Busy is an Understatement

I have to apologize to those of you who may started reading my blog for the running related posts. This pregnancy has not allowed me to stay active like I wanted to and therefore I have nothing running related to share with you. I promise running stuff will pick back up probably late February or early March so please bear with me. 🙂

I have been going to PT (physical therapy) for the last 4 weeks and those sessions can be tortuous! It sounds like the majority of my issue lies in the fact that my left leg is shorter than my right leg and it’s obviously a big enough difference that it affects my right hip. My therapist also suggested the possibility of bursitis in my right hip. It also sounds like I’m going to have some level of pain throughout the remainder of my pregnancy and the true test will come when I start running again post partum. At least if things flare up and I’m having issues, I already have my foot in the door and I can go back to my physical therapist (who is awesome!) and hopefully find ways to deal with it. Needless to say, working out is on the back burner and probably will be until after I give birth and that really upsets me. The most exercise I’ve been getting lately are my hip stretches & sporadic family walks that have really started to bother my lower belly. Even during short walks I cramp up really bad and my pace resembles that of an old woman. I’m hobbling around and I’m only 26 weeks. I can just about imagine how hard it’s going to be to get around near the end of my pregnancy. I realize it’s not the end of the world and it’ll all be worth it in the end but I can’t help but feel guilty that I’m not giving my baby as great of a start as I wanted to (ie: regular exercise = good for baby). Although, as a mother, there’s usually always something you have ‘mommy guilt’ about. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

To keep myself busy, I’ve taken on the task of decluttering, organizing & cleaning our house from top to bottom. My original plan was to have everything done by Thanksgiving but it’s taking a lot longer to get things done with my hip problems and our hectic daily schedule so I’m hoping for by Christmas. If I surpass that deadline, definitely by my due date. Our house isn’t super huge or anything but my husband is a major pack rat and getting through everything is taking forever. Plus, with him working steady nights,  I’m basically doing this alone and it takes a lot longer. It’s coming together little by little and hopefully the end result will be worth it. I can tell you in the areas I have *almost* finished, cleaning those areas doesn’t take as long as it used to so I’m hoping for the same effect throughout our house. I’ve also started writing out daily task lists with time limits and I’m finding that I’m actually getting more done by doing this. It seems a little OCD/neurotic lol but it really has been working for me. There’s just something about crossing things off of a to-do list that makes me feel accomplished and keeps me motivated to get more stuff done. I know I started this as a running-only blog but if anyone is interested in seeing the declutter transformation unfold, let me know and I can either post updates here with my very embarrassing before pictures *shudders* & pictures of the finished product, or perhaps I could start a new blog for it. Let me know!

Time to get on my to-do list for the day. Happy Friday, everyone!

Selfish Ranting

We got pregnant with our oldest about three months after we lost our twin boys at 14 weeks. I spent that entire pregnancy walking on egg shells and making sure I didn’t do anything strenuous for fear of losing another child. During my pregnancy with our youngest, I was still anxious about losing him but I was so busy chasing after a toddler that I didn’t have as much time to stew about things. I was a lot more active during that pregnancy as well for the simple reason that our oldest didn’t like to sit still for more than 2 seconds. I didn’t go out of my way during either of those pregnancies to workout or be excessively active. I took everything in stride and I tried to make mindful food choices (most of the time 😉 ) so that I wouldn’t gain a ton of unnecessary weight. It seemed to work as I was within the area my doctor wanted me to be in for total weight gain and I liked that it was pretty much effortless as I wasn’t doing anything extra to keep my weight gain at bay.

