Ripped in 30…Day 1

Yikes! This makes the Shred look like childs play. Take level one of the Shred…douple the output….and tack some minutes on and you have Ripped in 30 week 1. Holy crap. Starts with push-ups…NOTHING good starts with push-ups. And then there’s the cardio intervals. I pride myself on having a pretty good cardiac base due to running…but I was dripping and breathless by the time I was done. Good stuff. I also printed out the meal plan that goes along with it…which I’ll take what I want from and supplement the rest. It offers a couple of vegetarian options but not much. I have my baseline measurements from the end of the Shred so I’ll use those.


Anyways…the kids go back to school tomorrow and I’m sort of sorry to see them go…but will be happy to have my house back to normal again. It’s strange not running on my days off because I have to wait for Dominic to get home. We had a solid 5 miler again on the last day of the year. He’s getting better..that 5 miles isn’t killing him anymore and by the time we start actual training he’ll have a pretty decent base. My goal is to get him to the start line injury free and feeling strong. I want to supplement his running with strength training but don’t want to work him more than 5 days a week….he’s only 14 and I want this to be a very positive experience for him. I want to build a runner for life…not someone who hates it. I want to follow an actual training plan for beginners so he knows exactly what he’ll be doing each week. It’s a bit difficult for me to run with him. He’s very slow and I guess I’m just not used to company. I’ve been a pretty solitary runner and I hate to admit that I kinda like it that way. But I know how good this will be for him..how positive…and that outweighs everything else.


Happy Monday!

30 Day Shred Final Results and Christmas

So today I completed the 30 day shred…it took more like 45 days with me going to New York and all but I don’t imagine the results would be very different. Let me just say this is an incredible program. And if I’d done any diet modification the results would be greater. I am very pleased. It was simple, easy to follow with plenty of modifications and less than 30 minutes a day. With my running less mileage with Dominic in tow..this program was perfect for this time in my life.



Total inches lost- 14 inches…over a freakin foot.


Total weight lost- none. After the initial 3 pound loss which came back..I hung steady at my normal weight.


How do you manage to not lose any weight when you’ve lost over a foot of body size you ask? It’s easy….be Claire. Bear in mind that I am hypothyroid and had to have gastric bypass in order to lose significant weight. She has a newer program called Ripped in 30 which I plan on buying today and including diet modification, see what happens.


Onwards!

Christmas was wonderful! The kids were happy…we were all together…and for the first time in years Skip and I exchanged gifts. We usually donate the money we would spend on each other but for whatever reason…this year we didn’t. And on Christmas Eve..unable to contain their excitement..my family gave me my heart’s desire.


I call him Blu.


I cried…told them that they couldn’t buy me a kayak…and parked my ass right in it. I am SO happy and excited. Although it’s kind of like getting a bike for Christmas….here’s your present…you can use it in 6 months…HA! We have big plans Blu and I. I’ve wanted one since we rented them on vacation two years ago…and knowing I would never spend the money on myself…Skip did it for me…I love that man. I was so completely touched and amazed that the kids were able to keep it a secret.

Christmas Eve

She was part of the multitude..kind of ironic.

My boys :)

Christmas morning..rocking her new hat.

Grandma is boozing...again!

Brian in his present....gotta rest from all that running.

Mug shot of a future half marathoner....ready, set...GO!

Happy New Year everyone!!

New York New York

Yeah..I pretty much never want to see that place again. It was better this time…without my parents or a funeral going on…but still very difficult. Through various forms of miscommunication…we were under the impression that we didn’t have to empty the entire house. This was quickly changed when I talked to the realtor myself and realized that the entire place needed to be gutted. Added to this the fact that when we got to the airport I was informed by my older brother that he did not take Monday off so we needed to be back on Sunday…this became a big ass job with one day less than we thought we would have for a pretty big ass job. Enter a 30 yard dumpster and a 4 day mad freakin dash….ugg. Imagine dumping 90 plus years of shit in 4 days…and putting a bunch of stuff in a 16 foot POD to be trucked across the country for my parents so that when they’re gone….I get to do this again…lucky me.

