It's Diva Weekend

Another month, another half :) The car is packed and I'm ready- well, the car is packed...

In just a bit, I'll load up my littlest one (and the real diva of the bunch!) and my Find Your Happy Pace friend and I will go and pick up my other monkeys from school and start out on our drive. We'll be meeting up with my mom (who will take over the monkeys) and my sister around dinner time and then Mom and monkeys will head back to my parent's house for the weekend and sister, friend and I will continue on to Run Like a Diva. The race is Sunday, so we'll have time to explore the expo and hang out for a bit on Saturday before consuming our pre-race fajitas (a new tradition that started in Disney World) and getting to bed early. If you are running this weekend, good luck! Can't wait to hear about your experience :)

In other exciting news this week, I completed Phase 2 of JMBR. It was a good phase, not a great one for me. I really hit that lull during this phase and definitely did not put forth my best effort all the time. But, not quitting really is key sometimes- just getting it done is what matters. Phase 3 will start on Monday. But, here are the numbers: this week, I lost 3.2 pounds, total for phase 2- 10.6 pounds and 9.5 inches overall. I'm still really liking this program, it is challenging and I am really excited to have the consistent results :)

Weigh In, Meal Planning, Week Planning.....

Sometimes it all seems to run together-especially in our house. Friday I did weigh in, down 2.6 pounds- brining the total to 40 pounds in 19 weeks. I am proud of that, but I am still fighting my lull. I'm hoping that this week will be a turning point. The Diva half marathon is only 2 weeks away, so I'm still preparing with that along with starting week 7 of JMBR and that means the second half of phase 2, along with two more workouts.

Meal planning for the week:

Monday- baseball practice so an early dinner- stuffed chicken with broccoli

Tuesday- gymnastics and then baseball game so dinner on the go

Wednesday- spinach lasagna roll ups

Thursday- gymnastics and a meeting, so dinner on the go again

Friday- turkey burgers

Saturday- kids' choice

Sunday- leftovers

Hopefully I'll have a little more down time this week, but it's not really looking that way...so with that I'm headed to bed early to prepare for tomorrow's workout.

Friday Weigh In

Down 2.2 today, total is 37.4. I know that the meal planning has really helped this week because my mind has not been on exercise. I've done the workouts, but I have not really given my all. The week started off strong on Monday, but fell apart a little starting Tuesday and went completely downhill from there.

Workout 6 was also pretty good. The running man exercise showed up as one of the cardio intervals- yuck! Although- when I do try to do the workout when my kids are awake, they do love that one. Not sure why!

Sunday is the March of Dimes walk (still time to donate if you'd like!). I hope my older two are ready for the 5 mile walk- there are a lot of kids walking with us, so it should be a fun time! Then I am hoping for a better week next week- everyone has an off week now and then- the important this is what you do after the rough week, right?

Workout 5 and an interval run

Wow- it was tough. I've been reading some other people's blogs as they post about JMBR and also checking out the JMBR Facebook page. It seems to be the consensus that odd number workouts are harder than even numbered ones. I'm thinking that is proving to be true. My arms are really going to feel this workout tomorrow. She also added in a yoga stretch warmup and that was interesting to me. I've never done any yoga, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I felt like it was a nice warm up.

I was fortunate today to get to talk with a friend that I've know for several years. We were able to catch up for a bit after dropping our kids off at preschool. Yes, our kids go to the same preschool, but we rarely get the chance to catch up. Thanks to carpooling neighbors, I am usually only at the school once a week. And until recently I only picked up kiddos once a week, so the craziness of getting5 kids into the car after school did not lend itself to getting to hang out and talk a bit as you can imagine.

