Some Recent Photos

I'm not sure what it is but I have hardly any photos of my husband and I together! We actually got dressed up in July for a friend's wedding and they just sent us a couple photos from that so here they are :)
I'm the blonde in the red dress, hubby is the REALLY tall guy in the red shirt next to me. No, we did not intentionally dress to match! I had bought that dress specifically for this wedding... he ended up having no other shirt to wear with that suit! men...

I ran 5K!!

Woo hoo! I did it :) And only about a month into this running kick I've been on... so exciting.

I've actually done it twice this week - Wednesday and today (Friday) and I plan on going out gain on Sunday to do another!

*Wednesday's run/a funny treadmill story :)
So on Wednesday I went to the gym just planning to do my usual 30-minute run that I've been doing the last week or so. I had planned in my head to do a 3-minute warm-up walk then stop the treadmill and re-set it before starting running so I would jog the entire 30 minutes. Well, I got to 12 minutes and was originally going to slow down a bit then. I was feeling good so I pushed it to 15. So, did 15 minutes at 5.5 mph. Slowed down to 4.5 mph and jogged at that speed for a minute then pushed it back up to 5.5mph. I got to about 28 minutes or so and decided, wow, I only need another half-mile and I'll have done a 5K! So, I just kept going! At about the 30 minute mark I'd done 2.8 miles - reached down to grab my towel so I could wipe sweat out of my eyes and accidentally pulled the stupid emergency stop thing! Of course, the treadmill stops cold! Great.... had to stop it and re-set. Thank goodness I'd paid attention to how far I'd gone just before pulling the cord! I set it back at 5.5 mph and ran the final 0.3 miles that I needed to get to 3.1 miles (which is what I've convinced myself a 5K is!)
Went well except for the whole emergency stop disaster! Good thing I had my iPod so I knew about how long it took me! I estimated it was about 34 minutes to do the whole thing. Not bad... I'll work on getting my speed up once I've finished tackling the stamina portion!

*Friday
Managed to complete 3.1 miles without pulling the emergency stop this time so this entry will be short ;) I was able to time myself correctly and did the 3.1 in 34 minutes. I actually kept jogging through the first part of the cool down thing and made it to 3.25 miles before it got too slow. Same "schedule" as Wednesday - 15 minutes then slowed down for about a minute. I'm averaging about an 11-minute mile which I think is pretty good for having just started! Also pretty good for being able to maintain it during the whole 3 miles (esp. for me...!)

FlyLady Progress

Wow, haven't written about this in a while! School is kicking my butt (I'm working on my MA in Teaching) this month and I'm also going back to work after my lovely summer off... is it just me or did this summer go by really quickly?! I blame being in school! lol ;)

I have been keeping up on the FlyLady stuff and the house is looking great! I've said this before but it was never a big mess to begin with. However, it's just so nice to not have to spend all weekend trying to power-clean the house! Doing a little each day is really helpful.
Here's what I've been working on:

*I quit doing the Baby Steps after about 2 weeks! Well, I thought they were a bit lame and decided to just concentrate on the actual cleaning stuff. I already know how to organize a calendar and plan my day so I really didn't need them!

*Worked on the kitchen last week. Cleaned out the pantry which was really nice! I had some stuff in there that expired a LONG time ago! I'm surprised some of that stuff hadn't grown legs and walked out! Also worked on thoroughly cleaning my countertops, cleaned out the fridge, and swept and mopped really well. I know I did more in there, just can't remember what it was now!

*This week I'm working on the master bathroom and one other room. Since I did the office last time I've chosen to tackle the guest bedroom. The guest bedroom looks OK on the surface - just don't open the closet! wow! What a mess... Since I work from home, I have all sorts of textbooks that I keep on-hand for students. Well, I have to put them somewhere and they had begun to over-populate the guest room closet. Went through those and decided which ones could be taken back to the school library and took them back. Looks better already, however, there is still a lot of work to be done in that closet! I've decided that's my focus for the week - just the closet (along with the bathroom).
I have this routine of cleaning my bathroom every Sunday so the bathroom weeks are usually pretty easy for me. There were some rather odd cleaning projects for this week, though, that I've started working on! Yesterday I cleaned the base and the back of the toilet. Icky, I know! My bathroom is carpeted which is a PITA since I can't just "mop" the toilet along with the floor. Just put gloves on and got back there with bathroom cleaner and a bunch of paper towels. Today's task was to clean the bathroom trash can (give it a good wipe out with soap and let it air dry).
Other things to do this week include:
*vacuuming the guest bedroom
*cleaning out the medicine cabinet
*continuing to work on that closet!
*cleaning the bathroom sinks and countertops really well

