Hi everyone. My father passed away this morning so I will not be blogging this week. I am in Danville with my family. I hope hope hope to get all my miles in this week. I think I will be able to.

PS - I got my longest swim in ever yesterday! 1500 yards.

Well I made it through my run today! It was a tough one. I can't even imagine how the folks that did the marathon or the 50K (Espeed and Daisy Duc!) did it. I was done at the end of those 13.1 miles. So, I started the day off early - my alarm blared at 5 am and I bounced out of bed. I made myself some PB oatmeal and coffee and waited for nature to take its course. Then I met Abbie and 6 and we drove 20 mins south to the Boston Store off of the towpath. The course was 2 loops, one was 8 miles, the other was 5. There were 253 total runners and everyone gathered in the heated garage and listened to the instructions and then we went outside and Tanya blew the whistle and we were off! HMs went in the direction of the 8 mile loop and the rest of the runners went towards the 5 mile loop. I'd say about 100-120 seemed to be doing the HM. We started off on the towpath, but almost immediately headed right up to the Buckeye trail. From that point, it was seriously just huge hill after huge hill. Up one, down another. I was relieved that most everyone walked up the gigantic hills. Abbie and I managed to stay together for about 6 miles, but then I had to bend down and tie my shoe and about 5 people got between us. So, we got seperated. My stomach starting kicking at me around mile 4 and I was so pissed off. I struggled with tummy troubles until I got done with the first 8 miles at which point I hit the loo and did my thing and felt a bit better. I headed back on the towpath over to the 5 mile loop. The 5 miler seemed like nothing comparted to the 8 miler, but it had 2 big hills with stairs you had to get up. I'd give the course an 9/10 on challenge. It was just tough and I didn't have a great run. My legs felt heavy and so did I! This race really made me realize that I had to lose some weight. I was basically the only Athena there. But I got through it in 2:38. Considering I stopped at 2 stops to eat and drink and went to the bathroom, I am pretty happy with the time. I think Abbie finished about 10 mins ahead of me. The cold wasn't too bad. I forgot about it after a mile or so. I didn't overdress, thank goodness and we got these really great Brooks jackets when we finished. It made it worth the $55 entry fee! I will definately do this one year after year and I'm sure it will continue to kick my butt! My legs are going to be SORE tomorrow.

Gary and I have done some grocery shopping and made a pitstop at Target. Now we are going to lie down and watch License to Wed. I love me some Jim from The Office!

Have a great Sat bloggy friends.

Last night Tracie and I had a swim lesson. It went really well. The coach – Laura – told me I actually have a really good stroke. The only thing I need to concentrate on is getting better with my head position/breathing. I bring too much of my face out of the water. She said she shouldn’t be able to see both of my eyes, just one. She also had me swim with flippers on my feet, holy moses, they make you so fast with such little effort! I am totally getting some of those. She also told me that I have to swim a minimum of 3 times a week, preferably 4 if I want to get my stamina up. Argh. I know that it’s true, just don’t know when I’ll do it. I am going to HAVE to make a point to swim before work at least once a week. Then I can go after work once and on the weekend once. She also told me I need to work up to swimming 2000yds each time I go. Sigh. Lots of work to do. But for once I felt okay in the water. But I really do tire quickly.

Today I am going to swim and ride my trainer for an hour while I watch some tv. Nothing too tough. Tomorrow is a tempo run and after work we’re going to see Spirit of the Marathon.

Don’t you love Tuesdays that feel like Monday? I sure do. Yesterday was a nice day off. I slept in until 9, then got up and did some serious lounging until like 12:30 when G got out of bed. Then we got all layered up and headed to his mom’s neck of the woods – Leroy (about an hour north). They had 18 inches of snow! We went to Girdled reservation which is part of the Lake County Metroparks and took a 5 mile hike in foot deep snow. It was TOUGH. My legs were really screaming by the time we looped to come back. Lots of steps and hills. I was so impressed at G’s mom for being able to keep up with us. To give you an idea of how tough it was, it took us over 2 hours to cover 5 miles! There were some rest stops involved. There were lots of cross country skiers on the trail, but we were the only walkers. By the time we got done, all hope for bike class was gone, it was too late. So, we went to dinner and I had some super yummy potato soup AND some super yummy baileys in my coffee. Mmm mmmm good. Got home around 8 and totally bonked into bed with the dogs and watched 8 Mile on VH1. I love me some Eminem. But I was asleep before 10.

