Chelkie

Alright, Challenge wrap up! Running - Had a great running week, ran 20 miles with a threshold and 3 easy runs. Food- Finished up the challenge pretty strong, had a lot of salads for lunch and fresh fruit. Stuff - Getting ready to go on our house hunting trip in Vegas, have most everything arranged. Overall it was a pretty successful and laidback challenge. Checked a lot of stuff off my to do list, got back on the running horse and ate a bit better. Baby steps towards another half marathon season, a new life in Vegas and the wedding diet.

Yeah, coming from AK going anywhere in the lower 48 i'm always amazed at how cheap and fresh fruits and veggies are! Week 3 Recap: Running - Ended up running two days around the Pepperdine track, one threshold and one easy run. I'm pretty proud of even getting that much running in, as the study pressure was intense. Food - Ate great last week...way too much of it, but great! It's weird being in such a structured schedule, like wake up and eat every four hours exactly. My body is like, hey, it's 8am it's food time, hey its 12pm its food time again! To Do Stuff - Got so much of this done! Completed my dreaded CSOP class...to be honest i'm not confident at all that I passed the certification exam though. It was one of those tests where you open the first page and are like FUCKFUCKFUCK I don't recognize half of this shit! Not pleased with the exam prep provided by the class, but oh well, it's over with, or at least until I find out if I failed. If I failed I have to take it again at a testing facility. We'll jump that bridge when we get to it I guess. I also attended my sister's baby shower and got to see a bunch of family I haven't seen in awhile, and wish my sister good luck on the last month of pregnancy. I even bought my wedding dress! It will be in around mid October, so fingers crossed my order is correct and I don't get something way too small or short! So I think now all I really have to worry about is my upcoming move and honeymoon arrangements. Checking things off left and right!

Thanks! They are my loves, definitely going to be a crazy cat lady. Week 2 Update, Running - went not so great, only got 2 days of running in, some things came up at work and just derailed me. Food - I've continued to make small changes in my diet, eat more fresh fruits and veggies, feeling pretty good. Things - Checking things off my list like crazy! Definitely starting to accelerate towards the move. I'm currently in Malibu, CA at Pepperdine taking my week long course and taking my big scary certification exam on Sat. I've already gotten out on the track once and I'm feeling pretty good about getting at least 2 or 3 runs in while I'm here. One huge bonus is the plethora of healthy foods catered here, so I'm rocking that as well. Finishing up this trip will check three big things off my to do list, and will get me quite close to finishing everything up.

In other exciting news, I've now reached the most recent season of Zombies, Run! It's the first time since I started using the app i'm actually listening to them as they come out. Also if you wanted to know what the coastal trail looks like now, here it is: Much more pleasant than all the snow and ice I dealt with this winter!

That sounds awesome, teach me! Just wake up in the morning and be like oh fantastic, my body has already gone out and run an hour for me before I woke up. Week One Update: Running - Had an awesome week, 23 miles with a threshold and 3 easy runs. Eating - I didn't eat fantastic this past week but I made some good choices when I didn't have to, had fruit for breakfast, added veggies to a lunch, drank a good bit of water. It's all about the baby steps! Doing Things - It was my father's bday last week and we all went in on a gift for him (a chance to drive a race car in Vegas, and he gets to come visit me! mwahahha) and did a nice family skype chat. Making me more and more excited to be moving close to my parents, I can't wait to be able to see their faces more often! Signed up for the Mayor's Half, and made a reservation for shipping my car from Anchorage to Seattle Port to Port. I also made trip reservations for a 3 day visit to Vegas in early June to try to nail down a place to stay before we move, this is probably the biggest thing i'm stressed about. Don't want to have to move without knowing where we're going to be moving to, especially with my kittens. They remain unconcerned.

Haha bad sign... Went out for a 5.5 mile easy run during my lunch break and I got SO SUNBURNT. IN ALASKA. I'm going to die in Nevada everyone. Definitely seriously considering running at 4am before work and before the sun rises in Nevada now. I've never been a morning runner, i'm a terrible morning person, but I suppose sleepiness > burning into a tiny sad little blackened crisp.

