Winter, PB pie, and Large Dog makes a mockery of my weight workout

Remember how yesterday I was running with large dog and there was no snow on the ground?  Well, today is a little different.

Welcome to my front yard and all of the stuff the hubbs puts in it.

Hey Winter.  Nice of you to show up.

Because of the snow and because of the fact that I ran yesterday and a run wasn't on tap for today, I did a total body weight workout (my usual Cathe Total Body Giant Sets), where I found out that my hammies were more sore from yesterday's run than I realized.  But it was nice to get in some leg work, use a nice heavy barbell again, and get my bicep curls in whilst a dog snoozed in the background.

For my ab workout, I did something a little different--I did the second bonus abs workout on Cathe's Ripped with HiiT series workout DVDs.

This ab workout kicks you in the...well...abs right out of the gate and just doesn't let up.  I was burning by the fourth exercise, and I honestly don't know how I made it to the end.  She does do a bike maneuver with a twist that requires some coordination (which I lack), and I was worried at one point I would flail about and disturb the large dog snoozing next to me.  You can all rest easy knowing that it didn't happen, and that large dog continued to rest easy during the entire ab workout.

This woman is constantly working out in my napping area.

So, what about my eating?  Well, it was OK today.  It didn't help that it was (and still is as of the time I am writing this) Xmas Eve and hubbs was all "hey can you, like, do some Xmas baking before Xmas gets here or something?" so I had to make a peanut butter pie and, in the process, consume whatever was left of the pie filling (PB and cream cheese) in the mixing bowl because wasting food is a no-no.

However, I counteracted all that yummy goodness with food filled with something called "nutrition" during the rest of the day.

I had my usual oatmeal, Nutrisystem muffins (yum), those carrots and string cheese you see up there, a PB & J sandwich, and leftover beef and broccoli when not sucking down excess pie filling.  All that counteracts all that pie filling, right?  Right.


Post is over; learnings are coming:

• Gosh, I'm so looking forward to 15-20 mile runs in the snow and cold where I have to worry about frostbite.
• That Cathe workout I did today has a lot of one-legged squat variations and I fully expect glutes of incredible soreness tomorrow, seeing as I have not done this workout in about a month.
• I also expect abs of soreness.  That ab workout was no joke, kids.
• Large dog pretty much made a mockery of my workout by sleeping right through it.
• This eating thing will not get better until all of the junk is out of my house.
• Aren't you happy that this is the only set of bullet points in this post?  Merry Xmas.

Tomorrow's workout:  A 3-4 mile run, but I will probably do some 2-minute pickups in the middle miles to get back into the speedwork groove.

Eating lies I tell myself.

Even though I wanted to do at least 8 miles today, I ended up doing a solid 6 with large dog.  Gotta give some props to the hubbs for catching a snap of large dog and I out in the 20-degree weather.

Large dog: ZOMG I'M RUNNING ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG

I think that this might be the last nice day for large dog to hitch a ride with me on a run; it's supposed to get supercold for a while (like it's winter or something), so I hope he enjoyed himself.  Especially the parts where he kept trying to drag me into the ditch.

But let's rewind back to the start of the day today, before my nice pre-Xmas run.  Let's go back all the way to the beginning, when small dog slammed himself on top of me to wake me up and take him outside.  As I stumbled my way to the bathroom trying to get that one eye that won't ever open all the way in the morning open, I decided for no particular reason to do something I haven't done in about 6 months: get on the scale and weight myself.

What were the results?  Well, I have gained back 9 pounds.  9.4 pounds to be exact.  But I didn't have a meltdown like I normally would have right there on the scale.  And I think the reason is because my clothes all still fit--I haven't had to buy any larger clothes, which is usually one of the main reasons I get back on the scale.

However, just because my clothes still fit doesn't mean I don't need to make some changes.  My eating needs some overhauling (which I've mentioned recently), but I think the biggest thing I need to change is to stop telling myself lies about what I can and cannot eat.  Below are some of the eating lies I tend to tell myself when I'm training for a race:

• I'm training.  I can eat that bread and all of the bread left on the table when I'm out to dinner.
• It's OK to have <whatever junk food is sitting in front of me> because I'm doing a 20 miler three days from now so, you know, it'll just magically burn off.
• Potato chips are carbs, right?  I need those for fuel for my runs right?  Right.  This whole family size bag should do it.
• These chocolate candies are sugar, which is mainly glucose...which is the same thing that's in my energy gels, so it's all good.
• I know I've been sitting at my desk all day and I literally just ate a health bar so of course I also need to eat this cheese and another health bar, because, you know, healthy stuff doesn't count.

