August | 2010 | Gracefulfitness

Monthly Archives: August 2010

August 14, 2010 · 1:01 pm

Home is Where Your Toothbrush Is

Whew, the last two days have been a bit of a blur.

Thursday ended up being a rest day on the exercise front, I even skipped my abs/arms. We spent the day in Charlottesville house hunting and getting to know our new town. We looked at 12 houses! Well, we drove by 12 houses and snooped around but by the time we met with our realtor we had narrowed it down to 3 that we wanted to see. Ugh! House hunting can be such a drain, the first place we walked in I just turned around and walked right back out. It stunk and didn’t have any floors! I know we are looking in a kinda low price range but COME ON!

We did find a place we are interested in and put in a bid yesterday after much discussion. I know that you can house hunt for months, years even, before you find what you are really looking for but I want a home! I want a place to put my toothbrush and leave it there! We left our apartment in Lima on February 1st and have been nomadic since then. I told myself months ago that we had until Labor Day to get settled and it is rapidly approaching! Our families have been amazing in their hospitality and this transition time would be so much harder without their help!

Yesterday was busy and I can’t even remember exactly why, the day just passed really fast. It was nearly 6 o’clock, and intensely hot, by the time I started my workout. I am keeping up with my weekly goals really well except that Zumba will not happen. I was not in town to take class on either Tuesday or Thursday so I switched that workout to one of my exercise dvd’s. I did

The dvd comes with these fun little gloves, I think they are about 1/2 pound each.

This workout reminds me of Peru, it brings me right back to the spare bedroom of our apartment where I did this dvd a few times a week.

I really like the “10 Minute Solution” dvd series. Each disc has 5 ten minute segments, each focusing on cardio or a different body part. I have quite a few of them and the instruction is consistently professional and the descriptions accurately fit the level of the workout.

While I worked out on the front porch Tate was in the kitchen making a gorgeous summer dinner. Here’s my plate

Shrimp, salsa salad, avocado, cabbage and mushroom stir-fry, and a few corn chips. Oh yeah, and some ice-cold white wine. Tate, mom, and I had a lovely and leisurely dinner on the front porch.

Speaking of gorgeous summer food here are some pictures of the deliciousness I found in the garden Wednesday

These are my favorite of the year, Zebra-something-or-other, YUM

PESTO MAKING!

Applesauce!

I haven’t run since Wednesday and this morning I am ready to GO. And yoga will follow. And tomorrow I will be running on the beach! Tonight we drive to Surf City, North Carolina for 3 glorious days of sand and surf. I love running on the beach. I didn’t used to be a huge fan of the beach but after living on the ocean in Peru I now start to crave the coast after being away from it for a few months weeks!

Oh, the Humidity!

2 out of 4 runs and 2 out of 5 yoga sessions down!

I started the day feeling a bit underslept and a wee sore. By the time I finished a bowl of yogurt with banana and half a cup of coffee I knew I had to run before it got to hot or give up on the idea all together. As I headed out of the house I told my niece, “see you in 40 minutes”. Her response? “Only 40 minutes?” Sheeessh! Nothing like an 8-year-old to keep your ego in check. Here I was feeling pretty proud of the idea of a 40 minute run! The opposite happened yesterday though, I was telling my 13-year-old sister the ground I had covered in a 35 minute run and she said “wow, that’s far!” She is a soccer player and just starting to go running on her own. She is where I was at when I was about 16 and just starting to run, when a mile was the run, not a warm-up for the run!

Todays run was 40 sweaty minutes of country road. I definitely felt a lot lighter, faster, and stronger than yesterday. So good, in fact, that at about 25 minutes I decided to throw in some sprints. For the following 10 minutes I alternated 30 seconds of sprinting with 1 minute of recovery jog then finished off with a 5 minute cool-down jog. Although I was feeling pretty good it was still a challenging run and I looked like I had got caught in the rain by the end. Never underestimate the power of humidity on a workout! I don’t mind the sweat (except when it drips into my eyes!) but I always feel just a bit slower and I tire more quickly with a lot of humidity.

Back at the homestead I grabbed my 5 pound weights for a quick arm workout. I am just getting back into lifting weights and 5 pounders equal heavy lifting for me at this point. From January 2009-July2010 I only did body weight and band exercises (’cause that’s all I had available).

The workout

15 incline push-ups to warm up (hands on a stair takes a lot of weight out of your arms, making it easier 🙂 )

3 sets each of

bicep curls (different variation each set)
overhead triceps extensions
bent over rows
lateral raises

My cool-down was my yoga routine followed by a cold shower.

This afternoon I hope to freeze some tomatoes from my dad and stepmom’s garden. We don’t even have a house but once we have one, the freezer will be stocked with garden goodies!

Tate and I are making a day trip to Charlottesville tomorrow to househunt. Again. There are 13 places we want to check out! Unfortunately, or maybe not, most of them will probably be ruled out just from a drive by. In any case, wish us luck!

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Filed under food, goals, running, workouts, yoga

Tagged as exercise, goals, push up, running, yoga