We're back

Oh yeah. We went on a run this afternoon!  The Guys got back from their trip safe and sound on Friday night, after a long long, rough drive.  They brought some goodies back from Arusha, too! 

There are no grapes in the stores whatsoever here in Iringa, and in Arusha they cost about $7-$15 for a little bunch of them - So when we lived in Arusha we pretty much never ever got them, and we couldn't get them at all here even if we tried.  Grapes are my favorite fruit in the world!  Dad got me a little carton and brought them back.  What a huge treat!  I just about teared up.  It's the huge little joys in life, people!

Did anyone else watch the Royal Wedding?  I didn't watch it live, but I watched all the videos they put up. It was beautiful!

Anyway, back to our run.  We were feeling strong enough to get out there and try it out!  It was a little disappointing, because after weeks and weeks of no running, and leg muscles feeling atrophied in spite of my jump roping efforts, it feels a bit like we're starting all over.  

 -But, it felt incredible to get back out there - We started with a 2 miler.  Going up the hills, my legs definitely didn't feel as strong...I guess laying flat on the couch for two weeks doesn't do much for the ol' thigh muscles.  Also, we're still dealing with some deep chest congestion, so that made breathing a bit more difficult.  (If you think I've used up all of my excuses, don't worry - I have more.)  But really, I think it'll all come back fairly quickly!

Thanks so much for those of you who are new followers, and to all of you who keep coming back!

What's something great that's happened for you this week?

Good intentions

I had good intentions of doing a post day before yesterday. And yesterday. Heh heh. Hi. 

Mum and I have been having a fun time while the guys are gone, and we've been eating on alot more fruits and veggies than we're normally able to, and it's been wonderful.  Combine that with the fact that we don't have a big pile of dishes to wash over three times a day, and I'd say we're having a preeetty good time! Well, and that we've been staying up late every single night.  I think the dark circles under my eyes are taking over my face.


Anyway, the last couple of days workouts have been jumping rope. It's my go-to form of cardio when I can't get out to run.  But boy...I miss running, alot:

 "Hmm...maybe I should sit on the couch and eat peanut butter instead"

"No, we can do this, be firm!"

And after it's all over with, how I love it! (My face isn't actually glowing. It's the light from my window and using photobooth, okay thanks)

So, even though I at first semi-dreaded the thought of jumping rope again, I did it for 35 minutes today! The fact that I did while watching an episode of I Love Lucy helped matters.  After a shower and some water, I felt like a new person!

The other day I ended up blog hopping, and I found alot of new blogs that I'm going to love following! 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have dogs to feed, and corn on the cob to eat! 

Do you have a go-to exercise when you can't do your activity of choice?

Yep, jumping rope!

 

What's your least favorite? 

 Doing squats are actually my least favorite thing to do, I think.  They're not particularly hard, but so monotonous, I just hate doing them.

 

Random ramblings and pictures

I hope you all had an incredible Easter filled with lots of fun and food! I appreciate all the comments on my last post - I loved hearing what y'all had planned, and all the candies you love.

The Guys left early this morning to go to Arusha to take care of some business.  It's about a 16 hour drive up there, so they have a looong way to go.  That means it's just Mum and me here this week.  Heh heh, so long, Boys, I'm gonna miss ya.  Okay, so I will, they're great - But I foresee some major salad and vegetable eating this week!  They eat very heartily, and love meat, and...well...us girls don't, so it's nice to have a week here and there where I can pretend that I'm a rabbit.


Saturday I decided that I would jump some rope for an hour.  But I guess being sick for two weeks has really taken the starch outta me, because I wasn't able to make it an hour.  I did squeak out 30 mins, though, and after adding a bit of ab work, I called it quits.  I'm going to have to work back up to my pre-sickness level.  Oh well, you always do what you can!  The very best way to get discouraged and down is to have an "all or nothing" attitude. "I can't run at the moment, so I'll just sit here and slack off doing anything until I can".  Wrong.  The best thing to do is just do what you can! Whether that's yoga, pilates, jumping rope, or whatever else you like to do.


I said that I was going to do a really random picture post.  Well, here it is!

