Jelly of my Jams Swap Reveal!

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Holly & I, we just wanted to do something fun, something wonderful, something marvelous – and you know what? I think we did. #JellyofmyJams CD Swap had about twice as many participants as I expected (I thought it’d just be me & Holly, honestly) and I simply can.not.wait. to see all the songs people shared with their partners. I received mine last night (got it out of the mailbox this morning) and I shit you not – I love every song.

So, if you participated feel free to link a post telling us why we should be Jelly of your Jams! Don’t worry if you’ve worked something out and don’t have a post ready yet, you can link up later. Whatever works best for you.

We had an uneven amount of participants so I was put into a Trifecta of Awesome (yes, we named ourselves, no shame). Basically, I would swap songs (so tempted to write spit, ha!) with someone but they wouldn’t swap with me. 

I sent a CD to Genna (Freed At Last), Genna sent one to Abbey (Finding My Forever), & Abbey to me.

You guys. Abbey did not disappoint.

Firstly, she sent me some headbands (even though I don’t have any head-back, I’m still going to use them) and cute little note cards that say Hey You on the front. Also, a lovely note where she tells me all the songs (Uh, there’s 23!) and some of her favorites. She was also nice enough to warn me that a few of them may not be Lillie-appropriate.

It always means a lot whenever people take my daughter into consideration. Just another reason why Abs is my favorite.

I’ll put a few videos up, but mostly I’ll just link to the YouTube so it doesn’t take forever for this post to load.

1. Just Keep Swimming – Finding Nemo.
She conveniently left #1 off her list on my note (I didn’t catch it when I was skimming the songs) so this was an hilarious start to my day. I’ve had the shittiest week, and seriously this made it all worthwhile. Best way to start a CD.

2. I Love – Tom T. Hall
I remember hearing this song years ago on the radio but had no clue who sung it (when I say years, I mean like I was 6 or 7) and had completely forgot about it. You guys. I was so freaking giddy on my way to work this morning as I listened. I’ve also officially changed the last lyric of the song from “I love you, too” to “I love you, Abs.”

3. Scar – Missy Higgins
I had never heard this song before. I absolutely love the lyrics. I actually listened to it twice on my way into work. In fact, I’m listening to it as I type this right now. I’m fancy in that way. Please, please, please check it out. You will not be disappointed.

4. Get U Home – Shwayze
Proof that Abbey wants in my pants are in the lyrics : “Take me in the bathroom, take my clothes off, make love to me up against a dirty wall, Cause I can’t wait to get you home”

It’s already been added to my running playlist and every time I hear it, I will think of you & a dirty bathroom Abbey but in the cleanest way possible, I swear..

5. Summertime – Brianna Taylor
This song seriously just rolls off your tongue. I found myself singing along even though I clearly did not know the words. Thank the sweet baby Jesus for tinted truck windows.

6. I Feel Home – O.A.R.
Another new song to me. This is definitely a sitting on my back porch, drinking a cold one, hanging with my friends kind of song – just mellow & chill. They do a great song of describing their ‘home’ and it’s an awful lot like mine. 

7. Rodeo – Chris Ledoux
I started laughing like a mad woman when this came on. Now, if you’re a redneck then you KNOW this song – mostly because any man you’ve ever come across has started singing it loudly when they get drunk at some point in their life. WARNING: This is NOT a safe for work song. A few of the lyrics:
“Well, it’s 40 below and I don’t give a fuck, got a heater in my truck and I’m off to the rodeo”
”Well, here comes Johnny with his pecker in his hand, he’s a one ball man and he’s off to the rodeo”
”piss me off, fuckin’ jerk, get on my nerves”

8. Waka Waka – Shakira
Great running/workout song. Also, I am in love with Shakira. Especially after seeing her on The Voice this season. Her voice is so unique and beautiful. Also, she’s easy on the eyes. Hmm…maybe I should sing her Get U Home…

9. Storm Warning – Hunter Hayes
I’ve heard this song (and love it) and I’m familiar with Hunter Hayes. Just not familiar with how he looks. I googled and it says he’s 21, but dude, he can’t be more than 15. He’s got the sweetest little baby face, but dude he’s got a voice of a grown ass man. My loins are very disturbed by this.

