Again

Once again, I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted here! Yeesh!

Since the last time, I've moved into my house, traveled for business 3 out of 4 weeks, and ran the Chicago Half Marathon.

Yes, the Chicago Half Marathon, great course, well organized, and I did much better than I expected. I was pleased with my performance that day.

As for training runs, well, I won't even talk about it. Even I get tired of hearing my own excuses. I will be running the Chicago Marathon in under 3 weeks, but it is going to be rough.

Home Stretch

I will finally be closing on my house this Friday. I can not wait. I've only been staying at a hotel since August 2, but it seems like forever.

Now, since my training has been hit and miss for the past 8 weeks, I must piece together 8 good weeks of training leading up to the Chicago Marathon. I'm committed to this race.

Also, back-to-school clothes shopping has sent my daughter back to the gym. We have been hitting the hotel fitness center the past couple of weeks, and I'm back to tracking my food. Look at my ticker! I'm down another 3 lbs! 8 lbs down, 59 to go. Ugh. That's actually my ultimate goal, though. I'd be pretty happy with losing 40.

Silence

Ahhh... Do you hear that?

My kids drove back down to our old house today, so I'm living alone in the hotel again. :)
It's only Wednesday, but this week has been very long already. This is the first night that I haven't spent the entire evening shopping for school clothes until the stores close.

Last night, my daughter and I did venture down to the hotel fitness center around 9:30 or 10pm. I was on the dreadmill, she was on the elliptical. We have both gotten pretty bad out of shape (I've been a poor example the past couple of years). Next week, I plan to drag her down there at least 2-3 times. OK, so I didn't drag her down there, I told her where I was going and she wanted to go.

Next week, we should be able to get enrolled in school and my son can join the football practices. Maybe between that and the hotel fitness center, I can keep the kids tired enough that they won't want to run me ragged the entire week!

Vagabond

I'm back. I have no home right now, but I have officially started working at my new job as of last week.

My new address is at the Embassy Suites.
Living in a hotel week 1: Not so bad, I did a lot of reading and enjoyed the free breakfast and happy hour.
Living in a hotel week 2: I brought my kids. Yeah, not so much fun.

We still have to live in a hotel for one more week next week, the closing for the house is supposed to take place on August 20. Let me just say it here, as I've said it everywhere else, I will never never never attempt to buy another house that is a short sale. This has been nothing but pain and a whole lot of waiting. I pray that it actually happens on the 20th. If not, I'm in big trouble.

Meanwhile, do you think I've been running?
If you said yes, you would be dead wrong. On the weekends, I'm driving 5 hours each way to go home, do laundry, visit my pets, etc. I am not doing my long runs.

So, in less than 9 weeks, I will be running the Chicago Marathon with pretty much 0 training. If I start training today, maybe I can minimize the pain, but it ain't gonna be pretty.

Stay tuned, I'm actually starting to feel settled already. I'm loving working up here, I'm excited to actually get moved into my house and feel like I really live here. I think this is going to be a great change for me!

Back on Schedule

After 2 weeks of zero running, I decided this past weekend that I need to do a long run. My training schedule called for 12 miles. Luckily, the weekend that I skipped was a cutback week, so I hadn't missed a long run in my schedule.

Unfortunately, running 9 miles on a Sunday, then skipping 2 full weeks of running does not allow you to maintain the same fitness level as you had. Now, add to that temperatures that are just shy of 100 degrees and bright sunshine.

Saturday's long run was no fun. Brutal is an understatement. I went out on Saturday morning at 7am and completed 13.4 miles. Notice, I didn't say that I "ran" 13.4 miles. I "ran" about 10 miles, walked about 1 mile and trudged home the last 2.

I even attempted to call my kids to come and pick me up after about mile 11. My phone was wet (I was dripping sweat), so I could only manage to place the two phone calls. Neither of my kids answered, so I had to get home on foot. Ugh!

I contemplated crawling up under a tree and resting for a spell a couple of different times, but I suffered it out. I made it home. I got the miles. Now, I feel like I can continue on my marathon training where I left off. Next weekend, my schedule calls for 14 miles. Unless it cools down by 20 degrees or so, I'll be out the door by 5am for that one. Lesson learned.

Living in Limbo

I'm one more step closer to finally finally purchasing this.
*cross your fingers that my current house sells soon*

This whole process is even more frustrating because I first made the decision to move to the Chicago area in December of last year. After much waiting and nagging within my company, I got the green light in June. Now, I'm waiting for a bank to tell me that it's OK for me to close on this house before school starts. That will teach me to try and buy a short sale house. Aargh!

Anyway, since we only have a few more weeks of living in the St Louis area, the kids and I are cramming in "one more" of a lot of things. Sunday afternoon, it was "one more" Cardinals game (OK, to be honest, we'll travel back for Cardinals games).

We were on the ground level about 20 rows back from home plate. And, we were in the shade. Awesome seats. I drank too many $8 beers.

I start at my new job on August 2. At this point, I'll be living in a hotel until I can get the house situation figured out. I feel like I'm in limbo, I just want to be moved already! I'm hopeful that once I get settled, life will get back to normal. I haven't felt normal for quite a while now, a couple of years really.

Howdy!

Nope, I'm not abandoning my blog. Once again, I've gotten all caught up in my life. Even though I have plenty of time to watch TV (I think watching the New Jersey Housewives is actually making me dumber), I obviously haven't had time to work out like I should or blog.

So, once again, here I am getting serious again.

*sigh*

I have been running, although I've been averaging maybe 2 days a week. I have been eating right, for an average of about 4-5 days a week.

One week ago, I made the decision to get serious about it all again. Again.

Since then, I started tracking every bite. Then, over the weekend, I started alternating running with the Turbofire workouts. Today is my first glorious Day of Rest. Whew! But, as of this morning, I am down 5 lbs. Woohoo! Maybe I should even post one of those little weight loss tickers on my blog? Hm, maybe.

Meanwhile, here is a "Before" picture from my son's recent grade school graduation.

He dressed up real nice, didn't he? Gah! Oh well, his hair looks halfway normal for a change and he had the cap and gown for the entire ceremony anyway. The gown is what is draped over my shoulder in the picture, I am not wearing green with red.