Sunday, December 31, 2006

2007 - Here we go!


Happy New Year everyone! Let's greet 2007 with a bang!

I did my last work out for 2006 today. Since I couldn't run and I'm doing a make up of tomorrow's cardio, I did cardio overload today! 40 minutes on the recumbent bike, 15 minutes on the Body Trec, a little bit of back exercises and abs, and finally slow walking on the treadmill at 12 % incline (being extra careful with the shins). Boy was I dripping with sweat! I noticed that there were a lot of people at the gym this morning trying to get a good workout in before we go crazy tonight :-D.

Shins are still bothering me. I've been icing and taking ibuprofen, but they are still sore. I am praying that it is only shin splint and nothing serious like *gulp* stress fracture.

Anyways, enjoy yourselves tonight! I certainly will ;-). And above all, stay safe!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

I'm falling apart!

Lower back feels a lot better. But now I have shin splints...on BOTH legs! WTF!!! Must be from the 4-miles fast walk yesterday. Today's planned 4.5 miles run was scrapped. Instead, I decided to play it smart so I shelled out $7 to use the local gym. Here's my workout:

AM: Eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 10 minutes MISS), LBWO, Abs

I had to be careful with LBWO since my back still feels a bit tender. For example, I did one set of squats on the smith machine then decided to do something else since it does put a little bit of pressure on the back.

But what a shame! Today is sunny, mild weather, in the mid-50's. Perfect day for running.

I'm kind of disappointed since I keep getting sidelined with injuries. However, I am not deterred! I will keep on going, and hopefully one of these days, I'm going to figure out how I'm supposed to land my feet on the ground, LOL! In the meantime, ICE ICE BABY!

If I have time, I'll probably go to the gym tomorrow for my last workout of 2006.

Have a safe and happy New Years everyone!!!

Friday, December 29, 2006

Dreamgirls


I finally saw this movie! I absolutely LOVE it! Beyonce was great, but Jennifer Hudson rocked the house! Everytime she sang, the whole movie theatre was really getting into it and clapping.
The movie soundtrack was awesome and favorite song from the movie is probably "Listen" which was sung by Beyonce. I highly recommend that you go see the movie!

**********************************

I woke up today with a sore lower back. WTF!!!!

I'm not sure what's going on. I've been spending most of my holidays at my parents' house and the heaviest weights my mom has is a pair of 8-lbs dumbells. Since I'm too cheap to spend $7/day to go to the gym (have to counteract the 3 Couch bags I bought as x-mas present to myself ;-D), my weight-lifting days has been modified to supersets with high repetitions. I still felt the burn though. Anyways, I don't think my sore back has anything to do with the weight lifting. I'm pretty sure it's the running. All that heavy pounding does put a toll on your lower back. So today, it's going to be stretching, icing, Icy Blue, and more stretching. In the future, I'll be more conscious with strengthening my lower back - maybe do some low back exercises right after working the abs.

Thankfully, I'm off from running today. I did go to the park for a 4-miles walk. Man, did it take FOREVER! Tomorrow is my long run and I hope my back feels better then.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Post-Christmas Report

One holiday down, one more to go!

I am thoroughly enjoying my holidays and vacation! Besides the onslaught of holiday parties, I've been getting in touch with friends who, like me, are also home for the holidays. Two nights ago, I went out with 2 of my close guy friends from college. One now lives in Nashville, Tennessee and works for Nissan as an engineer. The other friend is now a nephrologist (kidney doctor). He will be moving to Phoenix, Arizona next year to join his uncles practice. Man, I feel old! It seems like only yesterday we were all goofing off, staying up all night, partying, etc. Anyways, I'm so glad those two are living where they are. I'm already planning on visiting my friend from Nashville sometime next year since I've never been there. I've already been to Phoenix years ago to visit the doctor friend when he was going to med school there, so I'll have to see about that.

Yesterday, I met another friend for lunch. This friend was someone I used to work with at my current company, but is now doing some post-doctoral studies in Tissue Engineering at MIT. His family still lives in the area so we usually meet once a year around the holidays. We went to our usual hang out, which is an Italian restaurant specializing in authentic Italian hoagies. Man, those hoagies are sooo good!

I may have more plans between tonight and tomorrow night, but Saturday night I'm meeting 2 other friends that I haven't seen in a while. These friends are people I used to work with at a department store during summer breaks from college. We'll probably do dinner then a movie. I am hoping they're open to seeing "Dreamgirls" coz I really want to see it! :-)

Between the parties and reunion with friends, my eating has been shot! I've been successful with limiting my portions, but the meals are not the healthiest. Like for example, 2 nights ago we went to Olive Garden then to a diner for coffee and desert. There are no healthy choice at Olive Garden, so I settled for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, of which I ate only half. Then at the diner, the healthiest desert was carrot cake. :-)

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself this holiday, but I cannot wait when this is all over and I can get back to a routine.

On the other hand, workouts has been going GGGRRRREEEAAATT!!!

Monday:
No workout. Christmas day. Had a small get-together at my brother's place for lunch, then went to a friend's house for dinner. I was stuffed!!! However, I did run the day before, which was supposed to be rest day.

Tuesday:
AM: Treadmill (3.4+ miles at 5.9 mph and 1% incline + 10 minutes walking for warm-up and cool-down), Abs, leg strengthening exercises
Was planning on doing LBWO, but couldn't get it in.

Wednesday:
PM: LBWO
Was running around all day and was too tired to do the planned cardio. LBWO was completed through sheer will at around 10 pm!

Thursday:
AM: Treadmill (3.4+ miles at 5.9-6.1 mph and 1% incline + 7 minutes walking for warm-up and cool-down), Abs, leg strengthening exercises
PM: UBWO
That's more like it!

I absolutely must get back to an eating routine come January! Inspite of the workouts, I can feel the effects of my poor eating habits. My stomach is so bloated I'm starting to look like the Goodyear blimp!

That's it for now! Hope everybody's having a great holiday as well!

Sunday, December 24, 2006




Merry Christmas everyone!!!





PS: Today is supposed to be my rest day...BUT...since there's a good possibility that I won't be able to work out tomorrow, I got in a 2 miles run + 1.5 miles walk this afternoon at the park. :o)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

LSD

Long Slow Distance run = 4 miles

DONE!!!

Okay, that's probably measley to some serious runners, but to me, that's a LOOONG distance! Anyways, I thought that's worth blogging about today, even though very few people are blogging right now. :-)

Went to the park today and ran at a very leasurely pace. The goal is to make it to 4 miles without crashing. My legs still felt like lead this morning so I made sure to stretch a lot before going out. It was a nice 56F, very cloudy but no rain. There were several people there walking and one woman was running. When I first started, the woman looked like she was going pretty fast (tall with long strides) and I was thinking there is no way I was going to catch up to her. So off I went at what I consider a slow pace and pretty soon, I was passing her! The park was pancake flat and has a 1/2 mile loop around it so it was definitely a leasurely run. Runner's high hit me after mile 3 and after I was done with mile 4, I felt I could have gone on longer! After mile 4, I kept on running for a little bit longer and then slowed down to a walk until I completed lap 9, which made it a total of 4.5 miles! Knees are still holding up so I am pretty happy!

Went home and did some leg strengthening exercises and UBWO (supersets).

Total running miles for the week = 11.6

I'm a very happy camper!

doidle - Thanks for stopping by! I'll try to post some pictures soon. Nothing in swimsuit though. ;-) I did post some pictures in myblends a couple of days ago - before BFL and after BFL.

Have a great day everyone!

Friday, December 22, 2006

3 Shopping Days Before Christmas

Still here and still going strong! Cold is almost gone and workouts for today are done!

Treadmill: 3.1+ miles running @ 5.9 mph and 1% incline (~32 minutes), 8 minutes walking for warm-up and cool-down
Leg strengthening exercises
Abs supersets: 4x25 crunches, reverse crunches, oblique crunches (both sides). OUCH!!!

My butt is so sore from yesterday's and today's workouts that it hurts to sit down. It's a good hurt though. I want to do a long, slow run (~4 miles) tomorrow, but I'll have to see. It's supposed to be 60F tomorrow and I so want to run outside, but the rain is predicted to continue throughout the morning. The good news is, my knees are holding up (knock on wood). Those leg strenghtening exercises and stretches are doing wonders!

Today, I got some last minute shopping done. My brother and I went to this shopping center, which is a little on the higher end, so it wasn't too crowded. The worst part is the traffic to and from there. We left after lunch, but I guess a lot of people were either shopping or were let go early from work.

Anyways, I am DONE with my Christmas shopping! I just have to get a couple more VISA gift checks from the bank, buy some Christmas bags from the Dollar Store, and that should be it! WAAAAHOOOOO!!!

Gotta go! I hear the fire engines going, which means the annual Santa rounds are happening courtesy of our fire department. What can I say, I'm still a kid at heart! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Bored

Can't you tell? That's why I've been on a blogging frenzy lately, LOL. None of my friends and families are on vacation, so it's just me amusing myself.

Workouts are done for today! Here's what I did:

AM: ~51 minutes walking on the treadmill (~3 miles) on a very high incline. This treadmill is old and kind of manual so it felt like I was going faster than what the display says. I was definitely sweating up a storm and my legs were screaming!
PM: LBWO, leg strengthening exercises

I still have the cold, hence, the walking on the treadmill. Otherwise, I'd be outside in the frigid weather running. Thankfully, my cold hasn't been too bad. Guess that Zicam actually works!