I've also been keeping up with the swish-and-swipe habit as well as shining my sinks. In addition, we are supposed to be doing a load of laundry daily (the new habit for August). Since I just don't create that much laundry I am just continuing to do the majority of it on one day and then picking one other day during the week to do a second load (usually darks since most of my workout stuff is dark-coloured). Seems to be working well for me. I've also been continuing with the weekly home blessing hour which works really well! I've added a couple things to that such as watering my plants (indoor and outdoor) which I also do a second time each week, sweeping the front porch/steps/walkway, and cleaning the glass doors on the living room cabinet, TV cabinet, and fireplace. Just that one hour a week makes a huge difference! And yes, I am able to run around and do most of the home blessing stuff in 1 hour!

I'll try to remember to check back in sometime next week! There is a board on the Nest where one of the ladies does a daily check-in for us. So helpful! :) I'm sure without her I would have said "screw this!" and quit this FlyLady stuff a while back! lol

Another Running Post!

This is great - will help me keep track of my mileage that I'm putting on my shoes! lol ;) Plus, it's holding me accountable which will prevent any falling off the wagon! Really, though, I'm thoroughly enjoying the running! Just hoping I'll be able to find time to keep it up as much as I have been once I'm back at work full time...

August 8
Did 30 minutes on the treadmill today and was able to cover 2.54 miles.
Started out with a 5-minute warm-up walk then did some 6-minute jogs. Here's how I broke up the 30 minutes today:
5-minute walk
6-minute jog
60-second walk
6-minute jog
60-second walk
6-minute jog
60-second walk
4-minute jog
Not bad but I know I can do better ;)

August 10
Did the usual 30-minute thing, starting out with a 5-minute walk. Here's the break-down for today:
5-minute walk
6-minute jog
60-second walk
6-minute jog
60-second walk
11-minute jog
Really felt like pushing myself at the end there! Rather than doing the 6-minute jog then walking for 1 minute and running the last 4, I just decided to jog the entire 11 minutes. Felt good! I was able to cover 2.56 miles in the 30 minutes

I was supposed to go to the gym on Sunday, August 12 but I was just so tired that day so decided to skip it... I was good and went on Monday instead!
August 13
Best workout yet! :) I did the 30 minutes but decided it's time to start weening myself off the 5-minute walks at the beginning. Actually, as I type this I'm thinking I can do a little warm-up walk and then re-set the timer/treadmill so I am jogging the entire 30 minutes. I was able to go 2.61 miles in the 30 minutes and figured out I ran at least 2.5 miles non-stop! Pretty exciting :) I know that's a short sprint for serious runners but for me it was a big accomplishment!
3-minute walk
12-minute jog at 5.5 miles per hour
1-minute jog at 4.5 miles per hour
12-minute jog at 5.5 miles per hour
2-minute jog at 4.5 miles per hour

I have also decided to stop doing those silly 1-minute walks in between jogging sessions! They only make me feel bad (I get cramps in my side but only when I stop and walk!) So instead I am just slowing down a bit and continuing jogging. Worked really well this time and I plan on keeping this up from now on. Going back out tomorrow (August 15) so I'll check back in about that sometime soon!