This morning Brock and I met for a 5 mile recovery run. I thought that I might do my tempo run this morning, but my legs are tired after being on them for 4 days straight. So, just a recovery run and then it really started snowing on us half way through. It was beautiful. No so pretty on the way to work that took twice as long though. It’s snow people, we live in Cleveland, learn to drive in it!

I have a swim lesson after work in Brecksville. Tracie and I are going together. We signed up for 3. I hope they help and get me back into swimming mode. I am feeling pretty fatigued. Last week I covered 26 miles, which is only a few miles more than normal, I tend to run about 20-22 miles a week. But my legs are worn out, probably from all the snow running and balancing they’ve had to do. I can’t decide if I want to go to my bike class tomorrow. I wanted to go on Monday so my legs had plenty of time to rest up. I have that Half this weekend and I’d like to do a good job. It’s going to be tough and I want to feel fresh. So, I am afraid if I hit up the bike class and then do speed work on Thurs I will be sore. I hate to skip the class though. Decisions, Decisions. If I do skip the class, I will still ride my trainer at home for an hour or go to spin class Wed morning.

Thursday night some gals and I are going to see the movie – The Spirit of the Marathon – it’s supposed to be good. So, that should be fun.

So yesterday's run was just downright wrong! I made it 3.5 miles then decided enough was enough. I am so glad I got my long run in on Sat. I put on some long johns with fleece pants overtop, a long sleeved base layer, a zip up fleeces and a vest over top, then a hat, some gloves, 2 pairs of socks, my new shoes, some yak trax and an ear warmer to wear over my face. I have a fleece gator thing, but I get too stuffy in those. I have found that if you use one of those bands that is supposed to go over your ears and place it over your nose, it doesn't lay flat on your face, so it's not as suffocating. But .5 miles into the run my nose hairs were completely frozen and I could no longer breath through my nose and since I was running up and down my neighborhood streets, every .5 mile I had to run into the wind at which point my eyelashes would freeze together and my eyes would freeze open. At one point I lost a contact! It was tough. But I'll do it again Tuesday morning!

Afterwards I changed clothes and put the Scrubs dvd back in and watched the last 2 episodes of season 5 while lifting weights and doing some ab work. From there I got myself showered and dressed (all by myself, I'm a big girl now) and headed to pick up some needles from Walgreens for Tai's allergy shots and then to Whole Foods. I don't usually do my grocery shopping at Whole Paycheck, but it's right by our house and we had already done most of our grocery shopping at Costco the other night, so I thought I could pick up a few odds and ends and get out of there under $100. And I did, $70 dollars later I was mostly stocked up with goodies we didn't need like Kashi crackers, french salt caramels, Asian 5 spice sauce, frozen indian curry dumplings, a serious log of raisin goat cheese and the most delicious chewy chocolate cookies I have ever had in my life. I also pickedup some lunch from their prepared food section for my trouble. Just some tofu. I really like tofu, but cannot, for the life of me people, prepare it correctly. I think it's b/c I don't fry it b/c I really am not capable of frying things. I'm not much of a cook. I can bake things and crock pot things, but if there is work to be done in a pan over high heat I am worthless. Also worthless if anything needs to do such things like simmer or saute. I just want to cook it really fast on the highest flame possible which just ends up making it chewy or burnt etc. Good thing G can cook.