10. Taste – Josh Abbott Band
Another country artist (Abbey you’ve nailed this) that I’m a fan off. Although, again, Abbey, I get it. You want me. I’m married. To be fair though, I’m sure my husband wouldn’t mind. Men. Sheesh.
Lyrics: “ I wanna taste your skin; I wanna be let in. I wanna hold you and feel you like you’ve never been.”

11. Ferris Wheel – Jason Jones
Country for the win again! I added the video below because it’s adorable. And also because I now want to go to a fair. Are there any fairs going on anywhere? I want to go to there.

12. Touch the Sky – Julie Fowlis
This is from the movie Brave and yep, another great running song. I just watched this movie for the first time a few weeks ago, so great. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I advise you do.

13. Love Letter – Shwayze
I am really liking this Shwayze, Abs. You can’t help but move your shoulders to it.

14. Our Last Night – Better Than Ezra
This song makes me want to grab a glass of wine, go sit on my back porch swing and just look out into the sunset. Okay, fine, by glass I meant bottle. You guys know me too well.

15. If I could Do It Again – Corey Smith
I love it when songs just tell stories – like no metaphors, no deeper meanings, just stories you can relate too and love. That’s what this is.

16. Gone, Gone, Gone – Philip Phillips
Did anyone watch the American Idol season with Philip Phillips on it? I don’t typically get caught up in AI anymore but because of Philip I caught most of that particular season and am so grateful – I love, love, love his voice. It’s so raspy & genuine.

17. Do You Remember – Jack Johnson
Dude. It’s Jack Johnson. You have to love him. Just listen.

18. Bang Bang – Dispatch
I song so good you don’t even care that it’s 6 minutes long.

19. White Trash Story – Casey Donahew Band
This is a great background song for casual get-togethers. Like it has a great beat to it and then when a lull in conversation comes up you hear some of the lyrics and you’re like “What the…?” And everyone laughs and it’s a grand ol’ time for all.

20. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
This sounds very folksy, blue grass, rock-like. I’ve never heard this song either, but it’s definitely going in my iTunes.

21. You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon
Abs tells me this is her favorite song and that when people hear it, they think of her. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never heard this before. I’m so glad though that you added it! It’s an older song (80s) and has Chevy Chase in the video, I love it.  Also, Betty (stepmom) & Al are the husband’s parents name – it made me laugh.

22. Motorcycle Drive By – Third Eye Blind
I ask you, who doesn’t like Third Eye Blind? WHO?

23. You rock, dude.
No video for this it’s only 6 seconds long and it’s a little kid that says YOU ROCK, DUDE.

No, Abbey YOU ROCK.

Thank you so much for the wonderful CD of these amazing songs!

5 Fun Facts About Me

 

I haven’t linked up for Random Thursday in a while, so I thought, “Why Not?!” and here I am. Today’s prompt (if you didn’t read the title) is 5 Fun Facts about Me. I don’t know if they’re fun, but they are facts. So, half-win at the very least – not bad, right?

1. On occasion, I have been known to do community theatre. I love it but haven’t been able to (or willing too) give up my time for rehearsals. Now that the kid is a little older, I can feel the acting bug creeping back up in me.

 

2. To save some money when decorating Lillie’s room, Alfred & I just went through some old furniture we had and painted it. Like new, baby or like new baby. Because she was a new ba…oh, never mind.  

3. In case you’ve ever doubted my redneck status – I’ve actually been to a Corn Festival. Yeah, a Corn Festival. Just let that sink in.

4. In the 4th grade, I rocked the shit out of a perm. Well, only after I went home crying because when I walked into class everyone started laughing at my new do that I was so proud of (my mom had a perm, so I thought I was so adult with it.) Seriously though, they had to call my mom to come pick me up because I refused to go inside.

5. During our wedding reception, we didn’t toast with fancy champagne flutes – nope, beer mugs all the way for this couple.

Don’t forgot for those of you who are participating in the #JellyoftheJams CD swap to come back here tomorrow to link-up all your great songs you’ve received! If you haven’t gotten your CD yet from your partner, no worries, the link will stay open so you can link up at your convenience!

Training Tuesday 5.28.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

Abbey wasn’t here last week, but thank the sweet baby Jesus she is back! I’ve missed her. But a huge shout-out to all of you who linked up last week with me. (Jaime, Kate, Meg, & Amanda : You guys make me a better blogger. You really do.) I was seriously worried it would just be me by my lonesome.