I figure at this pace I'll be up to the 5K mark pretty quickly. I want to be able to run 4 miles consistently for a while before signing up to actually do a 5K! After that I plan on doing a few 5K races and then seeing if I can work up to 10K...! That's in the distant future, though :)

Running Progress (August #1)

Realized I never posted about my last run which was almost a week ago (well, not counting today's!) Since I went out of town I sort of got out of my routine. I actually took my running shoes up north just in case but just never found the time... oh well! It was easy enough to get back into it and I actually missed my little running workouts! Wow, never thought I'd say that! :)

August 1
This should have been my Week 2, Workout 2 if I was following C25K but I've decided to just do my own thing... Maybe I'll get back into it when the runs get a bit more "running-ish"
I managed to cover 2.11 miles in 26:30 minutes. I really can't remember how I broke it up but it was something like this:
5 minute warm-up walk
5 minute jog
90 second walk
3.5 minute jog
90 second walk
3 minute jog
90 second walk
3 minute jog
*that last jog may have been longer... or the 3-minute jogs may have actually been 3.5 minutes... oh well; not that important!*

Today, August 6 I went back to the gym and did a 30-minute workout (instead of the usual 25-minute things that C25K do). Today was really a pretty good one! I felt really good about it. Here's how my 30 minutes were spent:
5 minute warm-up walk
5 minute run
60 second walk
5 minute run
60 second walk
5 minute run
60 second walk
7 minute run
Those little 5-minute things were really nice! I felt like I could have kept going (hence that 7-minute push at the end!)... could have even gone longer than that 7-minute thing. I was able to cover 2.53 miles in that 30 minutes and was tempted to keep going to see what 5K really felt like (3 miles)! Maybe on Wednesday :)

My plan for the rest of this week is to go for a jog/walk thing on Wednesday and Friday. I'd like to start getting up to 6 minute jog sessions those 2 days and just keep those little 60 second walks in between (just to grab a quick sip of water and wipe the sweat out of my eyes - ouch!)
I'm supposed to be on Week 3 of the C25K program but that is as follows:
5-min warm-up walk
jog 90 seconds
walk 90 seconds
jog 3 minutes
walk 3 minutes
*do two repetitions of that (after the 5-min walk)... I think I'm a bit beyond that so I'll just keep going with what I've been doing :) I think it will be easier to go from jogging for a little longer like I've been doing than going from jogging 8-9 minutes to jogging for 28 minutes like C25K has you doing! Little bit of a step there! lol :)

Fly Lady - Week 4 Update

Well, this week we are working on the living room and entry way/front porch. I have decided to just say screw it to the BabySteps.. they were pretty lame anyway! I'm just doing the weekly room focus things (whatever those are called) and the swish/swipe/monthly focus things. Those seem to be keeping me on track with keeping the house clean (not like it was a huge disaster to begin with...)

Anyway, back to what I came in to actually write about! For the living room/entry way, here is what we are supposed to have been doing:

*Day 1 - Go couch and chair diving! lol Yes, we were supposed to pull the cushions off the couch/chairs and look for random junk in there - coins, socks, unmentionables ;) I didn't find anything... was hoping for some cash but no luck!

*Day 2 - Dust decorative items in the living room. Wow, I thought this would take me a small lifetime - I have a lot of little knick-knacks just sitting out on shelves and things! It was actually pretty quick. I just went around and attacked everything with a Swiffer cloth - worked well! Unfortunately, though, it did not inspire me to take some of the clutter and put it elsewhere...

*Day 3 - moving on to the front porch. We have to sweep the porch and shake out the welcome mat. We're also supposed to wipe down the front door but mine just got a fresh coat of paint so I'm just going to skip that part (shhh... don't tell!)

*Day 4 - Clean the walls and windows in the living room. Guess I'll be doing that today since I'll be out of town from tomorrow on... screw doing the walls but I will wipe down the windows/balcony door :)

*Day 5 - another thing to add to today's list - put crap away that's sitting out in the entryway. Oh well that's easy! We don't have anything out there that doesn't belong! yippee! :)

We're also supposed to start doing a load of laundry everyday! Excuse me... no! What a major disservice to the planet...! Ugh! I do laundry once a week so I can just fill up the washer and not feel like a huge waste of water/soap. I will continue with my once-a-week laundry, thank you very much! :) FlyLady works my last nerve sometimes...! Just in case you can't tell :) I really only do it so I'm not spending my entire weekend trying to clean everything at once!

I've done days 1 and 2; off to do days 3 and 4 now :) Have a great week! Wonder what I get to do next week...?