Month: February 2016

Greenlake

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 I’m from the greater Seattle area- I live within 20 minutes of downtown Seattle. It should be a given, then, that I regularly run around Greenlake. Everybody runs around Greenlake. It’s what is done if you run at all and ever happen to be in the Seattle area.  It comes standard with the area, right?  But I had a secret until today: I’ve only ever visited Greenlake once. It was in 1996 and I had just purchased rollerblades. I went around one time, fell and decided roller blades were not my thing. It was a lot of work!

{I thought this statue was really cool- it was made from running medals (or castings from medals)!}
Today started out with expectations, my friends.  The Brooks company (the shoe and running gear company) sent out an email advertising an exciting event: there was to be a discount and swag if I went and signed up for my race in the store!  They showed a picture that looked similar to an after running tent-booth-a-Rama, and I’m all interested in samples for figuring out my on-run nutrition options.  I’m a thrifty gal and running gu, bars and gels are not cheap.  It’s worth a little adventure downtown for freebies of this sort, and I had a bit of a secret agenda to run Greenlake.  Anyhow, I arrive at the place and it was three women standing behind a table.  No brouhaha.  No booths.  Just three nice ladies and my family in a store.  So then I tried to sign up for my two marathons and the Brooks race but they didn’t sell it there.  I thought I’d get a discount for signing up for the half marathons in a packages, but I misunderstood and could only sign up for the 15K.  Boohoo, right?  Anyhow, I placated myself with my secret mission to run at Greenlake, which was the next stop…

  If you’ve never been to Greenlake, I think it is what Central Park must be like except on a much smaller scale.  Like, just the lake part that you see in movies, not the rest of it.  There’s a three-mile, paved loop that goes around the lake.  Along the way there’s a playground, a theater, a stadium and a bazillion people walking, pushing strollers, rollerblading, drinking coffee and chatting to break up the monotony of having to look at a gorgeous lake.  It was a lot like running a 5k with all the people we got to dodge around.  It was a gorgeous run with pretty solid times!  Anything under a 12 minute mile makes me smile, under 11 makes me thrilled!  I’m not trying for faster, it’s just happening! My best time in a long time and what a privilege, again, to run with that girl of mine.  

  
I want this as a tshirt.  This little meme got me laughing so many times this week when I needed it…  Sometimes it’s the little things, amiright??

Nutrition was bad this week.  I’d kill it all day and then I’d make dinner followed by cleaning up dinner and nibbling on leftovers which lead to just needing a little something sweet followed by salty then another little sweet and a slug of diet soda…  I’ve been going to bed at night feeling just gross and full of food.  I need to knock it off.  I suppose it only makes sense that my goal for this coming week is to get that back under control.

Mission Report Cards: Accomplished!

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Even though it was a crazy report card week, I still managed to get two Zumba workouts and one run in.  Even though it unexpectedly and prematurely turned into shark week, I still managed to meet all of my steps- except day one when I let myself lay low (butmadeitupthenextday).  I didn’t get all of my running miles in yet, but I still have the weekend…  The best news, however, is that I finished my report cards and stuffed them all into envelopes by the time I left on Friday!  I love the feeling of being done with the reports- it’s so freeing!  

  
{This was the Tuesday Zumba crew.  We move the desks, turn up the music and I project shinedancefitness.com to the screen.  I would take a picture of these powerful women every time, because I think it’s worth celebrating and recognizing the accomplishment of hard work and sweat every time, but I hate to be ‘that guy’!}

We decided to change our schedule a little bit for Zumba.  On Wednesday I sat in my classroom, hoping against hope that no one would come to dance.  We had worked out the night before, I was all crampy and really not wanting to dance.  Really I didn’t want to move much at all.  Lol!  The only person who came also needed to take her dog to the vet, so I packed it in by 3:40 and lit on home.  We postponed for Friday and I was lucky enough to host six dancers then! Afterwards I headed to Chuck E. Cheese’s for a school event.  We used to take Gigi there when she was little, but I hadn’t returned in years.  We managed to find the only table free in the joint, next to the basketball hoop game and skeeball.  After an hour of yelling across the table to one another my voice became hoarse and we finally managed to find a place in a quieter corner.  That place is something else!  Ha!  It’s definitely a kid’s place…  I’m glad we went, though.  It was so much fun to see so many of my students at the restaurant.  ðŸ™‚

*I’ve actually learned to love day one of shark week because it’s the one day of the month that I actually let myself off the hook for working out and allow a little bit of comfort snacking.  I know that people say that working out during ‘that time of the month’ can help with cramps, but I also think it’s ok to hunker down and take a day to myself every 28 days or so.  TMI?  Aiyiyi.  LOL!