I finally got off my butt when our youngest was just over 13 months old and I caught the running bug shortly thereafter. I worked through the ‘mommy guilt’ and eventually running became a very big part of me and my life. My fitness and making healthier choices was becoming a priority and I started to include the family (especially the kids) as well. With that in mind, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that I was very much hoping for an active pregnancy should we be blessed with another baby. As you know, the blessing came but the active pregnancy part was not meant to be in the beginning. Unfortunately, it seems I keep hitting road blocks in my quest for an active pregnancy. First, three months of bleeding issues, then the OK to walk, then I was finding it hard to get into a routine and hoped having the oldest back in school would help. Thankfully, that seemed to be the magic ticket. The day school started, I got started on my new workout routine that I had penned out for myself. Body by Trimester (BBT) three days a week  and lots of walking. I was hoping to get a recumbent for rainy/busy days but that has yet to happen. I held myself accountable for the BBT workouts with no issues for a couple of weeks then busy days started to get in the way and I had two weeks during which I was only able to do two BBT workouts. Somewhere in there, my right hip started to bother me. I had issues with it during my last pregnancy and, if you remember from past entries, I also had issues with it when I was training for my half marathon. I don’t recall having issues with it before my last pregnancy but I can’t say for sure. All along, I’ve figured it was just the relaxed joints due to pregnancy that caused the issues I had with it, but I now wonder if there’s something more going on only because of all of the issues I had when I was clearly not pregnant. It could just be that I have a weak hip and need to do specific exercises to strengthen it. I really don’t know but I’m hoping physical therapy will be able to help me. The hip pain has become excessive and is preventing me from doing anything out of my daily routine. Sometimes even normal tasks are a nuisance as I hobble along in pain. I’ve managed a few family walks but my hip is usually screaming at me during those short 1 milers. I really can’t describe the pain. At times, it’s almost like things aren’t lining up properly and I need to move a certain way to fix it but I can never find that sweet spot. Walking on most days is torture so I haven’t even played with the idea of running.

With our history, I can’t help but feel so extremely selfish and petty for whining about not being able to workout during my pregnancy. Don’t get me wrong, I am beyond grateful that we have been blessed with another little being and I still worry something may go wrong (what Mom doesn’t?) but this is not how I saw my pregnancy going. Once again, I’m reminded of the fact that pregnancy is very unpredictable. I have been coming to terms with things as far as not being able to do what I wanted so far throughout this pregnancy, however, I was hit with a scary dose of reality at my last OB appointment on Tuesday. I am 21 weeks pregnant and I’ve gained 21 pounds already. My eyes literally bugged out of my head when I saw the number on the scale. Being in recovery from an eating disorder makes gaining weight during pregnancy harder than it is on most people and the fact that I started out this pregnancy 5 lbs heavier than my last two (don’t ask me how that’s possible with all the running/working out I was doing… muscle weighs more than fat is my excuse! lol) is leaving me in a bad place in my head. I guess a big part of me fears I won’t be able to get back into shape post baby. I know that’s not the truth as many others have successfully lost all of their baby weight, and more, in the past and continue to do so. Our days are pretty busy as it is, I can’t imagine how exhausted I’m going to be when the third one arrives. I want to and will make my health & fitness a priority but I fear how long it’ll actually take to get there. Reading blogs about pregnant runners or those who had worked out in other ways throughout their pregnancy has also left me a little discouraged because of how quickly they seem to bounce back and get back into their preferred activity. I suppose that should leave me feeling encouraged because they’ve managed to juggle being active with being new moms. We moms always seem to find ways to do what we have to do but I’m starting to doubt I’ll have what it takes to get through the struggle of finding a balance for everything and still making time for myself.

Sorry if this is hard to follow; my mind is a little crowded and overwhelmed at the moment. I hope those of you with more than 2 kids (there are some of you out there, right?) understand my mental conflict and that there’s hope for me.  It’s all going to be a huge learning experience with a ton of trial & error, I’m sure. I know I’ve lost A LOT of my fitness, perhaps all of it, so I’ll probably be starting over when the time comes. I can’t help but wonder if all of those months of running & working out were a waste of my time. I could have spent that time being pregnant, having #3, and getting into running now instead. I know and I try to embrace the fact that everything happens for a reason but I often wonder why things happened the way they do. Had I not started running when I did, I know I wouldn’t have met a ton of awesome people in the running community. I’m sure this blog wouldn’t exist, I wouldn’t know that my body is capable of pounding out 13.1 miles in grueling weather, and I wouldn’t have grown as a person had I not had all of those solo miles to find myself. Blessing in disguise once I think about it. *light bulb!* <– those of you who have seen Despicable Me may understand that a little better than others 😉 Hitting road block after road block in my trek toward an active pregnancy must also have its blessings, though I have yet to discover what they may be…

Halfway There!

