Variety. The Spice of Blogging.

People in my real life will sometimes remind me that I use to blog (or at least blog regularly). They may make a comment about a previous post or after telling a story they’ll say, “Hey, you should write or blog or something” and then I’m like, well, aren’t I an asshole for not doing just that. I mean, come on Tam, give the people what they want!

And then I read a post by Amanda (The Lady Okie) where she mentioned not if she’ll quit blogging but when will that time come. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that time to come. Although much like Amanda, I can’t imagine doing this when I’m an 80 year old woman.

Unless of course I were Betty White. She can seriously do no wrong. And neither can sliced bread.

I think I’ve struggled posting regularly because running was the primary focus of this blog. And it kind of hasn’t been happening as much for me lately. I’ve slowed down quite a bit on my running and have been doing other things (lifting weights, HIIT workouts, Tabata, fitness DVDs, etc). I’m not a gym selfie junkie, or a personal trainer, or have any real accreditation to dole out advice – so I have a hard time figuring out how to share that without coming across as a pretentious dickhole.

So, instead, I figure I’ll just be a pretentious dickhole about a variety of other things and make my blog a little more rounded (and likely still include some fitness stuff as well).

Variety subject #1: My kid. Who is amazingly talented. Proof below.

Exhibit A:  She can eat a donut off a string.

Exhibit B: She can wield a sword larger than her body.

Variety Subject #2: Me! And things not always related to fitness.

Exhibit A: Beauty stuffs. Like hair changes and lipstick obsessions.

Exhibit B: Catching fish.
(Honestly, I’m not sure how often this will come up but you know, just in case.)

 

Variety Subject #3: Uh, variety?
(and reasons to post pictures that I forget to post on social media and
feel like it’s too late to do once the moment has passed)

Exhibit A: Mmm. Slurpees.

Exhibit B: This happens more than I care to admit.

Until I blog again.

 

 

 

PS. Dickhole.

Double PS. Sorry, I felt like I had to say it again because it’s really make me giggle at how many times I’m saying it.

Uhh, hi?

I don’t know how to start this.

Like, I’ve been out of the loop for so long that it’s kind of those awkward first few moments you catch eyes with someone in the supermarket that you haven’t seen in like 10 years and you don’t know if they remember you, so you wait for a sign. Like, a smile. Or a head nod. Or a little wave, with a “Heyyyy girl!”

Because you both know if one of you doesn’t initiate it then you’re both going to divert your eyes and scram down the next aisle acting like you didn’t see the other person but we all know you did.

So I guess what I’m saying is *waves hand* “HEYYYYYY GIRLLLLL!”

I’m still around just re-prioritized some things in my life and unfortunately, updating this blog has dropped a bit in ranking. I should tell you that I’m going to change that, and I’m going to be back more regularly but honestly? I don’t know if I will. I’m just going with the flow and I hope that flow leads me into posting regularly again. We shall see, I guess.

In the meantime, here’s a few things I’ve been up to over the past few months.

• Lillie, mostly. She really enjoyed her time on t-ball and they even made it to the play-offs. I think she’ll play again next year (I hope so, anyway).

It’s hard to believe she’ll be 5 in November. Looking back it’s really an amazing thing to witness a child grow up, she continues to amaze Alfred & I every day. Not only with her kind heart but with her growing sense of humor (even if sometimes that means she gives me a wet willy, thanks to Alfred for showing her that)

• Alfred Lehmann Services. If you’ll recall Alfred quit his regularly programmed job at the end of 2013 to venture out on his own. I know it’s cliché to say, but he really is the hardest working man I know and I’m incredibly proud of his commitment and work ethic. There’s been a learning curve but we make a good team (when neither one of us is hungry, otherwise the HANGER takes over and well, it’s not pretty.)
  

Our good friends, Courtney & Jeff representing Alfred Lehmann Services with us at a local event recently.

