Tag: slacker

Foiled Again!!!~ Goals and NYE

Happy New Year’s Eve!!!! Or Happy New Years to those east of me!

This time it wasn’t my fault, promise. Work was pretty good today actually, My team of 3 held strong and help came in the early afternoon to cover lunches and what not. It could have been much busier, but most people seemed to think that we closed early. No such luck, we worked a full day. One of the parties I was debating about tonight was canceled, The hostess was down with strep, yikes! Feel better ME!!!! ( I swear that’s her name)

This to me seemed like a sign, I was going for a run after work. I wasn’t really feeling a party anyways 🙂 So after work, I changed and headed to the gym. Which was when this happened-

You know you live in a #smalltown when the gym closes at 5 on #newyearseve 7 hours before midnight!

— SlackerRunner (@SlackerRunner) January 1, 2014

Seriously?! Ok, maybe I should have called first. I did think about them closing early, but I figured the earliest a “24 hour gym” would close was 7 or 8. Not 5:00!! I was sad and sheepish. I was all runned up with nowhere to go 😦 I was still not feeling very sociable, so I went home and ate a small boring dinner. I then decided it was time to finish some 2014 plans while sitting in the Comfy Chair.

Well then, here goes-

14 in 2014– I briefly mentioned this in my first races of 2014 post. I decided to take the plunge. This will mean running 14 races in 2014. Less than most of the bloggers I follow (you rockstars!) but 2 more than I have previously completed in a year. Plus the increased race schedule should help keep my training mileage up. Which then leads to-

750 miles in 2014– Again way less than most but more than previous years. It averages out to a little over 62 miles a month. Which I currently hit on my good months. However months like December (34.5) are more common. I ended 2013 with 558 miles. I had thought it was going to be higher, oops. Hello Slacker.

So with those 2 goals in mind, I am ready to greet 2014. 2013 was a damn good year, both with running and work, I PR’ed all the various distances and earned 2 promotions, woo hoo! A 45 minute commute came along with that last bit, but I’ve adjusted 🙂 Thanks 2013 and all those who helped make it great, friends, family coworkers and the new community I have found with this blog.

Oh, and I also registered for my first race of 2014 tonight. Not the first one I am planning on running, but the first that I have paid for. Wine Country 13.1, here I come! Now I will continue to marathon The Arrow on Netflix and look forward to sleeping in tomorrow and getting in a good run. But not at my gym, because again, the 24 hour gym is only open from 7AM to 1PM. 😦

Anyone run a New Year’s Eve run/race tonight??

Hope everyone has a fantastic evening!!!!

Paving the Road

Sunday started out according to plan. I slept in a little, started some laundry and then met my family for a last guilty lunch. Per usual, it was pizza and salads at a local restaurant. It was very yummy. I then headed home to work on organizing and cleaning my closet before heading out for a run. I had enlisted my mother’s help with the early spring cleaning. She is an organizational queen, I once posted a picture of her closet on Facebook. All the the tank tops were hung by color, and it was very noticeable as she had upwards of 140 at the time! With my inherent Slacker-ness, minor OCD and germophobe issues, I can have hoarding tendencies. She on the other hand loves either throwing things away or donating them. I figured between the 2 of us, it would take an hour, hour and a half tops.

I was so naive. It took an hour to empty the closet. How is it that items that fit so well before suddenly expand to fill up a room and then some? It was ridiculous. I seriously do not need any more running clothes. It was dark by the time it was finished, with 2 bags of trash and 2 bags to donate. I was so over it by then, now the test is to see how long it lasts. The thing about closets; they have doors, so very easy to hide a little mess. 🙂

It was now too late for a run. I don’t run in the dark, the streets around my house are just not designed for that. There is one, just one, street that has sidewalks but they are more like hurdles, haha. My gym also closes early on Sundays. Then my phone rang, when my phone rings on Sunday afternoons, it’s rarely ever a good thing. It was someone calling in sick for Monday. Waaah! That meant that for Monday, it would be a crew of three, just me and two others. Yikes! I had a hard time sleeping last night just trying to figure out the logistics of only three people.