There were good parts…lots of laughs and joking. Skip set 4 different alarm clocks and put them around my little brothers room set to go off anywhere from 3 to 5 AM. I bought Skip a Perry the Platypus hat that we couldn’t get off him for two days. I got to run in that beautiful Muttontown Preserve again which was stunning and beautiful…and let me keep my sanity and not kill anyone. We spent time with Alana and Brian who were Johns neighbors and my newest set of favorite people. It was good to spend some time again…with the only two people in the world who share the exact same blood as me. And Skip got to see his best friend from California who had moved to New York and they had not seen each other in over 8 years. I was also able to take Christmas wreaths for my grandparents and John out to the cemetery…Bruce took me….it was nice….but sad. I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.
The bad parts were as I expected. You can’t have that much ego in that small of a space and there not be some power struggle and childhood bullshit come up. My older brother and I have never been tight…and in a lesser way..he is every bit as lame and hording as my Dad which I HATE! And of course it pissed me off that TONS of this could have been done the last time we were there if my father had not been with us and Bruce had buckled down and realized that he couldn’t bring everything back. I mean…why bring shit back that you already have? Why transport things that you don’t need? Give it away..you don’t need it…and someone else could use it. Bullshit…blah.

Bruce getting his sweep on.

Good Stuff
I am still doing the Shred. I took 5 days off while we were out there because dude didn’t have a DVD player and the TV’s went in the dumpster the first day. So I finished day 10 of level two but am going to stay on it for a few more days before progressing due to my missing days. So I figure I’m about 13 days from finishing the thing. I will wait to do measurements again till the end and post them. Dom is still running…we’re going to do our second 5 miler tonight. I bought him new running shoes because his ghetto Vibriams just won’t cut it in the Wisconsin winter. We ended up getting Reebok's version of the Nike Frees…I can’t remember what they’re called. But we ran 4 miles Tuesday night and he liked them…but said they were heavy…lol. I need to piece together some winter gear for him and we need to start looking at training plans…I’m excited…excited to see him commit to something….he’s going to be a hell of a half marathoner.

Trail at Muttontown Preserve

Walled garden...a bit overgrown.

Mansion Ruins~stairs

I think I would run there every day.

Hope everyone is well!

30 Day Shred Week 1..and Thanksgiving

So I have completed my first week of being on the 30 Day Shred. I did the workout 6 of the 7 days of the week. You are supposed to do it every day but I don’t buy into that. You need at least one day of rest…if you’re me anyways. I did very light mileage as in like 3 mile runs and the other days I did yoga. I didn’t do beginning measurements and I kind of wish I had…maybe I will today…but I can say that my scrubs are looser and I’ve dropped 3 pounds with no real diet modification and Thanksgiving thrown in. So I have 3 more days on level one and then I move to level two. The workout is only 25 minutes but it TUFF! I’ve progressed to using only the 5 pound weights and am pleased so far….will keep updating as we go along.


Thanksgiving-

I think this just may have been my favorite Thanksgiving to date. We ended up with 15 people and it was fantastic! Here’s what was different this year.

-I cooked my turkey in a Nesco…this is amazing and left my oven free for everything else.
-It was my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian…and it was awesome.
-My ex-husband and his three boys joined us this year…and it was crazy and wonderful.
-I made the pumpkin pies from real pumpkins…not a can. They came from my parents garden.

If every Thanksgiving from here on out was half as good…I’d be thrilled. Usually I end up stressed out and wanting to choke someone by the end…but this year was just right…with the exception of WAY to much food…but better too much then not enough.

Now with Christmas less than a month away I can sort of relax. We leave for New York a week from Wednesday and it will be good to finally put that place in order and be done with it. I don’t suppose I’ll ever go back after this but who knows..I’ve also said I’ll never run another marathon….HA!

The Prodigal Runner..Sort Of

I hate when I do this…neglect this thing for so long I don’t even know where to begin to catch up. I look at it and think..why don’t you just pitch it…we will call it your ‘blog’ period….and be done….but somehow I just can’t.


New York was trying. Very hard to revert back to a life you haven’t lived in 15 or so years. To be under the same roof as both my parents and my brothers…nothing good can come of that…and nothing good did. I pulled almost 30 giant trash bags of mostly paper while I was there. The man kept everything…very meticulous and most often….not in good ways. Here are a couple of interesting highlights. When I first got there…..I immediately went to his room to strip the bed and flip the mattress so my Dad could lay down. As I was flipping…I noticed a long row of writing on the upper left hand side of the box spring. I went across the bed and saw that he had wrote down every time he flipped the mattress in marker at the top of the bed.

I also discovered similar documentation in other parts of the house. Like during the spur of the moment tag sale we had on Sunday before we left. I moved an antique clock into the bedroom because people kept trying to buy it and discovered multiple pieces of paper under it dating when he would wined it….dating back to the 60’s.

It was sad…and hard…to pitch away this mans life..things that he obviously found important. I did manage to give a pickup truck load of magazines to a steamboat enthusiast and also had the Oyster Bay Historian at the house and he had a wonderful time and took tons of things. And we sold a number of things in the sale that made people VERY happy to find….so there were good points.

