Some of you may know I trained for and completed the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in April of 2004. I even have the finish line picture framed in my house (and my dad’s house)(and there was one in my mom’s house)(I made sure everyone saw me cross that finish line)! Now, a full marathon is 26.2 miles. I began training for the full marathon, completed a half (in the freaking snow on Valentine’s Day 2004) and decided to change to the half because of various injuries. Well the day before the marathon my friend and I decided we should just go for it because it would be much cooler to say we did the whole thing. Keep in mind my longest training run of 16 miles almost killed me (literally, I walked in the door and collapsed on the floor)(Plus it wasn’t even a run after about 8 miles…) So I did the whole thing, finished in 6 hours and 45 minutes (hey my goal was to finish before the 7 hour cut off and get there in time to get a medal and a free massage) and I wear my finisher’s shirt with great pride! But, I didn’t really run it. I didn’t train for it like I should. And I couldn’t walk for a week (in fact it was months before I tried to run again, but then I was run over by my car… another story). 

Anyway, the point of that whole story was that I am so tempted to say “screw it” and do the whole thing, but I don’t want to quit running afterwards. So, this time through (even if I get pregnant, I’ve decided…) I am going to gradually increase my long runs to 10 miles max and keep it steady. I’m still not going to go past 30 minutes per run until Phase 1 is over (about 2 weeks from now). Then if I continue and feel up to it (and am not pregnant) maybe I can do a full marathon in the Spring, or at least complete White Rock 2007.

Anyway, after the 2 years I’ve had since the marathon (couldn’t walk… got run over by a car and really couldn’t walk… as soon as I started to get it back together my mom died….) I am very proud to be officially registered for the half in December! So come cheer for me if you’re local!

Yesterday I taught my last Turbokick for a while It was so fun and I will miss it, but as soon as they find someone at the church I’ll have Tuesday nights back. And, it looks like I may start teaching at the UNT Rec Center again- ran into my old coordinator at the gym and she said “Please come back!” Isn’t it nice to be wanted?

I played for my first ballet class today- apparently I didn’t suck! It brought back so many memories as a former ballerina-wanna-be. What I liked about this class was they have a “no body image” policy (or something sounding like that) so there are dancers of all sizes. Back in the, ahem, 1980s when I was asked to choose between music and dance, one reason I chose music was because I felt I was too fat to continue dance (of course looking back when I was 13 I looked pretty good- but of course I was bigger than everyone else). I don’t regret choosing music, but I wish I had stuck with dance. Anyway, I guess this way I can kind of do both! 

I thought alot about how society has taught me all my life that you have to look a certain way, and I know I’m shouting about a size 6, but it’s more that losing the weight is an indicator of my life being better, not the cause of it. Does that make sense? When I was heavy it was a symptom of how unhappy I was. Now I feel like I’m thriving again!

Okay, so speaking of thriving….:-) P90X today was supposed to be Shoulders and Arms (Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps) but when I woke this morning my arms STILL hurt from Chest and Back (boy I must have really BROUGHT IT!) so I did Ab Ripper X and then went to the gym. I had been bragging to Mary at work about how running was getting easy and I don’t get side stitches anymore- well apparently the gods didn’t like that and I got a terrible side stitch about 15 minutes into my run today. I barely finished my 30 minutes. What was that about? So I’m going to do Arms and Shoulders before I teach aerobics tomorrow morning (or later if I can’t get up in time…)

So tonight is the first night of 5600- Information Access and Retrieval. Supposed to be a pretty labor intensive class (but do I take any other kind?) and we are scheduled to meet for 4 hours- from 6 – 10. Luckily, I’ve been in Sweet Charity so I’m used to late hours;-)

Yesterday I got my 30 minute run in, and also my Chest and Back workout which almost killed me. Seriously, all you do is alternate between variations on push ups and pull ups. Sounds simple. Why the heck was my heart rate racing? I honestly collapsed on the floor several times thinking “I don’t really ever need to get up again…” But from the way I feel today I’m guessing I did what I needed to do, because I FEEL IT!

Also, last night was the first night of my cataloging class. Now, I’ve looked at all three classes I’m taking and I’m totally scared. I love it, but I’m scared. Lots of papers. I keep telling myself when I was a musicology major I had to write a 10 page paper a week, this is nothing! I totally love cataloging, though! There are rules! You follow them! Yes, we do have to make decisions, but it’s so much nicer than making up crap about music:-) I love science.

Long day at work today (hooray! Love it..) and then teaching Turbokick tonight. Wednesday is my first accompanying for Ballet III. Wonder what that will be like…. scared…

So my workouts are pretty good. I’m seeing more definition in my arms. The bad thing is my diet was off a couple of days this week. I got depressed and ate very badly. I totally realize the cause and effect of it, I was just caught up in the fleetingness of life and decided who cares we all die so I might as well eat a bunch of chocolate and cheese. That was a bad move- that’s the way I felt for 6 months after my mom died, and that didn’t result in happiness. So, what I need to realize is that the choices I make every day will affect how I feel later.

This week starts the new school year and I’m determined to stay on my schedule. One more “work” week of Phase 1 (with the same workouts as the past 3) then I have a “recovery” week (which is not super easy, just focusing on more cardio and core and less super heavy weights). I think I’ll take my picture at the end of Phase 1 just to mark it.