Things have been busy, busy, busy the past few weeks. I feel like there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I would like to and, unfortunately, that means things have been neglected here.

I’m finally in my 20th week of pregnancy. I don’t know why but so far this pregnancy seems to be going by super slowly.  I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever, though I know that’s obviously not the case. There’s so much going on throughout the next few months, I have a feeling (and hope) the next 19 weeks will go by more quickly. There’s Canadian Thanksgiving, then Halloween, then American Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then Baby Time! I can look at all of those as little time milestones and I’m sure that’ll make time go by faster. I know I shouldn’t rush things, especially because this could be my last pregnancy, but I’m so looking forward to meeting the little human growing inside of me that I can’t help but want to zip through to January asap.

My oldest started back to school almost three weeks ago and we’ve pretty well fallen back into a more consistent routine. Which also means I’ve actually been getting workouts done. I made myself a schedule as a guideline to follow doing Body by Trimester three times a week and walking 5-7 days a week. I’ve been good about doing BBT because I can do them indoors, but the weather here has been pretty crappy. It rained most of the first week of school, then we had Hurricane Isaac to deal with the second week (he was projected to hit us directly but moved West and got Louisiana & Alabama instead but we still had rain & wind from him), and more rain this week (apparently Isaac’s Ghost hit us yesterday and is in the Gulf now). So, that means my walks have suffered greatly. I managed one lengthy walk two weeks ago but, since then, I haven’t done more than a few 1-ish mile long family walks. I know any kind of movement is better than none but I’m really disappointed the weather is being such a pain in the butt.

Pregnancy-wise, things are going well. I have my 20 week ultrasound tomorrow afternoon and I’m looking forward to seeing how much the little one has grown & changed since my last ultrasound at 13 weeks. Hopefully I get a nice tech this time. I had a real grouch for my 20w ultrasound when I was pregnant with my second. Not cool. We’re having another surprise baby so no gender shots for me. 😉 I debated for a short time whether I wanted to find out this time seeing as it may be my last baby but I decided against finding out for that very reason. I feel as though finding out the gender of your baby at birth is one of the few awesome surprises left in this world and I didn’t want to find out and be disappointed or regret it. Not disappointed in the sex of the baby but disappointed in that we ruined the surprise somehow. Plus, I like to torture family & friends who can’t seem to wait until the birth. 😉

One thing I am having issues with is my right hip. I had issues with it the last time I was pregnant and ended up going to physical therapy to get some exercises to help. I’ve lost the paper that had the exercises on it when we redid our kitchen so I’m hoping I’ll get a new referral so that I can get some help for it. It’s the same hip that gave me issues when I was training for and ran my first half and I can’t help but wonder if there’s an underlying factor or is my hip just hates me. The damn thing hurt like hell during that long walk two weeks ago (walk was just under an hour long and I was pushing the stroller) and it gave me zero hope of actually running this pregnancy. 😦 Oh how I miss running. Who knows, I may give it a try before January. If not, I’m counting down the days until the beginning of March when I should have the all clear to give it a go (unless I feel up to it before then). I can’t wait to enter the racing scene as well. I’m not sure if a Spring/Summer race is feasible or if things will have to wait until the Fall but I really miss participating in races. Heck, I miss everything about running.

Ok, done feeling sorry for myself. I promise to do my best to update more often. I miss everyone and feel so out of touch with the awesome community of running bloggers.

