The stamina build up from doing the workouts has helped in other areas of my life. I’m able to clean my house a lot more thoroughly in less time than I used to (of course, that may be that I’m doing it more often… does this clutter make my butt look fat? NO MORE! Clutter, shoo!) And my husband and I played about 45 minutes of tennis on Friday. We probably would have played more, but I managed to beam our daughter in the head with a tennis ball and nothing would cheer her up except going over to the other side of the park to ‘go slide.’ Still, 45 minutes isn’t bad!

I also got almost all my oils in this week. I missed one on Saturday when I was at a cookout with my friends…

This week my goal is to get a walk in on the weekend. My husband and I have been walking 3 nights a week, but now we’re walking 2 nights a week, and playing tennis one. But with Saturday being my yoga day, that’s all the exercise I’m getting over the weekend, and Monday just comes up and clobbers me on the head, running around getting my house in order again, and then workout. I think two days of rest is a little too much, and then it makes monday so much harder.

I am on week 9 and was off to a slow start with some personal issues this week. I am back on track and have compiled a modified plan for the week that has me only missing one workout. I’m pumped for week 9!

What do I enjoy about it? The biggest thing is that it loosens up the knots in my shoulders and back. I tend to carry most of my tension there, so they are tight and hard and sometimes painful. If I do yoga regularly, they loosen up, so that’s my biggest motivation for doing yoga. It also improves my posture. I don’t do it enough to feel any psychic or spiritual benefits, but when the kids are older, I’ll be able to go to classes once or twice a week and I’m sure that will make a huge difference.

In the meantime, I am really excited that I think I have found regular times to do cardio and yoga each week. So my goal for this week is to eat five servings of fruit and veggies each day.

And can I just say to Blaine, WOW! I’m amazed by anyone who runs marathons. My college roommate does marathons and triathlons and assures me that if she can do it, anyone can do it, but I don’t believe her for a minute!

Thanks for the motivation.

My food journal is coming along. It’s actually been quite helpful. I find if I incorporate a decent amount of protein in my meals, I have significantly less cravings for sugar. However, if I’m bored, antsy, or nervous, the munchies come back with a vengeance!

This week I want to focus on keeping my workouts at 5 days out of the week for at least 30 minutes. I slacked the other week, so I want to re-focus.

Hey, just want to say it’s inspiring to read everyone’s goals! Great work!

Tuesday, I wasn’t able to complete the whole 15 minutes of cardio; I got a little over-exerted and had to skip past the last 6 minutes or so to the cool down, but Thursday when I did the cardio a second time, I was in less pain and finished off. The lunges on Monday made my thighs REALLY super painful for most of Monday afternoon, and all day Tuesday. I was dreading them by Wednesday, when I got back to the lower body work.

I was pleasantly shocked to find out that doing them again *actually helped* with the muscle soreness, and got me all perky and happy… weird, that.

So Thursday, I was much less sore than I had been on Tuesday, and finished the whole 15 minutes of cardio (and warm up and cool down, of course).

Saturday was yoga, and I admit to a certain skepticism about the whole spiritual side to yoga. I found it to be interesting, and helped loosen up some of the kinks that I’d gotten during the rest of the week, altho it was particularly painful during the dead bug pose, since I have a slight spinal curve that does NOT like me to lay back on it…

This week, I want to continue with my exercise (I’m going to do this 6-day workout for at least 2 more weeks in a row) and watch my healthy oils particularly closely this week. I noticed the other day that my hair’s starting to thin, and that IS NOT GOOD… so… oil oil oil! Two a day.

I posted the read of my goals on my blog. I hope you will come and check them out. I also weighed in and will post my weigh ins on Mondays.

Truth be told, I don’t worry overly much about weekly goals. I tend to have general goals during any given month for where I want my training to be and what I need to do to get there, but I wing it when it comes to individual weeks depending upon how I feel. I cut a couple works short or skipped them altogether this week, for example, because I was a little fatigued from the 21 miler last weekend and the kilometer repeats mid-week.

I gauge where I’m at in the best arena I can: during a race. This weekend is the New Bedford Half Marathon, which I should be able to run in 76-78 minutes or so with the same effort level that I ran the Mid-Winter Classic. At the end of the month, my first Spring Marathon should feel pretty easy at 3 hour pace (6:50 per mile) – if I can do that and recover, then my ultimate goal will be to cut 10-12 minutes off of my marathon PR (2:48) on May 4.