So it's out with the rationalizing and in with the accountability for my eating.  From now on, you lucky readers, you're getting an eating report along with a workout report.  Hopefully this will consist of pictures of yummy, nutritious food, just like the one below of the beef and broccoli I made in the slow cooker tonight:

Learnings starting.....now:

• Large dog and I have a New Year's Day race...I hope it's going to be warm enough for him to run with me.
• Now you get workout/running porn AND food porn.  So lucky.
• Hopefully talking about my eating will shame me into actually cooking my own food more often.
• And if I cook more often I can stop all that lying to myself (even though I'm really really good at it).
• I'm just going to assume those 9.4 pounds are all sitting in my arms and move on with my healthier eating.

Tomorrow's workout: Some sort of Cathe total body workout. More muscle, more fat burning, you know...

Welcome to my mornings filled with coffee, animals, and boot camp.

On days where I do strength training, here's what my mornings are typically like:

• Alarm goes off at 3:45 AM.
• Small dog sits on my chest while female cat touches me in the face with her claws until I get up.

Hyooman. Wake up or it's the claws.

• I take the dogs out in the dark with a headlamp on, letting the large dog drag me across the yard while I yell at small dog to get back over here because he keeps running away in the dark
• I feed the dogs breakfast so they will be busy while I eat my breakfast.
• I make my breakfast (which is always oatmeal with a banana and some PB and cinnamon) and eat it.
• I enjoy my morning coffee, along with my morning large dog sprawled across my lap.

Clearly that coffee is making me all
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4 AM.

• Convince the large dog to get off my lap so I can work out.
• Then convince the male cat, who jumped in my lap after large dog vacated the premises, to get off me so I can go work out.

Hyooman. I know large dog has been here.  Traitor.

• After the animals are done with me I set up for my workout (or go get in my running duds, if the workout happens to be a running workout).  This morning it was Cathe's Boot Camp workout from her Strong & Sweaty series.  
• Scream, "Will you two STOP playing in my workout area!!!?!?!?" at least 3 times as large and small dog roughhouse in my teeny tiny workout space.
• Fling sweat all over my living room, including the TV.
• Know that I don't have enough time to do abs but do an ab workout anyway.
• Put all my equipment away while fending off the male cat's attempts to get me to rub him.

• Scramble to get ready for work, for which I almost always have to dress up and wear make-up, which is SO UNFAIR

What have we learned, kids?

• I get up way too early.  
• But I also go to bed early.  That's kind of how this thing works.
• So many animals...so many ways to get in the way of my workout.
• Do you know what it's like to have a cat threading himself between your legs while you're trying to lift a heavy barbell above your head?  Well, I do.
• And for those of you that need a reminder, I don't workout in the evenings after work because after-work working out is a complete lie for me.

Tomorrow's workout: Going to get back into the long-ish runs and do between 8-10 miles before it actually becomes winter around here.

A lame post just to keep my blogging habit alive. And some race medals.

I took a rest day today.  It was forced upon me by my own body.  Here's how it went down:

1) Put Cathe circuit DVD in player and press "play."
2) Start workout, successfully completing the warmup.
3) Do the first upper body weight exercise and realize that all of your upper body muscles are all NOPE from the prior workouts this week
4) Shut off DVD and cry.

Well, there wasn't really any crying.  But I wanted to, though, especially when the pain hit on my back flys (flys? flies? ugh).  Since Thursdays are going to be an easy 3-mile run day anyway when I start training again, I wasn't especially upset.

Because today is such a boring workout day, I thought I would spice up this post by talking about some of my fave race medals again.  Some are repeats from my previous post, but they're so nice you can look at them twice.

Why are these medals special to me?  Let me count the ways:

• One of them is from a race in which I actually WON out of all of the women....so what if there were only 5 women in the race.
• One of them is SPACE-THEMED and allowed me to dip my feet in an ocean in late November.
• One of them is a huge Ohio.  Huge.
• One of them is a medal from a very hilly St. Louis marathon where I improved my time by over 20 minutes from the previous year, if I remember correctly.
• One of them is just a cool freaking belt buckle that I will never actually wear as a belt buckle.
• And one of them is from the second ultra marathon (a 50K) I ran that I did not train for yet got a better time than I thought I would.

