Yoga, Indoor Ironman and The Weekly Chase #9

I have been wanting to try yoga for so long! I guess there is some feeling of safety in trying new things with someone else and I kept waiting for it to work out to attend with someone. Last week things finally worked out and  I met my step-sister at the Y for our first yoga class - "Gentle Yoga". I can't believe that I waited so long to try it- I LOVED IT! I am sure it sounds a little crazy but it really did help me find balance. It was also a great compliment to my weekend long run- my hips were really tight! I went back to the class by myself again this morning and once again it was wonderful. I am going to make yoga a normal part of my routine and am excited to try the other yoga classes that the Y offers!

 

I am happy to say that I have completed another Ironman! This is the third year that Tim and I have participated in the Y's Indoor Ironman. We had the whole month of February to complete the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. I have had the swim and run portions (plus some) done for a week or so but the biking was a challenge. I knocked out 6 miles on the bike this morning after yoga and I am DONE!! The bike portion is always the challenge for me but it is a great way to get some cross-training in; plus, I always like a good challenge. Now it is time to incorporate some strength training back in and focus on half/full marathon training!

 Up next is the Weekly Chase!

Here are my goals from last week:

1. Challenge goal- Spend one-on-one time with Riley this week. Didn't happen again this week. Tim and I did have dinner one night with Riley and Aidan (Isaac was busy having a meltdown in his room). We really enjoyed the time with Riley. He was a lot of fun that night. I can't wait for more opportunities like that.
2. Challenge goal- Send a quick note to a friend/family member to let them know they are appreciated. Done! I did this a couple of times and want to make this more of a habit.
3. Challenge goal- Finish reading The Five Love Languages for Children Fail! I haven't gotten back into it at all. The nights that I worked were really busy and then we were out of town over the weekend. I need to make this more of a priority this week.
4. Journal all of my food for the week. Big fat NO! Other than when we were out of town I made better choices- I just didn't write it all down:(
5. Foam Roll- 3 times Almost- I got 2 times in! It still hurt but not as bad as in the past.
6. Try a Yoga class Major success!! I went to the class at the Y last week and fell in love with it. This will become a new part of my normal weekly routine!

Now here is the plan for this week:

1. Challenge goal- Spend one-on-one time with Riley and Isaac.
2. Challenge goal- Finish reading The Five Love Languages for Children
3. Journal my food for the week and do a blog post to report back.
4. Foam roll 3 times
5. Do 3-4 blog posts this week

How are you doing on your goals? What are your goals for this week?

It's offical....

I am signed up for my first FULL marathon! I still can't believe it- I am excited and super nervous all at the same time! We have actually been following the training plan for several weeks now as it goes right along with the half training plan that I am following but we are now offically committed!

 

I See my goal. I Understand the obstacles and Embrace the challenge. So far we have Stayed on track with our training. I have 88 days to Create a postive mental picture and Clear my mind of self doubt and I will Show the world that I can do it!!

 

The Weekly Chase #8

It is crazy to think that one month from now I will have completed the Shamrock Half Marathon (my 5th 1/2 Marathon) and will be making the trip home. I can't believe that it is that close already! I am right on track for training but I am getting nervous already. This will be the first half marathon that I run alone. All of the others I have either run with my husband or my best friend. I would love to PR this half but am afraid that without them pushing me I won't be able to do it. I also need to figure out the "fueling" aspect of it. Yesterday on our 10 mile run I tried the Sport Beans again and still got side aches that made me slow down a couple of times near the end. This time my stomach was great. I would love to hear suggestions of what works for others - what do you use, how often, etc.!

Yesterday's 10 mile run was my longest treadmill run so far! I would love to get back outside but it wasn't in the cards again yesterday. In the end it worked out ok and I was able to try out my Skirt Sport running skirt on a long run. I want to wear it for the Shamrock 1/2 but wanted to try it out first. There were a couple of spots that I learned I need more Body Glide but I think it will work provided that the weather is ok.

Now for the Weekly Chase!