We went and saw Cloverfield last night and I must say it just plain sucked. I was so dissapointed. THis is one of the movies I have been DYING to see since I saw the preview and I am such a big fan of the tv show Lost, I thought JJ Abrams could do no wrong. I was wrong, that movie is wrong. Not scary, not suspensful, not shocking when you see the moster. Just kind of boring and it all takes place on a handheld camera a la Blair Witch, so I had a huge headache. And it was hellion heathen night at the Mayfield theatre. Every bad middle school/early high school kid from the area was there and they were yelling and screaming. Not just one group of bad kids, but like 4 and they were all trying to show off. I actually yelled at some girl before the movie started! Yelled at her! That's how pissed I was. It was very funny in my mind, she was yelling at some boy to come over there - hey smitty come here, come over here and I said I"M GOING TO COME OVER THERE IF YOU DON'T FREAKING KEEP IT DOWN! THIS IS A MOVIE THEATRE FOR CRIPES SAKE NOW SHUT IT. I was a little pissed no one clapped in agreement with me. THe little bitch kept it quiet after that. BUt the other 40 kids didn't. I really felt like standing outside and as any parent pulled up to pick up there kid telling them how bad their children were in that movie and how much their ruined my night out. But I didn't of course. Ummmm....I think....I might just be getting old! But hey I still like Soldjaboy, right, so still I'm hip! Right? Right?

Happy Sunday Bloggy Friends. We have been hit with some serious snow here in C-land. When I went to bed last night there was maybe a half an inch of snow on the ground and this morning in Cleveland Heights (for you non clevelanders - we tend to get more snow than the west side b/c of the"lake effect", we also tend to have more children b/c of the "lake effect") we have about 3-4 inches, thick and fluffy. So, what am I going to do? Go run of course! Although it is like 3 degrees wind chill so I don't know if I'll get all 5 in, we'll see. Right now I am drinking some coffee and waiting for my body to work things out, if you catch my drift (if not, I mean I need to poop). So drinking some coffee and enjoying some PBJ toast and kefir.

Yesterday run was nothing short of trechorous. I met Robin at 8:15 at North Chagrin and my co worker J joined us. After a few steps we realized that the paved trail was really slippery so we decided to hit the trails which ended up being worse! Jim actually fell flat out and hit his head. He got back up after bunching up on the ground in childs pose for awhile and finished the run, but I am all worried about him. I hope he's okay today, but I don't have his number to call him. He departed after we met back at the parking lot to pick up 3 more people and went on his way, but that was his plan all along. Anyway, the whole run we ran slow and were working to freaking stay up right. We did 10.5 miles, this morning all the little muscles in my butt and thighs hurt from working overtime to stay balanced. We went to yours truly afterwards. I love love runners brunch. It's always fun and we get to talk and laugh about all the things our non runner friends just don't get

After brunch I went to Fleet Feet and got some new shoes. After having my gait analyized at the clinic awhile back they told me to get a more cushioned shoe. After trying a few on I ended up with the Nike Vomero 2, which I am wearing right now and just feel like walking in a pillow. I am interested to get out there and run in them. I was a bad Monica and really just let both pairs of shoes I was running in - Brooks Cascadia and Mizuno Elixer - get in really bad shape. I've been having aches and pains for awhile and new shoes was long overdue. I might around another pair of Brooks to have for the trail.

Then I should have gone swimming but I ended up mopping the kithcen and cleaned the whole first floor and then crashed on the floor and watched Scrubs on DVD and took a nap. Then we met friends at the Improv and saw a really good comedy show. The headliner Jo Koy was really funny. I guess he just got his first Comedy Central special and it aired 2 days ago. All 3 comedians were really funny and we had a good time. I had two glasses of wine, so basically crashed when I got home.

Today I will of course be going out for a easy 5 mile run. I have book club at 1 and I need to do a home visit for Shar Pei Savers (we inspect potential adopters home to make sure they aren't tying their other dog up in the basement or lying about anything on their app, believe me people do and I have turned down people before based on their home and condition of their other pets) at 3 all the way in Rocky River. Gary and I talked about going to see Cloverfield. Again, I should go swim, but I might just blow it off one more time. I have a lesson on Tuesday, maybe this coming week I'll get back on the swimming horse. Have a great day everyone.

