Planks, Pushups and Squats

It is almost July.  July!  Can you believe it??  June in Maine really shouldn't even be considered a part of summer because it is always such a shitty month weather-wise.  It rains and rains and rains and can be quite cold. 

I had a brilliant idea that school should go through June and the kids have September off instead!  We would solve the problem of losing student workers to school when we still have the really busy fall tourist season and September is such a beautiful summer month that the kids would still get to enjoy. 

Anyway, with July right around the corner I saw this challenge on twitter:

I guess I don't have to put the link there because you can clearly see it!  The challenge is to do either plank, pushups or squats each day.  Do as many as you can without stopping or plank for as long as you can.  Then the next time you do that activity, you try to do more or plank longer than you did last time.  The challenge will be to make improvements and do it at least 5 times a week.  Here is a really handy chart to record your progress.

Join us in this challenge!  I know I don't do enough pushups, planks or squats so this will be a good one for me.  Click HERE and sign up!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from Manimal's jiu-jitsu win.  Still so proud. :)

Yah, you're big.  So what.  My look of death will take you down.

Winner!

And a new belt for his efforts!

 

David vs. Goliath and Proud Moments

This weekend, yesterday in particular, was one of the best moments I have ever had as a parent.  There is nothing like seeing your child go from the underdog to the winner and working hard and earning it.

Every. Single. Step.

And he's only 6. 

I was up at the ass crack of dawn yesterday to head to a race.  I was supposed to race a 1/2 Marathon, but at the last minute I decided to switch to the 5K so I wouldn't miss any of Manimal's jiu-jitsu tournament.  And I am so glad I did.


I arrived at the dojo all sweaty and stinky--I was going to shower at the Y after the race, but it was closed on Sunday--so instead I zipped over to Rite Aid and got some wipes and did a whore's bath in the parking lot.  <so much class>

This was the first time Manimal was going to be competing for real against kids he doesn't train with.  It was a 'real' fight with medals and a podium for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  Big stuff, you know.

It took awhile to get everyone divided into groups based on ability, age and weight.  Manimal's group was the biggest with 9-10 kids.  He was not only the youngest in his group, but also the smallest at 6 years old and 47 lbs.  The other kids were 7-8 years old and larger. 


He was the third match and he won that one easily.  Even though there were no submission holds allowed, the kid tapped out after about 40 seconds.  I'm not sure why, but whatever.  The next match was against a kid a little bigger than him, but he was a yellow belt with 3 stripes and Manimal is a white belt with 3 stripes.  (Basically, it means the kid had about a year more experience than him.) 


He lost that match 6-4. 


I thought he was done at that point, being in the loser's bracket, and maybe would play another match for third place.  He did have another match and beat that kid--another yellow belt with 3 stripes.  So I thought he had third and was pretty darn happy with that.  But no!  They called him up again for the final match against a kid who was twice as big, and hadn't lost yet.  This kid was 8 years old and 100 lbs against Manimal, 6 years old and 47 lbs. 


My sister-in-law turned around to me a that point and said "They can't make him fight that kid, can they?!!?"  I said if he wants to win, he has to!  I knew Manimal would be fine, but I wasn't sure he would win.  No one had even taken the kid down yet. 



If you watch the video above, Manimal is in the white gi and the giant is in the blue gi.  The referee is actually Manimal's professor or teacher.  He is not able to coach him even though the other kid's coach is right there on the floor telling him exactly what to do.  I guess it didn't matter much.


So freakin' proud of that kid.  I was shaking from excitement and cheering for him--it was unbelievable. 


Here he is on the winner's podium.  You can see just how much bigger this kid was than Manimal.

They also had another round of fighting without the gi.  It was less serious and no holds at all were allowed.  He won that one too.

As a side note, I finished my 5K in 24:03, two seconds slower than my PR.  Crap.  Four seconds away from where I wanted to be.  But I really didn't care.  Oh, and I got to meet up with some awesome Tough Chiks before the race!

Jill (not a tough chik, but still damn tough), Carrie, Me and Jen

We are like a walking advertisement for Tough Chik and Running Skirts!

All of them rocked the 1/2 Marathon!  And I got 3rd in my age group, 7th woman and 31st overall. 


