Checking in...

It's been really crazy lately at the school I teach at and I think that running has kind of kept me grounded. Last fall, while I was on maternity leave, one of our teachers passed away in his sleep. It hit the kids and faculty really hard. About a week ago a 9th grader (along with her mother and younger brother) was shot and killed by her step-father. Last Friday was the funeral and many of my 9th graders were there.

Sunday afternoon I got a call that a teacher in my department passed away Saturday night. Totally unexpected. She was in her early 50's (but she looked ten years younger) and in perfect health. Actually, she was one of the people I work with that inspired me to get into shape. Until a couple of years ago, Terri ran full and 1/2 marathons on a regular basis. We're all still in shock at school. Ironically, I thought of her last weekend when I was shopping at H&M because she shopped there a lot - she had amazing style.

I'm glad I'm still keeping up with running and I think it's helping me keep busy. I ran day two of week 5 yesterday. I ran 8 minutes, walked 5, ran 8, walked 5. The first 8 minutes were killing me until I realized Chris had just used the treadmill and left the incline at 4! I guess that's a drawback of sharing a treadmill :) The Disney 1/2 marathon is 50% full so we'll hopefully be signing up soon!

Ups and downs...

I'm finding myself lately torn between being really proud of myself for exercising on a regular basis and depressed because I still can't fit into all of my pre-pregnancy clothes. I know the saying "9 months on, 9 months off" but it's frustrating because some of my clothes fit ok and some won't even zip up :( I had a reality check today at the mall. I picked out a few cute tops at H&M to try on, plus a pair of pants and a skirt, and nothing fit. I got the pants in one size and the skirt in a size up and neither one came close to fitting. The shirts weren't too bad but my chest is still larger than normal. I'm afraid that if I buy tops now they won't fit once I stop nursing. I guess I'll hold off shopping for a few more weeks and hope that I drop some more weight.

On the bright side, I started week 5 of my program today and feel great. I walked 5 minutes to warm up, then ran 5 minutes, walked 3, and repeated that twice more. That's day one of week 5 - day two consists of running for 8 minutes and walking for 2 or 3 and day three is running for 20 minutes. I'm nervous about day three but then again just a few weeks ago running for 5 minutes nonstop scared me. I think starting slow has really been the trick to sticking with things now. I've been talking with a friend about running in a 5k in the next couple of months. Hopefully I can keep up the enthusiasm until next January!

Overdue update

I haven't posted in a long time - school has been really busy lately and Caitlin is certainly keeping us on our toes!

I just started week 4 today and I'm pretty sore. This week is jog for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, jog for 5 minutes, and walk for 2 minutes repeated twice. I went a little over 2 miles, including a 5 minute warm-up and cool down.

Good news in the weight department: I finally am inching closer and closer to my pre-pregnancy weight! I was stuck at 150 for a long time but now I'm about 146. Some of my pants fit and some still don't. Hopefully by the spring I'll be able to fit into everything. I really need some new clothes but I want to wait until I lose all of the baby weight.

Snow day!

We finally had a snow day today! Luckily we found out last night but I was too tired to celebrate with my usual glass of wine :) I decided to take advantage and ran before lunch while Caitlin was hanging out with Chris. It's hard to run when I'm home alone because the basement is freezing. If Caitlin is down with me I'll turn on the gas fire and cover her with blankets - she doesn't seem to mind but the treadmill is right by the fire so I'm sweating! It's much easier when Chris can keep her upstairs or she's napping in her crib (thanks Mom and Dad for our baby monitor!).

I think running is finally catching up with me. I feel sore all over today and am really tired. It's probably because though I ran I did absolutely nothing the rest of the day so my body is confused :)

Hoping for a delay tomorrow so I can sleep in a bit. Well, at least have breakfast at home for once!

Day Three

Just finished my third workout from week one. You're supposed to do three workouts in one week but I'll probably do it two more times before going to week two. I ran at a higher speed today and still feel good. Sore, but in a good way.

I decided to get on our Wii after running for fun. I haven't been on it since I was about 5 or 6 months pregnant - I stopped doing it partly because it couldn't understand why I was gaining weight.... yeah, they don't have a pregnancy option. Luckily today I was a few lbs below the last time I did it so that was good. The bad thing was I did the fitness test and my Wii age was 43!

We finally got snow today so I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow. We had a teacher workday today but they kicked us out at noon so I didn't get as much done as I needed. Fingers crossed I'll have tomorrow at home to plan!

Day Two

Chris decided it would be funny to take a picture of me on the treadmill - ugh, I really need to keep working out! This was our Christmas present to each other and so far we've been using it a fair amount. Chris likes to run outside but it's too cold for me! Plus it's easier to use the treadmill when Caitlin is napping or when she's in her swing in the basement.

I did the same workout as yesterday: warm-up for 5 minutes, run/walk for 20 minutes, walk again for 5 minutes. I'm also doing sit-ups and a little arm exercises with my 5lb weights.

Workout day one

I'm starting out with the couch to 5k program and today was my official day one. I did about 30 minutes total on the treadmill, including 5 minutes of warm-up and 5 minutes to cool down. The bulk of the workout was 60 seconds running and 90 seconds walking. I found an audio to play on my ipod telling me when to walk and when to run which was great. Chris has our tv downstairs hooked up to a computer so I could go on pandora and listen to music through that.

I'm going to try again tomorrow along with finishing laundry, cleaning, and grading. I did some laundry today but then I had to make a dip for a friend's party. The party was fun except Caitlin was not a happy camper so we had to leave early. Of course as soon as we got home she was all smiles and fell right asleep! I think we have a little homebody on our hands! :)