Getting used to things

I am slowly getting used to working full time. The challenging part (besides learning a lot of new things) is getting up early. This week I got up at 4:30 am on Monday and 4:00 am on Tuesday. Funny how by the time everyone shows up to work I've already been up for 4 hours. I found that the early wake up calls hit me right after lunch. Usually a good cup of java will allow me to make it through the morning. By the time Wednesday rolled around I opted out of the gym not so much because I was tired, but rather I was too comfortable in our warm and cozy bed. At school today we had parent-teacher interviews which ran til 11:30am and we were allowed to go home at noon. Tonight I have my first retreat to go to for work. I am off to one of the hotels in Calgary for a sleepover, which is paid for by the school. Tomorrow is a day of learning as we have a bunch of scheduled sessions to attend. I am excited about going as I get to meet the rest of the admin staff who I don't see on a regular basis (from different campuses), but will be in daily contact with. The previous admin assistant who has trained me since last Tuesday will also be attending and we will be actually sharing a room tonight.

I will be starting Ironman training next Monday. This time around I will be doing a 30 week program. I think Monday just consists of a nice 30 minute run (Zone 2). Because it is just the base phase it won't be anything crazy for awhile. I just want to concentrate on sticking to my zones and follow the program. Trevor and I are considering purchasing some gym equipment for the basement, so that we can fit our training better into our schedules. I thought we were pretty good a juggling our time before, but now that we are both working full-time time is everything. If we can save time by not having to drive to a gym then so be it. The one good thing is that I know our equipment would definitely get used. One bad thing is that I'd still have to get to the pool in the evenings...man...swimming....so hard for me to get excited about it. Saturday we are planning on perhaps getting some new equipment.

We've downloaded our holiday pics, but I have yet to do anything with it. Hopefully I will be able to do some of that this weekend. I have a paper due on Monday for school as well...man...now I wish I had more time in the day.

Wow...time to catch up

Sorry for leaving you all in the dark after the Half Marathon Blog. That evening after the Half Marathon I was actually going to go on my blog and put an edit on my last post. As that day progressed my knees were beginning to feel the effects of the race. Now I didn't go hard that race and my knees don't generally bother me, so I am not too sure what had happened. I did rest that day and tried not to walk about too much. Trevor went to about three different pharmacy to find me some BioFreeze with no luck and returned back to the hotel with some product call Freeze It. Even though it says on the instructions not to use more than 5 times I am sure I exceeded that...oh well. The next morning was a another early wake up call. We woke up at 3:30am...brutal...I felt okay in the morning. My knee was okay. My only goal was to make it through the 26.2 miles. We got to the site at around 4:30am. We felt like old pros as we have done this same routine the day before. I kept my silver foil sheet (the thing they give you after the race to keep warm) so that I could wrap it around me after I check my stuff and had to walk to the start line. It was a tad colder than the previous day and I knew I had made a great decision. We got to the start line and found our corrals and waited. I decided to sit on the ground and save the legs. I didn't want to stand for 45 minutes. Trevor on the other hand was concerned about getting piles and chose to stand. The time actually went by quick. The anthem was sung, the fireworks went and then it was time to go. I never did find my pacer which I was going to use for the marathon so I just went with the flow. I didn't go hard at all. I basically just did a nice slow pace and it was nice. I was never tired. I enjoyed it and took everything in. My favorite was seen all the cast members dancing and having so much fun. What troopers being out so early cheering for strangers...you got to love them. I love running through all the parks. The only big problem I had was washrooms. For some reason I needed to have a pit stop every couple of miles. The only problem is that I had to wait in line, which was sometimes a good five minute wait. I don't get jealous that often, but when I have to go to the bathroom so bad and am running and don't see any porta potties, but I see all this men just whipping it out on the side of the road...yeah...I get jealous. I am sure I could have shed a good twenty minutes had I been a dude. I managed to run pretty much straight through until about mile 23 and then I was just hanging on by a thread. My motivation levels dropped and a mild case of depression set in. Yes, depressing in the happiest place on earth. How could this be. I just wanted this stupid race to be over. I saw a couple of characters at that point but depressed me didn't want a picture, high five or smile from them. I just wanted to drop kick them...why are they so happy?? They should try running this dumb Goofy race. I managed to drag my butt another 3.2 miles and crossed the finish line. After that I was good. I was my usual happy little self. Walking to the Goofy Challenge tent I was proud of my accomplishment. I will post some pictures soon...very soon...FYI my full marathon time was 5:22:43 (slower than I wanted, but I did it!!!!).

