight. Grrrr. WHY WOULD A KID'S CLOTHING STORE NOT HAVE A DRESSING ROOM???

Stats

• 187,777 steps
• 37.3 miles run
• 23 minutes of cross training (HIIT/cardio)
• 114 minutes of strength/stretching

Everything Else

• So my furnace broke. Wheee!

Week in Review (September 29 - October 5)

Tuesday (16,594 steps) - Day 1 (sort of) of the 8 week Fitness Blender program. I skipped day 1, the fitness test, because I was drained from two half marathons over the weekend. So I jumped in on day 2 with a low impact cardio warm up (way too long), a HIIT workout (not bad) and a total body cool down.
Wednesday (22,331 steps) - Warm up, upper body strength and stretching videos in the morning. Went to the gym and ran 4 not-so-terrible-but-not-great miles on the treadmill.
Thursday (17,338 steps) - Cardio and cool down yoga in the morning before working. After work we ran to Home Depot to pick up air filters for the furnace. For the first time, I was asked to run my card as a "chip card." My card kept getting declined, so I called the bank. On their end, the error message was "expiration date error" - but said there was no reason why the card should be declined. Home Depot finally let me run my card manually (type in card number, expiration and code) and it went through. 45 minutes of my night wasted. After homework time, A watched some TV and I installed a new thermostat. Boy, that was fun too.

Trying not to electrocute myself

Friday (16,224 steps) - A combo video of HIIT and lower body strength. Not the worst ever, except for star jumps. I LOATHE STAR JUMPS. Our adventure of the evening was going to Target to buy a wall mount for my TV so that I would have something to look at when I am running in my basement. I young kid sold me a mount and a Roku stick so that I would be able to stream Netflix. Long story short. I screwed up installation on the wall mount the first time around because I didn't drill into a stud. Then I finally got the mount up, only to discover the Roku stick wasn't going to work because it was too long and didn't fit. ARG. Ended up stealing A's Wii to hook up. I'll figure out a solution to this later.

Saturday (31,356 steps) - I had every intention of doing my long run. After the TV installation fiasco I was tired and didn't get up early enough to do it. I still ran a few miles though, so my contraption wasn't totally wasted.

A had a Girl Scouts event at the School of Mines called "Bridge the Gap." Put on by student volunteers, there were over a dozen stations to help get the girls interested in science and engineering. A had a great time (and there was cupcakes).

After that we went to the zoo - mainly because A wanted to see the Lego exhibits. Stopped at Runner's Roost to pick up my new shoes and then went to an extremely late lunch (early dinner) at Sweet Tomatoes.

This turtle looked like he was doing yoga, LOLOL!!

Red pandas are my FAVORITE

Sunday (38,488 steps) - This time I *did* get up early to do my long run. 14 miles to be exact. It's incredibly hard to believe that I EVER did this kind of training on the treadmill. But I did. I did up to 30 mile runs on the treadmill. This, however, was CHALLENGING. I had my TV going and my fan going and it was mostly ok. Other than the fact that I have gotten incredibly slow and it took FOREVER.

A and I made breakfast burritos. After showering we went down to visit Heather and Dan. We went Halloween costume shopping and watched the first half of the Broncos game. Heather and I gabbed about all things running and Dan and A played game after game of Jenga. We went to Chili's for dinner - which was tasty.
Monday (16,740 steps) - Yet another HIIT video. I think I have done this one before and I didn't really care for it. I did a lot of the "easy/modified" moves as I find things like jump lunges very difficult. Finally got my hair cut after work - a couple of inches makes ALL the difference, it looks so much healthier.

Stats:

• 159,071 steps
• 21.2 miles run
• 122 minutes of cross-training (other cardio/HIIT)
• 26 minutes of strength/stretching

Week in Review (May 5 - May 11)

Tuesday (18,077 steps) - Went to the gym with plans to do a hill program of some type. After I had been screwing around and had only gotten maybe a half mile into my run, one of the teachers from the Kid's Club came over to tell me that A had hurt herself and was pretty upset. I grabbed my stuff and headed in to see her shaking, crying and freaking out. She had been trying to show her friend how to do a back bend and for some reason the two were holding hands. Not sure of who let go or what happened, but A fell back "wrong" on her wrist. I opted to take her to urgent care - where it was confirmed... fracture.

Wednesday (22,108 steps) - A still wanted to go to the gym. I tried to run on the treadmill, got a little over three miserable, chafing miles in. Blah.

Thursday (25,399 steps) - An hour on the elliptical.

Friday (17,155 steps) - A had an appointment to get the "real" cast on at a super inconvenient time. I skipped going to work in the morning and watched some tv while she was in school until it was time for her appointment. She opted for green and purple.

Saturday (18,193 steps) - L and I were supposed to be running the Arvada Park to Park inaugural half marathon. Due to a week of non-stop rain a lot of the half marathon course was flooded so it was canceled at the last minute (like 2 in the morning). We opted to run the 10k instead, and A ran the 5k. (Recap to follow).

I had plans to meet up with Jessa, Jackson and Lisa at 3. We hadn't hung out in a LONG time. Imagine my surprise when we walked in and they had thrown me a mini surprise party! (My birthday isn't until the 18th, but this weekend worked better for us all). They got me Voodoo Doughnuts, a cheese plate, vegetable and fruit trays, stout beers I hadn't tried and we ordered pizza for dinner. THE BEST NIGHT EVER. These gals are the best!!

Sunday (22,247 steps) - L had opted to run another 10 in the morning. It snowed (A LOT, like 5 inches) overnight and I wasn't feeling up to it - especially after all the fun food from the night before. Since it was Mother's Day, A woke me up with coffee and breakfast. We had NO plans with such a blah day, so we watched movies. I walked (yes, walked) - 8.5 miles on the treadmill. Yikes.

We had dinner at my parent's house with all the family - it was pretty nice.

Monday (29,254 steps) - I did a "virtual run" with some of the INKnBURN fan club ladies. I actually got up early and ran 6 (very very very slow) miles on the treadmill. I honestly can't remember the last time I did that many miles during the week OR the last time I got up early during the week to exercise. A still wanted to go to the gym so we went for a bit - 40 minutes on the elliptical.

Stats

• 152,433 steps
• 15.5 miles run
• 100 minutes of cross training (plus 8.5 miles of walking)
• No strength this week... (oops)

Everything Else

• Gah. So, yeah, A's fractured wrist was the "excitement" of the week. Not that there is ever a good time for medical bills, but I have just spent all that money with the dentist (root canal & tooth bleaching is coming up on the 26th) and I'm not looking forward to getting the bills from the Urgent Care and Orthopedic. Yikes.
• The weather has been AWFUL for the last few weeks. Maybe we were spoiled with such a mild winter, but man. It's been cold, windy, rainy and GLOOMY. Not to mention the half a foot of SNOW we just got. Enough!!! I want some sun and warm weather!
• Still haven't had my review at work. It was canceled due to the HR lady being out on a family emergency. It never got rescheduled... Do I harass and keep asking if it is happening? It was supposed to be almost three weeks ago.
• Nothing else.