I Found Some Time.

Officially Art Journaling Everyday begins tomorrow, but I found a bit of time this week to begin working on a project I've had hanging around for awhile. Since summer in fact since it's my Summer in Review mini album. I really took some great photos this summer. =-)

It's been nice getting some creative time in, though it comes in fits and starts throughout the day. This is what my kitchen counter is looking like right now because I haven't finished unpacking and setting up the office yet and I'm using it for my art table. I can't wait to have everything unpacked and a place I can escape to, but it has been nice being able to do a little work while cooking dinner or talking on the phone or watching the kids play.

Trying something new for the New Year.

I have been following Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog for awhile now, and she always inspires me to do something that I may not have otherwise done. In this case, she is asking her readers to join her in art journaling everyday for 2011. Scary! While I know I can't make that commitment, I have decided to make the commitment to art journal 3 times a week for the next month.

What is an art journal you may ask. Defining that is a lot like defining art, something that's different for everyone, but the way I choose to interpret it is like this: An art journal can take many forms but usually is a book in which someone puts down on paper in a creative way whatever they need to express. Much like a "regular" journal, an art journal is highly personal, not generally something you might want to share with anyone. This is also a place to try out new things artistically. She has a list of some great examples of art journals here.

New morning ritual?

I have been feeling very tired and stressed out lately (can anyone say moved to a new house?). I feel like this tiredness and stress has made me a less enjoyable person to be around, especially for my children (Mommy's grumpy and doesn't want to do anything). On top of this, I haven't exactly been doing well with Weight Watchers lately.

Interestingly enough, last week at WW, we were tasked with trying to find the free time in our days in which we could exercise. I think she really meant where can you get a few minutes like while on hold on the telephone or stopped at a red light, but I really took that to heart and actually sat down and drew out a schedule of my week to see when I could actually get some real exercise in. Now, I've never been an early riser and usually stay in bed until the last possible second, but I decided that if I got up an hour earlier than the kids, I could get in a bit of a workout as well as the hard sought after shower.

I'm a superb planner. I have lists and schedules for everything! When I start feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I get out the pen and paper and start planning a way to minimize that stress. So coming up with a "plan" for how I'll do things is nothing new. And usually I say I'll implement the plan at the beginning of the week or have another reason to put off starting. But last night, when I came up with the early morning exercise plan, I went online and found a workout video on NetFlix (we haven't yet hooked up our DVD player so I can't do one of my own videos) and had it all set up for myself this morning. And then I got up this morning and actually followed through with my exercise plan.

I didn't quite make it to the shower before Noah got up, but he watched Sesame Street while I showered and Liam played in his crib. It was awesome. I feel great, I've already gotten my exercise in for the day, and I'm hopeful that this will help me stay in a more positive frame of mind throughout the day. Besides that, my shoulders no longer feel so tight. =-) It is my goal to continue doing this every day, but we'll have to see how it goes on a day when there's preschool.

It's official.

Finally, we are completely moved out of the old house. Sure we're sitting around the new place with boxes everywhere, but there's no more moving or *gasp* cleaning left to do at the other place. Thank goodness! Now on to cleaning and organizing. If I didn't also need to also keep track of our family's schedule, I'd be in heaven.

Halloween et. al

Massive move on Saturday followed by a hastily planned birthday party for Liam (happy 1st bday little Boo!) and trick or treating completed the day. By 6:00 last night, I think we'd all just about had it. Noah refused cupcakes and absolutely would not trick or treat. I think that was part of it was because we hadn't really prepared him for Liam's birthday and he was pouting a bit. By the time we got home, Liam was crying for no apparent reason, Mommy was at the end of her rope, and Daddy had a tight lip (the closest he comes to losing it).

Somehow we all made it to bed in one piece and had a good night's sleep. So today I'm doing all the usual chores, just at the new house, and what should I discover? This new washer ROCKS!! It is so quiet I had to check it twice to make sure it was even on. Too bad the dryer doesn't seem to be drying the clothes. The skylights are an awesome conductor of rain sounds too. Finally, I live in a house where I can hear the rain. Perhaps it was growing up in the rainforrest, or perhaps I'm just weird, but I feel so calm when I can hear the rain and I sleep so much better.

The Big Move

I can hardly believe the whirlwind that has taken up residence in our life!

