Bootie Shorts Only!

I crawled WAY out of my comfort zone this weekend and attended a Bootie Shorts yoga class at my beloved Hot Asana....Months ago I bought a pair of teeny tiny bootie shorts but I had never even worn them around the house.

The class description read "This is the day to face our body image fears. We are perfect...right now. RIGHT NOW! A special class dedicated to being fearless..bootie shorts only and self criticism NOT ALLOWED!"

So this was an excellent opportunity for me to face my fear, embrace my body, and accept myself RIGHT NOW. Walking from the car into the studio was hard....I might as well have been wearing a swimsuit walking down the street. But once I got inside my self-criticism melted away as I saw bodies of all shapes and sizes! And smiles...all around! And women who are loving themselves, embracing themselves, and being awesome!

So I placed my mat next to my friend who graciously came along....and for the next 90 min I sweat, bended, and twisted....in bootie shorts! And not once did I feel embarrassed!

The phrase that I took away with me from this class that has been running through my mind since: Let go of that which no longer serves you.

I am letting go. Letting go of everything that has held me down, brought me down, inhibited me...Letting go feels SO good!

I can neither confirm nor deny that this is my bootie.....

What has been holding you back? Keeping you stuck? Keeping you angry, sad, or scared? What has kept you feeling not good enough, not fast enough, not strong enough? What can you let go of today?

Back to Reality...

Kinda. The cold hard truth stinks sometimes. All good things must come to an end...Vacation is over, and has been since Sunday. Sad, sad....sad.  I've been completely swamped and overwhelmed since Sunday and this is my first chance to sit down and take a breather.

LB and I had a great time at the beach. We had planned on going for morning runs and evening walks along the beach. We did get at least one of either each day, except for Sunday. The first day LB was not very in to it and about 3 minutes in began complaining of being hot, tired, out of shape, dehydrated, dying....But eventually he got it together (when we got passed by a mom and her little girl about the same age) and ran about 2 miles. That was our max during our time there.

We had lots of fun swimming and playing volleyball with the biggest volleyball in the world....

We watched fireworks and were thoroughly impressed by the Smiley Face....

 We dug holes and built castles...

And of course we took lots of Selfies...I'll spare you most of them...

And just when things are falling into a nice steady summer routine things get flipped upside down. Plans for races and long runs, yoga and kayaking are put on hold for now. In the words of my ex-husband, "Sometimes it takes a near death experience to show you what is important in life." LB and I headed home early on Sunday after getting a phone call that LB's dad had been in a very bad motorcycle wreck. We packed up our beach stuff, still slathered with sunscreen and covered in sand we made the 2 hour drive to the hospital.  I had no idea what to expect when I got there but it's never a good sign when you walk in and are greeted with no questions and taken straight back to The Room. It's no secret I can't stomach seeing people hurt, in pain, or bloody. I really wasn't prepared for what I saw and I know LB was not either. After a few passing out spells, some ice water, and some serious mental fortitude I was able to be more assistance than a hinderance. 

In the end he is ok. Not good, not fine, but alive and miraculously has no head, brain, neck, or spine injuries. His recovery will be a long process.  Despite being the ex husband, he is still family, still LB's dad, and I cannot help but help him. So I've been quite busy this past week and have just now finally been able to sit down and let it all soak in. Here is what I have been reminded of: 

Life is short and tomorrow is not guaranteed. 

And motorcycles are stupid. 

I know, duh.....

3rd of July~

Is it July already? Where is this summer going? I've hardly gotten a tan, it's been raining everyday...I've got PNW weather without the perks and benefits of living in the PNW. Ugh. And all this rain is killing my garden. My watermelon is holding on, growing a tiny bit. I've not been able to hit the pool much either due to the weather. Although I did make it out Saturday for a short 1200m swim. I had time to run Monday morning but with "deadly cloud to ground lightening" I rolled over and went back to sleep until 9. This morning I opted to pack my car up so I could head out from work, straight to the beach. I feel ill-prepared for the upcoming July 20th triathlon (that I have yet to register for) but I feel compelled to register and do it...I might get last place.

I am excited about this being a short week. The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday!

LB and I are heading to the beach for the long weekend. I'm pretty excited and he has promised to go for morning runs and evening walks on the beach with me, if we get around to it. A friend asked me what we were going to do...Um, hang out and do nothing. That's what the beach is about. It's about sitting back and letting go. There is nothing to be done; no To Do list, no appointments, no schedule...it's beach time. 

What are you up to for the 4th of July? Any family traditions or favorite things to do? 

This is important....

 I am growing a watermelon!

Isn't it cute? 

My garden has turned out to be a really fun endeavor this summer. Something about planting things and watching it grow and produce, and not killing them, makes me happy. I've come a long, long way since I killed two gold fish (Jimmy and Justin after Jimmy Buffett and Justin Timberlake) when I was 6 months pregnant with LB. I thought for sure my kid would not survive. And the garden I attempted two years ago that never even sprouted. But fast-forward to today and I have kept Lazy Dog alive for almost 10 years, my son is healthy and going strong for almost 8 years now....and now my garden! I have a watermelon people! And you've already seen the size of my zucchini! And I've had three more that same ginormous size!