Jealousy

We went for a family walk this afternoon and, when we were coming to our street, I heard an all too familiar sound; the sound of a runner’s footsteps. As she passed us, I longed to be in her place. I was jealous that she was running along while my pregnant butt was dragging a sweaty & tired toddler along at an incredibly slow pace. I was envious because I was there not too long ago and really don’t like the place I’m in now. I know it’s time for a change and that change is coming much more slowly than I thought it would. It’s so hard to get out of a rut, especially when you’re pregnant because you can use it as an excuse. I have great plans on getting back to a more normal schedule with more time for myself once school starts next week. I’m hoping having only one kid for a few hours will help me get out for walks (& possibly hopefully runs) more often and actually follow some kind of fitness schedule (as long as I feel OK).

My husband has made it clear he wants me to “relax” and “take it as easy as possible” during my pregnancy. I know he’s looking out for me knowing that, if something were to go wrong, I would blame myself. However, I need to be active for my own well-being. No activity = zero patience. No activity = no outlet for me or “me time”. I haven’t had any complications in weeks and I feel as though I’m OK for more activity. My doctor is on board and it bugs me that my husband can’t be more supportive on the subject. I think it would probably be a lot easier to feel accountable for my workouts and get them done instead of coming up with lame excuses if I had that support and someone cheering me on from the sidelines.

I keep writing about wanting to change but I fail to act on those words. I need to make being active (or more active) a priority again and get it done. I did sample my new Body by Trimester dvd and did the express workout for the 2nd trimester a few nights ago after putting the kids to bed. The workout was paced well and I definitely got my sweat on. The warm up & express workout were about 21 minutes long combined so certainly doable when I’m short on time. I’m very ashamed to admit that my thighs were sore for several days afterwards. I did the workout 4 days ago and today’s the first day it doesn’t hurt to walk or be touched. One of my cats (they’re fatties and weigh over 15 lbs each) stepped on my thighs two nights ago and I about screamed it hurt so much and I’m not a wuss when it comes to pain. A true testament to how much my fitness has gone downhill in the last three months. A part of me feels as though I wasted all my time running & working out over the last year because I’m in such sad shape now. I realize I wasn’t in prime shape when I got pregnant (though I was in the best shape I’ve been in in years; sad but true) but it still amazes me how quickly you lose it.

I had high hopes for myself during this pregnancy but I’ve been reminded that nothing about pregnancy is predictable and no two pregnancies are alike. I need to stop feeling sorry for myself because things didn’t go as planned in the beginning and move on. Put my running shoes on and get out the door. No more excuses!

I may have fibbed a little

I’ve been doing a little research online, reading up on experiences from other pregnant runners, and have come to the conclusion that I probably fibbed in my last post. While I still hold onto that irrational fear that running will somehow hurt something (that’s what happens when you’ve experienced a loss… major freak out ALL.THE.TIME.), I know that a) I want to give running during pregnancy a chance (assuming I have no issues) and b) running and most any form of exercise is good for me and the baby.

I must admit, I’ve been stuck in a lazy rut for several weeks and I’m more than ready to break free from it. I need to get my sweat on and start pounding the pavement again. I also did end up ordering Body by Trimester last night and I’m hoping that will help me get back into a more active swing of things. It’s comforting to read that many women have taken breaks during their first trimesters and started running again during their second trimesters with no real issues (other than being slower 😉 ).

I think it’s been so long since I’ve gone for a run that I’ve forgotten how good it feels to do so and I’ve forgotten how great I feel afterwards as well. I don’t see myself attempting a run until my oldest has started school again because I’m not sure he’d want to sit in the BOB while I did my thing. So, for the next 2.5 weeks, walking it’ll be; unless I can persuade myself to try a solo run while my husband watches the boys. I just want to feel good again and feel better about myself.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The last three months have been a whirlwind of changes for us. In early May, I found out I was expecting #3 and, a few days later, we were hit with a nasty cold that affected all of us and prevented me from doing any kind of running or working out. After the sickness seemed to have left the building, I was still dealing with an annoying cough and tickle in my throat (which turned out to be acid reflux… awesome!). I managed one run at the end of May and the kids and I were off to Canada the first week of June for a few weeks to visit my family while our kitchen was being redone.

