My Husband Ran Instead

Huh. If I don't run soon, there will be no point in my having a blog with running in the title. I worked a few minutes late tonight and then came home and got sucked into a TV show one of the kids was watching. (No, I won't tell you what it was because then you'd know that I watch Nickelodeon and Disney.) We turned it off and I started making dinner. My husband had a softball game and wasn't coming home for dinner, so there was no running instead of cooking.

After dinner I helped my son with homework, cleaned up, helped my daughter with her hair, did reading time with the kids and it was all of the sudden 9pm...way too late to run 12 miles. I also had some freelance work that I really needed to do. I sat down with my laptop and my husband went for a run.

I have a video editing class today for work and it's over an hour away. I'm really hoping that I get home in time to eat a quick dinner (breakfast casserole in the crockpot!) and then run in the evening. Oldest daughter has art lessons, but I think husband can handle that. I need to get this run in before it's really time to taper and do light runs before the half.

So, hold me accountable, ok? Let's talk about how the run went in my next post instead of talking about why I didn't run. Again.

Crazy Weekend With No Run

I recently read a tweet that talked about how everyone is busy and it's really annoying to have to read or listen to someone complain about their particular brand of business. I kind of agree with this statement, as those conversations tend to turn into people one-upping each other instead of listening with compassion and empathy. In light of that, I won't really go into why this weekend was so busy but I will say that it was busy to the point that I didn't run. I'll also admit that there were a couple of missed opportunities due to some poor decisions on my part. My plan, though, is to run after dinner and just run up and down my street, treating it like a track workout.

Some of my weekend did involve rest, which was lovely. Because I needed to do 12 miles, I decided not to run at all when I had the chance on Saturday. I figured that if I couldn't do 12, I shouldn't do any at all. (Flawed logic for sure.) Instead I drank a vodka tea, ate jalapeno chips and read. I don't recall where my children were, but my husband was watching football (this will be the norm for the next 3-4 months) so no one even spoke to me. It was heaven.

My half marathon is approaching on the 21st, so I certainly can't afford to ignore running altogether. I'm going to forgive myself for allowing my schedule to interfere with a planned run, though. If I make it to much of a chore and force it in where it really doesn't fit, then I think I'll resent it and that won't do at all. But acknowledging that this weekend was going to be tough, I let it go and figured out how I could do it this week. Will it be a lot to do 12 miles on a work/school evening? Sure. Will it be better than cramming it into a ridiculously scheduled weekend? Definitely.

Did you get any runs in this weekend? What else did you do?

Five for Friday...or something like that

People list five fun facts on Friday, right? It's a thing? I don't know. I think it is. I'm not sure if these facts are actually fun, but there are five of them.

1. I have signed umpteen school papers in the last three days. The kids started school (8th, 6th and 4th grade) and I've had to verify my phone number, decide on emergency plans and read classroom rules more times than I'd care to count. Yes, I understand that my children should turn their homework in on time.

2. Fall is coming. Mornings and evenings are cooler, and I LOVE IT. I love fall. I love sweaters and jeans. I love long sleeve tshirts. I love sleeping under blankets. I also love celebrating my birthday

3. I take bad pictures. See:

Meg, Amelia and Frack

4. I'm running out of facts. I didn't realize this would be so hard. Perhaps this post wasn't my best idea. How about telling you I love to bake? I made cookies last night. In related events, I haven't stopped eating cookies in 24 hours.

5. Meg would like you to know my favorite colors are green and pink.

Wow. I'll try to do better next week.

So, what are you doing this weekend?

Update about me

So, summer was rough. Well, not rough in the bad-sense, but rough in the scheduling sense. As much as I really wanted to blog and get out there, life just took over and I would run out of time and just get too tired. I really like to write, though, and I really like to blog. Here's to another shot!

