Sunday, February 24, 2013

Presidential Active Lifestyle Award +

Saturday I spent a couple of hours creating My 2014 Princess Half Marathon Training Plan in iCal.  It's my Ride-Walk-Rest schedule with the mileage ramp-ups from Jeff Galloway's 2013 Princess Plan mixed in.  I've got 52 weeks to make this happen and I'm as determined as ever, getting that plan to fit in nicely with the rest of the family's schedule... that's another story, but we'll see how it goes.  Tori doesn't want to go to the gym before she goes to work, so we're going to have to get some evening work outs in the plan so that she can move forward in her training plan too.   There's going to have to be some sort of compromise made.

PALA+

This morning I signed up to participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award + Challenge.  It dovetails nicely with my training plan for the 1/2 Marathon, so I figured why not.   Through the challenge website you can log your progress and track your goals.  The program requirements for adults age 18 years and older are:
  • Physical activity. You need to be active 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, for 6 out of 8 weeks. As an alternative, you can count your daily activity steps using a pedometer (goal: 8,500).
  • Healthy eating. Each week, you’ll also focus on a healthy eating goal. There are eight to choose from, and each week you will add a new goal while continuing with your previous goals. By the end of the six weeks, you’ll be giving your body more of the good stuff it needs.

PALA1

Right now I just need to create the healthy habits of going to the gym 5 days a week and watching what I eat a little better than before.  My Ride-Walk-Rest schedule gets me moving 5 days a week, so that's right on point.  This week my food goal is to drink water instead of a sugary liquid.

Now... if I can just remember to fill out the tracker. LOL!

Are you looking to create some healthy habits?  Why not join me and sign up for the PALA+ yourself!?

Friday, February 22, 2013

Mickey Mail!

I love it when I get Mickey Mail! We got the planning guide for our 2014 Princess Party Cruise!

Now there's some motivation...

Mickey Mail makes me happy.  We got the planning guide for the Princess Party Cruise next year!

Struggling Today, but I Am a Princess

Glass Running ShoeI'm really struggling today reading all the tweets and posts from the girls down at Walt Disney World for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. I went last year and had such a fantastic time. We were supposed to be down there this year again, this time running the Half. Instead I'm at home sitting on the couch thinking about how much I don't want to go clean the snow off of the car. Sucks.

Realistically I know that life in general got in my way and I couldn't do a race this weekend even if I had the money for the trip.  I've just started back to the gym, and my foot has not healed enough yet to put any sort of real distance down.  Traci is still recovering from an injury that occurred last year.  Becks is going crazy with work and Wedding planning.  There's no way that it would have worked out for any of us us.  None the less, I really really wish that I was there.

I need to take this angst and turn it into motivation to keep going, train hard, train safe, get healthy and really rock out at the 2014 race next year.  That being said, I need to get my butt off of the couch and get to the gym today.  I need to remember that I am a tenacious Pirate Princess.


I'm sending all my love and pixie dust down to the 2013 Princess Half Marathon Weekend participants.  I wish I were there with you celebrating the strength and vibrancy of women. I'll be online Saturday and Sunday morning cheering you on through texts and tweets.  Next year... next year I'm coming to party with you.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Elephant

My motivation has been swinging like a pendulum. Yesterday I was super motivated and thought that I would totally be able to conquer the 2014 Princess Half next year.  Today my brain is telling me that there's no way I'll ever be able to go that distance.  The weather is wrecking havoc with my fibromyalgia, and pain is a constant companion.  I weighed myself (to get a baseline) that was a really bad idea.  I feel like and elephant. 
However... I got up and off the couch and went to the gym.  It wasn't a great workout, but I did it!

Image Source: writeback.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest



Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Big Girl You Are Beautiful

I came across a post this morning on Spark People that was titled Sexy Workout Songs that Celebrate Women, it's pretty fantastic and inspired me to put a Girl Power play list of my own together.  I mean Lent starts tomorrow, seems like as good of time as any to try and give up self doubt.  Ummm... yea.

While downloading some of them to my iTunes for inspiration on the treadmill I came across one I had never heard before.  It just may be my new favorite song, I'm going to play it during warm up every day.  I don't think it would be possible for me to love the video any more either... check it out!


I want the blue corset and rumba pants... so cute!  

What do you listen to while working out?

Monday, February 11, 2013

Excuses excuses excuses

I really, really didn't want to go to the gym today.  I woke up exhausted, I had a lot of work to do, and it just seemed like a good day to blow it all off.  I was successfully chillin' on the couch tweeting with the Princess Party Crew looking for support in my laziness when I get the following from my dear best friend Becks.