Calanthia Cobbin - Thanks! Yeah, wedding planning stress + moving stress + school stress is the trifecta! Been having a very productive week, have run three times now for 17 miles, a tempo and two easy. I think i'll plan on running at least one more easy run but leave off the long run until next week, want to ramp my mileage up a bit less crazy than like 11 miles a week to 29. Checking some stuff off my too do list and getting more stuff ready to check off. Mothers day and my Dad's bday are past now and i'm really ramping up my studying time. I'm waiting to hear back about selling my fiances car and after that we can make a few more solid shipping plans. Considering maybe shipping my car to the Seattle port and driving it to Las Vegas from there, it's about 17 hours, a long time with two cats but way less time than if we drove all the way from Alaska. Also way cheaper, the amount of money these people want to ship things...yeish.

emineminator - Thanks! Yeah, super scary will be my first big move alone ( well, without the help of parents) and the first time i've had to ship things. When I moved back from college I sold everything and came back with a bag full of clothes. This time we're shipping a lot of our apt things and my car, which should be realllly interesting, and by interesting I mean a pain in the ass. Strickland5 - Day one actually went quite excellent, did a tempo run 6.5 miles at a 10:30/mi pace, which isn't the fastest tempo run i've done but definitely the fastest one since allergy season started. I also spent all evening freaking out about moving. Why do moving companies have to be so shady?! They are like, welllll it looks like you've got about 2000lbs worth of stuff, and that should be 154.04 per 100lbs but if it weighs less than that we're going to charge you a random much higher number per 100lbs and not tell you what it will be until we do it... SaltyDragon - Fun...yeah...suuuuure. It's an interesting course, i'll give you that, but actually none of the Alaska races really have that great of a course for speed. Mayor's there's a lot of hills and dirt, Wildlife its an out and back on the Chester Creek trail which is a normal path width, so when you are halfway down the winners are blazing by you on the other side and it's demoralizing, not to mention it's impossible to pass anyone because there's so much congestion. Don't even get me started on the Zombie race, it finishes at Kincaid which the last at least mile is 100% uphill, and not just like a bit uphill, like deathly uphill. Overall I thought i'd make some vague goals this challenge because I've got too many other things on my mind to follow a strict regimen, yesterday I was in the shower and I honestly could not remember if I had already washed my hair or not. Maybe i'm going insane...

Looks like another great challenge! Challenge 15...time flies! In other news AHHHH with people thinking pronunciation of Gif is Jiff. This makes no sense to me, no sense at all! Is it some sort of cosmic punk/rickroll?

I'm really tempted to try programs like YNAB to get rid of my super intense budget spreadsheet but i'm really worried about the fact that they have access to all your online banking stuff. Not sure I want all my banking info in one place for someone to hack. You should let me know how it goes though, maybe i'm just being a tinfoil hat!

As some of you might know I’m moving from Alaska to Nevada the end of June/beginning of July for my job, and it’s going to be a huge change! In prep for my move I’ve decided to run the Mayor’s Half Marathon June 18th as my last Alaska race hurrah. It’s a weird hard course with crazy hills, a brutal mile long section that is a one person wide trail through the woods with huge ruts and holes, and not nearly enough aide stations (or it was last year) so I’m not expecting any time goals, but I wanted to get in one last race before I leave this amazing state. I think the plan is for my next race after that not to be until the Rock & Roll Las Vegas half in November. One because I’ve always wanted to run that race, and two because I’m going to need at least those 5 months to get used to running in the heat. In other news, if you haven’t heard Alaska’s four seasons are: Winter, Allergy Season, Construction Season and More Winter. Currently we’re on the border of Allergy Season and Construction Season. This year’s pollen count for birch has been off the freakin charts, in Fairbanks it’s been record-breaking and in Anchorage it’s been not hell, but like the border of hell. Stumbling around with itchy water eyes, nose, mouth (yes, mouth!) and agonizing migraines. It should be getting better in the next few weeks, but I’m keeping this in mind when setting my goals. To the Goals! Goal One: Get Back Into Training Rhythm I’ve had a rough two months after my last half marathon, finding the time/motivation/health to run has been difficult, but I’ve at least done some running. I’d like to slowly start getting back into the swing of a regular training schedule, but I’m going to try not to be too hard on myself. 4-5 days is good, getting in my tempo and long runs is better, but we’ll see how things go. Have 6.5 weeks until the race and I’m going to try to ramp things up. Goal Two: Eat the Good Things I’ve been counting calories for the past few months but not seriously, and looking back I’ve eaten a loooooot of crap. I’d like to spend this challenge focusing on just trying to eat more healthy things. Fruits, veggies, less junk food, you know, the basics. Goal Three: Do the Things I’ve knocked a lot of things off my wedding to do list which is great, but now I’ve got to start focusing more on my life to do list. 1. Hire a Moving Company & Set Pick up Date 2. Hire a Car Shipping Company & Drop off Car 3. Make Flight Arrangements for Pre-Move Vegas Trip 4. Make Flight Arrangements for Actual Move to Vegas 5. Dad’s Bday – Acquire Gift 6. Mother’s Day – Acquire Gift 7. Sister’s Bday – Acquire Gift 8. Attend Sister’s Baby Shower – Acquire Gift 9. Wash Car + Clean Inside 10. Get Tires Changed 11. Finish Packing 12. Sell/Donate Items 13. Buy Wedding Dress 14. Arrange Honeymoon – Flights & Timeshare 15. Take CSOP Exam – Pass?! 16. Pack One Month Bag for Move 17. Pack Up Office 18. Deep Clean Apartment – Arrange for Carpet Cleaners 19. Sign Up & Complete Mayor’s Half 20. Arrange for New Apt Rental – Lease Ready by July 1 21. Give 30 Days Notice on Current Apt 22. Cancel Utilities & Restart in New Apt These are my main big tasks for the next two months and before we move, wish me luck, it’s going to be a busy one! Starting Stats: TBD Weigh: V02 max (estimate): 29.3 Body Fat (estimate) Waist: Hips: Arm: Thigh: Calf: Butt:

