Tuesday To-Do

Updated: I wanted to share with you how I'm making my goals (for now). I created this little reminder/worksheet for each week. I actually copied them off 2 on each side of a page so I could fold it to make a booklet for the year. I listed my priorities at the top so that my goals would always line up with them in some way. It's not perfect, and I probably need a system for monthly/yearly goals as well. For now, though, this is helping me choose my actions a little better.

This week's goals  (I'll probably try to do this on Sunday nights later, but for today, it works.)

Home
1. Finish painting the red walls
2. Put up Ryan's clothes
3. Declutter our room

Heart
1. Make bedtime pleasant
2. Get a birthday gift for SB's teacher
3. Plan for birthday gifts for the spring birthdays

Health
1. Take my vitamins daily
2. Strength train twice this week
3. Go on a family walk

Checking in

So, I'm a horrible blogger. I have all these plans to write. And I know that writing is therapeutic for me. But it just always ends up on the back burner.

My friend Chandra has been telling me about her goal-setting, and I love how she's doing it. She is starting with her priorities, what's most important to her and her family. Then she's making yearly goals based on those priorities. From there, she can make monthly and weekly goals that line up with those. She shared a link with me where one person set goals by category, and I really like that idea to help me focus.

I am just at the beginning of the process, but I'm going to use the three areas from my blog title to form some goals. These are, after all, the things that are most important to me, the things I'm constantly trying to balance.

My priorities
Home
-To have a happy, comfortable home where we all feel loved and nurtured
-To establish order and routines
Heart
-To have a strong relationship with Christ
-To build a strong marriage
-To raise confident, thoughtful children who learn and know God
-To enjoy the daily moments as well as the big experiences
Health
-To provide comforting, nutritious meals and snacks
-To stay (and encourage others to become) physically fit

It's a start. I feel a chart or notebook coming. I sure do love my binders :)

October Goals

Hmmm...I haven't really thought that far. Here it is October 1, and I am barely realizing September is over.

My most obvious goal is the 13.1 Dallas at the end of the month. I'm running it for Team World Vision with a team from my church. I've raised right at $500, but I still have $155 to go. ***Side note: If you'd like to donate to help provide clean drinking water for women, children and families in Africa, please use this link: http://support.worldvision.org/goto/ChristyJ
. Just $50 provides a lifetime of clean, healthy drinking water for one person there. If that's too much, maybe $1 a mile for me? That's just $13.10...a couple of trips to Starbucks or a Friday night pizza.
As for the race itself, I just want to finish. It's been a struggle to get back into training and get back on track. I'm pretty sure I can finish, and I'm hoping it won't be crawling across the finish line. I'm choosing not to put a time goal on it because that's not the point this time.

Another goal I have is to lose 2.5 pounds. The weight is coming off slowly, and I know I need to add some strength/toning workouts to help finish it off. That would put me at a weight I'm happy with...it's not my ultimate goal weight, but that one might be a little too lofty. I'll continue eating healthy foods and tracking my calories to meet this goal. 

I want to set up some sort of chore/technology time/allowance system for my kids. My mind gets a little boggled trying to figure out what will work best for my kids and me. They're doing really well with a color chart system at school for behavior, and I'd like to use that concept at home. I just don't know how to make it all work to provide the best results and learning experiences. 

I'm still working on completing an online Bible study for the book Unglued. It's a good book (two chapters in), so another goal is to complete the study and put the knowledge into practice to come unglued less and enjoy my kids more. 

And a totally random goal for the month is to go camping again! I am hoping for cooler weather and a chance to spend some more time outdoors :)

That's probably enough goals for one month. I didn't finish a house project in September like I'd planned. I did blog more (although not as consistenly as I'd hoped). I keep reminding myself that I'm a work in progress...

10 years from now...

(This is Day 3 of Fitness Cheerleader's blogging challenge.)

So much of the time, I'm so busy just surviving the week or the day that I don't have time to think about next week or next month, much less next year or 10 years from now.

To think that far, I'll have to put it in perspective. My daughter will be 17 and entering her senior year of high school. My son will be 15 and a sophomore. I'm sure our days will be spent watching them involved in whatever sports or activities they've chosen. I'll be 43 and my husband and I will have been married 20 years. I'll have been teaching 20 years as well, still a ways from retiring.

So where do I see me in all this?

I hope I'm a supportive mom that has encouraged my kids to be just who they are meant to be. I hope I will have instilled strong values in them to be kind, compassionate, independent, and Godly.

I hope I'm still active and running. I hope I'll be able to say I've completed a full marathon and ridden with my husband in many more bike races. I hope I will have inspired others to be active and healthy.