My Training:

I started Insanity (I’ve done it 3 times this past week – which I’m considering fantastic since it was a 3 day weekend). I had hoped the husband would join me but instead he just comments on how much more sweaty I get with this than I ever did with Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.

Thanks Captain Obvious.

I took measurements to start out with Insanity and compared those with what I took when I started the 30 Day Shred. It looks like I’ve lost 1.5 inches from my hips and 1 inch from my waist. That was only doing 20 out of the 30 days. I’ll take it!

So, if you’re in the market for a workout DVD – I would totally recommend it (it’s also much, much cheaper than purchasing Insanity). If I would have done those days consecutively and then, you know, actually make it to the 30 I have no doubt that I would have seen even better results. Maybe I’ll try again in a few months. We shall see.

Lately I’ve felt kind of burnt out with exercise but then I did something awesome this weekend and now I know what the real issue is. For the past couple months I’ve tried branching out to other forms of exercise and in the process I’ve stopped running (with the exception of a couple races). I wanted a break from the constant training I had been doing since August of last year and I was excited about it. It’s been a nice change but I’m over it.

I miss running. Something about it soothes me.

Anyway, this weekend I participated in a mud run (race recap soon!) and it was hard. Not only did we have mud holes, belly crawls, and obstacles of all sorts to go through – we chose to run the entire time (when possible. I mean, running on mud isn’t the easiest thing to do my friends). It wasn’t a timed event and a lot of people were walking from one point to the next, but we didn’t, and I’m glad. My legs felt happy. It’s weird to explain but I’m sure there’s someone out there that understands.

Why yes, that IS Sar from Life of Love on the left, me in the middle (duh) and my friend Christine on the right (who also did this with me last year!)

So what does this mean?

It means I need to start running again. I don’t want to wait for August (my initial plan was to start up again for the fall running schedule I have planned). I’m not giving up Insanity – I just think I’ll cut back to 3-4 days a week for that (the program calls for 6 days a week) and add 1-2 days of running – a happy medium.

A happy medium indeed.

Training Tuesday 5.21.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

Abbey’s out for this week, so it’s just little ol’ me today. She’s much better about getting this up sooner than me. She is my better Training Tuesday half and I am not ashamed to say it.

Last week, I talked about how how the scale is the devil and I’ve avoided it since then. Except for this morning. I stepped on it, held my breath (and then quickly let it out for fear it was going to add an extra ounce or two) and well, same as last week. I had every intention of avoiding it like the plague for the remainder of the year but then I decided to start doing Insanity. Like, tonight.

For those that aren’t familiar, Insanity is a 60 day workout program that is, well, nicely put intense.

Last year I made it through a month then stopped to start training for all my fall races. I lost 7 inches in like 2 weeks and finally managed to make into some pre-Lillie jeans. It really is a wonderful workout (although it is expensive). There are a few days that you are required to do a ‘fit test’ where you weigh and measure, those will be the only days that I step on the scale – roughly every two weeks. There are 10 (I think) different DVDs that you work through based on a schedule you’re given. It’s 6 days a week. I highly, highly doubt I’ll do it every day but I’ll give it a try.

But Tamara, weren’t you doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred?

Why yes. Yes I was. I made it 20/30 days and have lost some inches but I forgot those measurements at home – oops. I’ll update next Training Tuesday on that success. I know it could have been better if I would have stuck with it every day instead of bailing out on it during the weekends. I let a friend borrow it, and I imagine I’ll end up doing it again. My plan had always been do the 30 Day Shred as prep for Insanity, so I feel prepped and I’m ready for it.

Once Insanity is over, fall will be here and that means – more running & more races. Yippee!

I’ve already registered for a 5k/Half Marathon in January 2014 already and am seriously considering another half in November. Also, there’s that time I talked about a full-marathon in April. So yeah. In the meantime, Insanity and smaller races.

One of those smaller races is a mud run this Saturday with Sar from Life of Love and I can’t wait. If you’re in the Waco area and need something to do at 9am this Saturday, join us!

www.mudquestrun.com

We aren’t running to compete, we’re just going for the fun of it. I imagine it will be similar to the way I ran last year – we run for a bit, we stop & talk while waiting to cross an obstacle, we wade through mud, we laugh a lot, then maybe we run some more. Good strategy, no?