People I just checked the weather and they said it's 22 out there right now, but it feels like, FEEELS like 7 degrees. So, let's see once I get going my body should warm up and depending on which calculation you believe I'll feel like it's 17 or 27, neither sound very good to me! And I have to be out there for about 2 hours! Joy, days like this are when being fast are important. Those fasties will knock out their 10 miler, their slow 10 miler in a little over and hour, I'm looking at 100-120 mins. Plus at one point, we are looping to pick up some friends, so that means after I've ran 4 there will be stopping and chatting. Sigh. Must concentrate on the brunch at the end of the run. By 11 I will toasty inside of Yours Truly (place to eat for you non-clevelanders) enjoying an egg white omlette and some raisin toast with a big mug of their flavored coffee of the day. Oommmmmm.

Last night Gary and I went tv shopping. G and I shopping is a very...special....thing. My hubby and I are total opposites. I'll fully admit that his way is right on 80% of things. I know his way is right on tv shopping. He went and got the consumers report on tvs, he researched the pros and cons between LCD and plasma. Me I look at all the tvs sitting next to each other, decide I don't want one with a glossy surface border b/c you can see all the fingerprints on it, point to a 42 inch that I think might, maybe fit on our tv stand, that's the one I want. But since we're doing it G's way, we actually didn't just buy something. Which was UNHEARD of in my life previous to G. I'm all about instant gratification, not saying that's right, but at least I am in tune with the way I am! We went to Costco and Best Buy. I still don't understand why we can't just get an old school tv, we're not, I repeat NOT, getting high def cable. I am convinved it's all a rip off, why do I NEED to see all the little imperfections on Lucy Lui's face? Is it so I can feel better about myself? They have a demo up at best buy where you can see the difference between regular cable and high def cable on a Plasma screen and I tell you what - who cares, the regular cable is a tad darker. Do I really need to know the exact coloring of the lovely and talented Tiffany New York Pollard? Oooh I just imagined seeing her mom Sister Pollard on high def, that would be enough to make me cancel my subscription. I am all about running out and buying something that will costs us a whole weeks paycheck, but I kind of think I'd rather get a leather couch instead....at least picking up cat shit off of it would be easier.

If you don’t have sitemeter (www.sitemeter.com) on your blog, you should really add it, it’s pretty funny to see how people end up at your blog. For instance, some of the google searches that have brought people to my blog in the last week are – “Jocking on your bitch ass”, “The 12 week triathlete”, “Flying Pig” and “Great white sharks, Big Sur”. Also some people as far away as New Zealand and South Africa have checked out my blog, awesome. Now if I could just write some meaningful content!

I have had a really bad week at work, so I am so glad it's Friday. Just several angry client situations and then I lost my frigging receipts for an expense report, one of which was for a $200+ client dinner. I am hoping, praying that the restaurant's will reprint me receipts. I have a call out to the 3 places, but none have told me for sure they can or will do it yet. I'm sure I can still get the expenses paid b/c they are on my corp card, but I don't want to look so irresponsible. Then I sent an email to a higher up that I wish I hadn't. Although it's turned out okay. Sigh, just a lot of stupid mistakes this week and I need a nice long weekend. Then I woke up to find out that one of the cats had shit on the couch! We had a real issue last year where I honestly thought I might have to rehome my cats b/c they kept going to the bathroom on the couch, but after several rounds of antibiotics and all new litter boxes they came around and we haven't had any incidents in months. Then this morning - SHIT! And it makes it worse when G finds it b/c he hates the cats anyway. Sigh. Why on the couch? Although to look on the bright side, shit is a lot easier to clean up than pee. EVIL CATS.