What an excellent day yesterday was!  So proud of my little man. 


So. Freakin. Proud.

Thursday's Three Things

1.  This shouldn't be such a big deal but since it took so long for it to happen, it is a big deal.  Princess finally learned how to ride a two-wheel bike.  At nine years old.  Yes, I should get a big fat fail next to my name on the parenting grade sheet. 

It's not entirely my fault (ok, it is, but work with me) because we have lived in a not-so-nice area for biking.  The roads are narrow, hilly and people drive like jackasses.  Not the best environment for kids to learn to ride bikes.  Add to that the fact that Princess is, well, a Princess, and I have zero patience for whining and not trying and that equals a nine year old who can't ride a two wheeler. 

Tuesday was the day.  I told her it was high time that she learned to ride and that if she did, when we went up to Grammy's camp this summer, she would be able to ride her bike to the store to get candy.  Wait!  Did someone say candy??  Once the candy was mentioned, off she went to find a bike to ride.

It was not more than 3 tries, all by herself, and she was doing it.  Up the hill, down the hill.  Turning?  Not so much, but that will come. 

One summer goal completed! 

2.  With a new bike rider you also get the first time crash.  That happened yesterday.  I'm peacefully enjoying my dinner--that should have been my first clue that something was up.  There is nothing peaceful at my house....When all of a sudden there screaming like Voldemort is putting a death curse on her. 

I'm not sure why she thought this was a good idea, but she was biking around the house, on the lawn, lost control and barrelled her way down over the banking and crashed into a tree.  Right in the middle of all the blackberry bushes. 

One bruise on her ankle, a bruise on her hoo-hoo bone (as she calls it--aka pelvis) and multiple scratches.  All in all, not too bad. 

Let's see if I can get her back on the bike.....

3.  I hope to be able to run in the Kennebec Rail Trail 1/2 Marathon on Sunday.  Manimal has had an opportunity to sign up for a jiu-jitsu tournament the same day but at 10 a.m.  The race starts at 7:30 and based on my last 1/2, I should finish in about 2 hours.   The dojo is about 30 minutes from the race finish so I should be able to make it in time.  I don't want to miss it.  Any of it.  It's his first one and I really want to be there.  This race is not a huge priority, I signed up for it on a whim, so I won't be disappointed if I miss it.  I haven't even trained for it!

I'll probably decide Saturday night what I'm going to do.  I'll fill you in on Monday.

4.  Ok, more than three things, but whatever.  I have a $100 gift card to Athleta/Gap/Banana Republic.  Where would you spend it and what would you buy? 

80/20 Rule

My cousin had posted this article on her FB page yesterday and it really got me thinking.  Basically, what Mr. Nate (aka Mr. Muscles, Ninja, all-around bad-ass) has to say is that you have just so many chances to impact your body on a daily basis.  His example was, if you were to perform 5 cardio sessions and 4 weight training sessions per week, that is 9 chances to make a change to your body.  Now if you were to count how many times you eat--either 3 meals a day or 4-5 small snacks or meals, that equates to 21-35 chances to make a change to your body. 

So if we then convert that to percentages, that equals about 20% of your body composition is due to exercise and 80% is due to what we eat. 

If you want to look good, 80% of your results are determined by the food you eat.

That is a not-so-good revelation for me.  But it also explains why even though I am exercising almost every day, that little roll of fat around my waist doesn't seem to go anywhere.  You can't quite see my six-pack.  You know it's there, but it's just a bit hidden.  I suppose french fries, Mt. Dew and that delicious fried haddock sandwich are not helping me a whole lot.

I guess I'll go get me a bag of kale and a tin of blueberries.

What do you think about the 80/20 rule? 

Agree/Disagree?

Bath Y Sprint Tri and Weekend Recap

What a weekend this was!  Friday I had to bring my Princess cherub to the dentist to get one of her two cavities filled.  One tooth is almost ready to fall out so even though it is rotting away, the dentist said we didn't need to fill it.  The other is going to be around for another two years so that one needed to be done. 

sideways face from the novacaine

We laughed at her all afternoon!

