A Life Well Balanced

I have been gone a good long time. I have had at least one big change in the last two years.

I am now the mother of a busy 14 month old toddler girl. She has changed everything in my life and I could not be more happy. I am certainty busy. It is a lot of work being a working full time mom but I love this crazy life that I am living. 

The past couple of weeks have been going very well for me exercise wise. I have been keeping on track and it feels so good :)

I have been dealing with something family wise. It was something I never expected. We are working through it. I am so thankful for Tony he has been really supportive and has helped me out.  

I also ordered Body Pump to start at home. Beachbody sells it. I really love having it home. I can do it when I want to and not have to wait for the class. I have been waking up to start at 5:00 am. I actually look forward to working out. I think that is a good thing.

I am currently in my second week. I follow the workout calendar that they provided. They also provide a meal plan but I do not follow that. Because I feel like I know what works for me food wise. I am sure I could improve it but it has not been worth it to change it up yet. One day it might be but not today.

Sometimes that trainers are a little too happy at 5:00 am but I can deal with that. 

I also tried some Quest Bars. They are good but they are also expensive. I have not been able to talk myself into a whole box. $33 for 12 seems really pricey. You can purchase them for $25 on amazon or vitacost but still.

I want to try to make my own protein bars. I would imagine those would be healthier for me. But I do not have time.

There is actually not much on my schedule.

Right now I have one race on my tentative schedule and that is the 100% Irish for a day 10 Mile. After my TC 10 mile last year I have really come to love that distance. It is the perfect length for me. So I have been looking for that length but they are not easy to find.

I really wanted to run the Goldy's 10 Miler. I have not made up my mind on whether or not I will run it. It is on a Saturday and we have tickets for Jim Gaffigan the night before. So I do not know how I will feel. But I could always just use it as a Fun Run. Ugh, we will see what happens. 

I really want to run a Half Marathon in May but I have not been able to find a local one that really calls my name. I will keep on looking. Hopefully something will pop on up.

Then in September there is Women Run the Cities. 10 Miler that I want to run. I have a star on that one. It looks like it would be a fun race. The only problem is that it is the weekend of our Wedding Anniversary. So will see what happens with that. 

So where night now I have anywhere to 1 race to 4 races on the schedule. But who am I kidding more races will come up and I will run those. But I am not "planning" on anything else right now. 

I have decided I needed a new blog name. I still run and am active but it no longer defines me. So with that comes a new name and a new focus.

I have been working on being more present in my life. Sadly it has meant that my blog has suffered. But I have no doubt that my quality of life has improved and it is for the better. In fact, I have had comments from my hubs wondering why I am so happy all the time lately and why I have been so nice to him. He also said that he used to feel that he had to do everything around the house. I was so focused on me and losing weight that I lost the focus on the big picture. 

I got healthy to live a better life not for fitness to overtake my life. So 2014 is all about finding the balance and being present in my life. 

So I am supposed to run a Half Marathon on Saturday. Women Rock MN Half to be exact.

There are two issues involved with this. 1) It is supposed to really hot on race day. Mid 90's.Team Orthro (the race organizers) called a race short last weekend for heat and we are supposed to experience the same on Saturday. 2) I do not feel well trained. I have been having some back issues lately. So I have not been able to get all my long runs in. :( I did manage to get a 9.5 mile run in a couple of weeks ago and 10 miles last Saturday. So both of these factors make me nervous for this weekend. 

Team Orthro are also putting on a 10k or 5k this weekend. They offered to down grade in distance free of charge because of the heat. Earlier in the week I was seriously thinking about taking them up on the offer. Mainly because of my back but the heat does not help. But after much thought I think I am going to run the Half. My back is loads better than the past couple of weeks. It may not be pretty or a PR but I am going to give it a shot. A run/race does not have to be a fast to be Successful!

So, last week did not go as planned. But why should I expect any different.

I did not run at all. I went on a 3 mile walk on Thursday, and a 4 mile walk on Saturday. Other than that it has all been rest days or Yoga. I am still nursing my back. It is feeling much better. So I am hopeful that I can get my long run in on Sunday this upcoming week.

I finally joined a gym again. So I am hoping to work some strength back in the mix.

So onto my "plans" for this week.

Monday: 3 mile Run

Tuesday: Toned Up (strength class)

Wednesday: 3 mile Run

Thursday: BodyFlow

Friday: Yoga

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday: 11 mile Run