Oh, I made a cool discovery on iTunes! There's a podcast called Yoga Today that have video episodes every day! You do not need a video iPod! It's actually better to play it in your computer so it's on a bigger screen. Just download it to your computer, play, and do yoga to your hearts content. And since they have different episodes everyday, you won't get bored! I'm going to dowload an episode to my laptop and go somewhere in the house where there's room to spread out and go from there! Pretty cool, huh?

Now, if you're tech savvy like my one brother, you can build your own computer that has a built-in tv tuner and Tivo-like recording thingamajig, hook it up to your big flat screen TV, and you're golden! He has an older computer (Sony Vaio - still pretty good!) that he's rigging up to function similarly and giving it to my non-tech savvy parents. Lucky dogs!

Anyways, I might do some yoga later, if I still have some energy. ;-)

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

VACATION!!!

As of yesterday, I am officially on vacation! Not returning to work until January 2nd! Yeah baby! Unfortunately, I've been getting calls from our secretary about urgent things that I have to take care of, so I've been logging into work, resolving issues, etc. Oh well! It's still better not being at work.

Here's my workout log so far for the week:

Monday
AM: eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 15 minutes MISS), Killer Abs (still hurting today!)

Tuesday
AM: ~1.5 miles running + ~.5 miles walking (warm-up, cool-down), as much push-ups as I can manage, leg strengthening exercises
Don't know what happened! One minute I was enjoying my run outside, then I just stopped and decided to walk home. Must be because of lack of sleep (~4 hours)? Then, I had to drive to my parents house before lunch time so I ran out of time.

Wednesday (Today)
AM: ~3+ miles running + .5 miles walking, leg strengthening exercise
PM: UBWO (supersets), Abs

Run today was great! It was pretty chilly, but very sunny and no cloud in sight so that helped a lot. Unfortunately, I was hit with a cold immediately afterwards. Still managed to do my workouts in the afternoon though. Followed my guideline of neck up = workout, neck down and/or fever = no workout. I took some Airborne right away and went to the pharmacy for Zicam and Cold-eeze cough drops, both of which are supposed to reduce the length and the symptoms of cold. We'll see!

Tomorrow if my cold progress, I might just do light cardio like 45 minutes walking plus LBWO.

That's it for now. Be good!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Ending on a good note

Today is the 6th day I've worked out this week. Woohoo!!! What an accomplishment! So today's workout is as follows:

AM: Running outside for 3.4 miles.
PM: LBWO, Abs

Overall mileage ran for the week: 9.85 miles. Not too bad for a comeback. :)

Okay, I didn't do abs last night as promised. I fell asleep early and totally forgot! But I did make it up today!

Running today felt great! It was 46F, nice and sunny - perfect running weather! I actually ended up taking off my jacket after a while because I got too hot. The only annoying thing is the wind - it always pick up everytime I go uphill, just to make things harder for me, LOL. It's strange, but I think it's better for me to run outside than on the treadmill. It seems I get injured more on the treadmill. Must be the way my feet land on the ground or something. Who would have thunk?

Friday, December 15, 2006

Don't want to jinx myself, but...

...I'm doing really good this week!

Monday
AM: Eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 10 minutes MISS), Abs

Tuesday
AM: Treadmill (2.2 miles @ 5.8 mph (~23 minutes), 7 minutes LISS (warm-up, cool-down), leg strengthening exercises
PM: LBWO, leg strengthening exercises (cable machine)

Wednesday
AM: Eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 15 minutes MISS), Abs

Thursday
AM: Treadmill (2.25+ miles @ 5.9 mph (23 minutes), 7 minutes LISS (warm-up, cool down), leg strengthening exercises
PM: UBWO, leg strengthening exercises (cable machine)

Friday
AM: Treadmill (5 minutes warm-up + 2 miles run @ 5.8 mph (~21 minutes) + 9 minutes fast walking on 3% incline), leg strengthening exercise.
Will do abs tonight - PROMISE!!!

I'm working from home this morning because my heater is being serviced (preventive maintenance). Unfortunately, the service guy is LATE!!! Ugh!!! It's gone past 1:30 pm and I'm supposed to be at work at 2 pm for our Christmas party. The guy is still in the basement doing his thing. So annoying!!!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Test Run

Yay, I'm back to running! For the last couple of days, all I've been doing was brisk walking on a high incline for loooong periods (boring!!!). Today, I eased back into running by doing a moderate 5.7 mph pace and 1% incline for 2 miles, which took about 21 minutes. My right knee, which was giving me problems, feels FINE! WAAAHOOO!!! For the next week or so, I'm going to be strict and not increase my speed or time by no more than 10% a week. At the same time, I'm going to continue doing the leg strengthening exercises. Hopefully, those two combined will lead me to build a good solid running base, and maybe I can finally improve.

Also after my run today, I did an UBWO. A good day overall for fitness!

Food is another matter. I met my family at Maggiano's for lunch today since it's my brother's birthday. It's an Italian restaurant (for those who don't know) and we had their family style special in which you share the food and you get a choice of 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 2 pasta dishes, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts, plus the bread. Their portions are huge and the food is amazing! My family and I are fairly light eaters, so we ended up taking most of the food home! Needless to say, I was so full afterwards.

After lunch, my mom and I decided to walk off the meal by doing some shopping at the nearby mall. I got a good deal on a pair of jeans at Express. They have a special going on in which the jeans are $20 off, and I have a $15 coupon, so I ended up paying only $25 for a pair of jeans! SAAWEET!!! That's not even the best part! The best part is I actually fit in a SIZE 0 SLIM FIT JEANS!!! This is my first pair of Express jeans since like college, so their size might be bigger. Don't know. But it's still pretty amazing! I was a size 2 in jeans and size 0 in regular pants and was quite happy with it, but I guess I still lost some inches. I bought the size 0 boot cut jeans, but for kicks I tried on the size 0 skinny jeans and they also fit!!! They actually look darn good! I almost started cheering in the fitting room when my fat legs actually slid through and the zip closed with no problem, LOL! The skinny jeans were $20 more than the boot cut one so I didn't get it. Maybe next time. I would probably wear them with knee-high boots worn over the jeans. That would look really sharp! Oh well! Like I said, maybe next time. Hopefully, my fat calves also caught up with the size reduction so I can also get a new, non-stretchy, knee-high boots, LOL!

I was feeling so confident in my newly discovered size that I ended up buying a Coach bag, LOL! There goes the great deal at Express! ;)

Well, that's the end of my fun for the day. Now it's onto cooking for the week, folding the laundry that I did last night, maybe some cleaning, and FINALLY setting up my Christmas tree. I do have the lights outside already set up, so I'm not completely late with my Christmas decorations.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Sick

I've been struck with some nasty stomach bug. Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling feverish and nauseus. The only thing I had yesterday was a cup of hot tea and some water. I just couldn't keep anything down! My temperature was above 100 for the whole day so I took some Tylenol. I was feeling nauseus all day, but didn't actually throw up until 9 pm! What a horrible feeling!

I feel better today - no more fever or nausea. I was actually able to eat 2 pieces of toast and drink a cup of hot tea this morning. However, I still feel drained from yesterday, so I decided to take another day off from work today to recuperate completely. I have been checking emails regularly from work to keep up to date and I am already dreading going back! Just so much work to do!

I was watching the news this morning, and apparently there has been an outbreak of E. coli in our area. I don't think that's what I have or I'd be in worse shape than what I've been. Plus, they traced the source to a couple of Taco Bell fast food restaurants, and I know I haven't been to one in months!

Needless to say, no workouts yesterday and today. Honestly, that's the last of my concern right now. I'm more concerned about getting more food in me.

So that's what I've been up to for the last couple of days. Not fun!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Blogging again

Surprise! Another post from me, and so soon! Anyways, I decided to start blogging more regularly again. I need to be extra vigilant right now with my workouts since I can't run so that the weight doesn't creep up. Posting my workouts will hopefully keep me accountable.

So here goes:

Yesterday (Sunday)
  • 2 miles walk at the park by my parents house. My dad wanted to go for a walk so I went to keep him company.

Today

  • Moderate walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes (first thing in the morning on an empty stomach)
  • Abs (3 sets of planks: 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 minute)
  • Leg strengthening exercises

My knee feels so much better. But I'm being smart this time and giving it time to heal. When I do start running again, I will have to force myself to start easy.

I found some great websites that have exercises on how to strengthen the leg muscles to help avoid runner's knee. I'll be sure to incorporate these exercises into my workouts:

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/guides/knee/xpatello.gif

http://www.drpribut.com/sports/spknees.html

The latest Runner's World magazine edition also has an article on injury prevention with exercise recommendations. I ripped the page off and posted it on my magnetic board in my basement where I work out.

That's it for now!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Runner's Knee :(

No running for me right now :(. It seems like I have runner's knee, specifically on my right knee. I lost my motivation for a week after Thanksgiving, which means no workout at all. Thankfully, I was able to keep my eating 90% clean (not counting the Thanksgiving meal, of course). Anyways, I finally regained my motivation yesterday and ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes (BFL HIIT) and walked for 10 minutes (warm-up and cool-down). I made sure to stretch a lot before and after too. I was fine for the whole day, then by the end of the day my right knee started hurting when I walk down the stairs. Also that afternoon at the gym, I couldn't even do leg extensions. Hence, no running for at least a couple of days for me. And today, my planned 5K race has been scrapped :(. This coming week for cardio, it will be walking and cross-training (ie: bike, eliptical, etc.).