More than that, I hope I'll be confident in who I am, self-assured and someone others can lean on. I hope I will be surrounded by good friends and my loving family. I hope to be a better me than I am now...stronger emotionally and physically, well-balanced, fun-loving, and happy.


Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G Touch

Success!

It's time to celebrate! Today I met my goal of 1100km in 2011! With several weeks left in the year, including the last few weeks of half marathon training, I think I have another 100 in me still.

And more success...I've already lost a little weight! I hate to go into numbers because I know that will fluctuate on a regular basis. Still, it feels good to have my efforts pay off. All I've done is cut out sugar, watched my portions, and controlled the balance of foods (less carbs, more fruits/veggies, more protein). Amazing.

The power of setting and having goals is incredible. No, we don't always reach our goals (sub-60 10k, anyone?), but without some lofty hope or dream, our efforts fade. Sometimes the goals are less about numbers and more about the way we live. I re-read a little plaque in my classroom today, and it really resonated with me. It says, "Love fully. Live simply. Laugh often." I liked the "live simply" part, and while I was trying to find a pretty version of it, I came across this:

Even better. Time for a few new goals.

Training plans

I'm using a Runner's World Smart Coach training plan for the Dallas Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon. I'm pretty happy with it. I like the basic outline of a plan...easy run on Monday, speedwork/tempo run on Wednesday, long run on Saturday. I usually throw in a short, easy run on Friday as well. It works for me. I am not sure about the times it gives me to run. I used my 10K as a basis for the plan, and it gives me some pretty slow (even in my standards) times for completing my runs. And it has me finishing my half marathon in 2:25.

So I thought I'd mess with it. I used my White Rock Marathon Relay time (roughly 5 miles in 50 minutes) to see what would happen. It's better. Not perfect. But better. It does change some things though. It gives me shorter distances for the speedwork/tempo runs, which I like. It gives me longer long runs. It gives me a Thursday run (which could easily be my Friday run). It still has be going pretty slow on some of the runs, but it's closer. And it has me finishing my half in 2:16. Now, I like that!

I think I'm going to do a combo of the two. I haven't quite decided what that means yet, but I'm working on it.

I ran 3 this morning (plus a warmup/cooldown) in the cold garage. I have a feeling, though, that the cold I felt this morning won't even compare to the cold I'll feel out there Wednesday morning! It should be in the single digits at that time. Lovely.

I'm having a little ache in my lower left leg. It's not exactly a shin splint, but it's not my calf either...somewhere in between. I have no idea what it is. It only hurts with certain movements, and not all the time. I can't "make" it hurt, so I can't really figure it out. I need to put on my Phiten discs (which, by the way, I tried one day last week and really liked...even my principal said she felt like they worked after she some of mine last week for some shin splints) and my compression sleeves tonight.

I'm hoping for a late start tomorrow due to this storm moving in. I don't like losing days, so we'll just hope for a late start. It's amazing what I could get done with a little extra time tomorrow.

I haven't done weekly goals in a while...oh, ok, since that first one a few weeks ago, so we'll try again...

1. Hit my workouts (2 core, 3 runs including the 8-miler on Saturday)
2. Try new foods (ok, I'm only putting that one in there because I tried brussel sprouts for the first time in my post-kid days and actually liked them and I have polenta to try later this week).
3. Keep the house picked up after last week's marathon cleaning session

Which reminds me of a great post I read today on Run Like a Mother Book. Check it out here: Picking up the Pieces Go ahead, look...really! Now, isn't that the truth?! That's my life in a nutshell...pick it up, put it away. But I like the correlation to our running/fitness...pick up the pace, put the race away...pick up the feet, put the road away..pick up the candy bar, put the calories away (LOL)...ok, I know I'm stretching it a bit, but it works. For me, at least.

Making up for it

Ok, with Saturday's bad run, I knew I had to get in a run today and make it a decent one. While my training plan has me at only 2 miles on Mondays, I wanted more. So I did. I ran 4 miles in 40 minutes with a quarter mile warm up and cooldown (a total of 4.5, which btw, dailymile.com rounds up to 5). The first mile was rough, the second mile doable, but the last two were strong. In fact, I was pretty sure I had more in me. But...since I was sneaking in my run during nap time (I was in the garage on the treadmill...no CPS calls needed), I didn't want to spend too long out there. And it's a beautiful day outside! I would much rather have run outside in the fresh air, but alas...that's part of having kids, I suppose. We all sacrifice something.

I think I'm going to make some weekly goals...an easy, doable, short list of goals for the week. So even though we're in week 3 of January, here is list 1:
1. Drink my water
2. No candy
3. More veggies and fruits (let's aim on 5 servings a day)

I'll work on adding things as the weeks go by, but I know if my list is too long, I'll just get overwhelmed.