If you’ve read my blog in the past, it’s no secret I’ve wanted to remain active and run throughout pregnancy. Unfortunately, I had a 1st trimester full of various bouts of spotting & bleeding. Needless to say, I was basically a lump for that part of my pregnancy; sitting and worrying about what was going on inside. I think it was a little easier for me to deal with the bleeding this time because I’ve bled at some point during all of my pregnancies. However, because I’ve been working so hard to live an active lifestyle since last August (1 year running anniversary is just days away!), it was really hard to swallow that I was being sidelined with no real injury, so to speak.

I finally got the all-clear two weeks ago to start walking, which I’ve done a couple of times (it’s HOT here!). I am, however, too afraid to risk running. Even though I’ve had no problems with walking, I fear what might happen if I start running. The what-ifs are killing me. Once my oldest goes back to school in three weeks, I’m hoping I can get back into my routine and, instead of running, I’ll be walking with my youngest in the BOB. I’m also looking at purchasing Body By Trimester and have been looking at the possibility of getting a recumbent bike that I can use at home. I guess a part of me fears that I’ll spend the money and end up having complications again and the money being wasted. Obviously the recumbent can be used later so that wouldn’t be a total waste, but I’m a serious penny pincher so I really have to persuade myself at times to spend money, especially on myself. I’m hoping the combination of all three will help me stay as active as I can be throughout my pregnancy. For some reason, walking alone just doesn’t cut it in my mind. Although, I suppose it’s better than being a couch potato.

So that’s what’s been going on at my end. I needed to take a break from here and DM because I was having a hard time dealing with being forced on the sidelines but I’m hoping I’ll be able to be at least somewhat active from now until this baby comes in January. And, hopefully this means you’ll be seeing more of me. 😉

I’m alive

The last 3+ weeks have been filled with snot, coughs, headaches, missed school, pajama days, and far too many missed workouts/runs. My oldest started with the Nasty Cold From Hell, then my younger son got it, then I got it, then Daddy got it. I spent two weeks hacking up a lung and several days without a voice. I felt better after about a week and a half but I never got rid of that annoying tickle in my throat that caused random coughing fits throughout the day. The boys seemed to have gotten over it and my husband was on the mend as well. Then my youngest woke up Friday night having a coughing fit. I guess those clear boogers on Thursday and Friday weren’t caused by teething. Saturday, I woke up with a cough and really stuffy nose and my oldest woke up with a new case of the snots, too. Great. Round Two! I’m not sure if the virus we had mutated into The Cold From Hell’s spawn or if we contracted something else while the youngest and I were at the hospital on Thursday. Either way, I very rarely get sick and to still be sick over three weeks later is killing me.

I did manage ONE run last Friday, which, as it turned out, was the day between sicknesses. I didn’t push myself too hard because I didn’t want to aggravate my recovering lungs. My pace was super slow but it felt great to get out there. Now, I’m sitting here hacking up a lung as I write this, which should be another race report. I’ve had to be a no-show for TWO races because of this insane bout of sickness. The Bear Lake Trail Challenge last weekend and the Gate to Gate this morning.

I’m more than ready for a healthy household again. I’m even more ready to be able to run and workout when I want to. The boys and I have a road trip planned in a couple of weeks so I’m sure we’ll get healthy in time to contract something while we’re on the road. It seems many people are sick right now and we all know how clean public restrooms can be… oy!

At times, I wish I could stomp on Jiminy Cricket

This post should be a race report. Key words there: should be.

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband currently works nights and has for several months now. To avoid royally screwing up his body, he keeps his sleeping schedule the same throughout the weekend (ie: on his days off). When I have a race, he is forced to go on little or no sleep at all. Because our boys are too young to watch themselves, he has to either accompany me to watch the boys while I run or stay home to watch the boys while I run. He has always chosen to accompany me because he enjoys being there to cheer me on and to take pictures of/for me.