• Speaking of the learning curve, it’s also inspired me to go back to school. I graduated in May 2009 with my Bachelor’s in Business Administration. I worked full-time in addition to earning my degree but with no kid, I had a lot more time to commit to studying. I’m more nervous about this new adventure than the day Alfred told he was quitting his job! I take the GMAT (standardized test for graduate school) next month and will hopefully get into the MBA program I’m looking at and start that in January.
• As far as running goes, that’s fallen to the wayside this summer. I tend to slow down during these months because um, Texas heat, yo. I did register for a 5k (this Sunday!) to get into more of a routine with my fitness goals. The only real plan for this 5k is to finish, no PR goals for me since the heat always throw a wrench into things. I just want to go out and enjoy it.
  
  Also, it’s called Badass Brazos and I’m hoping that’s exactly what the shirt says. Because if I have a shirt that says it, it must be true, right?

What’s been going on with you guys?

Bearathon 2015

At the end of last year, I pushed a little too hard in one of my runs and started noticing a bit of knee pain. I pulled back on my distance and pace so as not to injure it further and then just kind of got lazy with it – as evidenced by my half time at the end of January.

It was still bothering me on and off after that race, so I decided to drop down from the half to the 5k for this years Bearathon (2014, 2013 and 2012 recaps). I’m glad I did – not only because my knee pain has greatly diminished but also because long-distance running doesn’t hold my heart as it once did. (Something I’ll blog about in greater detail later.)

I major failed in not reading every bit of information provided to me by the race directors (because I got cocky since I’ve ran this thing for the past three years) and drove to what I thought was the starting line, only to realize no one was there. It was gone. I quickly pulled out the last email and realized I was two streets over. I got lucky as someone was pulling out of the parking garage and then had to sprint about a 1/4 mile to the start once I heard the starting gun go off.

Just a nice way to get my endorphins started, right?

The weather was in the mid-50s but it had rained the night before and was currently misting, so I decided to wear my rain jacket (purchased from Fabletics, I think Holly has the same one!) but a half mile in I was sweating more than rain was getting on me, so I tied it around my waist.

It managed to twist its way around and in true Tamara fashion, left me with a couple of great race pictures.

If only I had been wearing a purple seashell top, I totally could have been Ariel. Maybe next time.

Also, I laughed pretty hard at the first one because my shirt kept riding up and sticking to my skin, so you can see my stomach right underneath my race bib. Keeping it classy.

They changed the route this year (which is why the starting line was in a different spot) so that it ended at McLane Stadium. Which, for those of you who don’t follow college sports, is basically Baylor giving it their all since we had good ol’ RG3 as a Heisman winner a few years back. There’s even a statue of him.

I just reread that last sentence and it feels like I was trying to segue into a picture of said statue. I have no picture. The guy in the orange shirt? Not a statue. Also, not RG3.

I liked the course change but I did not like that we had about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile walk back to our vehicles depending on where we parked. There was no transportation/shuttles. Which isn’t a huge complaint, I mean, we literally just ran it but with the weather being kind of gross it would have added a nice touch, especially for those finishing the half. There’s some serious hills in that thing.

I managed to finish in 35:46 (only 3 seconds slower than my Jan 5k!) and forgot stop to my Garmin. But it showed my first mile as 11:12 as apposed to my 10:36 last time (fastest mile ever for me!) and so I feel like it wasn’t as much of a fluke as I was starting to think. Like, you guys, I really do have it in me to get faster. Exciting mental breakthrough. Only took me 3 years. Ha!

This was my third race as a Beef Team member for the year (in your first year you are required to run 3 races and volunteer at 1 in order to stay eligible for the next year – more on this in a later post) and hoped to check out our water station but had to pick up Lillie.

We ran a couple of errands in town (I brought dry clothes to change into) that included picking out some cleats and a helmet for tee ball. She’s old enough to be in organized sports and it is crazy talk. Super adorable but totally crazy. She could probably do without the catching of a ball but is all about running the bases. I’m still on the look-out for a local 1k or 1 mile race for us to participate in – suggestions are welcome!

You see the pink blur? Yeah, that’s right. You don’t. She’s that fast.

(Which is another reason I need to get my pace down, I can’t have her beating me! ha!)

Until we run again, my friends!

