Trying to get serious.

Wellp, it's Wednesday again so I weighed in. And again, no change.

I know why. It's because I'm not being aggressive with my diet. I'm eating well so I can eat bad things and/or drink, and running to also cancel that out. I know it will all be better after the holidays but geesh. This is like the 3rd or 4th week of no change. Guess I need to really start taking my diet seriously.

But Monday I got up and ran a mile around the neighborhood, and today I went to the lake by my house. I was shocked at how many people were there at 9:30 on a weekday................but that speaks to the kind of neighborhood I live in, if ya catch my drift.

Anyhoo, I wrote before that it's a mile loop. Then before I went I looked on the lake's website and it said it was a 2 mile loop. Then while I was running I thought "there's no way this is 2 miles because I haven't been running long enough." So I went around again and stopped halfway, and then looked at my Nike App to see this:

Wommmmmp wommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmp.

I walked back to the start (where the green area is in that corner) and passed a sign that said "Lake Chollas Running Trail: 1 Lap=.8 miles, 2 Laps=1.6 miles..." and so on and so forth. So, both of the information I had was wrong. I wasn't necessarily mad, but just a little aggravated I didn't know that before because I didn't walk by that sign when I started, and then when I passed it and kept going I didn't even notice it. But at least now I know for next time, I need to go around twice to get my 1.5 miles in for my 5K training. Which I wrote about on Monday.

Anyway, at least I had a nice view today, not of the trailer park

It's a gorgeous day today (finally). It's going to be in the upper-60s at the beach. Holllaaaaaa. (I work at the beach).

In completely unrelated news and just because I need to get it off my chest: We're probably going to be putting my sweet kitty, Jewel, down this week or next. I don't know if I've ever written about her on here, but she's been in my life for 15 years. That's the majority of my life, people. That's a long time. We got her when she was a kitten right after we got my childhood dog, Buddy. Buddy passed away two and a half years ago and at first Jewel was devastated (like my mom and I) but then she got used to being the queen of the castle, basically. So, when I got Winnie, she was pissed. She never liked Winnie, but it wasn't until I took Winnie to Memphis and brought her back 6 months later that Jewel got seriously mad. She didn't mind my mom's dog (probably because she can tell he's too stupid to do anything to her. Winnie is smart.) but she hated Winnie. She started refusing to leave my mom's room and peeing on my mom's bed out of spite eeevvvverrrryyyy single day. So we moved all her stuff into my bathroom and that has been where she lives for the last 6 months or so. I hate that she's stuck in there, but she just couldn't be trusted. Recently, she started having obvious mobility issues. She's stopped trying to get on the counter because, well, she can't. When she tries to walk she basically drags her butt around. She can get in and out of the litterbox sometimes, so there's always a mess to clean up. And the last couple days it's gotten really bad. And it's become clear she can't even control it anymore. I've been saying for a while that we need to put her down and I think my mom might finally be on-board. Of course we go in and spend time with her every day, and I see her every time I go into the bathroom, but she's not happy anymore and on top of that she's losing control of all her functions anyway. She's 15, too, so I know it's just about that time for her. But it doesn't make it any less sad.

Alrighty fools, that's all I got for today. Hope y'all are having a better week than me. Say a little prayer for Jewel if you have a heart for animals. I just want her to know how much I love her.

It has begun (again).

Hey fools.

Hope y'all had a great weekend :) Mine was good, but not because of December Nights. I've talked about my issues with the San Diego Alumnae chapter of my sorority and Friday night didn't make it any better. The president didn't plan anything. We all discussed going as a group a month ago at our meeting (which SHE held to get the chapter organized) and I made a newsletter with that explicitly on there, and then I text her on Thursday and she says she doesn't know if she's going or not. I went with Lindsey, we met up with one other girl, and none of the other women said anything about going or not going. Turns out, the president went both nights, just didn't tell us. And either way, December Nights sucked. When I was younger, it was actually called Christmas On the Prado. Then they had to make it all PC and shit and it was basically a giant Octoberfest. There were a bunch of fried food stands and small businesses selling their stuff. There was no caroling, no performances at the Organ Pavillion (it was just lit up with a tree), and no live nativity. Heaven forbid anything at a public park endorse a Christian holiday.

So, we spent an hour at the Beer Garden (see? Octoberfest.) before we bounced. Needless to say I was disappointed and will not be turning that into a Christmastime tradition.

Anyway. The rest of my weekend was fun. I wanted to get decorating done but we're having the carpet cleaned today so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow morning (not very Christmassy right?). But I'm super excited because I'm having my 2nd-annual Christmas Pajama Party this weekend!!!! I'll post more details tomorrow :)

So anyway, I found a 5K in the beginning of February called the Mermaid Run. It's all women, there's no cut-off time (it's also a marathon and half-marathon, and there's a 1-miler for little girls) and it just sounds like a good race to be my first. Brittany and Lindsey say they'll do it with me, so we will see.

This morning marked day 1 of my 5K training. I made a schedule based on the one Hal Higdon has for beginners. I replaced most of the "walk/run" days with 30 Day Shred, since, ya know, I just stopped doing it halfway through. Some days I may decide to just go for a walk, but I'm putting it on the schedule to hopefully just keep me on track:

I know with the holidays coming up (and therefore my work schedule getting a little out-of-whack), it may be difficult to completely stick to this schedule, but I'm going to try my hardest to make it work. There's a little lake about a mile from my house that's just got a dirt path around it. It's only a 1-mile loop so pushing the distances should be easier than around my neighborhood, which is a 1.3 mile loop and hilly. The loop around the lake is relatively flat, and more interesting scenery than a high-school track. I also fully intend on using the Sunday walks at Mission Trails and hiking.

If you've followed my blog for any of the *almost* year it's been on the internets, you know I haven't stuck to anything I've said I was going to do. But I haven't ever felt like I wanted it like I want to be a runner. I like running, as much as I hate it. I want to be good at it. So I'm really praying I can stick with this.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. If any of you are planning any runs in the near future, tell me! Also, if you've ever used Hal Higdon's training programs, how did they work out for you??

Alrighty fools. Have a great week!