Laura Gets Shit Done

It's been hard to find time for myself lately.  Baby, job, business, teenagers, baseball, house...I seem to give them all priority over me.  I haven't found balance yet.  It's so much easier to blame everyone else.  They NEED me, right? But who's left to look out for me.  Nobody.  I mean, my family loves me but if I don't tell them I need help, they can't help me. So here I am.  I've been neglecting my working out/training.  It's an essential part of getting healthy.  My metabolism sucks.  I didn't get to 300+ pounds with an amazing metabolism.  (Chicken/Egg - did I kill it or was it already bad?).  I know that even with gastric bypass and a 1200 calorie diet, I still struggle to lose weight without copious amounts of exercise (again: was I born this way or did years of neglect teach my body this?). I signed up for an Olympic Distance triathlon a couple months ago.  And had a few events in between to keep me on track. ...

Getting back into the swing of blogging - harder than it sounds!  It's so easy when things are going well but it gets harder when there are struggles to admit to.  90% of my eating is going really well.  50% of my working out is going well.  I'm working on getting both of those closer to 100%. I had a big race on Sunday ( Lake Stevens 70.3 ) but woke up feeling sick on Saturday.  Same thing Baby has had all that week.  One of us stayed home with him all week.  He's better now but I woke up Saturday with my throat on fire.  Feeling unwell is a trigger for me.  Add "taper" (no exercise before a big race) and "carbo loading" (supposedly eating to fuel for a big race - my brain needs to sort out carbo loading from binge eating). I wasn't completely out of control but I made some not so great choices.  I'm not eating candy (since March) and salty snacks/chips (since April) and I've stuck to being abstinent.  But I haven't been able t...

Triathlon in the bag!! Finished, little disappointed in my bike portion but overall happy!! Bottom line: more bike riding over the winter and continue the running and swimming. Today's effort got me fourth place in my division! I'm going to be frustrated if third place was mere minutes ahead if me. But fourth place baby!! Next up: wedding in Portland tonight and then 2 days of motorcycle racing camp! In store for October: boot camp and getting this body in shape! I'm excited. And hopeful. And smiling. TTFN, LauraLynne

Ok - so Sunday I did a 10k with my daughter. It was down the street from my house sponsored by the YMCA. (link for race info here: http://www.ymca-snoco.org/Locations/...ydd.ashx?p=390) Last year's slowest time (Yes, I always look) was 1:22:xx - which is about my 10k time right now. I set my goal at finishing closer to 1:15:xx - there was a decent group finishing around that time but I WAS prepared to be DFL (dead effing last - a technical term LOL) What I was NOT prepared for was having to stop and ask directions because there were no volunteers left and the cones/signs were down by the time I got close to the finish line!!! I had to navigate the final 3 turns without help!  I was NOT last - there was one runner behind me and about 5 walkers WAY behind me. There were other events they were doing - kid dashes and such. But it seems to me that until the LAST runner crosses the finish line, they should have the arrows up at least!! I literally had to find someone to tell me whe...

This is long - very long - grab a glass of water, put your feet up and come along on a run with me! Race report- rock and Roll Half Marathon Seattle – June 26, 2010 It all started 3 or so months ago. My son, out of boredom, went for a run. Athletic booger that he is, ran about 6 miles in under an hour “just for fun”. He came home and asked if he could do a half marathon and invited me along. Foolishly, I agreed. I went online, found a summer half marathon, and signed us both up. Then I went searching for training plans. I found plenty of couch to 5K programs – but I needed MORE! I needed a couch to half marathon and I had 15 weeks to train. I found something that would work – it was intervals, walking/running. Seemed doable. I downloaded it, made a calendar with training runs on it – amped it up just a little (3 days a week of running wasn’t going to cut it for me – I wanted 6), and set my mind to run. March 22, 2010 - The first training run was 2 minutes of running, 1 minut...

As a "big girl" the first thing I look for is how many runners there are as big or bigger than me. It's just what I do. At a 5k, there are usually a number of women bigger than me and many my size. Today that wasn't the case. Apparently adding 3k eliminates a lot of plus size runners. I did not see anyone my size. My husband told me there were a few other big girls running - but I didn’t' see them. Talk about a head trip - I was really nervous! The announcer released my group and we're off! Less than a quarter mile in, I realized that I may not have thought this race all the way through. Let me just mention, I'm scared of heights. I used to be terrified of heights - now I'm just scared. I mostly do fine with them but bridges still can bring on a panic attack for me. The name of this race: Beat the Bridge. Um. Like I said, I may have overlooked part of the planning this race out. So less than a quarter mile from the start, there's a bridge - n...