Booty Burn Workout | 15 Min: BeFiT Trainer Open House- Erika Hammond

Curry for Weight Loss | Power Spices: Health Hacks- Thomas DeLauer

Time to cheer at MCM!

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have already seen this, but it remains one of my favorite race cheering moments.

This weekend, the Marine Corps Marathon is here again.  While I have never run the marathon and probably never will (I am a retired marathoner), this race is always on my calendar for one very important reason – Race Cheering.

I love cheering at this race.  No matter the weather.  It’s always a ton of fun.  MCM is a bucket list race for a lot of people.  It’s a race that immediately fills up and that people sometimes try for years to get into.  And it’s not an easy course.  It’s got a required minimum 14 minute per mile pace, and there are various cutoffs you have to make on the course.

My preferred cheer spot is just after one of those cutoffs – right after the 14th Street Bridge.  This is late in the race.  This year,  due to the route change, the end of the bridge is around mile 20, usually it’s closer to mile 22.   Having run the bridge in other races, it’s a tough part of any course.  It’s over a mile long, there are no spectators allowed on the bridge (though often one or two manage to sneak on), and because the bridge ends with a downhill, you can’t see the end.  It just seems to stretch on forever.

From our cheer spot, we can see the faces of people as they realize they’ve made it over the bridge.  They’re into the last miles of the race and they’re past the cutoffs.

The big thing that we all insist on doing when we cheer is that we wait for the very last runner to come through.  I’ve been at races where I’m late in the race and it’s a tough experience.  You can tell there were spectators there cheering, but they’ve mostly cleared out by then.  Just when you need that emotional push from a stranger, there’s no one there.  So we make a point to be there for all of those people coming through at the end.  It’s fun to see their faces when they realize that we’ve saved them snacks (because of course we hand out snacks).

It does sort of make the day anticlimactic.  “Was that the last person?  Yep, that was the last person.  Okay, let’s go home.”  But it’s a lot of fun, and I’ll have my cowbell out to cheer for each and every runner racing this weekend.

 

The post Time to cheer at MCM! appeared first on Elbowglitter.

Wednesday Workout Recap

PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay

I’ve noticed a lot of people track their annual mileage.  I used to track my run mileage, but I’ve definitely fallen off the wagon on that one.  I think for 2017, I’m going to use these recaps to add up my swim/bike/run mileage and see what I’m actually doing throughout the year.

Last week was definitely not a perfect week.  The downside to not pushing towards a big race is that I’m less motivated to get in my workouts.  But I did pretty well, I guess.

I also got some work done on my blog over the weekend.  Finally got my Race Reports page updated as well as my sidebar.  It made me realize that I’ve done a LOT of races.  And I think this is the first time that I’ve gotten this late in the year without a real plan for the next year.  Best work on that soon.

Monday – Rest Day.  I’m also back to choir rehearsals.  These are a little weird, since our director passed away unexpectedly this summer, so we’re working with guest conductors.  I definitely enjoy being there, but Monday rehearsals from 7:30-10 are tough.

Tuesday – Scheduled swim, but since I knew Wednesday’s workout was going to be a miss, I opted to get in a trainer ride and some lifting.  It also meant I got to bed early.

Wednesday – A good friend was in town, so we met for dinner.  No workout.

Thursday – Lifting. Lots of lifting.  I’m so glad to be back to regular strength work.  I never want to do it, but then I realize just how incredible it makes me feel.

Friday – Trainer ride and strength work.

Saturday – Oh, the joys of flexibility in my schedule.  I flipflopped the weekend’s workouts due to the weather.  So this became a 1:45 trainer ride.

Sunday – Gorgeous 8 mile run.  We’re having perfect running weather right now.  I know it’s not going to last, but I’m going to enjoy every single minute of it.

 

The post Wednesday Workout Recap appeared first on Elbowglitter.

Post Pregnancy Butt Shaper Workout: Healthy, Fit, Happy Mom

Yogalates Soothing Stretch Workout: 10 Mins- BeFiT GO

My home repairs are done!

Almost four months after I discovered a water leak in my office, the project is done!

(Okay, there’s some organization I still have to do and boxes I have to deal with, but it’s 95% done and that feels darn good.)

Let’s go back.  So back in July, I discovered a soft spot in my wall and some evidence of water leakage.  After ripping out some carpet, things did not seem good, so I called some repair companies.  Everyone figured the leak was due to some improperly placed nails outside.  No big deal.  Just some simple repairs.

Then the mold abatement company (because you always call a mold abatement company when you have water in your walls for a long time) came in and started the work.  And it turned out to be way worse than expected.

This photo is from after the mold abatement.  The white paint is all part of the abatement process.  But see that weird shape behind the third beam from the left?  That’s rotted away wood.  The white behind it isn’t paint.  It’s the wrap on the outside of the house.  Yes, at this point, all that is keeping the outside out is a piece of plastic and some improperly installed siding.  This was not awesome.

Oh yes, and to do this, I had to take everything out of my office.  You know what an English major with a law degree owns?  Books.  Lots of books.  So many books.

This is only half of the boxes.

So many repairs.  So much time.  Such poor time management from one of the contractors.  And, of course, this was all going on as I was training for Augusta.  There’s nothing less relaxing than coming home after a hard workout and being faced with all of those boxes.

But finally, the exterior work got done, and the week after Augusta, the interior work was done.

And then my office looked like this for a few weeks because I was busy.  I’m a social gal, after all.  I just had to sand and paint, but getting two coats of paint onto the walls took two weekends.  I also had to buy and assemble a new desk (the old one got damaged by the water leak and was no longer stable).  While I was at it, I picked up the filing cabinet that I’ve been thinking about getting for a few years.  I’m a grownup.  File boxes aren’t cutting it anymore.

But this weekend.  This weekend I finally finished it up.  The room isn’t perfect.  I wanted to put in better flooring.  I just have an indoor/outdoor rug that I bought a few years ago placed directly on the concrete floor.  It’s not quite the right size, but it works and I already owned it.

I’ve got to deal with a few things, hang up a few more items on the wall, and deal with the stack of filing that I’ve been ignoring.  I also need to go through all my files before I put them into the filing cabinet.  I’m a bit of a paper packrat and I think there’s some shredding to be done.

But the boxes are out of my living room and dining room.  My house looks so big now!  It’s a much nicer place to hang out in now!

Which is good because thanks to all of this work, I’m broke.

The post My home repairs are done! appeared first on Elbowglitter.