It's Official. I'm a Cheater. And Something You Should Never Do at the Gym.

It's Official
I have officially registered for the half marathon tomorrow. I will be running it. Jen, should we meet to the right of the the porta-potties? I couldn't think of anywhere else to meet and I know I will be near the porta-potties before the race starts for sure. :) Also, every race I run, I dedicate each mile to a person in my life that means something special to me. Jen, you are my mile 4. :)

I'm a Cheater.
I cheated and bought my new pair of jeans before I actually ran the race. So what. Big deal. I went to the Buckle and picked out a pair of Big Stars. I LOVE THEM!

This is the front.

And this is the back.
And I can't believe I'm actually going to post this, but this is the only picture I have of me wearing them. I was doing a photo shoot last weekend and my cousin thought that it would be so funny to take this picture of me shooting pics.




Something You Shouldn't Do At the Gym

1. I don't care how old you are or how rockin' your body is, it is NEVER appropriate to go without a bra at the gym. ESPECIALLY if you are wearing a halter top and you pull the bottom up and tuck it through the top of your shirt, making it like a bikini.

This guy....

...Caught me a wee bit off guard at the gym this afternoon. He tried for about 8 minutes to put his shockingly white leg behind his head before he finally gave up. The only thing that would make this picture better for you would be if I had gotten the front view, so you could see the expression on his face and his coke bottle glasses. And me, being the cruel soul I am, did what any logical person would do: I pulled out my phone, pretended I was sending a text, and snapped this picture to share on my blog. Poor fella, I'm sorry to say it isn't his best look. But he did bring me some joy at the gym... which I wanted to share with the world wide web.

A Disco Ball, a room full of gay men, and a lot of pain...

I've been to a lot of aerobics classes in my day. Step, lift, pilates, yoga, kickboxing, you name it. But I have never, I repeat, NEVER been to a class like the one I went to last night.

I went to a new gym in a city I'm not familiar with and walked into a 50/50 class. You know, half cardio and half weights. I've been to these sorts of classes before and they're usually about the same. But I knew this class would be different when I walked in and saw a room full of perfectly groomed men wearing tight shorts and sweat headbands.

I asked one of them what kind of weights I needed to grab for the class and he said "well, usually most people use 5 pound weights." 5 freaking pounds? Seriously? I usually grab 12's and 15's for my class! I grabbed some 5's and some 8's and took my place. The class filled up and the teacher, who by the way about about 4 feet tall and 85 pounds, came in and turned on the loudest house music I've ever heard and flipped on, get ready for it, a disco ball with flashing lights.

She started what she called "the warmup" but it was more like frantic jumping and throwing our arms around and it just didn't stop! The whole class was moving at 90 miles an hour and there was thrusting... lots of thrusting!

And sure, 5 pounds weights are nothing, unless you're throwing them around at 50 reps per second for an hour and a half straight! My body was screaming in pain as we hitch-kicked and went up and down and up and down and back and forth and back and forth. I kept swearing under my breath every time that horrible little woman looked at me and said "Keep MOVING! I can SEE YOU!"

About half way through the class, I just stopped for a minute, looked around at all the men who were prettier than I am sweating like they were in a sauna and they thrusted to and fro under the flashing lights and just started laughing out loud. One of them glared at me and I started up again. And what's weird, that was ONE HELL OF A WORKOUT! Seriously, I don't think I've ever been to a harder class..... but at this point I'm not sure if I'll go back. It was a little too out there for me. Although, I did dig the disco ball.

12.25 Miles

I got up yesterday morning at 7am to do my long run and looked out my window to see snow!!! What! So I climbed back in bed and told Nate I wasn't sure I wanted to run while it was snowing. I told myself all the reasons I didn't want to go, then told myself all the reason I should go. Should go won the battle. Five minutes later I was out of bed and 20 minutes later out the door.

