All Things Random....

Happy Sunday! I luuvvvv three day weekends...I would work 4 tens if I could so that I could always have a three day weekend. *sigh* One can dream I s'pose....

Tomorrow I am driving a few 8th graders to the Westside Catholic Center to put in some service hours - a requirement for their Confirmation preparation. I'm not sure exactly what we are doing there, but probably sorting and boxing donations of clothing, food etc. Since I have the day off, I took advantage of the day to get in some feel good volunteer work! It should be a fun day. I just told Chris he was coming along too and he's not to thrilled but when I told him we needed a 'supervisor', he liked the idea of being the 'boss'.

Looking ahead to the week coming up....lots of great stuff! The innauguration, very historic obviously. And then, it's the return of 'Lost' on Wednesday night. The husband & I are big fans....although I seem to get more confused as time goes on with this show, but thank goodness they replayed the last 3 hours of last season this past week, so I think I'm clear on everything now. Well...as clear as you think you can be of course....for anyone else out there who likes LOST, you should swing by my friend's blog. After every episode, he posts a recap and thoughts and theories...it's not a real 'active' blog, but interesting reading if you're a fan.

Shosh and I are in Week 5 of our Half Marathon training plan, which we were reviewing together via text messages today. Our plan is the same except her pace is a little faster than mine, but the miles run are the same. My schedule for the week is this:

Tuesday - Easy 2 miles @ 14:29 (down now from 14:38 yay!)

Thursday - Tempo Run: 1 mile warm up, 3 miles@ 12:53 (woot!), 1 mile cool down Total 5 miles

Weekend - Long run: 6 miles (yikes!) @14:29

Total: 13 miles! I am feeling more like a 'real runner' now. (except for the 14:29 pace ha ha)

The good news is that the next two long runs are holding steady at 6 miles before increasing to 7 miles in week 7. Then, week 8 is a 'recovery week', with the long run that week back down to only 4 miles.

HA! I just realized I said 'only 4 miles'. That cracks me up. How quickly I forget that just last weekend I was bemoaning my lousy 4 mile long run that was so hard to do!

This week in between my three runs, I have Jillian's 30 Day Shred DVD! I watched it today, and will do one workout tomorrow morning early. Wednesday night I will do it again, or, I may head up to the rec and try out a Pilates class. Friday will be either Shred or Total Body workout, depending on how I'm holding up.

Some more randomness....the rec center is offering a Metabolic Screening later this month. A third party is coming in and you schedule a 75 minute appt. For $160, you find out what YOUR true max heart rate is, what rate YOU personally burn the most fat, how many calories YOU specifically need etc. How sweet would that be? Of course I will not spend that money, but if I had it? I would definitely be signing up!

The rec is also having a personal trainer 'Meet and Greet' soon, and in reading the profiles, I see one of the trainers specializes in running and weight training for runners! So I think I will be going to that, to meet her, and perhaps schedule a one hour session with her if I like her. She is also known for 'Plateau Busting' and in fact is giving a two hour session on that topic coming up in February! Now that I think I've busted out of my recent plateau, I want to be armed and ready for the next one!

And finally, I thought I would share some of my recent 'favs' in the food department. I've been doing my best to eat only FOOD. By this I mean, reducing packaged, convenience type snacks. Instead of chips (Baked Lays), I put a piece of fruit or some raw veges and hummus in my lunch. My 'crunch' craving is satisfied with 100 calorie popcorn packs - Kettle Corn is my favorite! Or, I get a crunch from a serving of dry roasted, unsalted almonds. Or a crunchy apple.

My favorite treat right now would be Ghirardelli Intense Dark 'Twilight Delight' chocolate squares. It is 72% Cacao so just one square provides a good dose of anti-oxidants and blood pressure reducin' luv. I call this my 'sexy snack' ha ha.

Another new find is a salad dressing...Wishbone Bountifuls. Delicious! Only 15 calories per tablespoon and fat free, low sodium etc. etc. I have the Hearty Italian flavor right now and I love it!

My favorite post run snack is a Wasa multigrain cracker (more crunch, yum) with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese spread. Another fav, especially after a strength training session, is a whole wheat torilla with Smuckers Natural peanut butter and diced apples, sprinkled with cinnamon. My girls LOVE this too, they've been eating it as an after school snack, except they don't like the natural peanut butter, and go for the low fat Skippy instead lol.

And today I picked up some K2O Special K protein powder for water. Five grams of protein, five grams of fiber per 16 oz beverage! I'm not really in to dumping god knows what chemicals in to my water....but the pink lemonade was actually pretty tasty. I prefer just straight water, but this will be a nice substitute especially on days when I feel 'hungry' or have the muchies.

Well now, how's that for all things random? Oh by the way, I never had my bar night with my friend...I must be getting old, but it was just too dang cold to do anything but snuggle up in my pj's with my latest issue of Running Times and watch 'The Pacifier' with my daughter. :-) Good times, good times.....

I hope most of you have an extra day at home tomorrow too, and that the big chill is over for most of us!

Cheers~