Monday Motivation!!!!!!

Thanksgiving is OVER and in 3 short weeks we will be celebrating CHRISTMAS!! I love the holidays for so many reasons but what's the best is the new traditions we are starting with our kids.  Elf on the shelf, Christmas Eve jammies, baby Jesus's birthday cake, making cookies and ornaments for friends.....Pintrest is the best.

I said this week was going to be a look at my 2014 plans BUT I spent all last night sewing a new rag quilt for Tyler so no the 2014 preview isn't quite ready...BUT here's some MONDAY MOTIVATION...on Tuesday...I know............................................................

One of my goals in November was to run 55 miles.  When I started running in April I ran about 6 miles a month.......Someone asked me the other day how I went from NOT running to running a half marathon...I'm not kidding when I say one block at a time.  I would start out walking and then my goal would be to run to the stop sign on the next block. Then the next time I went I would want to run to the tree past the stop sign...then the driveway past the stop sign past the tree...it just kept building.  When I was setting my November goals 55 miles seemed just outside of my comfort zone.  I consistently run about 12 miles/week.  So that would have put me right around 48...I thought with Thanksgiving adding a few extra miles would be a good idea since I was going to eat my weight in mashed potato sandwiches.....what...you've never put mashed potatoes on bread????????? You haven't lived.......................................................

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we were staying in our hometown so I bundled up Tyler and out for a run we went.  Our home town had the first snow of the year the week before but by snow I mean 2 inches....and NO ONE shoveled their sidewalks..........................so I'm pushing a stroller through snow and ice packed sidewalks and streets for 3.7 miles. It sucked. I was so glad it was over and was excited for my Sunday morning run with NO stroller and to finish the last 4 miles of my 55 mile goal.

We went to Thanksgiving at my sisters house...ate food...including mashed potato sandwiches...took naps...and then we were talking about something and someone said...."Well since tomorrow is December 1st...."

WHAT THE HELL WHAT!?!?!? ?TOMORROW IS DECEMBER 1st!??!?!??!?!???!?!?! NOT MONDAY!?!??!???!?! How the hell did I eff that one up!?!?? I blame the gremlins....they mess with my mind.

So here I am...45 minutes from my moms house where all my running clothes are...celebrating Thanksgiving with my family...with 4 miles to run before midnight.

I had 2 choices.

1. Don't go and eat another mashed potato sandwich.
2. Leave a little early and run really fast so we could still go to a movie with my sister like we had planned that night.

I polled my badass running friends and the consensus was...I'm so close...4 miles away...and I would be really disappointed if I din't finish what I started. So we left a little early and I ran really fast and finished those 55 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BADA-BINNNNNGGGGGGGGGG

55 miles in November!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we went to the movies and I ate some buttery popcorn with absolutely no remorse what so ever!!!!!!!

Now onto December!! My goals this month are:

1. Log every ounce of food I put in my mouth....I'm on a 16 day streak of literally adding everything I've ate into MyFitnessPal...the good...bad...and ugly.

2. Run 50 miles...This number makes me happy and if there's anything Ive learned about goals it needs to be something that makes you happy..either pushes you out of your comfort zone, beats a previous goal, something that at the end of it you will say hell yes I did that.

This was one of those days...I went out for my usual 3 mile loop with the Max Man.  THe weather was PERFECT. 40 degrees and sunny...Max and I are running a Holiday Hustle on Saturday night so I wanted to see how fast I could go to get a good idea of a goal for Saturday...When I finished and looked at my time I was UNDER 30 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!! That's huge for me while pushing that hefty gremlin!! Note his "Glubs" and how he's showing off his muscles.  That kid...he's something else.

 Monday Motivation

Left: April 2013...........Right: November 2013

JUST>KEEP>GOING!!!!!!!!