Today a did a dancing inspired move for my 44. (Relax – I didn’t actually dance – that would be scary!!!) I did a plie to a releve – sounds fancy, huh?
ready – heels togetherlower down to plielift heelsstand with heels still upreturn to start
This was actually a nice 44 – I kept a slow steady pace through the motions and really enjoyed it.
I went old-school today for my workout – The Firm – Bootcamp Maximum Calorie Burn. I have always been a fan of the The Firm workouts and this one is great – 50+ minutes of toning (fairly light weights), plyo moves and cardio segments.
Filters are useful for keeping the “bad” stuff out!!! Sometimes I forget to use the filter that controls things I say or even things that I write.
Yesterday in my post about writing like you talk one of the comments was to the effect that in writing it is easier to go back and edit things. So very true – unless for some reason you don’t. A lot of times when I’m telling Chris something about my day, I add a lot of thoughts that I didn’t really say out-loud but I sure did think them!!!! Other times, I slip and say something that if I had taken a few seconds to think through would have never come out.
When I comment on blogs, I try to really think about what I write. My goal is never to be negative or snarky on someone else’s blog.
The other night I totally blew it!!! I wrote something on impulse (no filter), clicked publish (or whatever the button is) and immediately regretted it. The sad thing is, you can’t delete a comment on someone else’s site. (I did go back and type a reply saying that I was sorry and should have never left the comment I did but still…..)
I love the little reminder about thinking!!! I try to always keep it in mind especially when I comment on other blogs because I really believe that everyone is entitled to write whatever they feel/believe on their site and it is not my place to judge or be rude.
Have you ever left a comment and then immediately regretted it?
Happy Fun Friday!!! I’m off to replace my filter!!!
I also had Garage Boot Camp. I thought about just winging it today but decided that would require way too much thinking on my part so I did a version of my very fist boot camp from the summer – 10 x 3 but today I surprised them and we did 10 x 5!!
Jordan got back his first high school English paper yesterday and said he didn’t think his English teacher liked the way he wrote based on the comments he gave. Some of the comments:
This doesn’t make sense here. Jordan – it made sense to me. Yes but you aren’t the teacher.
Don’t use quotes unless you are actually quoting something. Jordan – I was using them like you do when you talk and do finger quotes. Yep -makes sense to me but not gonna fly on an English paper.
No run-on sentences or fragments. Jordan – I was just writing the way I talk. Dude – I get it – I’m the queen of using dashes instead of ending my sentences. However, once again, this will not work on an English paper.
Don’t bold a word. Jordan – it was to show emphasis. Yep – makes sense but I don’t think that is the way to do it on an English paper.
Basically, I told Jordan – writing is all about creativity and self-expression EXCEPT when you are still in school writing English papers. Then it is about following ALL the RULES.
Listening to him talk about his writing and the fact that he was just writing the way he talked made me think about the way I write.
I totally write the way I talk. The never ending run-ons with dashes – just the way my thoughts and words flow. The constant use of (_____) to add that little extra thought – exactly how I think and say things (hard for me to stay on topic all the time).
When you think about it – the whole writing mold that is taught all the way through school is rarely followed later in life (and I mean no offense to English teachers because I understand that it is an important thing to learn!!!).
Look at some famous authors that have very unique writing styles:
E. E. Cummings – no caps, no punctuation and yet he was published numerous times. Pretty sure that wouldn’t pass even the most basic English class.
When the boys were little we read lots of Junie B. Jones books – Chris hated it because the grammer was so poor – I tried to explain that it was written from the point of view of a first grader but…
So, I told Jordan that for now he has to apply all the rules of his teacher – which even includes the font style and size (yikes!!!).
Then, start a blog and write in whatever style makes you happy!!!
Do you write the way you talk or do you follow all of the rules you learned in your high school/college English classes?
Today I did 44 “chest, fly, bangers” with a hip raise. Basically, I kept my hips up (the entire time) while doing a chest press, opening to a fly, bringing the weights back together and doing a head banger (triceps) before lowering the weights to repeat.
Once again, the video was after doing all of my 44 and my workout – my arms were shaking the entire time. I used 10 pound weights which was plenty for the # I did.
I tried a new DVD today – Jillian Michaels – Hard Body. Yikes!!! I did Level 1 (there are 2 45 minute workouts) and it really pushed me today. In fact (here’s something wacky), I actually did the modifications on a couple of the moves – not quite ready to go hard core I guess!!!
Hunter always has “Wacky Wednesday” at school – not really sure what is different from other days but I decided that today could use a bit of wacky!!!