We were talking about running and I was telling her that I am wanting to really concentrate on speed improvement. She mentioned that she also does a running interval workout that has really helped with her speed. So I tried that out tonight after finishing workout 5. Each interval is one minute and this is what I did:
4 mph, 5 mph, 4 mph, 6 mph. 4 mph, 7 mph, 4 mph,6 mph,4 mph,5 mph, 4 mph (repeat)

This was not easy. I was very excited to get through the 7 mph minute. I barely made it through that minute, so I will attempt a faster speed at a later date! After thanking her for the suggestion, I asked if that was right (it'd been several hours since we talked about it and I tend to jumble numbers on occasion). She actually said that what she does is this: 4.5, 5, 4.5, 5,5 4.5, 6... Continuing up to 9 mph, and going back to 4.5 as the base but increasing at half mile increments instead of mile ones. And then repeats. So I'll try that next. Still not sure about over 7 mph, but I do know with time I will get there!

Next Sunday

I will be loading up my two littlest into the double jogging stroller and walking 5 miles with my older two for the March of Dimes march for babies. If you feel like donating to my team, we would welcome your donation!

March of Dimes

I'm so thankful to have four healthy children who will be walking with me next week at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront with our team of moms, dads and babies. Should be a fun morning walk!

Sunday Thoughts and Refocusing

So I'm meal planning for this week. It's been a while since I actually did a meal plan for the week. My oldest's baseball schedule has really thrown a wrench into the meal planning. This week we still have a very busy week around here, but I know I need to have a plan in place to continue to be successful. So, here we go:

Monday: Baseball practice- means picnic dinner for the kiddos and a salad on the go for me :)

Tuesday: Gymnastics- Taco night, something easy and quick to have when we get home.

Wednesday: Baseball game- Chicken Pot Pockets from Hungry Girl for yummy fuel before the game

Thursday: Gymnastics followed by Baseball game- This will be a dinner on the go for the kiddos and then I will plan to eat when we get home from baseball.

Friday: Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken from SkinnyTaste a favorite for all

Saturday: I have a 31 party and the kiddos will have a babysitter, so they luck out and get to choose what's for dinner.

Sunday: Leftovers

Ok, so onto my thoughts...I have completed 4 half marathons this year so far. My next one is in 4 weeks. I am thinking that I may take a break for the summer. I don't have any official races on the schedule- I haven't found any offered locally during the summer (don't know why- I think it's fun to run when it's 90 degrees outside...). My original plan was to go out and run the 13.1 distance, time it myself and that was going to count as my personal half. The plan was to do it in the evening (a little cooler) or early morning. I still may do this, but I really want to concentrate on speed and when I do a half, it has usually taken me about a week to get motivated to train again. Which then only leaves me about three weeks to get ready for the next race. With that happening, I have found it hard to focus as much on speed as I would like to. So, I am still trying to make a plan and now focusing more training time on my next half, the Diva Half Marathon in N Myrtle Beach.

Tomorrow I start phase 2 of JMBR. I'm looking forward to seeing what workouts 5 and 6 are like this week as well as starting a new cardio workout. My plan is to run tomorrow (long interval day) and also do workout 5 of JMBR.

What do you do when you feel like you need to change up a plan (and a goal) you've set for yourself? I am having a little trouble- feeling like I am not up to the challenge I set for myself, but I also want to do my best to improve speed and I am not sure how to do that when I am missing about a week of training every week because of recovery. Thoughts?

JMBR Phase 1 Complete!

I am so excited to report that I am done with phase 1 of JMBR and thrilled with the results so far! The way the program is designed I have not gotten bored with the workouts at all- it's been fun and a lot of hard work. I did cardio 1 along with the strength workouts most days. Either that or I did my running intervals. I am ready to see what workouts 5 and 6 are like along with a new cardio workout as well.

This week I am down another 3.8 pounds (one of my highest weeks ever in this journey). This makes my total for 17 weeks 35.2 pounds! I wish I'd taken measurements when I very first started, but I didn't think about it. But, I did take measurements when I started JMBR, and on phase 1, I have lost 9.2 pounds and 19 inches overall! Very exciting and I am looking forward to phase 2 and to becoming closer to my goals!