Last night I did my first ever tempo/speedwork run. It was cold as a witches tit out, but I decided to pound the pavement instead of drudging it out on the treadmill. 3 miles is about all I can stand on the treadmill. My plan called for 5 miles, 1 mile warmup, 3 @ 8:52, 1 mile cool down. I found that I had a hard time staying in the 8:50 range, I tended to go back and forth between 8:30 and 9:07. For whatever reason, those were the paces I kept seeing. But it felt good to push myself. I never push myself that hard unless I am in a 5K race. I started doing races in March of 2006. So, I have 2 years of road races under my belt. In that time I have gone from a solid 10 min miler to under 9 min miles in the 5K. I wonder if this year I might see myself get under 8 mins? That would be so awesome. I was able to maintain the 8:30 pace pretty well. My legs were pretty tired from the cycling class, I will definitely space things out better next week. I want to make sure my legs have a day off before speedwork so that I can really perform at my best. Doing an excel class the day before gave me dead legs. Next weeks speedwork in done at 8:22 for 2 miles with 800 jogs in between. OOH and I just realized that next week is the trail half! Oh I wonder what the weather will be like. I hope it’s either frozen solid or dry out, it’s going to be so muddy if it’s not.

I am excited for the weekend. I have a 10 mile group run tomorrow morning and will hit the pool for at least 800 yds. Sat night we’re going to the Improv with some friends. Sunday I have a 5 mile recovery run and will hit the pool for another 1000 yds to make up for my lack of swimming this week. We are also going to go see Cloverfield on Sun. I am looking forward to that. Maybe brunch at Lucky’s in Tremont on Monday. I love long weekends!

Last night I headed down to Akron for the Excel in Cycling class. I must admit I feel pretty foolish driving almost 1.5 hours round trip to ride my bike in a room full of people when I have a perfectly good gym right by my house with a plethora of spinning classes. Plus it costs me $10 a time, so an extra $40 a month, not to mention the gas expenditure. But I cannot even express to any of you dear bloggy friends (except maybe Janet and Brandon b/c they do the classes too!) what a tough class this is. There is no way in hell any gym spinning class or me on my trainer at home or even me out on the road for 2 hours would push myself like I do in this class. Last night in 2 hours I covered 38 miles (which isn’t all that high, but we do a lot of big ring work, one legged drills and hills) with an average cadence of 80rpms, avg 16mph,and avg hr of 138bpm and according to my Garmin I burned 1816 calories! Now I am sure that’s a little high, but regardless I still burned like a days worth of food! All in 2hours and 20 mins. Here is what a class looks like:

It’s extrememly gross b/c everyone sweats all over the place. I for one am not much of a sweater, so there is no pool under my bike, but I would say 80% of the class is male and sweaty and leaves a big nasty deep pool of sweat around their bike. I refuse to wheel my bike through sweat and then load into my car, so I carry it across the floor! When I got to class my calves were already extremely sore, I am not sure why, it probably had something to do with all the stupid step class moves in bootcamp on Monday. But my calves were already hurting but during the lactid threshold ladders my legs literally started burning, I suppose that means I was building up too much lactid acid. But all of that stuff is a bit over my head and I don’t really get it. Regardless I experienced some serious pain, but pushed through it so I was quite pleased with myself. When I got home I went into the yard and sat in the snow. Not for very long, I’m a wuss, I don’t know if I will ever be able to take a ice bath.

I TRIED to get out of bed this morning, but Mushi was being just too kissy and snuggly and I lay with him for awhile after my alarm and it was curtains. Next thing I knew it was 7:30. boo. So now I have to run after work. Which is fine, it’s only 5 miles. But it’s supposed to be speedwork, I hope my legs can handle it. If now, I’ll do the speedwork tomorrow and the easy run tonight.

My god I love reality tv people. I mean LOVE it. Really. Words.cannot.express. Last night was a little slice of reality heaven pie a la mode with American Idol and The Biggest Loser both on, both for 2 hours. I went with Biggest Loser and then quickly changed over to AI as soon as it was almost commercial time. Last night the incredibly annoying Neal with the wife that is way too nice to his whiny ass got booted and I was happy. On AI they have a girl that they showed a background story on. She was a young, single mom whose daughter had some rare disease that is a lot like cerebral palsy and lord if I didn’t cry when she talked about how being on AI wasn’t about fame for her, she was winning b/c they told her that her daughter would never be able to walk or talk and she was going to get her daughter the best care and get her those things in this life and I was so so nervous as she got up there

Please let her be able to sing...
Please let her be able to sing...