  Last time we were visiting the States, we went to a small bluegrass festival.  Luke loves bluegrass.  We even got to see Tony Rice (complete with his nasty little "I got caught in the garbage disposal" ponytail...)!  He's a bluegrass legend, you should look up him playing Shenandoah.  It was alot of fun!

This is my sister, Julia, at her bridal shower.  Isn't she the cutest?  I also tried to convince her to wear that crown for the whole thing, but...she wouldn't. Humph.

 This is us at her wedding - Tear.

 Just a little icin'.

 The huge rhino beetle that was outside our back door the other day.  Jake put his thumb there to show how big it is.  I guess I should take a picture of a ruler and Jake's thumb to show you how big his thumb is.  It's big.  And yes, he used his thumb, because I didn't want to put mine that close to it.  Carry on.

Me and my Mum!

And Ryan - he's the same baby as in the picture in my last post.  See how big he is?! *Wail*

Any fun plans for this week?

Any not fun plans for this week?

We're no longer invalids

It's almost Easter! It's such a shame that we don't have our plastic Easter eggs so we could have an egg hunt with the kids.  {My adopted niece and nephews, Aubrie, Ayden, and Ryan.  As far as they're concerned, I'm their true aunt - it's the best!}

 Here's an old picture [I think about a year and a half, or so] of me with Aubrie and Ryan.  Aren't they cuties?!  I'll have to get some new pictures of them to put up.  I love hearing, "Aunt Liiinz!..." every two seconds!

Anyway, we might do some fun Easter-y crafts or something!  I'll see if I come up with anything.

I ate one of these yesterday - yum! I have one square left that I'm hoarding away, and will probably eat in about...13 minutes.  So good.  Cadbury is the best; I think I like it better than Hershey's.  Speaking of candy, I've been craving gummy bears like crazy.  It's pretty pathetic.  I blame it on seeing a bunch of them in peoples' fro-yo.

The Boys [Jacob + Luke = "The Boys"] and I went on a walk this evening, it was so exciting!  It was the first time we've been able to get out and do much of anything.  I even swept the house and did some of my normal stuff again today, woot! 

I made supper tonight that consisted of: corn on the cob, greens, sweet potatoes, carrots, pork, and garlic bread.  It was really good!  I'm looking forward to getting back into eating better now that my stomach doesn't complain at anything besides bread.  I definitely feel it when I don't eat well!

What's your favorite Easter candy?  What are your plans for Easter?

Sickness and half update

Last week was a bit miserable, bleh.  Being stuck to the couch with a fever, and coughing up a lung was pretty much our week.  Thankfully I think we'll be back to normal soon.  We're still spending most of our time coughing, and get tired very easily, but each morning we're a little stronger!

Half training has been...postponed until further notice.  Any running, actually - but we'll start back as soon as we're able!  However, even when we can get back to it, I have a feeling we may still put a hold on the training.  We'll be making a trip to Malawi in a few short months, and won't have time for it while we're there.  Life happens.  You have setbacks, there are some things you can't control - that's life.  But when those things do happen, you can look on the bright side and do all sorts of great things, even if it's not what you first had in mind!  

There will be lots of opportunities to do a half, and I look forward to them!!  Buuut,with all the above being said, we're going to do some other fun stuff with our running!  We're still going to try to slowly increase our weekly mileage, and also start including some fun speed workouts!  Overall = Exciting.


Hooray for Christmas! What?  Yes.  Yes it is nearing the end of March, but I can still celebrate because we got a box with the stuff we ordered from Amazon.com using our Christmas gift card!

 I've been loving reading this while we've been infirmed! [I ordered it back who knows when, so I didn't know about Kara Goucher's book, or I might've gotten that]

 I also got these beautiful headphones! My other nice ones had broke, so I'd been using a pair of "super-cheapy-fall-out-of- your-ear-every-two-seconds" kind.  So excited to test out these puppies.

If you get a chance, go check out Erin's blog! She has such a cute blog, but hardly any commenters {well, neither do I, heh heh :) } - so go show her some bloggin' love!

Bad news and Great news!

The bad news is....I'm sick.  Along with Jacob and Luke.  Our fevers are taking turns going up to 104ºF.  Yuck.  

