I felt sexy today...

And that hasn't happened in a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time!!

Wore a black skirt and shiny red shirt that I have had for a while, but the first thing I noticed was the lack of rubbing under the skirt! You see, I'm pretty sure I was born with "Conjoined-Twin" upper thighs...when I run all I hear is the clapping, or should that be thwapping, encouraging me ever onward!! However today I noticed a slight parting of thighs, and nary a chafe mark in sight. Perhaps I've had a team of surgeons swoop in one night to perform a miracle separation...or perhaps BOOT CAMP IS WORKING!!!!

Back to feeling sexy though...once at work I changed into my red pumps (I walk, so wear birkenstocks - happy feet mean happy me) and after walking to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, I thought...dang...I look good!!! I feel good!!! And most importantly, I LOOK GOOD! Calves were looking defined, legs were strong, belly didn't roll over anything or push anything out of it's way - it was all working. And I am proud of that. Made me work even harder at bootcamp this afternoon.

Didn't run at lunch today, as I was late getting in (blood samples for previously mentioned physical) so I really wanted to amp it up after work. Now, I know it's only (sigh) 20 or 22 out there, but man, it was smoking hot in the park. And I forgot my hat, but I did have water and was ready for whatever J. had to throw at us. Cardio...was last returning from the run around the block (just over 1k), but not nearly as far behind as I have been in the past...push ups, curls, lifts, step-ups, more curls, more lifts, jumping jacks (was so not wearing an appropriate top for jumping jacks - the men were very polite and averted their eyes!), flies, lat raises, leg lifts, plank (oh, so many planks!), and the list goes on. I think I sweat out the full litre of water I drank, but I love that feeling - a healthy, dripping sweat; not the way you feel when you are sick, but that "my body has just been a machine" kind of sweat. As much as I despise Matthew McConaghy (sp??), I believe what he says is true: "you should break a sweat every day".

Home, changed, picked up by H. (in her rental car), swung by and picked up B. and off to Weight Watchers, where I had a much better week than last, down 4.6! Must keep the momentum up and not sabotage myself like I usually do. Decided to meet up with H. after work tomorrow for a run (and possibly some toning), stairs and walk on Saturday, run and toning on Sunday. That should keep me away from the junk.

And if I'm going to crawl out of the sack first thing, I must actually try to get into it soon!

Night everyone! Sweet dreams. Mine will be about my hot butt!!

:)

I'm turning into a crazy person

Well, some of my friends may debate the "turning" part, but today after my 5k run at lunch (which involved some more walking than I like, but the legs were rather tight after yesterday's boot camp kickin'!) I decided I "needed to do more". So, I found a quiet spot on the island (Prince's Island, very close to my office) and did 5 pushups, 5 tricep pushups (all from the toes), held full plank (no knees for this chickie!) for 30 seconds, flipped to my back and held static legs at 45 degrees to the count of 20, did 35 crunches, 20 bicycle kicks and a v-sit to the count of 20. Then I got up and did 10 sumo squats and 10 lunges on each leg. THEN I went back to work and had lunch. I think what scared me most, is I'm already thinking about how I'll incorporate this EVERY day. And I asked our trainer J. if he had weekend classes I could drop in on, because (can't believe I said this out loud) the break between Thursday and Tuesday's class is too long...sigh... I used to be cut though...82 pounds and what seems like a hundred years ago, I was cut. My boyfriend was jealous of the definition I had in my arms and legs. And I had abs... So maybe all this bootcamping has returned that love of the burn. It hurts while you're doing it, but it really is a good hurt. If it's a bad hurt (followed by a ping or popping sound) stop what you are doing and seek medical attention!!! But the good hurt is a good thing...turns out I missed it.

