What a Run!

Today I had an 18 miler on schedule. I've been watching the weather all week and while it was supposed to rain Saturday it was going to be cold with a North wind of 25 mph. And I had done that last weekend and wasn't in the mood to repeat.

So off I go this morning at 7:15 am. I started out and it wasn't bad. A little mist. By mile 2, I headed east and it was starting to sleet. Not heavy but sleet hurts when it smacks you on the hand or face. By mile 7, it turned to drizzle. Light Pittsburgh rain I would call it.

I had been doing well to fuel and did intervals of 90:60 (run/walk). After 9 miles I reached Andover, headed north a mile and then west.

The route home wasn't as nice. The wind was 10-13 mph to the South, but after 10-11 miles of constant rain, it gets old. I wasn't cold, but my feet got wet when I underestimated a couple puddles. But I plugged away and before I knew it, 18 miles was done!

This is me after a rain filled morning.


I made it under my goal of 13 min/mile.


My sparkle skirt was wonderful. Kept my butt dry and the pockets rock.


I was extremely proud of my splits. I was able to maintain an even pace and that was huge!






Next up is a 20 miler and then it's taper time. 30 days until the Little Rock marathon.
-Kat

Gotta Love Scouts

L's Girl Scout homework was to make a salad. It was great! She got everything ready and I had time to do my evening chores. We had a delicious salad including mushrooms, carrots, canned corn, cheese and lettuce. And ham on the side for mom.


She was so proud. On a side note, look at how long her hair is!!


-Kat

New Fizz

This summer my mom got me hooked on Bai 5 drinks. I love them! Almost calorie free, delicious flavors. The bad part is they are $2 each so I take them to work so I can enjoy them myself.
Last week I found a new companion, Bai 5 bubbles. OMG! These are yummy! I have to be careful and not drink them daily because fizzy waters like this can give me horrible gas and bloating and make me feel crappy all afternoon. My favorites are pink grapefruit and blood orange.


-Kat

Beggar

Lucy is really getting into human food. Oreo used to push her out of the way but she's discovered it can be yummy.
Take for instance Wednesday night. We had Wendy's. Oreo was off messing around so Lucy got some of Jeff's burger. She's so polite when asking.






And she doesn't bite your fingers which is a big plus!


-Kat

16 Miles Long

Sunday was my long run day. I had 16 on the schedule. We had a WSU game at 1 so I got up at 0600, had breakfast, got ready and left the house at 0700. My goals were to run 6 by myself, 7 with Ragan and 3 by myself. The day started off nicely. 40 degrees and a little northwest wind. I got the first six done and back home to refuel.



I wore my marathon outfit to practice in it. The race in Little Rock is pirate themed.
Here's Ragan!


We headed out west. I knew it would be a little windy and promised her it'd better. After a mile we went south for one mile, then west for two miles. Then headed north. We were 3 miles from home and they sucked. It was cold and windy and no reprieve. We made it home, I refueled and headed out for the last three.
And oh my God! It was a mental test. My body was fine but it was cold and every where I turned it was blowing 20-30 mph. It was miserable. But as in all things, I finished and refueled and headed for a warm shower. And I survived and am stronger for it.

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you have a delightful day!


-Kat

Exciting Game

Sunday's game against Drake was exciting in many ways. The Shockers played really well for 40 minutes making Drake's coach eat crow for his earlier unkind words.
There was a cool giveaway:


And Jeff got selected to play a game at one of the timeouts. You shoot a free throw from a recliner, then a 3 point shot and then half court. He got the free throw and won $100 gift card to Ashley Furniture!


-Kat

New Do

Lucy got groomed Saturday. She looked beautiful in her fluffy pink bows. Too bad they only lasted a few hours. It amazes me how they just "disappear".








-Kat

What a Difference 25 Minutes Makes

This is the face of a girl who got up 40 minutes before the bus leaves instead of 15. She had time to get dressed, brush her hair and teeth and sit down to eat two hot dogs and jicama (I don't care what she eats as long as it's decent). She was so proud of herself. Hope we can keep this up.



-Kat

Friday Night Fun

We joined the Konda's for supper at Cafe Asia. It was busy!! I had pad Thai again. Delish! I love catching up with our friends.



-Kat

My House Got Cleaned

As you can tell by the huge surplus of posts, this week has been busy. Nothing extraordinary, but between work, getting L places and helping her with homework and being a wife and mom, I've been wiped out. Three days this week I was in bed by 10:15.


So...I got my house cleaned for the first time. These are before shots. I forgot to take the after shots. They really cleaned our kitchen and cleaned the glass on the doors. And the house smelled good. They did have time to vacuum upstairs so that was a little disappointing but our shower looked better (not great but it's a mess). All in all I was happy with the results.