Here are my goals from last week:

1. Challenge goal- Do something special for my husband for Valentine's Day. Done:)
2. Challenge goal- Spend one-on-one time with Riley and Isaac. I was able to get Isaac away to go run a couple of errands with me. He was hesitant at first but talked my ear off the whole time. It was nice to have him alone and hear what he had to say without interruptions.
3. Challenge goal- Read The Five Love Languages for Children so that I can work on my relationship with my boys and be the best mom to them that I can be. I have started the book and am trying to implement what I am reading.
4. Healthy and Clean eating- Continue to work on this. This week journal everything that I eat to hold myself accountable. This is still a work in progress. I got some in but not much.
5. Foam Roll- continue to work on making this a habit! Got it in a few times but still far from making it a habit.
6. Work my Scentsy Family Business- get organized to keep better track of mileage and expenses for this year. Set up a system for keeping track of my customers and my contact with them. Make phone calls and get parties booked. Another work in progress. Doing a great job on tracking mileage but haven't gotten anywhere on the system for tracking customers- I do have a couple of ideas that I just need to implement. Did get one more party booked and have a couple of others interested.
7. Add strength training back into my workouts- 2-3 sessions Fail! We are participating in the YMCA Indoor Ironman so that has taken priority this month. We have the whole month of February to complete an Ironman. So far I am done with the swimming and the running- now I need to focus on the biking.

So what is my plan for this week?

1. Challenge goal- Spend one-on-one time with Riley this week.
2. Challenge goal- Send a quick note to a friend/family member to let them know they are appreciated.
3. Challenge goal- Finish reading The Five Love Languages for Children
4. Journal all of my food for the week.
5. Foam Roll- 3 times
6. Try a Yoga class

What are your goals for the week?

The Weekly Chase #7

 My life has been a juggling act this past week and it felt totally CRAZY! I don't feel like I was very successful in balancing it all or doing a good job at any of it. The Weekly Chase for this past week feels like a big FAIL but maybe I will surprise myself as I look back at it all! Lets look at what my goals were for the week!

1. Healthy and clean eating! This week I am going to take control over the cravings and not give into them. I did fairly well here. I avoided the dreaded Girl Scout cookies while traveling with my Scentsy Team on Saturday. I also avoided the treats and goodies at work this week. I didn't eat totally healthy and clean but made good progress this week- I was definatly more aware of my choices.
2. Continue to add in core work 3-4 times this week. I got in 2-3 sessions. As the week got crazy this is one area that got pushed aside. 
3. Foam roll 3-4 times this week. This still isn't getting any easier! Is it common to have bruises on your legs from rolling? I got in 3 sessions but still need to get into a better habit of doing this after running.
4. Finish getting my Scentsy family business information ready for taxes. DONE!! Tim and I worked together Sunday evening and got it all done. Now to get better organized for next year and to keep track throughout the year instead of filing everything away until January/Feb.
5. Get 3 parties booked (Scentsy, Grace Adele or Velata). Step out of my comfort zone and make phone calls to make this happen. I got book/bag party going and have a couple of people that are interested in booking but no dates set yet. I didn't make any phone calls but need to start working on this!
6. Challenge goal- leave a note for Riley and Isaac in their lunches at least one day this week. FAIL! The boys either took hot lunch or made their own lunches this week.
7. Challenge goal- spend one on one time with Riley and Isaac FAIL! I need to make doing this more of a priority. I think they both need this time and we need to be better about getting it done!

I was really looking forward to the challenge goals and since those didn't happen I feel like this week was a failure. I want to be a good Mom to my boys and that is something that needs to continue to be a focus for me. This goes to show that I need to continue to have those goals and be more aware taking time out for each of them. In the end, the week wasn't as bad as I thought. I did make some progress on some goals and, nce again, I am being hard on myself- I did spend time with the boys (just not one on one) and we had some good family meals together. 

I need to not be so hard on myself!

 

What are my goals for this week?

