I'm back on track - I'm a runner again! Have been running pretty consistently for the past month, although only 14 - 24 miles per week. This week I stepped it up a bit, did an 8 mile run yesterday, and will finish at 29 miles for the week! I'm back on track for marathon training! My times seem slow, but nothing I can do about that at the moment, just need to build up the mileage.

This morning I ran 4 miles in 37:37. Definitely not the speed I'd like, but the heat is also an issue, although I've been trying to wake up early in the morning to get the running done in high 60's low 70's for temps. My 8 mile run yesterday was 1:19:52. I would like to stay under 10 mile minutes, for sure.

Yay! Long Beach Marathon, here I come!

the second page of this two page layout:

( Phoenyx and Dakota )

3 mile run this morning - 68 - 70 degrees, 29:12
3 mile run this afternoon - 88 degrees, 29:41

My schedule necessitated the two separate, shorter runs, but I'm so glad I did it. :) Eating out tonight, tomorrow I have TONS of errands to run, and Thursday we leave, so I'll be sitting in the car for NINE HOURS that day. I need to get in as many runs as possible before we go, and plan to run at least a bit each day we're there.

I want to come home after our meeting tonight and finish my scrapbook page. I have work to do, too...

I just ran 4 miles in 40:12 in 88 degree heat and WIND. Ugh. My only thought: survival. Wondering how I'm ever going to get back into running - ?? I ran 14 miles last week, 24 the week before, and 14 the week before that. I guess I'm not doing as bad as I thought, but I'm not getting any faster, and I'm not losing any weight, either!

Thursday we leave for Silver City, NM for my sister's wedding! And yes, I am the matron of honor... Which means tiny strapped dress, although fairly flattering. Tight on the bust, and then falls loose but not "pregnant-looking."

The dilemma is not so much what to eat - I can pretty much find low carb food anywhere. The true dilemma is how can I run while there? I'm going to have to force myself to wake up early, because it'll be even hotter there than it is here. But - you know me, I'm SO not a morning person! Been staying up until about 3:00 these days.

And I ramble on...I think I will have some of my sister's wedding cake, but I can go without the rest of whatever.

Poor Eddie has so much work to do! I think he's going to be stressed out the whole time - we're going to be gone for 6 days. I'm wondering if he can bring his computer and work on images.

I'm so excited to see my parents! :D

I almost missed the deadline! Had this one done just last night, took the pic this morning while the lighting was good, and then was out all day working. JUST made it home in time to post!!

I love the accordian flower technique, I think I'd like to try it on a more girly page, so I can actually do some layering and make the flowers look like FLOWERS. I think reducing the fold size would make it a little thinner, although I don't mind a certain amount of bulk. And I only say that because someone else had mentioned that everyone thought they were too bulk - ? I am the Queen of bulk! LOL! It's actually the starfish that's REALLY going to take up a big chunk of scrapbook space. Should I even mention how bad those starfish stunk when I took them out of the plastic baggie??

But yeah, this is one of my favorite scrapbook subjects, of course! I'd love to really hammer out a bunch of Catalina pics from our trip in February. We'll be going to Hawaii in August, and I've barely even touched out pictures from the cruise last summer. :(

This is page one of a two page layout, but I didn't have to finish the other one before the deadline. :) Seriously MUST get back to my "at least 15 minutes a day" goal for scrapbooking...

6 miles today - 58:22

I was running off the sushi we had for lunch. :D And the orange chicken and the salad and the veggie tempura. I LOVE CHOMP SUSHI IN FULLERTON, CA! So much food, I couldn't finish it all! But their sushi is the best - so creative and delicious!

Two meetings today, different times - booked both but didn't get much else done! Went SHOE SHOPPING at Footsies in Anaheim. SURPRISED AND SHOCKED to see all shoes were $5!!! Normally 6/$40 or 3/$15, but this particular store is moving in a month or two, so they are trying to get rid of everything! Woot! Bought 4 pairs for me, and one pair for Abbie. Ironically, they didn't have the strappy sandals I actually went looking for. But THAT'S OK - SO MANY, MANY LOVELY HEELS! However, I then went to Payless, and got 2 pairs - BOGO. 7 pairs of shoes in one day!!!!!!!!

Took two days off of running, ate normally, and gained all the water weight back. :b Doesn't that just figure. Ran 4 miles today in 36:13 - my legs apparently liked those two days off.