-Kat

Meal Prep!

I've been working on cleaning up my diet. One way to make it better is to have lots of healthy choices and prep my food for the week. I spent less than an hour doing this on Sunday.
First up: Mason Jar salads. So easy and they keep for several days in the fridge.


Greek yogurt with Italian seasoning. Great for dipping carrots or peppers in.


Fruit: clems, oranges, apples to list a few.


Hard boiled eggs. They make a great snack.


Pomegranate seeds.


-Kat

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I got home Sunday and it was gorgeous. L and I took the pups to the park. We all enjoyed the weather.


The dogs found many things to sniff.

L got Oreo to go down the big slide with her!


-Kat

Last of Cags

So my scrapbooking weekend came to an end yesterday. Cagney was a funny dude.
Here he is sunning and stealing Willie's basket.


And now he's begging for treats. This 22 pound cat has the babiest cry. It's hilarious!


-Kat

Cagney

Cagney is such a sweet and funny cat. He's so laid back unless he's getting treats or sitting on my lap.


He really wants Kasey to hold him.


On my lap:


He's petting me back. Silly boy.


Even Cagney gets tired.


-Kat

A Hard Run

I started off my run with this view:


This week's run was supposed to be 12 miles. Physically it was a good run. Mentally, not so much. So much chatter in my head: I shouldn't stay out too long because my friends are waiting, I didn't sleep well last night, I was cold, then hot, then cold, then hot. My shoe was bugging me and my pants were falling down. So I finished at 8.5 miles. And I'm okay with that. In the past is beat myself up about it but 8.5 is better than nothing and I can go out and run 3.5 tomorrow and meet my goal. This is how I know I am changing.


-Kat

It's Kitty Time!

Princess Lillie watching over her land:



And Cagney. Oh sweet boy.


This is Cagney's worried face:


Lillie is stalking him and he's uncertain what will happen.


-Kat

In Honor of Grandpa Steier

My Uncle John is the family historian. He lets me know about everyone's birthday. Last night I got this text:



Luckily I had wheat chex from making chex mix. So this morning I mixed it all up.


Layer of chex:


Add cooked oatmeal on top, make a hole in the side and pour in the milk.
It was good. Different and high in carbs but I liked it.
Happy birthday Grandpa Steier!!


-Kat

My New Goal

So I finished 30 day of 10K per day.  And I was very proud of myself.  Some days were easy, others not so much.  I have been known to pace the house, take multiple trips to complete a task.  But I did it.  And then I thought, "I could do another challenge".  So what's next?

I decided I need to clean up my diet.  I calculated my BMI and my number is 31.1.  Which makes me obese.  Now, I know I'm overweight, but seeing my number above 30 is a wake up for me.  I wake up early to exercise but when I eat whatever I want, I don't see a change in my weight.  And it seems silly to do all that work not to make progress.

I decided to use My Fitness Pal.  It is linked to my Fitbit and Runkeeper.  And it's been super easy to use.  In fact, I've logged for five days in a row.  I'm inherently lazy so some times when I reach for something not good for me or when I'm not really hungry, then I choose not to eat it because I don't want to log it.

Here's to 30 days of keeping my food log.

Weekly Chase #18

Recap!

1. 10,000 steps per day: Yes!!  I even got 30,000 steps on Sunday.

2. Stretch daily.  Almost.  I'm really getting better.

3. Meditate 5 minutes a day.  No.  I have no excuse.

4. Write in my gratitude journal.  Only in the first part of the week.  Then I got busy and didn't continue it.

5. Clean up my diet.  Yes!!  I started My Fitness Pal and logged all my calories daily and stayed under goal each day.


This week's chase!

1. Continue 10K steps a day.

2. Stretch every day.

3. Meditate 5 minutes 5 times a week.

4. Plan out my week.  It's crazy and I need to keep on a schedule.

5. Continue to log my calories daily.

My 14 Miler

Little Rock marathon is coming up (March 1) and I have been training. This week's long run was 14 miles. Today I had unlimited time. Ragan joined me for the first 5 miles then she left to go to work.
The temp was 28 degrees, south wind of 8-12 mph with a wind chill of 18 degrees. I wore a tank, long sleeved shirt and hoodie. With my gator, I felt great. Pants were my long tights and compression socks finished off my outfit.
I've been following the Jeff Galloway method which is run/walk intervals. I had been doing 60:60 intervals. Today I stepped it up to 90:60. I did really well. My last 8.8 miles were at 12:45 min/mile pace. I love interval running because my head is so busy hearing the tone to change that it doesn't get overwhelmed.


I got my steps in this morning! Day 35 of 10K steps per day done!!


And the rest of the day? Complete laziness. Watching TV all afternoon long. And I don't feel one bit guilty.