Category Archives: Running

Butt, Chest, Core, Fitness, Running, Treadmill

Perspective & Gratitude

April 18, 2013 Kim 22 Comments

Today’s 43 was a great combo move! I did a bench press with my hips raised. (22.5 pound dumbbells using my Select Tech weights)

I wanted a weight that would challenge me to complete all 43 and this weight did the trick!

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQHMwn_cn-Y’]

For the rest of my workout I ran (first time in a couple of weeks because of a sore hamstring). It was a great time for me to really think about some things and gain some much needed perspective!!!

8 miles @1.5% incline – 54:24 + 2.5 miles at a slower pace with higher incline for a total of 95 minutes.

Yesterday was one of those days!!! I had a long list of things to do and everyone of them took longer and was more difficult than it should have been. After dropping Hunter at school, I had 45 minutes before my dentist appointment so I went by the medical supply store to pick up some of these lovely support hose

However, the store didn’t open till 9:00. No big deal – headed to the bank to make a deposit. Went around to the drive-thru area and thought they were all closed. Fine – back to the medical supply place to wait.

When I went in the medical store, the guy was super nice and said they were cash-and-carry (no insurance) and recommended another supply store (because I guess these support hose are pricey!). OK. Back to the bank – only to realize that I’m an idiot!!!

What I thought were closed drive-thru lines (which I thought was weird since it was way past 7 or even 8:00am) were open. The problem – they all said open in RED!!! Red means STOP – everyone knows that!!!

See – why I thought they were closed?! Oh well – marked it off the list. Next stop was the post office and thankfully that went smoothly!! By this time, it was almost 9:30 so I spent an hour at the dentist – he thinks I might need a root canal but wants to wait until my next visit to decide (6 months) – Joy!!

After the dentist I headed to the other medical supply place (across town) – found it, along with a sign on the door saying they have moved!! Awesome!! Another drive across town, a phone call (couldn’t find the place) and I finally made it. A super sweet lady helped me, measured my legs and said they might be able to get them here by next week (supposed to have them before Wednesday) and my insurance might cover them. (She called later in the afternoon to say they would be in and insurance would cover 80%!!)

I called Chris on my way to the grocery store to vent – he answered and immediately asked if he could call me back. Of course – par for the day (not his fault, he was in a meeting – just seemed to fit in with everything else). While grocery shopping, I got a text letting me know that my PE sub job was cancelled (track meet cancelled due to rain & storms) – not gonna lie – I was elated!!!

Oh – it was rainy and cold all day yesterday, too (and again today) – sort-of wish I was still enjoying the 90 degree weather that Texas had when I was down.

However I know that the events of my day yesterday are so trivial and insignificant when I look at the tragedy in Boston on Monday and the awful explosion in West, Texas last night. My family is all together and healthy and I really don’t have a single thing worth complaining about!!!

In fact, I have much to be thankful for!!!

I wanted to end with something that made me super happy yesterday – I received my newest shirt from the super talented Cait.

I'm out to chick you — I’m out to chick you

Check out Cait’s online store to see her other T-shirts as well as art work. She rocks!!!

Happy Thursday – I’m going to spend my day being grateful for all of the wonderful things in my life and not complaining about the things that don’t even really matter!!

Kim

Core, Fitness, Running, Treadmill

200 Minutes of Running – Done!!

April 3, 2013 Kim 33 Comments

Today I had to pick a fairly simple 43 because I got up at 4:30 so that I could run over 3 hours! Then I did my 43 – crazy plan!!

I did a “dead bug” to work my abs. I laid on my back with my legs up (knees bent at 90 degrees). Then, I alternated heel taps out in front of me until I had done 43 with each leg. This is a nice move to work your lower abs!

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifa_Y6y2Pf8′]

I’m not gonna lie – it was hard for me today because I had already run 24 miles!!!