Alright, don’t let me be the lone ranger for this week since Abbey’s out – link up & tell me about your training!

That Just Happened - ViewSport

A few weeks (or more) ago, I was catching up on some blog reading when I was pleasantly surprised to learn I had actually won a giveaway. Say whaaat?

Megan from #runmeganrun (who, by the way, is a great read for those of you in love with running) hosted a giveaway for ViewSport and I won that hell out of that mother. I was incredibly excited since I had seen their products floating around on Pinterest and it seemed like the perfect culmination of fun & fitness. (Two things I strongly believe belong together if you want to be successful.)

Oh, I guess I should explain to you what exactly their product is before we go any further.

It’s athletic apparel. But, get this - it’s sweat activated athletic apparel. Yeah, you read that right. Sweat activated.

Sign.me.up. Am I right?

A little more information per their company:

“When you exercise and begin to sweat, an invisible image appears. We call it ViewSPORT Sweat Activated Technology - and the more you sweat, the clearer the image becomes. ViewSPORT reveals messages and images as you workout. Hence our tag line motivation revealed.  When training, sweat activates the ViewSPORT technology in which words and graphic designs appear where sweat comes in contact with the fabric.”

After winning, I chose “That Just Happened” shirt and I received it in like 4 days. Incredibly fast, incredibly pleased.

I chose this particular shirt for a couple of reasons:

1. Because I say “That Just Happened” on the regular.
2. I also wanted something that looked like normal every day wear and not fitness apparel.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fitness apparel, but I’m not the girl who wears it unless I’m in the process of using it.

Anyway, I really wanted to see if this ‘sweat activated technology’ worked, so I opted to wear the shirt during one of my stair workouts. You know, where I run up & down four flights of stairs for 45 minutes? Yep, definitely going have the sweat going on during that.

But Tam, I don’t see any sweat? What is activating? And for the love of baby Jesus, why are your eyes so big?

Calm down, grasshopper. I got the sweat. It’s activating on my lower back. And my eyes are big so that I can see you better, my dear.

 BOOM!

It worked like a boss during my workout. Awesome, right?

Typically I’m between a large & x-large when it comes to my shirts. This is a slim-fit and I went with the large. It fit as expected (uh, slim) but because I have the torso of an Olympic swimmer I was a little worried about the length. I have this problem where shirts want to bare my mid-riff and ain’t nobody wanna see that, but not a problem with this. It was long enough and didn’t ride up as I was huffing the stairs.

So, as a workout shirt. Yes. Definitely yes.

But what about for an everyday out-and-about shirt?Yep, it’s great for that too. I wore it for my husband's surprise birthday party (we had a gladiator ring & I was about to get down with it, thus the helmet) It was comfortable & totally appropriate for when I went after Sunny, because uh, That Just Happened. No judging. There was sangria involved.

Overall, I really liked this product. Even though I didn’t pay for it, I will definitely be buying something from them in the future. They’re cute (they also have men’s products) and to be honest, I felt like I tried harder to sweat during my workout to get the "Boom” to show up.

Interested?
You can find ViewSport on the following media:

www.viewsport.us
www.facebook.com/viewsport
www.twitter.com/viewsport (For simply being a follower I recently received 15% off!)www.pinterest.com/viewsport
www.instagram.com/viewsport

This shirt was provided free to me because, I, uh won a giveaway but all opinions expressed within are my own.

Training Tuesday 5.14.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

Usually I go through day-by-day training but I don’t really want to do that today. I worked out last week. I know I did. I just…felt like I was going through the motions. I’ve really had a hard time lately finding motivation. I even cried at the gym last week. I couldn’t pinpoint what the issue was and it was really frustrating.

Then, I had a conversation with Sara from Maurer Power (she’s wonderful, check her out if you haven’t already!) that led us into talking about the scale. (Mostly with us saying it’s the devil. It is.)

Last year I stopped weighing myself and just focused on being healthier. I was happy and felt ready when this year for a New Year’s Resolution I put out there that I wanted to lose 30 lbs. I wrote in my Weight Hate post at the beginning of this year “…my weight does not define me…” and when I wrote that I felt that. Everything I wrote in that post is true. I was happy because I was healthy. Running was a huge part of that.