So this morning that meant I had to be up earlier and out the door sooner. I also went for a double dose of caffeine. I had the feeling I would need it. I even upped from a small soda to a medium. Caffeine and sugar! Work started out well, it stayed steady all day but didn’t really pick up until the afternoon. I managed to sneak away at 2:45 for a few minutes to eat a quick lunch. From then on, it just felt like chaos. I hardly sat down and walked back and forth about a hundred times. And sadly this is not an exaggeration. I was exhausted. We even managed to get help from another location, but it was still rough.

I had optimistically packed my running gear and my shiny new Garmin but I was in no mood to deal with people 😦 And it was too dark to run outside- stupid daylight savings! Tomorrow is more of the same work wise 😦 But it’s New Years Eve, so we’re wearing jeans!!! It’s the small things right?

I am also torn between going to a New Years Eve party or trying to hit the gym again. My gear is still in my car, ready to go. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

So is the road to hell paved with good intentions or good excuses?

Who got in a last or second to last run of 2013? You rockstar!

A Christmas 4

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you and yours are having a truly wonderful day!

Christmas day is the one day a year that I usually take my Slacker-ness to a whole new level. Like stay in my pajamas all day, Slacker, But that’s ok right? Christmas is one day of the year that it’s acceptable to wear matching pajamas, right? That was my plan for today. However things changed a bit after opening presents this morning. My amazing parents sprung for a Garmin for Christmas!! So I had to test it out right?

After a yummy breakfast and gift opening, we relaxed watching movies. Choice for the morning- Red 2. I then joined my mom and Zoey for an early afternoon walk. Well it was supposed to be a walk, but I really wanted to play with my new toy. So I would run ahead and then double back. I only almost lost them once. I threw in a hill loop and it took me longer to catch back up. It upped an easy run into a temporary tempo, ha! I ran with the Garmin and the Nike App, just to compare. They were pretty dead on to each other. 4.25 miles to 4.23. I love being able to check my pace as I am running. This may make me more neurotic than ever, haha.

Then it was time for an amazing dinner of Beef Stroganoff and the previously mentioned matching pajamas. Fleece ones this year, so much better than flannel. Then it was time for the Doctor Who Christmas special, a tradition these past few years. I won’t lie, I may get a little misty eyed this time around.

Hope everyone has had a great day!!

How many of you got running gear for Christmas?

Embracing the Excuse

December has shaped up to be Slacker month. I have decided to stop stressing about it and just enjoy it. I hit my weight loss goal in January of 2013 and have stayed there for almost a year. If the scale goes up a couple pounds in December, so be it. I would rather spend the holidays enjoying time with family and friends than being the weird one who isn’t eating. Besides I am having a hard enough time with the new stupid diet restrictions my doctor gave me, I am not going to stress about counting calories and pounds. I am having troubles with my newest restrictions, some days I notice I eat hardly anything and other days way too much. I am still tracking my food everyday (Lose It) but now it’s mostly so I can try to level it out and watch my nutrient intake.

That Slacker-ness has extended to running as well. 😦 My standard 3 days a week has become 2 days a week. Ouch. On the upside, my class finally finished and all final assignments have been turned in so I am hoping that will clear up some time for running. I am aiming to finish 95% of my wrapping tonight as well. I am going to attempt some last minute shopping tomorrow so I may have a few last minute items. Fingers crossed, it is not totally insane tomorrow.

I did make it to the gym on Tuesday evening. I was cranky and tired but my goal was to do 3 miles (very Slacker). I went with the same cuckoo pattern that I had done last week. For every mile, I walked 1:30, ran the middle at a steadier pace and then ran at 7 for the last .25 mile. I also had the incline set at 2, yeah that probably should have been higher too. L Luckily, none of the TV’s had Monsters Inside Me on, and yes I checked before choosing a treadmill. I chose one near the door so I could take advantage of the occasional cold air coming in. I must have been good because I ran 10 minute miles for 3.5 miles. Usually the treadmill feels like I am slogging and my pace reflects that. I noticed that I had upped my middle steady pace, so I will aim for more of that in the future.

