Exciting news!

Okay, so I've been thinking about this for a long time, and after a talk with the hubby and my cheesy sports fortune cookie, I decided it was finally time--I'm going to train to become a group fitness instructor!!!

I registered today to become a PiYo instructor.  PiYo is a very cool cross of pilates and yoga, but with a faster pace for those of us who like to move and get bored being too still.  Here's a little preview video of it:

I love me some yoga, and maybe someday I'll take the full plunge and become a vinyasa flow instructor.  But for now this looks like a very fun beginning, and the class is gaining popularity quickly.  They also have a Turbo Kick class (hip-hop kickboxing), which I'd love to teach someday as well if I just have a blast with this one.

So I'll be keeping you all updated on how my training is going and I'll for sure let you know when I get certified!  I'll probably even host a special giveaway, since I'll be pretty darned excited!  Then, upon our next whenever-wherever-the-hell-we-go move, I'll jump out there and start trying to get a job at a local gym.  So this will not only give me the push I need to stay fit during the winter, but it gives me an excellent goal which will help pay the bills (and be super fun) too.  Yay!

It's okay, my mommy runs through fire

Well, I spent the past 10 or so days with hubby and kiddos, traveling all over NC and TN visiting friends and family.  It was a blast!  And it was exhausting.  And it was sadly mostly run-free.  I'll post some randomness from the trip, lazy-list style.

The boy turned two!  His birthday was Saturday, and we had a mini-party on Friday.  Saturday we drove home, so he spent most of the day in the car watching his new Star Wars dvds.  But he and the kiddo handled it well.

I ran a total of TWICE the entire trip.  Twice.  And I'm fairly sure I gained five pounds.  Blech.

I got the coolest fortune cookie ever, and my goofy self forgot to take a photo for the blog.  It said "You will have an exciting sports opportunity soon."  Is this a sign that I'll finally sign up for a full marathon?

While walking with some friends, their little girl mentioned being nervous about a big wall they were balancing on.  My daughter's reply--"It's okay, my mommy runs through fire."  I was beaming.

I got to run a turkey trot with the hubby and some good TN friends, and it was a blast!  Also, I PR'ed!!  Considering I hadn't run much in the last few weeks, and also considering that we just stayed up the night before and drank wine, I'm pretty happy with that.

Now I'm not signed up for any races/events in the future.  And I won't be until I know where we'll live next Spring.  I don't really know what to do with myself.  I'll continue to run of course, because I love it.  But I fear that I'll get lazy with my long runs.  I neeeeeed a goal that I pay money for, so I can feel like an ass if I don't do well. 

Our trip really was great!  It was so nice seeing our best pals in NC!  We hadn't ever seen them on this side of the ocean, so that was pretty cool.  And it's always nice seeing our families.  But it's also nice getting home and sleeping in our own beds.  And it'll be even nicer this afternoon when I can jog the kids to ballet class!

Did you all have a good Thanksgiving holiday?  Get any exercise in?  Eat too much turkey?  Share, if you want!

Three Things Thursday

This will be somewhat short, as I have a gazillion and one things to do.  Though I'd honestly much rather be writing here than doing most of those things...

1)  We're leaving for Thanksgiving vacay tomorrow!  We're heading down to North Carolina to visit some of our bestest bestiest from Germany that moved stateside in September.  We haven't seen their family since the day before we left Deutschland (1.5 years ago), and we're beyond stoked!  I found a Turkey Trot half marathon an hour away from their house on Saturday, which would give me Half Fanatic status....but I don't think it would be great of me to run off (pun intended) during our fun visit.  I'm guessing that either way I'll regret the decision that I make about the race.  But, I'll have so much fun seeing them that it'll be worth it!

2)  Tough Mudder soreness is gone, so now I can get back to regular workouts!  I pulled my neck on Monday (this is a normal thing for me, probably made worse from the TM) so although I could've worked out yesterday, I wanted to make sure I didn't make the neck worse.  But this morning I woke up and happily threw on some shoes to do a treadmill/burpee/wall walk morning combo.  Finished it up with some yoga, and it was awwwwwesome to get myself moving like that again.

I can't make mine look this way.  I have more of a "flopping fish" technique.

3)  I'm bummed.  I have post-race depression.  Aside from my Turkey Trot 8k, I have no races officially on the schedule right now.  And I can't get any until I know where the heck we're living in two months!  So for now, I have to force myself to continue training "just because", and that's hard for me.  But you better bet that as soon as I find out where we're going, I'll find some great races!  I'm thinking of asking for this stuff for Christmas to help with the winter/no race blues:

Two half marathon entries or one full marathon entry (once our destination is determined)
Cute compression socks
Foam roller
Team Sparkle skirt
Team Tough Chik membership
Awesome running tights

I really can't think of much else that I want.  But as a friend said, it's better to have a running addiction than a french fry addiction!  What sort of fitness gear is on your holiday wish list?  And do you have any big races coming up in the next few months to push you through winter training??