The two best parts of the trip where the windmill and the wheelchair races. The windmill..pictured in the post below…was a prize in Johns life from early on. He built it when he was 15 years old…a fully functioning, badass windmill. Now the neighbors behind John have a 41 year old son that lives somewhere on the island and while we were talking with them one evening…they told us how much he had always loved the windmill….since he was a little boy. After talking with my parents…we decided to give it to the guy. We went over…told the parents who in turn called their boy and MADE HIS LIFE. So completely happy…and according to the neighbors to the north of John…who were extremely good to him and whom I have kept in contact with…told us that he came with a flatbed the week after we left and took it to his property. He sent my parents a note of extreme thanks. Good stuff there.

Now for some reason..John had 3 wheelchairs at the house. One we learned belonged to the church…and we returned it. The other two we put in the garage. And on the day we had the sale..Paul and I participated in wheelchair races in the driveway. I kicked his big ripped muscle ass there and back…and although he demanded a rematch after dark on the streets which never ended up happening…it was good…good to play in a sad time.

On the running front…things are going well. I’ve rebuilt my long run back up to 10 miles and have had a few solid ones. After the marathon…I was so completely burnt..most running I did was bad running…except barefoot. Through this fall I have been doing tons of trail running and was seriously considering a series of progressively longer trail runs put on in Illinois. Perfect to get away from normal racing and training. And then Dominic started running with me. And told me he wanted to run the half marathon of the full I ran last May. And I heard angels sing…lol. He ran his first 5 miler last week and I decided he not only could do it…but has both the dedication and heart to do so. Lofty for a 14 year old…but I am thrilled. But this changes my winter plans..because I can’t train with him for a half and do this trail series..no freakin way. So instead……I will train with my son through the winter…do speed training when he’s not with me…..run the half with him…and make Lighthouse 10 miler my A race for the year. Finally bury my hatchet with that damn race. Everyone wins.

So basically I’ve switched from base building for trail runs or running a solid half myself…and switched to Dominic running his first half without injury…and me getting ready to make Lighthouse the bitch she is to me.

I am also on day 2 of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Which is what I’ll do along with running with Dominic until we start training in January. This will be interrupted by another trip to New York in early December to finish emptying out the house and bringing his car back to Wisconsin.

There’s more…boatloads really. But I have my second date with Jillian and 3 or 4 miles with Brian to hammer out. Have a great day everyone and I hope everyone is well.

Heading East

Once upon over 40 years ago there was a 17 year old girl from Long Island, NY. She was an only child who loved the German language and playing the organ. The only close relative she had was a slightly older cousin named John who lived a couple towns over. When she was 17 she went off to college...got her masters and moved to Wisconsin. After teaching there for a few years she moved to Zion, IL and taught at the high school there. She joined the church to make friends and did the makeup for the Passion Play they put on every year. She had her eye on Pilot and was always afraid to do his makeup because and I quote...'he was fat an sexy'. I guess those two can go together pretty easily on the right person. They ended up getting married and having 3 of the most amazing kids ever.

Those two people are my parents, those three kids are my brothers and I...and that cousin John died this week....and we are all sad. John was a fascinating man who never married. He lived his entire life in the house he came home from the hospital in. He was an engineer and a mason. I don't remember much about him before my grandpa died and that was 20 years ago. I remember he was tall...and took VERY good care of my grandpa who still lived on the Island.

One of my big things I always wanted to do was be able to put flowers on my grandpas grave. He was very special to me....and to this day I miss him. So not long after Skip and I married....we headed to New York for that reason. While we were there we went to see John...spent some time with him. He and Skip got along famously. He told us stories about my grandpa...and my mom. I told him what we were there to do and he thought it was wonderful. But while we were there I took into account how bad the house had become...and how John himself was now almost eye level all 5 feet 2 inches of me because he was so stooped over. And when we came home I explained to my mother who hadn't seen him in many years...that we really needed to do something about him...the house....whatever. A few years later John fell...and ended up in a nursing home for awhile. My mom sent my little brother Paul and I out to see him and try and to do something about the house. We spent the next 4 days shoveling out the place and making it livable for him again. We visited with him for numerous hours and did everything we could to make sure he was comfortable and had a nice place to come home to. I felt horrible about leaving him. My parents and my brothers and I....are literally ALL the family he had left.

This picture was taken while Paul and I were out there 4 years ago.  John built that windmill when he was about 14.  My brother is over 6 feet tall...that thing is awesome.