And because of that I assumed I was in a healthy place mentally & emotionally to be okay with the scale. To be friends with the scale even.

I am not.

It started out innocent enough, I wanted to see where I was starting so I’d weigh myself every 3-4 days and gauge how I was doing based on that. Then it was every 1-2 days and eventually, at minimum twice a day.

Every time I saw a gain, even by .2 lbs, I felt sad like I failed myself for some reason. At the same time the logical part of me knew this was normal, weight fluctuates daily based on the time of day, what you ate, how much water you are carrying, etc but the emotional part of me said, “FUCK THAT. YOU’RE FAT.”

It’s ridiculously exhausting to be in a constant battle against yourself. And it makes you want to give up.

I caught Lillie ‘weighing’ herself this weekend. It pissed me off. Not that she was doing something wrong, because she was just standing on a piece of metal watching the numbers move, but because it felt like I was failing her. That instead of associating me with running (she tells me to go faster which is adorable) it was like she was associating me with a number. And, like I said earlier, that shouldn’t define me for me and it damn sure shouldn’t define me for her.

Simply put I can’t be friends with the scale. I can’t have her telling me whether or not I’m going to be in a good mood today because I weigh .5 lbs less today than I did yesterday.

So, I’m getting rid of that 30 lb resolution.

Which also means, the scale is going too. Holler bitch.

If I lose weight, so be it. I’ll continue working out & trying to eat better but I just can’t have that scale toxin near me. It does not make me a person I am proud of. And ultimately, that’s what I want. Not to weigh less, not to skinny, but to be happy & to make the people around me happy.

Here’s to being happy.

Sometimes it sucks

I’m an optimist. The glass is generally half-full for me (usually with wine) and I’m convinced I have chipmunk cheeks because my muscles are so strong from the smiling gene my mother blessed me with.

Obviously this is my chipmunk face.

So, naturally, the cheeriness comes across in my blog and how I handle the motivation I need/use to continue feeling like I’m becoming the type of person I’m proud of. The kind of person who works out not to be the thinnest, but to be healthier & happier for my God, myself, my kid, & my husband.

And with all that said, sometimes it just sucks.

Some days I just feel like I have nothing to give. Like, I’ve used up my “happy”quota for the week. Things from work, from life, being a mom, financial situations, anything just pile up & I have an off day (or week). It’s life, it happens, I’m an adult so I deal.

At one point in my life, I dealt with these things with Oreos. (Fine, there are still some times that I still do this. Don’t judge me. They are made of Unicorn Farts & puffs of amazingness, I can’t always help myself.)

But now, at this point in my life, I try to deal by working it out. Whether that’s going for a run, or doing an at home workout DVD, or going to the gym. Generally, if I make myself do something I’m happier within 10 minutes and I kind of forget about what’s been ailing me.

However, last week that did not happen.

I don’t know what it was – just a culmination of worry/anxiety/work – is what I’m going with. I’ve talked about Mojgan, she’s my amazing friend who I run stairs with or follow along for evil Tabata workouts, she had asked me to join her for another workout. I wanted to say no, but I didn’t. I figured I’d go and in 10 minutes I’d be calling her “the spawn of Satan” and “the workout Nazi” to forget about the pain.

She laughs when I call her these things because she knows it comes from a place of love. And of looking pretty damn fly in a pair of skinny jeans these days.

But 10 minutes into our 45 minute workout and I was struggling. We were doing things I had done plenty of times before but my head & heart were just not into it. I was in a funk and even she noticed when she called me, Grumpy butt.

At least it wasn’t Lumpy butt, I guess. (See, positivity, that bitch)

I wanted to quit. I really did. I’ve never walked out from workout but I was on the verge. I wanted to give up. It was horrible.

At one point, I was attempting push-up/plank combination and with my face facing the floor. I just started crying. I didn’t look up & I hoped if people noticed they’d just assume it was sweat hitting the floor (common in our workouts).

I hated it because it felt like my body could keep going, but my head wouldn’t allow it. I was frustrated and annoyed that I had to work out so hard just to maintain. To everyone else in the gym it looked like they were breezing along.

I’m not looking for any kind of sympathy. I just wanted to share with you guys that even though it may look like I have it all together – that well, sometimes I don’t. I struggle, I curse, I smell like man-sweat more than I don’t.