The Great news is...Jen In Training is having an awesome giveaway! Check it out. 

http://jenintraining.blogspot.com/2011/04/giveaway.html

Week 1

Hola bloggy friends!  Week one of half training  is complete!  Well, except for our Sunday short easy run of two miles.  Jacob isn't feeling great, and has a fever, so we're not going out today.  Hmm, might do some Pilates in a bit though so I don't feel like a complete Sunday afternoon couch potato...?

So here's a quick overview of workouts this week:

Monday: 40 minutes of strength\stretch training. Pilates arm and stretch workout, followed by ab ripperx.

Tuesday: 2 mile run - first run in our official half training! 

Wednesday: Lower body and arm work, with ab ripperx

Thursday: About 2 mile run - Luke's shin splints started acting up, so didn't go as far. Jacob and I did some splits as well.

Friday:  Pilates arm segment, stretching, and ab ripper. Yes I am working on my noodle arms, and we try to do ab work on our off days. 

Saturday: 3 mile run. Slower time, because we had to do the hills and those slow me down, but maintained a steady, strong pace, so still happy with it!


We're probably going to have to switch our long Saturday runs to Friday, because we are beginning a Saturday afternoon class with the ladies from Church, so won't be able to run then.  It should work out fine!

I'm still a bit scared about our half training.  I'm not worried about getting injured; I'm extremely serious about stretching, no matter how long\short the distance.  I even sometimes ice because the terrain is often uneven where we run.  Almost anything to keep from possibly getting injured!  

I'm a bit scared because...it's a long distance, and progresses fairly quickly.  When we were training for our 10k, it seemed like it had us running 2 milers every single run, and took forever to build up to the 10k.  Great for building your base, but sometimes frustrating and boring.  That won't be a problem now, though!  If I have trouble with a particular week, I know we can repeat it - it's just a little fear of the unknown distance.



I think that before too long, I'm going to do a nice picture post for you all.  Heh heh.  Now you have time to mentally prepare.  Until that time, here's a little comic for ya!

 I think this applies to way too many women!

Aaaalso, remember.....!

Ready, set, go!

Today was our first run for our half training.  It was so great to get out there and have a run!  I'm really excited to have a schedule again to follow.  I'm still a little bit nervous about running such a long distance, but I'm going to take one run at a time, and before I know it, I'll have done it!

So, apparently I drink a bit of water.  I was cleaning my room up today, and took these out to the trash.

These are 1.5 litre bottles of water.  There's actually five of them I'm holding, one is hiding.  These built up after just a very few days. (Excuse the hair...Real life, bloggy friends!)

Hooray for hydration!

What's your favorite beverage? Do you drink alot of water?

The plunge

Happy April, everyone! Oh, and this post isn't a April Fool's post a day late. Thanks.

This week I've only logged a few running miles, but it's been full of other good stuff!


One of my goals for this year was to complete a 10k.  Check!  At the time I put it into my list of goals, I knew that I'd be able to do it, but I still wondered if I could.  It turned out to be alot easier than I expected!

My brother, Jacob suggested we start training for a half.  Hooray! Hold on...Gulp.

This is the face I would have if 3 months ago someone told me I could start training to run 13.1 miles. Get serious.

But...wait a second, let me think about this.  I've come a really long way in 3 months, and running the 10k was alot easier than I thought.  To me, 6 miles seemed almost impossible.

And if Oprah could start at about 200lbs, and train for and run a full marathon,  at 5'9'' & 130lbs, I can train for and run a half. 

I researched online just to make sure that it wouldn't be too much for me, but it suggested training for a half if you've run shorter distances, and\or you can run 30 consecutive minutes.  Yep, and yep.

Hmm, I can do it!!!

I've been researching and googling for tips, because running that far is completely new to me.  If you all have any advice that could help me, please share!  

[For example: If you run some longer distances, what do you wish you would've known starting out?  What was the hardest thing you ran in to? What was the easiest? Was it easier than you thought?]

This is the training schedule we'll be using.  We almost went with Hal Higdon's schedule, but this one had the longer runs on Saturday, which works better for us, since we have worship on Sundays.  We're going to do stretching and strength on Mondays, etc.

I know I'm going to need help from you all along the way! 

:)




"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'"


"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."
 
~

My running journal is on the ready. Bring it on.