It's kind of frustrating. I have never been made for running and have to work my butt off to get to this point. But I love it and will not give up. So this is just a temporary drawback and I WILL BE BACK! I have been doing a lot of reading on runner's knee and I will be sure to do the exercises recommended to strengthen the leg muscles. Also, I will be more conscious of taking my Glucosamine-Chondroitin-MSM and Fish Oil supplements - yeah, those went out the toilet along with my workouts!

I did get the iPod Shuffle and I am totally in love with it! So if any of you are thinking of getting it, I highly recommend it! You don't even notice that it's there! I'm hoping my knees will feel better soon so I can take advantage of the Shuffle.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

My Second 5K!!!!

So I ran my second 5K yesterday! And I sucked...or so I thought.

I ran it again with a friend of mine, who is our department admin. from work. It was a lot warmer this time, probably around 60s when the race started at 9 am, sunny with a slight breeze. It was unusually warm yesterday, it actually went up to mid-70's! Anyways, this race is a lot bigger than the one I ran a couple of weeks ago. It started out in a park trail then to the surrounding neighborhood. The description says that it's supposed to be mostly flat terrain, which it wasn't! I must have started really fast because by the half-way mark, my time was 14:45. And here's the sucky part, I ended up walking 3 times! I don't know what was up with me! Early last week, I did have a cold with fever. But I ran approx. 4 miles Thursday morning, albeit very slow. Don't know if it has something to do with that or the hills or what. So anyways, to my shame I walked. I did notice a lot more people (more than normal) taking walking breaks so maybe it just wasn't me. My friend, who was behind me the entire race, also walked several times. She didn't understand it either as this was her 4th 5K race and have never walked on her previous 3 races and on her training runs.

The race ended also at the park and I sprinted towards the end. I was so disgusted with myself that I didn't even want to know my time. But get this, inspite of all the walking I ended up beating my time from my first 5K race! My finish time was 30:09! I am kicking myself though because I most likely would have been sub-30 if I just kept on running.

Overall though, I had a great time. 5K races are so much fun! You see so many people of different ages and different fitness level. And everybody is just so friendly! I'm just going to keep on running and hopefully keep on improving.

My friend, who is 49 this year, will be cleaning up the medals next year! She just missed the next age-level, but she always beat at least one of the medalist's times in the 50's age category. She just started running this year so she should be better next year.

So my next race? There's another one in Dec. 2, but I have to play it by ear since it might be too cold by then. This race is going to be held at the same place as my first 5K race, even the same running path, just different organizer. I'm just going to wing it and see how the weather is. But I read that the sponsors are supposed to provide food and 2 of the sponsors are Starbucks and Coldstone Creamery! Those might just be enough to bring me to the race, LOL!

I'm also thinking of doing a 5-miler in April. God help me! Of course, I have to train for it. This is the race I'm thinking of doing: Valley Forge Revolutionary 5-Mile Run.

********************************************
SHOPPING!!!

I just found out that an outlet store is opening like 7 miles away from me! Eeeek! Like I don't shop enough! The construction is already underway and the mall is slated to open in the Fall of 2007.

I'm also thinking of getting an iPOD Shuffle. I already have the iPOD Nano, but the armband is getting cumbersome for me during my runs. The iPOD Shuffle only costs $74, holds 1G of songs (~240), and a lot more portable. Check this out!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Quick Update

Yeah, I'm still alive. Just nothing new to say.

I am planning on running my 2nd 5K next week. Wish me luck!

Saturday, October 21, 2006

My First 5K!!!!!

My first 5K was today! Boy, was it an experience! I was sooooo nervous going into it. First because I dind't really prepare for it until this week. I procrastinated! After my vacation, I indulged in several days more recovering from my vacation, LOL! So this week, I crammed as much running as I can into one week. My last runs were 3.5 miles this Wednesday and 4.5 miles this Thursday. Big mistake! I was so sore even today going into my 5K.

To add to injury, Aunt Flo came yesterday. Driving to the race, I got cramps so bad I had to pull over a parking lot. I almost turned around and headed back home. But I knew that I would regret it if I did that. So I waited a bit and went on my way once I felt better.

Furthermore, it is FREEZING today and I am not used to running in the cold! 40F with 10mph wind. Thankfully, it was sunny. I tried to warm up without tiring myself too much by walking around, stretching, making bathroom trips, etc. There were some people there wearing just t-shirt and shorts and I don't know how the hell they do it! Also, our race started in a high school so there were some people taking advantage of the track and running there even before the race started. I was just amazed with that since the thought of running 3.1 miles is daunting enough for me.

I found my friend who was also running the race and who happens to lives in the area. She started telling me about this one road that we were going to run in that consists of this one long hill that they call "The Wall". She said some bikers avoid it because it was so hard to climb. That immediately made me more nervous that I already was!

So finally we lined up in the starting line. Once the starting gun went off, it seems like this big group of runners just took off. I started out slow and it felt like I was going to be left behind. But eventually I got into the groove. Honestly, I didn't even notice the hill. I guess running at constant 1% incline on the treadmill helped me a bit. That and running in my development which has short but high inclines. What got to me were the trails. We went into this park and ran in this trail which was really windy, uneven, and wet because of the rain from yesterday. I honestly thought I was going to twist my ankle. The trail seemed to go FOREVER. Finally we were out of the trail and this one volunteer was yelling "One more mile!". At this point, exhaustion was getting to me. And to find that I still ahd one mile to go totally deflated me. I slowed down to a walk for about 20 seconds and after a couple of people passed me, I got pissed with myself and started to run again. Well, it turned out that we had like less than half a mile left after getting out of the park! We went down a block and once we made a turn, you could clearly see the end/start point. Needless to say, I wish I didn't hear that volunteer yelling "One more mile!" coz that got to me mentally.

I ended up finishing well: 30:18

I wish I finished less than 30 minutes, but I'll still take it!

We stayed behind for some food and the awards. Get this, I got 3rd in my age group and got a medal! WOOOOHOOO!!!! Unfortunately, they kind of screwed up that part. As they were announcing the winners in my age group for females, they went from 30:02 for second place, then skipped me and awarded the girl that finished 35:something for third. My friend and I had to go to the organizers afterwards and get it corrected. They had a bunch of extra medals and just gave me one and apologized for the mistake. I doubt they're going to "officially" correct it since they can't take back the 3rd place award. Oh well! I know my time and that's all that matters. My friend also took 3rd place in her age category so we were both happy.

The first overall winner was a guy who finished around 15 minutes! Holy crap! That means he was running 5 minute miles! That's freaking unbelievable! The overall winner for the ladies finished about 19 minutes. That's also freaking unbelievable! I can't imagine running that fast!

Overall, I'm glad I did it. I started to question myself during my run on what the hell I was thinking in doing it, but at the end of it all, it was a ton of fun. Will I do this again? Heck yeah!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Trip report - Part II

Okay, so where was I?

So after the Grand Canyon we headed back to Las Vegas. The next morning (late though coz we were pooped!) we drove about half an hour to BEAUTIFUL Red Rock Canyon. I love it there and could actually picture myself living in the area. The area looks fairly new but there are still a lot of developments going on. Can you just imagine the canyons as the view from one of your house windows? Also, for a mere $20/year, you have unlimitted access to the national park where they have trails, rock climbing, and a 13-mile scenic drive where people also go biking! HEAVEN!!!





We did an impromptu 2 mile hike, as indicated by the inappropriateness of the attire...LOL! I thought we were just going to do the 13-mile drive but we got taken in by the majesty of the place. I was wearing sandals and it kept sinking into the sandy ground. Thankfully, the weather was mild which made the hike more bearable. I couldn't do too much rock climbing because of the sandals. Plus, I'm not too fond of heights. ;) I went on some of the lower rocks though. That was fun!

On our last day we just walked the strip. Pictures below are of one of the lions in the Lion's Habitat at MGM Grand. They sleep ALL DAY! Wish I had that luxury! The last picture is of me next to the Golden Crocodile at the Mandalay Bay Aquarium.





During our stay in Vegas, we also caught 2 Cirque du Soleil shows: Mystere and Love. I highly recommend Mystere. Love was okay. The music was great since it's form The Beatles repertoire. However, I wasn't too impressed with the acrobatics. It just might be me. We caught the 10:30 pm show for Love which is late for me, especially considering all the walking we did during the day. Also, Mystere, which was the first show we saw, was so awesome that I set my expectations too high for Love. I really really wanted to see Ka, but the tickets cost much more than the average and my brother, who set up the trip, was insistent on seeing two shows. I wish we only saw one show, preferably Ka. We really stretched ourselves too thin on this trip.

Overall, I was exceptionally pleased with the trip. Vegas was definitely unique. Also, the FOOD! There were just so many selections, and not many were healthy! We ate at the buffets several times because of the convenience. Although I tried to not go all out crazy, I still ate more than normal. Because everything in Vegas (ie: food) was expensive, I felt guilty eating too little at the buffets. I felt I wasn't getting my money's worth...LOL!

