Sara @ Moonrize

Yesterday was a BUSY day but fun as well.  I went to my friend Tracie’s house…her son whom I’ve known since he was 1.5 is now 10(!!!ONEONE) which means Tracie is getting SO OLD ….and spend the day with them.  It was a lot of fun, for a few reasons.  First, I always enjoy how Tracie and I can pick up where we left off. Even if we haven’t seen each other in YEARS – literally – we just start in the same place. There’s no lag…our life changes and there are details to hear, of course…but WE don’t change.  Its nice. 2nd, I *really* enjoy her family.  I adore Brendan (her kid) and her grandparents and her dad.  Her mom drives her insane, which is fun to watch (probably because I can relate?).  The third reason it was so much fun is that Brandon (her husband. Yeah, I know…its close to her son’s name. What can I say? She doesn’t do variation well) used to race road bikes. It was a million years ago…but not a whole lot changes. I was able to learn a lot from him, so that was super cool – for me.

Best part of the party? I was telling Brendan that I could brain wash him. “Just come here, Bren. I’ll show you!” He comes over and I put him in a hug hold so he cant get out of and start to tickle him a little bit. Then I make a weird moaning noise (as though I’m putting him in a trance) and say, “Aunty Sara is your favorite aunt, isn’t she Bren?” He looks at me and rolls his eyes and says, “you’ve always been my favorite aunty, duh!” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as sappy as a 10 year old boy gets. super sweet. Made my heart contract!

So, after leaving Battleground, WA – I sped home, let the dog out, went pee, grabbed a sleeping bag and some coats, and went to pick Gary up from work.  We hopped on the freeway and drove to Cannon Beach.  It was BONFIRE night.  We got there just as the fire was picking up (which was nice, usually we are there later in the evening) and got to sit and talk with 20 of our friends over a HUGE -as always – fire.   Well, for me. Gary was super tired and mostly dozed.
Here’s the part that has me kind of freaking out…I am TOTALLY out of the closet with my bike riding and aspirations to do the half iron.  I talked about it with EVERYONE last night.  WOW. no backing out now! I really enjoy the biking and I’m SURE that 56 miles isn’t a huge deal…but coupled with the swimming and the running…WOW. Its kind of a huge deal. I know, I have 8 months or something but I just don’t know if I’m going to be able to do it!   I think its kind of that “I’m scared to say I want it in case I don’t get it” kind of thing.  I just don’t want to tell people that I couldn’t pull it off, you know?  So, maybe that will make me train harder….we’ll see.

Today, more than anything, I want to go to the gym. I know its Sunday and I swore Sundays would be my off days…I am SO SORE from yesterday’s workout that I figure if I go to the gym…it will loosen me up.   Plus, I’m kind of loving it. I’m also loving that the jeans that were so tight I thought they gave me a camel toe three months ago fall off me now.  That’s nice too!

xo

1st. Best. Lunch. Evar!  Okay, maybe not ever, but close!

I cut up 3 oz of bbq’d chicken breast and put it in a bowl. I added two cut up Roma tomatoes and a 1/4 of an avocado (or 1.5 oz – I heart my kitchen scale). I topped it off with a 1/2 of a cup of southwestern style salsa. Then I took a serving of the fiber wheat thins and used them as dipping utensils for my salad. YUMMMMMM. It was sooo good and took about 3 minutes to make (I already had the chicken cooked from last nights dinner).

Total calorie count is: 290. And if I had stopped long enough to snap a picture of it, you would see it was PRETTY too. Try it and tell me if you like it.  I thought it was SCRUMPTIOUS.

Second thing, same as the first…no, that’s not true.  It just rhymed with a song.  Number two is actually about my workout!  I read this one in a magazine and thought…WHATEVER that this is going to kick my butt.  However, I was WAY wrong.  It totally kicked my arse….and will do so more tomorrow, I’m sure.  Its called a Super Interval Workout and it was super. It is QUICK but I was dripping more sweat in 20 minutes doing this than a soldier doing laps in Iraq. I would imagine, anyway. I’ve never been a soldier in Iraq…?  I’m so digressing…here it is:

Warm up:

15 Bodyweight squats

15 Exercise-ball rollouts (I’m not very good at these.  Your suppose to use the body ball to rest the bottom of your legs on in a push up form and then ROLL the ball in (by bending your knees) and out again.  takes lots of coordination.  I just did push ups.

15 push presses with a 25lb weight (or whatever works for you)

15 back extensions.

The point is to do these AS warm ups. nothing major, no breaks and just one set.

Then comes the interval part. You can interval on whatever you want; elliptical, bike, spin bike, stair master, treadmill – whatever.  Start a slow and easy pace for three minutes, stepping it up a bit in minute two and three.   Then you are going to go ALL OUT for 30 seconds.  Balls to the wall ALL OUT.  Then recover for 90 seconds.  Then you start again with the 30 seconds of BALLS TO THE WALL.  Recover for 90.  Do that 8 times, if you can!

Then cool down with:

15 bodweight squats

15 push ups

15 horizontal pull ups (reverse push up)

I DRIPPED my way out of the gym.  Talk about kicking my butt…but it was SO quick, I totally enjoyed it. I think I sweat as much on this 20 minute cycle then 60 minutes on the stair stepper.  You may want to (depending on what you use for your interval exercise) designate a driver to get you home.  My legs are still shaking!