Wellness Wednesday...Ep. 30

and this Wellness Wednesday finds me...well, not so well.  I've have a headache that has lasted close to two weeks now.  I've tried sinus meds, allergy meds, pain reliever, nothing...I think it's just the incredibly dry weather we've been having (I hope!), but it has depleted my energy a bit.  I did pretty good last week, but this week I'm feeling just plain drained.  Thankfully this is a regularly scheduled "cut back" week, so I don't feel so bad that I've missed a run, and I have zero plans to make it up (at least right now).  For the month I'm at 41 miles, so progress is good there.  My long run on Sunday was 7 miles, and felt pretty good.  Again, I just wish I was a little faster right now.  This will come with time, I just have to trust that.  On a different note, I did try a little "speed work" on the treadmill last week, and I hope to incorporate a hill run weekly as well (also probably on the treadmill).  I think changing up my week day runs to incorporate both speed and hills will help alleviate some of the boredom I occasionally feel on the treadmill.  I am also hoping to acquire a treadmill for myself one of these days.  I don't mind using the one at work (am very thankful i have this option), but some days I really would rather just get home and at least be here when Girl is working on homework and stuff.  Big picture...I've still got two months, I'm feeling pretty good with my running, still need to work on cleaning up my diet a bit more, but overall satisfied with where I'm at in training!

wellness wednesday...ep. 29

Happy Hump Day!  Woohoo!  I'm so happy for this week to be mostly over!  We started High School yesterday...and I'm already more worn out from that than my regular job!

anyways...this week's edition focuses on speed...as in the lack of speed I've been displaying on my runs.  I'm struggling mightily with my pace (i.e. I feel like I'm not going fast enough) so my runs lately have been more of a mental battle than a physical battle.  What I'm trying to determine is if my pace has really dropped off that much, and if so, why has it dropped off...or if it's just I'm expecting too much this early in the training cycle.  If my pace has really dropped off that much, then I need to look at if I'm over training or if I'm doing too much and over training.  Personally I feel that I'm doing the right amount, so that makes me think that this is mental.  It's the game of "why aren't you faster by now" and "you were so much faster last training round" vs.  this is where I'm supposed to be right now/I'm only 3 weeks in to training there is no way I can be that fast.

I figure I'll give it a few more weeks and re-evaluate (unless, heaven forbid, I injure myself or exhibit further physical decline).  My half is still a long way off, so there is time to work it all out.

My goal for this next week is to re-introduce cross-training days, I've slacked on them quite a bit and I know I need them to truly be successful.

Mileage for the month is just a hair over 30, so I'm pretty happy with that as well.

That's all I've got for today...catch back up with you next week!

surprising myself

with the amount of sewing I've gotten done the past week.  Of course most of this was between last weekend and this morning...but I'm really happy with how much I've actually gotten done!

I completed two more blocks for my Red Letter Day quilt:

and then I started a pillow for my girl using Tula Pink's Coastal Cruiser pattern:

and then I tried some hand quilting (which I really enjoyed!):

working on an iPad case also for my girl:

I used this tutorial from Freckled Whimsy.  She has a case on her iPad mini already, but she'll be taking her iPad to school this year and asked for an additional case that could go in her backpack and give her a little extra padding.

So now...last weekend of summer...I think we're going to try and have an adventure!

Wellness Wednesday...Ep. 26-28

Brought to you on a Thursday!  It's been a wild and crazy few weeks!  This is going to be a short catchup post...and hopefully will get back on track with the weekly update next week!

I took the last week of July off from just about everything.  I was working nights and was way too tired to consider working out.  It works out great that I did that, as the next week started up official half marathon training for my November half. 

I am very glad that I had been doing many short runs just working on my running basics because it made the transition to an actual training cycle pretty easy.  I also feel I do better when I'm in a training cycle.  I'm much more motivated to get out there because I know I'm working towards a goal of finishing a race (and hopefully in better time than before). 

So far for the month of August I'm up to 17.7 total miles, with my long run so far having been 4.5 miles.  I'm aiming for 5.5 - 6 this weekend and then I'll take a step back next weekend to "recover" before going for 7-8 miles.  I'm hoping to actually build up to around 14-15 miles for my final long run before the race.  We'll see!  My ultimate goal is to make it through this training cycle without injury, so that I can finish the race and then return to training pretty quickly not long after the race.  I'm very very tempted to add another race this year, in December...but I gotta see how that all is going to work out.  I'm also looking ahead to next years races...and I want to do more than I did this year.  And on top of all of that...I'm seriously considering trying to do a full marathon before I turn 40...which means I have a little bit of time to work towards that...but not much!

So that's pretty much where I'm at right now! 

last bits of summer...

In a few minutes we are setting out to my Girl's high school to pay fees (yuck) and pick up her course schedule for her freshman year.  I'm still not 100% ready to accept that she is indeed now a high schooler...but this is real life, and it is indeed happening...so I guess I can just have a bit of a sob about it later and move on.  I have to say that I am a excited for her...she was accepted into a challenging academic program that focuses on her favorite subjects, science and math.  This is not the school we are zoned for, we are very lucky to live in a school district that offers "school of choice" for the magnet programs and she was able to apply and was accepted into this high school's program. (after the "school of choice" application process...I'm dreading even more the eventual college application process...but that's a story for another day).  So basically...this all means that summer is coming to a close.

About a week ago I started a new quilt using the Red Letter Day pattern by Camille Roskelley.  I decided to pull out my Fox Field fabric by Tula Pink (background fabric is Kona Silver) and got to cutting:

and so far I have two blocks finished (somehow I have yet to manage a picture of the first block finished, but it is indeed all together):

and this one:

and I love it so far!  I'm excited to get this all done!  But for now...off to high school I go...and then I still have to go to work today...urg...I'm ready to just stay home!

ALYoF...August Goal

Well, after falling short of my goal in June, and not even thinking of setting a goal in July...I'm back for the August edition of A Lovely Year of Finishes!

This month, I want to completely finish my Lucky Jam quilt:

The quilt top was finished as my February ALYoF goal...so it's only fitting that it sat for that long and now is back as my August goal!

I picked up backing fabric today...so now I just need to get the back pieced, and then on to basting, quilting and binding!