Underwear Affair

The run/walk was last night (finally...a race run by my kind of people!) and Mother Nature even cooperated long enough for those of us in various forms of undress to get out and run or walk without getting rained or hailed on. This year the race start was moved indoors - guessing the organizers got thousands of hate letters last year, after we had to stand in the rain and muck for hours, and then run down a very treacherous, slippery hill. Anyway, we started warm and dry and on time (what a concept), although H. and I decided (during the 2nd hail storm of the day) that we would switch to the 5k walk, just in case. Either way, it was hoot seeing what everyone came up with for outfits this year. The Tidy-Whities were back, with some colourful competition from another team of brave lads wearing only their briefs. There were the Colon Cowboys, Spare Parts, the Incredibles, angels and ninjas.

Now...I tend towards the "Go Big or Go Home" motto at times...so I'd like to introduce you all to Dominatrix "Lady Chemo", ready to whip cancer!

Vinyl doesn't breathe well, but I did manage to avoid any serious chafing (thank goodness for Body Glide!)...I did not wear the boots on the walk, changing into my runners, but I still received many compliments on the outfit. I want to thank everyone who donated to the cause, whether to me directly or to anyone else. Haven't heard any final numbers yet, but I managed to raise almost $1300. Of course, that was after promising everyone who donated to me that they would get a picture of Lady Chemo all for themselves!

Am a little stiff today, but I think that's more from walking in the boots (we parked further away than thought) more than anything, but it's nothing Advil won't fix. And wouldn't you know it?? The sun is shining right now!

Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone!

It really is green...

And it tastes great! I'm sticking to the standard recipe from http://angiealltheway.blogspot.com/ and I'm enjoying it. I don't freeze my bananas, but it's still nicely chilled from the almond milk. We'll see how well it holds out, since I have a 10k to run tonight in less than 5 hours. I will have some noodles (found whole wheat egg (yolk free) noodles) with some veggies and protein before the run for energy, but this will be lunch.

Watching the hail right now...for those not from Calgary, we like to condense all of our weather systems into one day, so that it's quick and simple and easy to get over with! At least we downtowners didn't wake up to snow, but there were many cars on the roads showing it snowed elsewhere in the city. It did stop raining earlier, with the sun even trying to peek through the clouds, but it just finished hailing again a minute ago. Craziness...and I'm running 10k in my Dominatrix outfit later. It is the Underwear Affair, raising cancer for those unmentionable cancers below the waist, so they encourage everyone to run in their underwear. Why just wear underwear when you can take it a step further though, when you can dress in vinyl and carry a whip, I say!! Pics to follow... http://cl09.uncoverthecure.org/site/TRC/Events/Calgary2009?pg=peditor&fr_id=1141&px=1064611

Going to finish my Green Monster and then head out to make sure I've got everything I need for tonight. Later...

Marathon pics

Before...it's early and I (middle) am feeling confident...that's H. on the left and fellow blogger A. on the right (they both ran the Half). Perfect start to a great day...


Here I come...wait...don't close the finish line...I'm running as fast as I can!!!



Oh, Holy Mudder!!! I ran HOW FAR?!?!?!

Will I do another...maybe...

:)

Annual Physical

Had my annual physical today, and the timing was perfect, as I appear to have injured my rotator cuff at bootcamp on Tuesday. Woke up at 3 am yesterday morning in tears, as the pain was so intense. Many, many, many Advils later and it started to subside, and today it was a dull ache, not the railroad spike in the joint of Wednesday! My doctor gave me some exercises to do, as he said the best thing for it is to keep it moving. And the trainer echoed that (yes, I still went to bootcamp today - I paid money for this, man, and I am getting every dime's worth out of it!!) and let me do the routine without weights and with some modifications. Hope to be back in form next week, but we'll continue to watch the shoulder. Today's workout was still hard, and I returned from it all sweaty. Tried one of the infamous Green Monsters everyone is blogging about and I have to say...okay...it's actually good. I did the almond soy milk, almond butter, banana, protein powder, salba combo with the spinach. It is very green, but it doesn't taste like spinach. Not that there's anything wrong with spinach, but I don't like to drink it!!! So I'll do this again, as it was an awesome pre/post bootcamp drink. I don't think I'd do it for breakfast, because I like to chew my food, but it was great for energy for the work out and for staving off the dinner hungries until we got through WW's.