1. Challenge goal- Do something special for my husband for Valentine's Day.
2. Challenge goal- Spend one-on-one time with Riley and Isaac.
3. Challenge goal- Read The Five Love Languages for Children so that I can work on my relationship with my boys and be the best mom to them that I can be.
4. Healthy and Clean eating- Continue to work on this. This week journal everything that I eat to hold myself accountable.
5. Foam Roll- continue to work on making this a habit!
6. Work my Scentsy Family Business- get organized to keep better track of milage and expenses for this year. Set up a system for keeping track of my customers and my contact with them. Make phone calls and get parties booked.
7. Add strength training back into my workouts- 2-3 sessions
   

 

The Weekly Chase #6

 

I have been all mixed up on what day of the week it is! I can't believe that the weekend has come and gone and it is already Tuesday! Did you have a good weekend? It was my weekend to work so that took up a lot of the weekend for me. Saturday Riley and Isaac each had basketball games back to back. After they were done we had enough time to get in our 9 mile training run. This run was suppose to be on the schedule for next weekend but plans have changed for next weekend making it next to impossible to get it in then so we opted to get it done this past weekend instead.Flexibility is necessary when training with busy and active kids! It was our longest treadmill run so far and it actually went pretty good! I felt like I had good energy all the way through. I tried using the Honey Stinger Chews again but this time I decided to try eating one chew after each mile or so starting about 1.5 miles in. I also made sure to drink a little water with each one. There were a couple of times that my stomach bothered me (I think more related to not eating my normal breakfast) but no side aches this week! It felt great to have such a good long run this week after last weeks long run was so rough!

 

Yesterday Aidan and I headed to my best friends house for a quick "girls day". We worked on planning our trip to Virginia Beach for the Shamrock Half/Full Marathon. We mapped out our drive and checked out the race details. We are both getting very excited and I am sure it will be here before we know it! Now I just need to figure out what I am going to wear! Any suggestions?

 

Now it's time for the Weekly Chase! If you are new here you might be wondering what the Weekly Chase is.  It's a place to post your goals for all to see...and help you stay accountable! Link up your posts here so we can give you love and encourage you throughout the week!

Last weeks goals looked like this:

1. Plank-a-day challenge- fail! I did pretty good at the beginning of the week and then towards the end of the week they got pushed aside again.
2. Daily squats- I did good with this until the weekend when we did our 9 mile run and I had to work all weekend. I know these are excuses and I will work more on getting these in no matter what!
3. Add back in some core work this week- Success! I did a bunch of core work this week and realized that I need to keep this as a goal because it was tough! 
4. Make friends with my foam roller. big fat fail! The foam roller still isn't my friend. Actually at this point it is more of an enemy. I did use it 3 different times but it was painful! I am sure if I was better about using it that would get better. I also have a massage stick and that isn't as bad so I did use that more this week for a change.
5. Work my Scentsy Family business- I did ok on this over the past week. I got most of my information ready for taxes and got one party booked.

This month Mindy at Road Runner Girl is in charge and has decided that since February is the month of Valentine's Day our challenge will be all about love and kindness!

Introducing...the All You Need is LOVE challenge! How do you play along? Each week in February make one or more of your goals about loving or being kind to someone. In a world that is full of so much evil these days make it a priority to show others that you care. Maybe drop a sweet note to a friend in their mailbox. Buy coffee for the person behind you in line. Give a random stranger a compliment. Do something nice for your husband and/or children. You get the idea! Have fun and show someone that there are still good people in this world!
Here are my goals for this week:

1. Healthy and clean eating! This week I am going to take control over the cravings and not give into them.
2. Continue to add in core work 3-4 times this week.
3. Foam roll 3-4 times this week.
4. Finish getting my Scentsy family business information ready for taxes.
5. Get 3 parties booked (Scentsy, Grace Adele or Velata). Step out of my comfort zone and make phone calls to make this happen.
6. Challenge goal- leave a note for Riley and Isaac in their lunches at least one day this week.
7. Challenge goal- spend one on one time with Riley and Isaac

I really could continue to add more and more but I better stop there if I stand any chance of accomplishing my goals for the week. It is going to be a crazy week so I better get my butt moving! What are you goals for this week?