People always ask me why I keep all my medals, seeing as they don't really do much after I get them except take up space.  Well, each medal is a memory and, seeing as how I'm not getting any younger, I gotta hang on to my memories as long as I can.

And plus, you know...bling.  It's all about the bling.  That's why we run, right?


No more bling pictures, just learnings below:

• Bling is why I run.  I don't know about anyone else.  Maybe for silly things like "health" and "fitness."
• This post is sadly short because the hubbs is demanding I go wrap his Xmas presents before Christmas Day.  So demanding.
• It's also short because it's way past my sadly early bedtime.
• Honesty time: I just slapped this post together to keep my blogging habit alive until my next training cycle.  

Tomorrow's workout: We're going to try that boot camp workout again, this time hopefully without my muscles mutinying.  

My small wins for the day, as told in pictures.

Small win #1: Actually getting up on time (3:45 AM) and slamming out my easy 3-miler even though I didn't get home until almost 10:30 PM.  Even the dogs were impressed, as you can see.

Woot woot!

Small win #2: Hubbs snapping a sneaky pic of me dressed like a real person just so you realize I don't walk around in running gear 24/7.  Plus super happy small bonus dog.

Small win #3: I had a flying pig on the back of my leg while running.

Small win #4: Carrots triumphed over delicious junk this afternoon.  Yay carrots!

So much learning from just a few pictures:

• Everyone deserves a woot woot for getting out there and getting the run done.
• Hubbs didn't get my awesome shoes in the pic of me dressed in normal clothes, which is a damn shame because they are super awesome maroon suede high heels.
• Instead of my cool high heels, you'll have to settle for the flying pig logo on my tights.  
• Ever seen a grown woman angrily eat carrots while wildly eyeing a plate of cookies?  Some of my so-workers did today.

Tomorrow's workout: Probably some Cathe Boot Camp just to let the soreness wear off in my upper body that's still there from all that weight lifting this week.

My strength training workout this morning: Here are the facts.

Here are the facts:

• I did Cathe's Lift It, HiiT It: Chest, Triceps, & Shoulders workout this morning, which is the sister workout to the back, biceps, and shoulders workout I did two days ago.
• This workout is set up exactly the same as the previous workout: Three sets of three exercises per body part, with a "finisher" exercise after each set of three for what can only be torture
• Well, there are finisher moves unless you pick a premix that excludes them, like I did (I had abs after each body part)
• So many chest presses.  So, so many.  WHY CATHE

I just...no more chest presses.

• But so, so much barbell.  Awesome.

• The shoulder exercises were much, much tougher than the sister workout.  Like "lift this heavy barbell over your head many many times" hard.
• When I went to do planks after the last set of triceps exercises, my arm was all "NOPE not going to be straight for you AT ALL"
• I still enjoyed the workout.  Except for the chest presses.

Learnings below:

• I don't have a ton of time to post to today, so you just get bullet points galore with some stupid pictures.
• I want to include these workouts in my marathon training cycle, but I also want to do total body two days a week.  I'm still working it all out.
• Oh, I'm going to run a little too in my next training cycle.  In case you think I forgot about that.
• Chest presses are better than push-ups.  But only by a little.
• Did you find the cat in that last picture?  I bet you did.

Tomorrow's workout: Some running.  Hoping for four miles with large dog if it's warm enough.

A facetious last-minute gift guide for that runner in your life.

Large dog and I headed out into the almost-40-degree weather we were having at 5:30 AM this morning for an easy 3 miler.  He was too busy getting his post-run snack to grab a selfie with me so small dog stepped in to fulfill large dog's post-run selfie obligation.

For those of you who keep asking, small dog does not run with me.  He refuses to leave the yard, even for a walk.  He is a complete and total chicken about the road, and that is why he is a bit of a chubster.  We're working on it.

Anyhoo, I feel as if I need to give you an update on how I'm feeling from my weight workout yesterday:

I kid you not, my shoulders and back hurt just to touch them.  I'm surprised I can even type this blog post with all of the soreness coursing through my upper body.  And I don't know how this happened, but my triceps are super sore...and if you remember all the way back to yesterday, you'll realize I did a back, biceps, and shoulders workout.  There goes Cathe, making you work muscles that aren't even listed on the front of the DVD.   I suspect the shoulders, chest and triceps workout I'm going to do tomorrow is going to be just a little tougher than I expected--just a wild guess.