I will post more about our holiday soon, but life has changed a lot since we have returned from holidays. Remember my job that I had before where I was privileged to work along side with wonderful kids...well. I was doing such a great job doing that job, so while I was on holidays the Administrative Assistant at the school resigned and the Principal at the school contacted me while I was on vacation. After emailing back and forth I ended up setting up a interview on Monday (we got back at midnight the night before). I had my interview at 11am with three people interviewing me. They told me they would let me know by the end of the day and lo and behold Susan is now working full time as the Admin Assistant at her children's school. Crazy hey?? I started my first day the on Tuesday. I start at 7 am which means getting up at 5:45am. Next week I will start getting to the gym again. I will have to get up at 4am to go and I never thought I would be a morning person, but this is working for me. In the mean time I am taking Applied Movement Mechanics and still working on my Personal Fitness Trainer Certificate. Trevor is being Mr. Mom and now is dealing with the kids in the morning and getting them ready, fed and driving them to school. How things change so quickly. Next week I am off to an Admin Assistant Retreat on Thurs and Friday. It is in town, but I get to stay in a hotel...how fun. I get to meet all the other AA and learn more about the systems we use at the school. I am so excited about this job. It is so nice to be working full time. All the teachers and staff at the school are super nice and have made an effort to come and congratulate me on my new position. So if I don't post as often as I used to you'll know why.

one down and one to go

I am happy to say that I have finished the first part of the challenge. Good News is that managed to get the time I wanted for the first part...well...6 minutes faster. I was going to follow the 2:30 pacer, but I never did find them so I had to pace myself. It was a nice slow pace and I am doing good right now....not too sore. I am just tired from getting up so early. 3:25 am (1:25 am our time---haven't quite adjusted to Orlando time). Anyways my official time was 2:24:21. Now it is time to rest and maybe take a nap and get ready for tomorrow. I am shooting for 5:00, but if I get it I get it...if not....no big deal as it is all for fun.

Alligator Pie

When you were younger did ever hear that poem called "Alligator Pie". Well it was one of my absolute favorites. To this day I am able to recite a bit of it by memory...

Alligator pie, alligator pie,

If I don't get some I think I'm gonna die.

Give away the green grass, give away the sky,

But don't give away my alligator pie.

I have come to the conclusion that Alligator Pie is my chocolate. I had an appointment today with my therapist and I didn't bring up my little avoidance of my chocolate challenge because I know avoiding certain foods goes against everything my treatment has taught me. I realize that what I need to do is not avoid chocolate, but rather learn to not over indulge and have it in moderation. Now that is the key word "moderation". What does that actually mean...

moderation Definition

mod·era·tion (mäd′ər ā′s̸hən)

noun

1. a moderating, or bringing within bounds
2. avoidance of excesses or extremes

Why is that so much easier said than done. Well I have come along way and I think that I am actually learning to listen to my body a lot more. If I want something I have it. I realize that food will always be a challenge for me, but I am learning. So no more restricting. I am opening the doors once again to chocolate, bakery items and desserts. Having said that I hope you don't think that as soon as I am done typing this blog that I will be out the door heading over to 7-11 to get a king size Coffee Crisp (although that does sound tempting and very yummy). No...I will not do such a thing. In fact, I am not craving any such goodness at this time. I just don't want to have unhealthy restrictions placed upon myself as it is not healthy to think of certain foods as "bad".