And you know what, she could sing! I hope she wins!

Ahhh it was all too much for my little brain to handle. Fat people losing weight, downtrodden people getting the golden ticket to Hollywood. If only Rock of Love had been on last night too!

That aside, I lifted some weights while I watched. I totally overslept and didn’t go swimming this morning. ARGH. Tonight is an Excel in Cycling class. I also decided that I wanted to run more miles and got a different smart coach marathon plan that has me running 4 days a week. I am all about that today, don’t know why I changed my mind, but I just decided that I really want to be running 30some miles a week and that’s all there is to it.

So tri peeps, I need some tips/advice. How in the world can I get myself excited about swimming? I just can’t seem to get myself to the pool b/c
A) I am a sucky swimming and I am like a child and hate doing things I am bad at
B) I just can’t seem to work it into my schedule b/c I hate working out every evening and I think it’s too much trouble to do before work
C) Wearing a bathing suit kind of makes me want to cry

Although Tracie and I did sign up for 3 lessons with some lady in Macedonia, so maybe that will help me get more excited about it?

Happy Tuesday Bloggy Friends. It’s a snowy day here in Cleveland. The forecast calls for 5 inches, I hope we get it! I love snow, at least the first few days of it, but once it starts melting and gets dirty, it’s the worst.

I met Brock this morning for a 6 mile recovery run, we kept pace at about 9:30-10:00 min pace. My legs were sore from my bootcamp class last night. We took a new route and I always enjoy running in the early morning snow. So quiet and all you hear are your feet crunching the snow. I am so happy to have a morning running partner! If it wasn’t knowing that he was waiting for me, there is no way I would have gotten out of bed. But I am so glad I did, I always feel sooo much better after getting my workout out of the way. Tonight I need to go swim. It’s been awhile and I have promised myself I will go at least twice a week this whole marathon training.

Work started off with an angry client, I hate those days, but I will not let it get me down. Why must I work! Sigh.

Feeling strong today. I have a few good eating days under my belt (well 2…) and a yummy lunch packed for today. If I plan ahead I do fine. If I take the time to pack a bag for work with food that I actually want to eat, then I do well. It’s when I half assed throw things in a bag in the morning that I end up going out to eat or hit the vending machine.

I have decided for my own sanity that my week is now Mon-Sun. Not Sun-Sat. I like seeing the weekend totals in one week. So, today is Day #1 of my marathon training. Bootcamp tonight with my neighbor Kelly is on the plate. I am still sore from doing this 30 min arm DVD from Beach Body, it had me doing push up after push up. I was so defeated b/c I used to be able to do like 20 man pushups, but not anymore!

We are getting a little smattering of snow, I hope that is snows all week and I can go snow shoeing this weekend, that would be awesome.

Oh I had my bike maintenance class at Road Mountain Bikes in Chagrin Falls this weekend. It was really good. He took us through changing a tire. I honestly never realized how involved it was, I thought it was easier! So, now I am really scared to get a flat. I also bought some cleaner and lube for my bike. I basically didn’t take care of it for a year, so I need to take it in to get really cleaned and try and stay on top of it from there on out. My poor dry chains, I have been a BAD bike mom.

I have not been able to give myself a gift card yet as a weight loss reward, hopefully this week!

Wow I am having a bad day people. Bad day. It started off normal enough – you know I over slept and skipped my work out, nothing new there. But then I got to work and the first call out of the gate was a doozy with a really annoying, unhappy client. Then I needed to go find out a bunch of things for that unhappy client and no one was here yet to deal with the issues and so on. Just a bad way to start the day, now I am all flustered, need to shake and bake it out.

