Hi there Bloggy friends, I am making the move from blogspot to my very own Blog. I am going to try really hard to do this blogging thing for some extra income. First step is to get my site up and running and people reading it, then try and round up some sponsers. So if you would please update your blogrolls to reflect my new site I would really appreciate it. For those of you who do a blogpost introducing my site I will send you a special gift in the mail (some food items), just please leave me a comment that you did so.

monicaonthego.com

Also - I am going to move my blogroll over, if for some reason you don't want to be on it, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Well no PR today, but close, I ran it in 25:45 , and the best I ever ran was 25:23 at that same race 2 years ago. But for me any race where I maintain under a 9:00 pace the whole run is a big success to me. I really didn't feel well out there today, I felt nauseous and really couldn't seem to push myself. One of these days I will feel great and get below 25, its coming soon I know it. Maintaining 8 and 7 something miles is getting easier for me and I really think a lot of it has to do with running with Fonzie. I got to do a little warm up with the super fast Salty and Eva who still beat me even though they are over 20 weeks pregnant, lol. Oh well they were twice as fast as me not pregnant, so it makes sense. Espeed had a PR and got 1st for females. So happy that everyone had a good day out there today. Afterwards we hit up the Original Pancake House and I ate as if I had just run a marathon. I can't pass up pumpkin pancakes, just can't do it. In the pic everyone is pregnant except for me (black hat/vest, Espeed in the front on the right and Christina, teeny one in back row all the way to right). There is something in the water around here!' In total I ran about 5.5 miles today and tomorrow I have 8-9 planned and power yoga.

Right now I am sitting in the kitchen next to Harp in her high chair and she is trying desperately to feed herself puffs, but just can't quite get it. Too cute. G is playing golf, when he gets back we are going to go see Santa at the mall, should be interesting!

I have a 5K in the morning. I am a little nervous. It is my last race of the year (out of 4 total, wowza ) and I really hope to have a good PR. It would be a nice way to finish out the year. After the race I get to have some breakfast with some other ladies I know from tris/running/blogging and I am really looking forward to it. 5 of them are pregnant right now, 2 with their seconds. I guess they're all drinking the same water, I better watch out. My goal was to run 4 days a week and with the 5K tomorrow I will reach it, I ran with Fonzie on Sun, then on the treadmill due to rain/cold on Wed & Thurs. I also hit up a weight lifting class and balance/pilates class. Tomorrow we are going to take Haper to get her santa photo...should be interesting.

I kind of don't like the holidays. I mean don't get me wrong. I love being around my family and the togetherness of the holidays, but I don't like the food. I am one of those people with absolutely no willpower. I am strong enough to not bring junk in my house, but if I am around it I mindlessly stuff myself. Anyway, I am glad Turkey day is over, now just to make it through Xmas. We only go to my Family's place on T-giving, whereas at Xmas we hit up 3 family houses and then 2 other extended family parties. I hope to be down to my goal weight of 125 by Xmas so that if I gain a few, it won't put me back up into the 130s. I stand firm at 128 right now and I barely worked out this past week. I got in 1 good run while I was home with my BIL, we ran a cross country course. I very rarely run on grass, nice to mix it up sometimes. T-giving was great, my sister made a weight watchers pumpkin pie that was yummy and I didn't overdo it too bad on my moms olive cream cheese dip and candied sweet potatoes! Today I am back on the wagon, but unfortunately I am sick AGAIN.

I am so sick of being sick, do any of you take any good immune system boosters? I take a pre natal vitamin and an Emergen C packet (most days, when I remember). But this is like the 6th time I have been sick in 2-3 months, its getting in the way of my training for this Jan half mary! I was supposed to go do the course yesterday but woke up with the worst sore throat and a nose full of cement, so back to bed I went. Ugh. I must say I have been running really strong though. I did a 5K the other day and did it in 26:03, which is my second fastest time ever. I am doing another 5K this weekend and I really hope to get in the low 25s. I was supposed to do a half marathon last weekend, but changed to do this 5K for charity (girls on the run) but then there was a snafu and I didn't get a partner so I just raced the race. I wish I had done the half, just to see where I am now speed wise. I am about 10 lbs less than I was for the Akron half. There is a 30K in PA in the spring that I might have to go do...I am contemplating doing either the Pittsburgh or Cincinnati marathon on May 2. I won't sign up for either until much closer b/c admittedly if I end up back at work, I may not get enough miles in to worry about a full. But if I am still at home most of the training time, I might be able to pull off one more 26.2 before going back to work. Seeing where my body is now at 128, I really think I can get closer to 120 and I think that will help my race times dramatically. I hope so! Looking forward to getting my runs up to 5 days a week. Starting this week I will make sure I run 4 days a week and then in Jan, add that 5th day. That's my plan for now.

These pics are from Salty's son's 1st b-day party. How cute are those babies! Yummy. Also my neighbor took a bunch of wonderful shots of Harper to try and help me get a xmas card shot. Below is the one I chose to send out! It was the first time her ever shot an infant and he did awesome! Last but not least, big shout out and good luck to IRONTRISH who is doing Cozumel today, can't wait to see her finish.