Why this girl doesn't want to brush her teeth is beyond me.  But it is WWIII to get her to floss and brush.  And I'm not kidding when I say that.  I've held her down, bribed, punished, and pleaded to get this 9 year old to take care of her teeth.  I'm hopeful that the cavity filling will make her want to clean her teeth more.  Time will tell. 

Yesterday was the day of the Bath YMCA Sprint Tri.  Not the best reschedule day, since it was Father's Day, but the bike course was under 2 feet of water the day it was supposed to be held so I guess it was a good thing they rescheduled. 
It was a perfect day for racing--sunny and cool with a light breeze.  Perfection!  I was little worried that it was going to be cold after the swim to the bike, so I packed some warm shirts to wear just in case. 

I had no expectations for this race, other than to improve on last year.  I thought my swim had improved, I knew my bike had improved and the run should be similar.  Little did I realize how much missing my swim workout for 2.5 weeks would matter.....

My wave started at 9 a.m.  I was with a couple of my friends from home and I ended up sharing a lane with a friend who I knew was pretty fast.  I was chatting away with him as the last guy from the previous wave exited the pool when all of a sudden everyone was swimming!  Somehow, between my yaking and my ear plugs, I never heard the whistle.  Excellent. 

I spent the first 10 lengths trying like hell to calm myself down from the late start and also to not drown from the crazy waves that my lane mate was making.  Good practice for ocean swimming, I suppose...  Of course, I was the last one out of the pool in my wave, 10:38,  ugh.  So much for an improvement on the swim part. 

me, trying not to drown.  Notice there is no one around me?

Indian name= Swims Like Manatee

Heading to T1, notice there is no one else in the transition area.  Oy.

Fortunately, I did much better on the bike.  I was at least 1-2 minutes behind everyone so I knew I had to kick butt catching up.  And I did.  I passed at least 6 people on the bike. 

Bike time 39:48 for 10 miles including transitions.  They didn't separate out the T1 and T2 times so I don't know how fast I was for those. 

Run was 26:00.  My legs felt so sluggish at first right off the bike.  I need to start doing some brick training to improve this.  I have never done a brick...  I still was able to pass a few people on the run as well. 

My daughter took this photo with her ipod!  Pretty good form, eh?

my most favorite picture from the day--manimal and I headed to the finish!

Finish time 1:16:51.  First overall woman!  Woot!  When I heard I was in first I thought they meant age group, not overall.  That was a big surprise to me.  This race had about 40 people drop out because of the date change so I'm sure that played a role in my taking first place.  (My time this year would have put me in 7th place last year so some fast women had other stuff to do today.)  Fine with me!  I ended up with a $50 gift card to a local restaurant for the win.  Thank you because I enjoy eating.

So that was likely my first and only overall win.  I know I need to do some more work in the pool to get my swim time to where it should be.  Especially if I'm going to try to swim in the ocean.  Thank you Cameron, for giving me a little taste of that in the pool.  A rude awakening it was.   I should mention here that Cameron, also from Boothbay Harbor and my wave-making lane partner, won for the men!  So it was a Boothbay Harbor sweep!  He was Speedy McSpeed with a finish time of 59:34.  Yah, whatever, you show off.   Seriously, though, he was super fast and did a great job!

Freakin' Fabulous Friday

Here's how my Friday is so fabulous:


1.  Having little slaves, er, I mean, kids at home during the summer is turning out to be a wonderful thing.  The last two days, I have come home to a clean home, dishes done, rooms picked up and laundry folded.  Wow.  Here is what my little servents did last night:

It's OCD neat.

Have you ever seen a cleaner cabinet?  I should have taken a before picture so that you could really appreciate the undertaking this was. 

Each day they will have a small job to do sometime before I get home.  This way basically, the whole house gets cleaned before Friday even arrives!  Brilliant!  I knew this three kid thing would work out for me eventually.....


2.  I've been waking up involuntarily at 5 ish (really, 5 a.m.??) all this week.  The sun is pretty much up at that time and my body sees it through the shades and says Wake the Hell Up!  So today, I figured since I was already awake and all, and certainly wasn't going to fall back asleep, I might as well get out on my bike.  So I did.  12 miles in 45 minutes.  Yay me.  I ran into 4 other wackos up at that hour, two on bikes and one runner and one dog walker. 