Besides all the walking, I didn't get any workouts in. Not even a run on the strip. I did do pushups, dips, lunges, and crunches in the hotel room. Where we stayed, you had to pay $25 to use the gym! And after my first day there, I wasn't too confortable running on the strip, which I regretted later on. Although the Vegas strip is considered safe, I did see some questionable looking individual/peddlers there. As I said, I did regret it later on because I saw a couple of runners here and there.

Oh, I just found out that Olympia was held there during my stay! I was wondering why I was seeing all these buff women around. I didn't see anyone I would recognize though. The women I saw were, in my opinion, too buff to the point that they could be considered masculine. To be honest, they look like they're on steroids.

And that concludes my trip to Vegas...LOL!

***************************************************
FITNESS

I came back last Tuesday and I only started working out this Monday. Talk about slacking! My running sucks! I can't even run 20 minutes straight! I know I can do it, but there seems to be some mental block preventing me from doing it. Like I said, I have a 5K in less than 2 weeks and I have to get it together by then. I think I'm going to get those hypnosis tapes to help me look forward to my workouts again. The good news is that I weighed myself today after my workout and I maintained my weight from before Vegas...108 lbs. Don't know if weighing myself is a good idea though. It gives me an excuse to continue slacking off.

Oh, and my gym got new elliptical machines! I haven't tried them out yet, but they look pretty swanky! I overheard a woman in the locker room telling her friend that she likes the new machines because the magazine tray is closer to her and she's able to read better. I wanted to tell her "Girl, if you're able to read you're not working hard enough!".

Monday, October 09, 2006

Trip report - Part I

Hey y'all! I'm back! As promised here are a few pictures from my Vegas trip. I went with my parents and my one brother.

Here are some pictures from our first day there. We arrived the night before, ate a small dinner, walked a little bit of the strip, then went back to the hotel to sleep.




The next day, we woke up early and drove to the Grand Canyon. We stopped by the Hoover Dam first:


...and approx. 4 hours later, we were arrived at the Grand Canyon!



We were able to drive along the Desert View Drive and see the spectacular sunset at Lipan Point.

We stayed at Tusayan overnight then spent half a day the following day at the Grand Canyon National Park. We hiked the rim a little bit and explored the Hermit's Point Drive. In the morning, we saw some rare wildlife...a group Desert Bighorn Sheep! Really cool!





After that, we said goodbye to the Grand Canyon and headed back to Las Vegas.

Part 2 to follow. Blogger is not letting me post some more. CRAP!

Anyways, I think I left my mojo in Vegas. I'm having a hard time getting back to working out. And my 5K is in less than 2 weeks! YIKES!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

See y'all later!

I'm off to my first vacation of the year! No Europe this year, but I'll be going to the City of Sin!



This vacation couldn't come at a better time. I sooo need a break from work. Although this is a vacation, I know we'll be doing a lot of walking. I'll also try to run on the strip at least once. And I'll try to limit on the buffet. ;)

The only thing is I'm going to miss The Biggest Loser and Dancing with the Stars. :(

Maybe it's time to invest on a TIVO.

Bye all! I'll try to post some pictures when I get back.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Still around....

Yeah, I'm still here. Just super busy at work, which translates to super tired when I get home.

Anyhoo, my workouts are going great for the most part. Hit or miss, but mostly hit. :) Shin splint is almost gone. I've kept on running, but still taking it easy while it heals. Seems to work for me.

Today, I finally got on the scale. I haven't been on a scale in MONTHS! I figured since I still fit in size 2's and sometimes 0's, I'm still doing okay. After my workout today, I was stretching in this small room where they have a digital scale and I got curious. So I hopped on there and wouldn't you know! I can now officially say that I am no longer eligible to donate blood. 108 lbs!!! I've been hovering at 110 lbs for so long and it was at that weight when I last checked. Now, I'm only 5'1 so I'm in the appropriate weight range. And I am still eating 5-6 meals a day, and sometimes more when I get an extra run in for the day. Think of cookie1135 from tracker. She's 5'1 like me and her final weight was 100 lbs. So yes, I'm still okay.

Speaking of cookie, where has she been lately? I haven't seen her post in a while.

Oh, and I'm so psyched! Biggest Loser starts tonight! I can't wait!

Monday, September 11, 2006

5 Years Later...

Does it ever get easier? This morning on my way to work, I was listening to my normal country station. Since it's the anniversary of 9/11, they were playing country songs with patriotic themes and also taking calls and reading emails recalling where you were on 9/11. Well, the host started reading an email from this guy who worked at the WTC North Tower. His workplace was on the 78th floor. That morning, he just happened to come in earlier than usual, so him and a couple of his co-workers decided to head down to the cafeteria on the 40-something floor to have breakfast. They were there when the first plane struck his tower. He was recalling how he was coming down the stairs and encountering so many people also trying to get down and how people were helping each other. There was a guy on a wheelchair that they volunteered to help down the stairs, but he decided to stay behind so he doesn't clog up the stairs. He was also recalling the firemen going upstairs while everybody was going down. Let me just say, that by the end of the email, I was bawling my eyes out! Sheesh!

Anyways, on to lighter topic....

Last week completely sucked! Notice my lack of update? Well I was super duper busy at work! It was just stressful time. It was aggravated by the fact that my director, who is basically in charge of my group, announced that she was leaving the group to move up to a higher position within the company. Can't say I blame her, but I'm sad for us! She's probably THE BEST boss I have ever had! She's super nice, fair (a rare trait in Corporate America especially at her level), and just on the ball with things. When you encounter a difficult situation, which we often do, she seems to have the answer on the tip of her fingertips. She's been in our group for quite a while, and basically built it up to well-respective group that we are now. She's a big reason why I LOVE my current job, in spite of the stress. We're all still in shock with the announcement, and I know that some people are worried because we won't have her to run to. We all basically have to step up to the plate. Like my job needs more challenge right now!

Anyways, I let stress at work get to me, which in turn affected my normal routine. Needless to say, I only worked out 3X last week.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that I have shin splints AGAIN? Ugh!!!! The week before I was on a roll. I ran 5 days straight (one being light running w/ my mom) which probably didn't help. Also, on the 5th day, I ran faster than expected. I ran at this park which has a flat trail. I had "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera playing in my iPOD, and I'm usually just passing the 2-miles marker by the end of the song. Well, on this day and not doing it on purpose, I have already passed the 2.5 miles by the end of the song! And this was first thing in the morning on an empty stomach! WTF! It felt awesome, but I think I may have gone too fast too soon which caused the shin splints. I'm taking it easy for now. This Saturday, instead of running outside, I ran on the treadmill at moderate pace. I didn't run yesterday or today to give it a rest. I'm planning on running outside tomorrow afternoon, which hopefully will not be too bad.

And I'm happy to say that I'm off to a great start this week. Got my cardio done first thing this morning - 40 minutes on the eliptical (20 minutes HIIT, 20 minutes MISS) and ab bootcamp.

On to more lighter topic....

DTWS...I can't wait!!!! Tomorrow night! And not only do we get to watch the stars dance and compete, we get to see and hear our very own Bevy sing! I'm very excited!

And, The Biggest Loser starts September 20!!!! Yay!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Elusive Runner's High

FINALLY!

Lately, I've been slacking off in my running. I haven't run outside in like FOREVER and if I do run, it's on the treadmill. Well today, I finally said F**K IT! I'm going to get my lazy butt outside and just RUN! It's been cool all day and no rain for once, so it was a perfect day for running. I went out around 6:30 pm, still light out but slightly overcast, and there were still a lot of people out taking advantage of the nice weather. I ended up running 4 MILES! That's a lot for me, yo! LOL. And it felt great! I didn't go all out. I just wanted to run for the sake of running so I was a little bit slow, but I ran the entire way! What's even more amazing is that I also did LBWO earlier today! So far so good!

I also discovered the pleasure of running on a track. OMG! It's like running on air! I passed by the public high school during my run and the track & field was open. I saw a couple with their baby go in for their walk so I followed and did one lap. I probably should have done more laps, but I didn't want anybody coming up to me and telling me to vacate the property. I think it was open because a truck was still there packing up some band equipment. The school usually keeps the track & field locked up so the public can't use it. I wish they would keep it open for the public sometimes. It's for a public school and I pay school taxes (2 of them, in fact!) and I don't have kids!

**********************************************

Celebrity Duets didn't do anything for me. I had every intention of watching it, but it didn't hold my attention. I ended up chanel surfing. When I have it on, I had it in the background while I did other things. I can't wait for Dancing With the Stars to come back! And also The Biggest Loser!

Speaking of TV, I just heard Keifer Sutherland won the Best Actor Emmy for 24! I don't normally care for these award shows, but I'm pretty excited that Keifer won coz I'm a big 24 fan! *SIGH* I have to wait until January for the next season.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Confidence

I wrote before how I've become a clothes whore after losing weight and that I've been shopping like crazy recently to replenish my wardrobe. And also how I've been more confident in wearing clothes that don't cover me as much. Well now, I just realized that I am subconciously transforming into a girly-girl. Don't get me wrong, I've always been feminine. But my practical side has always been my dominant trait.

Recently I noticed that my increasing confidence has extended to wanting to take care of myself more. For example, I'm paying more attention to make-up. Not only that but I've started going to the nail salon on a regular basis betting manicures and pedicures! I've never been a nail person! I would paint my nails once in a while, and if I did I've always done it on my own. Since I got used to keeping my nails short from years of playing piano, I saw no need for frequent manicures & pedicures. And it's not like I conciously made a decision to make it a regular habit. It just happened!