Time to get ready for the show- last one! It’s always a little sad. The last two shows have been the best ones yet- I hope we can crank out another good one because today’s the day my whole family comes! I’m going to miss seeing my friends from the show everyday. I guess I’ll have to do another one someday- next Spring at the earliest:-)

After Keli’s class I had a break so I bought some new music and some new pants. I browsed around and looked at some of the new fitness things out. It’s crazy.

After that I had Zumba. I was still sweaty from the cycle class so I was looking forward to a nice easy workout. Ha ha! It was SO FUN! I signed up to do an instructor training in October! (Like I need another cert or job!) I wore my HRM again and it got as high as it did in the cycle class! So of course, I had to buy the Zumba DVDs to tide me over until the training in October. Not sure where they will fit in with the P90X and the running… I guess I’ll just have to workout all the time!

Needless to say I skipped the last class. I couldn’t do another thing. Even if it had been a “Sit still while someone massages you” class I think that would have been too much for me!

Time for a nap before the show. Tomorrow I get to sleep in and I’m SO HAPPY!

So school starts Monday and I’m totally nervous. I’m taking 3 classes- 10 hours, all really hard classes. I did fine this summer with 5 hours- got an A- but can I duplicate it with 10? I have to actually go to class on Monday and Wednesday nights which I’m also not excited about, although the Monday night class may be fun- that’s the cataloging class- what I want to do when I grow up (like the nerd I am).

Today I got up after 4 hours of sleep and did my P90X workout for the day (Legs and Back- I’m starting to think of it as my miracle workout because by the time it rolls around in the week it’s a miracle I do it). I went to work- there was ANOTHER party with donuts. I skipped the donuts and had some grapes and this yummy egg/sausage casserole. My diet was completely blown yesterday. The mood I was in coupled with the drama of not having a keyboard that worked 20 minutes before the show (!!!!) made me think that just this once I should go ahead and eat several Hershey’s Miniatures throughout the show. And then afterwards, the healthiest thing available at Dusty’s was Cheese Quesadillas.

I think I am in love with Tony Horton. He’s the guy from P90X. He is freaking hilarious. The people I’ve know who have completed P90X either love him or hate him. I think he’s great. The above comment is from the workout I did today- Shoulders and Arms. It is referring to lying tricep extensions, which, if your muscles fail and you drop your weights, there is a possibility that you can smash your face! 

I had a great run on the treadmill today- 3 miles, a little over 30 minutes (I know, I broke my promise) did some pull ups (apparently they WERE the cause of my ab soreness) and then did Shoulders and Arms. I went so heavy that I am a little concerned about my ability to play for rehearsal tonight:-0

I have several phone calls to return and I haven’t done that. I am so bad about that. I check the messages when I don’t have time to make the call, then I forget… Then when I remember I either don’t have time (like now-running to rehearsal) or it’s too late. I am sorry, I don’t mean to ignore people, I just can’t quite get it together…

Very excited about DALLAS MANIA! ALthough, I know I will not get any sleep and be totally toast Saturday night… but I LOVE IT! 2 classes with Keli Roberts, who is AWESOME! And then Zumba- very cool. I’m going to buy some new music, too, I think my step classes are getting really tired of “rapper’s delight” and “kung fu fighting”.

Off to Sweet Charity Land!

Turbokick was a blast. I haven’t taught in over a month due to the show. My students noticed I had lost weight, which is always nice. I worked my BE-HIND off (I tend to work harder when I teach because I like to show off- I’m such a ham!). FUN!

Robert finally took my “before” picture (Day 9 of 90) so I will post that soon just so I can see how I transform.

Back to Sweet Charity tomorrow- I miss you guys!

Hey if anyone’s reading these let me know- I’m really doing it to document my P90X and kind of debrief at the end of the day, but I would love to know if anyone out there is enjoying this at all:-) I’m probably sharing way too much!

Tomorrow is either Legs and Back or Shoulders and Arms (haven’t decided yet) plus a run after work. Oh, and I’m supposed to do Ab Ripper X but I may skip it…

Went to work and had a GREAT time- We are working on a project where we encapsulate a bunch of Campus newspapers from 1917 – 1918. Very interesting reading. Several of the papers are separated top and bottom, so our challenge has been figuring out how to encapsulate them without using any kind of tape (which is bad). I was able to figure out a way to do it (with my friend Mary’s help- she was the one who did most of the work, actually), so I spent time doing that. Awesome. I know I’m a nerd but I love my job so much!

After work I went to the gym and ran 30 minutes. I am actually ENJOYING running (I know, wierd). I feel like I could go longer but I’ve promised myself that during Phase 1 of P90X (4 weeks) I will only run 30 minutes at a time, 3 days a week. Later I’ll add more. I then played with the Pull Up machine some more. That was also fun, but I had to go into the hard core weightlifting area, the gym was crowded, and all these guys looked at me like “what the heck is she doing?” 

Then I got home and thought “What do I do now?” I haven’t been home at night in weeks. I don’t have school work to do because we are between semesters… so I cleaned (yes, I know). I organized my office, which up til now was so full of boxes I moved my computer into the living room and was using my Step as a desk. So, now my office is workable, and I’ve even made enough room to use it as a workout space. Awesome. I feel so accomplished.

Tomorrow is a fun day. Then we start the Sweet Charity insanity again Wednesday…. will I make it?

6:53 PM