It really wasn't awful.  In fact, it was kinda nice.  I may even do it again.  As long as the sun is out.  If it's dark or raining, then forget it.

3.  I'm also going swimming today for the first time in two weeks!  Yay again!  I figured I ought to get one swim in before my sprint tri this weekend just to make sure that I could still make it up and down the pool. 

4.  One not-so-fabulous thing today--Princess is having a cavity filled.  Lord help me.  I might actually feel bad for her if she wasn't the kid who refuses to brush her teeth.  But she is.  So I don't. 

Maybe this will change her 'tude. 



Have an excellent weekend and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

You are Not Special--Very Few Words Wednesday

So probably most of you by now have heard about the graduation speech given by David McCullough at Wellesley High School just recently.  In case you haven't, you should really watch the link below.  Aside from the list of 10 Rules You Won't Learn in School, this is one of my favorite bits of real-life advice for kids, or anyone really.

Take home points:

1. You are not special.

2.  Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to mark it off your list.

3.  Climb the mountain, not to plant your flag, but to enjoy the view.

4.  Selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Kudos to you, Mr. McCullough.  Great speech.

Things that make you go hmmmm

How convenient that when there are things happening all around me that make me go hmmmm.., Stasha over at Northwest Mommy has that very topic as her Listicles topic of the week.  So here goes with what is making me think twice this week.

1.  I took my son to a spot yesterday where many of the local kids like to jump off the bridge into the water.  He didn't jump, but did swim in the area nearby.  While we were there, I saw this:

 Can you say, redneck?

In case you can't tell, that is a sailboat with a blue tarp for the sail.  Hmmmmm.  Just when I thought I had seen all possible uses for a blue tarp, I now have learned yet another.

2.  In line today at the Dollar Store (don't judge, the Dollar Store rocks.), I realized that I had forgot to grab tissue paper.  I left my cart there, in line, and ran (I really did run) and got the tissue paper.  When I came back, the same person was still checking out, the same person behind her was still waiting, my cart was still in it's spot, but a woman had put herself in front of my cart in the line.  Mind you, I was gone for all of 15 seconds.  Seriously.  She just cut in front of me because I was gone for 15 seconds.  Hmmmmm.

I mean I can see if she was ready to check out and I wasn't there, but there were still two people ahead of me!  I was going to let it slide and let her go in front of me because, clearly, at 72, she had many more things to do than I did and was in a rush. 

Just then another cashier looked at me, at the back of the line, and asked if I wanted to come to lane two.  Ha!  Take that, cutting-in-line lady.

3.  The pressure tubes that hold up the hatchback of my van have broken.  You have no idea how much those things are needed until they no longer function for you.  Imagine trying to load ANYTHING in the back of your minivan while holding the hatch so it doesn't come slamming down on your head.  Unbelievably irritating.  Not so much something that makes you go hmmmm, but it is most certainly something that makes you say f**k.

4.  My sprint tri from 6/3 was postponed until 6/17 because of the crazy rain we had that day.  Not sure if someone checked the calandar, but 6/17 is Father's Day.  Hmmmm.  Not exactly the most convenient day to reschedule the race to. 

Umm, hubby?  Yes,  I realize that this is Father's Day, but can you watch the kids while I head to my race today?  Oh, and maybe bring them up to cheer me on?  Don't worry, it will be done by noon.  Then you can have the rest of the day to do what you want to do!  Oh wait, you mean it's not about me today??

5.  Why is it my kids basically ignore me when I'm home after work, while making dinner or folding clothes or some other tedious task, but the second (and I mean the exact second) the phone rings for me, they are at me with some impending crisis that I must fix at that moment.  Why?  Why?

6.  Ditto above for the toliet.  Seriously, I have not crapped alone without someone opening the door asking me what I'm doing, for years now.  What am I doing?  Really?  sigh.

7.  Why does my son insist on wearing the old sneakers with holes in them and worn soles, instead of the fairly new ones we bought just two months ago? 

8.  Why does my husband insist on doing this and expect me to be happy about it?

I have no words really.  Like being half bald wasn't bad enough....

It got shaved the next day.  My handsome boy, looks handsome again.