On one hand, we are so excited that we have finally been able to buy a house of our own. It wasn't an easy task finding a place for us, and I'm sure that we nearly drove our agent crazy with all the houses she had to take us to before we found one that fit all our needs. So two offers and one last minute deal later, we are the proud owners of a 3-year-old townhouse with no major projects to complete.

But on the other hand, we have to move our family of four to our fabulous new home while juggling all the other events in our life: work, school, Halloween, and Liam's first birthday (EEK!!). Every time we move, I go through this same series of stresses and I always wonder how in the world we'll get it all done, but somehow, we always do. Somehow we get everything packed into boxes. Somehow we get all the boxes moved to the new place. Somehow we get the old place cleaned. And somehow, no one gets injured, nothing gets broken (even when Ryan rolls a kitchen box down the loading ramp), and we get to begin our life in our new digs.

Rainy Day Run

I knew the day was coming, but I ended up having to run in the rain today. Okay, so the rain turned out to be pretty light and I've gotten wetter walking to the bus than I got running today, but still. I was also able to find a way to make my way through this 5 minute interval. I still cannot run the entire thing, but I broke it into two 2 minute intervals with a 1 minute walk in the middle. I plan to do this again on Monday then move to a 4 minute run interval on Thursday, adding 30 seconds to the recovery periods at the beginning and end of those runs. My hope is that by next Saturday, I'll be able to complete the 5 minute interval without having to stop before the end. Also, I've decided that for the time being, I'm going to keep on running from the house since I think I have a mental block for Greenlake. Exactly what, I don't know.

AHHH, GRRRR.

I'm feeling a bit discouraged after yesterday's run. I went back to Greenlake since it was a beautiful evening and I felt like I've somewhat outgrown my little 10 blocks of sidewalk out my front door. But again, like Tuesday's run, it was HARD. Not just the amount of hard that the beginning of a new week is, but makes-you-wonder-if-you're-cut-out-for-this-kind-of-things hard. I still wasn't able to make it through the entire 5 minute interval, but unlike Tuesday, I couldn't even make it through the first 3 minute interval. I tried to run for two counts of 60 and walk for a count of 45 but it didn't really line up with the intervals on the podcast and I don't think I even ran as much as I did on Tuesday. I don't know if it really is just harder now, or if there is something about Greenlake that makes it seem so much harder. I'm going to try running in my little 10 block stretch again tomorrow, and hopefully it will seem much more attainable than it did at Greenlake yesterday. If it doesn't, then I can't help but feel that my goal of running the Fremont 5K is unattainable.

Week 4

Day one of week 4 was tough. I was supposed to do two intervals of: run 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds, run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes but I just wasn't able to get that 5 minutes done. I got the first 3 minute interval done, but the 90 second recovery just wasn't enough. So I ended up finishing my workout by running 90 counts and walking 45 counts for the entire period (minus the 2.5 minute recoveries). I feel pretty good that I kept on going, but I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to do the intervals as "written". It's my plan to do intervals of running 135 counts and walking 45 counts on Thursday then, hopefully, the written plan on Saturday. I don't know if I'll be able to do the plan for next week, but I can always repeat this week before moving on.

On another note, I did my run at Greenlake today because I've outgrown my little stretch of sidewalks up here by our house. I was a little self-conscious when I started my run, but besides probably making a few people think I was pacing them, I don't think anyone even noticed I was there let alone doing anything to "laugh" at.

Do the Happy Dance!

Did you go to high school with me? Were you in my PE class? Do you remember doing a "John Gable"? This weekend, I completed my training day at my high school track, surrounded by all those old memories. I remembered, as I was going through my run intervals, being in that exact same place years ago and not being able to run much of the mile we were graded on (an 'A' was 9 minutes, remember that?). This Saturday, I ran an entire lap. Twice! I rock!! This was so amazing, and so empowering for me.

BTW, did you know that 3 minutes is twice as long as 90 seconds? Seemed more like four times as long. LOL!