“My legs are sooo fat.”

When Lillie was 3 years old, she grabbed her thighs, sighed very loudly and said,

“Ugh, my legs are sooo fat.”

I would hope your reaction was the same as mine – surely, she didn’t just say her legs were fat. So, I turned down the radio (we were in the truck) and asked her as calmly as I could, “What did you say Lillie?”

And she repeated, “My legs are fat.”

My mind immediately ran through any and everything I may have said over the course of her entire lifetime that would have pushed her towards this conclusion. I came up with nothing. I don’t even say fat. I’ve even stopped other people from saying that in front of her. (I don’t have a problem with the word, to me it’s just an adjective, I have an issue with the context in which it was used.)

While I have had my fair share of weight issues, when I had Lillie, my perspective changed. My behaviors changed. I no longer made audible comments about my body or talked about food in a negative way (ex: I can’t eat that. It has too much fat. etc.) I became more active and my focus switched to being healthy as opposed to just being thin or restrictive. I had hoped by doing these things, by pro-actively sharing a positive body image in the woman she is around the most, that she would recognize her self-worth is not tied exclusively into her body – even though it can often feel that way for a girl, heck for a woman.

So, when she made this very wrong assessment about her growing body, about her toddler body, all I wanted to do was hug her, squish her close to me and tell her she was beautifully made no matter what size her thighs appeared to be. In fact, that’s probably what I would do to any of you lovely people reading right now but since she was only 3, I needed a more logical approach, one that would appeal to her current interests in the event that this would happen again. I didn’t want to ignore this comment and excuse it by thinking she wasn’t aware of what she was saying (but I mean, what if she knew exactly what she was saying and I just let her talk about herself in that way? Not acceptable.)

I decided to pull the truck over to the side of the road, asked God to help me find the words I needed and unbuckled my seat belt.

I knew by stopping the truck it would catch her attention and she immediately questioned, “Why are we stopping?”

And as I turned back to her, I found the words.

“Do you like to run?”

Yes.

“And you love to play really hard, right? Going down the slide and swinging, right?”

Yeah.

“Well, the only way we are able to do those awesome, fun things is by having muscles. You know how we show our muscles in our arms?”

Yeah.

“We actually have muscles all over our body. In our legs, our back, even our face! Pretty cool, huh?”

IN OUR FACE??

“Yep, that’s how we can smile. And that’s how we can run because of those muscles in our legs. That’s how mama runs. And how I pick you up in the air. It’s muscles.
So, saying your legs are fat isn’t exactly right. You just have big, strong muscles that we want to keep growing so we can run faster and play harder. That’s why we drink water and eat our fruits and vegetables, because they help our body grow those muscles. Okay?”

Okay.

I turned back around and we went about the rest of our day. And for the last year, I’ve tried reinforcing that conversation whenever I could. She runs “super fast” (her words) and when she finishes she’ll show me her muscles. When she asks for a water instead of juice, I give her a high-five. When she chooses to eat a banana instead of ice cream, I comment on what a good choice she’s made for her body.

I hate that she ever thought her legs were fat but it did help make our health a part of the conversation and for that I’m grateful. I strive to show her a balance and I’m learning as I go. We still regularly cook chicken nuggets from box, eat ice cream, share a soda, make cookies (which includes eating the dough!) and enjoy what we eat. Food is not something we revolve our life around, it’s just something we take care of in order to have the energy to do the things we want to do.

As she gets older, we’ll work on expanding our knowledge of health & food & exercise based on her maturity and what’s going on in her life. (I remember kids making fun of others in my 1st grade for their size!)

This particular incident helps serve me as a reminder of how easily influenced small children can be, even if they don’t realize what it is they’re saying/conveying.

I still don’t know where she picked up that thought – whether it was from a friend from school who has heard her parents talk about being fat, or from something on television/radio, or from someone close to us who maybe made an off-the-cuff remark to another adult without realizing the impact those words would make, this is an important conversation to have with our children. Hell, it’s an important conversation to have with ourselves.