As soon as I was running, I was so glad I was. It was really peaceful and the sidewalks weren't slippery at all. Minus one incident with a dog, it was a great run. I'm not as fast as I would like to be, but at least I know that I will be able to run the SLC half and not kill myself! I wanted to go the full 13.1 yesterday, but when I got back to my house, I was only at 12.25 miles and *conference was going to be on in 10 minutes. So I called it good. I'm not going to lie, I'm still proud of myself. :)

Salt Lake City Half Marathon, Here I Come!

P.S. Jen, you are not alone in your love for Miley Cyrus. The last 3 miles of my run I listened to her new song, The Climb, over and over!

Maybe it's because I'm the proud new owner of these......



but I managed to bust out 10.75 miles last Saturday. Miracles do happen. :)

Realization...... HUGE Realization

Two Saturdays ago I finally got up enough oomph and went for a long run. It only ended up being 7 miles. Yes, that is a long run these days. Since December I have been telling myself I was going to run the SLC Marathon this year. Even though training has been less than stellar, ummm way less than stellar, I still had managed to convince myself that I could still do it. However, when I ran that seven miles two Saturdays ago and nearly killed myself, I realized that there is NO WAY I'm going to be able to do the marathon. Just NO WAY. Am I disappointed in myself, TOTALLY. But I feel even worse that I have let Jen down. I have been hands down the worst running partner ever.

So, here's to rockin the half, and being more motivated in the future! (Sounds like you are already motivated to run the Minneapolis!)

Encouragement/Discouragement Requested

Well, this is a bit random, but has anyone ever run the Minneappolis Marathon? Husband and I are thinking of doing it.

Only problem is, well, it's May 31st and I have been training for the SLC half, and not very well at that. Think I could be ready by the end of May for the big one? I looked at the training schedule and it has 12 miles for next Saturday.... and the most I've run this training schedule is 6 miles, and that was 2, yes 2, weeks ago.

So, what do you think? Honestly...

Top 10 Reasons I'm Not Running a Marathon in April

Ok girls...so I have decided that I won't be able to run the marathon in April. Here are my top 10 Reasons to Not run a marathon in April.
10. I haven't trained since January.
9. I don't feel like having black toenails.
8. I have been super busy with work & kids.
7. My knees still bother me if I run longer than 5 miles.
6. My sister had surgery and I want to be able run with her.
5. I am lazy lately.
4. I went through a depression phase in my life.
3. My kids started basketball in Dec and I signed them up for Saturday games.
2. Started dating someone new.
1. Getting Married and going on a Honeymoon in April!!!

Fear...

I don't know what I've been scared of, but something has been stopping me from running. And the longer I went without my running routine, the more fear I had... and I became more and more worried that because I haven't been diligently running, when I finally did, it would be hard and I would get discouraged.

Well, I just got back from a short 4-miler and while I was a little more winded than I should have been, it certainly wasn't anything to be scared of.

Running for me is so much a mental game. If I'm having a rough week (as I have this past week), it effects my confidence running so much.

I won't say I'm completely back on the bandwagon, but I at least have one leg on. Hopefully the other leg will hop on tomorrow.

I suck. period.

Yep, I do. I really really really do. Ask me if I've been diligently training. I'd say no. Ask me how much I run every week lately. I'd say not nearly as much as I should be. Yep, I should get a big fat "L" tatooed on my forehead for "Loser" because basically, that's what I am. And not the cool kind like on the "Biggest Loser." I mean the kind that just sucks.

As typical with most losers, I could give you a gazillion reasons why I haven't been running well: moving, job stress, work schedule changes, life stress, lack of time, and the list could go on-- I'm quite creative. But basically, I've been in a major rut. MAJOR.

And the husband? He's basically kicking my trash. He ran 13 miles on Saturday morning. Ask me how many I ran. I'd say none. I can't believe I'm letting him beat me! Oh, how it kills me to write it-- I hate to get beaten by a boy. Ugh.

Now, all of this said, I am feeling a major motivating factor coming on-- my new home is right next to one super duper amazing trailhead-- with one super duper amazing trail.

So go on, kick me hard, right in the bum. I need it. And.......... go.