I'm trying to scrapbook tonight, but I have so much work to do. I want to try and do even just 15 minutes a day, keep those creative juices flowing. It's so hard to just put off work to do something for myself.

Going to do that now.

We went to Pinnacle Peak with Eddie's parents... ( Pictures! )

And here is all the stuff I got from the Maya Road warehouse sale!! No wonder her stuff is expensive - all those adorable little tins! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the lunchbox tins! They have chipboard or beads or whatever in them, SO adorable! Some of the things that you can't really see is lots of nice ribbon, and some flourish and border rub ons, and three mini albums, plus a mini album that fits inside the lunchbox, some ADORABLE little crochet/pearl flowers, and the only thing I'm not wild about is that red sequin border stuff, which I got tons of.

Ok, so I was hoping for some inks. I got all this lovely chipboard and I do NOT know what to do with it!

Here's the page I finally finished the other night and now it's got me itching to scrapbook some more! I like it - it kind of grew on me, cause it was real plain before I added the letters and journaling. It seriously looks like all my OTHER pages, though - LOL! I need to scour my books and find something new! I think I'll enter this one in the RSS Challenge, though - I stamped one little thing on there (the pear, under the journaling), but you can't see it, so I think I'll enter it in the "add flowers" challenge.

These are the cards I received back from the card swap. Overall I'm happy with them! I love the one with the lady on it...very feminine and nice. I also like the Independence Day one because of the different techniques they used.

Yay, that was fun! I still think I like my butterfly cards best, though - LOL!

I scrapbooked last night after MONTHS of nothing! Yay!

These are for a card swap, and I finished them literally two days before the deadline!

Ran three miles today that felt like the last 3 miles of a marathon. Seriously. I'm living proof that fat energy is not NEARLY as efficient as carb energy. Yeah. I was dragging - not fun. I keep thinking my legs will get used to that and they're not. Ha! Oh well, I'll be adding in some carbs soon...

Someone asked me if it was hard running while doing WW. I can now say it's much harder to run while doing low carb than it is to run on low calorie.

Abbie's open house last night, and Dakota's band concert tonight. Trying to figure out how to help Phoenyx pass his classes this year and figure out summer school. Trip to Hawaii is all booked except for 3 museums, which I can't book ahead. Need to file some paperwork with the court - must do that tomorrow. Would like to do a card swap by the end of this month, I want to make my cards tomorrow. Phoenyx and Dakota are going with their Dad for the holiday weekend, but we have weddings to do. Lots of wedding referrals to touch base with, which takes longer than I expected it to. Need to run a decent amount tomorrow - at least 3 miles, as I'm upping my daily from 20 min to 30 min a day. Going to add veggies in the plan, and go regular low carb. Bought some fabuloso shoes yesterday, and had the most ADORABLE outfit on today. Work in the office was busy, busy, busy. Much litigation. Still have files to finish for freelance work, and invoices to make out.

Today I have a hangover and won't be running. Maybe I'll do some weights later tonight, with my *new* dumbbell for those lovely tricep flaps. I'd like to do some light yoga, but my yoga tape is 40 minutes long, and I don't have that much time. Anyone who does yoga have a few poses I can do that won't take too long, but will loosen me up and maybe do a little toning? Something I can do while I watch tv - LOL.

Work, work, work - I have so much work to do today. Wedding stuff, and transcription. After I finish a few more transcription files I'm going to negotiate a higher rate, to make it more worth my while. If I lose the account, I lose it, and then I'll just go in search of more. Any money is better than none at all, but I'm tired of working nonstop and not getting paid much. The wedding stuff is really the most lucrative, but I can't force people to book - LOL. It comes when it comes, and until then all I can do is advertise. It's actually a little scary how much wedding work we have right now, though. Just need more $$$!

Date with Phoenyx after school to TALK. I hope he really talks to me. Maybe it'll change his negative attitude.

Doing the meat/egg fast - you guessed it. Nothing but meat and eggs for a bit. Just want to drop the weight and drop it FAST. So far, so good. Hit a weight this morning I haven't seen in like a month. My goal is just around the corner, and yet it seems so unreachable at time. I just want to look decent in a bridesmaid dress on July 4th - is that too much to ask? LOL. Apparently so. Or maybe I'm just lazy. LOL.