During my night out with the girls last Friday a conversation came up comparing dating and men to gardens. I liked the analogy, but I wont run with it here...AH HA! Pun intended... That's for another time, or another blog entirely. This is a running and fitness blog after all.

So my training is going ok. I've been loosely following my 15k training plan. Thanks to J-Ninja, or I may rename her Captain Obvious for pointing out that the DC Army 10 Miler is going to be so crowded that any goal of a decent finish time is out of the question. She's right. So I've been hunting for another 15k and may have found one in September.

I'm having trouble with commitment lately. Yes, I've brought this up in therapy....I have found so many races that I think look great and I want to do but I just don't commit to them.  I used to call this last minute registration 5 Mile Style. But the difference now is that then I fully intended to run those races. I just didn't register early...now I have no intentions of running these races, or if I do it's only a 10% chance. I don't mark them on my calendar. I ogle over them then close the webpage never to return.

So my goal for the next couple of weeks is to commit. Fully commit. Find races and register...with the intention of toeing the line. 

You wanna ride bikes?

....um, yes?

I felt like a kid when I got a text this morning at 7:30 asking me, "You wanna go ride bikes? This is your 2 hour notice."  My reply, "My mom wont let me ride bikes with boys before noon."...because I'm 12 years old....and tired.

Two things were so wrong about this: 1) It was 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning after a very eventful girls' night and 2) It was 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning after a very eventful girls' night....oh, yeah, ok 3) It was raining.

Girls night out. Me and V. Not pictured is Jessica.

I don't do rain. I don't like to ride bikes and really don't like to ride them in the rain. I somehow finagled my 2 hour notice into a a 3.5 hour notice which allowed me and the girls to hit up iHop (or is it IHOP, somehow felt like it should be an apple hop).

After our completely unacceptable, unhealthy, ridiculously delicious breakfast my fellow PNW Transplant V headed home to face the day and Jessica, author of Deployment Divas, and I headed back to the house. She was headed to the gym...inside with no rain, where it was cool, dry, and safe. I, on the other hand, went through my collection of spandex and hot biking outfits to settle on a less than flattering pair of tri short and ridiculous bike shirt. Why do biking outfits have to be so, so corny?

I have to say, on the plus side, it was fun to put my bike in my new bike transporter.

Once I got there I felt like a complete noob. I haven't ridden in over a year. I din't know how to get my front wheel back on. My tires were flat. I couldn't work my pump. I didn't have a repair kit.  I threw my chain the first 8 seconds on the road. I guess that's good for a bull rider but not a bike rider. I couldn't unclip fast enough and barley caught myself. It was a disaster. I felt like a complete damsel in distress, which I can't stand feeling that way. Once I got it together we headed out. It wasn't raining at the time but it didn't take long for the sprinkles to begin. Then the sprinkles turned in to full-fledged rain. It was poking my eyes out. We decided to cut it short and do an out and back as opposed to the 30 mile loop. That was A-OK with me. My legs were already hurting, and my bottom (I hate biking). So we turned and headed back to the cars. My friend had been nice the whole way; I knew he was much faster than me but he stuck by me and didn't complain. We were going at least 4 mph slower than his pace.

The ride ended up not being too bad. I mean it wasn't great simply because riding my tri bike scares me and I just can't enjoy it. But it felt good and I was excited to have done it. Now I feel a little better and teeny bit ready for my sprint tri coming up in July. I might not die.

I need a plan....

Duh. It's not like I've had a Eureka! moment or anything. I've known this all along. I try to be a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl but for the most part I don't like surprises, I like consistency, I like to know what's gonna happen. Yes. Life gets hard sometimes, ok a LOT of the time, because I can't always know in advance every single thing. People at work don't tell you, "Hey Amanda, tomorrow I'm gonna take your lunch from the fridge and eat it. Ok? Just giving you a heads up." That would be nice. But not as nice as them NOT eating my lunch.  But I digress....

I need a plan.

I do much better with a training plan in front of me. Much like with a To Do list I love to mark off the days and the completed workouts. The sense of accomplishment when you look at the completed plan is undeniable.  I haven't had a hard copy plan in front of me since Big Sur Marathon...OVER A YEAR AGO. What the heck!? That is awful.  And this training with no plan is obviously not working out. So tonight as I was am procrastinating going to bed (because going to bed at 9:00 makes me feel old) I decided to find me a nice 10 Mile race plan. I haven't technically trained for this race distance so I thought it would be a nice change up to focus on that distance, not to mention I do have the Army 10 Miler in DC coming up in October. 

My good buddy Hal never fails. I hit up Google and of course I was directed straight to Hal. He is always there for me....he has the perfect 15 k (9.3 miles) training plan all laid out nice and simple for me. I looked over the Novice plan and thought, Yeah, I can do this....no biggie. Then something inside me said No! Intermediate! So of course I clicked and there it was....the Intermediate plan with all its tempo runs and 800 repeats. Then, curiosity got the better of me....I clicked the Advanced plan. Um, yeah...ok. 400 repeats, 800 repeats, running 6 days a week.  Lucky for me I have enough time to go through two of the plans before the 10 Miler in October. 