9.  Work related so most of you won't get how crazy annoying this is, but patients that show up for a contact lens check (says so right on their appointment card), without their contact lenses.  It's a Contact Lens Check!  Hello!!

10.  I will have proof of this on Thursday morning--when three kids stay up late before a school day, no one can get their asses out of bed, but on a rainy, shitty weekend day or after school is out (Thursday..), said kids will be up at the crack of dawn, dressed and ready to go. 

And they make sure you are up as well.  Moooommmmm!   I'm hungryyyyyy!  <clock reads 6:01>

Yah, thanks for that.

Three Things Thursday

1.  Last Friday we took our Girl Scout troop to a local ropes/zip line course called Monkey C Monkey Do.  We had done it another time almost two years ago but they had added higher and harder elements since our last visit.   I was not scared this time so it was pretty fun.  The girls (and Manimal--honorary Girl Scout) were all so brave and tried almost everything.  I was so proud of how everyone worked together to complete levels and cheered each other on.  Teamwork is so awesome!

This is probably 30 feet in the air.

Sissy and Manimal on the second level.

Excellent ass shot.  This is a good look for me, no?

Princess zipping!

If you live locally and have a chance to visit them, it is well worth it!  We had a blast!!

2.  I am so disappointed when kids (at any level) drop out of sports but especially when they are juniors or seniors.  This seems to happen at the high schools around here fairly frequently.  Kids that have played that sport or sports for ever, just quit when they get to be seniors.  At one high school in my area, there were very few, if any, seniors on the basketball team.   Same with soccer.   And of course, they had a horrible season.  They had plenty of skilled freshmen and sophomores, but it's hard to compete against other schools that have skilled seniors and juniors that have played longer.

It makes me so sad that those kids are giving up that last chance to be part of a sports team.  You never get to do that stuff again. 

Sports are the only reason I'd ever go back to high school.  I loved every minute of playing on the teams that I played on.  Even when I sat the bench and never saw a minute of playing time, it was still better than just going home after school.  I never missed practice and never missed games.  It was a priority to me to be there and to be part of the team. 

Why do you suppose this happens now?  I don't remember ever having a team that was just freshmen and sophomores.  Why don't kids feel attached or some obligation to play for their fellow team members? 

3.  I feel like I'm starting to get bored of this routine of exercise that I have gotten into.  Routine is usually good, but it's starting to feel like same-old-same-old.  Unfortunately, I only have so much time available to schedule workouts and thus it becomes the same thing over and over.  Spinning is easy to do at lunch because the Y is right there.  I can easily run either at lunch or after work while the kids eat dinner.  Swimming must be done Fridays because that's when the kids are in school and there is lap swim.  I can't plan on a swim during the week after work because often the kids have things that I want to attend or they need dinner.  I know, lazy ass kids can't make their own dinner?  I spoil them.

I used to have a friend who came to spin with me at lunch and it was less boring that way, but her schedule has changed and she can't make it like she used to.  I can't convince the Y to hold an actual class at that time so that leaves me spinning alone. 

I'm not sure how to mix it up to make it less ho-hum for me.  I did enjoy my 15 mile bike ride last Friday (before ropes and zip line).  I took the morning off and took my bike down to Ocean Point.  It was perfect--no cars, no death, no rain.  I could do that on Fridays but then I would miss my swim...  What to do?  What to do?

Have you ever done a ropes course or zip line?  Did you love it?

How do you keep yourself from getting bored of the same old stuff?

Summer Memories

This week's Listicles topic is Summer Memories.  I love summer and I don't think this topic will be too hard to complete.  Check out Northwest Mommy and join us!

1.  I have an early memory of going to a small town near Bar Harbor with my mom and her best friend and her kids.  We stayed in a little cabin for a week and I could walk down the road to the tiny little library.  I loved to read (still do!) so being near a library was a good thing.  The librarian there suggested I read James and the Giant Peach.  I thought he was nuts but he promised me I would like it.  I did and he was right.  We walked on the rocks so much my feet got callouses.

One small aside--one of the boys of my mom's best friend is now famous for his visual effects work on multiple movies such as Avatar, King Kong, Lord of the Ring series and X-Men.  Eric Saindon.  Yah, I knew him when he was 10.

