Motivation gets you started, habit keeps u going

I didn't think I was going to warm up. But I did. So I guess I finally got my clothes down. Not too hot, not too cold. Then I walked the dogs and did some plank and stretching stuff.

If someone smarter than me could please explain AYP to me (annual yearly progress). We didn't make it last year, BUT we had the highest scores in the district. And the other schools made it. Um our scores were already high...how can you measure someone on their progress when they are already at the tops? I mean seriously! And I think we didn't make it b/c of special ed. Um them are special ed. We adjust things all day long for them and then we want them to pass the same test as everyone else. Seriously what is going on here? DUMB!  And I should add that the one school did not make AYP two years in a row. So now they did. Well of course! Now they are doing better! They progressed more b/c they weren't doing so well before! Grrr!

I discovered that I have doggie poo on my other running shoes. Not cool! Ran this one with a friend and our pacing was all over the place b/c we had to walk/jog some b/c we both had to go number 1 and I had to number2. hahha But it was a nice run despite that. Then we went to the FIVE BELOW store. Like a dollar store only everything is under 5. It was pretty cool. I got a doggie calendar.

Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown. I will now call JMYM b/c the former is way to long to write.

I'm thinking about a marathon. Trail marathons keep appealing to me. But since I don't train on trails and there are no trails around her for me to train on. I am unsure. Also this time I have a friend willing to run it with me. Well we decided it would be okay to walk this one. If it was a trail I would feel even more comfortable with this.

The other option is to run one of the big marathon races around here, Chicago, Indy, Madison, or Detroit.

This one super interests me...http://www.danceswithdirt.com/ let me know if I'm being an idiot and asking for an injury.

Ran after I picked up books from the library. It is always nice to run in a new area. Also if I run somewhere on the way home I get more daylight.

AP 11:00

So now my bro wants me to do a warrior dash too...I want that hat!

after a 1.5ish mile warm up I did some hill intervals. AP 12:00 (sloow, but felt good) intervals: 9:06, 10:47, 10:54, 10:10. So those really sucked...I was trying to not go all out but it appears I didn't go fast enough!

50 squats, 2 sets of 30 second reg and l/r planks, 2 sets of  1 minute bridge pose

10:39, 10:42, 11:07, 11:00,

10 degrees today...brrr! Off to the family to start celebrating!

I ran up 4 hills. They were steep so I didn't feel like doing hill intervals. They were all different hills. I think I will run that hill I did last week (only faster this time).

37 degrees. OOh it is warm!

raining...yucky so no dog walk. 20 minutes of yoga...very sleepy

AP 10:42 55 degrees...Yup I got to wear capris and only one layer today. This morning I told myself "Yeah you get to run and wear capris!" so that is how I rolled my happy butt out of bed at 5:05 a.m.

so I have to tell you about the people I see on my dog walks. And I have passed them for well over a year now so I feel like I know them well LOL enough to give them nicknames atleast.

Overly dressed Tae Kwon Do (sp?) guy-he is ALWAYS wearing something over his face, a huge parka with the hood up. And he walks very slow and doesn't move his arms much. He always walks in the street when the dogs and I walk by. Even if I try to move over. So I finally just stopped worrying about it. Lately I have caught him doing this Tai Chi  Tae Kwon Do moves in the basketball court. I'm not sure if that is really what it is called. He is just doing those slow moves you always see on tv when people wake up really early in the morning.

Woman who runs with dog that Blaze hates-Blaze REALLY hates this dog. I'm not sure if he is just jealous b/c the dog gets to run and Blaze isn't. Today I didn't want to deal with it so I turned around to walk in the other direction. Well she ran passed me anyway. Grrr! Blaze barks his head off and sometimes Lu joins in. And Sable pulls on a normal day. So three dogs pulling just gives me the kind of arm workout that I don't want at 6 a.m.! She probably thinks I'm an idiot b/c I'm usually in running clothes when she sees me and prob wonders why I wear these clothes 'just' to walk in. Little does she know that I ran before that. HAHHAHA. So that makes me cooler.