Now, my latest interest - jewelries! I was at the mall this weekend and I found myself drawn to the colorful gemstones. I have a few jewelries that my mom gave me and never really wore them except on special ocassions. All of a sudden, I want some pieces to just wear for everyday. What's up with that?!? Luckily, my thriftiness kept me going for fine jewelries, LOL!

**********************************************

This week is going well so far! I'm getting my workouts done. Eating is pretty good. Work is still busy, but not as crazy. So I'm very happy.

Okay, please don't tell me I'm the not the only one, but I'm actually looking forward to watching "Celebrity Duet" tonight. It's like "Dancing with the Stars", but singing. I guess this should give me my temporary fix until DWTS is back.

Friday, August 25, 2006

No Show

I had a wierd experience at the gym today. At spinning class, we were all set up and ready to go, and the instructor didn't show up! We waited and waited. Well, I wasn't going to waste my time! So I started doing my own thing. Thankfully, since we were all experienced spinners (LOL!) the gym manager let us work out on our own. They put on some pumping music and we were on our way! It was kind of amusing looking around and everybody were doing their own thing. I made sure I covered all bases - jumps, sprints, running, seated and standing climbs, etc. I also did my ab workout after spinning class.

Needless to say, my legs are so sore! Ouch Ouch Ouch!!! Between yesterday's run & LBWO and today's spinning class, my legs are paying the price today. I'll be stretching more tonight to hopefully alleviate the soreness.

My abs are also sore. I decided to add planks every ab workout. I was inspired by the plank challenge in the myblends forum, LOL.

This weekend, I'll be home for a change. Besides working out, I'm planning on catching up on housework & cooking my meals for next week. I'm actually looking forward to a boring weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Super stressed!!!

Stress at work just increased to a new high today. I have a major deadline this Friday. I am basically done. All I had to do is convert these word documents into pdf files. And wouldn't you know, I accidentally deleted some of the word documents! Fortunately, all but one have the pdf version saved. Unfortunately, if I need to change anything I have to do it in the word format. I don't know what happened! I must have hit "cut" instead of "copy" when I was dropping files into another folder. Also, these files are in our shared network drive. If you delete files from network drive, it doesn't go to the recycle bin...it just disappear. You have to go through computer support to get these files restored. I put in a high priority request to our computer support today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying that they resolve this issue hopefully by tomorrow. It's not the end of the world if these files don't get restored. I will just have to re-create these files which will be A LOT of nail-biting work as it is crunch time.

To top it all off, I have to make some last minute MAJOR changes on another project that I thought I was done! I was supposed to start working on another project today that desperately needs immediate attention, but that got derailed. I just hope I can hold onto my sanity when this is all said and done!

On another note, my workouts are going well. Don't know how it's going to hold because of work.

Hope everybody's having a better day than me!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Update...

I don't know what's going on. I'm in a blogging funk. Nothing much going on. Still super busy at work. The good news I've been kicking ass with workouts this week. 4 straight days at the gym so far! The only thing is that I am having problem getting to the gym first thing in the morning. I ran on the treadmill for the tracker 5K challenge this Monday and I didn't break the record :(. But it's not too bad. I still got 29:29 which is only 5 seconds more than my PB of 29:24. The tracker challenge ended this Tuesday and I improved my time by 4:01 so it's all good. I do have to start running more to train for the 5K race in October.

I forgot to mention that I got a new iPOD Nano 2 weekends ago! I'm loving it! I was hesitant at first because of the price and I still had the iPOD Mini. But, I so wanted the Nano so bad, so I got it. Inspite of the cost it is so worth it! I gave my Mini to my brother. It's pink so he'll have to buy a jacket for it, LOL. I saw some hard cases at Five Below for $5 (of course) so that's not a problem. Eventually he will have to get the battery replaced since it's not holding charge as well as it did. I looked on the internet and to get the battery replaced costs about $50. But hey, begars can't be chosers! It's free so what more chan he ask for? It's still better than shelling out $250.

This weekend, I'm going to my parents again. My brother is having is housewarming party on Saturday around noon. Then, I'm skipping out early to go to my friend's daughter's first birthday. This friend is one of my good friends from college, so my other college friends are going to be there. I'm so excited since I haven't seen them in a while! God help me though, 2 parties in one day!!!

Hope everybody is doing well! I've been reading/commenting on your blogs but not as much as I used to. I had the blogs set up through Mozilla/Newsfox but just haven't had the time to check. I'll try next week.

Friday, August 11, 2006

I've been remiss...

I haven't had time to update my blog because I've been busy on the "other" site. You all know what I'm talking about. ;)

Anyways, things haven't been good with fitness. I've only worked out once this week. I'm pumped but I've been soooooo busy at work. I had 2 deadlines to meet today, which I'm happy to say I did. Unfortunately, I had no time to go to the gym. By the time I get home, I'm just too tired that I can barely do housework. The good news is I've been eating clean.

Next week is much better at work so I should be back to form. I'm going to see some friends from college next weekend so it's motivation for me to hit my workouts extra hard. At least, that's the plan.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Heatwave

It is so freakin' hot around here! We could all use a break from this heat. We're supposed to get a cold front tonight with 40% chance of thunderstorm. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I don't know what's going on, but Thursdays seem to be my downfall. I start out the week strong, then by Thursday I just don't want to do anything! Then by Friday my motivation's back. What's up with that? Regardless, workouts are going fairly well. I was planning to run today, but I didn't get up early enough. I woke up early enough, but I couldn't make myself get up from bed. Like I said, Thursdays are my downfall. I was able to do UBWO this afternoon, so it wasn't a total waste.

Nothing else going on, except that I'm annoyed with the toilet in my master bathroom. The flushing mechanism is not sealing correctly so water is constantly flowing into the toilet tank. Last month, my water bill was over twice the normal! Thank goodness water is cheap. My dad is supposed to fix it, but I have to wait until he has the time. In the meantime, I have the water supply to the toilet shut down and I'm using the other bathroom down the hall. Not a big deal, but so inconvenient.

I've been hanging out more and more at the new blends forum. I'm loving it! Thanks Jess for setting it up!

Hope everybody's staying cool!

Monday, July 31, 2006

29:24

Yup, you got it! That's my new 5K record on the treadmill at 1% incline, LOL! And on an empty stomach! Not as good as Melissa's mind-boggling 24:32 and first place finish, but still impressive to me. If I ever run a 5K at 24:32, I will personally volunteer to get tested for performance enhancing drugs! LOL.

By the way, congratulations again Melissa! I'm very impressed. You're my idol!!! =)

Anyways, back to my own 5K, LOL. I felt good afterwards and felt that I could have gone faster. But, I'm forcing myself to improve slowly to not risk injury. Actually, I KNOW I could have gone faster today but I had to slow down to a fast walk at around 23 minutes because my iPOD died on me. It was fully charged when I left for work this morning, but my iPOD has been acting up lately. Once I got it restarted, I was off running again. I think I need to do something about my iPOD. Either get the battery replaced or just get the iPOD Nano that I had my eye on. That way, I can play around with the new Nike shoes feature. ;-)

One thing that I NEED to do is to go back to running outside to see if I could still do it. It's sad to say that our secretary is putting me to shame. She's doing the Couch-to-5K training program and she's up to running 4 minutes straight now, but the other day she went out for her run at 10 pm, when the humidity was slightly lower!!! Talk about being motivated! I may be able to run straight through, but when it comes to running outside in the humidity she beats me hands down. I NEED TO GO OUTSIDE!!! I know I have to do this, but what my brain tells me needs to be translated into action.

I did get new running shoes last week. There's a specialty running shoes store that just opened down the street from my work so I was out and back to work within 30 minutes. It would have been sooner, but I got stuck inside the store because it was pouring out. Anyways, I got the New Balance 767. I ended up trying out at least 6 different pairs before I decided to get this one. Maybe I can try it out for a run this week, hopefully outside! LOL.

Fitness overall has been going well. I worked out 6 days straight last week. The only glitch was Saturday. I wanted to run then do UBWO, but I only got UBWO done because I was too LAZY!!! The UBWO was even a close call. I procrastinated until the last minute and just got done barely until I had to run out to meet my mom at the mall. Does anybody have this problem? On track during the weekdays, then weekends seem to be a struggle.

I guess you could say I still got some cardio done last Saturday with the shopping marathon with my mom, LOL! She wanted me to go with her and help her look for an outfit for my brother's wedding. She is the mother of the groom, after all. We must have gone EVERYWHERE! She fell in love with this beautiful dress from Neiman Marcus, but it costs $850 with a bolero that costs $155! Not to mention that she needs to get it altered because she's a shorty like me. Holy crap! Granted, she's the mother of the groom, but I don't know if I can justify spending that much money for something you will only wear once! She didn't buy it when we were there, but she went back yesterday, so I don't know if she got it. There were other dresses that she liked, but the Neiman Marcus one was the one she really loved. If she bought this dress, she'll be wearing something that costs more than the bride's gown itself!

I noticed that some these high-end formal dresses run on the small side. My mom usually wear a size 6 (although she was able to fit into a size 2 for INC brand clothes from Macy's) but she was fitting into size 10's yestereday. I got bored at one point and tried on this one beautiful formal dress and I'm happy to say that I can still squeeze into a size 2! Actually, that might not be a good thing. I think it's because I have no boobs! LMAO!