Today is my 200th consecutive day of 43s so I wanted to celebrate with a 200 minute run!! I decided that if I got up at 4:30 and started running by 4:40 I would finish at 8:00 which would leave me time to do a quick demo before I needed to take Hunter to school. Chris helped me a great deal this morning by going in late (he is usually at work by 6:00) so that he could take Jordan to school. Thanks, Babe!!

I set my treadmill at 1.0% incline and started. In 200 minutes (3 hours, 20 minutes), I watched both episodes of Dancing with the Stars from this week, an episode of Dance Moms and 2 episodes of the New Normal – hooray for DVR!!

I did a total of 24 miles in the 200 minutes. I averaged 8:00 minute miles for the first 22 miles then I used the last 20 minutes as more of a cool down.

The time flips at each 100 minutes (so I had to watch it flip 2x!).

I’m hoping that some of these hard long runs will help make me stronger for my 50 mile race – I don’t plan to run it nearly as hard!

I’m off to soak my tired legs!! Then I’ve got a busy day ahead!!

Happy Wednesday!

Kim

Fitness, Push-Ups, Running, Treadmill

Going Through the Motions

April 1, 2013 Kim 18 Comments

Today I decided it was time for another push-up move for the 43. I alternated moving one hand in front to do a push-up.

Because I wasn’t thinking clearly (or something!) I decided to count a right hand in front and left hand in front

as 1 rep. Crikey!!! Instead of 43 push-ups, I ended up doing 86!!!

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY0UNGVfclw’]

Hunter is turning into a push-up machine!! He did the number of push-ups to correspond with the day of the month every day for the month of March (31 last night!!).

Today I decided to get in a good run! I ran on my treadmill (1.5% incline) – 8 miles 52:39 + 1.75 miles easier for a total of 77:15 minutes. Hopefully later this week I will be outside running in shorts!!!

Do you ever feel like you are just going through the motions? It could be with anything – working out, shopping, spending time with your family – whatever. Just that feeling inside that says you should be doing more!!

We used to have a little dwarf hamster, Emma,

who looked similar to the picture above. She would get on her hamster wheel and just go and go (speedy little thing!) – but she wasn’t really making any progress.

Sometimes I feel like Emma the hamster – I just go and go, but what am I accomplishing? If you’ve read my blog for awhile, you know that I just recently passed my ACE Personal Training test. But I haven’t done anything with it and I’m not sure if I’m going to. I’m still trying to decide what I want to do with my life.

I love the time I get to spend with Chris and my boys and try to treasure every second of it. But I feel like I should be doing more with my life! The problem is, I don’t know what it is that I should be doing!!

I’m pretty sure that my newest addiction (thanks Keri and Vickie!!)isn’t enough to satisfy my need to feel like I’m accomplishing something every day! It is a fun thing to do on a short car trip, though!

I guess I will just keep trying to figure it out!!

On a completely different note – did anyone see the Louisville vs. Duke basketball game yesterday evening? When Kevin Ware snapped his leg, my first thought was for his parents – I can’t even begin to imagine watching that happen to my child!!! I just read an article saying he had emergency surgery and a rod was inserted into his leg. I hope he is able to make a full recovery and return to the court next season!!!

Spring flowers from friends who came over yesterday!!!

Anyone else ever feel like you are just going through the motions until you figure out what your true purpose is? Maybe you could just tell me you are so I won’t feel like the only grown-up who is still unsure what to be!!

Happy Monday – April Fool’s Day!!

Kim

Cardio, Fitness, Running, Treadmill

Running a Pyramid

March 23, 2013 Kim 9 Comments

Today’s 43 was quick and fun!!! I did a straddle jump on a bench. Start by straddling the bench with your hands on the front of the bench. Jump both feet up on bench then back to floor. Repeat (x 43).

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDq-NWEEtvc’]

This is one of my favorites!!! I think I will do more of these jumps soon!

For my run today I did a pyramid!

OK – not that pyramid but it sort-of felt like it on the way up!!!

