Day 40...40 days to go!

Sissy-poo is doing this spring challenge that is 50 days long. Hoping to support her, I decided to embark on this journey. Today is day 40 and it has been so challenging. Each day she posts a new goal that you must continue until the challenge is up. It's not about how much weight you'll lose it's about changing your life. Let me tell you, THIS HAS BEEN CHALLENGING. First let's jump back to Ash Wednesday. For Lent, it's suggested to give something up that will be challenging for you. So, with the encouragement from my friend D, I gave up ice cream. Friends, for me not eating ice cream is like walking around with 9 toes. I L-O-V-E that stuff. Jump forward to only having to wait 10 days until Easter, my mouth is watering thinking about ice cream. Due to this challenge, I now have to flush eating ice cream down the drain. Yesterday's challenge was to give up sugar. My heart skips a few beats (arrhythmia) when I think about not consuming the tooth rotting joy. Sugar runs in my blood, it's there with the oxygen providing me with basic life support. I tried to have oatmeal this morning, I know I couldn't put my brown sugar in it but when I reached for the craisins, it said in big bold letters CONTAINS: CRANBERRIES AND SUGAR. That's a no-go. Ugh! Needless to say, day one of no sugar isn't going well. It's not even over yet. If you really want to know, it seems like everything contains a vast amount of sugar in the ingredients. Going to Sam's Club at lunch didn't help because I walked by bulk packages of candy, then there was cake...I think the saying is true "you never know what you had until it's gone." Wait, that's about love not sugar. Oh well, for me sugar is love. I've tried to go without sugar before and lasted about two days. This time, I've got Sissy-poo and Sissy-poo's trainer watching me with hawk eyes so I better not pick up that Nutella.
On a positive note, I encourage you to all check out my sister's blog. It's very inspirational and this challenge is tough but good for your soul.
Have a fantastic day!

Running

It's been such a nice spring. We've almost hit 70 degrees twice and the winds haven't been too bad. When the weather is nice, I love running outside. A while back, one of my friends/gym buddies encouraged me to sign up for my first 10k. I've participated in multiple 5k's, a half marathon and a 62 mile relay race. I had yet to run a 10k. For those of you who do not want to bust out some math skills, it's 6.2 miles. I've been running intermittently with a few of my friends (D, E and H) in hopes of trying to like running again. I had a falling out during the winter because I hate treadmills. While I have been running, I've always wanted to try to keep a pace of 10 minute miles. To me that was a good pace. Upon running with H, who is significantly faster than me, I realized that I can go a bit faster than 10 minute miles. She kills me though, pushes me when running the rollers and keeps me going. I took a small sabbatical from running with her when I realized she was killing it but running 8ish minute miles. Kill me now. One of my biggest issues is running alone. I feel like I want to but never get my butt out there. I've ran a few times alone but it is still something that needs work. In the process of running, I've noticed my speed has slightly increased. I can only go off time then I have to map out my run so I can see how many miles it was. I'm trying to get 4 miles in on my short runs the 6+ on the long ones.
I feel like I'm blabbing...
Back to the race. Saturday was the day for the race and I didn't feel very prepared but I wasn't going to back down. I had H there to support me but I knew I wouldn't be running with her. She wanted to finish in 49 minutes and I just wanted to be under an hour. The first half went really good, but the second half, not so good. I needed to walk but I tried to minimize it the best that I could. A little disappointed with myself, I still kept at it. I tried pushing it because as I neared the finish line, my time was looking more and more like I was going to hit an hour. I pushed it crossing the finish line and BAM 58:48! Under an hour! After doing some mad math, that's roughly 9:30 miles. WOOP WOOP! H, ran it in 47 minutes! WOOHOO! For some of you, that's really slow but for me it's a personal record. It made me feel so good about myself. I'm signed up for another race in June. The Sawtooth Relay. I participated in it last year, and LOVED it. I hope to bust out a couple half marathons this summer as well. I just want to keep this up and even keep this time as I increase my distance.
Are any of you runners? Do you have any plans to race this summer? Any good tips on fighting your mind while running?
Happy Wednesday all!!

EMT Update

Hey Friends!

I'm about half way through my EMT class and I'm still trucking along. I've learned so much and the best is yet to come. We're testing over medical issues tonight and it is a lot of information. I'm a little worried about this test. I've defiantly had some rough nights because there are some immature kids in my class who do nothing but text or talk. That makes me feel old and like a total "non-trad" but I don't care. This is a class about saving people's lives, not trying to tell a better story about some random thing. It bugs the heck out of me. Anyways I have tried to retain a lot of information but still am struggling so I need to come up with some good tactics. Maybe posting sticky notes all over the house with questions...good thinkin' Lincoln!
The toughest part about the class is being away from Lane. It's like we never see each other. He's asleep when I get home from class and I'm usually studying on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The weekends are reserved for cleaning house and more studying. I'm trying to make an active effort to spend some quality time with him. After the class is over, things will be back to being abby-normal.
I hope all of you are well! Sorry for my lack of blogging...it's the dedication to school and work thing that's taking priority. I'll blog again soon.

Have a great Monday!