We all have hard days we have to push through and well, that was one of mine.

Changing your lifestyle, no matter how amazing it can feel – well, sometimes it sucks. It really just does.

Training Tuesday 5.7.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training

4/30 – 30 Day Shred Level 2
5/1 – 30 Day Shred Level 2. I also committed to a couple of challenges for May. A squat challenge (which weirdly enough the husband is participating in as well. My plan to slowly get him into exercise and then into running must be working. Muwahaha.) And an ab Challenge with Meg. If you’ll recall I did a Thigh Challenge for April – I’d say I completed about 25/30 days. So a success. Even on days when I didn’t do a typical workout I still found time to complete it. Seriously, less than 10  minutes a day. I feel good about both of my May challenges.
5/2 – Workout with Moj. She didn’t write anything down since she wanted to keep it as a “surprise”. I don’t know what was going on with me, but it was an off day. Like off in a “Oh my gawd, I am crying. In the gym. For no reason.” It was odd and I have more to say about this in a future post.
5/3 – 30 Day Shred Level 2.
5/4 – Getting Muddy.
5/5 – Recovering from muddiness.
5/6 – Now I’m just being plain lazy. Also, my forehead is burned from the mud & is peeling. I am sexy.

Other things:

A friend of mine who is a personal trainer, Terri DeVore, is the owner of Fit Chick Fitness here in the Waco area. She’s received a few requests for some kind of walking group. This would be a great kick starter for anyone who may want to try a 5k in the future but wants to start out a little tamer than just jumping right in.

If you’re interested or know someone who is – send them to www.fcbootcampwaco.com. She is so knowledgeable and genuinely loves to help people get involved into a healthy lifestyle.  Also, I wasn’t compensated in any way for this. I just really believe in Terri and what she’s trying to do.

I now have a Facebook page for the ol’ blog – go check it out & like it if that’s your kind of thing.

https://www.facebook.com/LehmannLaughter

I’ll probably be a little more free there than I am on my personal FB page, since this will be a direct extension of my blog and let’s face it – I’m pretty open with the info you find here. I actually prefer Twitter but I know a lot of my readers are on FB, so I figure this will be a great avenue for any questions/post ideas or bragging about running/fitness for those readers. We’ll see if it flops or not.

Also, tomorrow is the last day to sign up for our Jelly of My Jams CD Swap! You don’t have to have a blog to register – just a valid mailing address and the ability to make/send a kickass CD to your swap partner. Holly & I will send out partners by Friday.

Also, in sincere hopes that you won’t read this far down just in case I change my mind. I’m taking the dive. I’m jumping from the highest cliff. I’m going to fall into an ocean of sweat & self-hate.

What’s that mean?

It means, I’m going to do a full marathon.

26.2 miles. Yep, it’s going to happen. I can’t not do it. I’ve ran this far, I have to know if I can do it. I’ve ignored it for long enough.

So, here’s me telling you – it’ll happen. Right now, I think the plan/hope is Oklahoma City next April-ish (Abbey? Anita? Anyone else who is completely off their rocker and wants to join me? Can you hear me?) You have plenty of time to train! Please be crazy with me. Please.

So yeah.

Pray for me. But mostly, pray for my husband because I can feel him rolling his eyes as I type this. Poor guy.

How I feel after researching marathon training plans.

This Weekend, I [5.6.13]

Linking up with Sar & Syn to cover my weekend shenanigans.

This Weekend, I got a little muddy. We went to Mudd Jam 4 and had a blast! For those who aren’t familiar, this was an event at an ATV park. You can go camp, ride trails, get in mud & basically just get yo’ redneck on. Don’t knock it till you try it. :)

Our friends, Chris & Kayla (they’re the ones below who are pulling me out of a nice little hole I found), joined us in our redneckery as well as our friend Kevin.  

Alfred showed Kevin a real nice time (as evidenced by this picture below) for his Bachelor party weekend. Kevin is getting married this Saturday & seriously couldn’t stop talking about his fiancé. Twas adorables.

This Weekend, I rehydrated with oranges to counteract my dehydration of Bud Light. The husband laughed at me for throwing them in my cooler, but they were a hit. And sweet baby Jesus they were tasty.