2.  Catching fireflies in big mason jars and watching them blink.  Then letting them go.

3.  Going fishing with my best friend (around age 10) and her dad way up north and in the middle of nowhere.  We would take a canoe down all these tiny streams and catch trout.  One day I saw a frog on the shore.  Her dad saw me and knew what I was thinking.  I'll never forget this.  He told me, "if you catch that frog, I'm not helping you take it off the hook".  I caught it anyway and spent the next 20 minutes trying to take the hook out while not ripping out his entire digestive system.  Which is what happened.  I never caught a frog with a fishing pole again.  Good life lessons.

4.  Working for 3 summers in Bar Harbor at the Bar Harbor Inn.  I lived right above the restaurant for $25/week.  I was 19, had no bills, no cares and waitressed and made a bunch of money.  It was one of the best times in my life.

5.  When Hurricane Bob came to Maine in 1991, all the restaurants closed in Bar Harbor where I waitressed.  So what did a bunch of 20 year olds do?  We bought wine and cheese and drove to Thunder Hole and watched the hurricane.  Smart.  It was awesome though.  How we didn't die, is a major mystery to me.

We could not get down to this part of the park because it was covered with water.

6.  Rides on our boat home from the harbor on a full moon night.  Glorious.

7.  The joyous faces of my kids while on the boat. 

8.  Relaxing at my parent's camp.

9.  Ice cream every night.  Just because.

10.  Going to the beach every day before work (as a waitress) and getting the most bad ass tan ever.  And probably skin cancer to boot.



One Lovely Blog

I just got the nod for One Lovely Blog by my fellow Mainer and running friend, Jen, at Running with the Girls.  One of these days I will actually be one of those girls that she is running with, but it has not worked out just yet....    I hope to see her at the Rail Trail 1/2 Marathon in later this month, where I will start out with the girls, but probably not actaully run with the girls as they are much younger and faster than I. 

The One Lovely Blog is a way to recognize your favorite blogs in a 'pay it forward' sorta way. 

Here are the rules:

1. Post the award logo and and picture on your blog and link back to the person who nominated you.

2. Tell seven things about yourself.

3. Nominate up to 15 additional bloggers who you think deserve the award.

4. Post a comment on the blog of each nominee to tell them him/her they have been nominated.

Here are my seven things:

1.  I am getting my hair cut and colored today.  Finally!!  I have greys and roots everywhere.  I am planning on getting a somewhat different hairstyle.  The put-your-hair-up-in-a-clip-everyday-style is getting old.  And making me look old.  I still want to have it kinda long but I need to be able to style it as well.  I never wear it down anymore.

2.  I pick my cuticles and hangnails.  For some reason, it is not as much in the past few years.  I do think that running/exercising helps curtail it as I tend to do it more when I'm stressed or bored.  Gross habit I know, but I can't stop.  So if you see bandaids on my fingers, it is to stop me from picking already sore cuticles.

3.  Even though they are so bad for you, I love McDonald's french fries.  Unfortunately, there is a McD just down the road from work and it's the only fast food around so in a pinch, guess what I'm eating?

4.  My one, very best sporting moment in high school was not credited to me.  It was in a soccer playoff and we had a corner kick.  I can't tell you how many times we practiced taking corner kicks, where the person kicking tries to get it high enough to reach the striker in the middle.  I (the striker) would come running from the top of the penalty box and try to one-touch it, in the air, into the goal.  Well, this was the one time that it actually worked.  It was like something out of the World Cup and it made the evening news.  The only bad part was that it was credited to my teammate, even though you could clearly see my number on my back as I was making that Pele-like goal.  Of course, back in the dark ages, there wasn't any You Tube so I can't play it for you.

5.  My baby is going to be 7 soon.  Did you hear that?  My BABY is going to be SEVEN!  As in years old!  Seven.  My baby.  I can't believe it.  Not my oldest, but my youngest. 