Ice Hotel
I can’t even imagine staying in a hotel made of ice – just looking at this picture is making me cold!!!
Driving around in this might be kind of fun for a day or so!!! I wonder if there are any restrictions involved?!
This completely cracks me up!!
Umm….I don’t even ride roller coasters the way they are meant to be ridden. This guy is an IDIOT!!!
I guess this gives a whole new meaning to – “basket toss!”
I think it would be impossible to be in a bad mood driving around in this van!
I think if you can pull off that look and still be so cute – go for it!!!
And I’m really not even sure how I feel about this!! I’ve seen the Prancercise video several times now and really can’t tell if she is being serious with this or if it is supposed to be a joke!
Rest assured – no form of prancercizing will ever be a daily 44!!!
And, the final wacky –
back to my normal short hair!!!
Last night I told Jennifer that I was done with the hair growing out gig – back to short!!! (umm…this picture would be early morning right after my workout so hopefully I can fruiff it a bit more!!)
Today’s 44 was a nice stretch/resistance move. I used some rubber tubing –
the green without handles was today’s choice!
and did a side lying kick.
side one ready to gokick out (keep resistance on the band)
By pulling the band tight, this was a nice little strength move that also felt pretty good on my hips!! And, of course, I had to flip over and do another set of 44.
side 2 – readykick and pull band tight
I’m ready to start getting in some fun workouts again – a couple days off is always plenty for me!!!
Today was Garage Boot Camp – we did Tabata!!! This is always a great way to get in a really intense workout in a short amount of time and like I always tell myself – you can do anything for 20 seconds!!!!
The past couple of days have been a little overwhelming – I have been completely humbled by all of the sweet comments from so many of you and don’t feel like I have the words to adequately express how much I appreciate each and every one of you!!!
More than the act of blogging – I love the wonderful bloggers that I have gotten to know!!!
A couple of y’all even gave me shout-outs in your posts the past day or two and while I feel very undeserving I also want to say Thank-you!!!
Amy @ Run Write Hike is fixing to rock yet another marathon this coming weekend and she was so sweet to include me in a list of inspirational races this past weekend.
Debbie @ Healthy Running Mom who just got a huge PR on Sunday at the Chicago Marathon said I helped keep her motivated during her marathon (good thing she didn’t know at the time that I hadn’t finished!!).
My sister, Mandi, has a blog that she updates occasionally – hopefully she will start to blog more soon (she is pregnant with her 2nd child!!!) – hint, hint. Yesterday she wrote the sweetest post about running – just thinking about it is making me cry (again!!).
And thanks to those of y’all who so very sweet to tweet me even though I suck at the whole twitter thing!!! Cori, Amy, Barbara
Thank you also to so many of my real life friends who commented through FaceBook – some of you I see often and some not as often as I would like but I am very grateful to all of y’all!!!
And, of course, Chris who has hung out with me the past couple of days and just let me cry or vent when I felt like it and watched hours of Modern Family – so much more fun to be a bum with someone else!!!
So, again, I just want to thank all of y’all for not only listening to me go on and on about the race last week but for taking the time to read about my experience at the race and to leave such encouraging comments!!! The incredible blogging community is why I love spending time blogging every single day!!!
I counted a right/left flutter as 1 rep – another simple move for the 44.
So, Saturday night was my 50 mile race. It didn’t go quite as I had planned. I’m still not sure that I can make a coherent post about it but I’m going to at least put my thoughts down.
hanging out before the race
We got to the race site around 4:45 I think – I picked up my number and ankle chip then we all just stood around for awhile. (over an hour!!) It was nice to chat with some of the other runners and find out who was an experienced ultra runner and who was a newbie. The girl in the pink headband, Lauren, was also running her first ultra. The guy in all black, Scott, (conferring with us next to the cars) is a very experienced ultra runner.
count-down timer start/finish line
There were only 20-25 people in the 50 – most people prefer the 100!! The race started right on time – 6:00pm.
The start – everyone is happy and perky!!! The temperature was nice – about 60 I think.
2 guys took off right from the beginning, then a group of 5 of us stayed together for the first 4 miles (until the 1st unmanned aid station). We were running about 9:50 pace at this point. Mistake #1 (remember the run/walk plan?)