Little white ankle biter dog-As I was turning around to avoid WWRWDTBH the owners of the LWABD ran out so then it was double duty of barking and pulling and me yelling and then Blaze looking at me with his big brown eyes "I'm protecting you!" in all seriousness if any of these dogs walked into my house he would roll over and let them lick him and they would play.

So I know you are jealous...but this is my life between the hours of 5 and 6:20. Fun times eh?

There have been other people but usually they are just summer outdoor people.

23 ish degrees. Went through Lake in the Hills subdivision. I didn't run up the big hill. Just stayed on the walking path and went around the lake(pond) and watched the geese. I have never seen so many in the water! I was supposed to run with my running partner yesterday but she never told me 7am was a good time so I went back to sleep. My sinuses filled up and I was just done for the day.  We decided to paint the computer room. and by we I mean I helped move all the furniture out and pick out paint and now the hubs is going to paint.

I hope to run 10 miles next weekend and then keep that up for a bit.

Notes to self-yoga on Mondays and long runs on Sundays seem to REALLY be helping. Today nothing hurt. B/c I'm off for winter break I may run before yoga tomorrow. We shall see. I still have the heel inserts in my shoes but I don't always wear them. I don't wear the splint at night anymore. But when I do I feel 100% in the morning. I only everyonce in a while feel an IT band twing but I think the yoga and leg stuff is helping with that. Off to soak in the tub. ps...burt kicks butt in words with friends :)

My legs felt pretty good before my run so I decided to push it a little with some speed. I walked the dogs before this run. I would love to tell you my splits but my garmin and garmin connect are not cooperating. I know my last mile was a 9:16.

We finished repainting the office. I love it! I just washed the curtains and moved the furniture back in. We took the over sized desk and put it in the basement. Looks great with the TV. Now I kinda wish our basement was finished. Now we have to go out and buy a smaller desk for the office.

Did I mention that it is ridiculously warm out? 54 degrees. Oh yes I wore shorts!

10:38; 9:56, 9:04 woot woot

JM yoga and abs.

On the dog walk I realized they were knocking down the church. It was already falling apart. But seriously why don't people just keep up with the maintenence of stuff? The new one was already built...but still. Stinks. Probably become a parking lot. We shall see.

This elderly couple moved in 2 houses down from us. In the spring the guy walked all slow. Today I saw him (he walks later in the day so I don't get to see him if I'm working)and he is walking pretty fast now! Everytime he would pass us before he would say 'doggies' lol...so he just sort of reminds me of my dad and Gpa (deceased).

I was up late again...Knitting and watching reruns of Friends. I love winter break!

37 degrees? I can't remember.

Shh don't tell anyone (don't wanna jinx it) I started marathon training today. 21 weeks give or take. There are a few that I have on my radar. I don't think I have to pay till April (they are all in May). I know I have said several times that I want to do one. But a quote really struck home with me today. Said something about most people fail or don't even start a huge task b/c they look at where they need to be instead of how far they have come. So for right now I'm not going to panic about those 9 milers I will have to do during the middle of the week. Somehow I will fit them in but I'll worry about that later :)

Gnaw Bone, Indiana, One in Schaumberg, IL, and I can't think of what the third one is right now. I know I wrote it down somewhere. LOL Maybe it was Madison, WI or Rockford, IL

AP 10:26 Splits, 10:45, 10:17, 9:43 (I was shooting for 9:50), 10:39, 10:35, 10:43

The plan said to do 3 miles at 9:50. I'm trying to ease into speed training. Don't want to hurt myself. I tried to remind myself to make smaller quicker steps instead of having a long stride. So far so good. I'm excited!

Merry Christmas!

30 degrees with the windchill. 5mph wind. I felt hot when the wind wasn't blowing.

