I have a few posts I need to catch up with. I have some great photos of modern quilts from QuiltCon that I need to share, as well as an update on my first Marathon Relay, and an awesome benefit for the animals of Austin!
I will try my best to get those up this week! Thanks for hanging in there with me!
QuiltCon is just a day away!! I am so excited I may pee my pants! First QuiltCon EVAH!
On February 9th, Amy and I decided to split the distance and travel to Dallas for the Hot Chocolate 5K! I originally wanted to do the 15K, but once I saw you had to maintain a 15 minute or better mile, I knew it was probably best to stick with the 5K this time around. I have driven through Dallas many times but have never stayed there. It’s fair to say, it wasn’t the best trip!
Amy and I went to the expo on Friday to pick up our race packets. I fully expected something fun but there were very few people there and not many vendors. Fail. The best thing that came from it was the swag!
The race bag was pretty cool. Mine was red and Amy’s was blue…we decided to switch! The only thing in the bag was the technical hoodie. I have to say, I really like this sucker! It’s quite comfy. The inside of the hood is orange to match “Chocolate”. There was a vendor there with Biscoff cookie spread. We had seen some people leaving with cartons of this stuff. We could either choose a carton (12 jars) of one type of spread or we could take 1 of the crunchy jars and 1 of the creamy jars. Amy and I opted for taking one of each since we weren’t entirely sure what it would taste like. It’s extremely non-nutritious! Basically, it’s just ground of cookies to make a spread. The crunchy was delicious and I swear laced with crack. That’s beside the point…
After the expo we went and watched “Side Effect” at an old mall that had half of their stores closed and the other half weren’t really worth shopping in. Oh, there was a tattoo parlor too. You know…just in case you want to get some ink done while you’re there. We also found a local BBQ place for lunch which was quite good!
The next morning we left earlier than planned, which was a good thing since the race organizers and Dallas Police really made a mess of things. Originally we were told we could use gates 5-12 to park. When we got there, they only had gates 9 and 10 open. They were funneling 12,000 participants through 2 gates. The police weren’t really directing traffic well either. On top of that, they closed down the extra lanes which forced everyone into one lane. Ok, fine…but did you really have to close them off so 3 lanes were merging into 1 in the same spot? Not very good planning…and, the police directing traffic? No where to be seen in those areas. Well planned, Dallas, well planned.
We parked a mile away from the start line/corrals…yep a mile! So, we got a bit of a warm-up in on our way! It was in the 40′s, maybe right at 50 (can’t remember exactly), so that extra walking at least got us a little bit of heat started on the way to the corrals.
We passed the area where you pick up your goodies at the end and saw an odd sign:
We were wondering if we were supposed to use that area to lay down in once we finished the race!
Since Amy and I are not the fastest of runners we were in the very last corral, Corral G.
We had just enough time to cool back off before the race started! Everyone was bouncing around trying to stay warm. This is us before!
They let all of the corrals go one at a time. Once A was gone, we waited 3 minutes and they let B go. While it is a good idea to allow a little bit of space, I was ready to go!!
We finally got to the start and were able to get the party started.
The horn blew and we were off. It felt good to get moving and start warming up some. The weather was perfect for running, not so much for standing around! We were a little packed together at the beginning, but much better than several of the other larger races I’ve done. This one was by far the largest I’ve ever done though.
The trail mainly went around the streets surrounding the Cotton Bowl area.
We had an overpass with a view of Downtown. To infiniti and beyond!
Toward the end there was a live band playing…that was pretty awesome!
Finally, we reached the finish line with a time of 49:40. Amy beat me by 1/100th of a second! 
It was after we crossed the finish line that I understood the “No Sitting or Standing” sign!
The line was well managed to get your hot chocolate. We didn’t have to wait at all.
We threw caution to the wind and sat our happy butts right next to the sign and enjoyed our hot chocolate and various goodies to dip in the chocolate fondue!
While the route to get in to the park was a mess, the race itself was well organized. While I enjoyed the race, the stress of the traffic before and after left a bitter taste in my mouth. If I do this race again, it will be if it comes to Houston or Austin. I won’t be going back to Dallas!