Stress Build Up

I don't like how I start feeling stressed just before I go for my runs. I'm not entirely sure where this anxiety is coming from, perhaps a feeling that I'm going to fail at it which is ridiculous since the intervals are really so simple. I feel like it is a stretch at times to complete an interval, but I always seem to do so. But still, I find myself creating excuses for why I can't go for the run this night or that. For example, I keep looking out the window and thinking, "If it rains, then I can't go for my run." Why not? It's just a little rain and I'll only be out there for 30 minutes. Sure I'll be cold, but I'll also be sweating up a storm and may not notice the cold. And this weekend I'll be at my mom's house, so of course I can't go for my Saturday run. Why not? Sure I can't go on my usual route, but I can go over to the high school and use their track. It's actually better because there aren't any hills there.

I think I'm just working through the past failures. I saw Jillian Michaels on a talk show once talking about why she's so mean to the people on Biggest Loser. She said that all these people have never found success in their exercise lives. When they get near the point where they previously failed, they start to back out on themselves. This is when she starts yelling. She wants them to be more afraid of her than the previous failure. They need to push past that point where they'd failed before and experience success. Once they do that, and do it over and over, they will start to believe in themselves again. But until they do, she feels like she needs to yell, scream, and push push push.

I still keep getting myself out there doing the runs, even forcing myself to go back after the sore knee issue, and I'm afraid that one day, I'll talk myself out of running, and won't come back to it. So I'm trying hard to not make excuses, and to just get out there and do it. Perhaps if I don't, Jillian Michaels will find me . . . AHHH!

First day back

Tonight, I decided that I wasn't quite ready to be running again. But rather than just sitting at home again, making my next run day even harder, I went out and power walked the run interals. My knee was still tender, but as long as I pay attention to my form, making sure I don't lock my knees (just noticed I do that), I think I'll be fine.

Short Delay

I have been trying to update my blog for days now because Week 2 has not been kind to me. Day 1 was hard, but I pushed my way through the run. Day 2 seemed a little harder for some reason. I found myself ending run intervals early in the middle of the run, but tried to make up the time at the end. I was noticing some tenderness in my right knee during that run, but nothing that I thought would become a problem. The next morning I found I was wrong. My knee was really hurting, and increased in pain over the following 36 hours. I decided not to do run #3, resting at home instead. I felt a bit better after that. Until I decided to go shopping with my mother and sister and found myself essentially power walking all day (thanks Mom). So the morning of what was supposed to be the beginning of Week 3, I could hardly bend my knee and had gotten very little sleep as it had ached all night. Obviously I decided it best to not run that day either.

Since then I've stayed of it, and today it feels pretty much back to normal. I don't know what I did, probably turned my foot funny while I was running or something and over stetched a muscle. I'm going to go back to Day 2 of Week 2 tomorrow provided I still feel well. Since it's started raining here in Seattle, I'm not looking forward to running in the rain, but at least I'll be the only one out there, LOL!

Week 2

Week Two program: 5 minute brisk walk, 6 intervals of 90 seconds running and 2 minutes walking, 5 minute walking cool down.

Saturday was a crazy day, and I almost didn't get my first run of week two done. But in the last pocket of sun, I got my butt out there and ran. I was a little worried about the increased intensity, but convinced myself it was only 30 seconds more running, and hey, I got a bonus 30 more seconds of walking too! Bull Cr@p! Don't let anyone tell you different; 30 seconds more running is A LOT more running. 50% more to be precise! And 30 seconds more walking doesn't compensate. There's only 33.3% more walking. GRRR! But I guess that's the point, to increase the amount of time running, right? RIGHT??

I did pretty good until about 75 seconds into the run, then my brain started freaking out. "Holy cow, when's this run going to be over? Will I ever get to stop running?", "ROBERT! WHERE ARE YOU?!!", "I. Need. To. Stop.", "It's okay, I can stop even though the interval's not done. Really.", "AHHHHHH!" Then I hear that magical voice telling me that this interval is done. I'm pretty sure there was more than once that I actually said out loud, "Thank Goodness!" If my neighbors didn't already think I was weird to run up and down the block (still looking like a fool when I run), talking to myself surely doesn't help. But when things got really bad during the runs, and I'd just about talked myself into stopping early, I'd hear Jen's voice telling me to just get over myself and just do it, but in much more colorful Jen language. LOL!