Speaking of wild guesses, do you know what to give that special runner in your life?  Say, a special runner who writes really dumb blog posts (almost) every day for your entertainment, laughter, and sometimes derision and scorn?  Well, it's a week until Christmas (gasp!), so if you still haven't gotten that runner on your list a gift, here are some last minute facetious gift ideas for you:

1) Socks.  Remember when you were little and socks (and underwear) were the LAST thing you wanted to see under the tree?  Runners can't get enough of these former Christmas loser-gifts.  I love them as stocking stuffers, because I enjoy the irony of stuffing a large sock with smaller socks.  By the way, in case you needed to know, I prefer Swiftwick and Feetures.

2) Gels.  I mean, this is a good gift if your runner is the type to eat gels during training runs or races.  I know I am. (HINT) They come in a wide variety of flavors and brands-Gu, Chia, Clif, Hammer Gels, etc.  Again, in case you needed to know for any reason, I use Gu Roctane Sea Salt Chocolate during runs and races.  mainly because it's like having pudding at regular intervals.  Any runner will love you for getting them these, because this is pretty much kind of expensive flavored sugar in teeny tiny pouches.

3) Anti-chafing sticks or cream.  No runner digs chafing...unless they enjoy crying on the back half of a marathon or screaming in surpirsed agony in the shower after a long run.  Help the runner in your life wipe out the tragedy of chafing during a race with these little bars of slippery goodness.  And if you could shoot me a text before each race reminding me to put my anti-chafe stuff on, that would be awesome.

4) This cat that likes to tear up our nice oak stair railing and the carpet. Free delivery.  I hope the runner you're giving this to is not allergic to cats, though.  He won't run with them-FYI.

5) Gift cards to the sporting goods store of their choice.  Or Amazon.  Whatever.  If you're not into running but just like to hang out with runners (hopefully not while they're running...that would be hard and awkward) so you don't really know what to get them, a gift card is the way to go.  That way they can shop for themselves and, if they do it after a race, they can get in some nice post-race recovery to boot.

6) Running hats and/or gloves.  I'll be honest--my in-laws don't run, but they are always awesome enough to venture into a sporting goods store during this time of year and try and pick out something for me that's running related.  When they ask me what I want, I usually say a hat or a pair of gloves so they don't have to worry about picking out something that may be the wrong size.  Plus, I always needs hats and running gloves because large dog keeps stealing them out of the laundry so small dog can tear them to bits.  Anyway, what I'm saying is that a running beanie or cap or a pair of gloves are gear any runner can always use.  If it's not torn to bits, that is.

7) Hand or foot warmers.  Have you ever waited around for an hour in 30 degree weather for a marathon to start and then your toes/fingers go numb and then you run the first three miles with numb toes and/or fingers?  It sucks.  Just buy a big old pack of hand and/or toe warmers and make that winter runner you know the happiest little winter runner they can be.

8) Anything that is reflective or glow-in-the-dark.  If you know a runner this time of year, chances are they get to run un the dark because, you know, axial tilt of the Earth and its rotation around the Sun and all.  Show them that you care that they don't get hit by a car by getting them any type of blinky lighted running thing, a headlamp, or something that is reflective.  Testimonial:  One year I got reflective ankle bands as a Secret Santa gift, and I still wear them to this day when I run in the dark.  So obviously because I love them all runners will love them, right?


And it is obviously time for some learnings:

• Small dog won't go into the road, but he will be the first to dart behind your legs when you bring out wrapping paper to wrap presents.
• The free cat also likes to pounce on your scissors while present-wrapping is occurring.  He likes to live dangerously.
• I may have been facetious in my descriptions, but if your little runner finds any of these under the tree, they will be a happy runner.  
• I hope my husband is reading this post, because I know he hasn't done any Xmas shopping for me yet and these will be the only things left he can purchase because it will be too late to order what I really want online and get it here in time.

Tomorrow's workout:  I already let the cat out of the bag (ha!) and told you it's Cathe's chest, triceps, and shoulders workout from her Ripped with Hiit series.  Find out if I survive by tuning in tomorrow...