In running news, my daughter and I did the Color Run here in Buffalo. I highly recommend this 5k - it was so much fun! Everyone was really friendly; lots of high-fives and encouragement. The volunteers were really excited, which always makes a good race. We obviously ended with lots of color on us...which is exactly what is supposed to happen. It was great!

Me and Meg, August 2013

Training is ongoing for my September half-marathon. My friend and I have 12 miles on the calendar for this weekend. I haven't been as good about my weekday runs, but I'm making an effort to change that. The same schedule the got in the way of blogging impacted my running and my contract work. But, I'm making a weekly schedule for the week and getting back to it. (I'm also trying to stick to a dinner plan, which makes school and work days so much easier.)

So, plan to keep coming back...ok? I'll have some recipes, I'll have some stories and I'll talk about some running. For now, I'm going to work on next week's meal plan and keep baking the chocolate chip peanut butter (gluten free) cookies I'm working on. Yum :-)

Here I Am

Huh. It has been a while since I've here. I'm a little over a month out from my half...and I guess I'm getting closer to being ready. I've got 8 miles to do tomorrow. I guess I can do it, right? (Hint: the answer is yes.)

We just got back from a neighborhood party where there may have been some adult beverages. I'm doing everything in my power to ensure that I still get my run in, though. I can't miss it! Perhaps I should check back in tomorrow to let you know how I did?

Catching Up

Wow, I've been gone a long time. I kept thinking I need to post and then...I didn't.

I didn't get up to do anything on Friday. But, I did go to spin on Saturday. I had a pretty bad headache and contemplated not doing it, but I perservered. I'm definitely glad I did. Later that day Meghan had softball practice, then Brett had his first house baseball game and then we went to dinner at some friends house. It was a great day! It was the first warm day we've had here in a while.

Sunday, we went to Sunday School and then came home. Dave and I did week 3, day 1 of C25K, which ended up being a mile. I had every intention of doing another 2 - at least - after that. But, after 1 mile I was dying. Seriously. It turns out that only eating edamame for breakfast wasn't enough to fuel me through a run. Who knew? So, after 1 mile at 11:33, I stopped and sat with Dave on the driveway and enjoyed the sunshine.

I was pretty annoyed with myself about not doing a longer run, even though I know 2 miles is better than nothing and I didn't eat enough. But, just to make sure I got something else in, I did 50 regular crunches and 25 on each side. Then, I did some  work on my triceps with the medicine ball.

Brett had a travel game in the afternoon and then we went to my parents house for dinner with the family. It was a great weekend and I really didn't want it to end.

I didn't get a workout in today. I slept really poorly last night and have literally not stopped since I left for work this morning. Actually, since before that since I had to run to the store so we had food for breakfast :-/ Guess what I did after work and taking Meghan to swim practice? Yep - I actually did some grocery shopping.

Did I mention that I've given up caffeine after noon every day to see if it helps me sleep better? Does anyone else do that? I'm a big black coffee drinker, so this is a big deal. I hope giving up my afternoon cup helps! Today I had a cup of decaf hot tea instead.

Let's hope for a workout tomorrow, shall we?

I Have Nothing

So, I promised someone that I would be "real" in this blog. I will promise all of you that, really. To that end, you should know...I didn't work out again. I want so badly to be the person who must work out every day, but I'm not. There are many times, like today, that I actually to want to go for a run...but it ends up being at a time that I can't - like when I'm at work. All day I planned to run before dinner, but when I got home I was freakin' exhausted. I couldn't bear to do anything!

Because I have no workout news, I'll tell you that I'm on Instagram now. Want to follow me? I'm missymichelejill. It would be cool if I could find some other adults to follow, since I'm currently following my daughters and their friends. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

In completely unrelated news, I made the kids a fun breakfast this morning. (Actually, I guess it is related, since I also posted this pic on Instagram.) The kids had state testing *again* today and they insisted this breakfast would help. Who am I to argue?

Toast with PB and chocolate chips

Here's to another day and another chance to run!