Everyone else stopped at the aid station – I kept going. One of the guys was quick and caught back up with me so we ran together until about 9.5 miles. I was feeling great and running a nice easy pace. When we came to the first manned station, my running partner stopped – I did not. Mistake #2
By this point it was dark so I had to fish out my knuckle lights and I had my headlamp attached to the front of my camel back. The hills were becoming more and more frequent and big!!! I just kept running (ignoring my Garmin every time it went off to say WALK!!). Mistake #3
Around mile 13 something I passed another unmanned aid station (without stopping!!). Mistake #4
By about mile 15, I was freezing (just wearing my shorts and shirt) but I didn’t want to stop and put on my jacket (it was tied around my waist) and fish my gloves out of my camel back. Mistake #5
Mile 17 was the first aid station where we would see our crew so I was holding out for that. I got there and thought I was good – just frozen. Chris helped me get my gloves on since I couldn’t even bend my fingers to do it myself. I put on my jacket (just a light weight one) and took off again. Mistake #6
I was under 3 hours at this point – stupid, stupid, stupid!!! It was almost 9 pm and all I had eaten for the day was 3 pieces of pizza at about 11:00 am. Mistake #7
When I left the aid station, I decided to start utilizing my run/walk plan. My Garmin was set to let me know – 4 minutes of running, 1 minute of walking. I did this for 3 miles (to get to mile 20) and then decided to walk a little more. Every single part of my lower body from my toes up to and including my butt was one solid cramp!
By this point, I had run 10 miles completely by myself in pitch black darkness (except for my little lights) and I was freezing. I knew that I still had 5 miles until the next aid station but that I would see Chris again when I got there.
My new buddy, Scott, caught back up with me around mile 22 – I was walking at this point. He stayed with me a bit and made me eat some nasty ginger thing and take a salt tablet. He asked what I had eaten at the aid stations – I told him nothing. He asked if I had walked up the hills (his words of advice before we started) – of course I hadn’t!!! Mistake #8 & #9
He told me just to hang on until the aid station/turn-around at mile 25 and to eat something there and put on more clothes!!!
I thanked him for hanging with me for a bit but told him to keep going and not fall behind because of me. Around this time, I started seeing runners coming toward me every once in awhile – 100 mile runners. Their course had them run the 25 miles that we had as an out-and back for their last 25 miles. Most of the 100 mile runners had a pacer with them for the last 25 miles!! (50 milers weren’t allowed pacers)
I’m not gonna lie – I felt like a loser walking before I even hit 25 miles when these people had already run 75+!!!!!
Around mile 23, my Garmin battery died!!! Great – now I had no idea how far/long till the aid station. At this point there might have been a few tears.
I don’t know why my feet, knees, hips, butt, legs – everything – was hurting so much! I’ve run further many times so I don’t know what the cramping was all about. I think the cold may have contributed (it was around 42 degrees after the sun went down).
All I could think about was that running should be fun! And I was not enjoying a single thing about the race. In fact, I was hating all of the different aspects of it!!!
gravel roads with lots of large rocks
cattle guards
hill after hill
the complete darkness
the isolation
the freezing cold
RUNNING
knowing that I was going to have to repeat these long lonely 8 miles between the 2 crew stations after I turned around
not having a Garmin to let me know the distance (not sure why my battery died – maybe all those alerts that I wasn’t using)
I finally decided that I was just going to get to the 25 mile station and instead of turning around I was quitting because I was at near melt-down point.
When I finally saw the lights I might have cried again – and then it took me forever to get to them. I saw Chris open the back of the car and went straight over to it without checking in. I told him I was done!!! I let him take my ankle chip off and take it over to the check-in site to withdraw me.
We had put some sleeping bags in the car and he rolled one out for me to lay on and covered me with the other – it took me the entire 2 hours before we were home to stop shivering (I still had on my gloves and everything).
By the time we got home it was around 1:30 – I had peed about 15 minutes before the race started (so around 5:45) and after taking a hot bath, I finally peed around 2 am before going to bed. (I know that y’all want to know how often I pee!!!)
I don’t know if I was dehydrated and that caused the cramping in my entire lower body or if it was the hills and rocks, or the fact that I didn’t utilize my run/walk plan or the lack of any fueling – I just know that I made a decision on that dark and lonely stretch of 8 miles to stop at the half-way mark and I will have to live with that decision.
I know this was a long rambling post – my thoughts are still somewhat jumbled. At this point I have no plans to attempt another ultra – the point at which I hate everything about a race and running is not something I want to experience again.
Happy Monday – I’m going to take one more day to recoup and then get back to my normal routine!!
Filters are useful for keeping the “bad” stuff out!!! Sometimes I forget to use the filter that controls things I say or even things that I write.
A lot of times when I’m telling Chris something about my day, I add a lot of thoughts that I didn’t really say out-loud but I sure did think them!!!! Other times, I slip and say something that if I had taken a few seconds to think through would have never come out.