Back to the physical...not sure if I speak for all women, but gosh darn it, don't I just live for this day each year!?! First, jump on the scale. And, okay WTF - where did THAT freaking number come from?!?! Crap!!! Then it's the joyous part, which we will gloss over the details, and then blood pressure (perfect, I might add), breathing, blah, blah, blah. My doctor is a man, and has been my doctor since I was 4. Yes, 42+ years of seeing the same man for all the ails me. It's kind of funny because we "chat" like old pals while he's doing the exam, and all I can think about is get this over with already, we can talk about my parents when I have clothes on again!!! No idea what I'm going to do when he finally retires (figure he's got to be in his 70's by now, although dang, he looked old today - must not be feeling well, because he's always been a very physically fit and active man) and no one takes over his practice (seems to be the thing in Calgary these days)...and since I'm not of the child-bearing age anymore (thank goodness and the makers of birth control!) or come with a family already, most other doctors don't anything to do with me. Imagine having a patient that only comes for her physical, or when something is really, seriously wrong. Shocking... I do have a specialist that I see for my asthma and that's it. I grew up with the family motto that unless something is lopped off, spurting or blue, then there's no reason to bother anyone about it! And we're all fine...granted some of us limp, and then there's that tick my brother has, but other than that, it's all good!! LOL!!!

I did have a minor meltdown during the physical, mainly because of the number on the scale. I run, for crying out loud...I walk to work every day (3k round trip), I walk to the store, laundry is an exercise, since I heft it up and down 3 flights of stairs, I joined a bootcamp (and trust me, I sweat), I go to weight watchers and still there's that number, just mocking me!!! There was a brochure on the waiting table that said to "ask about Julie's story" so I did...and after a long talk about my habits (sigh...cookies...) and such, and some hemming and hawing on my part, I now have a prescription for something that will (hopefully) get me going in the right direction. I have to go back in two months for a check-up, but I am just so frustrated, I'm willing to try anything and that includes seeing my doctor more than once a year!

That's all I have for tonight...starting to seize up a bit, and the shoulder's starting to ache again, so it's Advil and heat pad time!

Have a great night...

Monday, Monday...

Where did the weekend go? One minute, I was leaving work on Friday and suddenly the alarm is going off, telling me it's time to return. Sad is I...sigh...but, I have a job and that makes me happy. I must support the furry children, after all!

Didn't realize that I haven't blogged since last Tuesday, but I'll just fall back on the excuse that I couldn't reach my keyboard after all the upper body work we did that day!! Thursday's focus was...well, on everything. We ran, did many stairs (run, doubles, sideways and with squats), ran some more and then hit the mats for some arm work. Push-ups, shoulder presses, and loads of triceps work. I pushed as far as I could, but even trainer said "you're done"... who was I to argue?!

Dropped H. off at the airport on Saturday, and then went to the farmer's market (cheese place closed again...I do not like this!!), Costco (which didn't have ANYTHING I wanted, so I walked out empty handed), Walmart and then Stupid-store. Finally got home later that afternoon, and chilled. Sunday was spent on the couch (couldn't even get motivated to go cheer on the marathoners out there running) but finally got my butt in gear and did the lawn in the afternoon. I have a manual mower, so it is a bit of a workout. Man, I love the sound it makes when I cut the grass! Did some tidying up, and then made an awesome Spring Ragout of fiddleheads, asparagus, carrots, green onions, oyster mushrooms, thyme, parsley, mint and chicken stock. Topped it off with a lovely piece of grilled salmon and brown & wild rice with mint and goat feta. Can you tell it was a good day at the market?!?! Had the leftovers for lunch today. Had to fight others off, as they wanted to steal my lunch!

Tonight's supper was a mix...had a half of whole wheat pita with some hummus, while I decided what I really wanted. That ended up being one whole wheat tortilla spread with refried beans and cheese, and toasted, served with light sour cream, salsa, a sliced tomato and avocado slices. I am now full and satisfied. And trying to get inspired enough to go out and clean the hallways of my building - my "Schneider" duties call...