-------------------------------------------

Thank you all for your kind comments last week! Situations like that always hit hard, but it makes you appreciate life more and reminds you to live life to the fullest. I wish we could attend the funeral to pay our last respect, but he went back to his home country last year to spend his last years there. We did pay our respect to his family here before they left.

------------------------------------------

Okay, enough already. I have to get back to work!

I'm still psyched about my 29:24. And it makes me think...could a (((GASP))) sub-29 minutes 5K be around the corner? Stay tuned!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

29:49

Another 5K improvement, which I set yesterday!

I know, I need to come up with new titles for my posts, but I can't think of anything right now. It's either my new 5K times or "Duh". LOL.

Speaking of 5K, our secretary asked me if I wanted to run a 5K with her around September/October. I told her that I would. She's training right now, but she's still doing run/walk intervals. She wants more time to train so she can run the whole thing. I'm kind of nervous about it. In theory, I can do it, but I don't know how it would turn out when I'm actually there. Plus, I'm uncertain on how my knees and shins would hold up. But I guess I won't find out until I actually do it. So my strategy is to keep running, but not to overdo it, improve SLOWLY, and pray! LOL. We still haven't figured out what 5K race we want to do, but there's plenty going on locally. She's really cool about it because she told me right off the bat that we do not have to run together. But by committing to run at a 5K event will help us both be accountable to a goal. I'm cool with that!

Anyways, workouts are going great! Last week, I managed to work out Saturday & Sunday. Saturday, I went to the gym by my parents and did 40 minutes MISS on the eliptical and LBWO. There were only 3 people, counting me, when I got to the gym which was nice. Sunday, I walked on my mom's rinky-dinky dreadmill for 40 minutes on an incline. So 4 days of workouts last week! Not too bad, considering I slacked off in the beginning.

Yesterday, I did the 5K/HIIT run on the treadmill & ab bootcamp. Today, I did 40 minutes MISS on the eliptical and UBWO. So off to a good start this week.

Eating hasn't been that great, but on the dot for the most part (~90%). Sunday was definitely a free day since I went to a b-day party. Tons of barbeque, and for some reason they ended up with 5 cakes! There were 2 people celebrating their b-days, but still!!!! There were also a lot of people there but 5 cakes is still too much! And you should have seen the size of some of these cakes! I limited my eating to fruits, grilled lean meats, some rice, and a piece of yummy strawberry cake. So a free day, but not an all out bingeing.

Oh, and I went to another musical this weekend! Actually, I went with my mom because my dad had some reunion with his college frat brothers going on and they already bought tickets. The musical was Disney's "AIDA" and was performed by the local summer stage group. It's basically the best of the best around the area among young artists (high school to 25 years old). My mom's goddaughter was in it. Well, I thought she only had a small part but it turned out that she had the lead, so she was Aida! The whole production was really well done, almost professional-like. And my mom's goddaughter was UNBELIEVABLE! I knew she could sing, but DAMN! And the most amazing part, she's only going to be a high school junior this coming fall! Pretty amazing for one so young! It was so cool, people were actually lined up to get her autograph! I found out that last year the summer stage group did "Les Miserables" and she played Eponine. Wish I could have seen that!

Well, that's about it for now. If I'm not too tired, I think I'm going to make some homemade protein bars tonight.

Later!

Friday, July 21, 2006

30:25

30:25 - That's my 5K time for today. I ran it on the treadmill at 1% incline. For the Tracker 5K challenge, I started out at 33:25, so I'm kind of happy that the new time is a 3 minutes improvement. Thank God I reached the 5K milestone when I did because I was wearing the wrong socks and I could feel the early stage of a blister developing!

I feel like I reverted with my running. I was on a roll a couple of months ago, averaging 5 miles running outside. Then, I don't know what happened! I'm struggling just to run on the treadmill! Anyways, I'm going to look at this in a positive light. It just means there's more room for progress. On a good note - shins and knees feel fine!

This week has just been one roadblock after another for getting my workout done. First, it was mom's illness, then Lion King (good thing though), then just tiredness. And work on top of everything else!

Then today, I almost didn't get my workout done. I came into work early with the intent of going to the gym first thing in the morning. Well, when I got to the office there were already 2 people in and they were talking right outside my office. Of all things, they were talking about how some people take too much personal time off, take extra long lunch breaks, etc. Well, do you think I was going to walk out there, lugging my huge gym bag, and go to the gym? I don't think so! Anyways, I was able to "sneak out" after lunch to do HIIT/5K run on the treadmill, UBWO, and abs. Finally! This week is not turning into a complete disaster after all!

I know, most of it's my fault and I'm just making excuses. I hate it when I do that! I need to focus, toughen up, and just do it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Hakuna Matata...

It means no worries for the rest of your day
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata

As I mentioned in my last post, I saw The Lion King last Tuesday night! What an awesome musical! Other than the death scene where Mufasa died, it's totally kid friendly. So if you have a chance to see it, go! I'm lucky that the tour group is in Philly right now. I wanted to see it in New York but I heard it's been sold out for months. Plus, Philly is just much more convenient for me.

Unfortunately, my problem-free philosophy is extending to my diet and exercise program in a bad way. Last week, I was right on with all my workouts. This week, I only worked out last Tuesday (40 minutes MISS on the eliptical & abs). Talk about a contrast! Whenever I stay at my parents house for the weekend, my routine totally goes out of whack! I need the time to focus and plan, which is hard to do when I'm there. Plus for me, I need to start the week on a good note, otherwise it's like a domino effect for the rest of the week and I just totally sabotage myself! I need to get it together!

One good news, my mom is doing better. She's still sick, but a lot better than Monday. The ER was retarded though. They diagnosed her to have bronchitis, but they only gave her a note excusing her from work for one day. Anybody who's had bronchitits knows it takes at least a week to get over it! Since she already went beyond the date on the excuse note, she went back to work today, only to go back home around lunch time. I'm praying she wise up and take it easy for now, otherwise it could develop into pneumonia!

-----------------------------------------

Not to get political or anything, but I'm rivited by what's happening in the Middle-East right now. Well, that and this whole Christie Brinkley infidelity deal ;). Anyways, I haven't tuned into the news this much since the 2004 Presidential Election! I know, I need a life!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Busy Weekend

Hello all! I've been so busy I haven't had time to post in the last few days. Where do I start? Thursday night, I went out for dinner & went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. For those of you who haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do. Plus, there's Johnny Depp. Need I say more? The movie ended with a cliff hanger so I guess Pirates 3 is in the works.

Friday night, I ended up going to my parents house, which was unplanned. I just finished writing a comment on Jess's blog and feeling bummed that I will be missing the Bon Jovi concert when my friend emailed me and said that there are still tickets available and if I was still interested in going. Hell ya! The only thing is that he asked if he can meet me at my parents house since it's like 15 minutes away from the sports complex and he will be in the area the following day. So I quickly packed up and left work early, got home, packed a few clothes, and drove to my parents house in the rush hour/shore traffic. Tt turned out that my parents were going to a party that night for one of our friends so I went. That was great fun. There were some karaoke singing, but I just watched. I don't sing in public and everybody that sang were actually pretty good! Oh, and at the party, I got hit on...by a bunch of mothers! Apparently, they have single sons about my age ;-).

Saturday morning, I went to the gym at around 8:30 am. I ran on the tready for the Tracker 5K challenge. About 25 minutes into my running, my mom stopped by and asked if I can wait until 10:30 because she wanted to take the toning & ab classes. Who am I, a fitness nut, to refuse? So I was at the gym for 2 hours! I also did my UBWO and some leg exercises on the Smith Machine so it all worked out. Unfortunately, it was too hot in there! I don't know if the AC was broken, or the owner was just being cheap and they set the AC too low. All I know is that it was stiffling and the ceiling fans were not even turned on!

Saturday night, off I went to the Bon Jovi concert. We stopped by the diner first for some dinner before heading over to the Phillies stadium. The ticket said the show starts at 6:00, but we pulled into the parking lot at around 6:04 and Nickelback didn't come on until 6:30. Our seats were actually pretty good! We were on the 300 level, but it was the first row and towards the side so we were closer to the stage than if you were directly in front of the stage. Not as good as Jess's seats, but good enough. Nickelback was great! I like their songs, but didn't care much for the cursing in between the songs. Bon Jovi was UN-FRIGGIN-BELIEVABLE!!!! It was by far the best concert I've ever been to! By the end of the concert, my hands were sore from all the clapping and my voice was horse from all the singing/shouting. Before the concert, my friend was telling me that him and his friend gets annoyed when people sing in concerts since they paid to hear the artist sing and not the audience. Well, I told him right there and then too bad! I will definitely be singing my heart out, and I did! Definitely a night to remember. Before Bon Jovi came on, I bought a "Have A Nice Day" t-shirt for $45!!!! The most expensive t-shirt I ever bought! All the t-shirts being sold there were that price. I was initially apprehensive, but now I'll wear that t-shirt proud! The only thing is I knew way ahead of time about the concert. I could have met up with Jess! Did anybody read her blog? Wow! I'm so jealous of her! She got to touch Jon!