6.  My oldest beat me in a hill sprint the other day.  She is 12 and last time we sprinted I beat her.  This time she decided that she wanted to run with me but she didn't think she could do 6 miles so we just did 3.  As we got the the turn around she decided to wait at the bottom of the hill for me and rest.  I decided to do some hill repeats to make my workout a little harder.  I sprinted the hill up and down then rested.  Then I did it again and rested.  The third time she wanted to race me.  I couldn't catch her.  To my credit, I had just done the hill twice already while she was resting the whole time, but still she beat me.  It won't be too long and she'll have to do hill repeats while I'm taking a rest.

7.  I just won another Running Skirt on ebay.  So that makes 2 this past week and 4 total.  I might be addicted.....  I do need to pay closer attention to the description though, as the last one I bought arrived and it didn't have the shorties underneath.  It was just the skirt.  Bummer.

Do you have any bad habits?

What was your best sport moment in high school?

My nominees for One Lovely Blog are:

Carrie @ Maine Mom on the Run
Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem
Terzah@ BQby40
Trinity @ Running Mother
That Pink Girl
Toni @ Running, Living, Loving
Kara @ It's a Dog Lick Baby World
Lisa @ Getting it Done on the Run
Marcia @ The Healthy Slice

May Review

It's that time again--time to review the previous month's exercise efforts.  Due to the longer days and the much improved weather, I did much better with exercise this past month.  Of course, living in Maine we have to pay the price for good weather and that price is shitty weather.  So as I sit here writing this blog, we are getting pounded with rain and I am considering building an ark....  I suppose I would get bored of 80 degrees day in and day out.  #onecanonlydream

Miles Run--49.2  That is up from 31.5 for April.  I guess if I'd have known that I was that close to 50 I probably would have squeaked out another mile.  Overall, a good month for running for me.

Spin Bike--305 minutes on spin bike.  That is just about double from last month.  I don't think that even includes a single class--it's all me, just spinning alone in the bike room.  Totally boring but I did mange to do a good job.

Swim--8000 yds.  I continue to be pretty consistent with swimming.  That puts me at 25.6 miles for the year and 38.1 miles since 11/1/11.  I still have quite a ways to go to make the 100 mile club, but I will do it!  Maybe I'll tack on another 500 yards per swim session this summer.....

Tennis--4 hours

Weight--50 minutes

Races--none.  There were not any races nearby that I wanted to do that didn't conflict with the kid's activities.  I have a few coming up in June so I can make up for it then.

Current Excitement--I'm still enjoying my new phone and the swype feature has solved the problem of the  'no keys' issue I was not liking.  If you don't have swype, then you are missing out.

Another exciting thing here in our household is that school is almost out for the summer.  The kids are staying home with a sitter (who drives) and that makes my life soooo much easier.  I cannot wait to get up and just worry about getting ME ready for work.  No packing lunches, backpacks, yelling for kids to get out of bed.  Ahh... bliss!  Just 10 more days.

Oohh!  I almost forgot!  I just won a pair of Aspareis compression shorts from Michelle at blogitness!  I cannot wait to try them out.  I was considering buying a pair, but it's so much better to try them without having to purchase them!  I'll let you know how I like them.

Current Music--I'm enjoying Payphone by Maroon 5, and despite that it is totally cheesy, I can't keep Call Me Maybe out of my head.

Current Books--I just bought two books at Target that looked interesting to me:  Dreams of Joy which is the sequel to Shanghai Girls (which I really enjoyed), and One Thousand White Women.  I've also joined an online book club hosted by Jen at Just a Mom Giving it A Tri.  Our first book is Karen Goucher's Running for Women.  It's on it's way from our online library system which is the coolest thing ever.  I don't know if all libraries offer this or not, but ours is hooked in with all others in Maine via Minerva.  You can go online and search for whatever book you want and if any of the libraries in the system have the book, you can request it and it will be sent to your local library for you to borrow!

In addition, my bloggy friend Terzah who is a librarian, has given me quite a few suggestions of books that I might enjoy.  It will take me awhile to get through all these books!

Current Bummer--today is a big bummer because of all the freakin' rain!  It has just been nonstop for two days now.  My sprint tri was postponed today because of all this rain and roads are flooded everywhere.  It just sucks.  I really hate rain more than anything.  Especially multiple days of it.  On a weekend.  ugh.

I hope June continues to be a good month for totals!  Have a great one!