So, I haven’t exactly been eating the best foods but I haven’t been gorging either. Most days I’m at a small deficit (20 cals) or slightly over. Technically, I should be hovering around the same weight maybe gaining a little bit. However, this morning I was up 4lbs…FOUR pounds. I know I didn’t eat that much. I even did a pregnancy test today to make sure that’s not why I’m gaining weight. It was negative…thankfully!
I started a new weight lifting program 4 weeks ago and since I started that I’ve been gaining steadily. I thought maybe it was muscle, but now I’m pretty sure it’s the actual program itself. Before I was doing a lot of full body lifts that kept my heart rate elevated, now I’m doing bicep curls and flys and those just don’t up the heart rate! Therefore, the only conclusion I can come to is that I’m not burning as many calories as I was with my other program because I’m not getting as much of a cardio workout. That being said, I will be going back to doing full body lifts again.
I’ve also decided to start writing my food down on paper again. MyFitnessPal has been great for tracking, but I’ve gotten to the point where I just check off the same stuff and hit save without really considering what I’m eating. If I have to write it down, it will force me to put more thought into it again. This won’t be a long term thing, I don’t think, just something to get my head back in the game.
Amy challenged me not to eat Chipotle or Panera Bread for lunch for 2 weeks. This is going to be hard…I love leaving the office for lunch and love me some Chipotle or Panera! But, I’m going to try my best to do it and we’ll see if that helps as well with the scale.
This week is QuiltCon, and I’m staying about 3.5 miles away from the venue. I’m hoping I can walk there and back but we’ll have to see. I’m going with my Aunt and I’m not sure she’ll want to walk that. If not, maybe I can leave a little early and meet her there. I won’t be able to get my weights in, but at least I’ll get plenty of walking in!
I also owe y’all a post about the Hot Chocolate 5K. Will try to get that to you by tomorrow!
This week I’m taking an online workship by Franklin Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I just read/listened to the book so it’s been quite interesting to see the examples in the workshop offering more insight. One of the habits, Sharpening the Saw, is all about improving yourself (your circle of influence) in four key areas: Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul.
Body: This is basically making sure you get plenty of sleep, exercise, and healthy food.
Mind: Yep, anything having to do with improving your mental capacity, such as reading, writing, thinking, and discussing.
Heart: Making consistent deposits in people’s emotional bank account. In other words, doing something the other person deems as positive (you may not necessarily get it) as a way to improve your relationship.
Soul: Regardless of whether you’re a religious person, this about improving your spiritual side. Reading spiritual literature, meditating, and praying.
They had a questionnaire to fill out to see how you stack up right now (prior to including the 7 habits in your life). I found it quite interesting!
I wasn’t all that surprised by my Soul score (sounds like a song!) because I knew I had work to do here. What I was surprised by was my Body and Heart scores. I workout 4-5 times a week, but my food is not as good as it should be. I’m also guessing that my Heart score is low because I can tend to get negative. Again, these are things I’ve constantly been struggling with!
Right now I’m reading Erin McHugh’s One Good Deed, which is a book about her choice to do one good deed a day for a year. The subtitle says it all: 365 days of trying to be just a little bit better. In December, I challenged myself to do one random act of kindness a day. I truly enjoyed doing most of these but was starting to run out of ideas. I think Erin is on to something…it should be just about trying to be a better person each day. It doesn’t have to be random, although it will usually work out that way, or anonymous. From what I’ve learned in Stephen Covey’s book and by using the outlook that Erin used in her’s, I think I’m finally figuring out how to turn myself in to the person I want to be. I’m not saying I’ll do one good deed a day for a year, but really…why shouldn’t I strive to? How difficult can it be to just be a little bit nicer and more compassionate?! I think it may be a struggle at first since I typically have “dark storm clouds” following me as my husband says but it’s a struggle I’m ready to take if it means replacing the dark clouds with sunshine and blue birds (a little over the top, huh? Yeah, I agree…but you get my point!).
So, with that in mind…it’s off to finish my workshop and figure out some goals for the day!