For the Love of New Shoes

OMG! I love me a pair of new sneakers. Speedy Kristina (her hubby is Coach Paul, winner of the Women's Nike Marathon 2008 because is wife thought it would be funny and signed him up) bought a pair of these super cute Saucony Kilkenny XC racing flats and I could not stand it so I went and bought some last night while I was at speed group. The main premise for this purchase is my Kettlebell instructor has an issue with the padding in my regular running shoes and enlightens me, with much urgency, to running flat and more gracefully during my sprints. Mostly though, they will look so stinkin' cute with Jeans! Goodness, its amazing how a pair of super cute shoes can make your week! Actually I am looking forward to a new pair of super cute running shoes too. Mine are worn to the max.

Bucket List: Caitlin over at Healthy Tipping Point posted her fitness Bucket list and I thought I would follow. I do not have a cute cork board in which to post mine (on my to-do list) but I will list them here for you all. Please post yours and link back so I can see them!!!

1: Break a 4 hour marathon

2: Strong core, actually see some muscle in my mid section then hold onto it!!!

3: Learn to swim properly (with my face in the water and everything).

4: Run Mad Patty's crazy Monkey Hill without stopping (if you're looking for hills in Chico I know where to find them)

5: Run a 5K with my son.

6: Learn to ride a bike without falling off and being able to shift properly (ugh... never mastered that).

7: Master Bikram Yoga after Kettlebell/X-fit class is over in November.

8: Do a sprint tri (meaning learning how to swim with my face in the water and ride a bike without crashing!)

9: Getting over my fear of water and mastering Kayaking.

10: Goofy Challenge 1/2 marathon one day, full marathon the next day in Disneyworld!.

11: Run a marathon for charity.

12: Backpack the entire John Muir Trail.

Today I ran

Today I forced myself to go to the gym and instead of my scheduled yoga class that I totally love (more on that later) I thought I needed to run and get my miles up since I didn't run my 5miles I had hoped to get in yesterday and I didn't run at all during our camping trip. I hate running on the dreadmill... I mean treadmill. It never seems to be accurate and I always feel like I'm having to alter my stride to fit within the parameters of the stupid machine. Today wasn't too bad mostly because I chose to mix it up a bit.

I started out walking for two minutes at speed 3.5 while I got my ipod adjusted and my weight and height and gender all in the machine. I upped it to 5.5 and at a 2%incline for a half mile. upped the grade to 2.5% at mile 1 mark, speed up to 6 at mile 2 and grade up to 4% at mile 2.5 til mile 3. The stupid machine kicks you off at 30 minutes but I figured out how to fudge it for a couple minutes to get my 3miles in.

I then went and stretched and did some core work for about 10 minutes. I did 20 standard crunches, 20 crunches with my legs leaned over to each side to work on my obliques. I did 2 minute plank then some supermans where I pull my knee up to elbow in the push up position alternating each side for a total of 20. then 2 minute plank again.

I jumped back on the treadmill and did 2.5 miles at 10min/mile speed (or 6.0) at 1.5% grade but when I hit that 2.5 mile spot I walked for 30 seconds then did 30 second strides at speed 9.5 (not sure how fast that is something like 6:30 pace I think?) I did one at 10 which I know is a 6 minute mile pace somewhere in the middle. so at the 30 minute mark after my 7th stride the stupid dreadmill shut of again but not before I noticed that I had made it 3.2 miles.

For a treadmill day that wasn't too bad considering it was 100*F outside and there was no way in H*ll I was going to run 6 miles by myself out there today.

Yoga:

I took my first yoga class in college and just didn't care for it. I liked the moves and it made me feel but I had a hard time letting my other thoughts go and listening to my body. I still have that problem but I'm much better at pushing those thoughts away and concentrating on my breathing and specific muscles now then I was then.

I schedule the kids three days a week for the gym so that even if FFP has something to do I can make it to the gym (My firefighter provider is required to hit the gym every workday). I'm totally using this membership to the hilt since we purchased the year family package and my hubby has been there like twice.

I was feeling good about it to until BFF went and made said, "look at the suburban mom taking off to go to her yoga class." crap that is me. Well too bad. I'm going to be one of those snooty suburban moms who goes to yoga because well... I can. so there. I'm not really miffed. I'm just teasing but I didn't really think of myself that way til she said something. LOL. That's what BFF's are for. That and if I turn into "You-know-what" she will slap me upside the head because I deserve it and I'll do it to her in return. Love ya Kel.