AP 10:47

Splits 10:28, 10:23, 10:18, 11:27, 10:56, 10:52, 11:06, 10:48

I got to run in my new smartwool socks and my new purple jacket. I'm pretty sure that is why I was hot. hahaha. The .71 mile trail is 3 miles from my house so I ran to it and then jogged around. The last 1/2 mile was with the dogs.

dog walk and LOTS of shopping, cleaning, out with the old and in with the new. Whew.

I could not get moving today! I have decided I'm going to run Schaumberg Marathon. I think. LOL. I just can't decide! But seriously I have till January 31 and the price goes up. I wanna make sure that I will wake up at 4:30 am to do my runs and all that junk before I pay for it.

10:45 AP today 30 something degrees. The nice thing about the purple jacket and my turquoise one is that I can wear tshirts underneath and still be warm.

10:25, 10:57, 11:27, 10:11

You may ask what happened at mile 3? Well I decided to run the bike path. And at about that time there is a 4 way stop. Well this lady had her turn signal on so I waited my turn and crossed the street. Well guess what? She changed her mind and decided to go straight toward me! Nice huh? Well after she almost killed me she raised her one hand in frustration. Um helloo! get off your phone and concentrate on what your car is signaling to other people! MORON! hahah

also I had to text some people. Greg's uncle got some cancer taken out this morning and the surgery went well :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72943201@N07/6582713653/

my purple jacket...for Bonnie

I did my entire workout in my pjs. Muah! Including walking the dogs. Usually it is very dark when I do this. I did wake up to an alarm today! 7:15! how am I going to do 5? hahaha The beeping seems to help more than the radio alarm.

JM Cardio kickbox and then I did some Kettlebell exercises 15lbs

Sumo Squat upright row and bridge pullover- did 2 sets of 15 on these. The squat was easy. Bridge pullover was a little awkward.

then I did swings (squat with kb to the ground and raise body and kettle bell over head), and a v crunch with kettlebell rotation. I did 2 sets of 15 with the swings and 2 sets of 30 with the v crunch. I'm pretty sure I did 60 on the second set b/c I started counting only when I swang to my right  instead of with each rotation.

STOP! Collaborate and listen...ICE ICE BABY

Yup almost fell after my 4 mile run. The sidewalks iced over so I ran in the street. The dogs were only able to get a little walk in the streets but that seemed to be enough. I knew one of them would pull me down and then it would be by by April.

I did speed today. Well my version of it. I was supposed to do 1600 x2 at 9:04

What really happened was 9:20 and 9:49. SUCK.

I probably did 9.5. My Garmin died at about 9.25. Most of my miles that I looked at were at about 11:20. I tried to hurry up the last two b/c that is when Garmin started warning me that it was about to die. I also thought it was going to rain the entire time. It wasn't too bad.

My mileage is going to look all wonky this week and next. I'm gonna look like I ran too much this week and not enough next b/c I had to switch my usual long run day from Sunday to today. I'm going to a NYE party Saturday. I will be surrounded by friends but there is this one chic that I really don't care for. So two things could happen--I will get rip roaring drunk to deal with her and or to be able to say later hey I was drunk and that is why I pushed you off the ledge ( hahha) or I will leave early with the hubby.

I wanted to stay home but the girls that are my friends said they would round house kick me. They don't care for her either. So why or why was she invited? Her hubby is actually pretty awesome is friends and works with my hubby. Also she is the SIL of the other two that are there. Also I work with her. So yes she is in many of my circles. I hped b/c she is just sooo cool that she would find some where else to hang out. Sigh.

Today I get to meet up my BFF from kindergarten. She has 5 kids and I hardly get to see her! I also get to go shop with another friend for our NYE ugly Christmas sweaters. We also do a white elephant gift for NYE. Which is basically any crap you have gotten through the year that you don't want any more. It is pretty hilarious!