Fast forward to 2011. Things are starting to go downhill for him. He's stubborn though....won't do this..won't do that. His legs aren't working anymore and he's back in the hospital. My mother finally gets someone one of the doctors to talk to her and he has stage 4 bone and prostate cancer....and we're out of time. The last time my mother spoke with him was the other day and he was so completely gone she doesn't think he even knew her...after growing up together...and talking on the phone weekly for YEARS...he doesn't know her. The doctor called her in the middle of the night and he had to be put on the ventilator...and he has a do not resuscitate. They take out the tube the next day....his minister was with him..bless that man....and John stops breathing...and goes home.

It's hard you see...when your life is somewhere but you're needed somewhere else. My father hasn't been in a state where he could be left easily for many years....and my mothers first priority is to him....and that's as it should be. And honestly it took John being in a nursing home to allow us to do anything for him so really....there's nothing she could have done differently....even though I'm sure there's guilt on her end....there shouldn't be.

So on Wednesday...I'm heading out East with my parents to lay him to rest. My brothers will meet us the next day. And I'm sad...although relieved that we now know exactly where he is and how well he's taken care of. And my blood on Long Island dries up.

Rest in peace John Walters...and tell my grandpa I love him.

On Becoming a Vegetarian...and Other Business

It's been over two months now since I've consumed meat of any kind. I've recently added milk and most cheese to that list. I don't miss it...any of it....is that weird? Maybe this is just the way I'm meant to be so the transition isn't a big deal. Meat doesn't offend me...it doesn't bother me to cook it or look at it....I still feed it to my family. I would rather not....but I would also never force my decision on them. Although I guess in a way it wouldn't really be different than me forcing my children to be active.

So here's whats different.

I feel lighter...not weighed down.
I feel my aggression is down...but that is a matter of debate:)
I spend a lot more time meal planning and preparing.

And here's what's not.

My running.
My weight...I can get rid of most of the major contributors to my fat and calorie content...replace them with vegetables and soy...and still not drop weight...I am f*cking awesome.
My grocery bill. Surprised? I'm not...you can be healthy without being stupidly expensive about it.
My marriage. After the initial mild spaz attack Skip has just kind of accepted it as another weird thing his weird wife does....he's a good man that one.

On running.

I seem to be finding my mojo again...thank god! I've had a solid two weeks of decent runs. I love the New Balance Minimus and have become enthralled with running trails. Not bike trails, not paved walk your dog kind of trails....but real trails...that you have to climb over things and watch wear your going...the kind of trails that make your mile times ridiculous but you enjoy every second of. This weekend I went to Pets and ground out 5.5 of the most dirty, leg thrashing miles I've ever done. I came out of those woods looking like I was wearing pants I was so covered in mud. I also found a tee pee in the woods that someone had made with branches and leaves and mud.

I'm also rebuilding my mileage. Last week was my first 20 plus mile week in I don't even know how long. My long run was 7 miles done in the Minimus and I felt solid. I want to get it back up to a 10 mile long run before I start training for my half which will start probably in February. I've been running barefoot on Tuesdays....minimal on Thursdays and Saturdays...and Sundays in whatever sounds good at the time. Its wonderful not to feel like shit every time I get out there.

On Cross Country.

Dom had his first meet last Thursday and much to his surprise...although not to mine at all....he went sub 20 for the 2 mile. It's the fastest he's ever run and he beat 3 people. He past by me at around the mile mark and asked his time and it was 8:50....he looked at me and says "you're kidding me." Didn't even believe it....but I did....that kid is ALL heart out there. He'll only improve in time and makes me so proud!

V is doing good. At his second meet he shaved 2 minutes off his time...giving him the same 5K time he had at the age of 13 which was 21 minutes. But he's tanking at the end. He'll run high 6's for the first 2 miles an then like a 9 minute mile. I really wish coach would have him doing progression runs. Dude is making him faster...but V's racing wrong. I try real hard to keep my big yap shut. They have a BIG meet this Saturday so we'll see what we see. He's looking good though. I bought him spikeless Cross Country shoes and he's learning to run in those. He'll get it together...and I imagine....figure it out on his own without his crazy mother riding him.

I also have to sign V up for drivers ed this weekend...talk about making me feel old. We're making him earn the money to pay for half of the 300 bucks the class costs. And after the initial shock...and I can't imagine why he'd be shocked...he knows we're MEAN parents...he caught on to the idea and has been pimping himself out for odd jobs amongst our family.

And on a final note...I will leave you with a Tateism from this morning. As we were walking to the car I asked her if she wanted to have babies someday and she told me..."yes...but I don't really think I should...most of my babies end up without heads."

Can't argue with that.