ACK!!! Do you realize Christmas is in TWO WEEKS? I’m not ready! I’m still buying gifts, I haven’t wrapped a single thing, and I haven’t made any cookies yet. Slow down, time! I often think, “I would have the perfect amount of time to do everything I need to do, if only I didn’t have to go to work.” Know what I mean?
Luckily there was time for workouts. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting. Let’s do the Weekly Rundown!
Sunday
Long run! I ran to the trail, ran on the trail, and then ran home for 12 miles total. I took this “amazing” picture…
But here’s a better picture of the trail. I love my trail!
Except… at one point I pulled over to the side for a pit stop… and saw this “little” guy…
On second thought, I don’t really need to go that badly after all.
In the afternoon, I got the outdoor Christmas lights put up, Major victory! Every year I think “Maybe we just shouldn’t have lights this year” and then I get them up and am so happy I did.
Monday
Caroline Girvan Iron Series Day #25- shoulders. When I’m done with this series, I never want to do an entire workout dedicated to shoulders again- but I will say it was a good choice for the day after a long run.
Tuesday
Uneventful 4 mile run.
Wednesday
I started the morning with a 3 mile run, and then after I dropped my daughter off, I hit the gym! I did squats and was able to add 5 lb plates to the bar. Leg curls, one leg at a time to really focus on hamstrings. Romanian deadlifts with dumbbells… Marcia had an amazing suggestion, which is that when I’m ready for the bar, to put it on the lowest setting on the squat rack and lift from there.
I ended with Bulgarian split squats with bodyweight only because my legs were literally SHAKING by that point.
Of course, I saw the annoying trainer, who I’m sure I’ll see every time I go to the gym now. But he called me “Sarah” so obviously he doesn’t really remember me, ha ha. That’s good.
Thursday
Day #26 in the Iron Series was a leg workout, so I skipped that for now (obviously.) Instead I did Day #27 which was upper body. I’ll go back to Day #26 next week.
Friday
4 mile run!
Saturday
Day off, and slept in till 7:30 before going to work.
Later in the day I had one more piece of decorating to do… we’ve gotten enough Christmas cards by now that it was time to start my Christmas card display! Like all my decorating schemes, I like to describe the style as “basic, yet effective.”. When my husband saw it, he said “Oh, that looks nice… who the hell is that?”
Hahahahaha… yes, my card from Engie is prominently featured, and of course my husband has no idea who that is. Another fun fact- the card on the upper right corner is from Zenaida, who was my Secret Santa in the mug swap this year. I’m loving that I have a “blogger” Christmas card display!
Sunday
On tap- long run on the trail! And in the afternoon… cookie baking. MUST GET STARTED ON THAT.
Did you notice I didn’t complain once about the heat? I discovered that complaining doesn’t change anything (did you know that?) so I needed to just shut up. BUT, I will say that there’s a real cold front predicted for next weekend… I’m trying not to get my hopes up in case that changes. We’ll see!
How was your week? Are you ready for the holidays?
36 Responses
We’re in the middle of unending (so it feels) sickness, so the week was a bit of a blur. Every single night a child was awake which is VERY atypical. But…we’re getting through it and I’m trying hard to find sources of Christmas cheer. Playing Christmas music on top volume in the car last night and making some ginger cookies yesterday – more to fill the house with the smell of warm, spicey baking aromas than for the actual cookies – helped.
I can’t believe I didn’t get your address yet, Jenny; if you send me an e-mail with it, I’ll send you a card ASAP!!!
Thankfully, despite starting shopping a bit later than normal, I’m 95% done. Thank goodness because with kids out sick and things ramping up with holiday events I don’t know when I would have done the shopping/decorating.
I made ginger cookies today (did you use Nicole’s recipe?) and they smelled SO good! Sounds like you’re ready in spite of all the illness. The good thing about being done early is that you can just relax and enjoy the season, instead of feeling stressed out close to Christmas
Oh, and I’ll send you an email : )
I’m so not ready for the holidays. I do this every year, though. I guess I need to feel some sense of urgency to motivate me. LOL. I have bought the boys gifts, so that is most important. Everything else will fall in place. RIght?
I agree with you–complaining about the weather doesn’t make it better. It’s why I run outside all winter. It doesn’t mean that I like it, but I feel like if I get out there, it’s not so bad. At least that’s my theory. It has to be really bad for me to run inside.
Nice work this week with the strength training!
Thanks Wendy! I agree that there’s still plenty of time for everything to fall into place. Although I was at the store today and they had a display that said “Last minute Christmas gufts.” HEY! Two weeks before is not “last minute.”
12 miles. You’re ready for Feb. I only ran 6.
Ready because I’m not doing much. I just have to mail my cards.
Darlene, I still feel like you’re going to kick my ass! We’ll see how it goes.
Well done with all your strength training, you look like you’re doing great! But how funny about that trainer… at least you were a familiar face! Your trail looks like a fantastic place for running, I wish I had some similar place to run close to home.
Your spider is beautiful! It must be some kind of garden spider. I’m a spider geek after getting into macro photography and learning about spiders, and I cured my fear of spiders using photography, I became interested and fascinated by them instead. Now I love looking for spiders in the garden and photographing them. I’ll try to do more of it next year because I was too busy this year to do any quality photography.
I have barely done anything Christmasy but I’ve done my baking and put up the Advent lights. I’ll try to prep some decorations next week.
An entire workout for shoulders only must be excruciating the day after! But it would be well needed for me. I’ve done some good shoulder work this week but definitely not a full session of shoulders only.