You can see that I increased my speed every 2 minutes (until I finally got to the top!) and then I decreased every two minutes on the way back down – much better!!!

This was fun and different for me – I usually try to get my fastest miles at the end of my run instead of during the middle so this is a good change.

1.5 % incline – 44:11 = 7 miles + cool down of 20 minutes for a total of 64 minutes (8.4 total miles)

I like to do different things with my speed (or incline) while I run – probably why I don’t get bored on my treadmill very often!!!

I can’t believe how fast spring break has gone!! Even though we just stayed home, we had a great week together!!!

This weekend, we are all about basketball!! My bracket took several hard hits but I still have a chance to win and it’s fun to watch some of the underdogs do really well!!!

Happy Saturday!

Kim

Cardio, Fitness, Running, Squats, Treadmill

Spring (or not) & a Special Movie Viewing

March 20, 2013 Kim 10 Comments

Today’s 43 was a quick cardio based one. I did a jump jack squat with a toe touch.

Start with feet together and both hands straight up. Jump to a squat and touch left toe with right hand while keeping left hand up – jump feet together – switch sides = 1 rep.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw5mNakvJMk’]

I guess I didn’t touch my toes in the video – downside of making the demo at the end of my workout!!! I did the 43 first thing but the boys are enjoying sleeping in since it’s spring break so the demo was after a couple sweaty hours of work!!!

I realized recently that I had been slacking off with weight training so I’m working on that! Today I did another Jari Love DVD – Get Ripped to the Core. This is one that is just strength training – I think there are about 8-9 different tracks and all are high reps!! I really like the fact that Jari incorporates multiple muscle groups into each track!!

After lifting I hopped on the treadmill for a quick run. 1.5% incline for the first 4 miles (24:19) then gradually higher incline for the next 2.5 miles (much slower pace for these).

Is it spring??? Yesterday morning about 11:00 it started snowing here! Where did that come from? The forecast was for a 30% chance of rain during the afternoon – Oops!! Thankfully it was about 34 so nothing was sticking. As the afternoon went on, the temperature dropped a little so by 3:00 it looked like this outside:

(If I knew how to use my camera better, maybe I could have gotten a picture of the actual snowflakes – they were enormous!!!) At least it was warm enough that nothing was sticking on the streets!

By 6:30 the area looked like this:

same view - same day 6:30 pm — same view – same day 6:30 pm

Crazy!!! I like this look much better! Now, if it would just warm up!!!

I’m not sure if y’all all know this but yesterday the Hobbit was released on DVD.

This was a big deal in our house! Jordan loves Lord of the Rings and actually did his History Day project on J.R. Tolkien.

History Day Display - my sweet boy/man — History Day Display – my sweet boy/man

So, to celebrate this event we planned an entire Hobbit themed meal/feast around the viewing!!

(Yes, those are jelly beans – the Starburst ones that only come out during this time of year!!) The best part about this – the boys helped with all of the work!!!

rolling pins - not my strong suit! — rolling pins – not my strong suit!

We had lots of fun making everything and then enjoyed the feast.

Jordan helped pick out all of the recipes based on different aspects of the movie.

Dragon Breath Chili (hot as dragon’s fire) – as an appetizer (I put this in the crock pot) this was pretty spicy but had great flavor!
Lembas (Elvish) Bread – this was actually really good – no sugar in it because it uses honey
Mixed Vegetables Meduseld (this has something to do with the King of Rohan)
Balin’s Spiced Beef (also in a crock pot) – nice flavor – apple cider, cinnamon, cloves
Victorian Cherry Turnover – no picture of these – this was the hardest part of the meal to make – rolling out the dough was a struggle but the boys were all happy with the final product!

The picture doesn’t do it justice!! It was quite a Hobbit feast (because apparently that is a huge part of the movie)!

After the feast (and clean-up), Chris and the boys watched the movie. I did not – I haven’t seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies – so not my thing!!! (I got caught up on Dancing with the Stars instead.)

Anyone else turn the release of a new movie into an event??