Tough Mother Mudder!

I can now officially call myself a Tough Mudder!!!  I am still giddy with adrenaline and bruises.  I wanted to write about it yesterday, but the kids missed Mommy and especially the youngest needed lots of extra love yesterday.  So here I am now with free hands, trying to put together all the happenings of this crazy weekend.

First off, our friends from Washington DC came to stay with us.  The hubby P was running the mudder with us and wifey J was watching the kids (along with her two, what a trooper!)and photographing the event.  We hung out Saturday while the kiddos played for the evening, and we loaded up on some super awesome Korean food for dinner.  Eggs, rice, beef, veggies--it was heavenly, and perfect for pre-race!

The next morning, we all woke up before our way-too-early alarms went off.  I put on my Tough Chik I <3 Mud shirt, and we geared up.  We picked up a friend in Jersey City, then headed down.  We got there with enough time to relax while signing in and looking around at a few obstacles.  The feeling of anticipation and excitement mixed with nervousness was in the air.  We watched an earlier heat start behind a monster truck, and we got pumped.  We were ready!

When it was time for us, everyone was very intense.  We got going at 9:30 and felt awesome.  The weather was in the mid 40's, sun was coming out, perfect for running.  The first obstacle was climbing over a net, which was just fun enough to get us pumped.  Then we went to the "Chernobyl Jaccuzi" and shit got serious.  It was a dumpster full of ice and neon green sludge water that we had to fully plunge into.  It sucked haaaard.  But getting out felt great!  We ran excitedly to the next one, in which we pulled ourselves upside down across a rope over some water.  Then the water turned into a full-on lake, and we had to swim across it about 50 meters.  Which would've been easy if the water temp wasn't a painful 42 degrees.  So we frantically got to the other side, climbed up a rope ladder, and got out.  We were happy to be done with it, until we realized that we had to get back across in a minute.  So we jumped off of a 15-foot wall back into the water and swam back.  I'll admit that the jump was the scariest part of the course for me.  I freaked out for a moment before plunging in.  But once we were across, I was all grins for the next few miles, because I had accomplished something pretty bad-ass for myself.  We then went on to hay bale heaps, Berlin walls, gigantic mud puddles (the most fun of the course!), and some majorly muddy hills.  I propelled myself up them with no fear, and I was pumped.  We got back towards the front on about mile 5, and we saw our families!  The kids thought we were ridiculously cool with our mud-covered bodies, and we were so excited to get going again and see them at the end.

Muddy mid-race greetings

 The second half had it's ups and downs.  I got a poor grip on one of the 12' Berlin walls and fell onto my shoulder, which I fortunately didn't dislocate.  There were some low crawls and a tire carry that just made me feel like I was playing with the kids at home, which was a good confidence builder.  There was a fun-as-hell mud hill (you'll see it often on their promo pics), and I felt like She-Ra when I made it up there on try one.  And then there was the quarter pipe skate ramp, my nemesis.  Being on the short side, it was much tougher for me to make it up.  There were lots of men on the top holding their arms down to grab, but it took me a few tries to get to them.  Twice I got bumped out by some bigger dudes, which was frustrating.  But the fourth try was a charm and  I was glad to be done with it. 

The final few miles were a lot of short hills (we were on a motocross course) and some sticky mud running.  It was draining, but still fun.  We went into the water again at the monkey bars, and it was much more painful this time.  The exhaustion was making the cold much harder to handle.  I came out feeling okay, but apparently pretty pale and blue-lipped.  Hubby tried to talk me out of the final water obstacle--swimming under three sets of large barrels.  I did it anyway, and it took me a few minutes to figure out where/who I was after that one.  Then we got to the finale--electro-shock therapy!  We had planned to just run through it full-force and hope for the best.  Buuuut, when arriving at it, we noticed that it had been changed a bit.  Hay bales were placed every three feet, so we'd HAVE to slow down and jump over them.  Let's just say that it wasn't fun.  I got shocked in the face a few times, and it felt like being punched.  One at the end hit so hard that it knocked my head forward!  Then I found out that it was actually my 6'8" teammate kicking me in the head.  Craziness!