*side note: I realize I could race with the boys in the BOB but,while most do, not every race allows joggers. Also, I’m very competitive and, selfishly, I’d rather race solo because I’m too slow w/ both boys in the BOB. One day I may be fast enough with the jogger but that’s definitely not now.*

I’m not going to lie, I had been battling with myself over this race for several days leading up to it. Not because I did not think I could do it but because it would have meant sacrifices would have to be made. This would have been my first 10K race but, I’ve covered that distance many times in the last few months during my half marathon training so, I wasn’t worried I wouldn’t be able to finish the race. I was stewing over things because going would have meant getting up at an ungodly hour. It would have meant screwing up my sons’ sleeping and they have more than enough trouble in that department on their own. It would have meant making my husband go with very little or no sleep. And, it would have meant the third weekend in a row of doing all of the above. Well, most of the above.

During supper on Friday night, I told my husband I was having second thoughts about going to the race. He understood my conflicted position and made a comment that he would not be terribly upset if I ultimately decided to skip it, even though I had already paid for my registration. He also made a comment about the subsequent racing really screwing with him (his sleep) and that made me feel extremely guilty. Still, I couldn’t seem to come to a decision.

After the kids were tucked in bed, I was still trying to make a decision as the minutes ticked by. I remembered something someone told me on DM in the past about never regretting a race/run but always regretting not doing it. That was it! I finally knew I couldn’t skip it because I knew I would regret it if I did. I told my husband I planned on going and got to work at getting everything ready and organized. It’s much easier to get everyone out of the door on time when everything is packed up the night before. You’re also guaranteed not to forget key items if they’re packed up the night before, as long as you don’t forget about packing them. 😉

After I watched a couple of shows that were recorded earlier in the week on our DVR, I hit the hay hoping to get as much sleep as I could. I’m not sure what time it was, but I awoke to my youngest screaming. My husband got him, brought him into the tv room, and the screaming continued. And continued. And it continued. After a couple of minutes, I got up to see what was going on. He’d been having bouts of being inconsolable lately in the middle of the night and I figured I might be able to help stop the screaming. Not only was my sleep being disturbed but I could imagine my poor three-year-old putting his head under his pillow as his younger brother continued with his screaming fit. They share a room so, when it starts, there’s no escape. I got to the tv room and found my poor husband trying to hold onto a flailing toddler with one arm while attempting to block his bad ear with the other. I debated for a second whether it would piss my husband off if I took the baby and brought him to bed with me. I figured such an action may make him feel like I didn’t think he could handle it on his own. I quickly shot that idea out of mind because I knew getting him to stop screaming was the priority and it didn’t really matter how we got it to happen. He screamed the entire walk to the bedroom but, as soon as I put him down on my bed, he shut up. *raises eyebrow* Really? In my half asleep state, I quickly got him positioned, covered him up, and settled myself in for a little more shut-eye.

An hour or two later, my husband came into the bedroom ready to hit the hay as well. He attempted to move the baby back to his own bed but he wanted nothing of it. I swear, we’re creating and enabling a monster. Anyhow, so the three of us snuggled in and went to sleep. I had two alarms set. One for 4:00am and the other for 5 minutes later just in case. I woke up on my own and was surprised it was so close to wake-up time. The clock read 3:47. I looked over at the bed hog baby who was nestled between me and my husband in a star fish position and I decided I would attempt to move him into his own bed so that I wouldn’t wake him while I got ready. After I tucked him into his own bed, I just stood in the darkness of the hallway for a minute with a million thoughts going through my head. I came up with excuse after excuse, all of which were lies, that would be acceptable to others for potentially skipping the race. Kids were sick. I was sick. Rough night with the kids. You get the picture. I stood there, fighting back and forth with myself for what seemed like forever before I finally made my way back to bed. I just sat there, still debating, wondering what I was going to do. I looked over at my sleeping husband and I really didn’t want to disturb his sleep. My guilt meter was on overload. A part of me wanted to get things moving and get to the race. However, a bigger part of me wanted to relish in the peacefulness and get a little extra shut-eye with my husband by my side; something that doesn’t happen often with his current work schedule. That bigger part of me wanted to give my husband and my kids a break from the racing scene and let them get the sleep they  no doubt needed. That bigger part of me also couldn’t see past the guilt of wanting to selfishly say “screw ’em, they can nap later”. I was going to be the cause, yet again, of a sleepless night day for my husband and disturbed sleep for my kids. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t put them through it for the third weekend in a row. Those of you that are mothers may understand the mommy guilt part of the equation here. Once that gets a hold of you, you’re screwed.