I was watching my fav show – Biggest Loser – last night and they kept on interrupting it with election 08 news. Argh. If I want updates on what is going on, I’ll check the internet or Howard Stern will tell me on my way to work. I want to sit here and relax and watch fat people lose weights and miraculously change their lives, not watch old wrinkled men sit in chairs and talk about what may or may not happen in New Hampshire. Give me a break. I know I should care, it’s the president, but you know what, I just don’t. Don’t worry, I vote and I will read up on the issues and make an informed choice, but it’s not something I want to think about right now and I don’t need interrupting play by plays of every little thing that happens during the cockus or whatever they call us. I know I spelled that wrong, but my spelling makes more sense and it’s worth more points in scrabble.

On the triathlon front! I didn’t swim this morning and that is bad b/c I really don’t have another time until this weekend that I can. Tonight I have a client dinner, tomorrow morning is a 6 mile run, Thurs night is happy hour with some friends, Friday morning is spinning and Fri the gym closes at 5. Boo. I have got to make swimming more of a priority. I just HATE it right now. Maybe after I have a few lessons it will be better.

This weekend Tracie and I are taking a class on bike maintenance, which will be good, b/c as bad as I feel saying it – I have no idea how to patch a tire or even blow my tires up! Seriously, they require something special to blow up and I know not what it is!! Yes, I did one 150 mile bike ride and one other century ride, not to mentions 100s of miles in training, all the time never knowing how to blow my tires up! Shocking I know.

Gooooodddd morning Bloggy Friends. It is a blustery warm day here in C-land. My this weather is bizarre, but I’m not complaining. Although I will be when I end up sick b/c it drops 30 degrees by the weekend.

I am feeling like a superwoman this morning. I had a kickass Excel in Cycling class last night. This was my first class being clipped in and with my new cadence monitor. It was awesome to do the class and actually be able to watch my rpms, not just guess. I was able to hang with the A group most of the class. The teacher tells you which RPMs you should be hitting based on groups A-E. Aside from when we were doing big ring work and one legged drills, we stayed between 100-130 RPMs the rest of the class. I think that I am going to start doing 20 mins of one legged drills at home once a week. My taint started rebelling after about 1.5 hours in the seat. Boy that pointy leetle eevvviill seat is not so good on the girls parts. Of course I can’t imagine balancing nuts on that seat (well they probably go hide I suppose), so I guess I’ll quit complaining. When I got home I watched a little of the OSU game, but fell asleep feeling like pulp.

Woke up at 5:20 this am and met Brock at 6:00 to run. We did a nice 5 miles, the first half we were running under 9 mins miles. So much for a recovery run, but then on the way back it was a steady incline and we slowed wayyyy down to more like 9:45 a mile. It was so nice to run in a tshirt and shorts. Don’t think I’ll be able to do that on Thurs.

After the run, I got back into bed for 10 mins of Mushi/Tai/Mommy time, lots of snuggling. My guys are the best snugglers, they get right up in your arm pit and cozy in like your at the drive in or something. LOVE IT! It starts my day off right. Then I stepped on the scale and was down a lb from yesterday, which might not be real, but is still nice to see. Then I actually put on something besides jeans b/c I have a client in the office through Thursday. Cute gray slacks, black sweater and big chunky green necklace. Stopped by Starbucks for a breakfast soy latte. Life is good! I hope all of you are having a good Tuesday as well!

Tonight is yoga with the hubby and then snuggling down to watch Biggest Loser couples!

The sun is here to visit cleveland and here I sit in my cube. Argh. Such is life.

Not much to tell you today bloggy friends. Yesterday I hit the pool and swam for a bit and did an hour of weights. I ran some errands in the afternoon and then laid on the couch for hours! Hours! I never do that and I tell you it felt great. Nothing like 3 hours of I Love New York to make you appreciate your life. I hope Tiffany and George live happily ever after. Seriously, tell me is New York attractive? I cannot for the life of me decide. Sometimes I think she looks beautiful, but more of the time she looks so much like a drag queen. Her boobs are just awful. I think she looked a lot better before she got those pumpkins inserted under her skin.

Tonight is an Excel in Cycling class. I think it's been 3 weeks since I went, which stinks, but there was so much going on with the holidays and it's so far away for me. No more excuses, today I go back and hope to go once a week.