And yeah, that's what's going on here. So not interesting. Just busy, busy, busy, and now I have to go - gotta get to work!

Gosh, I just cannot seem to keep up with this account! :(

Been running some, but not much. Decided not to do the R&R marathon or even half. Signed up for a 5K in July, and would really just like to do 2-6 miles 3-4 times a week. 20 minutes on the E 2-3 times a week. And weights and/or yoga 2-3 times a week. Want to work out for health, not for racing. How sad is that?

On the other hand, I am quite sad that I've lost most of my speed.

Eating low carb, trying to keep off the weight I recently gained and lost, and trying still to get off what I gained after I stopped running so much.

Working the wedding job full time with Eddie, doing freelance administrative in my spare time, and working in-office for one of my local clients 2 days a week. I HAVE NO TIME. I wish I had more time, I wonder how I ever had time for a full time job? Now if only the money would come in equal to the amount of work I seem to be putting in?

Ran 2 miles today, very slow, but I did it. Hope to run a couple tomorrow morning, but tomorrow is Saturday and the weekend madness begins. I think we need to leave the house at 11:00, which means I need to be out the door running by 9:00 if I want to run at all.

Sigh. And so is the full speed race that is my life.

4 miles yesterday, 39 minutes. Slow again, but I have to remember that I'm building a base again. All races aside, what I really need is to build back up to where I was. Ok, somewhere close to where I was, cause I'm still not altogether sure I want to do distance. Or, much distance.

I was just happy that I set out to run 3 miles, and things felt well enough that I went the bonus mile. :) Baby steps.

5:00 a.m. Easter morning finds me, on the elliptical. 20 minutes. :D Must've helped, because I didn't gain anything from that champagne brunch buffet.

Today, time only for 3 miles, but I finished in 27 minutes. 'Bout killed me, yes, but some progress regardless.

Just not sure I really care to work on distance right now. Sunday is the half marathon, and I really just want to finish - I know it'll be a nice (and challenging) run. Not sure after that if I'll do the half or full marathon in San Diego in June. Don't know. I just really don't feel like running distance right now.

SO much easier than the last! Still slow, though - 6 miles in 59 minutes. Ay... At least no walking, and I wasn't dying of heat!

Haven't been able to run most of this week. Tuesday I did an easy 2 miles with Eddie, and the we took off for an impromptu road trip to Vegas. Back Thursday, but was swamped with work yesterday, and didn't take the time to run. Tomorrow I won't have time, as we'll be busy with Easter and family all day, but I think I might wake up early and do 20 minutes on the elliptical. Ugh.

I'd like to do a 9 mile run on Monday, but we'll see how things go. That will be my last chance, because I think the rest of the week I'll need to cut it back to 2-4 mile runs. The half marathon is next Sunday already! I have no expectations for time, so I'll be running for fun, and just to finish. This is the EXTREMELY hilly half marathon - the first half is ALL uphill, and the second half mostly down.

To all my LiveJournal friends - I am SO sorry I haven't been able to keep up with you guys!! I hope to have more time in the near future, but at the moment I'm bogged down with transcription work and weddings! That's a GOOD thing, though!

Today I did 6 miles in 66 minutes. HAHAHAHA - is that an indication of how miserable it was? You bet it is! I expected to have trouble with this run, since it's been literally months since I've run this far (other than the marathon, which is a totally different scenario), but I didn't expect to have THIS much trouble! I can point to 3 factors:

1. Decreased carbs in the last few days, and probably liquids.
2. Unexplained stomach issues earlier in the day, and then just before my run.
3. The heat - 86 degrees, and this is the first time this year I've run in any real heat.

Combined, those issues make for a miserable, and crappy run! I REFUSED to give up, though - I reasoned, I possess a sort of steely determination when it comes to marathons, why not the training runs? I decided NOT to give up early in a training run this year, just NOT do it. I had planned for 6 miles, 6 miles is what I was going to do, if I had to crawl home. I kept up the running for the first two miles, and then started alternating walking/running. It was *really* hard to go right past the house at the 3 mile mark and not just walk right in. :(

In the end, I went 6 miles, lost 2 pounds of sweat, and felt a bit nauseous for an hour afterward. Interesting that this sort of heat would knock me on my butt, when I remember running in 90+ all summer long, with not a problem! In fact, the worst heat I ran in was 102 degrees last July 4th, but that was not so fun, either.

I feel like such a beginner.