4 runs down, 23 left until the program is over

2 Down . . .

I just got back from my second run, and amazingly it was at least 100% easier than run #1. I was feeling pretty ambivalent about going out (it was cold, windy, and possibly a little rainy when I first looked out the door), but once I got out the door and actually started running, I found that, though it was hard, it wasn't nearly as hard as I had feared it to be. I was even able to think about something besides putting one foot in front of the other or how much my lungs burned. I have one more run in this week, and I'm sure that one will be plenty hard, but I'm excited to go. Saturday, beginning of week 2, I have to get up pretty early to run (yuck) because we have a very full morning and I don't trust myself to do it AFTER we do everything else. Oh boy. I am a bit worried about upping the run interval, but that's all part of the training to get up to 5K. I do enjoy the added Weight Watchers Points I get for doing the run. LOL!

Holy Sore Muscles Batman!

Okay, sore legs, I understand. I even understand the sore abs and back. But sore arms? Huh? It's not like I was running on my hands or anything. I've heard that runners who work on their upper body strength find that it improves their running dramatically, but I haven't a clue why. Oh well, I expected to be sore, and I'm actually not nearly as sore as I thought I'd be (or figure I'll be tomorrow) so I won't complain. Too much. =-)

And Go!

Lessons learned by first running session:
1) Thank goodness for Robert Ullrey. I almost skipped an interval and walked twice, but when he said, "It's only 60 seconds", I ran anyway. However, during the last running interval, he pops in and says something like, "Great Job!" which I interpreted as the end of the interval so I slowed to my walk. What came next, however, was, "Only 20 seconds left!" Consequently, I did not run the last 20 seconds (I just couldn't get it going again.)
2) You are always running into the wind no matter what direction you're running. This, combined with the hard surface you're running on and the intermittent hills, running outside is harder than running in the gym. But the wind on me really helped cool me off.
3) And most importantly, new undergarments are going to be a must. Pre-baby sports bra just isn't cutting it. LOL!

All in all, this first run was a good one. It was hard, but the intervals of walking really helped a lot. And like I said above, Robert Ullrey really helped. He has an encouraging way of letting you know how much time you had left and used language that made it seem not only attainable, but easy. ("It's only 60 seconds.") In the grand sceme of things, I am very happy with how things went.

So, what did you do this weekend? I became a runner!

Getting Set

I pulled out the old iPod tonight expecting to just plug it into my computer to make sure that the podcast I used previously was still on the actual iPod. I thought that if I'd taken it off, then I would at least have it on my computer still. WRONG! I had to go and find it on iTunes but I couldn't remember the name of the guy who'd made it (Robert Ulrey in case you're wondering). After an hour of dinking around with the settings of iTunes (apparently I also downloaded a new version of iTunes recently, grrr!) I finally got more than the 9th week to download. Now I'm just hoping that my iPod will hold a charge during the entire run tomorrow (I really need a new one). So I think I'm all ready. Ipod is charging, shoes are out by the door, hat is ready just in case it rains. I'm set to go!

T - 17 Hours

Tomorrow morning is the first official running day, and I keep trying to imagine what it will be like. I tried to map out a route here in the neighborhood that will minimize the number of people that will stop and stare at me, LOL! (Good excuse to run really early? NAH, I still want to sleep in.) I can't control the weather though, and true to Seattle style, it looks like it might rain. (Yea.) But I am looking forward to getting out of the house for half an hour.

Ok. Here we go.

Back in the fall of 2006, my friend Jen convinced me that it would be a great idea for me to do the Danskin triathlon with her the following August. I'm not entirely sure what I was on, but somehow I agreed with her, and began training. Having never run even a mile before, I decided I really had to start from the floor up. I found a "Couch to 5K" program that promised I would be able to run an entire 5K in ten weeks' time while only training for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Despite a setback at about week 6, I did find myself able to run 5K (very slowly) after ten weeks. I was ecstatic!! Then I discovered that I was pregnant with my first son, Noah. Fast forward two years or so, and I had signed up for the St. Patrick's Day Dash (I was going to walk it) with the plan that I would be starting on the road to being a runner again (I'd given up the idea of being a triathlete for the moment). A week later, I found out I was pregnant with son number two, Liam. No Joke! I guess preparing for an organized event like these made me fertile. LOL!!Here we are, in March 2010, and again, I am planning to run a 5K. I think I've got the pregnancy thing locked down (oh please, please, please!), and I am going to be starting the "Couch to 5K" program again this Saturday. I'm a little nervous because I remember how hard the beginning was last time. But I know I can do it, and I'm really looking forward to crossing the finish line at the Fremont 5K June 11th!