As for the weighing challenging and weighing myself only once a week that is a positive challenge that is beneficial to me...especially during treatment. I have been true to this challenge and have stuck it out. The first few days were insane and kind of stressful, but as with many things time makes it better. Weighing in every seven days is realistic...so far so good. Only 3 more sleeps till I get to pull out the scale and better than that is that there is only 3 more sleeps till we go to Florida.

back to the grind tomorrow

Today is the last day of Christmas Break for the kids. We just put them in bed at 7:30 am. I am sure that Simon is already sleeping as I know longer hear him bellering his usual songs. I am not sure how tomorrow morning will go as they haven't had to get up at 6:45 am for quite some time and neither have I. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. It is so strange knowing that the kids have only 3 days of school before we leave on our "vacation".

I was just discussing with Trevor how the only part of our holiday which will be relaxing may be while participating in the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. Why???? well the kids are at that age where they are constantly bickering with one another. Honestly, it drives me bonkers. My brother and I were the exact same way when we were younger. This truly is a concern of mine while vacationing with the children. Am I going to go crazy??? Will I be able to handle them (will we)??? While we were in the car coming home from the gym (the kids were at oma's place) we discussed some options (bribery), which we could put in place to make for a more pleasant vacation. We came up with the following idea...beginning of Thursday, January 8th first thing in the morning the kids will each be given $5 dollars (play money). If we catch them doing something bad like fighting, arguing with each other, complaining about something, lying, talking back ...etc. then we will give them a warning. If the continue on with the behavior then we take $1 away from them. I guess that leaves them with a total of 5 times where they can misbehave before they have no money left for that day. If for some miraculous reason they were excellent and were able to keep there $5 that day we will add an additional $2 to their pot. At the end of the day the money which they are left with gets banked. The next day they start out with $5 again and so on and so on....this continues till Saturday at 6pm (January 17th). Then on Saturday evening their banked play money gets turned into real money and they are allowed to go shopping at the Magic Kingdom with their money. SO that is the plan of attack to keep the kids in line for the holidays. Now I just have to find some play money. I was hoping that they would have some at the dollar store, but it looks like I will have to go to Toys R Us instead.

Besides the above plan we also discussed some goal setting for myself. Trevor seems to think that a 2:30 half and a 5 hour full would be reasonable for me. I do think that sounds achievable for me and after reading a bunch of blogs and knowing what to expect as far as the course goes I think my nerves have settled down a wee bit...Trevor I am sure would beg to differ and call me a basket case, but that's okay. That's how I deal with races. I love that Trevor spends hours and hours researching everything and anything about the race, so that I don't have to waste my time. If I have a question he always has the answer. I even know that I start Corral C for the full marathon and Corral B for the half and Trevor is Corral C for the full and A for the half. Anyways...he is just a wealth of information...that's my guy...good looking and smart : )

Well tomorrow is a new day and I too have to get up bright and early. Fortunately I do not have to work, but I do have 2 appointments in the morning so till then....

Challenges are now underway

Today was the first day of my 2 challenges. I weighed myself this morning right after I got up and I must admit that going from 15-20 times a day to once every Thursday is very difficult. I find that I am paranoid that I am gaining weight even though I went to the gym for 1 hr and 35 minutes on the elliptical. I guess I need to keep track of how much I am burning and how much I am intaking in order to make sure that everything is working out. Especially since the race is only 9/10 days away I need to make sure that my nutrition is in check. As for the chocolate/bakery items/desserts so far so go, but it would have been nice to have a yummy donut after the workout, but I survived this far. One day at a time.....

Trevor and I were talking about our family trip to Orlando and discussing that we will be eating out once everyday. He was saying that I should probably go off the dessert challenge while on holidays so that I may partake in a dessert or two while we are away. I am not sure what to do yet. I may consider doing the challenge till we go on vacation and then start it up again when we get back. Having said that if I do choose to do that I will not overindulge in desserts. I was just thinking maybe two of the ten days.

Oh by the way...Christmas is officially over in the Oseen household as we packed up anything and everything to do with Christmas. The kids were a little distraught that their mini Christmas Trees were taken from their rooms.