This Weekend, I watched this happen. I didn’t participate because the water was colder than a mug & I had limited amount of clean clothing at this point. But, we have plans to go back in the summer months & you can bet your ass that’s the way I’m rolling. I mean, seriously, how can I not?

But mostly This Weekend, I missed the hell out of this little toot. (she’s so ready for summer!)

Donkey Dash 5k

Dudes. Dudes. I motherbeeping killed it last Saturday!

So, if you’ll recall I asked the twitter-verse for some song suggestions on Friday and it exploded with awesomeness. My playlist ended up looking like this:

And then (in case you hadn’t heard) Holly & I teamed up for a CD Swap that’s going on right now. So if you’re interested in swapping great music (you know you are) sign up!

 

Also, you totally should because the awesome suggestions KNOCKED OFF 2:48 OFF MY LAST 5K TIME!

 

My official time was 36:11. 

 

I officially am an average runner with an 11:44 average pace for the race. If you’ll recall one of my resolutions for 2013 was to be at 12 minute miles. Dude, I am there.

 

Much like every other race when I was finished I forgot to cut off my Garmin. Oops.

 

I had only ran twice since March 23rd (my emotional Bearathon half) and was just counting on the cross-training I had been doing, but definitely wasn’t expecting anything grand. My previous 5k time in February was 38:59 and I was thrilled at that because I finally got below 40. I joked once that I may just actually beat my real PR time (34:14) for the 5k I set in 2010 (before I became serious about running) by the end of the year, but now that seems less of a joke and more of a reality. Cray-cray.

 

I’m also pretty sure I was still hung-over from Friday night shenanigans with the husband. I am attractive.

One beer before a race is fine, two is okay, but beyond that I do not recommend (even though I do have a steel stomach like my friend Karri and our love of Fiber One bars. Don’t judge us.)

 

My friend, Sunny, ran the race with me (or in front of me, whatever) and she placed 2nd in her age division and 3rd overall. Girl is fast.

This particular race benefitted the American Cancer Society and with it being called Donkey Dash, they made sure to include donkeys for us. In true redneck fashion, we did not hesitate to take as many pictures as possible. I’d also be lying if I didn’t say I secretly hoped they’d gloriously throw their ropes off and join us in our run but alas, they did not.

 

I feel like I should also mention it was 70 degrees out when we started and humid than a motherfucker. We still killed it (this was a PR for Sunny too).

 

Despite nearly throwing up half-way through (see twitter picture above) I just kept moving. I kept telling myself that if I can 13.1 miles at a 13 minute pace then I surely can 3.1 faster than that, I just had to push myself. And I did. Totally felt amazing.

 

So, yep. I’m amazeballs.

 

Until we run again!

Jelly of my Jams CD Swap

<center><a href="http://lehmannlaughter.blogspot.com/search/label/Jelly%20of%20my%20Jams" target="_blank"><img alt="Jelly of my Jams CD Swap" src="http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a611/Tamara0827/Jellyofmyjams_250_zpsefc0c866.jpg" /></a></center>

Last week, I was working on a playlist for an upcoming 5k and I just was not feeling any of my songs. So, I did what anyone would do – I hit up my online friends for some musical suggestions. During this, Holly from Faith, Hope, and Baseball (she also has a fitness blog at My Own Kind of Beautiful) suggested a CD swap of our favorite workout music.

Since she’s simply amazing, I couldn’t ignore this wonderful idea and I immediately emailed her about hosting a swap – and so here we are.

Doing the damn thing like a motherbeeping boss.

This swap is open to all (even those of you without a blog), just as long as you have a valid mailing address you’re golden.

Swap Details:

·Registration open from May 1st through May 8th.
·Everyone will be notified of their swap partners by May 10th.
·Send your CD of amazing songs to your partner by May 17th.
·Feel free to send a note to your partner explaining your song choices if you’d like.
·On May 31st link up and tell us why we should be Jelly of your Jams!

You’re not required to follow Holly or myself, but if you don’t already – you’re missing out. We’re kind of a big deal in our heads. You can also grab the button above to post if you’d like. If you’re on Twitter and want to hash it out - #JellyofmyJams is the way to go.

Keep in mind – this is a way to add some new music to our life. Your partner can either take your suggestions into account, or completely ignore them all together and give you songs you’ve never even heard of. We only ask that you keep an open mind.

So, click the button below and let’s get our jam on!