What a gorgeous day we are having in Cleveland. I fully believe it will be our last nice weekend until ohhhh June. So, I made sure to take advantage of it. I started the day with a 7 mile trail run at North Chagrin Reservation. Met a few friends and took Fonzie. I was afraid it would be too much for him b/c he's never ran hills and only ran 5 miles, but he handled it like a champ and could have gone further. He had so much fun. Too bad he tried to bite my guy friend, sigh, this dog is a nipper, really have to figure out how to break that. He was fine with everyone as long as they didn't mess with him, but the lone guy (hes not big on strange men) went to pet him and he tried to nip his leg, but I gave him a leash jerk first, shoo. He doesn't aggressively go after people, but gets a little scared and slowly nips. It stinks. Anyway, the run was great. The leaves were gorgeous and it was like 55 degrees and sunny. The run felt good and I was worried b/c I am just getting over being sick. But I was able to run fast without a lot of effort and bounded up the hills. Woohoo.

When I got home G and I headed to Chagrin Falls with Harper and did some window shopping and strolling. We also shared some Carmel corn and a milkshake. So much for those lbs lost while I was sick! Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

I thought I had food poisoning, now its looking like the flu. Great. I went to the doc, but won't know if my swab was positive until Sat. Gary stayed home today, I feel awful, he can't stay home tomorrow b/c he has a project to finish up. Oh oh oh I hope Harper doesn't catch this from me. Is it inevitable? She had a flu shot a few weeks ago.

Ugh, I am having a little bad luck this week, lol. I feel horrible today, absolutely horrible. It's all tummy related. I had pizza last night and didn't realize it had garlic on it and I don't handle garlic well at all and I have been hunched over in sick pain all day. Not fun to take care of a 6 month old on the move when you don't feel good. Oh well. My own fault. On top of that, I totally overdid it at the gym on Monday (in weight lifting class, used too much weight big time) b/c I was so gung ho to get started again. I can barely sit on the toilet from doing squats. I have been hobbling around for 2 days. I went to the weight lifting class again this morning in hopes my nausea would go away and getting my muscles moving would help. No such luck, I was a sweaty mess the whole class and almost threw up and couldn't handle more then 5 lbs on each side of the bar and couldn't get through the squat set. Eieiey. I hope I feel better tomorrow. I have missed a run nd need to run tomorrow for sure.

Here is a pic of Harper and her playmate Nate. Every week my friend Salty and I get together to babysit each others kids while the other runs. Nate will be a year old in Nov. The pics are a little blurry, but I just love Harper's faces

Sunday, Oct 25 - I know I declared the other day that I was on a diet & giving up sweets, unfortunately I haven't been very mindful of my diet...at all. The scale said goodbye to 130 & planted me back at 132, so 7 lbs that I want to lose. Starting over again today. I am going to try and lose these 7 lbs over the next 6 weeks. I know that seems a little ambitious but you don't know all the stupid things I've eaten (hello pizza for dinner last night& giant creme puff) or the weights I have been slacking on. I have a pair of skinny jeans that I want to get into and I think it would be great to wear them on Thanksgiving to prevent me from overeating...I start anew today with a 75 min power yoga class. Here are a few goals I am going to try and stick to and be mindful of:

1. Work out 10-11 hours a week, this counts dog walks
2. Get more fruits & veggies, I have been awful about this and it used to be the easy part for me
3. On days that G gets home from work before 5 take the dogs for an extra walk even if its just half a blocl
4. Get to the gym classes at least 3 times a week, important for me and also for keeping Harper used to the playroom
5. After Harper goes to bed get on bike in basement a few times a week and watch one of my many shows that I DVR

Here is my workout plan for this week, not counting dog walks, they get one every day, varying lengths depending on weather, baby mood, etc:
Today - 75 min yoga class
Mon - Urban Iron or BeamFIT class and 5 mile run
Tues - 5 mile run, abs DVD
Wed - Urban Iron class, 2o mins on bike
Thurs - 5 mile run, yoga DVD
Fri - Urban Iron class, 20 mins on bike
Sat -6 mile run

For 2 days in a row I have weighed in at 130.5. I was hovering between 130 and 133 when I got pregnant, so yay! Pre preggo weight. I wanted to do it by 6 months and lo and behold Monday is her 6th month bday! I hope I can get a few more lbs off. I have enjoyed this week off. I worked out once. Starting tomorrow I am back at it.

Harper is sick. She got super stuffed up late yesterday and we were up all night. She didn't fall asleep until 11, in the swing, after screaming for an hour. She hasn't slept all day. I keep getting her to fall asleep, whether by rocking or feeding her, but then as soon as I lay her down, she is right back up. She is in good spirits for the most part if you are holding her. I hope this cold doesn't last 2 weeks. If she is sick next week I will go to the gym when G is home from work I guess. I am not taking any more time off the gym.

On the tattoo front, I made up my mind on the 3 little birds. But I also have to hold off until summer, as the lady doing the tat said that I really shouldn't get a foot tattoo in the winter and that she doesn't offer her retouching guarantee on foot tats during cold months. But I did promise my friend I would get inked with her after our marathons, so I think I am going to get the symbol for mother in kanji on my rib. Or maybe that little round owl. Although my hairdresser has the astrological signs of her kids on her back and that's a great idea too.