The great night turned out wierd. We were waiting in the parking lot for the traffic to ease up when this wierd guy, who was clearly high on something, asked us to speak to his friend on the cell phone because the friend wanted to know the wierd guy's location and didnt believe him. Apparently, the wierd guy was doing balloons in the parking lot & whoever he was with left & ran off when the cops came by. So the wierd dude was stranded. He kept leaning onto our car and wouldn't leave until his friends came by, which fortunately they did. Once the guy left, we quickly left the parking lot. The drive home wasn't too bad. My parents live 15 minutes away and my friend didn't live that far away either, so we got home in no time.

Sunday was pretty quiet. We went to church, had lunch at McDonald's (I had the salad!), went food shopping, then had a bbq for dinner.

Monday morning at like 2 am, my dad woke me up to tell me that he's taking my mom to the hospital. She's been coughing for the last couple of days, which she said is not because she's sick but because of the heat. Anyways, by Sunday night she was having a hard time breathing. So off they went to the ER. They didn't get to her in like forever since the ER was packed and there was another patient there that ended up dying. Anyways, they finally checked my mom and concluded that she has bronchitis, and thankfully not pneumonia. They prescribed her some antibiotics and sent her home. She's resting now at home.

So now I'm back to work. Tonight I'm going to see The Lion King at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

The End.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

On a roll!

Miracles of miracles! I actually made it to the 6:15 am spinning class! Boy, did it kick my butt! I haven't done spinning in a while and I felt it! And I haven't gotten up this early to go to the gym in like FOREVER! I have to admit though, I think it was harder getting out of bad and heading to the gym that early than actually doing the workout. So for today, cardio HIIT & abs - BIG FAT CHECK!!! Yay me!!!

Well, the super early wake-up is finally getting to me. So I'm off to bed! Sweet dreams!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Gym Jerk

Well, I'm still kicking butt with my workouts! This morning, I was able to wake up early enough to go to the gym and do cardio & UBWO. Cardio was a 30 minutes MISS on the eliptical. I wanted to do 40 minutes at least, but I didn't wake up that early enough and I still had to do UBWO. Unfortunately, I was only able to do back, chest, biceps, and some triceps this morning. This is where the gym jerk comes in.

I was in the middle of doing UBWO. Since I was short in time, I did my lifting mostly with the machines. I did back, chest, bi, and only 2 sets of tris because got fed up and left. Throughout my UBWO, this short Asian dude was jumping from one weight equipment to another. Before I go on, I first want to get it out of the way that I'm not being racist when I refer to this dude. I'm a short and Asian myself, only female. Anyways, this guy was jumping from one equipment to another. Nothing wrong with that, but he basically took ownership of multiple equipment at the same time. For example, we have one cable machine with 2 stations. He left his towel there to save it for himself. At the same time, he had heavy plates on the platform of the assisted pull-up machine so it's weighted down. But while he had these equipment saved for himself, he would either be doing some exercises with dumbells on one of the benches or working out in the ab machine. What annoyed me was that I was looking forward to using the cable machine for my tris. I know, I know. I could have done other things. But I was getting really really annoyed just watching this dude! And it's not like the gym was empty, there were other people working out there! He was either being really inconsiderate or just plain dumb! In retrospect I think this was building up over time because even before today this guy has been getting on my nerves! There were multiple times where we would be working out next to each other on the benches and he would lift using heavy dumbells (too heavy in my opinion because his form sucks!) and he would just slam the dumbells on the floor! Many times it would startle me and I sometimes got worried in case he hit me by accident. Sorry, I just had to vent. I'm not PMSing or anything, and I don't even know the guy! But for some reason, he just got on my nerves BIG TIME today! Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Who knows!

Anyhoo, I was still able to complete my UBWO by doing tris & shoulders at home after work. All was not lost!

Work is another story. I am so stressed out! I'm doing the job of 2 people (currently covering for someone else who's on maternity leave) and everything is due at the same time. To top it all off, I somehow end up piloting this one system that we're implementing. It just happens the target completion date for one of my project falls right as this new system is being launched. Needless to say, my project is going to to be the guinea pig. OH JOY! Talk about pressure! It's kind of ironic since I have the least seniority in my group, hence the least experience, yet I'm the first to use this sytem. I can't really say I blame anyone as this was not done by design. It just happen to be my "luck" that I'm working on the project I'm in. In spite of the stress, I still love my job. I just have to get through these obstacles and I should be home free until the next hump.

As for the shin splints, thanks for the advice on the shoes! When I have time, I'll just have to swallow the expense and head over to the specialty running store for new shoes.

As for the Japanese Beetles, it's still there. I was going to apply the chemical after work, but we had some thunderstorms. It looks like it's more widespread than I thought because it actually made our local news! The advice they gave is to not use the bags as it attracts more of these critters. Basically, you have to pick them individually and drop them in a bucket full of soap water. Uh, I think I'm going to stick with chemicals. I'm getting grossed out just thinking about touching these flying creepy crawlies, even with gloves. Yuck!

That's all for today, folks! Thanks for reading!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Post 104!!!

Geez! I just realized I passed the 100th post for this blog! Didn't realize I had this much to say!

This weekend was pretty quiet. Did a lot of work around the house. Did not get any gardening done though. I bought some more chemicals for my Japanese Beetle infestation, but didn't get to apply it. It was so funny at the hardware store, they actually had a sign by the front doors saying that they are out of the Japanese Beetle traps! I guess I'm not the only one having this problem!

I also went shopping again this weekend. Yes, I admit I am a shopaholic, LOL! I think it's genetic and I'm putting the blame on my mom because she is worse than me! Actually, I am still replenishing my wardrobe. Last weekend, I did a bit of cleaning and I actually collected 4 garbage bag full of clothes for disposal! Some of the clothes are just old or out-of-style, but most are just way too big on me. Part of the reason is because there was also a period of time when I was bigger that I hated shopping because I just hated the way I looked in clothes. I remember trying on clothes, looking in the mirror and almost in tears because I didn't like what I saw. Now that I'm in a better shape, I guess you could say I'm making up for lost time. For example, I just realized that I need more summer clothes. Again, when I was bigger, I wore clothes that covered me up even during the summer seasons. I wouldn't even wear sleeveless shirts and shorts because they accentuated how big my arms & thighs were. Now I am having so much fun playing dress-up that it feels almost therapeutic! As long as it's not breaking the bank, it's all good!

Anyhoo, today is also the start of the 4th week of being back into a fitness routine. I'm elated to say that I'm still going strong! This weekend was tough workout-wise though, but I got 'em done! I ended up working out on Sunday, which was supposed to be a rest day, because I kept putting off my scheduled workouts. No break for the procrastinator! Today started out great! Did my treadmill run HIIT and abs first thing in the morning and got it out of the way!

The only downside is that I need to take a break from running because of these darn shin splints! About 2 weekends ago, I did a fast walk on the treadmill which strained my shins somehow. At the speed I was going, I should have been running already, but I forced myself (for some unknown reason!) to speed walk. So since then, I can feel some soreness in my shins at the start of my runs, but it goes away after several minutes. It's not so bad, but I know I have to give it a rest or it will get worse. So this week, I have to do my cardio on either the bike or the eliptical. Hopefully, I will be able to run pain-free by Saturday.

One good thing that happened today is I got complemented at work! I went to a meeting and a friend of mine who was also there for the meeting asked me if I've lost weight again. We were office mates last year when I first started BFL so she is familiar with my new lifestyle. Anyways, I said "Not that I know of", which is true since I haven't weighed myself in like forever! She then added that I look good! I graciously thanked her for her kind comment. ;-)

Friday, July 07, 2006

Time for an update

Hey all! Hope everybody had a great 4th of July! Mine went really well. Ate a lot though, but not too bad. I indulged a little bit without going on an all out binge.

Unfortunately, the holidays did not bode too well for everybody. 4 of my co-worker's family was involved in a really serious accident on Tuesday. They were driving through the turnpike when an extremely severe thunderstorm went through. They hit a patch of water, hydroplaned, hit something and rolled over twice. Let's just say they were lucky to be alive, although they suffered some broken bones, concussion, chipped bones, compressed vertebrae, etc. I'm praying that they get through this.

---------------------------------------------------

My workouts are going really well, although it's getting harder & harder to fit in my extra cardio. I'm just being lazy, especially in the morning. Hit a few bumps also. Last Tuesday morning (the 4th), I went out for a run in the park. I was doing really well, passing all the runners & walkers in the trail, when after running just over 1.5 miles, boom, cramps! I really hate TOM! Needless to say, I had to cut my run short. Luckily, I did my HIIT & UBWO the day before, just in case I couldn't get a workout done on the 4th of July.

Another bump was yesterday, which was supposed to be moderate cardio & LBWO. Did my LBWO after lunch, but couldn't get the cardio in during the morning because of laziness. I think it worked out okay in the end because my legs are still really sore from yesterday's LBWO and if I did the cardio, I probably wouldn't be able to get anything done today.