Which two? 

I've printed out the Intermediate and the Advanced plans and now I have a plan(ish)....Just what I need. I will begin with the Intermediate plan and work my way through it. If I can I will move on to the Advanced. If not I will repeat the Intermediate. Whala! Plan. Done and done. 

 I found a few quotes about planning that seemed pretty appropriate for me....I thought I'd share them with you. 

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
― Mike Tyson

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
― Benjamin Franklin

"I'm not making any plans. I'm just going to let the universe surprise me.” 
― John Cusack

“Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance.”
― Alan Dean Foster, Nor Crystal Tears

So how about you? Do you like to plan? Or do you let the universe surprise you?

Color My Run 5k Recap

Oh yes....my run was colored. And then some.....

LB came and woke me up bright and early this morning (actually it was a reasonable time considering the race start was 9 AM).  He jumped in bed with me and whispered in my ear "Get excited to race mom!" We got up and around.  There was only one small hitch when LB refused to wear the "bib" because "bibs are for babies." Are you kidding me son?  It took about 15 minuets of convincing, showing him all my old bibs, demanding he put it on or stand by and watch me have fun. Finally I convinced him that it could also be called a tag or a race number. That worked. I pinned it on and we headed out the door.

We got to the race site with about 30 minutes to spare. LB had his first Porta Potty, or Honey Bucket, race line experience then we headed to the start.

Once at the start we danced around and dodged flying beach balls. As soon as they said go LB was off. He has no pacing ability, two speeeds: fast and walk.  We ran along, waiting for the first color station. It was a good while before we hit it. LB was getting antsy and began thinking we got ripped off. I told him to be patient and sure enough eventually we came to the Blue station. I got pegged...LB did not. He was bummed and wanted to loop around. I told him to just keep going. Next we came to the yellow station. This time I told him to run to the outside so he could be sure and get hit. It worked. He got pegged with a blob of yellow....next we came up on green. Again LB and I stayed to the outside and the air was thick with the colors and I could feel it in my nose. The last color was pink...my favorite.

The race seemed really short. I think we cut off a few out and backs but I'm not sure. I didn't wear my garmin. At the finish they handed out more color packs and we headed over to the DJ and waited for "The After Party". It was wild alright. During the songs that followed the DJ told the crowd to throw the colors in the air....It went everywhere, eyes, ears, mouth, nose....hair....down my back!

I'd say this was a great, family-friendly race! It was a good one to get LB hooked on racing. He did ask about a medal and was a bit disappointed when he didn't get one but that just opens the door for another race. Another one with medals!

So we did it!!  And if you look closely there was an acrobat show going on in the background! Double SCORE!

I took a cooler with soapy water so we could wipe off. I also brought sheets and towels to put over my (brand new car) seats. LB stripped down in the parking lot and I did too...as much as I decently could. It was a family event after all....

Even after getting home and showering and after swimming some laps I've still got color stuck to my skin and scalp. But I'd say it's totally worth it!

Color Me Happy...

There's a Race Pile here for two!

It's pretty cool that LB has his own Race Pile tonight!  My Race Piles have been pretty lonely lately.

Have you ever done a color run? I've seen jillions of pictures of these seemingly fun races but as I sit here on the eve of my first color run I am wondering if it is such a good idea. Of course LB is pumped about "getting blasted" by colors and his plan is to come to the end with no uncolored skin showing. I'm sure he will have no problem with that. My plan is to not choke on the color dust, not get it in my eyes to irritate my contacts, and not lose him in the crowd (i.e. keep up with him).

I have to say I'm pretty excited that LB is getting more interested in racing, even if I did have to con him into it with this color run. We've been training together; running around the neighbor(ing)hood. I felt pretty bad since he was running in his skater shoes and tripping all over the place. His footsteps sounded like elephants. So we hit up Dick's and he picked out some super fast shoes...Of course he had to try them out.

I did do our local Army 10 Miler. I quickly remembered why I didn't do it last year. It was hot and humid and the course was less than entertaining. It wasn't my best run either. Truth be told I'm certain it was a Personal Worst for the 10 Miler. But at least I got to see my friends A and Heezie before they pack up and move back to the PNW....sigh.....

I've been back in the pool too. Man how I have missed that. My first swim I knocked out 1200 meters. The second day I hit 1500 meters with 25m and 50 meter sprints. It feels so good and I want to go every single morning.

I've met a couple of people who are training for tris and may have a biking partner...if I stop being a chicken and just get on the stupid bike. I traded my Altima in for an Outback...no more excuses, the bike will fit in this sucker, or on top, or on the bike rack....no way around it. I will be biking.

LB, New Car, NC Sunset, and Basket of Herbs.....

And in my spare time I've been working in my garden....and I grew the BIGGEST zucchini this side of the Mississippi!! Ok ok, I know...I've seen bigger too but this is the biggest I have ever grown and don't steal my thunder. I am proud!

Garden!

It's HUGE! 

There you have it. One week into summer and things are off with a BANG! I've got more pool time, races, beach trips, and zucchinis in the very near future! Now all I have to do is keep up with the blog! 

Happy Summer!!