That's a mighty fine morning run location! Looks like you had an overall very successful challenge, even if you didn't quite get your push up and crunches goals. 133 miles is damn respectable amount of mileage, especially considering your travel schedule!

SaltyDragon - Aw thanks yeah studying is the worst, which is funny because i'm usually really good at things school related. I've decided the best way to keep the running motivation up is the run this half marathon coming up in June. It's the weekend before we move, and definitely not a PR course (it's full of huge ridiculous hills and part of it you have to run through the woods on a crazy narrow mountain bike path) but it will be my last Alaskan hurrah. Considering it will be an average of 105 in Nevada when we move and we haven't nailed down where were living or if there are any indoor tracks nearby, I think the transition to running there is going to be bumpy. On the plus side, no plants to kill me with their pollen in the desert!

Jeeze, this challenge zipped by like crazy. Week 4: Ran 16 miles, my allergies are kicking my butt. Was laid up on the couch all weekend with itchy/runny everything and a wicked headache. I'm hoping it will pass soon as pretty much everything has fully bloomed now. Did our arm workout 3 times this week, right on schedule. Studying - Did a little, not enough, going to really have to crack down these next three weeks, my class is creepin up fast! Wedding Planning - Realized I was going to be back in seattle at the end of the month to go to my sister's baby shower, so I decided i'd wait to order my dress until I go there in person. They have this cool option where you can order the dress shorter straight from the manufacturer (which I need because i'm only 5'2") and I want to have the dress on to make sure how much shorter it really needs to be. Challenge Wrap Up: I'd say I got a solid low B or C, I didn't run as much as I wanted but I at least didn't give up and stop running, have kept consistently running at least a bit each week. I did quite well on the arm workouts, feeling a bit stronger and surprisingly stronger in the core, must be all the planks. Studying I did pretty terrible, now that it's only three weeks out I have no choice but to suck it up and study. Wedding planning went pretty great, checked off a lot of the big things that were looming over my head. Still need to follow up with the wedding planner and videographer, but i'm happy with my progress. I'm going to take a bit of time to reassess my goals for next month and try to recommit to my fitness. This month was rough and I want to do better next time.

Same here, mid-spring burnout seems to be going round the scouts! Looks like you had an excellent start to the challenge though, hope you finish up your goals strong.

SaltyDragon - Good! It's totally okay to be crazy if you aren't alone. Week 3...Is it 3? Update: Ran 15.5 miles last week, not as much as I had wanted, but way more than the week before. It's allergy season in Alaska now and everything is blooming and glorious...and trying to kill me. Can definitely still run but the watery eyes and nose make it not the most fun experience. Studying, didn't do much, need to crack down on myself. It's just so hard to study again, it has been 6 years since I graduated college already, I should be done with this studying business! Arm Workouts, did 4 days but also I spent a lot of the weekend lifting boxes to prep for our move, so I think that counts! Wedding stuff - Have now secured a wedding planner, photographer, makeup artist and am in final negotiation talks with a videographer. Things are moving along pretty smoothly, though I've been so busy with trying to figure out this Nevada move that its been on the back burner a bit. Has been a super stressful past two weeks, been going back and forth with my work about when I need to move, June 1 or July 1, I wanted June they wanted July. Finally agreed to just move in July, which will be easier when it comes to arrangements down there, but will throw my fiance's schooling all out of whack. Oh well, what can you do but just make things work no matter what.