Me leaping over my final hay bale

 We gathered our wits and ran across the finish line together, it was fantastic!  We put on our awesome TM headbands with pride and made our way to smiling families.  I was so cold that I was spilling my wonderful free beer, and my people made me take off my shirt and put on the race shirt instead.  Then my final obstacle--crying toddler!  He was ready to nap and upon seeing me got freaked the hell out (probably because I was purple and had mild hypothermia), so I put him in a baby carrier and wore him for the next hour or so while he napped and warmed my pitiful self up.

Finally finished, yay!

Babywearing, coconut drinking, and trying not to freeze to death.

We got changed, got home, and ate for the first time in 12 hours since breakfast.  Then we all got showered up and admired our bruises.  The rest of the night was spent letting our kids play together a bit more while we reminisced and geared up for bedtime.  A crazy weekend which ended wonderfully!

The Tough Mudder was by far the most challenging thing I've ever done.  I'm covered with bruises and scrapes allllll over my body.  But there is nothing bruised about my pride.  I went into it with a lifetime fear of falling, and I fell more times than I can even count.  And each one made it less scary.  Aside from natural childbirth, this is by far the strongest I've ever felt.  So now I just have one thing left to figure out......when can I do another one!?!?

Weekend Wussiness

Well, I had a weekend full of lots of things, but running was NOT one of them unfortunately.  On Friday, my shin started giving me warnings of bad things to come.  So since the Saturday race was free and a last-minute plan anyway, I decided to cancel it.  Instead, I went to a clothing sale (where I scored tons of awesome stuff for everyone!!!), a kiddo thrift store, and had a mom's night out.  Top it off with seeing our friends' new baby yesterday, and it was a wonderful weekend!  I did feel a bit guilty about not running, but it didn't last long.

Last night, I made myself feel a bit better when I set up our treadmill.  I hopped on this morning, first thing, and started the day out with a few miles.  It was so great to just wake up, fling on some running clothes, and take off!  I didn't have to worry about my route, if I had mascara smears everywhere, or whether my clothing was weather-appropriate.  Albeit, it wasn't as fun as hitting pavement (and especially not trails), but it got the job done. 

Notice our cute little kitty in the corner.  I put my new toy in her territory, for shame!

I lucked out on this score, as I had a friend who wasn't using hers anymore.  But it got me thinking--there are TONS of people who end up using their treadmills as coat hangers, and there's really no reason we all shouldn't just work together to make everyone happy.  So I suggest--if you want a treadmill and really think you'll use it:

First try Facebook/Google+ (does that still exist?) and simply ask if anyone is willing to sell.  Chances are actually pretty high that someone will have one that isn't being used!

If that doesn't work, hit up Freecycle and ask there.  You may not know them personally, but they'll live nearby and you can just take a manly man to help you and keep you safe if you're worried about the possibility of crazies.

Last option--not free, but much cheaper than new, is Craigslist.  It is literally full of people wanting to rid themselves of unused, mostly new treadmills of all levels and prices.  I found so many on there, and if you keep an eye on it for a week, you can learn the average price ranges for certain types and find something perfect for you.

So if you want a treadmill, clear out a spot and get to searching!  Then you'll never have an excuse not to run again!  Well, except that whole mommy/working/cleaning/sick kid/life is crazy excuse.  That happens sometimes. ;)

Three Things Thursday, Take One

Well, it looks as though mommy-runner-blogland does a weekly triple T, so I'll just jump on their coattails and hope that's okay!

1.  My shin splints are gone, yippee!!!  I've been super slow and lazy the past week (though I hated it) and it has paid off.  I've gone the past few days with stroller runs and zero pain.  Just in time for my half on Saturday!  I'm hoping that the laziness hasn't hurt me too much, and I'll just be happy to be running the race quite honestly.

2.  My stroller running has significantly improved, and now that I have air in my tires (all three were flat, it was a bitch), I feel like I'm kicking butt with it.  I can't wait to run on my own on Saturday and feel the power I have when I'm not pushing 90 pounds. Hubby recently discovered the difficulty that is stroller jogging too, and he says that your menfolk need to jump on the bandwagon and work on their strength running.  They'll win some cool daddy points, too. ;)

3.  I found some fun virtual events online during this holiday season!  Look over to the sidebar for two of them--one is a Thanksgiving virtual 5k for anyone, and it has an awesome prize for one lucky person.  You can even run a local event and count it towards the virtual race--score!  The other is a continuous holiday contest with some super great prizes for top finishers.  And they can both be for anyone from beginner to the hardcore athlete.  I suggest you all join in on these virtual things--the accountability alone will help push you through this terrible fat-consuming time of the year.  I'll add more as I find them!

So that's it.  I'd post more, but I have two children and a cat in my lap and I'd like to go back to snuggling them.  Happy Thursday!