I know I’m not going to be able to protect her from everything. From people’s opinions, from the media, even from her own voice of doubt – but I do plan on giving her the tools to break free from those things. Kindness being one of the most important tools in my book – and not only to other people but to herself. Speaking kindly and positively about your your body and your character can drastically change your own attitude (living proof right here) and create a better quality of life for you & those around you. And that’s why, I stopped the truck. And why I didn’t chalk this up to a kids say the darndest thing moment. Because one day, that kid is going to be an adult and what a terrible waste of this beautiful life we have if all we concentrate on is how ‘fat’ our thighs are. 

Miracle Match 13.1

Last year I ran this half as part of my marathon training & felt really strong through it. This year? Not even close to feeling strong. I simply did not put in the amount of effort necessary for me to feel as though I successfully completed a half.

The furthest training run I had done was 7 miles. I chose to sleep in, spend time with my friends/family over the holiday break and just fell back into my running slump that’s been hanging around since last March. I briefly considered not running it but then I remembered Amanda from The Lady Okie was going to be there – and seriously, I couldn’t back out. I was also living on that runners high from the previous days 5k.

We met up about 30 minutes before the start of the race so I could give her bag/bib I picked up at the expo and also, to you know, awkwardly hug and say a little prayer of thanks that neither of us appear to be psycho serial killers. You can read Amanda’s recap of the experience here.

Originally, Amanda was going to go for a PR but when she saw how awesome I was (I’m assuming) she decided she’d slow down and stay at my pace. Which means, I basically had a 3 hour run-date where we talked about running (duh), life, God, stupid water stations that had no water, and took selfies (something neither one of us usually do on runs).

Around Mile 4.

I don’t normally get to run with someone, so it was definitely a nice change of pace for me – and I’m pretty grateful for it since I was over it by Mile 9 due to my wonderful training schedule I didn’t adhere too.

Telling Amanda to hurry up.*

*Lies. We actually think we’re just super funny & clever.

We ran through Baylor campus and the new stadium, the zoo, and the hills. Those damn hills. I was already in pain from them so at Mile 11 when a dancing chicken (literally) asked us if we wanted to do Jacob’s Ladder for extra bling, both Amanda and I hit those stairs like a boss.

Amanda’s mom (who is super wonderful & sweet) found us right before we were set to hit the finish line and then we were done!

We ended up getting a bunch of great photos (they were free this year) and ate some fajitas at the finish line once we got our extra bling for Jacob’s Ladder. 

It was a great experience – although, it makes me a little sad that Amanda doesn’t live closer because I’m pretty sure we’d have BFF necklaces if we did.

Well, now that I think about it – we kind of do – I mean, race medals are just like BFF necklaces, right?

Yep, that’s what I’m going with.

It was beautiful weather, a fun experience and knowing me – I’ll end up doing it again next year (creature of habit when it comes to this race). Ha!

Until we run again, friends!

Miracle Match 5k

On January 24-25th, I slipped on my running shoes, threw on some lipstick and hit the pavement for not one, but two, races. 

Wearing lipstick on race day is totally legit, right? #miraclematch #5k #beeftip #teambeef #txbeefteam

A photo posted by Tamara Lehmann (@tamara0827) on Jan 24, 2015 at 6:50am PST

I know what you’re thinking and the answer is yes.

Yes, I am totally on fleek.
(Shout out to Kate for keeping us aware of what all the cool kids are saying these days!)

The race weekend includes a 5k on Saturday and a half-marathon on Sunday. Well, for me it does, you can pick and choose anything from a 1 mile, 5k, 10k, half, a full, or an ultra. You can even participate in a fire-truck pull.

I ran the 5k & half last year (recap here!) as part of my marathon training but this year I had three entirely different reasons to sign up: 

1. This would be my first opportunity as a Beef Team member to race.
   
2. Amanda, from The Lady Okie, was running the half.
   
3. And probably most importantly, I’d get an extra medal for running both.

Clearly I couldn’t say no.