Today, again I didn't wake up early enough. I was planning on taking the spinning class at the gym during lunch time but found out that it was cancelled when I got to the gym. I ended up doing a step class instead, which does not exactly fit into my planned HIIT for today. I still got a good workout (moderate intensity), and I was happy overall since it was an advanced step class and I was still able to keep up with it after not doing it for months. Anyways, I decided to just switch HIIT tomorrow on the treadmill & also UBWO. Problem solved! It pays to have a backup plan. ;-)

-----------------------------------------------------

I just wanted to say, I'm so proud of my mom! Don't know if anybody recall me writing about it, but my mom suffered from multiple medical issues - high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoperosis, & trigeminal neuralgia. Last year, she had a bad reaction to a trigeminal neuralgia medication, which is essentially an anticonvulsant drug, that she ended up in the ICU for a week. The one good thing that came out of it was that she lost a lot of weight. Once she got better, she started eating healthier and has recently gotten into working out. When she got sick, her doctor took her out of all her medications and he was supposed to slowly re-introduce them . Well, on her last physical, all her stats came back NORMAL! Blood pressure & cholesterol are normal on the low side. Good cholesterol level is high. Bone density is normal. She's still taking cholesterol & blood pressure medications, as well as for her TG (can't get rid of that, unfortunately), but the cholesterol & blood pressure medications are at the lowest dosage. Before, she was taking them at the highest doses possible. Even before the ICU episode, she must have made at least 4 trips to the ER for a high blood pressure flare ups. Also, since her bone density is back to normal, her doctor didn't put back the osteoperosis drug. Yay for mom!!!

-----------------------------------------------

Nothing much going on this weekend. Probably just hanging out around the house & catching up on chores. One thing I need to do is get some yard work done. Because of all the rain we've been having, I really haven't had the opportunity to do any gardening. I have weeds that are growing like trees! Also, my beautiful rose bush by the deck is getting choked up on Japanese Beetles. Anybody has any suggestions on how to get rid of these little critters? It's driving me NUTS!!! I've been spraying them with chemicals but they keep coming back! I don't want to do the bags since I heard that's a big no no. One thing I can think of is putting a bat house, but I don't think that would go well with my townhouse association. LOL.

That's about it! Hope everybody have a great weekend!

Friday, June 30, 2006

Long Weekend!

Yay! Long weekend, here I come! I worked from home today, and I'm off Monday & Tuesday! Yahoo!!!

Okay, today's workout was cardio HIIT. I didn't work out until between M1 and M2 because my legs were still sore from yesterday's LBWO. Thought I'd give my legs some time to warm up and move around. For cardio, I ran on the treadmill for 35+ minutes (with 20 minutes HIIT). My level 10 was a 7.9 mph this time, and I can barely stay on the treadmill! My little legs were pumping! Cardio was then followed by abs.

Eating has been okay, but I've been craving snacks all day! I have to be honest, I had minor weak moments, but not an all out binge. I have to get a handle on this, which has to start with that jar of peanuts in my pantry!

Hope everyone have a great holiday weekend! Choose your free day wisely and enjoy! Stay safe!

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Here comes the sun...



First of all, thank you for your thoughts & prayers! The weather has finally taken a turn for the better! We may get some thunderstorms tonight, but not bad. Looks like we can finally breathe easy again. The towns by the Susquehanna, Schuykill, & Delaware Rivers are the ones hardest hit. I think some of them got it worst this morning when the river crested. My prayers goes to those still affected.

Anyhoo, got my workouts done today. Ran/walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes first thing this morning. Most of it was running. My legs just wasn't feeling it this morning so performance was not as good as Tuesday's run. Then this afternoon, I went to the gym and did LBWO. For LBWO, I did BFL (hams, glutes, calves), hip adduction and abduction (3 sets of 12 each - 85 lbs), and walking lunges across 4X across the exercise room (2X with 10 lbs. dumbells & 2X with 12 lbs. dumbells). I then did 2 sets of knee-ups with the captain's chair. That's it for the workouts! I'm very pleased overall.

So as you can see, still going strong. Let's hope it lasts. ;)

I'm watching the Travel Channel right now. It's showing Drew Carey's show where he travels to Germany for the World Cup. I love to travel and I'm itching to go somewhere right now. I'm going to Las Vegas with my family in late September, so I have that to look forward to at least.

Gotta go and eat my last meal for the day! Vanilla whey protein powder in skim milk! Here's a tip for skim milk - get the organic ones! It tastes just like 2%, but with the same calories as the regular skim milk. It's probably healthier since it's organic. It's a little bit more pricey, but it's worth it. So much better than the sour tasting regular skim milk!

Later!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Flood Alert!!!

Just some images from local towns...



The above picture is a picture of a park by near my work.



So here's how my day started:

I woke up super early, raring to go to the gym for spinning class. As I was brushing my teeth, I could faintly hear the sump pump from my basement running an awful lot. I was puzzled since it wasn't raining outside. I then decided to turn on the news and 'lo and behold! Flood watch EVERYWHERE!!! Apparently, just an hour before, we got tons of rain! I must have been in deep sleep because I didn't even notice that it rained that hard. I know for certain that some of the roads become unpassable around here during severe storms because of a creek that's about half a mile away from me. So instead of risking it, I just went back to bed. I really didn't want to run today because I already ran Monday and yesterday.

Anyways, I decided to leave my house a little bit late for work so to give the authorities enough time to do their work. Thankfully, the affected roads were blocked. I drove by the creek and OH MY GOD! The water level was so high! This one bridge that I cross on the way to work was completely submerged. I had to take a detour further up to cross the creek. Once I got to the other side of the creek, I saw houses that were completed flooded. The road that run by it is on higher ground so cars were able to drive by but the sight of the houses right below was just hearbreaking! The traffic was horendous and I was an hour late for work.

The drive on my way back home was horrible too, and I left an hour early hoping to avoid the traffic! There are a lot of back roads, particularly those that run by the creek, that were still flooded since the creek didn't crest until 3-4 pm, so I think everybody stuck to the main roads.

Thankfully, my house stayed dry. I'm far away enough from the creek that it didn't affect me at all. Also, my side of the creek is on very high ground. As a matter of fact, the houses that are right next to the creek on my side were completely spared, except maybe for their backyards. I have to say, I am very fortunate. The most I "suffered", if you even want to call it that, is the inconvenience of being stuck in traffic. I'm still very thankful and pray for those directly affected.

Unfortunately, we're supposed to get more rain this week. However, the weather report seems to indicate that we've already seen the worse. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I've seen enough rain to last me a lifetime! Between Friday to today, we've had 7.80" of rain dumped on us! I can't wait for the weekend! This whole thing is supposed to clear up by then.

---------------------------------------

On the fitness front, I was still able to get my cardio HIIT done today. I went to the gym after lunch and did cardio on the eliptical for 30 minutes, followed by ab workout. So that's one good thing that happened today.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Another goal met

Still going strong with the workouts! This morning, I ran on my treadmill for my moderate cardio. One of my goals, in addition running 2 miles in 20 minutes, was to run 5K (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes or less. Today, I DID IT! My exact time was 29:44!!! I'm so excited about it!

I also went to the gym a little bit after lunch and did UBWO and Smith Machine leg exercises. Workouts for the day - CHECK!!!

Eating has been clean! I was so proud of myself today! Someone from work brought in a bunch of white chocolate bars and left them in the kitchen, ready for the picking. I stayed strong and resisted, but man was it tough! What I did was avoid our kitchen altogether and went to the kitchen downstairs for water & coffee. Whew! Disaster averted!

Nothing interesting going on outside of diet & fitness. Just routine stuff. Still getting a lot of rain, but not as bad as yesterday. We actually got a little peek from the sun today! It's still there, after all ;)!!! Right now, I'm catching up on some laundry.

That's it for today! Catch you all later!

Monday, June 26, 2006

No end in sight...

Well, looks like this storm front is going to stay with us until the end of the weak. Driving home was quite an adventure. There were times were I feared my little Honda Civic was going to float away! But, I got home safely, thank God! My normal 20 minutes commute took me 45 minutes. I had to take the long way because there are places on my normal route where it becomes unpassable during torrential rains. I was praying all the way home that the cops around here were doing their jobs today and are actually blocking the unpassable roads. Looks like they were!

But it could be worse. A friend of mine from work, who lives 35 minutes south west from my house, had a horrible weekend. He lost power long enough for his basement to flood because his sump pump couldn't run. The good thing is that there were no water damage and all he has to do is to dry out his carpet. However, his skylight leaked and his gutters clogged up. He certainly wasn't a happy camper. My parents, who lives about an hour south east from me are fine. But there's a Walmart in their county where the cars in the parking lot floated away! That must have been scary!

The first thing I did when I got home was checked around the house. So far sump pump's running, basement seems to be dry, and the skylight in my family room is intact. So far so good!

------------------------------------------------

Fitness

The meals are going great! Last night, I cooked my meals for the week - EFL Golden Pancakes, EFL Sloppy Joes, Whole Wheat Couscous with Roasted Peas & Garlic (recipe from Muscles & Fitness Hers), and Roasted Salmon (recipe also from Muscles & Fitness Hers). I ate the Sloppy Joes for lunch and it was so good!

I also got my workout in first thing this morning. 35+ minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes of which were HIIT. I got in 2 miles in under 19 minutes (can't remember exactly what time because the display switches between time elapsed and time/mile and I was running pretty hard at that point) and my level 10 was a 7.8 mph, which is pretty good for me!

Off to a good start this week. I hope it lasts, at least until Friday. After that, who knows! It's the weekend before 4th of July and my parents are coming over and my mom wants to go to the outlet store. I'm also off from work Monday & Tuesday, so anything can happen!

Uuuggghhh!!! It's thundering again! The rain just stopped, but looks like there's more to come!!! I'm so sick of this!