No amount of potential regret mattered anymore. I disabled the alarms, got online to send Steve (he was going to carpool to the race start) a quick note telling him I wasn’t going, and crawled back into bed. I woke my husband to tell him we were staying home. I’m sure he was relieved to hear it through the fogginess of sleep. I also figured if he wanted to get up for a couple of hours and sleep longer throughout the day, he could take advantage of the opportunity, but he went back to sleep. It took a little longer than I would have liked for me to find sleep again as thoughts and feelings of guilt & regret swirled throughout my entire being. I’m not sure how long it took but sleep finally engulfed me and I was off to Dreamland until my alarm clock one of the kids got up for the day.

To be honest, once a few hours had passed, I still felt a bit of regret for having missed the race. However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. The negative feelings were gone in no time and that right there tells me that I made the right decision. It wasn’t like when I missed the St Paddy’s Day 5K. I was truly heartbroken and angry that I missed that one. Of course, the circumstances surrounding the reasons why I missed both races are very different. I guess I figured missing a race is missing a race and one would feel the same thing in the aftermath no matter what. Clearly, that’s not the case.

So that’s what happened. After being super busy for the last few weeks, it was nice to have a low-key/closer to normal weekend as a family. 🙂

So Far, So Good

We’re four days into May and I’ve managed to keep up with all three May challenge calendars. *pats self on back* Seems like such a mediocre accomplishment but it’s an accomplishment for me nonetheless. Hopefully I can keep things up during the remainder of the month.

For those of you who may be following the “Marvelous Abs May” calendar (the pink one), Ali has put together the challenges on an actual May calendar layout. Here it is if you want to use it as well.

I have my first 10K race tomorrow morning. I’ll be getting up long before the butt crack of dawn to make the 1.5 hour trek to the race. My poor husband & kids get to suffer along with me. I predict we will be a bunch of crankies come tomorrow afternoon. This week has been a fail for my running. Our schedule & the weather did not cooperate and I’ve only managed to get a measly 2 miles in. I’m hoping the lack of running means my legs will be fresh and ready to tackle 6.2 miles with ease (and speed!). Of course, the May challenges have left my legs a tad on the sore side this week, so we’ll see. 😉 Be on the lookout for the race report.

Fitness Challenges for May

Ali @ Running With Spatulas has been finding monthly fitness challenge calendars for a few months now. Every month, when she had posted the calendars, I would say I was on board and fully mean it. Then the first of the month would go by without me having done that day’s workout. Then a few days have gone by. Then a week. Then, before I know it, the entire month is over and I failed, yet again, to do any of the challenges. This month WILL be different. I may or may not face certain challenges mid-month (could I be any more vague? lol) but I will do my best to stay motivated and get things done. I figure posting about the challenges here and perhaps getting others on board will help me stay accountable. No more excuses!

Here are the fitness challenge calendars for May. I’m not sure whether I’m going to do all of them or select one or two to follow.

Muscular Legs May by Desdra @ Domestic Diva in Training (click on image to view full size)

Mad Muscle May by The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans (click on image to view full size)

Marvelous Abs May by Abby @ Live, Laugh, Run Today
 So there you have it. Three awesome challenges. Will you do one? Or two? Or will you do all three??

*Special thanks to those who put these challenges together and to Ali for putting them all in one place*