My ankles are really killing me from my trail run, I think it's time for some new shoes. Those of you who run trails, what shoes do you prefer? I've been wearing the Brooks Cascadias and liked them, but my knees and ankles have been so sore the last few runs, the cushioning must be breaking down in them.

Today I met Abbie at 7 at Starbucks and we headed down to Boston Store off the towpath to go on a orientation run for the trail HM we have later this month. It's a 2 loop course, one 5, one 8 mile. We'll obviously do each loop once and their are people doing a full marathon and a 30K. Not me! Today was tough. I was totally taking up the rear which embarrasses me to no end. I hate being slow! But really I'm fast enough except on hills. The hills kill me, they are steep and I can't get to the top without walking and I hate that. So, hill repeats are a must for me. Luckily I have a few in my neighborhood I can use. THis HM is going to kill me! Today we only did 9. But it was enough. However between today and Thursday's snow run, my ankles are killing me and up the side of my leg, not my shin. So, I took a bunch of ibuprofren and am now lounging watching a crappy movie I think - In the Land of Women - but I totally have a crush on Seth from the OC, so I wil stick it out.

It's movie day I guess. Sara and I went and saw Atonement. She loved it, me not so much. Tomorrow is swimming. I wanted to do yoga, but if my ankles are still bothering me, I probably won't b/c balancing on a bum ankle, no so good. Here are some pics from Xmas! I finally uploaded them to my shutterfly.




Gary, his mom, and sister Laura

Someone gave out fake mustaches at G's uncles house as part of the white elephant giveaway, and then the same pic we take everyday of us fondling santa's sack.

I was nicer to myself today and wore some nice, loose, A line pants, that are a little more flattering, and don’t make me want to hide in my cube all day!

I got scared by the weather and opted not to drive to Akron for Excel in Cycling and I can’t go Sat b/c I have a long trail run planned. Booo. So, next week FOR SURE I will get back to that class and do it once a week! But I did get on the trainer at home and ran myself through a hard hour and did my own set of drills. I now have my clip shoes and my Garmin cadence monitor installed so it was nice to see how many rpms I could do easily. I covered a little less than 17 miles in an hour and did 8 mins of one legged drills per leg, so that wasn’t getting me very far, so I think I was going pretty fast. Maybe I do have it in me to be a 20mph cycler. However I’m not sure how many hours I could maintain that! I think even if tri’s don’t work out too well for me, I’ll be doing duathlons and century rides. Biking isn’t as hard for me as running, except for the sore tushieness.

I slept in this morning, so now I have to run tonight. I think I might treadmill it unless the roads melt a lot today. It’s still pretty slick on neighborhood streets.

Our office is still like a ghost town. I have stuff to do, but it’s so hard to get motivated when everyone else is gone! So glad it's a short working week.

Argghhh, I am wearing fat pants today and they are tight. So, not good. I have 10-16 lbs to lose. But let’s start with 5. I hope to have 5 off by the end of the month. I can do that. Candy and sugar are out. I have 2 good eating days under my belt and am ready to rock and roll. 2008 is going to be the year of Monica (maybe not for you!), I just know it. 2007 was one of my best years yet. I laid a great foundation for being the person I strive to be. I will continue to do so in 2008 and have a lot of firsts to look forward to!

Boy did we get some snow in Cleveland. We shoveled last night and there was so much over night in the Heights, I was barely able to get out of my driveway! You have to love the lake effect.

Movie review time! “Juno” was just an amazing film, close to perfect. The acting and dialogue were superb. I loved, loved this film. Ellen Paige is going to be a huge star and I am always happy to see my Arrested Development people getting work. Arrested Development was the best tv show ever, so of course it was cancelled after 3 measly seasons. Jason Bateman and Michael Cera were perfectly cast. Gary and I saw “No Country for Old Men” last night, that one wasn’t so great. Well, actually it is really good, until the end. The ending is a jip and makes your feel like you wasted 2 hours of your life. No resolution, it just quits. What the F is that?


Well, I guess I better do some work today. It is always so hard to be back at work after a long break.