I'm still working on that strength motivation plan :) It will be ready sometime today, so it may be a double post kind of day.

2011 Challenge

Ok, I've come up with a challenge...for myself, mainly, but you're welcome to join. I'm challenging myself to run 1100 km in 2011. That equals 683.5 miles, which is an aveage of 57 miles a month or 14 miles a week. I'm thinking I can do that, especially since I'm training for a 13.1 mile race.

I had originally said I wanted to run an average of 50 miles a month to equal 600 miles for the year, but I like the idea of 1100km in 2011...corny, I know.

I just signed up on dailymile.com. I'm not sure if I'll get the hang of using it regularly. You can hook up your Garmin to it as well, but I definitely haven't gotten that far with it. Right now, I'm only using my Garmin about once a week, if I'm lucky enough to get to run outside. So, for now, I'll just hand enter my info there to see if I like the tracking.

I already keep a log of my training. I like being able to see how much I've done, and I am hoping this dailymile thing will help me keep up.

So, back to the challenge...anyone want to join me?

New Year's Run

I ran my 6 miles yesterday as my first run of the year and as part of the World Run Day virtual run.

It was cold! At first, I thought I was overdressed, but as I ran, I quickly found out I was pretty right on. The only thing I ended up shedding was a buff I had around my neck. It was handy for the first mile or so, but then I warmed up and threw it in my vest pocket. I am loving my new Nike DriFit top with the thumbholes! And I love my BondiBand hat with the ponytail hole! And I love my new SpiBelt (even if I did forget to actually put my phone in it before I left).

I tried Honey Stingers as well, and while I'm still getting the hang of chewing and running, I liked the texture and the effect...no crazy energy rush, just a nice boost when I felt like I was lagging a bit. I only had a couple every couple of miles and am definitely trying them again.

It felt great to run on the first day of the year...an omen of things to come this year. Unlike Friday's run, I spent this one thinking about the present and the year ahead. I tried to come up with some creative way of labeling or categorizing my resolutions for this year, but I came up short. So, instead, I just have a regular old list. It looks something like this:

1. Make time for a Bible study and prayer time daily
2. More face time and less Facebook (with my kids, husband, family and friends)
3. Strength train 2x a week
4. Finish my half marathon strong and decide on whether or not to do a marathon (which goes along with my goal to run 600 miles this year)
5. Increase fruits, veggies and water while decreasing refined carbs and sugar

You know, that looks a lot better than all the things I had floating around my head on the run. Hmmm...interesting. Usually a run is very clarifying for these sorts of things. Still, I came back thrilled that I'd run 6 miles in 1:10:16 (and I'd stopped to tie my shoe once...which I've never had to do on a run...and wait for a car once).

Today is a rest day, and I'm glad! I'm not too sore though, but I am looking forward to using The Stick to work out a few kinks.

We go back to school tomorrow, which always makes fitting in runs and training a little more difficult. Still, routine is a good thing. I'll get my miles in at 4:30 or so each morning before getting ready. Now if I can just get that strength training in. I guess I'll have to just get up that early 5 days a week now. I'd love to do it Tuesday/Thursday nights, but I just haven't gotten that down yet.

On a different note, I'm thinking about running with our puppy. Jessie's a 7-month-old black lab with entirely too much energy. She chews on everything, and I think a run or two a week would do her some good. There are a couple of problems with this though. First, she's not trained yet and doesn't follow commands and I don't feel like being pulled all over the planet. Second, I know that running with a dog is actually safer, but I hate dogs barking at me while I run and I know that running with Jessie will just make them bark more. Still, I think it would be good for both of us to run together. I just need to get her a good harness, and we'll head out for our first run.

Dreaming

Ok, let's just play pretend for a little while...if I really could do anything, what would I do? What would you do?

For starters, I'd finish my 10K Sept. 25 in less time than the last one, preferably under an hour ten.

I'd run a 5K, either Shortgrass Scamper or Race for the Cure (bookending the 10K), in under 30. Yeah, right.

I'd run a marathon relay with my family and not be the weakest link.

I'd run a half marathon in February.

I'd run a marathon the year after. 2012. Hmmmmm....isn't that when the world's supposed to end? Coincidence?

I'd do my core training twice a week without fail and come away with abs I could rock out in a belly-baring tank in a race.

Ok, so these are dreams...my realistic goals instead:

I'll run my 10K without walking.

I'll run my 5Ks in 33 minutes, without walking, and have a blast doing it.

I'll run the marathon relay and not worry about my turtle pace.

I'll run the half marathon...no change there, except maybe the date.

And the marathon? For now, it's still a dream. But it's my dream.

And those abs? I doubt they come without some surgery involved, but while we're dreaming, I might as well dream big.