Wonderful Wednesday!

Wonderful thing #1 today - I got on the scale, and it said 152.4.   That's the smallest number I've seen in years, people!  At my heaviest, I was 168.  When I got married, I was 138.  I would like to be in the 140s, and it looks like I might actually manage that soon!  Whoot! (Goal weight for 2013 is actually 145, but anything in the 140s will make me smile!) 

Wonderful thing #2 today - Kids had camp, so I had 4 glorious hours to myself!  

Wonderful thing #3 today - Speedwork!  Wait, what?  Did I just type that?  The Green Mountain Half Marathon  is on Oct. 13th, and I officially started training this week.  I was supposed to start yesterday, but life got in the way, so I started today.   My coach said I should run 4x400m with 400 recovery jogs.  Half mile warm up and cool down.   My "easy" pace is supposed to be 12:16 - 12:56, 400m pace is supposed to be between 9:19 - 9:55, and my recovery pace is supposed to be 13:04-14:03.  

Obviously I bombed on the recovery paces (I will admit to walking!), but for my first formal attempt at speed work, I am pretty happy with this!  I hit the paces for the 400s (though as you can see I attempted 1/4 miles, since I wasn't at a track, and I wasn't always exact.  You'd think the tree I used as a landmark wouldn't move, but apparently it did LOL), and I managed to stay in my paces for the warm-up and cool-down, as well, which is good.  I have been going "too fast" in my easy runs and am trying to train myself to slow down.  (Which is hysterical to me, when you think of how slow I really am!) 

AND!  AND!  I got to eat a Panera bagel today and I'm still under my calories for the day.  LOL   So happy about that. =)   I've gotten my family brainwashed to agree to daily family walks as "preparation" for our trip to Disney next month, and the extra moving around is really helping me stay on track.  The more I sit, the more I eat, so I have to keep moving!  

To aid me in that effort, I bought a FitBit Zip.  I have only been using it a few days - I will do a proper "review" giving my thoughts in another week or so, but so far so good.  

I hope you are all having a Wonderful Wednesday!

July Stride Box

The July Stride Box hit my doorstep last night, and I promptly opened it up and took a blurry picture: 

        

Inside the water bottle was the following: 

            

So what did we have this month?  Lots of food and drink products - reaffirming my instinct to cancel this membership.  I still say it's a great way to be introduced to new products, but I just don't like the taste/texture of most of this stuff, so it's kind of wasted on me.  Still, I will be trying it all, because hey, it's here already.  The water bottle is nice to have, though, and I love the red white and blue "RUN" sticker! 

Included in this month's Box were: 

1. Bearded Brothers - Natural Energy Bad
2. PR*Bar - Nutrition Bar - Apple Pie 
3. Body Glove Surge Gel - All Natural Energy Gel
4. SpiderTech - X Spider - Pre-Cut Kinesiology Tape 
5. StrideBox Hydration Bottle
6. Vega Sport Electrolyte Hydrator Mix
7. Gu Brew Electrolyte Tablet
8. Zym Catapult Sport Drink Tablet
9. Healthy To Go! Aci Energy Drink Mix
10. HDX Hydration Mix
11. Nuun Electrolyte Drink Tab

I will try it all, and if anything stands out to me, I'll let you guys know.  Otherwise, I'll just keep my mouth shut because there's no point in trashing something just because I don't like it.  A million other people might like it - I am fairly picky and silly about things.  

Speaking of things that I like and don't like, Sparkling Ice contacted me quite awhile ago and said they'd be sending me a free case after I wrote about the drinks here.... I have yet to see that case.  Bah Humbug.  I'm still buying the stuff like it's going out of style, though.  Oh well.  

Happy Saturday! 

Independence Day

In honor of our nation's Independence Day, I declared my own independence.  I cancelled my Stride Box subscription, and I went for a run.

In case you're wondering, I still think Stride Box is a fun idea, but since I'm the world's pickiest eater (besides maybe my 5 year old), a lot of what comes in it is kind of wasted on me.  I do have one more box headed my way, and I'll review it when it comes.  But 3 months was apparently my limit of spending money on stuff I don't need or want.

As for my run, well, that was just a regular ole run.  Except it was blazing freaking hot and my face pretty much melted right off.  I felt like this:

(Except much sweatier and uglier.)  

Still, it managed to be a fairly good run for me. 

See that "feels like" temp?  Yeah.  They left off the 1 at the beginning of the 93.  Holy moly.  

Anywho, since it is the 4th of July, and my house is clean and my kids are asleep, I say it's cupcake time.  Lest you yell at me for eating a cupcake when I'm supposedly concerned about my weight (which, by the way, would be very rude of you), here is a photo of the cupcake.  

This is a regular cupcake tin, with the cupcake I am going to eat inside on of the cups.  How I found cupcakes this freaking tiny at my grocery store, I will never know.  But I did.  And I shall eat one!

I will leave you with a blurry cellphone picture of the fireworks we watched last night.  The kids had so much fun, I almost wish we could watch fireworks every night.

I hope everyone had a blessed holiday!  And for those of you who are not American, I hope you had a lovely Thursday! =)