I am sorry I have been slacking on my blogs...

I apologize for the lack of posts.  I have been trying very hard to come up with a brilliant candidacy idea... not so easy.

I think I jinxed myself on Sunday when I said that my knee felt great, because I woke up on Monday and it hurt.  I used the foam roller (best invention ever!) and massaged my leg.  I headed out for a run that evening when it felt better and made sure to take it easy.  I ended up going three miles, and it did not hurt at all.  My run on Monday was full of nature!  At 0.95 miles I heard a sad little quacking and watched as a little duckling ran into the road.  I stopped Garmy and chased the duckling across the street where I cornered him at an apartment complex.  That little guy was fast!  Luckily a security guard was driving by in his golf cart, and he helped me catch the duckling.  I put him back through the fence where the pond was located.  I hope he was able to find his ducky family.  I then continued on my run for another half a mile before I stopped at a park to use the bathroom.  Then I ran back and passed three bunnies.  Garmy is set to lap every mile, and I always hit "stop" when I have to wait to cross a street or make a stop for the bathroom... so technically my mile information is really more of an average of my pace.

Mile 1:  10:12
Mile 2:  10:12
Mile 3:  10:13

Monday night I did the C&K challenge, including lunges.  I think that was a bad idea.  The next day my knee hurt pretty bad.  I think in the future I will do Caitlin@HTP's modified moves.  I also decided I would only do that work-out three to four days a week for the first month, because my arms are tired, and I am currently having knee issues.  I am doing the ab work-out @OhSheGlows every weekday though.

Days 1 and 2:  Plank: 1:05 (arms fully extended), Side plank:  30 seconds on each side (on forearms, because it hurts my wrists), Plank with elbows on stability ball:  1 minute, Stability ball jackknifes:  15 reps, Stability ball roll out:  20 reps, and Plank Rotations:  45 seconds.
Day 3:  My abs were really sore, so I cut everything in half.  
Day 4 (tonight):  I plan to re-do the times on the first day.  

I will probably do half the times/reps on Friday, since I have a race on Saturday.  After the race, I will start increasing my times.

Since my knee hurt so bad on Tuesday, Caitlin and I put off our five mile run until Wednesday to give my knee a rest.  I massaged it, foam roller-ed it, and used some icy hot.  Thursday my knee felt much better.  To be on the safe side, I wore a knee brace during our five mile run.  We ran after work, so it was pretty warm.  I think we are both ready for the race on Saturday.  I am hoping to feel really good on Saturday and improve my pace for the race.  


Mile 1:  11:14
Mile 2:  11:27
Mile 3:  11:29
Mile 4:  11:47 (headed into the wind when we turned around)
Mile 5:  11:35


We want to take Friday off from running, since the race is Saturday, so we met this morning for an easy two miles.  My knee felt good for most of the run, even though I did not wear the brace.  I think I will wear the brace on Saturday just in case.  


Mile 1:  11:47
Mile 2:  11:49


Guess what arrived this week?!  MY CASE OF PUMPKIN!!!  Woo-hoo!  That means I ate my delicious pumpkin smoothie this week!   YUM!  I even ordered a second case, because who knows when the grocery store will start carrying it again.

 Tonight I turned left-overs into something delicious!  We had left-over grilled chicken from last night, which I had originally planned to eat that with some steamed broccoli.  I instead cooked some garlic, basil, pepper, salt, and crushed red pepper in a little olive oil,  and added tomato, spinach, steamed broccoli, and the diced up chicken.  Then I put that on top of some whole wheat linguine and added Parmesan cheese.  Even Chris loved it!

Now a blogging question... I love how other blogs allow me to comment and the blog owner to reply to my comments.  Sadly Blogger does not appear to have this feature.  I heard that Wordpress does have this.  Does anyone out there think that Wordpress is better or worse than Blogger?  I'm afraid to make the switch and lose my URL name (or maybe there is a way not to?).

Also, if anyone has an opinion about whether to get a massage before after a marathon (my previous post), I'd appreciate it.  Thanks!

I hope you all have having a wonderful week!

I almost  forgot, I found an Operation Beautiful note at work today!