Tweet1 

Okay, so really, I knew that gross hair was not a good excuse to not go to the gym, but it was the one I was going with.  Yes, yes I did think it would work and I would get some sympathy.  It didn't out work that way and I had to fess up.
 
Tweet2

It was.. the last walk was super rough and had be doubting myself so much. I felt horrible afterwards and I didn't want to deal with that again. Then, there it was... "Jeff says so!" She really did it, she went all coach on me. 

The "Jeff" in question is Jeff Galloway, who is the official runDisney Training Consultant.  But even before he took on that role, he was someone that I really looked up to for his years of experience, and most importantly Jeff Galloway gives props to walkers.  It's not always easy to find people in the running community that give walkers their due, but Jeff... Jeff actually wrote the book on walking.   He also developed the Run/Walk training style that so many athletes today use to get themselves to the point they want to be at.  As a walker vs. a 'legit' runner I still have to give up the props to what Jeff says. 

I got off the couch, got dressed (wearing compression shorts for some extra back support) and headed to the gym.  I walked 1.5 miles in 35 minutes, the pace was slow (23 minute mile) but I felt pretty good.  I need to work on strengthening my hips some because about 20 minutes into the walk they were feeling fairly weak.

My entertainment while walking today included Travel with Rick Episode #189, which takes you along on the Castaway Cay 5K.  Check it out below!



Hopefully I will continue to feel strong throughout the day.  We'll see. 

So tell me, what stupid excuses have you come up with in the past to talk yourself out of a work out?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Walk / Flare / Cry

Yesterday I did my first walking workout in a year.  I did about 1. 3 miles in 30 minutes on the indoor track at the YMCA.  My time was slow and it was exhausting, the only guy on the track that seemed to be slower than me was an 80 Year old man using a walker.  But I didn't feel horrific during the walk just tired. 

Flash forward 5 hours and my back is really not happy with me.  Another 5 hours and I was in a full on Fibro flare with pain upwards of an 8 on a 1-10 scale.  The only thing that didn't hurt on my body was my head, but my head was causing me all sorts of other problems.  I quickly spiraled down into an "I'm fat, and ugly, and there's no way I'll ever be able to do a half marathon, I can't do this" pity party.  Crap.  I took some heavy pain medication and headed to bed.

Before the pain got out of control I remembered that when I was working out previously I was following a pattern of Ride - Walk - Rest.  I can't remember being in this much pain after walking before, but I must have come up with that rotation for a reason.  The pain is better this morning with just my back twinging.  I decided that I needed to take an extra rest day today, so tomorrow I'll go back to the gym and use that rotational schedule.  Ride - Walk - Rest to give my body the best opportunity for recovery after the walking (and eventually running) work outs.

I was doing so great with the bike rides and feeling great about working out again, yesterday's walk did rotten things to both my body and my head.  What am I thinking, can I REALLY pull off a Half Marathon?  Seriously?  I have roughly 379 days to get to the point that I can run/walk 13.1 miles in roughly 3:45:00.  Today it seems completely insurmountable. 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

2014 Princess Party Cruise!!


I'm *so* excited!! I've been having a really hard time wrapping my head around what my 2014 vacation will look like. I wanted to do the Princess 1/2 Marathon, but at the same time I had promised my daughter Victoria that I would take her to Disney for her 21st Birthday so that she could drink around the world. Finances being what they are, I just will not be able to afford more than one vacation next year. Tori also needs to go on a cruise in the next year before she applies for her "dream job" with the Disney Cruise Line and discovers she can't handle being at sea.

So with a nod of approval from my frequent travel companion Erik, we decided to book a 4 night cruise directly after the 2014 Princess 1/2 Marathon! Woot! Princess Party Cruise! I'm so excited!! Not only are we booked, but Bestie Becks has said that she's in for the cruise as well! I put the idea out there to the other Princess Party Crew gals that if they thought they could swing it, they should hop on board as well.

I can't wait! Nothing quite as nice as a cruise after running my first half marathon. Any other Princesses want to join us?

Friday, February 1, 2013

Off the Couch



With some motivation from my BFF today, I got up off the couch, out the door and to the YMCA again.   It's frickin' -2 outside, and that doesn't include the wind chill, which is mighty.  Right now for me it really is true that the hardest part is just deciding to do it and getting up off the couch. 

I spent another 35 minutes on the bike and felt fairly good about it.

On my iPod: Be Our Guest Podcast