My training for the 5k went really well (half-training? Uh, we’ll go there in the next post but short answer: I suck.) I made it a point to have at least one run where I focus on speed training. Because I’m no professional and had no idea how to do that safely, I downloaded the Jeff Galloway 5k app and utilized it for my speed sessions. Based on my performance for this 5k, I would say it’s doing the trick.

I finished in 35:43 with an average pace of 11:31.

My first mile was 10:36.

I have never ran even close to a 10 minute mile. I am not exaggerating when I say I started crying upon realizing it. While I have always wanted to be faster, I have never really put in the work for it. I always just kind of hoped it would happen naturally but after 3 solid years of running, it hadn’t so I just resigned myself to being a slower runner. No big deal. Still love the sport, I just love it a little longer than most people do out on the race course, right? Getting my money worth, that’s all.

I made a video (a little reminiscent of my first running vlog!) right after the race. I meant to post it Saturday after the race but you know, life happened. So it references tomorrow (being Sunday for the half with Amanda).

Eventually, I’ll write up my resolutions for the year (I have them, I just haven’t posted anything about them because I’m a terrible blogger) but one of my running goals this year is to focus on quality and not quantity. I really want to improve my pace so that when I decide I’m ready to run another marathon, I won’t have to question if that damn course will close on me because of ‘bad weather’.

(Please reference face below when reading ‘bad weather’ as I may still be slightly bitter concerning how Texas weather did me last year during my marathon.)

The 5k itself was great and the running team I’m now a part of (Team Beef) ran the water station at the halfway point. They snapped this super happy picture of me. I have more to say about Team Beef in a later post but the picture they took pretty much sums up how I feel about it.

Overall, the race didn’t disappoint. In the past 5 years I’ve ran it, it’s always gone off without a hitch, incredibly well organized and easily accessible. (Your parking is like 100 feet away from the start line!) It’s always great to start the year off with happy feet & Miracle Match certainly does that for me.

I mean, if my finish line photo looks this freaking happy – it’s got to be a testament to something, right? (Also, pictures were free this year!)

 

More tomorrow in regards to the half that I (spoiler alert) hardly trained for!

Until we run again!

2014: Resolution Results

I write resolutions each year and it’s always really interesting (for me anyway) to go back to see how well I’ve done or how poorly I’ve done with them. I’m still working on my 2015 resolutions and hope to have that up early next week. In the meantime, let’s recap and see how I held up in 2014.

Resolution #1: Time Management

• Goal: Learn to organize my time better so I can be more present for my family, friends & myself.
• I started the year off well by using a day planner but then mid-year it just fell to the wayside. I picked it back up again around September. But less about scheduling my activities and more for figuring the scheduling out for our new business venture, Alfred Lehmann Services.
• I am much more organized at the start of this year than I was last year, so I would say this one is a success.

Resolution #2: Meal Prep

• Goal: To help with the time management, work on prepping meals at the start of the week.
• Um. Let’s just go ahead and throw this one down the poopchute. Definitely did not kill this resolution even though I did make progress on it. I’d say I probably made a solid effort and prepped in total about 2 months out of the year.

Resolution #3: Get Stronger

• Goal: Hit the weights!
• It’s so weird now to look back and think I was in the middle of marathon training this time last year. Man, it’s gone by fast.
  Once my marathon was over, I did hit the weights. I came up with a plan and started noticing more definition & strength in my arms/back. I made it through 8 of 12 weeks in the LiveFit program; however, I started getting a little defeated when the workouts began to exceed an hour. I love that I can workout on my lunch break but it wasn’t really conducive to the last part of the program. (Excuses, right?) I picked up running more and just sporadically worked out when I could.
• I am stronger than I was – maybe not as defined as I hoped (this is also in part because I’m not the leanest I could be) – but Alfred has even made a few comments here & there about how he’s impressed I can actually lift things now. So, taking this as a success.

My goals/resolutions for 2014 were kept vague so that I could have a little leeway on them. I don’t regret that choice but I think for 2015 I really want to buckle down and have some hard set goals to see accomplished by the time 2016 rolls around. Something I can look at and say, YEP DEFINITELY ACCOMPLISHED or NOPE, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!