Well… I’m not afraid of spiders, exactly, but they’re kind of creepy. But I agree they’re beautiful if you can look at them in that light. I will say that these spiders bite though (I guess all spiders do… luckily I haven’t experienced this particular spider bite first-hand.)
I’ve ordered big gifts on line, but still want to do some IRL shopping for a few little things. That and cookie baking will happen next weekend as work is sucking up all my time until then.
My husband is in charge of outdoor lights — I do the tree.
LOL, “Sarah”.
Hmm, I do all the indoor AND outdoor decorating here! My husband just isn’t into it, and that’s okay.
It’s nice to see you in a great place with your running and your strength training. Your form looks good on the deadlifts. I never did try the Givans workouts. I realized how close I was to a Peloton milestone before the end of the year so I am on a mission to get it done. I will have to do walks with classes while away but if I can pull it will be worth it. Happy holiday hustling!
Yes, trying to reach a milestone is good motivation! Good luck with it.
That spider – eek!!!! No thank you!
Great work on keeping up with the strength training! Sounds like you are building a great routine!
Thank you Suzanne- I’m definitely trying.
We’ve got our tree up and a few gifts hidden away, and that’s it. I won’t start baking until the week of.
You’re almost at the end of Iron!!! Where will you go from here – all gym or another of her series or something else? I think that you would like Beastmode, and I know that a lot of runners like to do her full body workouts without following a specific series. I’m almost at the end of Fuel, so I’ve got to pick my next move soon. I think I’ll do a couple of the one week series to close out the year, and then if she doesn’t release something new, I’ll probably do one of the 10 week Epic programs.
That is a VERY good question! I’m not sure yet. I’ll look at Beastmode and see what it’s like- but ideally I’d like to get to the gym more. We’ll see.
Oooh I have to get some wrapping done.
Your trail is really pretty. A big upside of living in such a cold climate is that we do not have any such gnarly spiders!
Yes, that is definitely an upside! We’ve got these all over… if you’re in the wilderness that is. But I’ve seen them in our yard as well.
Baking? for Christmas? But it’s two weeks away, LOL…I seldom ever start firing up the oven until the (almost) final few days. I agree, complaining about the weather does not change Momma N’s agenda…but it does act as a nice release. That said, I refuse to stay inside (unless it’s very icy and/or the temps are way sub-ZERO. All that fresh air revitalizes me and, I firmly believe, keeps me healthy. Other than my two Covid incidents, both of which were very, very mild, I haven’t been under the weather in a long time. Now, if we were talking vaccines, that’s another story…those totally knock me down.
I know, Kim- my sister doesn’t usually start baking until the 23rd. But I include cookies with some of our gifts so I have to get them done earlier. Besides, I have plenty of other things to do on the 23rd and 24th!
Awesome week! your trail looks so nice…um, except for that spider. Oh my goodness. So scary!
On today’s run I was looking around suspiciously for spiders- now that I’ve been reminded they’re out there.
If only I could ship our cold and snow down to you . . . ah well, it doesn’t work that way. I am not looking forward to shoveling the driveway to go to a doctor’s appointment tomorrow.
I remember the spiders from TX. And the saw palmetto bugs — and here I thought roaches were disgusting
Oh yes- what could be better than a roach- a FLYING roach. Pretty gross. And… I don’t think I’ll take your cold and snow. I don’t want it quite THAT cold!
2 weeks?!? Clearly I’ve been living in denial LOL!
Great to see you up to 12 miles!
Lol about Engie’s card! My husband says that about a lot of our cards! I have some blogging friends he hasn’t met plus he hasn’t met most of the women in the 2 mom groups I joined when each boy was born. Engie’s card was very popular in our house since she had pics of her pets! The boys were very excited about that! I love how you display your cards. I tape mine to a thick ribbon. I love this mail season!!
You had a great week of workouts. Mine was as good as it gets. I was traveling but got one workout in while I was in Chicago. It was a good lower body workout that I always do when I am traveling since it doesn’t require any equipment so I can do it in my room!
When I read “Christmas in two weeks”, my heart skipped a beat, lol. I feel like I want the days to slow down because this is my favorite time of the year. I like to savor it!
ME TOO! I love this time of year- why does it have to go so fast???
I 100% agree with you that those CG videos that are just shoulders are bonkers! What an insane project we’ve taken it on ourselves to do by getting through the Iron series.
I’m THRILLED that my cards are getting to their intended recipients and that husbands are confused about them! I also anticipate that it will soon get covered up by cards from people your husband actually knows, but this center of display honor, however temporary, is definitely worth getting cards out early!
No, I’m not going to cover up your card! I’ll try to keep it visible no matter how many cards we get.
What a pretty trail to run on, and yep, I would have kept going rather than sharing a spot with that spider. 😉
I like your Christmas card display. Ours are in a basket which is boring and bleh.
Yes, I’m really lucky to have this trail- spiders and all.
i don’t hate spiders so I would have loved seeing that guy!
Just put up lights yesterday. I’m almost done with the tree. Cookies can start tomorrow. A has been helping me but he was camping this weekend.
It sounds like you’re on a good schedule! Getting the lights up is a big job and I’m always happy when it’s done.
I know, right? Christmas has really been rushing up again this year… I can’t believe we’re 10 days away. I am getting on top of my list (this week was really busy in this department) and I have some more baking to do this weekend.
I love that you put up the holiday cards like that – I spy Engie and her man 🙂