Swim a mile for Hospice

I actually think I might be crazy, but I bought a bunch of stuff to start open water swimming and haven't used it... Then I saw the advertisement for a fund raising event in the next town over to raise money for our county Hospice and I decided I would sign right up. 

It's a 1 mile swim in open water.

It is in 3 weeks on August 11th.  It is non-competitive and I put in that I can swim a 500 meter in a very long time (I had to Google what a long time for a 500 meter swim would be) so that they will hopefully put me in one of the last groups.  I plan on just essentially scoping out a group swim and seeing just how far swimming a mile feels and going as slow as I need to.

I have never been a competitive swimmer, but I am a competent swimmer and I'm relaxed and don't think I will panic or anything.  The only open water swimming I have done was at my friend's house as a teen on the Oswegatchie River.  Oh wait, I also swam in some springs in Florida, which was kind of freaky because they were extremely deep.  Oh right, and that time I jumped off a boat in the St. Lawrence River to retrieve my boyfriend's hat (now husband of 11 years) and that didn't go very well, but I'm here to tell you about it, so I lived and all...


I'm hoping to get some swimming in over the next 3 weeks, but since my goal is to just make it through the course I'm not too worried about it. 

Here is the event if you want to learn more:  Swim a Mile for Hospice

And I'm also fund raising, so if you want to support my local hospice -which is a great cause (Hospice of St. Lawrence County) feel free to click here to visit my page and donate!

Thanks for reading! :)

Happy Monday!

And here's a gratuitous picture of my cute Kona.

#blogmom #openwaterswim #swimamileforhospice #getfit #backontrack #crosstraining

5K week 4 & 5! :)

Phew!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet.  I'm still going, going, going and I'm so happy about it!  I haven't been perfect and I've missed a run here and there, but I'm just happy with my forward progres instead of giving up entirely because I'm busy.

Week 4:

Tuesday run: 2.25 miles
Honestly, this was so long ago that I can't remember anything special about this run.  Oh wait!  I wore my running clothes, right down to my shoes, to the boys evening soccer practice so that I could run right when we came back -and I did :)

Beautiful sunset behind me!

Thursday run: 1.5 miles
Yay!  Quick and I remembered that Tom bought me this AMAZING lighted running vest for this past Christmas.  I LOVE how safe this makes me feel.  We live on a semi-busy road with a small area between the white line and a ditch so wearing this vest is a great investment (then we turn onto not busy roads and can run for miles -Ahhhh I love the country).  You can find it here: Amazon: Tracer 360 Vest  I've always worn a reflective vest, and then invested in some Nathan's Amazon: Strobe Lights when I really ran outside at night frequently, but this is really the ultimate in illumination.

It can blink in different patterns and colors or stay solid on one of the many colors.  

Long run:  Missed it.  We went to the Great Lakes Wine Festival Friday-Sunday morning and it just didn't happen.  I had this dream that we would hike Watkins Glen for cross train on Friday and then rest on Saturday and get up early Sunday for a long run before we went home... BUT we had to high-tail it to Lake Placid, NY by "noon" to get a new...

Puppy!!!!  

Meet Kona! Our rescue pup from The Joshua Fun Dog Rescue! 

She's a "pure" chocolate labrador retriever (no papers but she's all lab) rescued from Texas that just turned 5 months old.  She is an absolute DOLL.  We all LOVE her so much she is playful, well mannered, and also VERY sleepy... Hahaha

Puppy cuteness overload!

Tom and I drove home from Watkin's Glen and dropped off our camper (you camp at the Watkins Glen international raceway during the wine festival) and then drove to Lake Placid, met up with Kona and drove home... For a grand total of a VERY long day of driving -about 10 hours.  Let me just quickly say that if you are going to be driving all over the place on a beautiful summer day, driving the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks is really not that big of a hardship.  SOOOOOO beautiful!!! 

That is Whiteface Mountain behind us at Camp Joshua where we picked up Kona.  This is our official adoption photo.

OK, quickly onto Week 5!

Tuesday run: 2.5 miles 

Nothing amazing... 

I love running in the evening.

Thursday run on Friday: 2 miles

Missed my run Thursday night because of LOTS of grocery shopping, but made it up Friday night.

Headlamp and the half-moon over my shoulder!  It was after 10 PM when I was done.

I was dead by the last half mile.  I've switched over to eating the South Beach Diet... It's my favorite way to eat healthy and I need a change.  I've been reading more of the Racing Weight book and I really do need to ditch some of the fat pounds that I carry if I want to run some real races again in my future... Running on a low carbohydrate intake is difficult, but after the first two weeks (breaking my cravings for anything and everything with sugar) I can add back fruit and whole grains and I'll be just fine.  Better now, when I'm running short miles, than later when I'm supposed to really run long... 

OK.  That's it for this post!  I have more fun stuff to write about, but I'm hungry for breakfast :)

Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!

#running #blogmom #joshuafunddogrescue #getfit #SouthBeachDiet #backontrack

5K Week 3!

Week 3 of 5K training:

Phew, that went by in a blur!

Last week we had our family vacation at a semi-distant state campground along the St. Lawrence river.  It is just far enough that the kids get antsy on the car ride and it feels like we are "away" and on vacation without taking much time to get there.

Tom and I also spent the entire week sick. It was and still is some sort of cold that made us both not enjoy the week very much and I skipped a workout on Tuesday because I was so weak and dizzy.

So... The conclusion of Week 2 was a long run of 2 miles:

We were at camp and I ended at the beach after dark and stripped down to my two piece that I had on under my running gear and took a nice cool dip all by myself.  

Ahhhhhhh

Week 3 Tuesday I did not run :(

Thursday I did not run either :( but I did run on Friday (still at camp).  I did another 2 miles.

Saturday we went home from camping and I was soooo tired and my sinuses were throbbing.  I pretty much emptied the camper, did laundry, and took a nap.  No cross training there :(

Sunday I looked at the actual training program and realized that I hadn't remembered it correctly and I only had to do a 2 mile long run (so last Saturday I did a long run that should have been 1.75 instead of 2.  Ooops!)  Anyway yippee because I still felt crappy but convinced myself that I could do 2 miles and out I went. 

And, yes, I love this neon yellow shirt... hahaha

I survived!  Hot!  Tired!  But I am so happy that I'm trying to stick with this.  Great job me! I'm currently doing everything I can to keep this cold from sticking in my sinuses and becoming an infection... uuuuuggggghhhh!  I had a sinus infection a couple years ago and now EVERY time I get a cold my sinuses just decide they had better get all clogged up and stay that way for a month or more :(  For the last three days I've been thinking it could go either way... Still hoping I can pull out of this without a trip to the doctor's office!

On to week 4!  Thanks for reading!

Week #2 of 5K training

This is going to be a super fast post because we're packing to go camping for a week, but here is my past week.

Tuesday:
1.75 miles

It feels so good to get back out running again.  My body just goes right into it's stride!

Thursday:
1.75 miles

It was so humid that I was sweating just from getting my running gear on.  I also then proceeded to sweat for about 2 hours after the run.  SO GLAD I RAN!

Friday:
Rest :)

Saturday: 
Chose cross train and will do the "long" run on Sunday.  I went swimming and paddle boarding!  I have wanted to try paddle boarding for a long time.  This morning my back and hips are sore and I'm pretty sure it's the combination of swimming and paddling. 

It was also our 11th wedding anniversary!  Awwwww  We had a great day together with the kids at grandpa's house.

I also have a cold. Booooooooo! :(

Hopefully it goes away quickly!

That's about it for now.  Thanks for reading and enjoy your 4th of July!

#running #blogmom #backontrack #getfit