Today I worked, so it was up cold and early to head that way. Of course I was stuck behind a car driving below the speed limit but even with that delay I was still 25 minutes early. I should have slept longer 😦 On Saturdays I work at a different location so sometimes I end feeling as useful as a bump on a log. Other than that it was a good morning, I drove home for some lunch and braving the Target crowds to get some essentials. I also picked up some ingredients for a Crock Pot French toast recipe that I found on Pinterest. Work is having a breakfast potluck on Christmas Eve. This is amusing because I can barely boil water. 🙂

After all that the plan was to get in 5 miles. However, my stomach was not keen on that plan, stupid diet. I thought about waiting and going to the gym when I felt better but I knew I would not follow through. I was also running out of daylight, so I sucked it up and went. I was torn between going really, really slow or just hauling to get it over with quicker. I also knew 5 miles was probably not going to happen. My first mile came in at 10:23. With that hill? When I run from my house, my first mile is always SLOW as I usually walk half of it. So hearing 10:23, hot damn!

Maybe the incentive was that I knew my mom was out somewhere walking the puppy for her first long walk. Success at 1.5 miles!!! I pause Nike for some puppy time and then ran on. I threw in some loops so I could meet up with them every mile. It was great incentive to keep moving quickly 🙂 I finished at my driveway for 4.27 miles in 42 minutes, sweet! But I was also glad I was done.

Now, I’ve spent too much time in the Comfy Chair, so it’s off to wrap presents. I even have a little helper-

If she stops eating the paper that is... — If she stops eating the paper that is…

Anyone brave the chaos today?

Any races this weekend?

So much pink!

Baby, it’s cold outside! Shouldn’t be a surprise as it’s December, but every time I walk out the door, brrr! Yesterdays run was so cold, I think my cheeks were wind burned. Which is sad because it was around 38. Toasty compared to some other places.

Pardon the bald look, my cheeks were so cold!!!

I didn’t get back from shopping until almost 4 and the temperature was dropping but I wanted to run. I changed as fast as I could into what I hoped was warm and was running. I ran the exact same route as Saturday. Not sure if it was that I was feeling better or if the cold was the incentive but I took 4 minutes off of the previous days time. Woo hoo! I felt good and would have like to run more but the setting sun was against that. 😦 As I was stretching out afterwards, I realized just how pink I was. Not only were my cheeks pink and stinging, my clothes were too! I don’t think I have ever worn that much pink before.

This was also the first time I had ever run in full length pants not capris. I had picked them up while shopping on Sunday, and figured it was cold, why not try them out first thing? They were awesome. They never moved or slipped and felt comfy the whole time. The waistband was still higher than I would like but I think that’s just me. The odd thing is that I bought these exercise pants at Abercrombie (I know, I know, but I really like their sweaters, even when I was 40 lbs heavier). Random I know, but I have not been liking the pricey Nike capris or the numerous pairs of Fila I own. I had to go up a size and I was hoping for a lower waist but so far, worth the money. Which was the best part- $20! They washed well the first time, so now to see how long they last.

I also picked up a running skirt (my first one!) on clearance at Sports Authority and a new pair of knee socks. I also finally treated myself to some new jeans (amazing Gap coupon!). I only had one pair. Losing weight is awesome, but it was a real hit to my budget. I don’t wear jeans that often but it was making things a little tricky. My mother on the other hand became a veritable clothes horse when she lost all her weight, so I was usually calling her on the Thursdays before Friday Jean Day, crying help! I need pants!

My family is incredibly hard to Christmas shop for but I think I managed to pick something out for my brother. I am 99.9% positive that he does not read this, but just in case, that is all I am saying. Now if I can just figure out everyone else before Christmas. Managed to finish my Secret Santa shopping too, now fingers crossed, it gets here in time!

At work, we finally managed to get our Christmas tree decorated, but this Slacker forgot to get a picture. I also apologized to my boss, because as I was tumbling on Friday, I managed to break one of her icicle decorations. Sorry!!

The plan is to hit the gym tomorrow night and get a couple miles in on the treadmill. That will depend on how far I manage to get with my advertising plan. This post has been a wonderful distraction from the headache of formatting but I better get back to it! The Sing-Off is pretty distracting too 🙂 And I am on standby for jury duty again tomorrow, so who knows?

How was everyone’s Monday?

Anyone like jury duty?

Anyone else singing along?