Thanks everyone! Went running yesterday, a nice easy run, but I definitely noticed it was more difficult and my heart rate was getting much higher than normal and I when I finished up I burst into a coughing fit. Felt so great to get out running again though I didn't even care. I get these moments when i'm running (weirdly when the wind is blowing, maybe because its so refreshing?) where i'm just SO GLAD to be alive and able to run. Does this happen to anyone else or am I just crazy?

Week 2 Update: Failed everything. >.< Got hit by this intense flu going around my office and was down for the count for 5 days. Slightly worried it was going to move into my lungs and give me bronchitis again but I think I may have dodged that bullet. *knocks on wood* Going to try to turn this week around and be productive, at least get back out running!

Oh hallelujah! They passed on the date! Whew. Things are going in the right direction, now to start checking some things off my wedding list. Thanks everyone! it's a nice feeling to not have so many things hanging over my head now, knowing we're going to move and knowing we're getting married, and when these things will happen.

Week One Update: Alright week one went pretty well, not amazing but pretty good. Training schedule - Ran a total of 25 miles last week, got 2 easy runs a long run and a threshold run in, but I missed one easy day. Study - Got about half an outline page done, not as much as i'd like but i'm pretty proud I kept at it, i've gotten into the regulations section and dear god it's boring. Upper Body Workout - Rocked this goal this week, did our body weight routine 6 out of 7 days, and I actually am starting to be able to complete more of the exercises without failing! Wedding Stuff - Ugh. So my fiance went to tour a potential venue this weekend in OR and he absolutely loved it...but it turns out someone snuck in and put a hold on the date we wanted! Bitches! Now we have to wait to see if they decide they want the date or not, if they do we're going to have to go with our second date choice, which is just not as ideal.

Yes! Assuming of course I sign up soon, but holy moly I looked and its super expensive and there a bajillion people running it! The last race I ran had under 1000, this race had 45,000 people last year! My mind is boggled at the thought of that many runners in one place. Also I love rock climbing, not sure if I ever mentioned that before. I've only ever top roped though, and finding people with the experience to set a rope outside that want a relatively inexperienced newbie tagging along has been limited. I went climbing in the Glass House mountains in Australia when I was there though and it was an amazing experience. Maybe i'll be able to find a climbing group in Vegas. Oooo and I bet there a bunch of awesome climbing gyms, there's only one here and I stopped climbing because I had to wait in line to get onto a wall and that just killed my desire. Shall have to dust off my climbing shoes and hope my harness still fits. So many exciting things about moving to the lower 48! Unlimited internet data! Fresh vegetables year round! Sun! Lightning! Legitimate free shipping! No more people telling me they don't ship International even though Alaska has been a state for 57 years! Comicon! Blizzcon! All the cons!

Oh my god guys! I'm moving to Nevada! We heard back 3 weeks early! I'm both excited and terrified. I've only lived out of Alaska once and that was for college, so a slightly different situation. Never moved for a job before, it all feels very grown up. More delightful stress though, need to find a company to ship all my stuff...and my car...and find a new place. Thankfully I have until July 1 to move so it gives me a bit of prep time for getting everything arranged. I realize now that perhaps planning a wedding and moving cross country at the same time was not the best of ideas. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

Had an excellent fitness day yesterday. Ran my fastest threshold run, 6.6 miles at a 9:54/mile pace, and we did our first upper body workout. It was pretty hilariously sad actually We put on a youtube video that walked you through the exercises and they made it look so easy! We started to follow along but it was definitely more flailing, falling over and swearing than actual exercise. The state of my upper body strength - completely nonexistent. Going to stick with it though, take that dive bomber push ups!

Did pretty well last week on my running goal, 27.5 miles in total (after the last three weeks which were 5/16/16 in that order), so I have hope for this week getting me up to 30 or really close. Friday's run was what running addictions are made of, clear and wonderfully sunny, awesome refreshing breeze, gorgeous scenery and my legs felt like they could run for days. Makes me only a little sad we might be moving.

Ooo yeah, i've actually always wanted to do the Rock & Rock Vegas race, late at night running down the strip? Sounds awesome! I don't think that is until Nov, but it's definitely on my list. Trail racing at night on the other hand sounds like death, especially in the desert with all sorts of creepy crawly poisonous things. *shudder* Something i'm not looking forward to if we end up moving, I HATE creepy crawly things, and luckily in Alaska the only real small pests you have to worry about are mosquitoes and noseeums. Going to have to deal with ants, cockroaches, giant spiders, scorpions, snakes...wait, why do I want to move again?